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!

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! :)

tassels // work for today

I like tassels but haven't found a ready made one, oh well, better to make it myself then ;)

this is a custom piece for my local buyer, she wants sky blue theme with birdie charms while I proposed a tassel in the center for that flowy, dreamy look.

Very pleased with the result, you will most likely see tassels incorporated in my pieces really soooonnn!

colourful! // work for today

I have many of these medicine cups and they are simply perfect for storing work in progress pieces :)

fuchsia pink, turquoise blue, olive lime green...

yum yum!

asymmetrical fun

I have been liking asymmetrical pieces lately, it's just so fun when desinging and choosing which beads would go well contrasting the other side.

Here are a few I have made:

After Dark

I made this sometime last year, right after I laid my hands on these shiny silver beads.

Teal Tale

 This was made last month, signaling the beginning of my asymmetrical love ;)

Followed by this...

Lilacca

When it comes to favourite styles, I can never leave out pink & purple, my all time favourite colours :)

Matte soft lilac + that birdhouse charm, major ♥♥

Right now I'm embarking on a new colour, light yellow sprinkled with juicy lime green.

Will be making this today, *excited* ! :))

x10

Having a retail space means I simply have to have a large inventory, ie multiple pieces of a design

Here's one of them- Sorella, a simple bracelet I really like :)

I'm making this in yellow & purple as well, apart from the original pink listed in store.

(if you would like these new colours, let me know via etsy, I'll make it for you)

curtain of hearts 

♥

favourite things

I was just going to work on a couple of local orders, fumbled through bead boxes and got out the necessary parts. And then it struck me, hey... these are like a summary of what I'm into right now so I quickly snapped a shot:

Pink, floral, heart, sparrow & a hint of gold, what's not to love about these? ;)

the shiny bits

I don't know about you, but I have been seeing many grecian goddess inspired fashion pieces lately. You know, those Cleopatra-ish bold gold chains?
Well, I wanted to have my take at it too and here are my materials:

Not exactly keeping to the theme, right? ;)

Mainly due to the fact that I don't have many gold coloured beads (time to do some bead shopping?), I chose only base metal colours- silver, gunmetal & gold with a couple of pointy swirl charms.
There is another huge thick & relatively heavy pendant too (tribal-looking design!) which isn't pictured here.

This necklace is still a work in progress, some tweaking here & there is needed to perfect the design, which will have to wait till tomorrow.
I'm rushing off for a movie date with my sister tonight & have planned to list 1 new item before leaving the house. The 'made in february' section in my store looks a bit bare, when compared to 18 pieces in January.

Gotta buck up a bit for this month!

now brewing...

I absolutely *heart* flower cabochons, I have most likely mentioned it here a couple of times, eeks!

do bear with me, I get excited over little things... :S

I restocked these flowers recently and came up with an idea of making use of more pieces in a design. I snapped this while waiting for the glue to dry, can you guess what will these end up as?

Come on, it's really simple! ;)

this mess inspires me

A peek into my work bench!

Note: While taking this photo, I carefully avoided the the messier end of the table, those are wayyy too cluttered to be seen *shy* ;)

I'm pretty sure my family thinks the table an eyesore, mum constantly wonders how I could do actual work amidst the heap of stuff, "why not just clean them up & be more productive?"
But the whole point is- this pile of 'mess' is my source of inspiration :)
Seriously, sometimes 2 beads strewn on the table just happen to roll into each other and I knew that combination would make a great bracelet!

Anyway 2 days ago I was staying over at the hospital, a night prior to the admission I tidied (sort of) the place. Now that I'm back to beading full swing, there you go, chaotic again! 

(why did I even bother, haha!)
I packed all my jewelry supplies I needed to catch up on my local buyers' orders, was planning to make 5 bracelets but in the end I managed to complete 2 1/2 pieces only.
Short of what I planned but it was alright considering I was feeling under the weather those 2 days, hospitals are so depressing!

Something good did happen though, the nurses attending to me saw I was busy fiddling with my pliers and took a look, they called more of their colleaugeus into the room and just before discharging, I received 2 orders!
=)

 

december round up

With just 7 new pieces listed in December, I slacked a little (yes, just a bit!). I created at my own sweet pace and did not push myself at all to take photos, edit them, list new items and all the works related, it was truly relaxing & refreshing! I'm a one woman show, so it's always tough to pull myself away from the business as how many sales I make each month is relative to how hard I had worked. As with everyone else in this dog-eat-dog world, it's natural to keep pushing our limits. In December I decided to slow down this vicious cycle and had the pleasure of 'comfort crafting'!
 

Now that I'm all recharged & raring to go, definitely expect more new pieces this month, in fact I have made a couple of new necklaces, here's a sneak peek:
 

Here's to a blessed new year! ♥♥

work in progress

Here are 2 necklaces I made today, only half done as I'm planning to glue mini flower cabochons onto the filigrees. My shipment of supplies will be arriving some time this week, have bought quite a few of smaller sized flowers (hint: adorable!), can't wait!

I really like this design, looks a bit Christmassy don't you think?

Which is the irony of it, because these will only be up for sale in January, hmm...

I'm absolutely bad at keeping up with trends, I never follow them and my pieces seem to be way off the season (I like the non-conformity of it) ;)

but I'm extremely delighted to have found out the Pantone 2011 Colour of the Year is

honeysuckle!

woohoo... one of my favourites, such a sweet fine blend of pink and red.

now with this I hope it will keep me trendy & in style, whatever you call it ;)

alphabets

I have been busy working on these alphabets, a custom order from a local buyer of mine. She's having a high school reunion party with her girls end of this month and asked if I could make something with each girls' initials on it, of course I jumped at the idea! I love doing customizations as it forces you to move beyond your comfort zone and thinking hard to incorporate all the ideas into a piece of jewelry.

Some ideas can be pretty bizarre but they are all part & parcel of why customizations are so fun, I have been doing customizations for my local buyers for close to 2 years now and with each order, it simply gets easier. I still remember my first request and was really nervous with all sorts of possible scenarios playing in mind, but thank God everything went smoothly and ever since then, I'm hooked!