This was something that never sat well with me. I would write myself comments for the major milestones and go straight to programming. For the sake of my assessments I would reverse engineer that into pseudocode afterwards. I am not a programmer now, but I do write SQL code, yet I never ever write pseudocode.
Fast forward a few years to when I was studying jewellery, the message that was driven home constantly was that you MUST MUST MUST document your design process. I have a confession that reading the previous paragraph wont surprise you, this is something that I am very lax at.
While I was studying my designs were well documented, they had to be. But I found now that I have slipped into my old ways of thinking through my designs in my head. This is not to say I get an idea in my head and just make it, that is not really designing per say. The design process involves starting with a concept and developing that over time, working through design and construction issues, "if I do this it will be too weak" or "after I attach that I can't do any more soldering" maybe "if I change that from a circle to an oval it may sit nicer" or "if I attach the stone on this angle it will catch the light better" etc.
I have had a wakeup call today. I am a member of a team on Etsy of jewellery artisans. Controversy arose when one member of the team accused another of copying designs. Now it is quite possible that these two people independently came up with the same design. But what is important is being able to show the process involved in the design. This is not a drawing of just the item itself, but they way in which you developed this idea. It can be accompanied by writing, descriptions, annotations or whatever. I used to do this and sign and date it when I did.
My exhibition pieces started from the same concept which I explored and developed over two years. The newer pieces in the same range stem from these. One of the big inspirations for some of my pieces was a method called paper tolle that my sister and I used as kids to make cards. In exploring these childhood activities further I had planned to make some paper chain people jewellery, however I did a search on Etsy and found that someone has already done exactly that. Although our interpretations would have been different I immediately disbanded that idea.
So today I make a mid-years resolution (it's close enough). I am going to be much more studious at documenting my designs. It will probably help me as a jeweller to further develop my skills, and if god forbid anyone calls my integrity into dispute, it will act as evidence that my designs are all my own.
The images throughout this blog post are pages from my journal documenting my art deco opal ring. Although a traditional styled ring you can see a lot of design development and technical design went into this piece.
