packaging

I mentioned in the September post that I was working on a makeover for my local blog/ website.
Here's the packaging page, posting it here since this applies to my etsy store as well.

And here's a the photoshoot session for the gift boxes.

 

soft shades // work for today

Tackling on sweet, soft, pastel shades today :)
Remaking 3 pieces of Soft & a ring design requested by my dear friend.
She reserved that swan cabochon as soon as I unpacked my new supplies that came when we had a lunch meet-up at my home.

I didn't order too many of the pretty swans, planning to turn the rest into matinee length necklaces sometime soon!

swarovski!

Went on a shopping spree last weekend and did a restock of my already depleted lot of Swarovki crystals.

Here's one of the trays with 8mm bicones, I'm liking the colour combo here (arranged by the shop assistant), probably will make a piece with these!

I don't use Swarovskis very often in my pieces, but now that I have a larger stock on hand, you will see little crystal butterflies & more, very soon ;)

serptember '11 round up

Monthly post late, again....

clockwise from top left: 

Mist

Joined Hearts

Everlasting

Gypsy

September has been busy, especially ongoing works of revamping my local website has taken up a large chunk of time, couldn't bead as much as I would have liked!

Glad that the site is almost ready, just bits & pieces, here & there left to tweak. Finally this HTML jargon battle is almost won :)) cracking codes & interpreting funny symbols aren't my idea of fun, but there is this sense of satisfaction when all turns out well upon clicking 'preview'.
Ahh.... relieve all over! ;)

Anyway, busy times will continue this month too, I have a bracelet series planned (may not list on etsy) & lots more ideas to work on. At least once the site makeover is completed, I get to do things in my usual, relaxing way, blissful times to be appreciated :)

cubes // work for today

too cute wood cubes =)

Just when I thought I have used up all my dark purple beads, I found these hidden in my bead box, things are always forgotten all the time here!

Used them in a new bracelet that features a rocking horse too :)

Ana

the rain played a part // work for today

completed: MIST

Rainy days churn out refreshing colours like this...

For a person who is very much inclined to pink & purple, I should be wishing for more of these times ;)

and it helps to wash away the stinky haze as well!

mail

It's almost 2 months since moving into my new home, and  f.i.n.a.l.l.y  I'm getting used to writing down my new address in the courier form.
Filling up forms absentmindedly meant reverting to the old address, it's like auto-pilot ;)
Though at the moment I still have to remind myself each time, at least I'm getting better.....

Anyway, the post office clerk gave me another huge stack of forms today.
The good thing about posting during peak periods is that they generously shove so many pieces to me.

Small things like this make me happy, must be that weird geeky greed in me! ;)

pink iris // work for today

Hello :)

I'm still quite terrible in keeping this place updated on a frequent basis, I was enthusiastic about blogging for a week or two, and then got caught up with more orders last week (& a fun afternoon spent with best friends), which unfortunately meant blogging here is relegated in my to-do list.

Over the past week I have taken many photos that were meant for work for today posts, still sorting through them but here's a piece but I really liked working on.

Custom order: Working on 3 pieces of Iris (pale pink version)

I have always preferred more vivid colours, eg deep pink or fuchsia so I thought it was a challenge to try solely lighter shades.
Luckily I have accumulated quite a big stash of light pink beads (bought with the intention of using them as fillers only) and seeing the completed piece, I must say I like this as much as the original, if not more! ;)

pink polka

these came in the mail today.

Self assembled gift boxes in soft pink, I chanced upon them in a deal site (those Groupon style coupons) and bought my first ever deal :) 

It wasn't really a bargain (the original price was quite ridiculously marked up too high) but the polka design was too tempting for me to resist :S

Especially when it's pink!

Cute?

stars // work for today

Stars must be linked with blue, my brain tells me that....

here it is, bracelet listing

tagging

I'm usually holed up in my room beading, so sometimes it's lovely when I can have all things laid on a tray (container cover actually) and work at the garden. Change of scenery :)

Just like today, working on tagging 50 pieces of jewellery for the boutique booth.

Cutting up tags, punching holes, then meticulously tying them to bracelets & rings, all these took up quite a ridiculous amount of time.

Good thing the embroidery threads are in bright spring-y colours to lighten the mood ;)

blue hues // work for today

 When I first got these beads out, I planned to make a cluster bracelet with them, but after tinkering around and adding bits of charms, a flower etc, it turned out to be an asymmetrical piece instead.

This happens most of the time, if I were to summarize my work flow, this is it:

an idea comes to mind and I take out all the necessary materials, arrange and tweak, change the sequence, add more beads then tweak, pin them up and tweak the design again...

   resulting in a finished piece that is almost always totally different or bear just a slight resemblance to the original.

