Tora Jewelry Blog

Weekly Geekery

2011-08-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pics this week, but wanted to share this awesome web comic I've been reading. It's got alternate dimensions with alternate versions of the main character. It's pretty cool, check it out: Cure Te Ipsum

Weekly Geekery

2011-07-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

I know I don't usually say much with these weekly geekery posts, but I love baking, especially cupcakes, and these are some awesome cupcakes. Find out more here.

Weekly Geekery

2011-07-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Zombie Gnomes!!

Yay D20 Necklaces

2011-07-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to make D20 necklaces for quite some time now. I'm something of a geek and have a voracious appetite for all things geek. I first saw D20 necklaces a year or so ago, and really liked them, but I want to be able to play with my pretty dice, not just wear them.

I decided to make my own version of D20 necklaces, something that would enable me(and you) to actually use the pretty dice us gamer girls covet. I knew chainmaille would come to my rescue, and it did. It took some playing around to get the sizes right, and to make sure the dice didn't fall out, but I persevered and I give my version of the D20 necklace.

I made a cage out of jump rings, using a variation of Japanese weave and it's being held snugly closed by a little lobster claw clasp. Who says you can't play with your dice and wear them too?

Buy here

Weekly Geekery

2011-07-11T09:48:00.001-07:00

welovefine.com

Events I Will Be At

2010-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of where"ll I'll be vending at this month:

Red Rabbit Arts & Crafts Market

9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday December 4, 2010.

Glendale Civic Auditorium
1401 North Verdugo Road
Glendale, CA 91208-3225

San Diego North Park Craft Mafia's Holiday Hit List

12:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Sunday December 5, 2010

North Park Masonic Hall
3795 Utah St.
San Diego, CA 92104

Maurice Car’rie Vineyard and Winery's Arts & Crafts Fair

10:00 am - 5:00 am
Saturday December 11, 2010

Winery
34225 Rancho California Rd.
Temecula, CA 92591

Jewelry Party

2010-09-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Want to earn free jewelry from Tora Jewelry? How about a jewelry party? Details here, for all Southern California residents.

Don't live in Southern California but still want to earn free jewelry? You can do an online party, simply choose a day and I will give you a special code to give your friends. Not only will all your friends get 10% off, but you earn free jewelry just like a home party.

Swag

2010-09-13T13:30:00.001-07:00

Working on swag for some shows I'm doing this holiday season. Here's a little sneak peak. Of course I still need to add chainmaille.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Craft Show Coming

2010-09-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

I will be vending at the North Park San Diego Craft Mafia Sunday Crafty Sunday. Come check it out. Mention my blog and get 10% off.

Sunday, Crafty Sunday - Celebrates El Día de los Muertos

Sunday, October 17th, 2010

3925 Ohio St. - 92104

1 pm - 6 pm

Wow, Busy Summer

2010-08-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wow my summer got busy, I was doing various markets and let my internet stuff fall by the wayside, but I'm back and trying to get back in the swing of things. It helps that the kids are back in school. I've got tons of new items to list, lots of new cell phone charms, an insane number of earrings, lots of pendants, necklaces and bracelets, so stay tuned. Meanwhile here's everything I listed last week, enjoy!

Daily Geekery

2010-06-26T19:05:00.001-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-22T15:43:00.001-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-21T16:33:00.001-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-20T17:25:00.001-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-18T22:33:00.001-07:00

Daily Geekery

2010-06-16T09:52:00.001-07:00

I've been doing polymer clay sculpture recently, so when I came across this awesome dragon fairy I just had to share.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-15T06:31:00.001-07:00

Doggy butt floss, how funny and cute. Sold by Fanimals on etsy.

New Project.

2010-06-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new project. Very different from my jewelry. New medium, different creations and a fictional character to run it all. Check out Lee's story and find my new creations coming soon.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Here's some awesome lego Alice in Wonderland by Legohaulic.
Also here's some rainbow Lego cakes I made for my aunts graduation.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

I love Zelda, and I used to cross stitch a lot, haven't done one in around 7 years, I think I may need to start again. I found this awesome Zelda map on flickr.

