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.

Ikebana & Kusuma Necklaces

Just finished these 4 pendant / necklaces:

1. Ikebana with Red Quartz. This red quartz is really unusual because it has these really sparkly mica inclusions, like pieces of glitters embedded.

2. Ikebana with Labradorite. I thought this half round labradorite makes a perfect "bowl" for this miniature ikebana arrangement.

3. Kusuma is an Indonesian name that means flower. These agatized Fossil Coral is a natural stone formed when ancient coral is gradually replaced with agate. They usually have small flower-like patterns. Each piece of coral can display different colors, depending on weathering/oxidation and original mineral content.

I added some 14k gold dots to complement the warm tones of these coral.

4. The back of this pendant is inscribed.

But Never Doubt I love

I finally settled on a Shakespeare quote for this sterling bangle that I made last week. It is from "Hamlet".

Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.

Shakespeare is such a great writer, and I'm learning to appreciate his work only after my high school required readings.

Extra time was spent in truing up all the surfaces so it can have clean crisp lines. The corners are rounded off slightly for comfort. I've signed and dated the year on the inside. All surfaces have a high polish. Actually, the high reflectivity made it quite a challenge to photograph.

I hope a Shakepeare fan will buy this bracelet from my etsy store.
3/31/09 Update - This bracelet is on it's way to a happy home. Yay! Upon request, I can make another one with the same or an entirely different quote. Check out my store listing for more detail.

5/21/09: Here's a customer's feedback - "I'm extremely happy with my purchase. As I write this, I'm deployed in Iraq, and the gift I bought my wife through Studio618 brought tears to her eyes. If that's not good work, I don't know what is. Doing business with you was a pleasure, and I'll make sure to visit your store again. Thanks for bringing a smile to my wife's face."

3/15/10: I feel very fortunate that Etsy is featuring this sterling bangle in the following Storque article - http://www.etsy.com//storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-such-stuff-as-dream... Many thanks, Etsy!

Micro Engraving

Micro carving/engraving has 3000 years of history, in the Shang Dynasty in China. The artisans had a strong foundation in calligraphy, excellent control of their hands, worked in total concentration, and possessed unparallel eyesight. The requirements are so demanding that there were only a handful of these experts. Majority of this art were commonly seen on oracle bones, stone, wood, ivory, human hair and requires a microscopic of 100 magnification in order to read them.

Some of the better known micro engravers today who practice this art include Feng Yaozhong (Zhejiang) who carves on sesame seeds with works listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, Li Qiufeng (Shandong Province) who carved the full text of Confucius teachings on porcelain, Shen Weizhong (Suzhou) who engraves poems on pieces of hair only several mm long, and Zhang Yunhu (Shanghai) who reproduced the 300 Tang Poems of over 10,000 characters on a 3cm square piece of ivory.

To the right is a sterling bracelet where I engraved Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee” poem. I would consider my inscriptions as mini engravings since you do not need a microscope to read the text. Yes, it required a lot of practice, breath-holding, and total concentration. This bracelet was purchased by a gentleman for his wife to celebrate a special birthday. I love happy endings. :)