Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

Year 2008 is coming to and end in about 30 minutes. Just want to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone for making 2008 a wonderful year with lots of sweet memories. Have a great beginning for next year, Happy New Year 2009! May your burdens be a little lighter, your pockets a little heavier, your smile a little wider and achievements a LOT higher this New Year. Here is my last piece of wire wrap jewelry for year 2008. Simple earrings to go with the pendant of previous post.

Samsara Mandala - A nod to Erin

There are many wire jewelry artists that I admire and one of them is Erin of EarringsbyErin. Erin create beautiful wire wrap jewelry based on New Zealand Maori art and carvings as well as its flora and fauna. I love her clean and symmetrical creations. Thank God she now shares her wire wrapping skill/technique by publishing tutorials as well. I recently purchased her Moana Hoop Earring Tutorial but yet to try it out. Sooooon...... New Year "to do list" :) A customer of mine is attracted to her Samsara Mandala pendant when I showed her Erin's creations. She requested that I create something similar. I didn't promise her but said will try as I have yet to try out her tutorial. This pendant looks simple but took the longest time for me - almost two days. The longest time was spent for measuring all the separate pieces that formed the pendant. Then the wire wrapping which need to be done carefully so that all the separate pieces are spaced out evenly and the shape stays. At closeup, the pendant looks like a starfish. This pendant measures 5.5cm in diameter and created with 20ga and 28ga wires. Thank you Erin for the inspirations.

Thank you for A Smooth Year

Every year, as the year comes to an end, mom-in-law will pay visit to the temples to say thank you for a smooth year and pray for the same for the following year. We did just that this morning. We visited three temples and here are pictures taken of Tua Pek Kong, one of the oldest temple/building and a popular tourist spot in Kuching. The Hilton is located just next door to the temple, facing the awesome Sarawak River - not visible here but its to the left of this picture.

New Year Plan- What Are Yours?

Another 2 days to go, and 2009 will be here. What are your plans for the New Year? Party, parties and parties? If you are like me, I prefer to stay home and have a quite night and probably watch the countdown on tv. Been doing that for many many years now. I am a homebody...hehe!

As for New Year resolutions, I think I will have a few for 2009.
First and foremost is I NEED TO GET ORGANIZE. 2008 been a busy year for me. The whole year I have been trying to keep up with work (which involve lots of traveling) and my wire jewelry hobby. In the process, everything seems to be all over the place - *hmmm! I like my things to be in their proper place and neat* but there are things left undone or halfway done, files saved in temporary folders, pictures all over the desktop, new wire wrap techniques to learn and explore, long list of documents waiting to be read, books bought but haven't got the time to read, movies to watch, etc., etc. I can't even think straight or get them all down here. I REALLY NEED TO GET ORGANIZE. Maybe then I will be more focus.

So, what will you be doing this New Year and what are your New Year's Resolution?

Meet Me Halfway - Braided Wire Cuff

The idea for this braided wire cuff formed while I was making Facing the Cobra II the other day. If you are wondering, the wires really met halfway. I used 22ga and 28ga wires and stones are all tourmaline of different color shades except for the focal which is faceted Obsidian.

Take Flight - Wire Wrapped Butterfly Pendant

Merry Christmas and Christmas day is coming to an end in about 55 minutes. Here is a Christmas Day piece - a wire wrapped butterfly pendant with a heart shaped amethyst focal and Swarovski crystals surrounding it.

Christmas Greetings

I am taking this opportunity to wish all my readers and their families all the best this CHRISTMAS.

*****MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008*****

Wire Wrapped Seahorse's Tails - Earrings

This wire wrapped and weaved pair of earrings are to be paired with the seahorse pendant completed and posted yesterday. They don't look like seahorse but resemble the the seahorse tail :D - simple enough as requested.

