Blog Award

Mandi of MandiBeads had given me the One Lovely Blog Award. She painstakingly weave each delica beads into a super-cute pen cover. This process typically takes 2-6 hours to complete. I admire her patience and good eye-sight. My favorite is her Hug Me pen.

Thanks Mandi! Now it's my turn to pass it on...Here are the rules:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

1. sassydlite
2. bycoco
3. dgdesignstx
4. mygemstonebox
5. chezchani
6. jannadu
7. imagesbyjer
8. jewelryelegance
9. ardentdesigns
10. artisanjeweler
11. washwhendirty
12. abeadedaffair
13. perfectlytwistedjewelry
14. sandtcreations
15. kickingbear

These are my eSMArts teammates, and they are the ones who encouraged and supported my blogging endeavors. I hope you enjoy visiting their blogs.

eSMArts Team & Shop

Today, I'd like to talk about an Etsy street team, eSMArts and our team shop. We are a support team within the awesome artisan community. Our team has global members who work in a variety of media, and our common bond is social networking, online marketing and online promotions to increase exposure of our artwork. Team members are super talented, encouraging, helpful and fun.

Meet My Friend at Ardent Designs

Joelyn Welch of Ardent Designs creates top quality hand made fashion jewelry from only the highest quality materials, including solid gold, silver, semi precious stones and custom made fused glass.

Ardent Designs is a supporter of independent artisans every where. If you are not already aware, there are millions of independent artists that create unique one of a kind items that are of superior quality than anything you can find at a big box store and typically it is priced competitively. Find out more about independent artisans and the hand made craze on the Ardent Designs blog or visit Joelyn’s online store on Etsy.

Joelyn started out in 1998 with a passion to bead jewelry. Practicality, along with a unique elegance, are the priorities that guide Ardent Designs. Joelyn enjoys using natural stones, crystals and glass. She also loves to work with contrasting metals and colors.
Joelyn has always had a fascination with glass and in 2008 she added fused glass creations to her collection. She is excited to be expanding her techniques with warm glass and look forward to creating wonderful and stunning pieces in this new medium. Find out all the most recent news about Ardent Designs and other indy artists on her blog.

Joelyn is located in Michigan, with her husband, daughter and their puppy. Her husband’s wonderful birdhouses can be found at their Etsy store as well. Now that is a truly talented family. Bet you’ll be seeing some of their daughter’s work real soon.

The Artist of Unicorngems & MyGemstoneBox

My friend, Diane Giesel, and I share the same passion of jewelry making. She is a self-taught artist, learning from books and magazines to explore different techniques and media. Her work reflects her love for adventure and knowledge, making each piece unique and special.

Here are a few of my favorites but you can find more spectacular jewelry in her Etsy store or on her website. Besides gemmy pieces, Diane makes rosary beads for both men and women in an array of colors. When it comes to the making of jewelry, she does not overlook any details. Let’s have Diane tell us a bit about herself:

“I have dabbled in art all my life. As a youngster I would draw Precious Moments figures, horses and of course, unicorns! My Etsy shop name, Unicorngem1994, is a combination of those items I love to collect and have around me - unicorns and yummy gemstones of all colors. The date is the year I was blessed with my son (unicorngem1994).

As I got older I began painting and crafting especially during the holidays...I loved making things as gifts for Christmas. I share this hobby with my Mom - she lives next door and is quite crafty too!I believe this hobby balances me as I have a very analytical day job as a quality engineer for a flexible packaging facility in Providence, RI. I enjoy my evenings with family and my art.

I am the Social Marketing Director for eSMArts Team. The Etsy Social Marketing Arts Guild (eSMArts Guild) is a global collaborative of mixed media artisans intent on further understanding and applying eCommerce advertising and promotion techniques.”

Through the Etsy street team eSMArts, I get to know Diane to be an incredibly warm and helpful person. She is always eager to help, especially in the area of Social Networking on the internet. She is also the editor for the Jewelry Collecting channel at BellaOnline - The Voice of Women.

Diane is a life-long resident of Rhode Island. She is currently living in Smithfield with her husband, Freddy, and their 15 year old son, Rich. To find out more about Diane, her passions and her jewelry, please visit her blog and say Hello!

Surprise Visit

Once in a while, I like a surprise.

This past Thanksgiving, I went up to Lake Tahoe for the long weekend. Since I am not a skier and the fact that there was no snow on the ground, I mapped out my route for Reno on Saturday. My destination was the Magic of Santa Art & Craft Faire in the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center. Like years past, my eSMArts buddy Tina Cowan of M5 Creative Corners was there with her handmade quilts. I had been admiring her work on cyberspace only. Since Reno is relatively close to Lake Tahoe, I took the opportunity to pay her a surprise visit.

After years of experience at this show, Tina staked out her “permanent” booth spot conveniently located near the load-in door and adjacent to the restrooms, which is always a high traffic area. She’s smart, huh! I believed it took her several seconds to realize who I was. She welcomed me into her booth and we chatted for the rest of the afternoon.

