My hands are itching.....

To rip this bag apart! LOL.... :P

Was clearing some of the boxes packed with stuffs from the old house and found this bag. I almost forgotten about it, which is not surprising since it never crossed my mind to use it. :P

This is a vintage bag, passed down to me from my aunt. When it comes to metal mesh fabric, I think it's gonna be either you love it or hate it scenario due to the glamourous but probably questionable-in-taste character associated to these mesh fabrics.

I love the metal mesh fabric on the bag! LOL.... XD .... but there's just something about the style of the bag itself that put me off from using it.

It's a sling bag and it's huge. I have never been a huge fan of sling bags and I really don't like the fact that this bag slouches frumpily when you hang them over your shoulder.


See what I mean? So NOT chic lor. -_-

It seems too big for use with eveningwear. The size would have worked for casual use but the bling and the gold is just a tad too OTT for casual wear unless you want to look like you just stepped out from a time machine departing from the 80's . Which explains why I forgotten about it because there just doesn't seem to be any practical use for it!

But the bag is still in very good condition and I feel it's such a waste to just store it away. Plus, apart from the style, I think the bag's really pretty lor!

At present, the bag looks like it's a throwback from the '80s, which you can actually consider it to be quite in trend considering the '80s fashion is making a comeback. (OMG, did you see some of the shoulder pad dresses? o_O)




Sorry lar, as much as I love how fashion always recycle the trends, and so can you do the same with your wardrobe, I'm not sure if the shoulder pads should be included in the recycling policy. I mean, c'mon.... let's face it, not every Susan, Mary and Jane is gonna look fierce in shoulder pads lor.




Even so, I think the comeback trend should be made relevant to the current trend. The current trend should look like it was inspired from the past trend and not as though you send a time capsule back to the era, load the machine with all the goodies and transport them back to the the present. The latter is just so wrong.

F.I.E.R.C.E.

N.O.T fierce.


So, I'm really thinking of ripping the bag apart to 'reconstitute' it into a more modern chic clutch, with the very least practical use of it. I'm thinking.... it might go very well with the LBD that I'm thinking of wearing to a wedding at the end of the month. Hhhmmm.....

One problem though. This bag is a vintage GLOMESH. GLOMESH is a brand name (an Australian brand, I think!) for those metal mesh fabric bags. The brand has become so successful that it has become a generic name for mesh bags. Genuine GLOMESH will command a higher price than unlabelled bags and purses made of the same glamorous fabric.

The relevancy, you wonder?

It's considered an expensive bag lor. Well, mum always says in a low-down hush hush tone, "It's very expensive. It's a GLOMESH" whenever I made a comment on these bags that I see lying around the house. Yea, there's a couple of 'em.



A silver GLOMESH coin purse. I knda like this one. Very chic! And I think the style of this bag never gets old.





Now, I quite like this cream/beige cluth too. It's very my style but the problem was the practicality.


Erm, what can you put in there wor? o_O The solution to not being able to find something in the way you wanted it is to make them yourself!

There's hardly any space for you to put anything. Now, mind you, this was before the era of cellphone and what have you. Ladies back then only bring with them probably a pack of tissue, ID card and a few notes and they're good to go.

Ladies these days uses gigantic clutches, okay! LOL..... :P




BUT the thing is, almost EVERYTHING is expensive to mum! LOL..... :P

And so I googled to find out the cost of a GLOMESH bag and it turns out that it averages around $20. Australian dollars I think!

-__-

So, it's not Gucci-or-LV-expensive but Wendy's-mum-expensive! LOL.....

Okay, maybe it was considered expensive back then in the 80's. *shrugs*

But seriously..... I think I'm just going to rip it apart.