Sneak Peek

2010-06-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still creating maille, just busy with the craft show season, so having some trouble posting my new work on the ol' interwebs. Here's some maille I recently finished, not even close to the large number of things I have to take pictures of, but here ya go.
This lovely set is made with a new color of rings called hematite. The color is a gunmetal color with purple and green undertones, just awesome. The weave is mobiused rosettes, and the 16G rings make this set large and eye catching.

This pretty pendant below is polymer clay and by clayhappy. Awesome right?! I saw it and loved it and had to put some maille on it. The epoxy I used to secure it is curing, so I can't wear it until tomorrow. Then I will be rocking it.

And last but not least here's two new bracelets, the one on the left is a stretchy european 6-1, and the one on the right is mobius. The purple is actually dark purple, my lighting was just funky when I took these.

I've also got a non maille project I've been working on so keep an eye out for that.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

It's Bob! From Dresden files. Don't know who Bob is? Read Dresden Files, it's awesome. Buy this Bob soap here.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome alien abduction lamp. Details on where to buy here. Or, if you're crafty details to make one here.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-08T07:51:00.001-07:00

Found this cool Mega Man Project on flickr by RedHerring1up.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

I bought one of these cool little Voodoo Doll Pin Cushions, I love it. It glows in the dark and looks awesome with all my pins in him. I think I'll name him Larry. Get one from batgirl93's etsy shop.

Daily Geekery; Two For the Price of One

2010-06-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to post my daily geekery yesterday, the family went to Knotts Berry Farm. So here's double your pleasure of geekery awesomeness.

Less Than Three Ring by metalsmitten.

Nerd Dork Epresso Cups by trixiedelicious.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Robots! Lots of neat robots in tofu nutloaf's etsy shop.

Daily Geekery

2010-06-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome Tetris window I found on flickr

Daily Geekery

2010-06-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Not many of you may know this but I'm kind of a geek (my husband's laughing "kind of?"). I like sci fi and Star Trek. I read comic books and my cats name is Harry Dresden. My friends LARP, talk about D&D and play Magic the Gathering.

I love being a geek and I love finding geeky things, so I will share my geeky finds with you. Every day! Hope I'm not getting in over my head here.

Today I bring you Specimen No. 110 (Gerber), who I found in Specimen 7's Etsy shop. Is he awesome or what?

Chainmaille by Tora Jewelry

2010-05-22T09:38:00.001-07:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fixed my Photo Problem

2010-05-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

For the past month or so I've been really struggling with my photos. Why? Because I couldn't find a decent tabletop tripod. Most of the ones I've tried are so cheap they break right away or doesn't stabilize my camera any better than I can on my own.

So after going through a few I asked my husband if he could make me one. He had the ingenious idea to use a broken gps mount. What makes this so great? It has a suction cup, so I can suction cup it to where I want. This has been really cool for getting aerial type shots, since I can stick it to the wall. It's also much easier to adjust the angle.

Here's some non blurry pictures I took with my nifty new tripod.

How Much Should I Pay for Chainmaille?

2010-05-10T12:31:00.001-07:00

When I first wanted to learn chainmaille I went to the craft store and bought a $2 bag of jump rings and some $3 pliers and made a European 4 in 1 bracelet. I made a 7" long, 2" wide bracelet in half an hour. I thought it looked great, I planned on making more and selling them for $15. Then I started wearing it, first the bad closures scratched and kept opening. Then the cheap silver plate started wearing off and turning an ugly yellow color. So I started doing some research and talking to other maillers.

I learned about saw cut rings and good closures, my next European 4 in 1 bracelet took me about 3 hours to make, and the saw cut bright aluminum rings cost more than $2. If I still charged $15 for this bracelet I'd be paying myself about $2 per hour. And after factoring in time for tumbling the bracelet to get any burrs off, re inspecting for good closures, time to take pictures, post the item online, packaging and shipping time and cost, plus transaction fees, well now I'm not really making anything.

So when you see a handmade chainmaille bracelet and want to know why it costs $60 ask the mailler how long it took to make and inspect the closures. If you read my last post you know how to tell a good closure from a bad. Chainmaille takes time to make, especially with good closures, and with anything handmade the time and skill of the artist is a large part of what you're paying for.

And the winner is...

2010-04-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Dovile!! Yay! Dovile won my lovely Tao 3 pendant and earring set. Thanks everybody who entered!

What's in a Ring?

