vendredi 27 février 2009

How to appreciate handmade jewelry




As you may already know Robert Kalin is the founder of Etsy. What a young vibrant man! After watching this video, I said to myself, yep! the interviewer's right. There are a lot of lousy products on Etsy and I was specifically referring to my field which is beaded jewelry. Right away the title of an album from Camara Obscura came to my mind : "Under-Achievers Please try Harder". http://www.camera-obscura.net/

With that being said, I realized that I was looking at things the wrong way. This way of thinking showed me that I was about to miss out on the real fundamental meaning of buying homemade. And for many reasons.

No one can claim to have the supreme authority in regard to taste and beauty, no matter what the media communicates. We can be influenced positively and negatively, and yet in the end, we have the final say over what we like or dislike on a personal level. When you buy handmade you not only get what you see, you also get what you feel! From my perspective the most important value with handmade jewelry, or for any handmade product, is how it makes you feel.

Wearing a piece of handmade jewelry gives you a sense of connection with the artist or craftsman. When you decided to purchase that particular piece, you not only saw it as beautiful, you also felt compelled and shared a certain level of understanding between yourself and the expression in the art.

In essence how you feel wearing a particular crafted jewelry is the expression of your inner energy and personality. This is something that you have in common with the artist and that is to feel a real connection with another living being.


mercredi 25 février 2009

Beads of courage - a unique program for children coping with serious illness.



Lately, I came across this fantastic foundation : Beads of courage. I believe deeply in art-therapy and I was quite pleased to see that beads are now in the loop.

I immediatetly felt compeled to share that one of a kind foundation that is so dear to my heart for 3 main reasons.

1 - I deeply love children who are in fact little adults. They are our everyday teachers and the only reason we are there for them is to protect them as well as to help them spread there wings or to empower them would be another way of saying it. When you really take time to listen to a children's deepest toughts, you'll always be amazed at what's really going on under that sweet face. Big emotions, tremendous curiosity and understanding of the world they observed around them and the lods of love to be given they carrie in such a small body is always outstanding.

How many kids do you have then? I can hear the question. The answer is none to my deepest regret. Somehow, for medical reasons, I cant. And it seems to happen to many women that deeply care for kids. Now, not being able to have kids of my own blood does not mean that I will never have one. Besides that, I feel a responsability towards every kids on this planet and in a way, they are all mine, they are all ours. We all need to take care of them and make them feel secure in this bizarre world.

2- As a massotherapist, I am really concerned about the physical and mental wellness of all beings. If the hurting can be relief for just a little time, every single actions are worth it. If one bead brings a smile in a hurting kids face, it's worth it. If one bead can bring courage to one kid it's worth it. If the kid can wear his beads of courage around his neck and be an exemple, an inspiration for other suffering kids, it's worth it!

3- My passion for beads, beadwork and body adornment is certainly the 3rd reason. Every single bead is special and has a unique personnality. Semi-precious stones were always given some healing powers. Colors are also healing and can elevate your spirit and energise you. Besides the technicals of beadwork, this is really driving me forward, wanting to explore more and give more. Body adornment can therefore have a multidimentionnal definition and Beads of courage is certainly one among the most important to me.

http://www.beadsofcourage.net/index.htm

lundi 23 février 2009

Egyptian style beaded jewelry

As you already know, I am deeply inspired by the egyptian style these days. Here's one of the necklace that came out. Quickly took a picture to invite you in my world...

There are so many venues that can be explored with netting it's amazing. I am looking forward to share more of the outcome with you as I am planning to give you extended details here :


http://anniesbeadworld.com/


I have something else to share with you. A great project that is very dear to my heart. My partner in crime, who is also an artist, and I are planning a project that will enable emerging artists to get increased exposure through the creation of elegantly simple and effective websites and marketing solutions.

jeudi 19 février 2009

Experimenting...

I've been experimenting with all kinds of bead netting last week... Found many challenges and solved most of them... Now if you are like me and you buy your beads in bulk by the kilo of half a kilo, make sure that you have enough beads for your entire project when you are at the end of the batch. Because beads are like paints and you will find out sooner or later that your project is distorted because the new beads are not entirely similar from the previous batch. That could be quite a disaster if you've been working on a project for 20 hours only to find out that it is increasing or decreasing for no apparent reason...

Always keep in mind that each bead has her one personnality and uniqueness and if you dont respect that, they will do little tricks on you to make sure that you dont forget it ever ever again...

vendredi 13 février 2009

Egypte

Knetting is always fun. Egypte is a dream.

I am on a serie of egyptian style necklaces. Seeing bright colors, feeling the warm weather and surfing the history... What will come out of this is a mystery. And that is exactly what fascinates me about Egypte. Mysteries and spectacular sceneries...

Following these visions is simply irresistable dont you think?

dimanche 8 février 2009

My work is available online!!!





Yes it is! And it is my first experience selling via the web. As you will see the layout is not completely done. I still have to learn how Etsy fully works. I'll get there soon. Meanwhile, my work is avaible!
Take a look and your feeback is more than welcome!

mardi 3 février 2009

Victorian Era






I've been stuggling to take good pictures of my choker... As you know, photography is not something I'm really comfortable with.


Here's finally my victorian style choker. It's just like I wanted it to be. It's very tight around the neck as well as very large. The collar in itself is 4,5 cm and when you add the onyx it makes a 7 cm large choker. The onyx are falling on the collarbone which make them stand out. Despite what one could think, it's in fact really comfy. The necklace is tied with 3 vintage round clasps. Therefore, the back is also very attractive. You will soon be able to see more angles of it on flickr...


Speaking of flickr leads me to tell you about what's coming up for me. Like I said, flickr is about to be available, my Etsy shop should open in a few weeks and I have many earings and a few lariats waiting to be posted on Facebook.