New designs, finally - and a childhood favourite!

I'll let the pictures do the talking on this sunny day :)

Finally posted some of my new designs - sort of hoarding them, but mostly just worried how they would be received... Polymer clay and chiyogami pendant with sterling silver bail on Greek leather necklace. I think I'm pretty satisfied. I think.

Here's another with my little bunny and a garnet in the bail .

... and my new earrings - polymer clay and sterling silver oblong hoops.

Can you tell I'm primed for Spring? (^_^)

A treat from my childhood
Is there something you remember eating when you were a kid that was a thrill? Well, this was one of those things for me.

Kraft Pizza in a box! 34 seconds to go...

The box used to be green and the pizza on it wasn't so detailed and yummy looking, but the contents were the same. The smell of that tangy tomato sauce and those spices; the cheese that you have to be careful to sprinkle just right so that there's enough to cover it all; and the smell and feel of that dough -ooh, I love it. Amazing how powerful the sense of smell is in conjuring up memories so vividly. Here's JF and Ebi waiting for it to be ready - cook faster, man!

That skinny little pizza which we would always make on a rectangular cookie sheet, would be cut into six pieces since we were six kids - five-year old me got the same size piece as my brothers who were older teens. They finished theirs in a couple of bites while mine was a meal. Here's our family at my Auntie Betty's in 1972. I'm the smallest one who looks like a boy in a dress.

Yay, pizza's ready!!! and it was yummy! Maybe not as good as I remembered, but yummy nonetheless.

There's one piece left in the fridge which I am going to eat now with my coffee.

Baby bracelet... wedding drums...

I'll start with my weather snippet. Woke up to the clatter of ice pellets hitting the window. And usually with freezing rain like this, it's pretty mild temperature wise. Not today. I opened the balcony door to take a photo of the ice on the snow, but shut it right away since it's so windy and all the ice was blowing in. Freezing out there! What is with this weather!?

I had a really good week-end in online sales, yay! I'm having a sale in my shop this week-end, so I'm prepping, hoping for more good sales!

More custom orders:
Last week, I had the neatest assignment to work on. I was asked to make a bracelet incorporating beads that had been used on a hospital baby bracelet; Franca was born in a smaller city just north of Montreal and apparently at the hospital, newborns all wore these on their wrists instead of the standard plastic nametag. I cannot see today's overworked nurses stringing beaded bracelets for all the babies in their ward. The funny thing is they totally misspelled the family name (not too many Italian families in smaller-town Quebec 50 years ago), and the letters aren't anywhere in the right order on the original bracelet! Isn't this a great keepsake?



She's kept the bracelet for over 50 years, and always wanted to use the beads in another piece she could wear. She was great to work with - it's always nice when a client knows exactly what they want and don't want :) I am so touched that she entrusted me with the honours and I am thrilled to say that she was happy with the finished result.

The result is a simple design that works well in not overwhelming the precious original beads. Franca's sister also dug her baby bracelet out and she would now like a new bracelet too ☺

My friend Yukari, who is a potter (you can see her work here), came over to select all the beads and the pendant for her new choker - she's the only one who I keep the memory wire necklaces in stock for since she has a small neck and likes the close fit of the chokers. We came up with this bright summery look.

Again with the "taiko" ?
Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, regarding my taiko mishap. It's hard to describe the place taiko has in our lives; I guess "big" would be the best word.

We even played at our wedding; to my mom's horror one of my taiko friends made a sling around my neck with the train of my dress hiked up with a piece chunk of material that I think he tore off a tablecloth; you can kind of see it well in the second shot below.

It was great though, because then I could hop around all I wanted. My mom wasn't so horrified really, as you can see her playing with us later. That's JF's mom on the left.

You know where I'm off to - coffee and work!

My tooth is fine, really...

I think Montrealers, or maybe Canadians like talking about the weather at least some point in the day - in the winter anyway. It drastically changes from one day to the next and you never know what to expect. Friday it was freezing cold (minus 25 with the windchill factor) and today it's zero with ice pellets and freezing rain; went to the post office and it was pretty slippery. Supposed to be getting heavy snow for the rest of the week. Sigh. March here in Montreal doesn't mean Spring is coming; it means we still have another few weeks of serious winter. Oh well.

Some of you may know I play taiko, or Japanese drums. They are rather large drums and we play with rather larger drum sticks, or bachi. At every practice we practice a piece called Yatai Bayashi, where we are sitting on the ground and using chunkier than usual bachi; it's an intense, physically difficult piece and if played with anywhere near the intensity it's supposed to be played, it could look like this photo below. This is the world famous Kodo group from Japan, in rehearsal:

Fujimoto-san, the group's most senior player, plays an amazing Yatai Bayashi, and as you can see, when you're playing all out, and your abs are in pain and your shoulders and pecs think you can't play anymore, it's hard to keep a neutral face.

My face is rarely in neutral when playing this piece, and on Friday night, I smacked my front tooth and bottom lip with my chunky bachi, so hard my head was vibrating. I thought for sure my tooth was cracked or something since it hurt so much, but the next morning my lip was only a little swollen and the tooth looked fine. Today it's pretty much back to normal but I will still make an appointment with the dentist just to be sure. I'll try to keep my mouth closed in the future.

Last night, JF was inspired by his favourite tv cook, Pinard, to make mayonnaise, which worked out perfectly since he had already planned to make salmon and asparagus (hey, that's a sign that Spring is on its way - baby asparagus, the small tasty ones), both yummy with mayo. It turned out wonderfully, nice and creamy with a bite from the dijon in it. Just look at this lovely meal:
Baked salmon, asparagus and fresh mayonnaise and portobello mushrooms. JF is definitely a keeper ☺

Photos and a LEAP DAY SALE!

I was up early every day this week and my sister has to come over on my sleep in 'til 8:30 day to pick up a package my aunt dropped off for her and her daughters last week. Sigh. Oh well, coffee will be ready soon and I've got lots to do, so it's no biggie :) And what did I say when I gave her the bag from my aunt? "Don't forget to call Auntie Jeanne this week-end, and thank her." I sound like my mother. Audible sigh.Where's my coffee?

Much of yesterday was spent photographing and then editting photos of new pieces to list. I have a spot in one of the showcases on Etsy, which I haven't done in awhile and I wanted to see if any sales are generated by this advertising.

So I'm having a BOGO 50% off sale in my shop today, until midnight (in Samoa of course, that's 6am tomorrow for ESTers)!!!

I'm pretty happy with my photos from yesterday in general. I'm always amazed at how different lighting totally changes the colour of a backdrop while the actual piece being photographed remains essentially the same. I guess it has to do with how much light is reflected by the colour backdrop being used, or something (can you tell I have no idea what I'm talking about?)... These first two pics are the same piece on the same background, one in regular bright daylight, the other in direct sunlight.

I love those little goldfish! Gotta make myself a pair.

My new pendant design will have to wait since I have to figure out a way to attach a bail onto them. Long story...

Meow: I had to get in a couple of photos of Ebi. Poor Chibi has been all but ignored lately, camera-wise anyway, as I've been snapping pics of Ebi whenever he does something remotely cute.

Although I don't think he's as brilliant as my mom proclaimed him to be, he is funny. He drags his favourite toy around when he wants attention - this long wire with little rolled up paper danglies on one end - doesn't sound too appealing, certainly doesn't look great, but he loves it. You can tell he's coming with that thing in his mouth because the wire drags on the ground. I thought he hated me when he first came to live here in October, but we've warmed up to each other - he's more relaxed and has found his place, and I'm not trying so hard. Having two cats is good.


I'll be going now, will be working on a couple of custom orders today ☺ Have a good day everyone!

A nice start to the day ☺

It's sunny and cold today, around minus 20. But the snow has stopped - for now. This is my ideal winter weather ... but I probably won't even venture out if I don't have to :)

A woman named Nancy contacted me through Etsy a couple days ago and said she wanted to visit my store. And since I don't have one we made arrangements for her to come over here and see what I make and where I make it (my packed-full-of-stuff home studio). She was interested in my bracelets because she said she has small wrists and has a hard time finding bracelets that will fit her and not slide off or rattle and jangle around.

Nancy came over this morning at 8am before going to work and indeed, she does have very small wrists; said she was happy to find something that actually fits her and that the pretty part of the bracelet stays visible on top - which is exactly why I designed them that way ☺

She bought two bracelets, one of which was a smaller version of this one below. I've got others in my Etsy shop too :) I thought it was so nice of her to make an early morning detour just to see my stuff; even after selling for almost 7 years now, it still amazes me that I make things that people like enough to buy. That people will go out of their way to come and see me and that they will spend their hard-earned money on something I made - isn't that crazy? I mean crazy in a good way...

I've been working on a new design of pendant which I'm really excited about and will take photos of and list today. Talk about that tomorrow!

A fresh batch and new tools...

It's still snowing here in Montreal. It snowed all day yesterday, just lightly, but aaaaaall day. We were supposed to get 15cm, but I'm sure we got a little more than that since it's still falling.

Half of yesterday was spent making some chiyo pendants and earrings and I'll be doing that again today. Here's the fresh lot that went in to cure last night.

They need a final inspection and then their coats of varnish. I know there are a lot of people making chiyo pendants now on Etsy and out there in general, but I'm very happy with my design and their finished, framed look. Each is individually handcut from polymer clay and I also make the pendant bails myself. I've got some in my shop for sale right now :)

I received some new tools in the mail yesterday. I have been using pliers in the $5 to $8 range and I could not quite believe that tools that were 6 times the price were going to make any difference. How much better can they be?

The short answer: A LOT. A lot better. Thanks to a pretty good month, I splurged and bought these Lindstrom flush cutters and chain nose pliers, and also tried the OHM bent nose pliers.

Over the very busy holiday season I developed terribly crampy, tight hands and forearms and I know it was partly because I had to squeeze so hard on my hard-handled, badly-made tools. I put together some jewellery pieces yesterday and these felt great. I will let you know how I feel with my new tools as time goes on, but I already feel like I made a really good investment.

Have Lindstrom or OHM tools been good for you in your experience? Or any other kinds of tools? I'd love to hear about them ☺

Off to make more pendants... gotta feed the cats first!

Hoarded ideas..

Some ideas you keep in your head - kinda like hoarding them. And I am a professional hoarder, the queen of saving things in case I need them, the reigning champion of even not using things because then there'll be none left... Logical, no, but it's a way of being. I will admit that many in my family have this hoarding gene - definitely a dominant gene.

All that blabla to say that I've been hanging onto this idea for awhile and never took the step to actually make them a reality. Actually, I've been making these same cards in a mini version, as little gift tags, but as full-size greeting cards - this is the debut! The original origami design is by Didier Boursin, and I've added my own little flair to it ☺

Going to add these to my shop right away!

Ding Dong! ... FedEx just came a-knocking ten minutes ago with my latest order of supplies, so I had to stop writing and open my parcel. I received my Lindstrom cutters and pliers and I'm sooo looking forward to trying them out! I was going to make clay pendants this afternoon, but I might have to do some assembly and try these babies. I can already say they feel really good and my hands and forearms are looking forward to relaxing a little and not cramping up all the time. Also got cord that it just perfect for my miniature Japanese drums (okedo and shime) - very happy with my order!

Off to make coffee #2 and get to work ☺