2010-03-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Chainmaille jewelry is made out of jump rings and there are many aspects to these rings that determine the quality of these rings.

These rings can be made out of many types of metals. You coil wire and cut the coils into rings. Many maillers who make armor make themselves armor very cheaply this way by using fencing wire. Jewelry on the other hand is a bit more complicated.

Before you buy chainmaille jewelry, you should know what it's made of. Don't be afraid to ask if that information isn't readily available. If your mailler doesn't know or wont tell you, move on.

The most common metals used in chainmaille jewelry are bright aluminum and anodized aluminum, stainless steel, copper and enameled copper, bronze, jeweler's brass, niobium and anodized niobium, titanium and anodized titanium, sterling silver, argentium silver, gold-fill, gold and rubber. I'll get more in depth on these metals in my next article.

These rings are wound into coils and cut into rings. The rings can either be saw cut with a jeweler's saw:

or pinch cut with pliers.

I prefer saw cut rings as they have less snags and povide a more smoothe and even closure. This is especially important with softer metal as they can snag and then come open. A chain really is only as strong as it's weakest link. it is important to examine the rings on your jewelry and make sure they have a proper closure. this means both sides of the ring meet smooth and flush.

Here are some examples of poorly closed rings:

Most chainmaille jewelry is not soldered closed, this makes good closures especially important, you don't want jewelry that's going to fall apart right away. Here is some jewelry I've made with good closures, you can zoom in to get a good look at the closures:

I Was Featured on The Front Page of Etsy

2010-03-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

We're All Mad Here

2010-03-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The kids loved it and I enjoyed reading it. I love reading and reading to my children is a new and wonderful experience. Now I have to decide what to read to them next.

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice
‘You must be’ said the Cat ‘or you wouldn’t have come here’

- “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

How to Choose Chainmaille Jewelry

2010-02-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

I buy handmade items to get better quality than the mass produced stuff you can find in any old store. I also love to be surprised by all the unique and wonderful items I find.
When I want to buy something I want to get the most bang for my buck. I'm not prone to impulse shopping. I want to get the most for my money and will research the heck out of anything I'm going to buy. So I got to thinking that I should let all my readers out there know how to choose good quality chainmaille jewelry.

Now most of the time when you think of chainmaille you think of knights in armor and swords or Renaissance Faires and people in costumes, but Chainmaille can make very beautiful and unique jewelry.

Before you buy chainmaille jewelry you need to know a little about how it's made to know how to choose your jewelry.

Chainmaille is composed of interlocking metal rings. There are two basic steps in making chainmaille: 1. Make rings, 2. Weave rings. Sounds simple right? That's what I thought too, but chainmaille can get pretty complicated. There are many weaves and variations on chainmaille. Some can be very simple and some can be very difficult.

The bracelet at the top of the page is a weave called jens pind linkage, a beautiful spiraling weave that took me three days, lots of cursing and tossing of rings before I mastered this weave.

I don't make my own rings, although I wold love to, I just don't have the space. So instead I purchase my rings already made. Choosing my supplier (that sounds so shady), was a time consuming process as I quickly learned all rings are not made equal.

As I go through this series of articles I will cover the many aspects involved in making chainmaille jewelry. I will cover the materials used, the quality of those materials. The time involved, and basic construction. Stay tuned, there's more good info to come.

Give it Away, Give it Away Now

2010-02-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

Did just date myself with that title? Well you guessed it I'm doing a giveaway and a raffle, of sorts.

I'll start with the raffle. I learned how to make these nifty little scratch off cards, so I decided it would be neat to make some for my one year business anniversary. At first I was going to give out tickets to each customer and one lucky winner would get some big prize, but I would have felt bad for everyone who didn't win, so instead everybody wins! Well every one of my next 30 customers.

I made 30 of these nifty scratch off cards with varying discounts. Some are for 5% off, 10% off, or 15% off. There is also one each of 25% off, free shipping, and $25 off purchase of equal or greater value. But wait, there's more.

If any of my previous customers would like a ticket,just email me with your info, user name, email address and what you ordered and I'll send you a ticket.

Now for the giveaway. I will be giving away this lovely Tao 3 Pendant and Earring set:

Or this set of Mobius Stitch Markers:

To enter for a chance to win one of these lovely prizes, all you need to do is leave a comment saying which prize you would like to win. Make sure you leave a away for me to contact you so I can let you know if you've won. I'll be accepting entries for this contest from now until April 2nd, 2010.