ESMArts Guild is an Etsy team that I joined in September (see my blog post dated September 29). Since our team members spread on 3 continents, we had only emailed and chatted online. No wonder it never occurred to Tina that another team member would stop by to say hello, in real person. Besides, I was able to meet her wonderfully thoughtful daughter, Alyssa, who brought us lunch.

One look at her online store, you’ll realize too that her quilts are not the typical quilts you find in your grandma’s house. Her quilts are like mosaic art composing a theme or an image. The entire afternoon hanging out at Tina’s booth, I fell in love with this beautiful blue and black quilt with a safari silhouette theme. I asked her if she can make a similar but bigger one for me. This gorgeous piece on the right is now proudly hanging in my bedroom. With the close-up pictures, you can see the impeccable details of her craftsmanship. Isn’t this a masterpiece?

Creations by JAE

Jaime of Creations by JAE started stringing seed beads on fishing line at age 10. She started making anklets and daisy chains part time for the past 16 years. About 4 years ago, she saw a Swarovski bracelet made by a co-worker. This bracelet inspired her to return to jewelry crafts. Her love of beads (gemstones, glass, and crystals) is apparent in her work. One of her goals is to learn to work with silver and to weave pieces with beads.

Jaime has been featured on Rena Klingenbert’s “Home Jewelry Business Success Tips”, like several of the eSMArts Guild team members. More info can be found about her at her Etsy shop Profile. Besides being the Marketing Director for eSMArts, she can also be found at numerous online sites: Beaders Showcase, Jewelrygeeks, my Handmade Registry, mySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter

Featured by A Beaded Affair

A Beaded Affair has featured my work on her blog. Thank you so much, Lois.

A Beaded Affair

Lois of A Beaded Affair is the talent who created this incredible wire wrapped ocean jasper. I like how the center wire curves to reflect the natural curve and circular patterns on this ocean jasper cabochon.

When Lois gets a free moment from running her realty office in the Philadelphia area (Willow Grove in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania) or from wire wrapping gemstones, she seeks out incredibly beautiful bead strands for listing at her “candy” store. She has fancy drilled amazonite, malachite coins, graduated garnet, sardonyx with very striking white stripes, deliciously colored Botswana agate, and so much more. Currently, she is offering free shipping when you buy 3 items or more. Don’t forget to grab some very hard to find square copper wires so you too, can give a try at wire wrapping gem cabochons. So check out her Etsy store right away. You won’t be disappointed. She is an avid antique jewelry collector too.

I’m so glad to be a teammate with her at the eSMArts Guild. Lois will be our store manager for the new Team Shop. She is one of the most qualified candidates, plus the fact that she has a big heart. Proceeds of the shop sales will go towards good causes. So check out the shop for more details. Basically, the eSMArts shop is filled with a spectrum of handcrafted art created by the team members. Where else can you find a better one-stop shopping shop for the upcoming holidays?

SandT Creations

This gorgeous necklace is from S&T Creations in Jeffersonville, IN. She uses turquoise and black beads to create this stunner. Saundra and Teri enjoy working and learning together. One of Teri’s dreams is to visit the Roman ruins in Italy. I’m sure she doesn’t mind taking me along when that happens. lol

ChezChani

This delicate-looking bracelet was woven with tiny seed beads by Elayne. I tried bead weaving when I first started making jewelry. It takes a lot of patience and good eyes. So, my hats off to Elayne. And she is selling this for $42, which is a steal. If you like it, you’d better snatch that up at their Etsy store right away because good deals don’t last.

Elayne is the daughter of the mother-daughter team behind ChezChani. Roz is the mom who makes all the glass beads and wirework. They work out of their home in Las Vegas and are transplants from Montreal.

My First Blog Post & Free Earrings GIVEAWAY

Wow, this is a historical moment for me - my first blogging effort. It's about time, huh?!

To celebrate this occasion, I will be drawing a name from my list of blog followers. Click "Follow This Blog" on the right sidebar. The drawing will take place at the end of the day on my birthday - October 14. This one lucky winner will receive a pair of earrings that I created. They look like this -

Amethyst and rainbow color coated clear Swarovski cubes, separated by twist wire rings. Ear wires and all findings are sterling silver. A great pair of Everyday Earrings.

Now a little bit about myself (so I can get this self-promotion behind me, lol):

After many years of practicing as an architect, I craved to create with my own two hands instead of just sitting behind the computer or drawing board and have other people carry out my designs. From mega-scale projects to micro-sized adornments, I execute my jewelry designs/fabrication with an artful eye, precision hands, and human comfort in mind. I hope my jewelry collections will bring you as much meaning and enjoyment as the passion I pour onto each piece.

My inspiration comes from my past experiences in life, my cultures, my environment or it can be a specific moment in time. Sometimes interesting techniques will challenge me to come up with different designs too. My work keeps evolving, with fresh ideas all the time.
I try to keep my designs simple and timeless, using materials of the highest quality. My preference is to use silver or gold since they are highly recyclable and highly shapeable. On the other hand, with the cost of precious metals these days, I do explore other jewelry grade metals as well. These materials will be specified in my descriptions and materials sections on my Etsy shop.

I'm also a proud member of the awesome, one and only, incredible team called eSMArts Guild. Go to our team site to find out more, and to get to know my extremely talented cohorts.