Sarawak Craft Festival and Sarawak Regatta 2015

This took place last month, 18-27 Sept 2015 in conjunction with the Kuching Waterfront Festival.

This year, the handicraft booths was extra long. There were more than 300 booths selling all sorts of unique handicraft, mostly local Sarawak handicraft.

▼ Entrance to the long stretch of handicraft booths.

▼ Lots of handcrafted native beads - a feast for the eyes.

▼Woven dresses, skirts, purse, silverwork, vests, hats from the highland tribe.

▼ I love the work of this artist. Its traditional and modern at the same time. The colors are very attractive.

▼ The native of Sarawak are well known for their woven craft.
These items here are made from natural material such as wood bark, leaves, bamboo and rattan.

▼These are handicraft by the Iban ethnic group.
The Ibans are well known for their woven blanket known as 'pua kumbu’ as well as baskets, backpack, mats and silver accessories.

▼Woodwork - bird cage and drum making.

▼This lady is not from northern Thailand or Myanmar. She is from the Bidayuh tribe and you can only find ladies like her in one village in the whole of Sarawak. Semban is a village in the Borneo Highland but villagers were recently relocated/resettled to a new area to give way for development.
She wears her copper rings around her forearms and calves (Luyang and Lasong), but none around the neck. Rare and unique tradition indeed. However, this tradition is dying as the younger generation no longer wear these rings.

▼I was very tempted to get one of this carved wooden lamps. Very cute and fine craftmanship.

▼Batik painting - the three of us took turns to finish this piece of Batik painting. Nice?

▼The Sarawak Regatta at Kuching Waterfront.
The DUN (Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building) is at the background.

Minlace of colored stones for my favorite nephew

Its been a month since my last post!
Time really flies.
In between, I visited my dear mum for a few days with her.
Back home in Cat City we finally completed the 3 beds...yes DIY beds!
We worked day and night, weekdays and weekends.

While visiting mom, I got to meet my little nephew - Brandon. He was a baby the last time I saw him. He has grown lots, very intelligent and talkative. And guess what? He loves colorful gemstone, just like me. My buddy, we talk the same "language" :)
He kept looking and caressing my gemstone bracelets and necklace during our car journey back to mum's place. Kept saying he loves the colored gemstones.

His request is for a necklace with all the rainbow colored gemstones.
So, once back home, I quickly assembled all the colored gemstones that I have and wire wrapped this Minlace just for him. Otherwise, he kept asking when am I going to send him his colorful necklace.

Look at his happy face. He said "I like it!" Very cute.

Here are the gemstones beads that I use to wire wrap Brandon's Minlace - Prehnite, Peridot, Garnet, faceted and round Amethyst, Swarovski Crystal, Agate and Tourmaline.
Chain: Stainless steel chain link and lobster claw clasp.

Henry tried it on but said its not his style.

6 Steps Tutorial: Beaded Geometric Earrings

You will need the following for this project are:

• Wire - about 4 in or 10 cm long
• 5 Agate Beads, any type - I use 4mm Dyed Agate
• Earring hooks - there are many types of earring hooks. I use leverback earwire.
• Wire cutter, round nose pliers or just a normal pliers that can bend wires.

First, have a look at the completed beaded geometric earrings.

Here is the 6 steps tutorial.
Click on the picture for enlarged view.

Got inspired yet?
I hope you've enjoyed this simple 6 steps geometric earrings tutorial.
You can turn many other geometric shapes into beautiful jewelry.
Just let your imagination lead the way.

If you have suggestions, comments or something to say, do leave me a comment.

Wire Jewelry - Wire Wrapped Rose Earrings - Non Soldered

Hi! Happy Monday!
Yikes, still lazy to start anything but this will be a quick post for today.
Here's a pair of Wire Wrapped Rose Earrings, which (I couldn't believe it!!!) was completed few months back but I somehow forgot to post.

There are a few more earrings that were in the same batch but that would be for later.

This rose earrings here is a stud.
No soldering involve at all.
The process of creating them is similar to my "Wire Wrapped Rose Earrings Tutorial at Etsy" but with a little bit modification. Nevertheless, you'll get the idea if you go thru the steps.

And yes, this is a quick project, maximum 30 minutes of your time.
Haha....I always love simple (but elegant) and quick project.
Have a great week ahead.

Minlace - Prehnite the Stone of Prophecy

Finally got myself a bit of time to post this. Kind of slow right?
This time, I am back with Minlace (Minima Necklace). This Minlace is wire wrapped with the same stone as the Minlet in previous post - yes, prehnite.

Can't believe my first Minlace was back in January this year. Been wearing it ever since and yikes! how time flies.

Material:

• Chain: Box link stainless steel chain
• Clasp: Lobster claw clasp
• Gemstone Beads: Natural Prehnite nuggets of various sizes
• Length: About 42 cm or 16.5 inches

If you are a believer in the power of gemstones and crystals, Prehnite is believed to be a stone of prophecy. It also calms and protects and many more (believed) benefits such as these:

• Enhance level of insight - see truths you would otherwise be blind to.
• Enhance precognition, visualization and inner knowledge.
• Dream recall and to alleviate nightmares, deep fears and phobias. 
• Helps in decluttering your life and dispel unpleasant memories.
• In health, it heal the kidneys and the bladder, gout, anemia as well as increase energy.

MinLet - Prehnite, for Peace and Protection

Compared to man made crystals or beads, I prefer natural gemstones.
If it is a green colored gemstones, better still :)

This time around, my MinLet (Minima Bracelet) is wire wrapped with natural Prehnite nuggets.

One thing about Prehnite is that the stone can be a little bit on the brittle side. Few pieces got chipped off at the edges where holes were drilled. At least a third of them. Very sayang (wasted), so got to think of what to do with those chipped pieces.

Got to be extra careful while wire wrapping the stones as well. Be gentle.

Material:

• Chain: Box link stainless steel chain
• Clasp: Lobster claw clasp
• Gemstone Beads: Natural Prehnite nuggets of various sizes
• Length: About 7 inches (18 cm). Adding few jump rings will add to the length of the MinLet.

Tutorial Packages for Ring and Earring Projects

These are for Ring and Earring people.
I know some of you are ring people and like to make ring projects only.
Others may be earrings people and prefer earring projects only.
There are pendant and bracelet people too.
Hope I am right :)

Today I put together 2 tutorial packages, each for RING projects and EARRING projects.

The RING Package made up of all 6 tutorials available.
As a package, I am offering it at 35% less i.e. $20.00 only.
That is about $3.30 for each tutorial.

You can get the tutorial package here - RING Tutorial Package

The EARRING Package made up of all 5 tutorials available.
As a package, I am offering it at 35% less i.e. $15.00 only.
That is $3.00 for each tutorial.

You can get the tutorial package here - EARRING Tutorial Package

Both tutorial packages are available via Instant download.
You will receive an automatic email notification letting you know the file is ready on the Downloads page.

I am open to suggestions.
Let me know if you prefer other packages and we can work it out from there.