Giveaway to 3 Lucky Readers - Ends 5th February 2010

Done! all 80 of them. These Sparkly Crystal Rings is one of my "way behind 2009" projects that I mentioned yesterday. I can't remember how many I have made the last two years but it should not be less than 300, maybe 400. I even have a step by step tutorial that shows you exactly how to make this ring at my Etsy Shop.

Oh! No, I am not asking you to buy this tutorial because I am giving away this tutorial to 3 lucky readers in conjunction with my birthday (:P! thank you all for the best wishes) and Valentine Day/Chinese New Year. So, if you are feeling lucky till the 5th of February and would like to learn how to make this ring, here is what you have to do to be one of the lucky 3.

How? Any 1 or more of these 4 easy ways!
1. Follow this blog, then leave a comment with your name or email address* - 1 entry
2. Tweet about this giveaway, then leave a comment here with your name or email address* - 1 entry
3. Link this blog to your blog/website, then leave a comment here with a link, your name or email address* - 1 entry
4. Blog about this giveaway, then leave a comment here with a link - 3 entries
(*I need your email address so that I can email you the tutorial if you win. If you prefer not to include email add here, please check back after the 5th of Feb and email me your email address. If I don't hear from you after the 10th February, I will pick the next winner).

Winners will be picked using Random.Org and announced on 6th of February 2010, Malaysian time.

All the best and happy wrapping.

Way Behind and my Plans

Right now, I am way behind on a lot of things that I have been planning to do in early 2010. I am well behind in finishing several commissioned pieces. I am lucky so far, as my clients have been very understanding and flexible. Thank you for that.

I have wanted to create a free tutorial for a while, but looks like it will not happen yet.
Now, I am thinking and planning for a giveaway instead. That will be the next best thing, right?
I have been planning to change the logo of my shop since last year but still haven’t gotten around to it.
I have planned to create my own banner and still have not gotten to it.
One of my friends has been asking me to print my own brochure so that he can market my creations but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I have planned to design and print my own business cards but right now the idea is still floating inside my head.

Well, that is the problem with a full time working mom with a hobby like this.
Right now, how I wish if printing company like PsPrint is nearby. Why? Because they provide online printing services that let you create and customize your own business cards, brochures, catalog, postcards, posters, stickers and many more in a matter of minutes. You don’t have to be a professional or hire a professional designer as their free online design tool, Design It! will help you create a professional looking card, etc.
Hmmm….if they ship to this part of the world (at the moment they only ship to Continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Canada), I would have tried out 50 business cards for a start - now only for a fee of $11.93.

They say internet makes the world small; ordering is accomplished with a click of a button. However, I will have to find my own ways with my logo, business card, banners and brochures for now.

Mystical Creature from South China Sea :)

When I was done with this wire wrapped sea horse this evening, I kept thinking that I would not be able to recreate or remake a similar seahorse. Partly because I spent a lot of time in forming the seahorse shape/frame. This is the most difficult part for me, shaping the wire to make it look like a seahorse.
More difficult when the whole seahorse frame is wire wrapped with one piece of wire.
Can you tell/see where the wire ends?
Coin pearl, seed pearls, colorful tourmaline, garnet, corals, Swarovski Crystal and peridot are the gemstones used.

I am quite happy with the outcome though. Maybe I should give it another try - a smaller seahorse :)
Happy weekend my dear readers.

What's Keeping Me Busy?

Finally its the end of the week. I can breath a little and look forward to the next 2 days where I don't have to rush from home to school early in the morning. Rush back home to pick up the small one to his kindy and I to office. At noon, I rush to pick the both of them from school/kindy to home and rush back to office, all within an hour. Sometimes missing lunch. DH works quite far from home so I have to be the "bus driver" for now. 
Our life would not be the same to pre 2010. With William in Year 1 and Henry in kindy, everything is now centered around their schooling and activities including extra classes. He is already talking about joining taekwando classes on Saturday. There goes half of my Saturday. But I wouldn't want him to miss anything while growing up.
Parents would sacrifice anything :)
Overall, its been a great week for William and us. For weeks we have been wondering how it would be like for him. Is he going to like it, hate it, scared, cry, shy, etc. etc?
It is a relief to see him enjoying himself and making new friends.
Very happy to get his first tie.
He loves his school uniform.
No teary eyes when we left him on the first day.
On the second day, he told me not to walk him to his classroom. But I insisted :)
He loves his Transformer school bag...always insist on pulling it himself.
What can I say, I am very proud of him! :D and want the best for him and Henry.

OK, its late and very tired. Time to get some sleep and tomorrow I shall post some pretties.

First Piece of Earrings for 2010

Just a simple pair of earrings to welcome 2010. A good start for 2010.
The 1st day of 2010 started quite well - sunny in the morning, overcast in the afternoon and raining in the evening. Its cool now. 
I stayed home whole day and got to do what I love to do. I only went outside in the evening to take pictures of this earrings in the garden.

 

Stones used for this earrings are garnet, peridot and green agate. 
I hope you have a wonderful 1st day of 2010 as well.

