New Etsy Listings!

Click on the photo to go to Etsy!

Life as I know it wouldn’t be complete without this collar. I wore it for my first bellydance performance, several dinner parties, and my own wedding. This is my most versatile necklace and I would love to share the joy its given me. ♥

This is my mascot, the Stepping Stones weave. I’ve used this bracelet in all of my branding and marketing materials. It’s one of my favorite bracelets and it’s a wonderful statement piece. Yum yum!

Ah, the Full Persian. The Persians were bored, so they must have decided it was a good idea to make armor, and then go pillage their neighbors. Or something. This is a nice airy weave that isn’t too heavy on the wrist. Great as an everyday bracelet for running errands and frolicking with the kids.

Back to Basics Again

I was inspired to make this ruby bracelet and now I’m inspired to continue upon this path of bead-chainmaille bit-bead pattern. It’s a good pattern and I just forgot about it. Let’s see what awesomeness I come up with now.

Brewing

I have a new bracelet design in my head but no time to put it into fruition. Grrr. Basically it’ll be a chain bracelet with glass beads and a chainmaille flower alternating. Maybe with a rock and some crystal hanging off it. I think it’ll be Phase 2 of Harmony bracelets. I was going to work on it tonight but I got a FaceTime call from Jesse.1 and that was the end of that. Oh well. I’ll get it soon.

My Harmony collection incorporates all of my favorite things: chainmaille, Swarovski crystal, stones, and sometimes artisan glass beads. So far I’ve been making cute charm bracelets but I need to do more with it. Again, when baby lets me…

New Collection ~ Chainmaille & Artisan Glass

Today I finally took pictures and listed these two gorgeous bracelets on Etsy.  Click on the pictures to go to shopping.

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I put extra effort into these bracelets because I adore these glass beads from Grace Beads.  As I’ve said numerous times, Grace is a fellow engineer gone artist.  This collection will focus on my chainmaille bits combined with Grace’s beads.  What I really love are the knots above the beads to tie in the links and the chainmaille.  Gotta love those handy dandy techniques from Aislyn.  I can wholeheartedly say that this collection has a significant portion of my heart and soul poured into it.  I’ve struggled for years trying to figure out the most perfect design for these beads, and I finally feel that this is the most appropriate way to do it.  Taking photos of the jewelry draped over my wedding china also warms my heart.  Yes, I’m a sentimental fool, but it’s so much more fun that way.

While I already have pieces made with chainmaille and glass beads, they’re not exclusively part of this collection because they mostly fall under my “Harmony Collection” which incorporates ALL of my favorite materials:  Chainmaille, Swarovski Crystal, Natural Stones, and Grace’s beads.  That’s a lot more complicated to design, hence there are so few pieces.  I should take inventory and figure out which ones actually are Harmony necklaces and which ones aren’t.  I know some of them are missing the stones, even though I count pearls as stones.  Another thing to add to the to-do list before the baby arrives.  The busy-ness of an artist never ceases.  Or at least until we have kids and babies to take care of… :-O

So, enjoy the collection as I slowly build it up.  I only design and make the best of the best here, so it may be a little slow, but it’ll definitely be worth the wait. ♥ ♥ ♥

Monday Musings

I have the urge to learn how to carve wax and play with molten metal (i.e. casting).  No idea why but maybe part of it is that I want my future backyard to be part blacksmith studio.

I have a few things I want to get done… Mondays are always the day I plan for the week.  So here’s my to do list:

• Pick up Dominion and iPad covers from mailbox
• Buy crib mattress
• Take jewelry photos
• Post on Etsy
• Post on Urban Maille
• Organize chainmaille instructions in pretty Martha Stewart file folders
• Sort through baby shower stuff
• Clean out car for baby crap
• Clean up office
• Clean up leftover stuff at Mom & Dad’s

I have a significant collection of Swarovski crystal figurines.  I have the original 2 that I bought in Austria as a teenager, but my collection over time has gotten lost in the piles and piles of stuff in what used to be the old office.  I might be overzealous in my attempts to actually go through all this stuff, but I want to find all of those figurines. /sigh  Being a hoarder doesn’t pay.  And, I should attempt this cleaning before September while I’m still mobile. >.<

Of course, I got home tonight and went into “it’s hot” + food coma.  Killed a few monsters on Diablo, and worked on a chainmaille order while watching Season 6 of Buffy.  Got 2 necklaces listed on Etsy, so it really hasn’t been a total loss of an evening.  Click on the picture for the Etsy listing.

