Hello there :) My name is Mehgan, and jewelry making is the last hobby I thought I would ever get into.
I had a very primitive view of jewelry making, which pretty much stemmed from the bracelet making sessions I'd had with friends as a child.
Meanwhile, a heap of other interests filled my free time. The brief obsessions I had with other hobbies came and went, but electroforming stuck with me.
Electroplating was not something I had ever been exposed to, until one fine day I met a super rad artist at a craft fair selling her beautiful copper plated organics. The pieces were stunning and I found myself captivted by the detail in each one. Here was a hobby that encompassed some of the things I care about most: nature, science, exploration, creativity. Everything was made from the natural world. At long last, my innate childhood skill of finding weird bugs and wanting to take them home had become useful! And being outdoors is really my favorite place to be. I feel most like myself when I am alone in nature. I think this is because I don't have to explain my thoughts or feelings to anyone else about what I am experiencing. I can just be. And so can everything around me. A few quotes from the essay Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson explain this idea well: "The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts." And "To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone." And let's not forget, "I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not uknown." I could go on and on about that essay and include so many more quotes, but you should really read it for yourself. It's a wonder.
Despite my fascination, I did nothing to move forward into someone who wanted to be a jewelry maker for about an entire year after that. But I could never stop thinking about it. So, if you also have an obsession with something that you would like to try, but haven't yet done anything with it, go for it! The learning process has been so rewarding! And you'll never get bored if it's a hobby where you're constantly adding to your knowledge in order to expand the creativity in your craft.
After a year, I started to accumulate all the tools I would need, and a lot of my free time was then spent just teaching myself how to get started. I read articles about it, watched how to videos, and started looking at how jewerly I already had was fabricated. Eventually, everything came together and I was even able to come up with a ridiculous and (hopefully) memorable name for my jewelry business. If you didn't already see what I'm getting at, yes NatureCalls as in answering the call of nature. You know? You get it. I like to be a bit silly, so that had to shine through with the business name.
Even though this is currently part time work for me, I'm hoping to build it into something I can work on more often. Thank you for taking the time to read a little about where NatureCalls Jewelry came from! :)