However, problem is, I'm not sure if there's enough fabric from the bag to form the fabric base of the new bag, although I'm quite sure I'll have more than enough mesh fabric for the new bag. There might even be sufficient leftovers to use for jewelleries. Yaay! :D

Neither do I think I want to be bothered to go out looking for the right fabric. It's just like shopping. You know how when you purposely make a trip tp search for a particular specific item, more often than not you'll end up not finding it but when you're not looking for it, it miraculously appear in front of you.

Anyway, the theme is going to be R.E.C.Y.C.L.E. :P

Aaaah, don't we love to hear that word, these days. ;)

Now, if you'll just excuse me, I remember seeing a piece of cream colour cloth stashed somewhere.........

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Standard sizing

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Work Room chat:
I think I can safely announced the 'events' that I told you was going to happen this month, now that everything at this stage seems to be confirmed already, barred any unforeseen circumstances. The one non jewellery making and three jewellery making 'events' I was talking about, remember?
Okay, I'll tell you about the non jewellery making event first. It's going to Shaunee's graduation play (or something like that) of the musical Annie, happening this week. LOL....very Mat Salleh's style of schooling experience! She is leaving primary school and will be beginning her secondary schooling in Sept, of what they call it the senior year la.
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When you are making jewellery for yourself, it is easy to decide on the size because you can try the fit on them as you are working along. However, if you are making them to sell, size seems to be a major concern; to come up with a size that fits all. Not only to save you the headache of alteration to say the least, but to also reach out to the general masses out there. Which is why elastic stringing material and memory wire has got the upper hand in this area.

Size adjustment is no doubt a consideration that would go into the design because certain designs such as beadweaving/beadstitching or wireweaving may face a hard time in adjustment after completion but it might be much easier when it comes to simple loop wirework jewelleries.

Despite the idiosyncracies of sizes of the general masses, there are nevertheless some standard sizing which are meant to fit everyone anyway. In this discussion, I'll try to touch on each piece of jewellery here although the focus is mainly on women's jewelleries.

Earrings
Okay, I seriously don't think theres a standard sizing for earrings.... LOL. It pretty much depends on the design. It can go as short or as long as the artist want! Although I do think it's probably interesting just to touch on the types of earrings that we have here.

Alright, let's see. There's the very common stud earrings.



And then, we have the once-crazed-after chandelier earrings. I still remember when the trend first make a comeback after the 80's. It's like almost everywhere you turn, everyone's donning this huge pair of earrings and all that everyone's selling is chandelier earrings! LOL..... It's still in trend now but just maybe not as 'hot' as it was a couple of years back.



There's also this drop/dangle earrings. Someone once asked me what's the difference between the two. I would say that there are not much difference between the two; which is why I group them together. Although I personally think that you call the shorter one; which hangs just below the earlobe, drop and longer ones hanging below the earlobes, dangle. Drops are not very long, are they? And you do need longer dangles to facilitate the dangling movement, don't you? ;)



Bear in mind that as far as chandelier earrings and drop/dangle earrings are concern, the hangers for these style of earrings can be either a hook or stud.

One last type of not so common or popular but very unique type of earrings is the ear thread. They go by a few different names; ear threads, ear threaders, threader earrings, earthreads. Just like what the name suggest, the wearer actually “threads” through the ear hole. Designs may vary, but basically ear threads consist of a small metal bar on one end, a few inches of thin chain connected to the metal bar, and then on the opposite end you can attach beads.



And so, that's about earrings.


Bracelet
I would say that the average size for women's bracelet would be 7". Those with bigger wrists might require a 7 ½" to 8" sizing. Those with smaller wrists on the other hand would require a 6" to 6 ½" sizing. In any case, if you want to avoid the hassle of adjusting, make a 6" long bracelet and attach a 2" long extension chain. That way, it can fit the smallest size wrist to the bigger ones! LOL..... XP

But on a personal note, I'm not in favour of the use of extension chain for bracelet because I feel that the extra chain if not in use is in the way and spoils the overall look of the design. Well, that's just my take on bracelet.



Necklace
I intentionally left the discussion for necklace last because there's more to say about them!

