Showing posts with label collection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collection. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Introducing our guest blogger, Reese Herrick

Reese Herrick, the Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of CHAOS Magazine will be my guest blogger in a series about fashion and accessory and gifting tips for the fashionable. The series kicks off tomorrow and will be posted every other Thursday. So subscribe to the RSS feed now!

Reese is also a fashion stylist and an art director who splits her time between SF and NY. Known for her edgy and raw aesthetic, she has worked with various photographers in both US and Europe, as well as their top modeling agencies. 

I am very excited to have Reese here on my blog! A round applause and come back tomorrow to see her first post!

Also, remember to sign up for my mailing list on the left hand side of the blog to receive a 10% off your first purchase ;)

Thursday, June 14, 2012

My Trunk Show at Henri Bendel


Come visit me on the 2F at Henri Bendel in Manhattan. For those of your who have received my previous email, the date has changed so please note!

Date: July 12 - 14, 2012
Time: 10am - 8pm
Location: 712 5th Avenue, New York

Meanwhile, I'm working like crazy to get things done. These are just the Rose collection pieces. The Whirls are still on the pipeline. I'm counting every minute to make this collection complete by the trunk show!

To add to the excitement, I'll be in the Asia attending a jewelry show, a fashion accessories exhibition, and the HK Fashion Week.


So my Etsy shop will be closed from June 18 - July 7. You can visit my homepage while my Etsy shop is closed. Please let me know if you need anything now or I'll see you in July!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Meet me at Hester Street Market, a little gem at LES Manhattan

Date: May 12, 2012
Time: 10am - 6pm
Where: Hester Street Market, corner of Essex and Hester
http://www.hesterstreetfair.com/

You have to fall in love with this little corner at the outskirt of the heart of fashion in Manhattan. Great accessories, interesting fashion finds, and some yummiest cookies you can find in the city are all here.

Hester Street Fair was taken into Henri Bendel last year and took over the 2/F for its vendors, while UNIQLO camped their mobile cube there for the fall. This past Sat when I was vending there (for the first time, though I've frequented this spot last year all the time as a shopper), Macy has a pop-up shop there - Bar III took Hester Street Fair as its first stop of their nationwide tour of America's best flea markets.

I will be featuring my Whirls and Rose collections there, at an exclusive Hester Street Fair discount.

Selected products from my other shop, Bunnies Can Dream will be available too. Come check my table out. I will be sharing with the very talented Jessica Boehman of Hans-My-Hedgehog again this Sat. And she is debuting her new plush line with some new illustration prints. So don't miss it.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Introducing the new Whirls Collection!

Some of you may have read about it on my facebook page. Yes the long awaited Whirls Collection, a crossover between my 2 jewelry online shops, is now available at Harlequin&Lionhead.

First off the bat are my 2 rings, now available in 4 different plating options - 14K yellow gold, white gold, black gold and rose gold. It is also available in silver and can be custom ordered to be made in other precious metal. You can email me for a quotation on that.

#1 Ring, shown here in black gold plating
#2 Ring, shown here in silver
#2 Ring, shown here in 14K gold plating

The "Whirls" Collection features clusters of organic shapes that inspires imagination. Someone may see it as feathers, flowers, leaves or even coral. It is edgy but still with a subtle sensibility. There are more styles coming but the beautiful organic shapes are always accompanied by my signature twisted bands. The larger rings and bracelets are supported by double bands.


The line featured here is made of clay models except for the bands. Architecturally, the bands are quite difficult to make because the back side of the ring is not flat. It has contours that follow the shape of the "feathers" in the front. And the half bands are not soldered together because I want it to look more fluid and sleek. To top that, the band is sculpted out of round metal rods and it is diagonally twisted from one side to the other (flat at the bottom so it feels comfortable wearing it). That way the band carries the same "whirly" DNA from the shapes on the front, without being too literally. And it can still be supportive without being overly dominating and clunky. It was so hard to create, and even harder to re-create it in different sizing. I am very proud of it and I think the end result looks fantastic. It is unique in the marketplace.


The line featured at my Bunnies Can Dream store is made of the original clay and are all necklaces. They are all statement pieces that will go very well with the metal collection here. It will be available offline soon in New Jersey. More details to come. For now, you can find them here.

