Custom Family Tree Brooch

I've probably said this before, but I truly love to create custom orders. My fingers are aching a little today from the creation of a brooch that required more planning and diagramming than usual. One of my friends saw the custom Family Tree Pendant that I had created and loved the idea. She wanted a brooch for her mother to commemorate their family and the family that they would have become had her mother not lost her special someone to cancer only a few weeks ago. She wanted the Family Tree motif with one particular representation that would not be part of the tree but rather shining down upon it from above. Being a part of this gift was exceptional.

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*Maria

Awesome Custom Experience

First off, let me say that I love creating custom orders. It's so fulfilling to create something with that little bit of "extra special" because you know it is being creating with special intentions or with someone's own specific tastes in mind.

Well, this past Friday, a wonderful family of three stopped by my table near the end of the day. I liked them right away because so much of my work caught their eyes and they really seemed to enjoy looking at everything that I make. They noticed the one pair of Jingle Bell earrings that I had left and I just loved them. But they wanted 2 pairs- a mother/daughter set, and it would be Abigale, the daughter's first pair of dangly earrings. I let them know that I do custom work and showed them the remaining selection of coloured jingle bells that I had. Each of them selected their own combination of 3 bells, and Abigale scooted in behind my table to see how I make them.

 What a sweet duo!

I gave her the step-by-step lowdown and she watched intently as her first pair of dangly earrings were being created right alongside her mothers. When I finished (about 7 minutes later), her mother asked her, "Abigale, who do you want to change your earrings for you?" She was a little timid and nervous about the possibility of it hurting, but after watching my fingers deal with so many little pieces she was ready to let me try to remove her studs and said "I want her to do it!" I carefully took them out, and Abigale was so surprised that she didn't feel a thing when I put in her new earrings. With a big smile on her face, she gave her head a shake to test out the jingle and was so excited to experience this new milestone of dangly earrings.

 

Mother and Daughter enjoying their new Jingle Bell Earrings :) 

Both mother and daughter were quite happy with their new holiday earrings, and even though they both have big smiles on their faces, I don't think they were quite as happy as I was to have been lucky enough to have them as customers. It wasn't a big purchase, but it was the most memorable experience of my holiday selling season and that's something you can't put a price on. Below you'll find a short little video of the two of them jingling their new earrings. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays! It's moment like this that really bring out the joy of this season.

*Maria

Holiday Marketplace is Keeping Me Busy!

This is my first holiday season as a vendor! Both online in the world of Etsy, and in person in my hometown of Guelph, Ontario. Keeping up with orders in the shop while making product for both the shop and my craft table, posting updates and pictures on the February Jones Facebook Fan Page, and constantly creating upcycled gift envelopes and product tags (not to mention assisting in my household with my regular duties like getting Abby off to school in the morning, getting through the laundry, keeping the apartment clean, AND making a crapload of Christmas gifts to keep up with our 'handmade gift' policy) has kept my life so busy that finding the time to get a blog post up has been tricky. But here it is! I've been taking advantage of my weekdays in Old Quebec Street Mall by testing out some new items that I haven't listed on Etsy yet. Would you like to see some?

Chaos Bracelets with toggle clasps, silver wire 

These gorgeous bracelets are crocheted strands of wire and beads carefully woven together and finished with a toggle clasp. I love the way that the colours mix with the pearly beads for a kind of controlled chaos effect. Hence the name "Chaos"!

Wordsmith Earrings - wooden shapes collaged with recycled encyclopedias and finished with shiny gloss

The first items in a new line called "Wordsmith". I absolutely love words in general, so the sophisticated, bookish, and yet oh-so-fun feel of these earrings definately makes them a contender for one of my favourites. I'll be exploring how different shapes work with the process of collaging- let me tell you, creating those stars was tricky work! But I'm so happy with the result that I'm sure I'll endure the goopy fingers and frustrations of dealing with so many angles many more times in the future :)

Quantum Squiggle Tree Ornaments

I love my Quantum Squiggles so much that I had to have at least one on my own Christmas tree. What a cool way to bring Quantum joy into the holiday season!

Jingle Bell Earrings

And last for today, but certainly not least, the Jingle Bell earrings. There's nothing that will do a better job of reminding you that the holidays are in full thrall than to have gentle jingles dangling from your earlobes.

And so I shall leave you now, with these fun images to show you a little bit of what I've been up to. I have miles of yarn calling my name that need to be transformed into a plethora of fun and cozy things and judging by the calendar, my time is quickly running out! Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, and handcraftaliscious holiday season...

*Maria

A Peek at the Deoxy Collection

Deoxy Triple Helix Necklace in Red

 "Deoxy" is short for "deoxyribonucleic acid" more commonly known as "DNA".

Here is just a small taste of some of the ideas that went into the design of this line.

"DNA" as a Source of Inspiration:
It is amazing to me that so many different people exist and that we all begin exactly the same way. No matter how different we appear, or how opposite our interests or thoughts are, we have the same foundation. DNA is a structural double helix, and our galaxy (the Milky Way) has the exact same structure. How fitting that the smallest part of what makes us individuals is just the same as our local universe...

Deoxy Clone's Earrings in Bluest Blueberry

Symbolism is Built Into the Design:
This collection shows different ways of playing with helices and representing a double helical structure through forms of wearable art. The resulting pieces are both organic and galactic in form, playing on the similarity between our galaxy and our genetic makeup.

Deoxy Gene's Earrings in Purple

The collection is currently composed of 3 different kinds of necklaces and 2 different kinds of earrings, all in a variety of colours. Some pieces of the collection are featured in this post.
The Necklaces:
Triple Helix - 3 Deoxy chains of the same length
Replication - 3 Deoxy chains of varying length to give a cascading effect
Chromo - A single chain in a thicker wire gauge than the previous two

The Earrings:
Gene's Earrings - 2 Deoxy links, a very simple and elegant look
Clone's Earrings - 5 Deoxy links branching out from one another as though Gene's Earrings are in the process of being cloned ;)

*Maria