“The intellect of man is forced to choose; perfection of the life, or of the work.” ~William Butler Yeats
This quote got me thinking about …well, lots of things but partly about the value of perfection in our work. 6 months ago, I made a series of 1″ square ”charms” out of precious metal clay; I gave each charm an individual texture and a hole to slip a jump ring through, with the idea that I would hang the charms en masse off one of my hand-woven bracelets. It didn’t quite work out. There was nothing wrong with the charms, they were pretty. I just hated the way they looked on the bracelet. So, I put those little charms on the corner of my work desk and played around with them from time to time. One day, I made a stack out of my favorites. That stack looked pretty cool. I played some more until I came up with an arrangement I liked, fused them together, patinated them and hung them on a bail. There was just one little problem. The charm at the bottom of the stack [now, the back of the pendant] had a hole in it that was where the jump ring to connect the charm to the bracelet was supposed to go. I joked with my husband that it was the “Sipapu” and put the pendant aside to keep for my own. It got tons of compliments and recently, someone asked to buy it. I pointed out the hole to her, told her how the pendant had come about as a sort of happy accident, and joked about that hole being the Sipapu. That got us going on a discussion about what exactly a Sipapu is. Long story short, she still loved the piece; I think partly because the hand craftedness and humanness came through and partly because we got to share a conversation we otherwise wouldn’t have. While my next version of this “stacked” pendant won’t have that little hole, I sure don’t regret not fixing it.
What do you think? Do you strive for perfection in your work, be it painting, drawing, jewelry, knitting, weaving or even writing? At any cost? Or, can certain flaws be “left,” to be seen as important markers of process?
