Exihibt: Jello Shots & Jewelry??

What do jello shots and jewelry have in common? Typically nothing, but combined they have given me an idea!

Before I go any further, I apologize for being a bad blogger. Not that it is any excuse, but I am in the midst of starting up a new "day" job. Thankfully everything is working out but my blog and jewelry have taken hits. I promise I will get around to uploading photos of my latest stuff, but until then I will show you what has inspired my creative side as of late!

I follow Luxirare because the blog covers my two favorites: fashion and food. I am amazed at the creativity behind these adorable jello shots and love the how-to part at the end.

Next, we have one of my favorite jewelry lines, DANNIJO which totally has the vibe I love. My favorite is Freja. Click on any of these items and the price tag will make your jaw drop considering most of these don't even use sterling silver or full gold. Yes, they are more along the lines of "art" than attainable jewelry, but this is what started my jewelry making in the first place... I copied the expensive designs for myself.

So this brings me to the idea that I show how to make your own version of the high end designer jewelry as well as the designs I come up with. The question that always remains is are people willing to sit down and make it or will they just settle for the more affordable alternative?

I'm going to try this out with the following design from Gemma Redux. Simple concept but nicely executed. I have some grayish gemstones that will work nicely combined with simple silver or gunmetal chain. Stay tuned for when I create my own version of this $398 work of art for significantly less!

Exihibt: Design circa 2003

I am sitting here trying to pack for my trip to NYC/CT and am trying to narrow down 30+ outfits down to 8 of which I will only wear 4. Of course there's always the option of bringing nothing and being forced to shop. =) Though my biggest question is always... what jewelry do I want to bring?

As much as I love my current pieces, I tend to always wear this one pair of earrings I made in 2003. It is one of my last pieces that I have held on to since I sold off the rest of my older designs at the vendor fair. Their new owners will make better use of them than I did anyway!

Should I bring this style back? I have tried to move to a lighter, more feminine look. Maybe this move represents my personal change in style and taste. The college years were more hipster casual and now I'm trying to become a sophisticated professional.

You can probably tell from the photograph I hadn't ventured into sterling silver yet and this is definitely base metal and has tarnished over the years. It is a good example of why you would want to stick to sterling!

Is there a solution to my style dilemma? Yes, I can make both!!

Let me know if you prefer this style to my latest designs on etsy!!

Exihibt: A bad case of the "I wants"...

Well hello again! I apologize for being away so long but I was working on creating enough jewelry to participate in a vendor fair in Pasadena last week on top of an extra stressful few weeks at my day job. The good news is I have a TON of new items that should be posted soon (or at least once Jon has free time to snap some shots for me)!! Overall the fair went well and thanks to everyone who bought from me!!

As I have no new photos of my creations, I will show you my latest "I wants." When I was little my dad would tell me I had a bad case of the "I wants" whenever I asked him for something and sadly I rarely ever got what I wanted unless it was a book. Now I am able to spend my money on whatever I want, but I really can't get myself to spend a good chunk of my paycheck on a piece of jewelry.


I love this Aurelie Bidermann ginkgo earring not only because it is beautiful but because my grandma's house has always had a ginkgo tree in front of it that I remember from when I was little. I will find a way to incorporate the ginkgo leaf into my designs one of these days!!

And we all know that I have an obsession with Dior's jewelry... but what's not to love?? It's wearable art! Thank you Vogue.

Then there's the Gucci bamboo hearts which are also completely up my alley at saksfifth.com... and this Jacquie Aiche Hummingbird Waif ring I found while browsing shopbob.com. Yes, I do need to learn to shape my own gold and silver and expand my horizons!

Lastly we have the Juicy Couture white flower earrings, Saks again, which are more in my price range at $55. Although typically I am not the biggest fan of Juicy Couture (everyone in the OC wore the velour track suits plastered with Juicy), I do quite like these earrings. I may break down and get them... since I cannot make them. However the problem I do have is they are gold-plated brass. I make special effort to make all of my jewelry out of gold-filled (i.e. no brass or base metal inside) or sterling silver. I have heard that brass will do OK as long as you do not abuse your jewelry and/or have extremely sensitive skin, but I still like the idea of keeping everything made out of quality materials. It bumps the price up, but I'm typically willing to pay. Are you?

