Rejection Can Be A Good Thing

by Debbie.
(Georgia, USA)

Over the past few years my confidence in my jewelry making skills and designs has grown tremendously. I love playing with wire and searching for beautiful stone beads and pendants to complement my pieces.

I’ve even began to branch out into working a little with poly clay to create my own beads and pendants, but didn’t feel they were good enough yet to actually use in jewelry that I sell. But I recently had an experience that forced my to push myself creativity.

Every year for the past three years I have participated in many fine arts and crafts shows sponsored by our local art association.

I am a member of the association, and even taught a class there (using polymer clay) to a group of teens from a local shelter. I have been juried often by the association and have always been accepted into their shows, that is until recently.

This past fall, two weeks before the show, I received the dreaded e-mail from the director that I had not been accepted. What!?! How could that be?

Quite simply, the other artists who applied were deemed better than mine. I was not happy to say the least and I thought “you want more artsy, I’ll give you more artsy!” But what came from this unexpected rejection was an opportunity for me to try new things and take more creative risks.

The photo here is my first polymer clay, autumn inspired branch necklace, that had been floating around in my head for several months. It took some time before I was satisfied with my clay leaves, but I finally felt that my skills using a new media was customer worthy.

Needless to say, I did get into the next fine arts and crafts show sponsored by the art association (with a different jury I was told). Here is what I learned from my experience: don’t take rejection personally . . . art is subjective! Don’t get complacent in what you do, push yourself out of your comfort zone and creativity challenge yourself.

I have made several more branch necklaces using the clay in a variety of colors . . . and they sold before I was able to take a photo of them. Hmm . . . maybe I should get rejected more often.

Debbie
Earthly Expressions