A panellist profile from our Crafting Conversation series.
Crafting Conversation is a panel series for makers in business, hosted by Make Good Things Happen. We unpack the creative process and the real business stuff with Australian artists, designers, and do-ers.
Meet Alana Smith (she/her) of Cut off Your Hands Jewellery whose work explores themes of brutalism in silver who will join Angela for Crafting Conversation: Jewellers Edition on Wednesday 10th September at Ballaarat Mechanics Institute. In this MGTH Chats post, we get to know her practice, her wins, and the story behind the business name. Book your seat here.
What draws you to work with silver and how does it help you to shape the stories your pieces tell?
I primarily work with sterling silver because it captures my gritty vibe so well. I love Brutalist vibes so the silver captures the ‘Béton brut’ or raw concrete design style I aim for. High polish against oxidised craggy textured metal landscapes is dreamy!
You’ve been part of the Craft Lab program and exhibition. What’s been the most surprising or rewarding part of participating in such an event?
Craft Lab was so much fun! I found connecting with my community rewarding, being around a bunch of other like minded passionate people! It was inspiring. The networking and opportunities that came from being involved were much appreciated.
As a regional maker, what opportunities or challenges have shaped the way you create and run your business?
Definitely putting my hand up for any opportunities Creative City Ballarat has had helped me get myself out there more. I am mostly an online business with the occasional event being my way of being face-to-face with customers. Doing things like Craft Lab and now my current artist residency in the Art Hub have given me time and space to get my work in front of my local community.
Living regionally hasn’t really made any difference to the way I create as I would be hustling hard no matter where I lived haha! It has made jewellery errands a bit more of a punish because it involves travelling into the city more frequently but I have enlisted the help of my husband to do these trips for me recently. I think if you are truly committed to your craft you will do what you can to make things happen no matter where you are. Perhaps there has been more opportunities since moving regionally because the pond is smaller compared to being in Melbourne amongst thousands of other makers, but I was at a different point of my jewellery career when I lived there so it is a little tough to compare.
Your brand name, Cut Off Your Hands, what’s the story behind it, and how do people react when they first hear it?
It definitely gets some funny looks haha! When I first started making jewellery I knew this was what I wanted to do. I knew it was going to be my career so I registered the name immediately. I figured that people would love my jewellery so much that they would wear it all the time and never take off their rings etc and that if someone wanted to steal them from you they would have to “cut off your hands”. A touch brutal haha.
How do you balance artistic experimentation with the practicalities of running a jewellery business?
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword because when I start getting an influx of orders I am of course absolutely stoked but then I struggle to make time to create new designs, to just have a play! Then when I don’t have orders coming in I stress about what to spend my time making haha. I kind of find I can freeze up because more often than not I start to go down the path of ‘what do people want?’ Rather than ‘what do I want to make?’ I have to remind myself that if I look back at my most popular designs, they are the items I made when I just created stuff that I wanted to wear, pieces made when I just let my creativity flow without considering whether it would ’sell’. So I guess my answer is I don’t balance it at all haha I just seesaw up and down on the emotional rollercoaster that being a full time artist is!
If you could give one piece of advice to a young or emerging regional jeweller, what would it be?
I guess it depends on whether these makers are doing this as a job or just for the love of it. If it’s what you want to do for a living you need to take risks. Just keep making, try and put yourself out there whether its markets, applying for events and grants etc. Getting your work in front of people is important. Also remembering that there is an audience for every single one of us makers, so don’t compare yourself to others. Comparison is definitely the thief of joy!!
All images have been provided by the artist.
Links
Cut Off Your Hands Website
Cut Off Your Hands Instagram
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