Amuseme vs Beadsforpeace

So, immediately I need to clarify the reasons behind changing a shop entirely even though I’m still focusing in jewelry for both shops. One reason behind it is because I moved from Indonesia to Australia, so automatically everything changes. I have to change the details on every info in listing I give because of the location difference, the postage, the policies, and the list goes on and on. I could still keep the name beadsforpeace and change all those details, but I think this is a great time to wipe it all out because I’ve learnt A LOT after being 2 years in Etsy and felt that Amuseme is going to be too big of a step up from beadsforpeace for them to be combined together.


When I opened up beadsforpeace, I absolutely had no idea what I was doing. I just needed a creative outlet from my super deadly boring job that I’m totally not passionate about. Beadsforpeace was more like, I’ve got stuff, a computer, a camera and internet, let’s do it! Etsy is so affordable that I thought the shop would just be a mini gallery where I can show people the stuff I made. And so, that one fateful day as I was listing my first few items, I got a sale WHILE I was listing them. The moment I found out I ran hysterically to my mum and we started jumping around her room like nuts and spent the night trying to figure out how to pack the stuff! Hehe, that was fun! So, this is gonna sounds a bit silly but unlike my expectations, the night I opened the shop was the same night that I was actually open to the reality that I AM a seller. Though, I was still a bit shy and I never really promote myself or tell people that I’m doing this. I only have one way to promote: do nothing, let mum do all the talking.

Of course everything didn’t really go all that smooth. Year 2008/2009 was pretty much wasted on my stupid 12 hour job (9 hours in the office, 3 hours in traffic) So boring that I thought I might as well be dead. Think that year was like, 60% being bored to death 15% getting strange diseases, 15% travelling and 0% socializing. Anyway… the point is, I just didn’t create enough to actually run and learn about the shop and to be happy.


Year 2010 however, is looking up, waaay up! I can almost say that besides dealing with loads of silly paperwork to move and be married, I spent this year predominantly getting high on creating stuff, and it has been super awesome!!! It’s probably the side effect on being bored to death, I suddenly have the capacity to just burst like crazy. Unlike beadsforpeace, I’m actually planning what I want to see in Amuseme before I open it. My motto, my goals, how I will market my stuff, super exciting stuff like that….

The product is going to be different between the shops because I have found myself getting so ADDICTED to wire. Maybe it’s one of those “You don’t choose the medium but the medium choose you” sort of situation. I just go through rolls and rolls of them without realizing, and the busier I get, the more of a wreck my house gets… I know I’m a girly girl, but I still wish that I’m better at multi tasking than I am now….

So...it’s exactly a week before Christmas… hope you all are getting your preparations sorted and have fun while doing it! :D

Xox

Dreamy Blue...

Yesterday I got informed by Sema from zuzusworld.etsy.com that my blue flower earrings were featured on another Etsy treasuries that she collected! How exciting!!! The blue theme for this treasury is sooo wonderful and just looking at them soothes my soul. I definitely think that Sema has got a talent for collecting a wide range of items and putting them together harmoniously. It is such an honour to be included amongst other beautiful items that she featured. Thanks Sema! =)

Please have a look at Sema's amazing handmade creations at www.zuzusworld.etsy.com

To have a look at my earrings that she featured, click on this link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32705919

Good day everyone!=)

Stuff I made...!

Just showing you off some stuff I made well actually... last week. We changed our internet provider at home and it's way too slow to load photos. The only 2 places that provides me with descent internet is at the office or at starbucks. So, if I'm a bit slow uploading photos in the next couple of weeks, that would be why.

I also gave up taking acceptable photos with my pocket camera. I'm trying out photo-shopping my pictures until I manage saving up to buy a better camera. No cut and pasting involved, don't worry. It's mainly to do justice of the colours more than anything. Enjoy! =)


"Spring This Year..." simple jewelry set with crystal, pink jade and faceted light green serpentin. I use sterling silver chain, earwires and a heart rhodium toggle. Light, simple, sweet and stylish!


"Cornelian Dream" Long necklace. An interesting mix between cornelian stones, crystals and biwa pearls. A great piece if you like dangly necklace.


"Sundusk" is a 2 tiered choker necklace using various cornelian stones, sterling silver chain and wire. This piece is slightly experimental, I imagined it, sketched it, failed some experiments and finally came up with this necklace hence the out of the ordinary result.

The following jewelry is heavily influenced with the copper vintage look. Materials are mainly swarovski pearls, swarovski crystals and chains.