Alright, to begin, there's many different lengths of necklaces but did you know that there are different lengths of necklaces are categorized accordingly? Well, I didn't untill I flip to the last page of The Basics of Bead Stringing: A Complete Illustrated Approach for Beginner and Advanced Designers by Debbie Kanan.



This was my very first beading book which I got as a gift from Sa Kor when I first got into jewellery making. Well, as much as they say that it's an illustrated approach, the illustration here unfortunately are drawn illustration rather than pictorial illustration.

So, if you are one of those visual learners, there is a high probability that you may not like this book at all. Otherwise, it is a fairly okay book for beginner. But seriously, reading The Work Room might be just as good if not better! Ahaks! XP

Anyway, as I was saying......

The last page of the book actually gives an illustration of the different categories of necklace according to their length.

See what I meant by drawn illustration?

You will realize that it also lists down for you the approximate number of beads of specific size needed for the specified length. Which is what people would normally use a bead board for.



Bear in mind however that these numbers can only hold true if you are doing bead stringing. That is to say you string on one bead after another, with no use of any other findings. This would also mean that the use of wires are also discounted since the loop you make and the connection between two loops would also take up a good amount of the total length of the necklace.

I have something to say about the stated size though. I don't they are by any means conclusive but at best only a guide? I find that the stated size range for the different categories of necklace may be a bit too long for asians. And this I am saying based on the comparison I made of the commercial jewelleries that I used to have. I said 'used to' because I have since gave them away to my cousin sis and ever since I started making jewellery, I don't see the need of buying them anymore. :P

Take the size of choker for example. I think it should be 14" with 2" extension.

A princess necklaces; which hangs somewhere around your collarbone, should be 16" to 18".

A matinee necklace; which hangs somewhere around the chest area, should be somewhere between 20" to 25"

Opera necklaces; which hang below the chest area, should be somewhere between 27" to 35".

As for anklets, 10" might be too long. 9" might be more appropriate.

This is also by no means conclusive. Just a little something I draw from my experience of jewellery making so far.

One other thing that I would like to add here is the allocation of 1" for clasp. I find that no matter what sizes of clasps I use, I always allocate 1" for it to make up the total length of the necklace and they more often than not come up to the right total length.

Okay, take for example you want to make a 16" necklace. What you need to do is to subtract 1" for the allocation of clasp, which is to say the necklace length that you will be making is only 15". The clasp will make up the final 1" for the necklace.

On the very rare occasion that they don't end up the final length that I want, I only needed to make minor adjustment here and there.

I also find that this only seems to hold true if the clasp is attached externally with an extra finding. That is to say you are connecting the clasp to your piece with a finding and not directly the clasp to your piece. What I normally use for the connection is a jump ring.

So, for bracelet, standard size of 7" means to make a 6" bracelet with 1" allocated for clasp.

Once again, this is also not rules carved onto stones. Just something which I have found to have worked for me which you can use as reference.

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Creative Malaysian Blogger Award

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Work Room chat:
I believe most creative bloggers should have known by now what Etsy is all about. But should Etsy sounds Greek to you, it's basically a marketplace for handmade artists to sell their work and people to buy handmade stuffs. There's heap of interesting stuffs going on there. I used to sell there too when I first started selling my work.
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So alright, I was recently notified by Jassy of Jasz's Jewelry Box of this award. *shy*shy* Thanks, beb! ;)

This award was created by Team Etsy Malaysia (I didn't even know that such a team existed until today!) to promote, and hopefully, build a network of creative Malaysian bloggers around the world.

Along with the award, comes with its obilgations. What I would then need to do is to

1. Put the logo on my blog or post.
2. List my 5 sources of inspiration.
3. Nominate 5 other Malaysian blogs which demonstrate some form of creativity.
4. Be sure to link to the nominees within my post.
5. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog, and if possible, make sure they follow these 6 steps too!
6. Share the love and link to the person from whom I received your award.

