New Pendants

Finally got some time at the bench during the holidays, so I made a few pendants and will be posting them to my website.  Links are below the images.


Reflections, a Landscape Type Jasper

Cripple Creek Jasper, also a type of picture jasper

Storm, Red Creek Jasper

Rhodochrosite

Seasons Greetings



Seafoam Green Druzy Agate Pendant Necklace

  Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season!

The Crucible Gifty Art Sale

This past weekend was my last show for the year, and it was at The Crucible in Oakland, CA. It was an enjoyable weekend with lots of cool people. There were demos for some of the classes they offer, including blacksmithing, enameling, glass works, welding, ceramics making and wood working.  Wish I live closer to take advantage of the classes.

Here's a video of the  fire-dancing by their instructor.  It was taken from my booth.  Doesn't this look fun?

Don't try this at home!

A Few New Rings

Managed to make these new rings during the past long weekend.  They will be posted to my website and etsy shop real soon.  You can also meet them in person at my upcoming shows as well.  Click here to see my Events schedule.

ABDUCTED!!!

This sweet boy, my 5 year old nephew Louis, has been abducted by his Japanese mother. The pictures here are the last pictures I took at our family gathering in December 2009. Little did we know that it was the last time we were to see him.

Louis (or Rui, his Japanese name) had been taken to Japan by his mother on a “business” trip in June 2010. They were expected to return to their Manhattan home in 3 weeks. The mother used all kinds of excuses to delay their return, only to buy time to settle in her home country, Japan. She never had any intention of returning to the US with Rui. Her flight was meticulously planned where she left little behind.

Unfortunately, Japan is a notorious country for parental abductors. It never signed the Hague Abduction Convention, which provides an expeditious method to return a child internationally abducted from one member nation to another. And there is no sign for Japan to change their civil codes to allow for joint custody or visitation rights of the left-behind parent. Japan has become known to be a safe haven for parental child kidnappers and do not recognize foreign custody rulings.

My brother-in-law, Brian, is heart-broken and has fallen into a deep depression from his loss. He is deprived of the most precious being of his life, and being deprived of the basic right as a father and legal custodian. At the same time, little Rui has been denied access to both parents when his mother unilaterally removed him from his home country, the United States. No doubt this is causing irreparable psychological damage to little Rui. As a part of the extended family, we are saddened by this unconscionable act by a very selfish woman who is protected by the Japanese courts.

I’m appealing to my readers to please spread the awareness of this serious injustice. We want the US and other countries to continue to put pressure on Japan to sign the 1980 Hague Convention and to resolve this social problem. On a selfish note, yes, I would like to watch this sweet boy grow, to see him laugh and read, to hear stories about his school and friends, and to attend his college graduation.

If anyone sees him in Tokyo, please tell him that his American family loves him dearly and is longing for his return to his daddy in New York.

Rui with my son, Cousin Wesley

To read more about Brian and Rui, you can follow Brian’s blog or tweets.

Etsy Front Page Today

So cool to see my bangle bracelet making it to the Etsy Front Page today.  Sweet! It is the third item down on the left column.



A lot of people would ask me the font I use. Well, it's really not any word processing fonts or any other machine generated graphic design. It's actually my handwriting, inscribed onto the object with a sharp tool.

The ingredients? Lots of concentration and a steady hand. The result is personalized scripts that average about 1mm tall for lower case letters. If I need to squeeze many words onto a small area, the inscriptions can be smaller. You might need to use a magnifying device to read them.

Rectangular Pendants

Picked out a few stones from my stash. They are rainbow moonstones, labradorite, and turquoise. Unfortunately, the marquise shaped lab disappeared after dropping onto my floor. Maybe I'll find it, I hope. And then disaster hit the setting for the turquoise on the left. I'll try to fix that pendant next week.

While photographing these pendants, I'm beginning to understand why moonstones got that name. It's like the darker the surrounding, the more vivid the irridescence.

Check out the orange diagonal strip on the moonstone to the left. It is so striking and makes for a very interesting stone. On either side of the stripe are some gorgeous blue and green schiller. The labradorite in the middle is small but has an intense icy blue flash. The smaller moonstone has soft peacock color and a dash of orange. I chose to use a chain with rectangular links to go with the pendant shape.

To see more pictures, click here.

MAG SF at Maker Faire, 2010

Besides checking out all the exhibits and demos at this year's Maker Faire in the Bay Area, I volunteered some time helping out at the Metal Arts Guild San Francisco (MAG SF) booth.  I carpooled with Harriete Estel Berman (actually her husband dropped us off so we didn't have to pay $17 to park for one day) and was her helper at her Riveting workshop. 

Here's Harriete showing the techniques of riveting.  Since we were stuck under a large building overhang, the lighting wasn't all that good.

Our participants busy working on their pin or pendants

Riveting with the hammer on a horn anvil

Wha-la!  A beautiful pin.

A pendant

A western-themed pin (note the cowboy hat on the bottom)

These are just a few happy students who were so proud of their own creations.  It's just wonderful to see the big smiles on their faces.

Maker Faire 2010, Part 4 Pictures

The last of the Faire pictures:

Giant piano keys?

Gerard's Paella - DElicious, and the chef is in black

Cardboard Tunnel

Other end of tunnel

Resident, perched right outside the cardboard tunnel

If you enjoyed these pictures, I hope there's a Maker Faire coming to your area soon. Currently the Faire is happening in NYC, Detroit and I believe Austin too. It's just neat to be surrounded by so many talented people who came to share their visions and inspirations.

Maker Faire 2010, Part 3 Pictures

Vehicle and transportation at the Maker Faire, SF Bay Area

Raygun Gothic Rocketship where visitors can hike up to the metal hull.

Old Favorites

Decorated camper - Home Sweet Home.

Covered with Mirrors

Gotta love those teeth.

Recycling scrap metal???

One of my favorites - Cupcake Electric Vehicle from Acme Muffineering.

Big Bikes

An even bigger bike - with an antique feel

I don't know about this one - looks quite uncomfortable, if you ask me.

Maker Faire 2010, Part 2 Pictures

Continuing from yesterday's post, here are some fire arts.

A fire breathing dragon.

Snail Cart with antennae that blows flames.

Flaming Lotus Girls

Closer look at a part of Flaming Lotus Girls.

Flames come out from the thin tubes at the top.

Pretty awesome snakes.

... to be continued tomorrow.

Maker Faire 2010, Part 1 Pictures

The 2010 Maker Faire was another smashing success. The Faire is a DIY festival where you can find geeky projects and traditional craft demos. It is for people who like to tinker, build, and blow things up.

On Friday, setup day, a friend of mine asked me to help her set up her booth. There were seminars for the makers and volunteers. Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Faire and publisher of Make magazines, spoke about his vision of bringing together the makers so they could inspire each other and others, and to get feedback about their projects and inventions.

Then Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, talked about the Next Industrial Revolution, where every garage can be a micro-factory with entrepreneurial opportunities. I took so many pictures that I will split them into several postings. The following are some of the geeky techie projects:

R2-D2 was actually moving around and "talking".

Athletic stick robots that exercise for me - this one does arm curls and leg curls (above)

Robots doing push-ups.

The original Russell, the Electric Giraffe

Now, at 19 feet tall. Russell can walk, raise his neck, and moves his head. He has sensors so that when you stroke the top of his nose, he "talks" and tells you his name. Each year, he has added features.

Solar powered sewing machine that also embroiders.

Music by ArcAttack. They used 2 hand-built Tesla coils that throws out electric charges (like lightening bolts). The band was on the right side, and the robotic drum was on the left. It was really amazing.