A New Week!

The past two weeks have been crazy in terms of schedules so it was with great anticipation and pleasure that I sat down at my studio table and started to WORK!  I have so many back orders piling up, I'm getting a bit anxious but with today's longer working hours I hope to complete at least 3 orders.

Last week, one of my customers asked me to change a clasp for her because it had "turned bad."  She had her pearl necklace re-strung by another jeweler a while back which cost her quite a bit.  I looked at it, smiled and without uttering a word I proceeded to show her my miracle!

Here's what she brought in. 

My little miracle after a 15-second polish! Yes, I'm afraid it's just a simple oxidation process that occurs when 925 silver is left outside.  That's why it's important to keep your silver jewelry in zip lock bags after making sure they are clean and free from moisture (aka perspiration).  My customer has ordered a "miracle" cloth to polish her jewelry.  If you need one, drop me a line!

Now I'm off to do more work.  Have a great week, everyone!

Beadwork Making Class #1

Beadwork is the art of threading tiny beads together incorporating crystals, pearls and other gemstones or beads using beading thread and needle.  I'll be teaching a beginners' beadwork class on Sunday July 25th 1.30pm-4.30pm.  I've already got 4 participants and can take two more!  We will start with ear-rings. Teaching fees will be S$10 per hour,  minimum 2 hours.  All the materials you need will be provided in the kit.  Here's what we'll be making:

Flower ear-rings in any colour your choose!  Swarovski pearls and Japanese glass seed beads. You can add beads to make it longer if you like.  Kit will cost S$12 with rhodium ear hooks and S$14 with gold-filled ear hooks.

Hematite squares (only dark gray) in any bead colours you choose!  Swarovski crystals and Japanese glass seed beads. Kit will cost $12 for rhodium ear hooks and S$14 for gold-filled.

Another pair of flower ear-rings.  Any colour you choose!  Swarovski pearls, Swarovski crystals and Japanese glass seed beads.You can add beads to make it longer.  Kit will cost S$15 for rhodium ear-hooks and S$17 for gold-filled.

This is more complicated if you are up for a challenge!  Swarovski crystals, Swarovski pearl (inside the crystals) and Japanese glass seed beads. You can add beads to lengthen it.  Also available in any colour you choose.  Kit will cost S$25 for rhodium ear hooks and S$27 for gold-filled.

For the beadwork classes, you need to be able to use a thread and needle confidently.  This can be really addictive so be prepared... you may want to make more than one pair of ear-rings!  I know, because I made 30 at one go!!  

Finally, the promised photos!

It's been really hectic the past two weeks trying to catch up with the family (the children are having school holidays till tomorrow), help the hubby with some of his work, getting in our family's healthcare appointments, exercise classes and some baking orders.  Quite challenging to work in my jewelry studio and having to keep up with the rest of the schedules!  I've also moved my 18 feet of tables to another corner of the living room (where I now take up one quarter!) and get all my equipment and beads together in one place.  My hubby's side of the room (the other quarter...) is still in a mess but that is one problem he has to clear himself.

Anyways, I'm here now and managed to take some photos for you.

This is the biggest bead embroidery neckpiece I've done by far.  I'm naming her "Jesus Loves the Little Children."  Made with turquoise, howlite and coral beads.  Will really make a statement and start a conversation going!

Another view of "Jesus Loves the Little Children."  Some folks are asking how much I sell these neckpieces.  Well, it's OOAK (one-of-a-kind), specially thought through and designed, walking for days through supply shops to look for the "perfect" beads, then painstakingly made sewing on one bead at a time.  Some of these neckpieces take up to 100 hours to make.  My neckpieces so far are selling between S$180-600 depending on the size, materials used and time taken to make them.  I don't do repeats at all so you can be assured you'll be the only one wearing it.

This is a new lariat design I made which can be worn in three different ways.  This is the first way, with the loops coming out from under the geometric centrepiece.

The second way is to wear it with the loops going down into the geometric piece.

And finally, it can be worn like a scarf.

This is the same lariat made in black and red.  Of course this can be made in any colour you desire and with any gemstones or beads for the coralling part.  Custom orders for this lariat are welcome.