Alright, so here goes......

My 5 sources of inspiration (in no particular order)

1. AllKpop
   
   
   
   (Nobody says that it has got to be bead or jewellery related. :P) But yes, I'm very much into Korean pop culture and I have the tendency to be inspired by Korean pop.







2. Fashion
   
   
   
   Ok, here's the scoop. ;) I grew up wanting to be a fashion designer but coming from a typical Chinese family, that is not exactly an ideal profession, especially when Malaysian fashion industry at that time wasn't booming the way that it is now. That was how I ended up with a law degree but that did not quite kill my love for fashion. Oh, well....which girl doesn't, right? I had only wished that I've had more exposure to the fashion world.







3. Beads
   
   
   
   The beads themselves are a great source of inspiration to me. I love 'em beads. Especially the shiny ones. Sometimes, by just looking at the beads, I get flashes of images of the design for the beads. Kinda strange.... but, I guess that is what they call inspiration? :P







4. Colours
   
   
   
   I love colours. I really do. Although it probably might not have show as much through my work as I would otherwise have wanted it to but I really do. Sometimes even staring at a pile of dirty laundry at the corner of my room and seeing how the colours work it out together can be rather inspiring! LOL.... Also, I try to be more sensitive with the colours around me, how they matches and stuffs. At times, a particular project begins with a designated colour pallette in mind and then the choice of beads, slowing working towards the final design.







5. Life
   
   
   
   Alright, as cliche as this might have sound but life in itself has been a great source of inspiration. Just everything around me can be very inspiring. Kinda corny, I know....but yet, it's quite true.


And now my five nominees.......

To be honest, it's kinda difficult to just nominate only 5 because I think if you were to look at the Malaysian jewellery artist/blogger community, all of them demonstrate some form of creativity. So, how to nominate only 5? But anyway..... to conform to the rules of the game, here are my five nominees (in no particular order).




1. Corra Liew
   I got to know about Corra by chance, really and shortly after I learn about wire jewellery; notably from aclaimed wire jewellery artist Eni Oken. What I really like about Corra is how she incorporates the Chinese element into her work, notably through the use of Chinese knots. To those of you who are unfamiliar with what Chinese knots are, to put it simply, it is is a decorative handicraft arts that began as a form of Chinese folk art in the Tang and Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) in China. I think I probably came across this form of knotting during school days where if I remembered correctly, I had classmates who made keychains out of the knotting but they were using thread and stuffs. So, I find it very refreshing that she applied the same form of knotting to wires to create beautiful jewellery.



2. Emi Kaz
   Just like Corra, I found Emi to have incorporated his Malay heritage into his work as well which is similarly very refreshing. Have you seen his Wau Bulan earrings? That is definitely one piece of very intricate work. Alright, for those who are unfamiliar with Wau Bulan, allow me to explain briefly. Wau is what we today know as kite but unlike the kite, Wau Bulan is much more bigger and is a traditional game much ingrained within the Malay heritage. You probably don't see them a lot anymore these days but I think you could probably still find them in the East Coast of Malaysia.
   
   I've always remembered about the Wau Bulan because I remember how we need to study on the shape the decorative motif used on these kites in art lessons and they are all very intricately decorated.
   
   
   
   Ouh....and by the way, Emi is also a makeup artist.



3. Sheela Goh
   I came across Sheela's work through her parents' Etsy page actually. I was browsing through Etsy some time back on Malaysian artist on Etsy and came across her parents' Etsy page which also plug her site on Etsy which was how I came to know about her.
   
   I love how her work is somewhat fashion fueled just like how she had put it in words in her About Me section in her Etsy page
   " ......... Greatly influenced by the eccentric geniuses that are Lacroix, Galliano, McQueen, Garçons, Rhodes, Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Moschino........ "
   
   Galliano? McQueen? That's fashion alright. :)
   
   Her pieces are always very bold with a strong play of colours. Gorgeous!
   And she has even got another page on bejewelled textiles.
   Even her 9 years old daughter has got her own Etsy page. How cute is that? :)
   
   Talk about creativity!