Was that to easy for you? Want more chances to win? You got it. Please leave a comment with links or other pertinent info for your extra entries

1 Extra entry if you grab my button and add it to your blog or website.
1 Extra entry if you follow my blog.
1 Extra entry if you follow me on twitter.
1 Extra entry if you tweet about this giveaway.

I entered Tora Jewelry's Giveaway! #giveaway @torajewelry blog here –> http://tinyurl.com/y8n5t7s

1 Extra entry if you fan my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/torajewelry?ref=sgm
1 Extra entry if you Stumble my giveaway.

2 Extra entries if you go to my etsy shop and comment what your favorite item is.
3 Extra entries if you blog about the giveaway and post a link to your blog post in the comments below.
5 Extra entries if you purchase an item from any of my shops, either on etsy, artfire or my website

I will notify the winner the following day! You will have 48 hours to claim your prize or I will have to pick another winner. Winner will be chosen through random.org, so the more entries you have, the more chances of winning! You must leave a way for me to contact you, or your entry won't be eligible. You cannot leave several comments for extra entries, you must earn your extra entries by following the different things you can do under my Extra Entries section. You are responsible for knowing what is allowed to be shipped to your country. If you enter a giveaway and win something that can't be shipped to your country, your entry will be disqualified and a new winner will be chosen.

Thanks for participating in this giveaway!

New Earrings, Bad Pictures

2010-02-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

I made these beautiful argentium silver and rainbow niobium byzantine earrings. They came out great and I'm excited to list them in my shop but I can't get a good picture of them. Or at least not one I'm happy with. Here's a pic that came out ok.
Also, keep an eye out, I'm going to do a giveaway soon.

Finding Neat Stuff

2010-02-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

Ever since I started selling on etsy, I have spent a large amount of time just looking through the items and finding some amazing things. So I thought I'd share some of the neat things I've found with you people.

A few weeks ago I found this awesome seller and these super cool journals. Some glow in the dark, how cool is that?! Check them out, buy their stuff, and here's a link to their blog http://spiderbiteboutique.blogspot.com/.

Etsy
Buy Handmade
ToraJewelry

Going Mobile

2010-01-26T11:30:00.001-08:00

My hubby bought me a new phone and I'm testing out a mobile blogging app.

Here's a pic of what I'm working on, two wallet chains to make. Hope this works.

New Jewelry

2010-01-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yay, I finally listed some new jewelry in my shop. Just one necklace for now, but I'm going to be taking pics and trying to get up the rest soon. Here's my Spiral Crystal Drop Chainmaille Necklace.

Long name right? But I'm trying to get all the relevant search words in the title since most search engines use the first 60 characters for relevant searches.
I found this pretty focal piece in a little bead store in Riverside. I have one more, but I think I'm going to do something different with the other, so this will be the only necklace like this.
The chain is made up of the Japanese 2-2 weave. There are three spiral chains dangling from the main chain and the center spiral has a mobius flower in the center.A pretty necklace and I'm very pleased with how it turned out, I've had this idea in my head for months now and it's awesome to see how it turned out.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a little late but I've been taking an unofficial vacation, trying to get done all those projects I've been meaning to get to, and enjoying some time with hubby and the kids. I've got a ton of pics of some new pieces but i can't get them off my camera yet. I bought a new external hard drive and am in the process of moving the almost 500GB of stuff on my old hard drive to the nifty new 1.5TB. I found a program to do it for me and my computer isn't happy, it's slowed down to an insane crawl and wont recognize my camera.

I've made a new years resolution to lose weight. I've been pretty unhappy with my weight since the birth of my second child, but I've been procrastinating doing anything about it. Well that's going to stop, I've started jogging every day, and while today was only my second day I'm going to keep it up. I'm to young to have a sore back and knees all the time. I hope to buy the wii fit soon to help increase my daily exercise, or to use on days i might not be able to run. Wish me luck!

Fun Trip and Awesome Stuff

2009-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday the family and I went to The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The kids had so much fun. If you haven't seen their dinosaur encounter show, I encourage you to go, the kids were amazed and loved it. Here's a link to a video of what it is if you haven't heard of it; video. It's basically these really cool lifelike dinosaur puppets that walk around and make noise, amazing.

