From the Bench │How do you come up with your ideas?

People often ask where my ideas come from.

The best way I can describe it is that they begin as feelings in my heart. I can sense the form before I can explain it. I feel the form and see its shadow. Little by little, the image becomes clearer until my mind can finally understand what my heart already knows.

Sometimes I sketch. Other times, I go straight to the bench. Every artist has a different creative process, and there is no right or wrong way to begin. For me, the challenge has never been finding ideas—it has been learning how to make the forms I see become tangible objects. That part took many years of working at the bench.

Once I begin creating, it is difficult to stop. A quiet, joyful focus takes over as the idea slowly becomes silver. I keep refining, shaping, and adjusting until, at some point, I simply know in my heart that it is finished.

That's when the light goes off at the bench.

— Marcia
Body & Soul Silversmith