I have since learned no matter how I feel about the first draft, never to give up on it, because with all the fine-tuning, the final piece will be something I love! :)

big brackets

In my last blog post, I used big brackets to hold up all the text, as inspired by what I saw in a mag.

Easy to do with almost any font types :)

I also used a Jane Austen font there, beautiful hand-writing with great flow, one of the best fonts I have recently found!

august '11 round up

time for a monthly post :)

August was expected to be a busy time for me locally, with the festive season at the end of the month, I worked on more custom pieces than usual. Many of them ordered to match with their new clothes, just like what happens during chinese new year come every January ;)

Over at the Etsy front, I worked hard as well, 15 pieces plus reworked listing details for a couple of expired ones.
Am satisfied :)

As I'm reflecting on the past month's activities, my mind's is actually filled with the new goodies my best friend is bringing home for me, especially the half kilo (about a pound) of colouful heart shaped beads, simply can't wait to get my hands on them!
 

drafting necklace // work for today

Tinkering with a custom necklace design, I have been loving this style ever since I made the gemstone piece.
Instead of all beads / charms / flowers gathered at the end of the chain, like I usually do, this style uses all those materials to make up the chain :)

  

many hearts

love: heart pendants :)

I first used this heart link in this bracelet, liked it so much that I ordered in a huge bulk (just a small portion photographed here), I think I went overboard because now my drawer is overflowing with these lovely hearts....

(another voice in my head defensively says pretty things are for keeps!)
 

But the good thing is I can now make interlocked necklaces that I have been dreaming about, no need to skimp or keep counting if I have enough for other projects :)

 Here are the pieces I worked on during the weekend, I made it in 2 different lengths since I can't decide which one I like better...

available here

***

At the same time, linking up over at Much Love,

bubble wrap

My ikea sofa came today and it was entirely wrapped with bubble wrap. It has a layer of foam attached to it as well, which makes it much sturdier than my stationary store bought ones.

Since my jewellery packaging uses very minimal bubble wrap, this lot is equivalent to a year's supply.
Of course, unless there is a sudden crazy spike in sales then this won't last that long, how I wish so! ;)

something gypsy // work for today

I'm working on double stranded bracelets today, the layering trend has me itching to experiment with piling on stacks of jewellery ;)

I'm very pleased with how they are turning out, especially since the gypsy style isn't what I usually make.

Brassy gold & white pearls, with the grungy chains in the background, somehow Cleopatra comes to mind,  :)

I'll be taking photos of the completed pieces this evening, and the best part is I have made a matching necklace to go with it too!

seeing butterflies

I noticed the number of butterflies here just as I was about to pack them for a buyer, mmm... someone who likes butterflies as much as I do!
(not the actual live one because I'm terrified of all insects, I like them as jewellery components only...)

She and her colleagues fell in love with Blossom Bouquet, but they didn't want to be wearing the exact same pieces so I was asked to create 3 slightly different ones.
On the front left is Thea, which features a butterfly as focal piece too!
Plus 3 butterfly rings :)


Working on these were fun, besides the butterfly factor of course, I'm getting to like teal more & more and these pieces had just enough of teal beads for me to play with!

monochromatic // work for today

being someone who likes all things colourful, as evidently seen in the plethora of colours in my store, today's work seem to be in total contradiction to my usual style.... 

Glad my stubborn self refused to budge and followed the original black, white & grey idea, because in the end, I LOVE this! 

Coincidentally, I had a remake of Starlight to do ...

so it was all monochromatic shades today, as much as I adore the above two pieces, i'm getting back to colours tomorrow!

WIP

Ever since I moved to my new home with a bigger work area, I have had so many work-in-progress (WIP, an acronym I learned while studying accounting) pieces lying around, more than ever.

Here are some shots taken this morning.

Flowers left to dry  from days ago.

The butterflies are for my new necklace while the beige peach flower can be seen here.

Peach white beads to be pinned up as a bracelet, I came up with this almost 2 weeks ago and haven't started any work on it yet, the bead arrangement has changed several times since I kept messing it up accidentally when going through my bead boxes!

Custom necklace project for a local buyer, her orders will be keeping me busy for the next 2 days.

There is another necklace draft laying around, designed by my sister!
The photo seem to have disappeared from my camera so looks like that piece will be kept as a secret until I get it done, hopefully by the end of next week.

There is always something to do around here, so fun! :)

at the boutique

Continuing from yesterday's post...

