Hey Americans, or other swapers!

Just letting you guys know that Heather at humblebeads is hosting a bead swap that looks really cool. Sorry fellow canadians, or even fellow people here in south korea, this swap is for people in the states for shipping reasons. Still.... there is an international giveaway.

You only have till march 26th! Hurry and check it out!

http://humblebeads.blogspot.com/2010/03/sisterhood-of-traveling-beads-giveaway_15.html

I myself just love swapping and trading things internationally for one on one trades. I live in Seoul, and so have access to many asian things (JADE), and other interesting things you can only find here in Korea. Anyone want to do a one on one swap instead, let me know :).

Giveaway!!! Earings for 4000 posts!

Hey there everybody.

So, I took a peek at my blog ticker, and I see that i'm almost at 4000 hits! When'd that happen??? Wow. Very exciting :).

I had posted these earings previously, as part of my entry to Derryn Mentock's challenge to do Mary Hattmansperger's book, but i myself do not have pierced ears. It's strage, i'm a jewelry artist who can't wear some of the jewelry she makes hahha. It's just something i never got around to doing i guess?

I decided to celebrate the 4000 hits with a giveaway. Leave me a quick comment here, and i'll pick a number for the winner... standard blog giveaway style. Don't forget to make sure there is a way I can contact you!


By the way, speaking of giveaways, i just discovered a new blog that has some rather pretty stuff... Sweet Bead Studios had a web redesign, and is giving away some jewelry with some pretty sweet embossed metal, and a embossing hammer. My fingers are so crossed for the hammer!! Check it out here http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/.

Mary Hettmansperger Challenge

Deryn Mentock is hosting a challenge on her lovely blog, Something Sublime, where she challenges us to create projects with Marry Hettmansperger's lovely book, Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet. I created the first project a while back, but have definately been neglectful and fallen behind on my blog here. Today I finished my second project from the book, and wanted to get this up before i fall further behind. At the rate i was going, the contest would be over before I put my projects up!






This i call my 'Tree of all Seasons', based on the first project in the book 'Stacked Spinner Necklace'. It took me a bit to get started on this necklace, as i was unsure of how i wanted to procede. The idea of creating the stacked necklace is so open... there were so many different directions i could go! However, i eventually made a stac starting with a flat tree pendant, followed by etched copper, then a leaf form, ending with a textured rectangular piece of copper. My kindergarten students looked at it and told me it was my seasons necklace. The bare tree was spring, the flowered copper for winter, the falling leaf for fall and the blank sheet for winter. Sometimes the words of children are the ones that mean the most.



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This second piece I call 'Blue Folds', loosely based on her 'folded earings' project number two. I liked the idea of working with copper, but i don't yet have a blowtorch so i was unable to do the project quite as she discussed. Instead of focusing on my torching skills, i focused more on riveting skills that' i've been learning from my Kazmer book. I liked the way the metal was wrapped around the beads, but i went a different direction after the initial inspiration. As opposed to drawing a bead on the wire, i riveted the end of the wire. I then strung the beads on, and then created the loop on top of the brass. I am quite pleased with how these turned out.

My only dilema now is what to do with these. I love jewelry, but i don't have pierced ears! I can't wear these myself, as i do with all the necklaces and bracelets i make. Maybe i'll have a giveaway later? Maybe these will help celebrate 4000 views to my blog later on? Or maybe i'll use it for a birthday present later? I am still deciding on this one. Any suggestions?

OWOH winners!

Congratulations to the two winners of my OWOH giveaway! I am pleased to announce that the winner of my bracelet was 'Unique Commodities' and the winner of my miscelanious jewelry supplies is MarieNeige. Thank you to everyone who participated. I had the most wonderful time, and i was so excited to see that over 160 people commented on my post! If one out of every 20 people who stopped by come back again... that means another 8 people reading my blog! I find that so very exciting, as i love getting the comments.

Thanks for the fun :).

One World One Heart

Well, i'm a week after the official beginning, but i guess people still have close to a month to come visit my blog and comment... I have decided this year to participate in the 'One World One Heart' blogging event.

