In this photo: me wearing the Long Bar Necklace. Photo credit: Ishisan.
I have been practicing slow living for several year now, but only lately have I felt comfortable enough to start publicly discussing it. Slow living has connections to all aspects of my life, and since I am here to discuss jewelry I will share with you one of the connections I find between jewelry and slow living.
Slowing down as a way of life. As a way of looking at nature, at life itself, at our inner world. We all know that the little moments, an unexpected kiss from our child in the middle of the day, the first drop of rain on our arm, or the smile we exchanged with a stranger on the street, are what makes our day, an ordinary day, one without grand successes or dramatic failures, a good day. These are the moments that make up our routine and brightens it up.
Wabi-Sabi is also about slowing down and appreciating every moment and every object that surrounds us. We need to slow down and look around at the little details. Slowing down enables us to live in the present, experience and appreciate the aesthetic that surrounds us as at any given moment if we just pay attention. It also allows us to appreciate the cycle each object goes through. Nothing stays new forever. On the contrary, it is the changes that makes objects interesting, that gives them character.
In this photo: the Singet Concrete Ring. Photo credit: Ishisan.
It is the action of choosing to wear a certain piece of jewelry that makes it yours. It is how you turn it into a part of you. It is about slowing down and paying attention to what you are wearing and how it affects you. Every time you wear a necklace, or a ring, you are reminded of the experiences of the previous times you wore it, of the occasion for which you bought it or received it, and so it retains new, deeper, meaning. It becomes part of your experience, of who you are. Changing, just as you yourself change. It changes both physically, through the contact with your skin and the environment that surrounds you, as well as spirituallyת retaining new memories. It becomes part of the identity you present to the world and to yourselfץ It becomes part of your story. Wearing a necklace, a ring, or an earring, over and over again, for years and years, turns it into part of the personality you choose to show to the world, part of who you are.
In this photo: the Peekaboo Square Concrete Necklace. Photo credit: Baara Guggenheim.
Concrete jewelry changes over time and use. It happens differently for each one of us. That means it changes its surface as well as the meaning it holds for you and serves as a reminder of the changes we went through, of the way we got stronger, overcame obstacles. It carries happy memories of smiles and laughs, of special occasions and sweet, everyday moments. It holds the memory of the little moments that life is made of. Even if just through that little smile we smiled at ourselves in the mirror before we start our day.
So... how will your jewelry change?
What color will the concrete in it will become?
What tiny scratches will make it even more personally yours?
And what will be the experiences that will make all that happen. What will it remind you of?
Love,
Baara