Sparkle galore

This Friday I participated in a blogger event at Michal Negrin's visitors center in Bat Yam. The place is target of visits from all over the world, where people can enter the world of this super sparkly designer and witness her creation process as well as the inside of her factory - manufacturing jewelry, fashion, and home wear that is sold around the world. 

We started by having a nice breakfast, then headed to a tour of the factory and finally had a wonderful workshop where each of us got to create her very own She Shy doll. That part was simply heaven for me, and ended up in me bagging Michal to let me live in the puppeteer's studio filled with every embellishment I ever dreamed of working with. It was such a fun day!

I took about a gazillion photo to share with you, hope you will enjoy them.

Doll house on the visitor's center hall

Breakfast awaits!

Even the water cooler is fully Negrined!

Tour of the factory

I met this little guy on my way to the ladies room

Inside the puppeteer's studio

New earrings

I have been down with the flu all week. And I do mean down. With a fever of 102 and constant coughing I spent most of the week either asleep or cursing the moment I was born. After a week or so of this I am finally getting better yet still at home, which was a great opportunity to shoot the new earrings I made and list them on my shop.

I am also working on a custom ordered Flutterbutt, which I will tell you about later on, and plan to make a second very special puppet, which I will also revel in due time.

I simply realized that all this "I haven't been able to create anything since my mother died" story I was telling myself is just that - a story that I can replace at any given time. So I stopped telling that to myself in hopes that is all that is needed in order to get my creative wheels rolling. We shall have to wait and see!

Blog Giveaway - Handmade Earrings

Well well well, it's been a long while since I held a giveaway on this blog (my fashion blog had several these past few months). In order to keep this raffle international, I will be be giving a small item, that I can easily ship abroad. So... (drum roll please)

The winner will be getting a pair of humming bird in a hoop earrings in matte gold and aqua worth 22$ and handmade by yours truly.

In order to join this giveaway:

1. Follow this blog.
2. Got a Facebook account? Like my Facebook fan page.
3. Fot an Etsy account? Favorite my Art & Jewelry shop. 
4. Comment on this thread and leave your email address.
5. Tell your friends about this giveaway on your Twitter, blog, Facebook, local grocery store and town crier.
6. I will randomly select  a winner on Sunday the 26th of December.

 That is it, let the giveaway begin!

1 day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop

I am holding a single day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop today - Sunday the 5th of December.

All items on the shop are 25% off. In order to enjoy this discount, enter the following code on checkout - 25offDec5th, as shown in the following image.

1. Step 1 - Enter the Shop Coupon Code on checkout and click Apply.

step 2. The price now reflects the discount and you can continue to check out.

Here are some examples of what you will find. There is still time for international shipping in time for Christmas!

Jackie the four wheeled giraffe will cost 27$ instead of 36$

The rose quartz and brown hues necklace will cost 56.25$ instead of 75$

Bird in the nest headband will cost 21$ instead of 28$

Lotus and dove earrings will cost 22.5$ instead of 30$

Practicing yoga and photography

Part of our Etsy holidays boot camp plan is to make and list new items towards the holidays season (and in general). I have been working on some new jewels for my art shop. They are made from brilliantly wonderful ceramic beads I bought, which are handmade in Peru and feature yoga practices in great detail. This is what I listed for sale so far. 

Lotus tear earrings, available here.

 Blue sphere yoga earrings, available here.

 

Lotus and dove earrings, available here.

I have only a few of these beads, and plan to make a couple of necklaces in the next few days. 

You can also see the beginning of the positive influence of the photography course I am taking. I started taking manual photographs instead of working in automatic mode and am learning to know my new camera. You can see I was practicing shallow depth of field on the second photo. This photography class is so much fun! Next lesson will be composition, so I hope to get much better photos after that. Can't wait!

A fly withouht ears cannot fly

Nor can it enjoy the new handmade earrings I listed on SharonArt this week. I mean, if the fly has a steady income it can buy the earrings, but they probably be bigger than it, I mean.. Well you know what I mean.

These new earrings cost between 18$ and 24$ plus shipping. I hope you like them as much as I do.

 Large netted teardrop earrings in matte gold

Red Babushka earrings

 Sweet rose earrings

 Onyx drop earrings

Ruby red drop earrings

And while on the topic of flies, here is a funny one, from the wonderfully brilliant Aardman animation. Enjoy!

