enamel earrings

before i did the Cabbagetown show i realized that i had quite a few enameled necklaces but nothing else really. so i decided to make these earrings, i also did a pair in green. i still want to make some enameled rings sometime soon, i just have to play around with some copper forms a bit more first.

i made some more earrings in another style, more pictures...soonish :)

hectic-ness

i know i haven't been blogging as much as i normally do. since i also work at OCAD my schedule turns very hectic as soon as September rolls around. my body is still getting used to the different schedule.

i've also been working on several commissions that you'll see process photos of eventually.

for now you can see what my display looked like at Cabbagetown.

hope all is well with you readers. i'll try to get back on track.

here's my mama.

and my display.

other vendors

so last weekend was my first time at Cabbagetown as both an exhibitor and a patron, so it was a new experience all around.

a big difference from the Outdoor Show is all the food vendors. there were so many places to  taste relishes, dips, and desserts. Christy's Crunch had these to-die-for white chocolate/cranberry/cookie/toffee/almond bars that i can't stop thinking about. thankfully they'll be exhibiting at the One of a Kind Show in December, but unfortunately i was too slow and they were all sold out before i could grab a bag.

another exhibitor that i was really fond of was Rebecca Caulford of honeybea designhive. she had a booth full of wonderful handmade purses made from repurposed materials and lovely accents such as small wooden plates/bowls/tree slices that made very unique overlarge buttons.

her braided strap market totes really stuck out to me because they reminded me of my fan necklaces.

i think i'll grab a purse from her at the One of a Kind Show...:)

tradesies

thanks to everyone for coming out and visiting me and my fellow "OCAD row" members at the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts Sale. it was nice meeting you all :)

i was fortunate to be situated beside my very talented friends/old classmates Caroline Yu and Shuyu Lu. you may remember me mentioning Caroline before when I wrote about how much i was in love with her beard cups. this time i was able to do some tradesies and snag two - one with a green beard, and one with a blue beard. i also took one of Shuyu's adorable --- well who knows what they are really (maybe i should ask her), but if you keep up to date with the art/craft world at all, you'll recognize them. they are adorable, and also double nicely as a pillow. i got a pink one like the one in the top left, but about the size of the blue one here.

i love having and trading work from my colleagues. i still sleep with a lovely pillow my friend Steph Su designed and silkscreened over a year ago. they're not just beautiful things, they're made with a love of craft that makes them hard to stay away from.

another countdown

the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts Sale is only 3 days away. thankfully i'm not as frazzled as I was for the Outdoor Show. things are coming together and i have quite a few more pieces than last time including new sterling silver earrings and necklaces, flower pins in new colours, enameled earrings, and of course, just more enameled stuff in general.

using my kiln in Organic Metal Gallery is great since i don't have to compete with the wind like I had to on my apartment balcony. i also don't have to deal with mosquitoes. i'm still getting used to the space, but i'm sure i'll settle in nicely.

i hope to see some of you faithful readers at the show. It's in Riverdale Park, Toronto - just south of Broadview station September 10th-12th.

more fans

here's a picture of a blue version of my fan necklace.

i recently got a commission to make earrings of these in a rose pink colour. if i like them i think i'll start making the earrings as part of my collection as well. i also plan on making more necklaces in new colours in time for cabbagetown (next month!).

purple mania

so i've been pretty hard at work for the past while trying to make new jewellery for cabbagetown. i try to spend a  whole day, 2-3 days a week enameling. and the rest of the time i spend making fabric pieces, or going down to the OCAD studio to do torch/prep work for pieces that are either silver, or will be enameled.

i also try to work on my commissions, or you know - sit down and relax for more than five minutes.

after reviewing what jewellery i had in my inventory, i realized that i didn't have any purple pieces at the outdoor show. i found this weird since i have quite a few shades of purple in powdered enamel form.

i think i wasn't especially fond of the shades when i was first doing my colour samples, but i've grown to like them after playing around and discovering how they react in the kiln. the orchid purple on the cocoon with the black spots was particularly problematic when i first tried it out. it didn't work well in small details (like in my lace pendants), but it's good when it covers a larger area.

these pieces are all pendants - except the fabric pin.

i've started making my pins with opaque material. while i was helping my parents move out i found this fabric from an old fashion project i was making in high school. it pays to be a pack rack when you're an artist, you never know when a material is going to come in handy.

some wax carving

since i had so many fans of my fertility charm at the Outdoor Show i decided to carve out a new smaller, lighter, and easier to clean version in wax so i can have it cast in sterling silver in time for the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts show in September.

when i'm making wax pieces to be cast, i normally work in a very malleable brown wax (this one is covered in purple wax shavings) first so i can get the size and shape right before i move on to carving and refining the final form in the hard wax (the purple wax in this example) with files. the aqua coloured wax is from OCAD's wax injector which creates the form in wax if you've already had a mold made of your original piece.

this new fertility charm is a third of the weight of the original one, about half the size, and has a different texture on the back side.

i've gotten much faster at carving wax now. i'm quite pleased with myself.

p.s. this is my 100th post! crazy.

the aftermath

TOAE is over and i had planned to take a rest. but i just can't bring myself to do it. i've been in the studio every day, hard at work on some commissions and building up stock for Cabbagetown, but i do find myself very sleepy on my train rides now. i don't even pack a book anymore (the train rides are my coveted times for reading) because i know i'm just gonna fall asleep.

the six weeks right before the Outdoor Show left me constantly multi tasking. i couldn't watch a movie unless i was sanding a piece or sewing a flower pin together. i'm getting used to being very busy.

but tonight i'm going out to a beach BBQ with some jeweller friends. i'm excited, it's so hard for us to get together because there always seems to be a need to polish a piece or meet a deadline.

TOAE is over!

thanks so much to everyone who came to my booth at the Outdoor Show. it was amazing to hear all the positive feedback and everyone's plans to colour co-ordinate their outfits to my jewellery :p

a special thanks to Jon, Jay, Warren, Yoon, Sherif, Joyce, Maha, and my parents for being so helpful, patient, and hardworking. i couldn't have done it without you guys.

it was a really great (though exhausting) experience and i'm looking forward to participating again in the future. one of the good things about the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is how much it can lead to other things in your career. for some it means commissions, or getting picked up by galleries or being asked to participate in shows.

i did get a few commissions that i've already started working on now. but i've also been pre-approved to participate in some upcoming shows such as the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts Sale which is happening in September. i'm going to keep trying to make new designs and play with more colours in my enamel work - so get ready to see more of me and my jewellery soon. i told myself i'd have at least have two days to rest...but then i found myself in the studio the day after anyway! i just can't stay away!

i was really fortunate to have had my booth moved to underneath the bridge area in City Hall. because of this i was able to get a nice corner space as well as a good mix of shade and sunlight. it also sheltered me from the insane rainfall that plagued us during set up. i basically set up my booth looking like a wet cat.

but it was done with much help and i'm happy with the results.

here's my three cases...colour coordinated of course! i had more red enameled pieces but they sold out so quickly.

this show was so busy that i barely had time to see any other booths. i had limited myself to the top 15 i wanted to check out, but i'm pretty sure i only saw 5, and only because they were on the way to the restrooms.

for some reason all my set up pictures were taken with my dad's camera...so you can't see us looking all frazzled and rushed. but here's one of my friend Nini, hurriedly setting up her own booth which was only two down from mine.

thanks again to everyone who came by, it was lovely meeting you all.