"Copper constalation" matching bracelet and necklace. The pearls and crystals are placed randomly but making sure that they are placed in balance. It requires a little bit of putting out and replacing pearls which chews up a bit of time, but I really can't help myself... XD



"Classic Beauty" bracelet, adorned with vintage-like rose charms and other dangling beads. I love this bracelet so much and very tempted to keep it for myself... it's... so... preeetty...



Want to see more pictures or more info? They're all being kept in my Etsy shop so drop by for a visit if you like. Go to www.beadsforpeace.etsy.com and just click on the "New This Week" Link in the shop sections on the right hand side of the page.

Good day everyone! =)

Blackberries for the win!

My blackberry bracelet got featured in one of the Etsy treasuries today! This is my first time to be featured and I'm so, sooo happy!!! Somebody out there like my stuff! Yaaay! This treasury looks so mighty delicious! Just staring at it makes me smell blackberries in the air, and blackberries don't even grow in Indonesia. The other items make my bracelet look 10 times better than when it is out of context. O, the power of treasuries. I love, love, looove it!

Thank you so much Sema for adding me! Please check out Sema's shop at www.zuzusworld.etsy.com for her amazing handmade items! :D

Cheers everyone!

My Etsy Shop New Look

I'm on my last couple of days of my stay in Australia now. After attending so many weddings week after week and organising my own wedding, I magically understood the wonderful effect of logo and branding. I realize that most weddings have a colour theme that plays a big part to the 'feeling' of the whole occasion. In my opinion, the more consistent the theme is, the better.

I had a simple vision that my logo is going to be a picture of a girl with swirly hair. At first i started drawing on photoshop using my wacom tablet, but that takes waaay too long to get done so I end up drawing by hand and then scanning it in. It didnt take me long to come up with a picture a girl with swirly hair who is surrounded by round beads. Her face expression and body language is essentially relaxed and at peace, which is imporant to the theme of my shop.



My previous banner was a simple picture I took of a canola farm growing next to the poisonous yet beautiful "Padison's curse". I didn't think much about the shop's colour theme, but because I'm used to seeing the sky blue, purple and yellow from my previous banner, I decided to keep those colours in my new banner. I also decided to use the same font of writing.



It took me 2 days to design and finish making the banner and print out new name cards. I guess my lack of knowledge in digital art technique affects the amount of time for me to get things done, but it all adds up to an experience so I have no regrets. Plus I really enjoy doing this! My name cards look like this now:



Besides pencil drawing, I use adobe photshop, illustrator and a little bit of paint.net to get this done. I have never ever taken any photshop classes, so I google all my questions when I get stuck- which chews up a lot of time. If that didn't work, I tend to reach out to my super helpful IT fiance who knows nothing about photoshop yet always comes back to me with a solution.

... oh man, all this effort! I am quite please with the result though! It's feels soooo good to have a shop identity! Yay, finally...!!! XD

My First Jewelry Wedding Gig

I was SO fortunate this year that my awesome friend, Sienna had recommend me to do a bridal jewelry for her sister, Garmisch who is now happily married to her husband, Tim in Australia last month.

It was my first bridal request so it was VERY exciting and lots of new experiences had been learnt. Since I’m currently living in Jakarta, Garmisch and I communicate a lot via emails. She’s the best client anyone would ever want really. She sent me so many helpful pictures of what she wants that when I finally did come up with some jewelry, no further alteration was needed. When trying to come up what sort of jewelry I'm going to make, color theme is my no.1 concern. The design, and all the rest comes second. I asked about her flowers and what the bridesmaids are wearing. In this case, Garmisch is wearing white, and her flowers and bridesmaids are going to be yellow.

This is one of the picture Garmisch had sent me of the Bridesmaids dress to let me have an idea about what sort of 'yellow' is in her colour theme.

When I went to Australia for holiday, I used this opportunity to discuss the details with her in person. I also took measurement of her, and her bridesmaids wrists to get their bracelets properly fitted. We meet up in the city’s café and she even brought her dress over!!!

These are the final result of the jewelry:

For the bridesmaids, I use predominantly peach rice pearls to match their dresses.

Fo Garmisch, she requested a chandelier style earrings and a matching 3 layered bracelet. After looking at many photos and conversations, this is what we came up with:

A few weeks ago, Sienna sent me a link on to the photos from the wedding. These amazing photos are taken by Tate Needham on the courtesy of t8photography (www.t8photography.com) So amazing in fact I'm considering him to do photos for my own wedding now. So, If you're getting married in Canberra, he's your man! ;)

This is a photo of Sienna wearring the peach earrings.

Misch looking absolutely stunning in her dress, flowers and the jewelry.