So how are these pieces created? It is a complicated and long process...

I created these in clay models first. The polymer clay is hardened through a baking process, which makes it stable and can be used for moulds.
The polymer clay pieces are then made into silicon moulds. From there, I can get a wax model and continue to work on the piece.

The wax model then needs to be "hollow out" so the final metal piece will not be too heavy. That is why the back of the rings are contoured. Here, they are not a "ring" yet.

The wax model will then be casted into metal and from there, I add on the bands. And that will be polished up and become my prototype for a second mould. I like working with the rods in metal because they can be made "sharper" with the angular twist. The issue is that after the bands are criss-crossed they cannot be resized or reshaped. So the piece has to be made perfect and wax models are NEVER perfect. Coming out from casting they always have to be worked upon more. So the key is to get the wax models as perfect as possible coming out from mould. So the original mould needs to be 200% and that is why I finish the bands at metal stage for all my prototypes.

Here the prototype will then be used to make a final mould. From that mould, I will generate wax models for casting for production moving forward. And this is only for one ring, one size. Imagine each ring will come in size 6-10, this process will need to be repeated 5 times per ring model. Now I have 2 rings, so 10 times. And the process is pretty much the same for bangles...Keep counting :P So seriously, this is my sweat and blood.
Now if you subscribe to my mailing list,
you get a special discount off the Whirls rings. 
Click here to subscribe ;) 


Monday, September 19, 2011

It's meant to be - Whirls


Being a single child in the family, with a pretty straight mom who works long hours to support our family, I was always alone. To keep myself companied I listened to the radio all the time, and chatted with my gfs on the phone. My hands would be idle and I always played with Blue Tac as a kid. I never really developed my skills later as a sculptor and I never thought one day my little Blue Tac project would become a real piece of jewelry.

Fast forward 20 years later, that is last week, I started playing with my polymer clay, thinking I'll make a mold for my next collection and use it as a base to shape my wax pieces when I work on them at home. But voila, a new baby is born completely unplanned. 


I think the shapes I created looks quite like a whirl of feathers. But because the way I make these shapes they come out completely random and organic, it is very hard to make them identical. I thought the ones above would work for me as earrings, I personally prefers the differences but not sure if my customers will. So I worked on a ring prototype instead.


I think it will make a good model for casting. Imagine this in silver oxidized. I think it will be quite attractive. I tried also making a few other smaller pieces for pendants. The first pic of this post is meant to be a hanging pendant over a chain. And the one below will be a pendant hung from a wired necklace. It is the same technique but used to create a chrysanthemum instead.


For mold making, I would have to make brand new ones. These are going into my private collection as white polymer clay. I like them like that. A little fragile, and looks like porcelain. I will be introducing them in my other store "Bunnies Can Dream" but only as pendants. Polymer Clay after heated in oven becomes hard so it's good material for necklace and earrings but I am not confident it will be good ring material, no matter how many Etsy sellers think otherwise. 

So, a line that exists in both Bunnies Can Dream and Harlequin&Lionhead. I think both of my worlds are merging finally. 

Friday, August 26, 2011

Angry bunny - Here comes the Elusive

The thing with Etsy or any fashion or design item is that you have to go into market asap. Or someone else gets to go onto a page being promoted. And honestly, I wasn't too keen on launching Elusive because it is not the most innovative shape in the world. It is interesting because of the concept - that I use recycled sprue metal pieces from casting to create new jewelry so I don't waste anything and you get a lovely piece with quality metal.

But I'm so mad today seeing this piece on Etsy Find email blast.  I thought, "There you go, now people will think you are a copycat!" But of course, mine has a concept more than just a design. But still...So I thought, what the hack I will just kick off the Elusive collection. Call it a destined launch because if I have a choice, I would launch the whole collection together, with all the other pieces. But that means it may be next year given my snail paced production.

Hey look at it this way, theirs costs $253, mine is just $60. Maybe it will work for me better :P

Make my day, go "favorite" my ring on My Etsy Store.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

A recent feature

I have been working a little hard and didn't even post any feature updates. Well here is an elegant one created by LeshasWorkshop, featuring my silver Adjustable Rose Ring.



Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A sneak view - Lilac collection #1

I know, it's been too long. The second collection of flowers are coming out soon. This time it is lilac.

First one will be an adjustable ring. Same as my previous Adjustable Rose Ring, this will be flexible in size without looking like one. A bouquet of lilac blossoms wraps around your fingers with a little bloom at the end.


I will be casting it early next week. I hope it will come out as adorable as it is right now. The goal is that these will be partially plated - Flowers will be in rose gold, and the ring itself and the bloom will either be gold plated or kept as silver.

More to come about this series.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Features this week

So I have decided to include a few features on Etsy treasury into one post so it is easier to include other content on my blog.

First let me introduce a very intimate and active group on Etsy in New York. It's called the 5 Boroughs Team On Etsy. It is made up of artists living in the 5 boroughs in New York and they range from photographers, crafters specializing in paper goods and knit products, jewelry designers and makers, organic product sellers...etc. I have recently joined this great team and have been introduced to some of the finest shops on Etsy. Every week there is a treasury theme suggested and in the past week, it was all about black and white plus one color.

Below are a collection of these great submissions and a few of my pieces are featured in there as well. At the bottom of this post are miscellaneous treasuries that feature my jewelry pieces. Click on the images to be linked to the specific treasury on Etsy, which you can easily click and go to the shop with the items featured.

This will be a feast to your eyes. Enjoy!

Black/White+1

This is the winning treasury by AllMineDesign
Titled "I wanna know what love is. I want you to show me."

This one below is made by HansMyHedgehog.

This is a fun treasury - titled "Surprise Ending" and you can see why.
By the witty PorterGulch

This is created by Valderie

This treasury features a piece of jewelry from my other shop called Bunnies Can Dream. 1st row 3rd piece from left is called Little Peaches.
This is by Aoristic

This treasury features my Adjustable Rose Ring in 24K gold plating. 
This is by Tyramade

This is by LuluKnitsNYC

Although this is not one of the submission, I think this is quite in line with the theme.

Love the lime green...this is by Designerica

Interesting combination - Purple never looks so good!
This is by WellWornPassport

This is by MamaBetsy

This is by BrooklynBags


Some other treasury featuring my jewelry this week


This is created by MadameKoiteh, featuring my 24K gold plated 2-Way Rose Earrings, and Persimmons from my other shop, Bunnies Can Dream.

 This is created by AzizaJewelry, featuring my sterling silver 2-Way Rose Earrings.

This is one of my fav - created by LLEditions

This is created by IslaNewYork, featuring my sterling silver 2-Way Rose Earrings 
and a necklace from my other shop Bunnies Can Dream, called A Midsummer Night's Dream.


This is created by Millersye, featuring my 24K gold plated Little Rose Studs.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

24K Gold Plated Roses

As posted earlier, the Rose Collection is now available in 24K gold plating. All the current listings in my shop under sterling silver can be purchased as 24K gold plated version.

And as an alternative to the higher end line, I'm offering brass/bronze versions. To ensure these will not cause reaction to some hyperallergic customers, I have also plated it with 24K gold. Some slight tarnishing around the deep crevices between the pedals may happen but that will only add to the beauty of the roses making it more dimensional.


I'm also introducing a little baby to the collection - the single rose studs.  They are just adorable. 


It is also 24K gold plated. The posts are of sterling silver plated in gold so, like the 2-Way Rose Earrings, it is a good option for sensitive ears.

The best thing is that these babies are very affordable so for those who are curious to see the roses in person first before taking a dive into the full collection, or if you are looking for an affordable lovely gift for a friend, this is perfect for you.

The blog/mailing list subscription offer is always on. So come take a look at my store:
http://harlequinlionhead.etsy.com


Sunday, September 26, 2010

Debute of the Sterling Silver Rose Collection

A quick snapshot of the new collection inspired by roses. 

Carved in wax and made of sterling silver, the rose collection includes pendant, earrings, full rose ring and an adjustable rose ring. A full bloom black rose bracelet will be ready soon.





Come back again for more pictures. The collection will be available for purchase in November on my Etsy store.