Here are the new pieces I have sent to the boutique where I have rented a small space to showcase my pieces.

one-of-a-kind necklaces that are sold only at the boutique

 treasure chests overflowing with simple charm bracelets, that padlock is adorable!

rings, am planning to list the butterfly ring too in my etsy store as soon as I find time.

****

That's all for this round of update, I'm grateful to have my sister & brother helping out with the price tags (they worked till midnight!)

My way of tagging is very tedious and takes up quite a bit of time (the tags are all handmade + handwritten + attached to jewellery with embroidery thread).

As much as I like it, I need to find an easier way so I have more pieces sent to the b&m store more often.

;)

any suggestions?

a tangled mess

As much as I like jewellery making, there is one thing that I am not fond of - untangling this ball on chain!

I buy my supplies in bulk so this is how chains come in (it was an even bigger ball, I have untangled about half of it before this photo was taken)

I'm using this chain mainly for necklaces, rushing to cut as many as I can for a range of necklaces that will be sent to the local boutique where my pieces are showcased :)

 I'll be posting the photos of  the necklaces at the boutique tomorrow! 

dreamy image

an inspiring tutorial found over at Pugly Pixel.

I first experimented with photoshop about 7 years ago, since I'm self taught, I know only bits & pieces, never fully utilizing all the tools. I mainly learned through trial & error and google has been my best teacher on this.

I'm impatient, rarely ever following a tutorial to the end, but this was just 'wow', it's an effect I have been wanting to know but never got around to learning it. 

I just spent the last 15 minutes watching this, all I need now is find time to put this into practice...

july round up

July has been hectic...

Days just flew by with cleaning up my new home, packing then unpacking and busying about with all the stuff related to house moving, very very tiring!

Which meant my jewellery business was neglected quite a bit, but proud that I still managed to have 10 new pieces up in my etsy store, mostly done during the first half of the month. 

August will be interesting, I have splurged (ouch! temptation got the better of me) on gemstones, very pretty ones in the most awesome colours :)))

(I never knew gemstones can come in such myriad of colours until I did some research)

Also, 3 whole container full of new charms arrived a week ago! I have been so busy the past few days that I haven't really looked into my parcel, anyway, expect lots of new goodies posted up the second half of this month!

(got to catch up on the local orders on hand first)

skinny letters

While going through my picture folder, I found a photo of my scribble on silver scrap paper. 

as I cropped this photo, I recall seeing many long lean fonts on blogs I love...
here are the two that I remember seeing

a beautiful mess

 &

PSS

 

While I don't know much about typography, I appreciate beautiful fonts and have been visiting dafont for years.

Any idea what this skinny font is called? :)

house moving week

This photo was taken last week, my beads are all out of the boxes now but strewn very messily on my table.

Will be tidying the place after I complete the local orders on hand, I'm a bit behind schedule, yikes!

fabulous pink

adore

Taken over at my new room, will be moving in end of July.

pink walls! ♥♥♥

I'm grateful for my new home, grateful for a new lovely 'studio' to work in (a corner in my bedroom), grateful for the large storage spaces & definitely grateful for my pink walls ;)

Linking up over at Much Love

***

As I'm writing this, I can't help but reflect if that is all I'm grateful about, pretty shallow don't you think?

I guess even without all the excitement surrounding my new house, I'm just grateful to be alive & well.

as reminded from my devotion time last night "my goodness is nothing apart from You"

The world is not my home, a truth I need to be reminded of, not be sidetracked by the shiny toys of the world....

june round up

clockwise from top: 

convertible chain

thea

blitz- camera

kaleidoscope

 red rose

I have been hardworking! :)

A (can I say whopping?) total of 14 items listed in my etsy store during the 30 days of June.

 Would have been 15 if I did not spend hours editing bracelet length details on friday, reworking on all bracelets one by one, must say that was tiring!

Let me know if you think any parts of it needs to be clearer for potential buyers, thanks for your suggestion!

  

 Sales wise was alright but I heard views are generally lower during summertime in the northern hemisphere?

:(

Anyway, for July I do hope I'll be able to continue listing new items at this same rate, considering I'll be busy moving to my new home (YAY!) and a new shipment of supplies are arriving end of the month (double yay!)

Off to finalize my new bead stock now, ciao ;)

convertible chain

new at my etsy store, am extremely excited about this, do read on :)

a cool way of getting the most out of you money ;)

This is what you will be getting:

With just 1 chain, you can turn all of my bracelets into necklaces

 

For example: Starlight bracelet

link up the convertible chain & wear it as a necklace!

Makes your jewellery all the more versatile ;)

full details available HERE ♥