I’m not there at the wedding, but seeing my jewelry had made it there in those photos made me feel like a piece of me had been there at there, especially when I saw this photo here:

A big congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs. Riley! And thanks Sienna and Garmisch for your friendship and support! You guys rock my world…!!!

………………………………......................................................................................................

A couple of weeks later I was approached by another customer, Carrie from Ohio, USA. She requested to make 3 sets of necklace/earrings set for her bridesmaids. Her wedding is in May. She loved a necklace I had made, but wanted the colors to be predominantly black, red, pink and

white.

Then there’s a hiccup, my supplier had run out of those oval hoops, so I had to buy hoops that are larger. After experimenting with it a couple of times the result wasn’t very good.

So I went back to the shop and looked around for other alternatives. I found round hoops that I quite like, so I made these Christmas necklace to test it out:

It was really cool because Carrie ended up liking this one better than the original oval hoops! Yay for both of us! But there’s another challenge. Carrie requested that I use non- iridescent swarovski crystals rather than the iridescent ones that I use. So I rang up all my suppliers, and none of them supply a 6mm round non-iridescent crystals. I found that rather irritating because personally, I also prefer non-iridescent crystals, and I think they used to have it. They also stop ruby colored crystals coming in… and I like to use a lot of ruby. That’s the downside of the bead market in Jakarta. They like to stop supplying whatever that doesn’t sell without any warning.

I happened to be very lucky this time because I had to go to Singapore to attend a 3 day conference. I have a bead shop over there that I normally go to, so I bought the non-iridescent crystals over there.

So this is the final outcome! Carrie said that it looked exactly as she imagined, and that made us both very VERY happy! Yaaay! =D

Looking back at this project, it did take a long time for us to work this pieces of jewelry out, and there are times when I feel that the nature of my suppliers are very unstable that I’m going to hit a dead end several times. But God has been extremely good to me. With a lot of faith, it’s just so amazing to see how it all just work out by itself in the end.

Thanks Carrie for your patience and trusting me with this project! I really appreciate it. I also can’t wait to see the photos in May of course! =)

Finally thanks to Etsy for making it possible for me to work with people from around the world. I absolutely LOVE it…!

Gettin into Wire!

I’ve been spending a lot of time on my beading desk, as a result of an excessive amount bead shopping. I feel rather motivated to get all the money I spent back. I mean, it is almost Christmas, and I have to be prepared in expecting the best out of my sales. Plus my ideas had been flying around everywhere ever since I got more familiar with wire.

I’ve managed to get a few rolls of artistic wire during my last trip to Aus. For Au$9 per roll they are very dear, but the colours are so great I can’t just stick with the usual silver or gold. I got like, 10 rolls of different colours and different gauge, and at that stage, I’ve never even coiled a wire in my life. Now I’m glad I got that many wires because they’re running out very fast.

Summer is approaching in Australia, and my friends had been out (even in the midst of their essays and exams) flying kites, swimming in the lake, going for barbecue picnics, late night games, movies and such. Being alone in Jakarta makes me miss them even more knowing that they’re having fun. Though, like Proverbs said, there is a time for everything. I’ve had my 3 weeks of fun when I visit them, and it’s time to sit on my bum and try to earn some again. I can’t complain, cause making things with wire is a lot of fun too.

If I was living in Australia, I’d be too tempted to go out fly a kite, swim in the lake and stay up with friends instead of staying at home making jewelry. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s why I didn’t do so well in uni. Uni was driven entirely by pressure, I'm not fased so much about what I'm going to do when I grow up so I'd much rather be out playing around. I have to admit, I’ve done some pretty stupid pointless things (for some reason having a race of rolling down commonwealth hill comes to mind). In a way I think I did the right thing, I knew those days weren’t going to last forever.


Here's a photo from 2006, taken right before we decide it'll be a good idea to race rolling down the hill... aaah memories...!

This time around, tempted or not, I’d rather be spending time at home, being in touch with my creative senses, interacting with my ideas.

It started out with a bunch of failed experiment…

I figured that it was silly to experiment on expensive wires, so I did a couple of sketches to plan ahead and use cheaper wire to make sure the idea worked. (yes I use my keyboard as a bench... I just don't have that much space in my room for all my stuff. I don't think my keyboard is very impressed with me right now.)


And then doing whatever it takes to make those sketches work.

I wrote a sign in front of me on the mirror that says, “Clean up mess after each session” in bright red. But it’s not working, only sometimes when I’m out of ideas and getting a little bored, but a the moment, there’s wires flying everywhere!

And so, voila!
(All these can be found in my Etsy shop of course!)



I’m drawn in, I’m immersed… I think I’m addicted.