Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Business Matters - What's in a name: Storytime

The voting last week to name my new piece resulted in a win for "hanging out". To be honest, I'm quite pleased with this as I have it in mind to do another one with the first person hanging onto someone else and then calling it "hanging out together"....


Some of the name suggestions got no votes and we did get a couple of new suggestions including "swing up to the sky", "anyone can trapeze" and "topsy turvy". Thanks for voting and your suggestions. Interesting to see how different names appeal to different people....

In the naming post today, I want to look at stories. Does the name of your piece hint at a story behind it?

There was a recent article in the Economist all about contemporary jewellery. The author wrote about how jewelry nowadays is more about ideas than the flaunting of wealth, with storytelling as a key element so that the wearer can be seen as "buying a bit of the artist's brain".

So do our creations' names suggest a story? Would a potential buyer look at the piece and its name and write their own story or try to find your story in it?

When I think of my pieces, I suppose that calling this necklace "Birdcage" is very lame! It doesn't suggest anything. It's just a bird cage. Guess I need to do something about that....

Maybe it would be better to call it "I know why the caged bird sings"...... or "you can cage the bird but not the song"...It adds a little intrigue and....while people may not search for an item with that name, as long as it is tagged/keyword "birdcage", then it still should be found....

What about "in safety's keeping".....That does conjur up more than one image....or is suggestive of a story.. I think it does ....






And how about "Atlantis" by my friend Fabienne from Easterya This conjurs up lots of underwater and seaside stories for me...looking in rock pools for starfish and other creatures.....





So I'm going to check over my names this week and see if I can offer up a bit more of the "artist's brain". Join me! Come on all you "flat" namers - instead of "leaf earrings" or "shell necklace", get creative in naming and suggest a story too....

8 comments:

Lora Hart said...

How about "Tweetie at Home"? or "Safe at Home" and "You've Got the Power" for the lock and key?

I'm spending some of my brian power this week thinking of names for lines of jewelry. I'll do a post on it at some point. But naming is HARD!

Ruth said...

Look forward to seeing some of your naming work soon Lora.

Lora Hart said...

You've been tagged! If you choose to play along go to my bog to see the rules. ;-) www.lorahartjewels.blogspot.com

Easterya said...

Thanks Ruth! I was reading your very interesting article, preparing my comment, when oh delightful surprise, Atlantis is here!! Thanks for that! Naming to me is such an important part in creating a piece... Sometimes the name imposes itself half way through, sometimes the name itself is the inspiration for the piece (My ring 'The Forest Awakens' for example)...Lately I particularly enjoyed writing a little text to go with the creation, to go further than the adornment, to tell a story, to actually have the piece stand alone, like an illustration to an idea or a legend, a picture if you like. The response has been incredible... A lovely belgian lady only buys pieces of mine that have meanings beyond being a necklace or a pendant. It makes the creations all the more difficult to let go... a big chunk of myself goes with them...
:)

meherio68 said...

I love playing with words, and I am often inspired by them. Only often I "get" an "inspired" title in one language and it falls flat in the other, so I just go for the boring one.
I think I would call you little birdie "I can fly" (because you can see it does have the possibility to get out between the bars, and I would most definitely suggest you call it "Envolez-moi" (Fly me away, or so) in your French listing : it's poetic and is a famous quote from the title of a widely loved Charles Aznavour song...

meherio68 said...

I thought I had left a comment yesterday, but it seems to have vanished...
I was suggesting titles for your not-so-caged-bird : "I Can Fly" in English, and "Envole-moi" in French.
It's actually good my comment didn't show up because I got muddled between this (the title of a famous French pop song) and a Charles Aznavour favourite of mine : "Emmenez-moi"... Silly me!

Ruth said...

Fabs - Glad you liked your little feature! I love that you write something out with your pieces. It makes such a connection with the piece and the artist and then such a more personal purchase. And how lucky are they to get a piece of you!

Ruth said...

I like your idea Agathe about "I can fly". I'll be changing my listing this week!