All and all, not a bad day.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Weekend Recap

I need to make more Chainmaille Straight Up pieces in yellow and rose gold. My favorite new pregnancy dress is a very happy tropical blue that begs for gold jewelry. I’ll post pictures of the baby shower once Allison uploads them to her Dropbox.

So I haven’t completely convinced Jesse to buy the perfect drawer cabinet yet but he’s pretty close to a yes. I got a very positive “maybe”. Friday was my super duper epic cleaning day. I tossed in Ironman 1 and dealt with most of my pile in the bedroom. Mostly the clean laundry and most of the stuff on the floor. Still have a small pile to deal with when I have the proper motivation and background noise. Then I dealt with the front room.

The stuff to the left of the crib needs to be donated (except for the wedding album, of course) while I shoved a lot of baby stuff under the crib itself and under the extra chair that’s sitting on the right of the crib. My first Christmas present from Jesse (a strange superhero Tigger with goggles) and a stuffed lion I’ve had since I was about 2. Poor thing survived the summer I kept throwing up. I threw up on him and took him to the local dry cleaners to see if they could do anything to help. I really think they hand washed him. I love that damn lion. The cuddle blankets also live there until we get the dresser. The dresser will go to the left of the crib where the temporary donation pile is. Jesse needs to put away his toolbox because I can’t figure out how to close it. The rest of the dance corner will be neater because we’ll actually get to use the carseat/carrier. The stepping stool will go away when I don’t have to reach the AC unit. Then maybe I can still dance over there.

This is my new workspace. Still a work in progress to get the bottom part clean and cleared of all stuff. Trying to keep my husband happy while maintaining a minimalist lifestyle. I have to say that minimalism saves money, sanity, and probably marriages. My favorite blogger declares herself as someone who is the opposite of a hoarder. She also states a concept similar to my mother’s… If money can’t fix it, you’re screwed. So the moral of the story is be good and save a lot of money. She also points out that women generally get screwed when they leave a budding career to have kids. And while it’s revered for women to have babies and take a short maternity leave (it really SHOULD NOT be revered but that’s American society for you), stay-at-home moms are seriously undervalued and almost completely labelled as lazy women looking to marry rich so they don’t have to work. Haha, sure. No one but a SAHM knows just how hard it can be. Revere that, people. Sheesh.  So yeah, just looking at half the stuff under my table makes me wonder what was I thinking?  A Snoopy lunch box?  What am I going to do with it?????  Ugh.  Yeah… general feelings of annoyance over more junk and less money.  Bleh.

The weekend was an overall success though.  Jesse.1 and my best friend’s daughter got to have a sleepover, helped Jesse make raspberry upside down cake that turned into raspberry pile because they overloaded it with too many raspberries, and we had my baby shower today.  Hui.1 is well loved and will have lots of playmates once he’s old enough to know how to play with other kids.  My other best friend is 2 months pregnant behind me, which is funny because we’re 2 months apart also.  No, we did not plan this.  Funny how life works that way.

 

The Power of Love… and He-Man

Yesterday I decided I was going to spend my child rearing years reassessing my style and what kind of legacy I want to leave behind while I focus on my family.  I also decided to focus on my “Chainmaille with a Hui-Twist” collection because it embodies me the most and is what I wanted to do with all of my chainmaille after I absorbed all I could on that basic left brain level.  The next step was to figure out how to adorn it and I was so happy to have Aislyn of Urban Maille as my guide into the next level of ascension.  I’ve mentioned my creative plateau before, but I’ll link to it again for significance.  The early part of 2008 was when I decided to take my jewelry to the next level, and OMG, it really, really did.  By 2010, I got a little lost, but now that my personal life has settled down into married life and soon-to-be motherhood, it’s nice to be somewhat back in action.  Jesse has made a huge difference in my creative mojo.  It’s wonderful to have such a supportive and adoring husband.

I made this bracelet after spending the weekend with Jesse.1 and being surrounded by friends and family.  Embodiment of all the love and mushy stuff that was spewing out that weekend.  I worked on it Saturday night well past midnight if I recall correctly.  I have an idea for another necklace just like this with the rose gold accents, but I’ve been hesitating for some reason.  I should just make it and see what happens.