4. Simmy Tan
   Okay, if you click on Simmy's link, you'll realize that Simmy is a photographer but what you don't know is that Simmy used to be a jewellery artist as well before I guess her interest in photography triumphed over jewellery making. I also came to know about her bout a year or two ago through Etsy.



5. Su Yin
   Well, apart from sharing similar Chinese name (My Su is spelt with an extra E at the end, LOL... =P), what really caught my attention was the Chanel handbag birthday cake that she was commissioned to make for Channel V VJ, Marion Caunter's birthday.
   
   But the, that's not only the stuffs that she does. You just gotta go check her out. The cakes that she makes is just tooooo pretty to be eaten. It's so crazily adorable that I don't know how anyone could ever bring themself to eat it. It's just too insane!
   


My thoughts.............

I think it's kinda cool that Etsy team Malaysia came up with this award thingy. Well, award or what not aside, I think it's a great networking way among Malaysian creative bloggers on this blogospere. The blogosphere is, after all, a really huge place and it's just a great way bringing each creative blogger's work into recognition. :)

I hope you guys enjoy my recommendation just as much as I've enjoyed them myself! ;)

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Wrapped loop vs. Lolly loop

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Work Room chat:
I believe some, if not many are trying out this home jewellery business thingy. Here's a website I come across which gives lots of tips for a successful home jewellery business.
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Since I’ve been on this loop business already, I think I just want to share my two cents here. The difference between wrapped loop and lolly loop or is there even a difference between the two to begin with?



Both serve the same function, that is to join beads together. So why wrapped or why lolly, or, when wrapped and when lolly?

Well, if you ask me, I’ll say that there’s no clear cut answer, really. Apart from saying it as a matter of preference, I’m also going to say that it’s a matter of your calling, as in you decide which is going to suit your design and style best as well as your work on hand.

That is of course after you consider these.

I think the foremost consideration in deciding on either is the liberty for a change of mind. In another words, subsequent alteration.

Subsequent alteration could mean one of two things. Alteration in size and alteration in design. When making a piece, I think it is advisable to make it with the possibility for alteration in size kept in mind. That is of course only when you are not making it for yourself.

If you are making it to sell or as a gift, you should foresee the possibility that potential customer or the wearer might request for an alteration. No doubt there seems to be standard sizing that jewellery makers adhere to but knowing that a piece is a handmade piece lends it a much more personal touch, unlike those carbon copied mass production ones. In such cases, people are more open to request for customization to suit them better, whether size wise or design wise.

When it comes to alteration in design, this happens to me a lot. Very often, I tend to want to make some adjustment-some call it fine tuning; upon completion of a piece.

What I normally do after I complete a piece is to position it against a mannequin that I have with me and then stand from afar to look at it to get a feel of the design. (this is just some of my artistic eccentricity...ahaks!) If it feels right, then I’m done. If it feels like something’s tugging at the sleeve of my heart, I know something’s amiss in that piece and alteration will inevitably follows.



So, this is how the consideration of a wrapped or lolly loop comes in.

With a lolly loop, you can still change your mind later on. A lolly loop leaves you the option to open and close the loop at any point in time which allows for subsequent alteration after joining.



A wrapped loop, however, makes a ‘dead’ connection. Which means once you have make the wrap, it pretty much IS a ‘WRAP’. You know, the phrase so commonly used by directors to signify the end of filming? Lol..... ;)

Therefore, if you would like to have the ability for subsequent alteration, you might want to stick to a lolly loop.

At this point ‘Lolly’ does seem to have the upper hand as compared to ‘Wrapped’, doesn’t it? If that’s the case, you might wonder why even bother to consider ‘Wrapped’ in the first place?