OK check back soon for another installment from my latest creations! I sold out of a few of them (yay!) so I have to make more to complete my collection again! I will be in NYC this weekend so we will have to see what fun inspiration that brings!

Exihibt: The Iris

I've always envied the people who can prop up an easel and start painting what they see in front of them. It's a great way to capture a moment in time and whenever you see that photo you can reminisce about what occurred. Instead of painting, if I see something I like, I figure out a way to make it a piece of jewelry.

The iris, one of my favorite flowers, is a classic example. I have seen these in many gardens and flower arrangements and I always get excited if they are in a bouquet I receive because their color is so vivid. Naturally I would want to use it as inspiration for some pieces.

First, I analyzed the iris. Most of the petals stand upright but the outer 3 petals are key in that they fold outward. I like to use 3's so this concept worked out well. The purple petals in contrast with the green stems and leaves is something that I wanted to translate over to the jewelry as well.

Second, I had to figure out what could make the petals. After walking around bead stores for hours, I decided on purple Keishi pearls because they have an amazing resemblance to individual iris petals. I sifted through my current bead selection and settled on a combination of white freshwater pearls and green beads to represent the non-purple parts of the iris, like the white detailing and the green stems and leaves.

Third, I had to figure out a way to hold the beaded iris together for earrings. Its easier to make things using wire if you have a way to fasten it down. I sketched a few ideas and the best designs involved various silver hoops. You can read my other blog posting for why I like using circles!!

The hardest part is going from a sketch to figuring out the real layouts on the hoop. The pair of earrings with the pearls dangling below the "iris" was pretty straightforward to make. For the bigger hoop I had to make sure the final earring balanced properly. I wanted to place the iris off center and surround it with green and white beads, keeping with multiples of 3. Because the green were bigger I should have less of them to maintain balance. I wavered between 6, 9, and 12 white pearls, but 9 really looked and felt the best when I let gravity do its duty.

My recommendation to you if you are looking for inspiration is to carry a camera around and when you see something you like, take a photo. When you've collected enough photos start sifting through them and imagine different ways you could create each photo with certain beads. Go into a bead store with a few ideas in hand and buy up a selection of beads (you can't always get away with knowing exactly what you need unfortunately). Lay them out and start moving them around and trying different things or combinations. You'll know when you've got a good design!I can guarantee you something similar to the iris will be coming back in some future designs. Stay tuned!!

As usual many thanks to Jon Chan for taking the awesome photos of the earrings!

Exihibt: Circles and the Mon

Anyone who has spent a little bit of time browsing through my photos will notice that I really like to use circles. There is a reason behind the madness!

The first thing that comes to mind is my Japanese family Mon.

A Mon, in English terms, is a family crest and often consists of some kind of symbol surrounded by a circle. Ever since I was little I remember walking into my grandparents' house and seeing our Mon hanging on the wall. That image always stuck with me because it was a circle with a floral symbol in the middle. I often wanted a more intricate Mon, much like Imperial Mon, but I've grown really fond of my floral, simple one. It is unique to the Japanese side of me and something that can't be taken away. This was the Mon on my grandfather's side and although he has passed away, a part of him will always be passed on in the family.

Circles are simple yet extremely powerful and versatile. There are so many cool things you can do with a circle or ring, like use it as a clasp, use it in a lariat, hang things off of it, hang it off of something else, or just let it look pretty by itself. I like to take normal beads, in this case circular beads, and use them in an unexpected way. Many people have said this is what makes my jewelry interesting to look at.

The engineer in me likes the idea that a circle has a uniform radius with no jagged edges and is easy to utilize. The artist in me likes the idea that a circle has no beginning or end and just is. I could probably dive even deeper into the meaning of a circle but I'll spare the readers and end this train of thought.

Many of my pieces of jewelry were inspired because I simply liked the idea of using a circle but the two pieces at the bottom, the white mother of pearl circles filled with various collections of beads, were in fact designed with the idea of a Mon in the back of my head. Either way, I can guarantee you the circle won't be disappearing from my jewelry designs anytime soon (there's more coming in the next line!!).

Exihibt: Recall Milly Carnivora

Check out this link!! Exquisite Dior Rings

During my pre-bedtime online browsing session, I stepped it up a notch and visited the Dior website. Now, I am not one to shop the high end designer brands, mainly because my bankroll isn't quite that high, but I definitely do my fair share of window shopping. Most of the time I am not the biggest fan of the jewelry because I prefer the local designers to the logo-ridden "bling." However, when my friend showed me this website back when Dior first came out with the pieces, I immediate fell in love. The video is amazing because they walk you through the entire process which to me (as we know) is the best part! I just had to bring the link back!!