They also had a pretty neat bug exhibit, we touched some Madagascar hissing cockroaches. There was a replica t-rex skeleton you could put together and a fossil "dig" site for the kids. We had a lot of fun.

I also wanted to mention some awesome perfume I bought from an etsy seller. The shop is called Wiggle Perfume and has the most amazing smelling perfumes. I bought myself 20 samples to figure out which one to buy in a large size. This didn't work out so great as I love them all and still don't know what to buy.

My husband was no help either. This man is insanely picky when it comes to smells and I have barely worn perfume in the past ten years because it's so hard to find something he likes. He loved all the perfumes I ordered, except for maybe two. I think I may have to just order them all and wear a different smell everyday.

I ordered some 27 Men's Fragrance for my hubby and he wants me to thank Wiggle for coming up with this intoxicating scent, since I can't stop sniffing him every time he puts on, which usually get's us all hot bothered and well I'm sure you can guess the rest.

Try out some of the perfumes, you'll love them, trust me.

From My Kitchen

2009-12-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

When my husband and I moved in together, seven years ago, and we were still boyfriend and girlfriend, we discovered a little problem, cooking. Well I thought it was a little problem, but it turned out to be a big problem.

Our first apartment was in Colorado, we're both native Californians. We moved out there mid June and just assumed we could BBQ all our meals, and make easy boxed sides. This worked fine until it started to snow hard, I mean really hard, we were literally buried in snow, and couldn't leave our apartment. It was so cold, when we actually braved the frigid weather and tried to BBQ on our tiny balcony, our pathetic BBQ froze and the flame continually went out, not to mention our lack of snow gear meant frozen everything. Have you ever walked out in 15 below weather with a 25 below wind chill and then touched a frozen BBQ? So not fun.

And there we were with a freezer full of meat we didn't know how to cook, not that we had very much to cook with. so for three days we lived on top ramen and steamed frozen vegetables. When we were finally able to leave and walked two blocks in thigh high snow drifts we found our grocery stores roof had caved in. We then had to slosh our way four more blocks to the next nearest store and stocked our pantry(really a box in the corner of the dining area) full of spices and vegetables.

Of course we wore tennis shoes on this walk(did I mention we're from California?) and had to thaw our feet in the store before walking home and repeating the thawing process. Then we stared at this pile of supplies we had braved the snow for and had no idea what to do with it. Thank goodness for the internet, our phones didn't work, but we still had internet and I watched a couple videos and made a pot roast, and a discovery, I love to cook.

That experience was the beginning of my culinary adventure and the last time I cooked something out of a box. My family calls me a food snob, but they love to eat the treats I bring. So here's my latest culinary experiment, marshmallows.

I love to watch Food Network and my favorite show is Good Eats with Alton Brown, so when I decided to make marshmallows I had to see if he had a recipe, he did and you can find it here.

These marshmallows came out awesome! So good, and light and fluffy with an amazing flavor, way better than any store bought marshmallows. I'm planning on giving these out at Christmas with some homemade instant hot cocoa.

On anither note, I finished up my new jens pind linkage wallet chain check it out here, and here's some pics

Sneak Peek

2009-12-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a new wallet chain, since my full persian chain is doing so well. Right now I'm working on a jens pind linkage weave. Later I think I'll do a byzantine one, we'll see what I want to do next.

I'm also working on a chainmaille dining set, napkin rings, coasters and wine glass charms. Fun stuff ahead.

My Real Crafting Beginning

2009-11-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

I finished embroidering a leaf pattern on this apron I've been working on.It's not finished so that's why there's still marks from my embroidery hoop. I bought a really neat starter kit from Sublime Stitching, I'm going to add a cute fairy sitting on a mushroom.

I bought a starter kit because I haven't embroidered in years, which is strange because embroidery was my first craft and started my love/addiction for crafts.

I know I stated before that I first learned to craft when I was 10 and my grandma taught me to crochet, but my abuela told me I was "wrong, wrong, wrong," and to prove this she pulled out my first embroidery sampler, and written in the corner was "Monique, age 6". I gues my 80ish grandmother has a better memory than me, I'm 27 and losing it already.