Last night, I decided I wanted a Double Double from In-N-Out (one of the few fast food items I can eat) and figured Jesse could take care of his own dinner.  It was still really hot so after scarfing down the deliciousness with a tall glass of milk, I decided to take a nap (yay for pregnancy laziness), played a round of Diablo (yay for killing monsters), then eventually got myself settled at the eating table with my iPad perched and ready to watch some He-Man.  Played Emile Autumn to get into the mood while Jesse tinkered with the CD drive he dissected out of my old computer.  Once I got the initial right brain stuff going to the point that I knew what I wanted, I switched over to watching He-Man and explained to Jesse that I haven’t seen ALL the episodes because I was 4 and only remembered probably a quarter of them.  When they were released on DVD in 2005, I was ecstatic and spent a good chunk of time watching them over and over as background noise or zoning out after a long day at the office.  Even my mom figured out whenever I was watching He-Man, I was exhausted and recharging my batteries.  So you can imagine the happiness of being able to watch He-Man and make jewelry at the same time again.

I ended up making this necklace.  The focal bead is a kyanite, and it’s really difficult to polish kyanite like this because it has two different MOH hardnesses on the vertical and horizontal axis.  This was the very first strand of beads I bought from my Crazy Pirate Rock Lady.

Love really is a many splendid thing.  You can’t sustain a marriage solely on love, but it’s definitely more than just icing on the cake.  I know just exactly how blessed I am and I am thankful for everything everyday, even on the days when he’s being grouchy and annoying.

Ooo, Rocks!

Last night I decided to bust out my stone boxes full of iolite, sunstone, and tourmaline.  The idea was to make more earrings, but that idea didn’t pan out.  I did end up going back to work on my “Rock on a Rope” collection.  This weekend, I hope to take photos and start listing them on Etsy.  I also need to calculate the prices too.  I’m hoping this will be a more affordable collection, because I want everyone from any walk of life to be able to purchase a stone that speaks to them.  This collection is also a way of introducing stones and their energy properties to the masses.  It’s also been a good way for me to freshen up on my stone studies.  I just happened to buy a stone book for my Kindle.  That’ll be more helpful than lugging around my favorite stone book everywhere.  I’ll have a baby to lug around in 2 months and a bit.  Yikes.  It’s scary how time flies.

From the left, prehnite, rough watermelon tourmaline, rose quartz, larimar, and pink tourmaline.

From the left, iolite, sunstone, iolite-sunstone waiting for their chainmaille bit and chain. ♥

Sporting my iolite and sunstone necklace with iolite-sunstone focal bead.  Of course, the focal bead is from my crazy pirate rock lady.  And I really don’t look pregnant from the chest up.  Hehehe.

Battle Between Spontaneity and Consistency

I think this is a left brain vs right brain thing.  Most of the time when I sit down at my desk, I have no idea what I’m going to make.  I throw caution to the wind and let my creative spirit soar and ride in the direction my subconscious thinks I should go.  This does not bode well for consistency, although most of my jewelry designs are at least somewhat similar.  Sometimes I wonder if this is a good thing or not, but sometimes you can’t force creativity.

I’ve been getting back to basics this week.  Making little bits of chainmaille and sticking beads in between those sections.  Yay!  I haven’t done that for awhile, so this feels pretty good.  I think the chain I’m working on will turn into a “chainmaille straight up” bracelet, i.e. classic chainmaille with no beads or embellishments.  Speaking of chainmaille straight up, I need to take inventory of all the bracelets I have in stock.  Yay art show!  Eh, some of them are my original bracelets, so I think their energy has been permanently embedded as MINE.  So I need to grab the ones that are easily replaceable.  I should probably make another turkish roundmaille.  My only concern is that I’m running out of rings in that size.  Maybe I have an ounce or two left, but after hoarding 5 ounces at a time, it makes me nervous with silver prices being as high as they are right now.  Not as high as last year, but enough to cringe.

Jesse and I are debating what to do tonight.  We may end up going up to Rowland Heights then wander around Pasadena.  Sounds like a good escape to me.  Chinese food and window shopping.  If I have time for a haircut, I would like to squeeze one in.  My hair is growing like a weed but there are enough split ends to drive me crazy.  And spring is coming… I kinda want to go shorter anyway.  We’ll see.