New jewelry available

Hello guys and dolls! I haven't updated my blog in a while. Honestly, I am going through a rather difficult time, and have very little patience for crafting or blogging. I hope you will bear with me through this time. I have several puppets and other projects planned, including a cute custom order I have to work on this week, and a Tzipi update coming up, so hopefully there will be several nice update here very soon.

In the meanwhile, I have been working on some new jewels for my art & jewelry shop. For some reason, it is far easier for me to create jewelry than puppets these days. Probably because the process is much faster and extremely less messy.

 Rose quartz and brown hues necklace, available here

China blue necklace, available here

Gift earrings, available here

I think, for a tired and restless designer, I am still doing rather well as far as these jewelry goes. Hopefully this will be a good sales month, last was was rather nice, even though I sell most of the earrings offline rather than online. The same goes for my Etsy for Hebrew speakers guides. Israeli customers still prefer to buy from a person than from an online shop. I wonder when (if ever) that is going to change. 

In any case, I wish you all a very nice week, and myself as well. This week we are celebrating the Shavuot holiday, so I will have two days off work, which is most welcome. Maybe I will finally be able to sit myself down and make those long awaited puppets..

Earrings update

Happy weekend guys! I should be working on clearing and cleaning my desk (I can't find anything on it anymore, plus it is full of cramp beads and other tiny jewelry making elements that keep getting stuck in my keyboard and where have you) but instead I am making new earrings. Here are a few of the new ones, which I will be adding to my art & jewelry shop shortly.

Can you spot the odd one out in this collection?

Those Don't eat with your hands earrings are slightly less elegant than the rest of the pack, n'est pas? I made them from a set of miniature cutlery Shay Aaron sent me for my birthday!

A lazy holiday and a Tzipi update

Today is the last day of the Passover holiday that was celebrated with short workdays, several  vacation days and huge amounts of food. I spent most of the days, when not working, doing nothing. Yes, I cooked a bit, and met a friend or two and today I cleaned for several hours but that's about it. No amazing new puppets, no exciting blog posts, no hiking in the north. I know, I'm a boring person.

I did make some new earrings, but that's about it

Unlike me, Tzipi the world traveling Flutterbutt was all over the place, having loads of fun!

Arriving at Scotland, Tzipi was amazed to find she has a whole villa all for herself. She went to work with her host, Junie, and proved very helpful answering phones and working on the computer. She also took the time to email mommy every once in a while and update me on how she is doing and feeling. Ah, I raised her so well!

Poor Junie and Tzipi had no idea there is an ongoing postal strike in France, so Tzip spent the first few days of Passover stuck in a dark box. She finally arrived to her host the other day, and after a short rest, today she went horseback riding.

She has many adventures planned for her in France, including meeting a bishop! How very exciting. And after that - she will be on her way to New Zealand, the lucky girl!

Stay tuned for more on Tzipi soon. Her adventures are listed on the side bar of the blog for you to read. Also - if you are interested in hosting Tzipi comment here. One of her hosts in the US unfortunately had to leave the project, so we have an opening.

It's raining earrings!

I am adding more earrings to the SharonArt shop, after selling almost all of the first batch.

The price range is 16$-20$. I hope these also sell well, so I will have an excuse to make more. I do enjoy making these, even though it is not easy (myself and delicate tweezers, is not a good combination). I am completely hooked on these dark blue-black Czech glass beads, they sparkle so beautifully, they really were a great find.

Experimenting in a new field

My devoted readers probably noticed I have been complaining about lack of inspiration, or more accurately - a lack of drive to create (though I have several ideas for projects, and received some wonderful ideas from you, my dear readers). This, combined with a phenomena I recently got aware of, drove me to get my hands on a new endeavor - earrings making!

There are several jewelry makers on Etsy I follow and admire who I found out are not goldsmiths or silversmiths, but actually are buying ready made jewelry parts and putting them all togeather, while charging high prices. That annoyed the hell out of me, especially since I just spent a large amount of money on one of these shops. I decided I am going to make myself the earrings I like from now on, and then decided to also sell them - at a much better price than the wannabe jewelry smiths I previously looked up to.

So, I am proud to present the first of my new earrings collection! I am selling them on SharonArt, since they do not fit on Raisinlike, which is a much sillier shop.

Humming bird in a hoop earrings in matte gold and aqua

Lovey dovey skulls

Red Babushka earrings

Sweet humming bird earrings in matte gold and pale pink

Flower tear drop earrings in matte gold and blue

 I hope you like them as much as I do. I am not used to such delicate work but I am quite pleased with how they turned out!