Failure is the Best Teacher :)
Hello Everyone! I am currently in the progress of making new fall content for the season and all of the lovely people who have already subscribed to my site have already received a nice juicy discount code starting now until December 1st! If you want to get in on that discount please be sure to sign up for my mailing list by clicking on the link below:
https://www.najwastanford.com/mailing-list-signup
Editors Note: Hello! This is Najwa from the future! It is currently 11:14pm and I have work tomorrow so I won’t quite have the chance to proofread this before I post it (which I am going to do because I am so excited about sharing…hehe….) But I will proofread it tomorrow! Some say that defeats the purpose but I say, progress is never defeated! So expect typos and enjoy!
Okay! So now that we have got that taken care of, onto the blog post! These earrings (the one on the left) are beautiful and they look functional until you try them on. After doing so, I discovered that the earring is super long and dangles all the way down to my neck! Now, I love me a dangling earring but I personally am not a fan of earrings that are too long—or at least, I am not a fan of this particular design hanging down so low. This frustrated me. Here I was, finished essentially with this design (that has taken me super long to finish by the way! As some of you may know I have been working on this design for about 2 months now!) and yet despite being “finished” it is not functional. It just simply didn’t pass my quality check! So, I hesitated do I start again? I mulled it over, and while doing so I tried other attempts to save it. I shaved it down a bit with my dremel, I swapped out the top part of the earring from the one on the top right, to the top left hoping to make it shorter, but failed; I tried playing with the jump rings, adding one more, taking one away, bending it to adjust the length but nothing worked. And so I gave in, and resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted to add these earrings to my product inventory they would need to be redone.
But this was the thing: I failed once. Who was to say that trying it again was going to yield in a result that would be satisfactory to me? Or worse, would I be able to repaint the design as nicely as I had the first time? It stressed me out a bit and I put it off for days until finally after clearing out my space and tidying up my room I resolved myself to the notion that if it’s going to get down we just gotta sit down and do it. And so, that’s exactly what I did!
And boom! With just a swipe of a brush and the dip of some paint, a few minutes of structured dedication, and some patience I was well on my way to completing one of the last summer designs before I start launching the Fall Products! And you’re not going to miss what’s coming up next as we fall into one of the cooler seasons of the year!
(But in the spirt of transparency I must admit, I said that only for the pun. SUMMER IS THE COOLEST SEASON OF THE YEAR! IT IS A BIT OF AN OXYMORON BUT I ONLY SPEAK IN TRUTHS! HEHE!)
But, transitioning once more to the purpose of this post, there is no better teacher than failure. In having failed the first time I learned about how to more accurately gauge how large each component of my earrings should be. I learned more about my own design preferences, paint application techniques and, as a result I created something with a more painterly feel—a feel more reminiscent of the way I paint when painting in watercolor and gouache (my two favorite mediums). I learned that this perhaps, this more painterly look is something that I want to explore more in these designs, something I wouldn’t have discovered had I not given it a second go.
And to me, based on the result I achieved, that would be pretty lamentable. In the end, I actually ended liking this iteration much more than my first. It was stylish, summery, blue, incorporated words with pictures something that I am not sure why I didn’t incorporate something like this sooner as a comic book artist! And yes, it is not finished, and true I still have one more circle to paint. But my failure not only became a great teacher it also transformed itself into a great success!
And thus, I say this to us all when you fail keep going. If you are currently in a period where nothing is going your way keep going and be vigilant! While in the mire, ask yourself what is this moment trying to teach me? What can this moment teach me? How can I transform moments of loss into opportunities for success. Sometimes when we fail, we are just moments away from our breakthrough so if you're out there remember not to let the frustration of the “fail” keep you from stepping into your success.
And as I say this to you I say it also to myself as exemplified in this post. I almost threw in the towel and I would have missed out on something really cool! True, I still have to try it on and see how much it dangles but for now, I am well on my way to something beautiful. So, instead of barreling on towards the future, I’m fumbling slowly to the finish line. Stopping to take in the trees and the flowers, and practicing gratitude for each mistake and the lesson it can teach me along the way….
We got this everyone! And stay tuned for the drop of those seasonal Fall Products! They are on the way! I am super excited about and I hope that you are too!
Stay inspired everyone, and even if you’re falling or failing with the start of this just know that your second wind is just around the bend to come, and lift you back up again…..
Until Next Time!