If you'd like to order your jewelry in time for Christmas, I suggest you start planning ahead!  I'm working on quite a few projects now and will probably close order taking after September.

Gardening, Family and Friends

The past two weeks have been exciting and busy for me.  I had to complete 2 custom orders for necklaces, help my husband out at a conference he was organizing and also spend time with my daughter who was on school break for a short two weeks.  After 2 all-nighters trying to get things together for the conference, I am still trying to get back my lost sleep. Things are getting better now though with the house cleaned, baking orders delivered, two custom order necklaces completed and Alethea going back to school tomorrow.

Once I clean out my desk, I'll be able to get back to my studio and complete the 11 show necklaces and 29 bracelets by end of July!  I promise I'll post photos of my necklaces by Friday.  Meanwhile, enjoy a couple of photos below... 

Here's a lovely looking pineapple outside my new neighbour's apartment, grown in a pot! 

Alethea and I went shopping at Orchard Road a couple of weeks back.  The place was packed even though it was about eleven in the morning!  Where did all the people come from? 

I've been baking the past few days to fulfill some orders.  Yesterday, our cat, Lion-O, waited patiently for me to pay attention to him.  He sat under the dining table for more than 4 hours...

A Kitten's Visit

Last night after our family dinner, we found a kitten outside our door sitting on the bench as if waiting for us to come home.  He was hungry and asked for food (we understand cat language because we have two Ragdolls of our own!).  As he tried to jump off the bench, we noticed he seemed to be injured.  We found an infected toe on his right foot.  Anyways, he's really beautiful and we took a few photos on my iPhone.  Thought I'd share them with you today!

Isn't he absolutely gorgeous?  Can you see his swollen front right little toe?

Wanting some love and affection from Alethea!

Ethan gave him lots of cat food.  He ate every single morsel and asked for seconds!

Lion-O, our Ragdoll, wanted to know who was eating all his food! 

I don't think he was too happy to share!

After the feeding session, Alethea gave the Kitten some water and sat with him for a while.  He stayed about an hour or so before moving on.  Hope we'll see him today.

Till I post photos of my new completed projects, do have a great weekend!

School Holidays

It has been a real treat for me to spend some time with Alethea the past week, going shopping and doing "girl" things with her.  With a school schedule of 8am to 8pm (that doesn't include travel time) it has been challenging to find time to chill and talk.  I only have her for two weeks before she's back to School of the Arts for her dance camp the last two weeks of the school vacation.

A couple of months ago, we had a new neighbour who moved in to the ground floor apartment at the bottom of our block.  It seems they are real gardeners and before long the front of their apartment was filled with plants, fishes, and birds!  For the plants, I've seen melons, beans, pineapples, cherry tomatoes, ladies' fingers, sunflowers, AND corn!  What makes it more amazing is that all the plants are in pots!!  I managed to take a few pictures:

The ladies' fingers grew to almost 10 inches!  Quite pretty with the yellow flowers.

Here are the cherry tomatoes.  Since I took this photo, the tomatoes have ripened.

Sweet corn!

I'm inspired to plant my own vegetables but unfortunately I live on the 3rd floor with partial morning sun. 

Anyways, I'm still working hard on my bead embroidery neckpieces.  Will take photos in the next few days.  I wore ALAMEA to a dinner party at the weekend and garnered very good feedback from many friends. Thanks for your support!  Till I post again, have a great week ahead, everyone!

ALAMEA

This post is to let you know I've not gone missing!  It's been a really hectic two weeks but I'm glad to say, things are moving along nicely now.  I've been working on ALAMEA (which means "precious stone") and took ever so long because I had to keep running errands for the family.  It's finally completed and I'm really pleased with her!

ALAMEA was a bit challenging to make because I had to embroider each Jasper gemstone and seashell coin individually.  That took almost 7 days!  Then I spent two days to sew the embroidered stones together.  I really like ALAMEA because she's comfortable to wear and looks stunning.  The Jasper gemstones are all different so that makes it especially interesting.

Here's another view, flat.  As you can see I've finished it with Swarovski pearls at the back for comfort.  I used gold-filled wires and an antique gold toggle.