Sea Horse - Variation

This wire wrapped seahorse pendant is another piece that took me long time to complete - almost whole day. The shaping of the seahorse frame took the longest time. Finally completed this pendant this evening. Matching earrings to go but that would be for later or tomorrow. This seahorse looks very pregnant don't you think so? Hehe! Its a custom order and I hope the new owner would love it as much as I do. Length - about 7 cm from top to bottom. Stones - garnet, tourmaline, Swarovski crystals and corals. Wire - 20ga for the frame and 28ga for weaving and coiling. I especially love the colors of the tourmaline (centre) when the sunlight shines through them.

Happiness is........

.....when the boys are happy and I am with them...yes simply that! Yesterday I took William and Henry to MV Doulus. Doulus is stopping over in Kuching till 3rd Jan 2009. Been here since 10th Dec. The last time I was on it was more than 5 years ago when William was still in my" womb" :). They have never been on a "big" ship before so this is such a special occasion for them.

Facing the Cobra II - Braided Cuff

This time around I made sure I snap lots of photos of this 2nd Braided Cuff (Facing the Cobra II). Reason being I forgot how I wire wrapped and weaved the first Facing the Cobra Cuff. Yeah! It happens all the time...:). Anyway, this 2nd cuff turned out better than the first one. Took me longer this time around because while wrapping it, I don't know how it should finish. It took shape as I work along.

Wire Woven Earrings

Simply wire woven hoops earrings. This is my first hoops.

Back to Wire Weaving and Adjustable Ring

This is sort of like a challenge for me. A customer requested for a cab wrap ala Eni's Square Cab Ring but it has to be adjustable ala Louise's woven wave bypass ring. Was not sure whether I can do it or not but I gave it a try last night and Yippi! its possible. As can be seen here, the square bead is wrapped according to Eni's Square Cab Ring method while the shank is according to Louise's adjustable woven ring method. It was not easy but it is possible. Planning to make another one again.

Want to Know How to Catch Crabs?

We used to do this a lot before the boys came along. I think it's earlier than that....about 10 years ago. Hubby and I love to go out fishing, prawn fishing or catch crabs. Then we got busy, then came the first baby then the second and now they are little boys and we are even busier. And of course, in between that I got addicted to wire jewelry....hehehe... Anyway, today hubby decided to go catch crabs and asked me to tag along. So, we did just that (took the older boy along - William). First we went to purchase six crab traps and a stingray head for baiting. Here are pictures showing the whole process....

Weaving my Heart Away

Am at weaving again and enjoying it very much. Someone saw the adjustable woven ring I made as gift for my friend the other day and requested for similar ones and here they are. Identical twins ha? :) Not reallylah! but they are woven with gold filled wire. The best thing about adjustable rings are you don't have to worry about the perfect fit. One size fits all! Easy on me and easy for the wearer.

Pearls are still the Favorite

Good old pearls. They are still the favorite among my customers. Here are few pairs wire wrap earrings completed today. Two pairs of simple stud earrings and a pair of angelic pearl earrings.

Playing with Copper Wire

I have been wanting to play with copper wire for a long while and finally did just that last night, of all time when I was busiest. Maybe it was stress due to the unfinished work and presentation (this morning). Anyway, I managed to steal some time off "work" to hammer two copper wires and twisted them into this two almost identical pieces. Not sure what to do with them but it was fun to do all the hammering..:) Maybe I should wire wrap the loops with some small beads. I can "see" green will go very well with copper! What think you? Also stole a little bit of time to wire wrap (simple) this donut jade pendant with gold filled wire - a special request.

Crocodiles and Orchids

Yesterday morning we were at Jong's Crocodile Farm. Took the boys to see the crocs - their first time. They were and are still excited and happy with the visit and now they are requesting for another trip there. Here are some pix of the hungry crocs.

Feeding time

A Tailless Croc

With Grandma

In the afternoon, hubby and me headed for Charlie's Orchid farm - my first time :) Took some pictures of his beautiful orchids. And so my whole day was gone and I ended up working at night.