The Last Post of 2009

Less than 7 hours to go.
Goodbye 2009 and Hello 2010
A Huge thank you and a Happy New Year to all readers.
New year, new hope, new resolutions, new goals, new dreams, new to do (ok! some old to do :D), new projects, new wishes, new....oh...this is an endless list. Better not list them all because I have a feeling they will be old/new in 2011.
2009 generally was a good year for me and I hope 2010 would be a much much much much better one.
So, here's saying goodbye to 2009 and welcoming 2010 with my wide open arms and a wire wrapped Seahorse!
The letter "S" at the center is not for "Seahorse", it's the initial of the new owner :)

 

According to Wikipedia, the seahorse has long been a sign of eternal friendship in Hawaiian culture. Somewhere else mentioned it represents confidence and grace. Here's a detail post by Avia on the symbolic meanings of seahorse. This is interesting and new to me "A unique aspect of the seahorse is that the male is impregnated by the female and carries the offspring to term". If only human can do that...LOL.
I hope to have all the Seahorse's symbolic meanings in year 2010. 
Enjoy and Have a Very Happy New Year 2010.

Wire Wrapped Bird Cage Turquoise Rings (Triplets) and Mr. Spiky Pendant

Not as productive as I wanted to be the last few days. Some delayed projects and inability to meet deadlines. No hard feelings but I got time extension :) 

 

Here is my Triplets! Identical bird cage ring. These are tiny rings...size 7 done with 22ga wire.

This is an easy and fun project to make. Approximately 5 min each ring. These were done in between a very difficult project.

 

Meet Mr. Spiky. This piece is based on Carmen's tutorial - Spike Seahorse. Great technique and I can see many possibilities from this technique. Just haven't got the time to explore more. Next year maybe..:)
Talking about which, Have you list down your New Year resolutions?
Me, not yet - still thinking.

Happy Christmas from WireBlissMei

Here is wishing you a  Very Happy Christmas!
To both you and your families, my greetings and best wishes for the Christmas period. 
For New Year 2010, may you be blessed with good health, prosperity, happiness, abundance creativity, inspiration and beautiful wire jewelry creations.

This wire wrapped cross was completed recently for its tutorial. Since its almost end of 2009, I will bring this project to next year :)

No Wonder, its Winter Solstice Festival with Wire Wrapped Fruity Dangle Earrings

While taking shower this evening, I kept wondering why my fellow colleague left home early today. Normally they stay till 6pm or later. But this evening all left before 6pm. By the time I left, the office was empty. It only occurred to me during shower that its Winter Solstice Festival today. They left early to make sure they are on time for dinner with families. See how hardworking we are that we forgot about talking to each other except about work...hehe...
More on Winter Solstice Festival here. But then, we did have our festival family dinner (small scale) with our favorite soup as well as the Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls). The Tangyuan was a last minute purchase and preparation. Just before dinner, I walked to the nearby hypermarket to purchase 3 packets of the ready made tangyuan, boil them, add in gula melaka (Palm Sugar) and serve. Very simple and easy to prepare. My mom always say, once we have taken our tangyuan, we are one year older. That is why this festival is considered as the most important festivals of the year (some may not agree but that's what mom says) :)
While rushing for all this, I forgot to take photos of the tangyuan. Nevermind, but here's another type of tangyuan for your viewing pleasure :D More fruity....

Wire Wrapped Multi Gemstone Ring

This multistone ring seems to look better from the inside than the outside :)
A really tiny ring for a tiny finger - size 7. Stones are Tourmaline, Moonstone and Cherry Quartz, all my favorite stones.
Well, its 3 more days till Christmas and I still owe people some pretties. Hope I can finish them in time.
Got to go now, happy viewing and get inspired.

 

 

Ethnic Ring - The Eyes are Watching

Today I am reminded of Iza when I made this Ethnic Ring. If you don't know her, check out her awesome jewelry designs here. She has an etsy shop selling tutorials here.
Anyway, back to the ring, I took longer time than usual to complete this ring. Actually I redo 3 times to get the right size. The first one was too small, on second try the wires didn't want to cooperate so I threw the whole thing into the dustbin...a bit frustrated. Finally on third try, just the size I wanted.

 

 

Woven Earrings

Sometimes I find it a bit difficult to start on a project. This woven earrings is one of them. Maybe it is because it involves lots of coiling :) Although I use drill to coil the wire, the thought of the heavy drill, recharging the battery if its been sitting idle for a while and setting up the vice clamp can delay things a bit :) 
Don't get me wrong as I don't mind complicated projects but when there are simpler projects at the same time, I will start with the simpler projects first.
How about you?

 

P.s, this woven earrings was completed on time though ;)

Braided Wire Cuff - Facing the Cobra Edition

The problem with taking too many pictures is to decide which one to post here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pictures.  
This braided wire cuff was completed many days ago to be paired with the green braided ring posted earlier. They are now with their new owner :) Other similar braided wire cuff I wire wrapped previously are here and here.

Braided Wire Ring

This braided wire ring turned out totally different from initially planned.
This one is made of 24ga sterling silver wire and oxidized using the egg method as I have shared here before.
What I like most about this ring is that the stone is flanked on both sides by two small roses. The same rose as my wire rose earrings and rose rings :D

 

This ring is paired with a braided cuff, picture of which should be coming soon as I have loads of them to go through and edit.
Have a wonderful week then.

Wire Wrapped Rose Earrings and Brooch

Back when I just started with wire jewelry over 3 years ago, one of the first people I got to know is Kulli (Karnaaks) from Estonia. She especially love my Twice Around the World Bracelet. :) Be patience a bit ya Karnaaks! I should get started with the tut soon.
We lost touch for a while, then we got connected via Facebook. But then I just don't get to read all the fresh feeds each day. Most of the time I missed out on these feeds and happenings, including hers.
Recently though we got in touch again when she shared with me her wire wrapped rose earrings and brooch. She did them her way and they are some beautiful variations.
Here are some pictures of her creations. Hope you got inspired by them.