Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sacred Amulet


This bracelet is made of sweet smelling sandalwood beads. A very special bracelet given to me by beautiful friend Nilu. She sent this to me from Colombo, Sri Lanka, where she is from. and I have worn the bracelet since I got it. Besides, it's the first ever package that I got from Sri Lanka (that alone makes it that special.)

The beads posses a powerful protective, anti-septic force but what makes it extremely special is that the beads are the same as those used in the prayer chains of Rishis, yogis and Buddhist monks. One can easily sense its energy when touched.

When I was kid I thought, I wanted to be a nun (being born from a Catholic family.) When I got older, I thought I wanted to become a monk at least the spiritual life that monks live. I guess these beads reminds me everyday of this.

I love you Nilu! Thank you so much!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hooray to them Handmades!

Making jewelry is something that came out naturally to me. It relaxes me and I zone out when I am in the process of doing anything creative. When I realized that I made more than enough jewelry that I can wear. I knew I needed to do something about it. It just seems awfully wrong to wear all of them by myself.

My friend Ivy encouraged me to create a blog for the stuff that make which I did. It's fun to share ideas and projects with people.

So I finally set up my Etsy shop (on the advice of some friends.) I didn't know about Etsy before. First, I never thought of selling stuff that I make. Please please check out the shop at Hotbeadsdesigns.etsy.com to see more of my stuff. I also linked this blog to the shop as you see at the let side of this page. Simply click it and it will bring you there. Second, I never tried selling.

For people who are not so familiar with Etsy yet, let me a give you a little background about what Etsy is. Etsy users are all over the world. Right now, they are mostly more popular in North America but it continues to gain more attention all over the world. Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. (Yay! I'm a huge fan of handmades! I am home!)

Etsy Mission - To enable people make a living making things, and to reconnect makers and buyers.
Etsy Vision - To build a new economy and present a better choice. Buy, Sell and Live Handmade.

I am loving Etsy! You can find the most interesting and awesomely fun stuff that you cannot find anywhere else in the world. When I give gifts, I always try to find the most unique and creative things that I can find. Etsy is definitely a place to find these - jewelry, art, clothes, accessories, art materials, graphic designers, vintage items, pottery, toys. You can find everything you need or want with there over 100,000 Etsy sellers all over the world.

More than that, I am loving the whole idea of bringing the directly connecting the sellers and buyers. I think their concept, Buy, Sell and Live Handmade is very simple yet amazingly ingenuous.

In the Philippines though, we have the multiply(.com) where by the way, I made a Hotbeads site too. It is not however fully developed. I didn't realize that as simple as these site may seem. It is still a lot of work.
Although, multiply is not necessarily all handmade but there are definitely many sellers who does their own stuff. Multiply is perfect in finding good stuff from local sellers especially in Manila.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Earrings from India!


New Earrings!!!

vintage wired Corales beads, Shell earrings, and vintage wired torquoise bead

So I finally know what kind of beads the red ones are. They are Corales beads thanks to the people at the D.I.Y. shop in Quiapo who were very help to help list down all the types of beads and stones that I got from. I didn't realize that finding this information online is not going to be easy.



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Kikay Critques


Today, I showed a my blog to Jowan and Aza (who makes jewelries as well.) I'm glad they liked my work. These two artists are friends whose crafts I look up to. They are my batch mates in art school.

They both liked my Cherries and silvers earrings. It's good because, it's one of my favorite too!My friends have the perfect taste! Jo asked me how much the earrings are amd screams, 'WOW!' over yahoo messenger. I asked, 'Wow what?' She goes, 'It's perfect for my boho skirt!' It's interesting how some of my good friends are such Kikays!

A part of me wants to keep all of the pieces that I'm doing because they are my first works. I've always been possessive when it comes to art that I create. I know I have to work on this. Money and art is something that I seriously have to come to terms with. Urgh!

I've been working on more wires entangling these days. Still need to take photos of them. I know you'll love them so stay tuned!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Yndia Jewelry by Tin-tin and Arnel

Ligaya's shell and xiangjiang jade necklace

Xiangjiang Jade and shells are primarily what this 3-tier necklace is made of. Ivy (Beadsnob) modeled this necklace for me last week in her Bead Styling post last week. Arnel Ramiscal and Christine Sioco (Tin-tin) who I met at the KASIBULAN Christmas party early December inspired this necklace. I saw a work that they did with white stones and it was really beautiful. It reminds me of wedding jewelries.

The artist couple (who, by the way, are engaged to be married. Congratulations!) also creates beautiful beadworks that you can check out at their multiply site arnel & tin-tin called Yndia Jewelry. Their bead works are elaborate combinations of different types of stones.

Arnel's necklace made of Moss Agate, Jade, Green Turquoise, Flourite & Cat's eye

Yndia Jewelry's name is derived from the name of a Yndia a babaylan (shaman) from the 1st century colonial period. The jewelry designs are incorporated with the “Batek” or “Traditional Tattoos” of the indigenous northern part of Luzon in the Philippines. These represented or became symbols of nobility, courage and beauty for them and are especially used during rituals and cremonies.


Arnel's Amethyst necklace


Greatly inspired by indigenous jewelry traditions and with a conscious intention to revive indigenous art, Arnel and Tin-tin took their beadwork into a more contemporary aesthetic by incorporating different types of stones and playing with textures and colors. Although, their work may not necessarily be in rituals (alone) Arnel says that Yndia jewelry is really good to wear while meditating because of the calming effects of the stones they use.