handmade

I spent today making chain. It starts as a spool of sterling silver wire which I anneal, wind around a mandrel, saw into jump rings, solder together, and then finally sand and finish. The process takes a long time and is fairly boring and repetitive, much like I imagine working on a production line at a factory would be like. But unlike a factory, the sun shines outside and as I sit annealing, sawing, soldering and filing I feel an overwhelming sense of peace as each step of this mediative process brings me closer to the finished product. And as I'm sanding that last piece of solder from the last link in the chain I feel such a sense of satisfaction knowing that each link of the chain has been created by hand, by me. Not only does it feel smooth and strong and each link falls beautifully on top of the next, but it feels handmade, and as my seven year old daughter would say, "handmade things have a little sun inside them that is all nice and warm".