For those of you who are not familliar with this event, it is where a bunch of bloggers all have giveaways on their blogs. In order to be eligable for this giveaway on my blog, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. In order to participate in my giveaway, you must have a blog of your own that you keep, but you do not have to do a giveaway of your own. Please make sure to leave some way to contact you if you are the lucky winner! The point of this event is to increase traffic to artist blogs, discover new blogs and to generate more of a 'togetherness' feeling among artist bloggers. If you want more details, please visit the 'One World One Heart' main site here.




For my giveaway, I am offering two things. The first person who wins will get a bracelet i created myself. It uses links and swirls from wire that i wraped myself, and nice green beads that spin around on the swirls.


For a larger picture, you can click here on the picture.

The second winner will get a selection of jewelry supplies such as chain or beads, scrabooking papers, ribbons and other such miscellanious stuff useful to a jewelry artist, or to a mixed media artist.

Good luck everyone! Remember, post a comment on this post (only this post) to be eligible to win. You must post before February 11th, as I will be posting the winner on February 12th.

One World One Heart

Oh no! The One World One Heart contest has started and i don't yet have something to give away!! I knew i wanted to sign up this year. I checked it out last year and looked at a couple blogs. Even if i did not win anything, i enjoyed seeing all the giveaways, and looking at all the new blogs. Give me time, and i will get something up for this soon! I just need to finish off a project to give away. I feel like i have about 3 projects but they aren't done yet.

If you haven't heard of the 'One World One Heart' event yet, you should check out the website here

Leaving date!

Those of you who might have been following my blog know i have been talking about my impending trip to korea... i finally have a date for my flights!!! After 2 months of waiting, i move to Seoul, Korea next wednesday! Wish me luck with my flights :).

Also, i went to send a friend a link to the mint tin present i'd been creating, and discovered i never did post the final product! Silly me. This is my presnet to my friend Erin. It includes a hand made bracelet and the tin case. The hanging charm is etched and rusted copper and the framed charm is resin. I discussed the process i went through (and it WAS a process) in previous posts.






















I wrapped it up all nice for Erin. I hope she likes it :).

Lastly, i had been recently linked to a book giveaway on a new blog... Ilka's Attic. She is giving away her book Exhibition 36: Mixed media demonstrations + explorations. I myself am intrigued by the idea of getting a mixed media book... i'll have to keep an eye out for it next time i'm at the bookstore.

Two finished things

So far, the challenge to complete every technique in 'Mixed Emulsions' goes well. I have decided the best way of doing this is to create a series of pieces using photographs, each one using a variety of the techniques discussed. I have finished my first piece, Lilacs.



In Lilacs, I tried out many of the techniques discussed in the book. I used: soft tones, watercolour paints, wax, decorative paper, text, finger painting and corrugated cardboard. Seven down, thirty six more to go.

I really like how this turned out. I like the ties between the warm beeswax smell and the smell the lilacs would have. I picked up a piece of beeswax at the farmer's market, and dripped it around the altered photo, melting it with my soldering iron. This was my first time working with wax. I am generally happy with how it turned out considering that it was a first effort, but i know that i still have a long way to go before i become proficient with wax.

The second project i finished off today is the collage house created for Hannah, for the give-away as the 1000th viewer of my blog. Thanks again to everyone that has been visiting me here... i love seeing all the comments that you all leave me.

I created this house with cardboard as a base. The cardboard was gessoed and then painted. After scratching up the paint, I nailed the two pieces together with small golden nails. The 12 (Hannah's house number) was rubbed onto the top. I glued a piece of word art 'Keys to the past' to the metal door piece i picked up at a restoration store in town, and glued on a small key. And voila! C'est tout fini! All done, I will mail it to Hannah in Sweden tomorrow.

1000 views!!!

Hey out there :)

I came here to put in a quick post, and i saw that my visitor numbers have already reached 997 when i did this! How awesome :). I wonder who will be my 1000th viewer? I am thinking that i should commemorate this moment somehow. A small give-away maybe? With my visitor counter, i can see the location city of my viewers. So, if you are the 1000th viewer, (look at the counter along the top of the website) please leave a short comment.

I have been working, creating collage houses. I am thinking that i will give one of the collage houses to the 1000th viewer. If they don't notice, or happen to be a bot or something like that, i will just give it to the first person that comments. That will be my backup :).

Here's a quick peek at how the 'houses' are coming along so far.