Welcome to Keta Handmade

With one of the most trying years of my life finally over, I’ve decided to test how much more malleable my business and I can be. If I learned anything as a one woman jeweler and entrepreneur during a pandemic, it is that being bound by labels, styles, or materials can become very limiting and exhausting. Times are tough, you want to make things that sell, but at what cost?
Admittedly, I was one of those people during quarantine that kind of… thrived. I’m a self-proclaimed introvert with extrovert tendencies that has an addiction for DIY anything, especially if it involves plants or cats. Once my partner and I were stuck at home in March, keep in mind my main source of income being my studio work only a flight of stairs away, we set to fixing up our home we purchased mid 2019. We painted, we changed fixtures, we bought plants, we re-arranged the living room, we amped up our studio spaces, we bought plants, we built a catio (cat patio), we fixed up our garden, we cleaned the basement, amongst so many other things. Oh, and did I mention, we bought plants?
Ha! If you know anything about me, all of these activities are right up my alley. I am a chronic “nester”. I love making my space feel like home, making it the ideal situation regardless of what you have to work with. I’m often thinking about the layout and how things feel and look visually. Owning a home has been one of the greatest things for a handy person like me. It offers me an endless list of projects that we can do whenever we want! We don’t have to ask the landlord!
So that being said, I like to bounce around and work on a variety of projects at all times. I was really able to lean into that during the pandemic because I had nothing but time to work on things and was distracted by zero fomo. As the pandemic forced me to make a living off of the things I made, and with the growing support and confidence I have in my shop, I also had time to rekindle my feelings about other mediums of art that I could sell.
Therefore, under the name Keta Handmade, I will be allowed to explore anything I wish, while specifically revisiting mediums from my college days like ceramics, printmaking, and painting. Under this umbrella, I’m hoping to see my creativity branch out in many directions while also staying cohesive in its real purpose: beautiful works of art imbued with love and intention, best to be shared.

Alright, we’re starting to understand that notion, sure. But what is “Keta” all about, anyway? Where did that word come from? How do you even pronounce it?
Try to say it /KAY-tah/
Or like “Beta” with a “K”.
So, I’ve written about it in past posts, but never formerly. Let me tell you.
When I was considering my initial rebrand back in October 2017, I wanted something simple compared to the mouthful that was “Michelle Lattner Jewelry”. Naturally, I looked to the internet for inspiration through words and imagery. After weeks and weeks of researching, manipulating, and reconsidering every word I've ever known, I came across The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. A project he started around 2006, it is a website and YouTube channel that defines emotions that are hard to describe, yet easy to relate. Through this long list of conjured words made to describe feelings ranging from, for example, the overwhelming sense you feel when you see something painfully cute or maybe that feeling when you’re near your love and inexplicably get the urge to bite their arm in passion. You know, feelings we’ve all possibly felt, just never had a specific word to use for it.
In this long list of made up words, I came across Keta.

keta
/KAY-tah/ n. an image that inexplicably leaps back into your mind from the distant past.

This definition stopped me. It made me think about how, as makers and humans, we are constantly influenced by images and forms we encounter. Sometimes it will influence us in direct ways, allowing us to make a direct connection to its source material. Other times, an idea will come out of no where, and sometimes without realizing, it will be influenced by something in our past, personal or collective. I believe that no one creates in a vacuum; everything and everyone can be influenced and/or can be influential.
I often find myself looking at my designs, and others’ designs, and think, “Have I seen this before?”
And there’s nothing wrong with that. I think the designs that lay in our collective unconscious have the ability to feel instantly familiar. But as long as our aim is true to be honest and genuine in how we source our designs, making work that feels similar to things we’ve seen before, whether in other art or nature, is quite alright. Give credit where it’s due and honor the memory of different designs and concepts.

Since I am such a procrastinator, I left this blog post to the very end of my to-do list for my first shop update as Keta Handmade. Sorry if I was rambling, I just wanted to get across that change is good, especially if it allows for more freedom, something we all desire very much these days. Thank you for coming along and being interested in my journey of making. I truly love to do it and I love to share it with you.