Well, one thing that you might be interested to know is this. Wrapped loop is a much stronger and secured connection as compared to the Lolly loop. Remember how I just mentioned that a Lolly loop gives you the option of opening and closing the loop at any point in time? That is exactly the insecurity in connection when it comes to a Lolly loop.

That is why it is important to make sure that when you close the loop to make sure that you close them properly as any gap might result in a slip of connection.



This is especially after years of use and tear. The loop might open up and dissembled the connection. I am not saying that it will definitely happen. What I’m trying to say is not to rule out the possibility. That is why if you have ever notice, handmade jewelleries of this kind are always advised to be treated gently.

There is no disputing that handmade jewelleries of this kind is far more fragile than those machine mass produced carbon copied ones. But I do think that when it comes to buying handmade jewelleries, I think the artistic consideration should carry more weight than the durability factor. Just look around us, how many things are handmade these days and how many people are willing to handmade things these days?

However, this does not mean that handmade jewelleries cannot be long lasting. But, I’ll save this discussion for the next time.

So, why else do people use wrapped loop? One of it is probably the design factor. Some like to have a long wrapped ‘stem’, like how a fruit hangs from a long tree branch. That will be one of the reason.

Also, sometimes the bead you are using may have a larger hole. Some handmade glass bead for example have relatively big compared to the others due to the mandrel used for making the bead.



In such circumstances, using lolly loop may not be so suitable of you want to create a loop with the bead in place i.e. where the bead won’t be moving around so much. Due to the larger hole, a lolly loop on that bead may come across as being a bit loose and I personally don’t like it when there’s movement from the bead within the loop.

The best solution for me is to add a smaller bead on both sides of the bead and then make a wrapped loop to finish them off. I like to do it this way because the bead within the wire stays put.



So, wrapped or lolly? You decide. ;)

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My farewell to 2008

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Work Room chat:
During my research for wedding tiaras, I cam across this site, Mareas Headpieces by Wen Hsu. The wedding headpieces there or just sooooo pretty! Very inspirational, indeed! XD

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Remember I said I need to figure this out?



Well, it was actually for a set of bridal jewelleries which I have promised my sister-in-law as their wedding gift. Yeah, my younger brother got married last month. :)



It was quite a joyous affair, really, since it was my family’s first wedding celebration. (That bugger decided to be ahead of me! LOL….) It was all very exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time.

Exciting because celebration in any form which gathers the family together is always going to be a fun thing. Not to mention a new addition to the family. Nerve wrecking because you just have no idea how much preparation work is involved for a traditional Chinese wedding. To be honest, I can’t quite comprehend why Chinese wedding has to be such an elaborate affair. o_O



Anyway, I’m not going to be giving you a run down of what a traditional Chinese wedding is although what I am about to write in this post is largely related to the wedding :)



Yes, as I was saying…….

I promised to make my sister in law her bridal jewelleries as my wedding gift. Well, making the necklace and earrings weren’t such a big problem. I’ve been doing this for so long now that I think I could even probably do it with my eyes closed! LOL……

Not literally, of course. Just a figure of speech. ;)

You would think that I would have got everything done with a snap of a finger, huh?

But guess what? It was the most nerve wrecking jewellery making experience for me!

For one, it was quite a last minute thing. Not that I promised the jewelleries to her at the eleventh hour but the confirmation of everything came quite late, probably like around one week before the wedding.

And secondly and most importantly was the tiara making. I haven’t made a tiara before and neither do I know how to but then, how can you not have a tiara for bridal jewelleries?! Especially on the wedding day itself, for the tea ceremony?

Well, actually… I think some people do in fact go on without exactly a tiara but just a simple wedding headpiece but I’m more of a traditionalist. ;)

Anyway, I really wanted to make her a tiara and then the necklace and earrings to match. The focus for her entire outfit would be the tiara but it shouldn’t be so overwhelming that it takes the attention away from the dress. The wedding dress is after all still the ‘star’ of them all, apart from the bride, of course. ;)

I woke up early in the wee hours of the morning (let’s just say that I prefer waking up early than sleeping late ;) to do a lot of research over the internet.