Last week, a customer asked me to repair her pearl necklace which she bought from overseas.  Here it is, in its broken state.  The knot in the clasp came undone.  This is a common occurence in pearl necklaces, which is why I always use the best silk threads (the thickness of the thread depends on the pearls' drilled hole size) and I always recommend knotting the pearls so if the thread breaks, you won't lose all the pearls.

As you can see, I started by knotting the first four pearls nearest to the clasp.  I also used a gold bouillion (the gold tube at the top of the photo) to string through the gold-filled ring so that the thread would not fray.  Since the pearls are a little flat, it was not a good idea to knot every pearl otherwise the space between each pearl would cause it to become wobbly.

The re-strung necklace!  Now my customer can wear her pretty pearl necklace with confidence!

More Ear-rings

Thank you so much for your feedback on the Bohemian style ear-rings!  As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm into turquoise colours right now.  I will post all the ear-rings I made the last two weeks in the Ear-Rings page of this blog later in the week for sale but in the meantime, here are the photos:

This pair of turquoise ear-rings are made from two different sized Japanese cube beads, 15.0 Japanese glass seed beads and howlite dyed tear drop beads.  The technique used here is the St Petersburg chain.

Quite a nice pair of dainty ear-rings using 11.0 Japanese glass seed beads and magatama (drop)beads with Swarovski pearls.

As you can see, I used the same howlite dyed beads for the centre of the next two pairs of ear-rings and the one in the previous post, but played around with different colours and came up with totally different effects.  This one is predominantly lime green and yellow.

This one uses mostly corals with some bronze.  As with all my bead embroidery pieces, I backed the ear-rings with camel coloured ultrasuede.  All the ear hooks are 14k gold-filled.

I'll probably be making a few more pairs of ear-rings this week since my stash is getting lower.  The bead embroidery ear-rings can be made in any colour, with almost any focal beads and in any shape.  I'll try to use different beads when I'm done with my turquoise colours! 

My daughter, Alethea, requested for a black and red one so I'll make a pair for her this week too.  The bead embroidery ear-rings are available for custom order.  Check back at the end of the week for more photos!

Bohemian style ear-rings

I've been in a turquoise mood lately ( no I'm not feeling blue or depressed!) so excuse me if you see predominantly turquoise jewelry in the next week or so!  Last week I managed to get some really whimsical gemstone beads and am designing my next neckpiece and ear-rings.  In the meantime, to keep my hands occupied, I made these ear-rings using tiny tear drop shaped beads.

I used Japanese glass seed beads in two sizes to embroider around the gemstone beads and I also used faceted coral beads and gold-filled wire to complete the ear-rings.  I love these ear-rings so much I think I'll keep them for myself! 

If you'd like something similar, drop me a line.

SAVANNAH completed!

Today was really hot but nevertheless a great day for beading!  I completed SAVANNAH (means "from the open plain") about 5 hours ahead of time.  This means I can now go to the hairdressers, grocery shopping and then start on my next project.

I really love how SAVANNAH turned out.  From bracelet to necklace!  The large focal bead and smaller round beads are turquoise gemstones.  I added a gold-filled lobster clasp to complete the necklace.  The necklace is 15 inches but can be adjusted to about 16 inches if needed.  I will just add a couple of turquoise beads on gold-filled wire to do that.

Another shot of the necklace.  Simple, elegant and one-of-a-kind.

My Third Beaded Embroidery Neckpiece

I went supplies shopping yesterday and bought a few howlite beads dyed to look like turquoise gemstones.  After much deliberation, I decided to make a bracelet cuff.  However, in the midst of beading, Lady Inspiration strongly suggested I do a neckpiece or collar instead!  This piece consists of 5 separate pieces which will be put together at the very end.  I've yet to name her.

Here's a tiny teardrop howlite bead I glued on my stiffener fabric.

Here's the same teardrop after I beaded around it.  I used the bezelling method to capture the teardrop so there's no way it will drop off.  It's securely sewn to the stiffener fabric.

I decided to use this spray painted faceted shell bead (isn't it a gorgeous colour?) as my contrast colour. 

All done with the bezelling and bead embroidery.

Here I've completed the edging after glueing it to my camel coloured ultrasuede fabric.

This is the beautiful centrepiece of the necklace! 

Check back at the end of the week to see the completed neckpiece.