Why do I love the rings? Maybe it's because they are flowers which I similarly like to create. Maybe it's because they are pretty. Maybe it's because of all the time, thought and effort that went into designing and creating each piece. I dream to be able to create something so exquisite.

Exihibt: Beachside Inspiration

I've tried to leave southern California, but something keeps me from ever getting too far away. 6 years in La Jolla, 3 months in Huntington Beach and a little over a year in Santa Monica. A lot of people would tell me I'm nuts for wanting to leave, and while I do love being able to walk to the beach and feel the ocean breeze, I really want to try something new. However, I owe my jewelry line to the beach, all three cities and Jon Chan. Without the beach I would not have a lot of my materials. Without the cities I would never have found stores that sell the materials nor have experiences to help stimulate new designs. Without Jon I never would have been as comfortable showcasing my pieces; a good photographer can really help you sell anything.Ah, La Jolla. This photo was taken from a spot in downtown La Jolla where I spent many hours walking with people or just walking alone. Although this isn't exactly a beach, there is a really nice walking path which can be extremely quiet during the week and great for thinking.

I remember standing here one morning, making the decision to try to create a jewelry line. What did I really have to lose?

When I first moved to Huntington Beach for work I didn't know anyone except my roommates who I had found on Craigslist. Before our friendships blossomed, I poured a lot of my time into making jewelry. I also found an amazing bead store in Huntington Beach that helped me hone in on what I wanted my jewelry line to encompass. Anything and everything having to do with the ocean, and of course the Japanese flair!
Instantly the ideas started flowing. My room was so small at the time that I had no room for a desk so I made my queen bed my workspace. Bad for my posture, good for the right side of my brain.

Now who is this Jon Chan? We went to high school together. We went to college together in La Jolla. We were the same major in college (electrical engineering) but were never in the same classes. We rarely saw each other all those years but when I moved to Huntington Beach, I happened to be in San Diego supporting a seminar that my company was hosting and ran into Jon. He told me he's doing wedding photography on the side! We quickly bonded over being engineers with artsy hobbies, an outlet for dealing with the cubicle life. Oh, by the way it helps that he lives in San Diego and I can go down there when I want him to take some photographs for me. =)

These two photos were some of the first creations I made and the first ones Jon shot. I like them because they are very raw. Nothing fancy, but capture the sea, the Japanese flair, and still a nice piece of jewelry! In the photo of La Jolla, there is nothing overly man-made about the area. Yes, property was built and a few fences placed but for the most part the ocean is the ocean, the rocks are the rocks, and the wildlife comes in and out.

Jon's photography expertise really helped. Once he saw my collection and heard about how I design each piece, he helped me capture that in the photos. He chose black background because it would help the colors pop out and focus the viewer. I never saw my designs in such detail and I was worried about the imperfections but Jon reminded me that the imperfections (like the detail in the off-white bamboo coral) were a part of what made my jewelry unique. Much like the way our own imperfections are a part of what make us who we are.

I am far from perfect. My jewelry is quite often far from perfect. I have flops. I have a lot of designs I end up taking apart. I can't force a good design, it just has to happen when the time is right. It's all trial and error but the key thing I remind myself of is I love to make jewelry. Life is never that bad when you enjoy what you're doing or have something to look forward to. =)

Check out Jon's photography!! He's great inspiration!!

Exihibt: Cherry blossom obsession

From an early age, girls doodle in their notebooks and commonly sketch flowers. In my case, I sketched cherry blossoms. My floral sketches eventually became jewelry sketches, both of which filled up all the free space in my college engineering notebooks. Now I carry around a sketchbook to be able to capture my ideas at any moment without having to sketch around equations.

Late in my college career I had to take an art class as a general education course so I could become a "well rounded engineer." I should use "had" loosely because I was really looking forward to the studio classes. My final project was a 9 panel piece with each 2' x 2' panel symbolizing something about me. One panel is in the photo you see here that I made with black paint.

It is said that cherry blossoms symbolize the ephemeral nature of life which corresponds to my belief that you need to embrace each day and make the most out of it. On a more basic level, this panel also represents my Japanese heritage and my tendency to sketch in class.

Now a lot of my inspiration comes from my Japanese grandmother who taught me about Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, the core concept of my designs.

When I was young, I would sit with her and we would make flower arrangements from the flowers in her garden. I learned how to unite twigs, greenery, and flowers in a way that was simple, balanced and by no means overwhelming. This is what I think about during my design process, from picking out the components to laying out the design.

There is a bead store right down the street from my current home in Santa Monica. The first thing I bought from them was the rose quartz flowers you can see in the necklace. I knew from the moment I saw it that it would be my core bead. Although I do not include it in most of my jewelry, it will continue to pop up as I continue designing.

I knew whatever I made with this floral bead would have to be simple yet still make a statement, as did my painting. To me, the flowers, with small pearls on each side, loosely spaced between draped lengths of chain, resembles what I painted in the panel above. Many thanks to Jon Chan for taking the photo of my necklace!!

You will find I never whip out a piece of jewelry. There is always something special behind each design I come up with. A lot of art nowadays requires the viewer to understand how the piece was made rather than just interpret the standalone piece. I guess the difference between those artists and me is I try to make the piece look good so someone will like it without knowing the back story. =)

Exihibt: Roz's Wedding Jewelry

Back in 2008 when I was home for the holidays, Roz asked if I would design her wedding jewelry for her upcoming wedding in June. YES of course I would! Wedding jewelry is incredibly fun but you also have to worry about pleasing the end wearer. Thankfully Roz knew what she was looking for and is completely easy going so that took some of the stress off. She sent me a photo of her dress so i could start brainstorming.

The request was something that flattered a sweetheart neckline. Possibly a pendant necklace with some beads evenly positioned throughout the chain. A combination of white pearls and clear crystals. Preferably imperfect pearls, not the precisely round ones. Earrings that were about an inch long.

It was harder to bounce ideas off of Roz because she was in northern CA and I was in southern CA. However, after a solid month and a half of brainstorming and email exchanges I came up with some initial sketches (only showing some).

Roz liked the lower middle set the best. Time to fine tune the design!!

She also requested:

For the necklace: what are your plans with the chain part that goes around the neck?

For the earrings: would it be possible to have the pearl at the end and crystals adorning it?

I’m not sure how this will work out, but my makeup right now is probably going to be plum/purple based… would it be possible to introduce a little bit of that into the jewelry, too? Not too much, but a tiny bit of color here and there

After narrowing it down even more to the images above, I went to the store and stocked up on some supplies. Off-white coin pearls of various sizes for the earrings and necklace, a variety of clear swarovski 3mm - 5mm bicone crystals, and off-white imperfect freshwater pearls of various sizes.

I was able to show her some samples when I was up in northern CA but we really finalized the designs when she came to LA. She wanted all of the clusters to be really full so you couldn't see any of the chain. I finished it up and dropped it off the next day. I told her to try it on with her dress to see before claiming it was perfect.

Roz tried it on and liked it, but the feedback from her friends was that the earrings and necklace were both too heavy together and one or the other needed to be lightened up. She asked for my opinion as the designer and after staring at the photo for long enough I agreed. We both liked the necklace exactly as it was but I felt the earrings could be shortened and have a few crystals and pearls removed.

She was back in LA in a few weeks and we spent a Saturday morning finishing everything up. At some point I needed a break because I couldn't tell the difference between any of the changes anymore. We walked down to the cafe down the street and Roz treated me to a lovely lunch and coffee. After I was re-energized I finished it up and sent her off with her wedding jewelry!

On the day of the wedding she kept telling me she loved it which was exciting because there is nothing worse than a bride wearing something she doesn't really love. Roz's decision to add extra pearls and crystals and not go with bare chain really helped draw your attention to her neckline. The purple crystals were a nice touch as well. I'm really glad we lightened up the earrings because the combination worked much better after the change. All in all a successful creation! Thanks for trusting me Roz!! Congrats again!!

The photo was taken by Lynn Kai Chao for Stephen Anthony Photography. Check it out!!! http://iamlkc.com/

Welcome!!

Most of the fun in jewelry design comes from finding inspiration. I have no idea where or when the ideas will come to me but my daily interactions, experiences, and sights all play a part in their development. A piece of jewelry has more meaning when you see where it came from which is why I wanted to create a blog. ENJOY!

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