Anyways, I remember now. My grandma and my abuela took turns watching my sister and I over summer break. I was 6 and I was bored, which I felt the need to express, quit vocally and often. After she had had enough of my whining, my abuela said let me teach you something to keep you entertained.

She said follow me and took me to her forbidden craft room. I loved her craft room, but my sister and I were never allowed in there. And now she was leading me through the door and I was giddy with wonder and excitement. Then she went to this giant metal cabinet, unlocked it and there was a treasure trove of crafting supplies. Fabric, ribbon, buttons, thread, sequins, glitter and plenty I didn't get to see before she grabbed what she needed and closed the door and locked it back up.

She then took a piece of paper and pressed it to a piece of fabric and ironed them. Then she handed me the fabric and there was a cute little unicorn smiling back at me. Abuela pulled out large a box of threads and told me to pick out whatever colors I wanted. I chose pink and purple.

I was then taught a few basic stitches and I sat and I embroidered until my mom came to pick us up. A couple days later I finished the unicorn, then started on a cat followed by a teddy bear.

And I fell in love with crafting. I love to create and tried as many crafts as I could get my hands on. I still do this. I love to learn new things and I love the pride and accomplishment I feel when I create something new.

Lot's of Stuff Going On

2009-10-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Lot's of stuff going on this last couple weeks. I got some new gift boxes. I love how they look. I think they look more professional than my origami boxes, and they go with my brand better. It also takes my way less time to add the ribbon and logo to the boxes than to make boxes.

I also listed a ton of new items in my shop check them out.

I'm especially proud of my Graduated Full Persian Set, I think I'm going to have to make one for myself. It took a lot of time to make, but the end result was definitely worth it.

And last but not least, I spent this last weekend cleaning house. My kids usually help, but baby girl was overwhelmed with the laundry and passed out in the basket.

Busy, Busy

2009-10-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile, lots of stuff going on. I've been helping plan my grandparents 60th anniversary party and it's been a little hectic. I'm making the invites, getting mariachis and a few other small things that have been incredibly time consuming. I've been mailleing whenever I get a chance and now have a huge pile of items to photograph.

I got my Rainbow Chainmaille Bracelet featured in etsy finds. Yay! Got lot's of hits from that and a few sales. Here's the link if you want to check it out: Etsy Finds: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I love rainbows and got two request for rainbow jewelry, one was for a shaggy loops bracelet that turned out awesome.

The second is for a byzantine and necklace and bracelet set with rainbow connectors. No pics yet but I should have some up in a few days.

I also sold my Rainbow Spiral Bracelet, I think it looks like a DNA strand, like this is what rainbows DNA would look like.

Cool New Item

2009-08-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

We're a pretty techie family here. We've got our hdtv, our PS3, a couple computers, ipods, etc. But we try not to spend to much money on our obsession, so we buy broken stuff and fix it, we build our computers ourselves.

So a couple weeks ago I replaced the touch screen on my DS and noticed my stylus was lost again. My sons stylus was also lost. My stash of stylus had been depleted and my hubby wasn't sharing his last stylus. after thinking about it I realized we've gone through about 18 of these suckers, and at $8 for three, it's getting pretty expensive.

So of course i thought how can I solve this problem, and how can I use chainmaille to do it? I came up with these:

Now we should never lose another stylus again. Plus they're super cute. Like them? Want one? Buy it here. Now what can I add maille to next?

Tora Jewelry, mailling your world one ring at a time.

Mo

Handmade Tuesday

2009-07-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this qualifies as handmade, maybe hand-blended, hand-mixed? Or how about homemade. All good food is homemade and today I want to talk to you about some tea I recently bought from teaman on etsy.

First let me tell you about my quest for tea. It all started five years ago when I had my first cup of earl grey. I loved it, but the friend who gave it to me bought it while in England and I could not find this particular tea online. So I started shopping for tea. Over these past five years I have bought every new brand of tea I could find. some were pretty good, most were not. The majority of them were weak and needed two to three tea bags to make a strong cup of tea.

So a couple days ago I was clicking through etsy looking for new things and I came across teaman. I had never thought of looking on etsy for tea, but decided to give it a try after looking at all the wonderful feedback teaman received. My tea arrived yesterday and i could smell the tea through the lovely tin. