Rough Stuff

Rough green kyanite spikes wire wrapped in Vintaj brass wire.

 I'm at the crest of final exams, doggedly trying to prepare for next week's hellishness. And somehow, whenever I'm most set on studying and learning and "being good," that's when Inspiration turns up, smacks me on the back, and invites me to tag along. So then I feel compelled to run after Inspiration, stealing moments of frantic compiling and note-jotting, feeling vaguely guilty for every hour not spent with my nose pressed against the pages of my Musculo-Skeletal notes.

Coral, agate, opal, and rough lapis lazuli with a carved coconut flower.

I'm in a funny place, creatively. Inspiration is starting to get a foggy idea of what It likes in general, but I'm also fighting with the notion that anything I put together that isn't "unreplicatable" isn't really "art." If somebody else could waltz around, pick up all the elements that I've gathered and cobble together roughly the same creation I have--well--that makes me sort of second-rate. Doesn't it?

Brass seahorse dangle with rough apatite, horn, shell, and handmade lampwork glass.

Or is it enough that I assemble things and DESIGN them, not merely following a beading pattern and counting "One three one one five . . . " ?