An Eventful Week

I've no jewelry photos to post today but wanted to share good news with you. My daughter did quite all right for her primary school leaving examination. Added to our joy was her acceptance into the dance program at the new School of the Arts (SOTA). This is the first pre-tertiary integrated academics and arts program in Singapore. Out of 1,000 applicants they have accepted 139 into music, visual arts, theatre and dance to join the historical first intake! School begins in January and they will follow the International Baccalaureate program which means the students do not take the usual O and A levels. It's a 6-year program and then on to university after they receive the diploma. Although it's reputed to be a rigorous course of study, we're excited about the new experiences and courses available.

The first two years will be foundational which means the students will all take music, art, theatre and visual arts as well as the academic subjects of English, Maths, Science, Literature, Humanities etc.

In the photo above, three other dancemates also made it to SOTA. A is the one at the end nearest to the camera. Thanks for sharing our joy! See you next week, hopefully with some photos.

A new design

This is another flower lariat! I simply love flowers! Anyway, it's quite a lush design with flowers in all sorts of cheerful colours. Will go well with any plain coloured outfit.

The flowers took about 2 days to make because I experimented with many different colours and possibilities. Putting the necklace together took another day or so. I kept the spiral rope dark in order to bring out the colours of the flowers.

I've developed another design for flowers but have yet to put it together. Hope to show you by the end of the week!

Three completed projects!

It has been a hectic weekend with A's dance rehearsals running from 11am to the evening hours. Added to that was the fact that she needed her hair in French braids which takes me forever to do! Nevertheless, I managed to complete three necklaces.

The first one is in bright pink, 16 inches using the Cellini spiral technique. I used Miyuki/Toho delicas, size 11 and also size 10 triangle beads. I also weaved a Swarovski pearl in matching colours for the clasp.

This green and bronze ruffles necklace is a simplified version of the pattern found in the recent Beadwork magazine. It's 18 inches long. Will go well with a dressy outfit.

Last, but not least is a lovely floral 925 silver cross completed with a spiral rope of blue and silver Miyuki/Toho glass beads. I used a strong magnetic clasp which makes this necklace so easy to wear. It's length is about 17 inches and will go well with any casual outfit.

Egyptian Choker

This lovely green choker was a joy to make. It's 14.5 inches and fits snugly at the base of the neck. I'm thinking of making another in sapphire blue and gold!

These next few weeks leading to the first weekend of December will be filled with dance rehearsals. A will be performing at her dance school's end-of-the-year charity fund raising concert and has been going for rehearsals about 5 times a week! This means any project I start may be interrupted now and then, so must be mobile and easy to pick up.

Now that this Egyptian choker is complete, let's see what I'll work on next! See you next week!

Family Pictures

How many of you out there are cat lovers? My family and I simply LOOOVE cats! In fact, we have two Ragdolls. Thought I'd share them with you today since there are no new jewelry to show! Ragdolls are very gentle and not as active as other cats. They follow us around the house like dogs!
This is Lion-O. He belongs to my almost 16-year-old son, E. Lion-O was named after the leader of the retro-comic titled The Thundercats. Lion-O is two years old and has a foot fetish. He loves to attack feet in socks. He loves ice and soft blankets. At night he sleeps at E's feet on the bed.

This is Sniffles, or affectionately known as Sniffy/Stiff/Slippers/Sniffalocious or Naughty Girl! She is 7 years old and Lion-O's grandmother. She belongs to my daughter, A. Sniffy loves longans and is beginning to like ice too. She also loves to eat chicken and takes long naps on my husband's side of the bed.

Next Step...

Well, I've completed all my back orders and looking forward to a nice break. It doesn't mean I'll not be beading. In fact, I'll probably bead even more to prepare for my January party. As you can see, I'm really into flowers now! I hope to come up with more original pieces. If you have any ideas of suggestions of beadwork designs, do let me know.

Some of you have asked what's the difference between beading and beadwork. Well, beading is a general term for working with beads (includes gemstone beads). This includes stringing and wirework which can be done quite quickly. Beadwork is a technique using special thread, needle and sewing thousands of tiny glass beads into designs like flowers, spiral ropes etc. It is a time consuming technique so you won't find it too often being sold in shops because the pieces may cost more than S$400! Of course making the piece is one thing. It takes many more hours to get inspiration, put beads together in a perfect colour combination and then experiment with new designs and layout. I spend hours experimenting on just one design and have lots of slightly made pieces which didn't work out! No repeated design will ever look the same because I do not like to use the exact same materials over again and neither do my customers like someone else wearing the exact same thing!

Hope this helps!

A Commissioned Piece

This was a special order I just completed for R. This necklace is 25 inches long with the watch face facing upwards for the wearer's easy reading of time! She wanted something for casual wear but as you can see, she can also wear it on special occasions. It's really one-of-a-kind! Hope you like it, R!

I like it SO much I made make something similar for myself!

It's Friday Again!

This past week I managed to complete a watch for my daughter. She simply loves it and wears it all the time! For my watch, I made it a bit bigger to fit my 6.5 inch wrist but A is very much slimmer so I made hers narrower to fit her 5.5 inch wrist. Both took equally long to make!

I'm back at work!

Last week was hectic because of a death in the family. However, I managed to design a new lariat necklace and watch strap. I simply love the colours and the flowers, don't you?! The flowers took forever to make but I'm glad I did! Sorry, they are not for sale but for my personal use. If you would like something similar, do let me know.

Check out the bumble bees on the watch strap!