Natural Lighting

Natural lighting is so much better than artifical light. Either that or I’m using the wrong lighting system. I discovered this tonight as I quickly tried to take some extra pictures for my latest jewelry portfolio. Nope, natural lighting wins hands down. And I should be sleeping at this time of night anyway. The Santa Ana winds are picking up… Hopefully they won’t start any fires.

The Lure of Crystal

My sister is getting married the last weekend before Christmas.  Everything will be blinged out so much that reps from Swarovski should come out and be blinded.   Something hit me last night and I got bitten by the bling bug.  In the past few years, I’ve moved away from the Swarovski leaded bling and diverted towards more natural bling.  Of course, I always revisit my love for crystal, but today I’m craving it like chocolate.  It’s crazy and inspiring all at the same time. 

My love of crystal began as a pre-teen when my sister and I would shop at our favorite bead store in Downtown LA.  Mind you, we were still going for glass beads and abalone inlay set in base metal charms.  Usually hearts and butterflies.  But there was always a group of ladies picking a number and waiting to shop along the walls.  Curious, we grabbed a number to see what exactly was so coveted along the walls… oops.  And that’s when we discovered Swarovski crystal.  32% leaded crystal engineered so specifically to make any engineer proud.  It sparkled like jewels in a storybook.  We were immediately hooked and started buying colors and sizes by the dozen.  Then, before I started college, the crystal bug bit yet again, and we went back to buy crystal in gross, instead of dozens.  1 gross = 12 dozen.  Our other sister bought tiny little bracelets of crystal that we could easily make ourselves.  So that started the crystal bug again, and buying by the gross was so much more exciting than by the dozen.  Fast forward another 3 years when the crystal bug bit me and stayed for another few years.  I found an Internet supplier with AMAZING prices.  Oops again.  That turned into SEVERAL gross… I remember I’d take a break from studying by opening a factory package of crystal and just going “Ooo” and “aaah” over it.  Best thing ever.  As a child, I loved my crystal so much… as an adult, that childlike wonder still exists whenever I carefully open a factory package of crystal and run my hands through it… /drool

Yes, I am a magpie.  I like rocks and shiny things.

Awesome Weekend

In this day and age, it’s hard to spend some quality time without a lot of distractions from friends, family, and the constant call of technology.  While I really couldn’t avoid much of it, I did manage to stay home for most of the weekend and work on some on-going chainmaille projects I wanted to finish.  I had a wonderful time finishing everything up with my He-Man DVD playing in the background.  Nothing really makes me happier than that… save for a few other things.

Here, a Viper weave bracelet with unique fluorite clasp…

And a new weave for me, Stepping Stone…

I have a necklace as well, but no good pictures yet… but I think these are enough eye candy for now. 

Back to Basics

I love Swarovski crystal, chainmaille, artisan glass, and stones. So I decided to get back to the basics that I love so much and the muse started singing. After a long and tiring day, this has been the light tha makes it all worthwhile. And it’s pink…

Oh my, that’s very pink…

Testing… 1, 2, 3

I started playing with a new weave from scratch… well, a picture off the Internet.  Found a basic pattern online to get the right aspect ratio, and just started chaining.  I really like this weave and it’s called a “stepping stone”.  Yeah, it definitely is a stepping stone alright.  It takes a long time to weave and I haven’t been focused enough to seriously concentrate.  I think I have about half of it finished for my wrist size (which is larger than average).  On a side note, it’s better to have your bracelets too big than too small.  That way I can adjust to fit.

This is a beautiful weave and has really gotten my creative juices back into gear… I hope they stay.

Quantity VS. Quality

I learned a lot after selling at Pagan Pride Day… none of my “quick” sales stuff sold and my more expensive chainmaille pieces did.  And oxidized sterling silver.  So I’ve been wondering what the correlation is here.  I think in spite of the economy, people are willing to pay for something different and unique.  The oxidized jewelry is definitely something I can cash in on, considering that bright shiny silver doesn’t go with everyone’s skin tone.  It’s also different and more unique.  I think that definitely helped my first sale of the day.

As far as the chainmaille goes, it’s a nice alternative to the jewelry company that shall not be named with the cute little blue green bags and white bows… a good majority of people have their charm bracelets and “Return to _____” bracelets.  I think ever since Legally Blonde came out in 2001 is when they had their big boost in sales of those particular items.  I was never impressed with those bracelets and necklaces.  It’s a chain with a heart shaped dog tag.

I just have to be true to myself and be the unique jewelry designer that I am.  A rock on a chain with a little bit of chainmaile is definitely not the answer… gotta keep cranking out the chainmaille at decent prices.  Yay for chainmaille!

Pagan Pride Day 2009 – Results

I’m actually surprised that most of my sales were the chainmaille bracelets and pendants.  There were a lot of nice people who were oogling and complimenting my work.  So that was really nice.  My first sale was the oxidized labradorite necklace and oxidized barrel bracelet, so it looks like I need more chainmaille and more oxidized stuff.  Good to know for later.  And it’s also the universe saying that I need to be true to myself and go with my gut, not the market or what I think the market will want… so no more gemstone pendants.  I need a better bracelet display because the 3-tier wasn’t attracting enough attention.  Hmm.  Thoughts for next time.

Pagan Pride Day – October 4, 2009

OMG, I’ve been producing as much stuff as I can for this event.  I’ve never been a vendor here, so it will be interesting.  It’s exciting to try out the whole outdoor thing, but unless I actually have an SUV and tables and an EZ Up, I won’t be doing this very often by myself.  Just stocking my little table is hard enough as it is.  I prefer to be a jewelry consultant, but hey, gotta sweat occasionally for what you love.

Today I get to setup my display and have my boothmates help me price things out… hopefully they won’t butcher the prices I have in my head…

Half Persian 4-1 Moonstone Necklace

Oh yeah, I forgot to post this when I finished it.  I have been working on this silly chain ever since… late last year when I bought the moonstone pendant.  It went perfectly with the little HP 4-1 chain I was working on and it later turned into a necklace.  The chain is just so dense… it’s breathtakingly lovely and even more so when you’re wearing it.  Not as crazy as the Euro 4-1 collar in its full glory, but this is definitely simple elegance.

It’s been a wonderful summer… I hope yours has been as bountiful and relaxing as mine has.

The Rock Show

I’m surprised I didn’t buy anything at this rock show.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that I need to re-organize my room/studio space to accomodate more rocks, especially giant chunks of amethyst, and the fact that I had Glmory with me.  I did want to buy a pretty piece of Azurite druzy, which he did think was cool, but I got lazy and we left in search of lunch.  The more I think about it, the more I prefer buying beads online because my 2 suppliers are so good that I know exactly what I’m getting.  It’s hard to tell what you’re getting at shows because they really don’t say if the beads have been altered in some way.  Looks like I’m spoiled by the Internet.  In more ways than one.