Morgaine Faye has been making jewelry for 15 years and remains deeply in love with the craft. Originally from Santa Cruz, California, she now call the beautiful Pacific Northwest home, where its bounding mossy rainforests are her refuge. She lives with her partner, also an artist, on a small urban homestead shared with their dogs, cats, and chickens.
- What is your favorite technique or process in jewelry making?
Hands down, engraving. My background is in painting and illustration, and drawing has been a lifelong practice of mine. Incorporating engraving into my jewelry has made the work finally feel like mine. It brings my own visual language into a medium with an entirely different set of technical challenges, and makes the pieces feel distinctly personal.
Before jewelry took up all my working hours, I was regularly exhibiting my artwork and maintaining a studio practice devoted to drawing, painting, and sculpture. Engraving has become a way to bring that part of myself back into my daily work. It’s also one of the things I love most about handmade jewelry: the hand of the artist is right there in the finished piece.
- What is the best piece of advice you were given as an artist?
Don't wait for inspiration to arrive before you start a project. Start where you are, and the ideas will come.
I don’t think inspiration is something that simply comes to you. You have to chase it. I get a tremendous amount of inspiration from books, nature walks, music, and all kinds of things outside of visual art. Sometimes letting your mind and body wander is exactly what you need to tap into your own well of ideas. But don't sit around waiting for them. More often than not, they show up when your hands are busy.
The other piece of advice I’d give is to make bad art. You have to be willing to make ugly things if you want to get good at something. Nobody is born a master of their craft. You have to put in your 10,000 hours, and a fair number of those hours are going to produce work you’re not particularly proud of.
My friend Christina Mrozik once quipped that “making art is the safest thing you can do,” and I think about that often. So much of what holds us back is our own judgment, or the fear of what other people will think. The stakes are usually much lower than we imagine.
Make bad, ugly, embarrassing work. You don't even have to show anybody. Just keep working. Give yourself permission to be a beginner, to experiment, and to make a mess. That's where the good stuff comes from.
- What is inspiring you right now?
I’m enjoying the changing of the seasons and the return to a more introverted time of year. The colder, darker months are a welcome invitation to spend more time reading, researching, and following ideas down rabbit holes.
I’m already looking ahead to the new year, when I’ll be working on my next silk scarf design. I’ve been deep in research mode, collecting books, making notes, and gathering visual references. It’s a nice change of pace to spend time developing an idea before it becomes something tangible. I’ve included a few sneak peeks of the project, along with some of the books currently in rotation on my shelves.
- What's currently on your studio playlist?
I share my studio playlists here, and I occasionally make themed playlists to accompany a new collection or project.
Lately, I’ve been digging through the discography of Habibi Funk, a label that reissues Arabic funk, soul, from the 1960s through the 1980s. It led me to Roger Fakhr, whose music I’ve been particularly enjoying. I love finding an artist through a completely unexpected path and then having an entire new body of work to explore.
Music is a big part of my studio practice. When you spend hours at a bench doing work that requires concentration and patience, a good playlist can make all the difference.
- What's something you do for self care?
I used to be pretty terrible at doing anything for myself outside of work, but I started powerlifting about a year and a half ago, and honestly, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done for my well-being.
My work involves a lot of sitting still and moving tiny pieces of metal around, so it feels amazing to spend time moving huge, heavy things instead. Lifting is also incredibly technical, which scratches that part of my brain while helping me get back in tune with my body and out of my head. It’s been such a good balance to my work at the bench.
Shout-out to Coach Casey at Ironside in Portland. Who knew I’d one day love squats?
Shop Morgaine's collection here.