I love trying something I haven’t made before. A new shape, a different material, a finish I’m curious about, or an idea that makes me think, could I actually pull that off? Can I mix concrete and epoxy and wood? Let’s try! Can I preserve the green in not completely dried firs 🌲? Let’s test it out. Can I make epoxy look like molten lava with aluminum foil? Can I use aluminum mesh to create different shapes… can I cover it? Let’s just get to work…
Usually, that question is followed by several more…and thinking, envisioning, testing the process in my brain, coming up with 20 different scenarios for how it might go right or wrong.
I’ll plan a process, get halfway through, and realize there was a much easier way to do it. Sometimes I discover that one tiny change at the beginning would have saved me hours at the end. Other times, I make the piece, take a good look at it, and decide to cut it apart, modify it, or start again.
I’ve screwed things up more times than I can count. I’ve made cuts I wish I’d made differently, fought with finishes, and had designs behave beautifully in my head and very differently in real life. Some mistakes can be fixed. Some turn into a new idea. Some are just expensive lessons.
That can be frustrating, especially when people usually only see the finished photo. They don’t see the version that almost worked, the extra sanding(the universe thinks this is my favorite 😆), or me standing in the shop figuring out what to try next.
But experimenting is how I learn what’s possible. Each attempt teaches me something about the material and about the order of the work. The next piece is better because of all the awkward, imperfect steps behind it. This is why my large pieces take as long as they do… I’m not just making some mundane furniture. I’m testing the limits and boundaries of what’s possible with every single project.
So when you see something new from Artified, there’s a good chance it came with a few “well, I won’t do that again” moments. And honestly? I’m probably already thinking about what I want to try next.
Have you ever finished a project and immediately realized how you’d do it differently the second time?