I know how the traditional tiara pieces are supposed to be. In frame form. That would involve lots of wire wrapping and I don’t think I have the luxury of time. Furthermore, wire wrapping is still a technique I’ve yet to master.

Earlier on, I had bought a lot of beads from Beading.com.my. Lots of Swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls. Pearls are like the staple material for any bridal jewelleries, if you ask me. :)

I bought those beads without even a sketch in mind of how I was to go about making the tiara. I only know that I do not have the luxury of time to sketch first and then decide on the beads that I want to use, thereafter make my order and wait for delivery. Uh-uh, nope. No time to be wasted at all, not even a minute. Time was critical.

Anyway, the beads itself always serve as a good source of inspiration to me.

The next thing I need was an Alice band, which will serve as the base of the tiara but I had one huge problem. I don’t know where I can get them locally! Even after extensive search over the internet, I still couldn’t find where I can buy them.



As you know with most artisan, when you can’t buy what you want, well, you just make them. And that was just what I did. I’ve never seen an Alice band before, other than in pictures. All I understood was that it looks like a head band and will form the base of the tiara.

Therefore, as far as the size is concerned, it should fit the head comfortably and I basically used my own head size as a guide. It shouldn’t be too big like how we normally wear a head band nor should it be too small that it turns out all cutesy ala Paris Hilton. So, I decided on a size somewhere in between. I also needed a very thick wire for me to hammer it flat since as you can see from the picture above, the surface for the band is flat. I also made a wrapped loop for the wire end since I don’t want the scalp to be hurt in any way while the tiara was fitted on the head. Ouch!

This is how the Alice band turned out to be. Hammered flat with 1.0 mm European made silver plated wire.


Tadah!

Then, it was on to the design of the tiara or in other words, how I am going to fill up the base to form the crown of glory. LOL….. ;)

I finally decided on a design involving beads a plenty, freshwater pearls (how can you omit THAT for bridal jewelleries!) and Swarovski crystals (for all that bling, of course. ;) all wired together with 0.4mm European made silver plated wire in a row to form a luscious bed of beads. I wasn’t even able to sketch the design out since I’ve decided for it to be a very spontaneous and impromptu type of design, adding the beads as and when my gut feelings feel that it should be added.

This is a very risky method, I must say. I wouldn’t recommend working in such spontaneous and impromptu fashion to a beginner though. Or even anyone as a matter of fact. You risk wasting time AND material with this method. I’ve had my fair share of ‘materials laundering’, you can mark my word for that! LOL…… This method is usually my last resort, when I’m really at a lost.

Thankfully, it turned out pretty nice! AND most importantly the bride loved it as well! So did the bride’s hairstylist for that day. All that makes me a happy artist, indeed! =D




Having completed the tiara, the next was a pair of earrings and necklace to match. This should be relatively simple but gave me an equal amount of headache, short of a migraine!

Since the tiara is quite bold already, I refrain from creating a similarly bold piece for the earrings and necklace for 2 reasons. 1)Another bold earrings and necklace might suffocate the entire look. 2)Even if it did not suffocate the whole look, the bold look doesn’t quite matches the personality of the bride.

You see, the bride is a petite, simple and sweet girl. I know it has to be something along those lines but yet it shouldn’t be so ordinary. It is after all, bridal jewelleries.

I scour over the world wide web for inspiration but to my disappointed, found nothing that inspires me. I ended up looking back at my past work and that was where I got the idea to came up with these.





So, that was basically how my year 2008 ended. :)

Ouh, wanna see the pieces above being modelled on? Scroll down then! ;)
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Pretty isn’t it? I meant the bride lar….. but then, those jewelleries on her ain’t that bad either. ;)

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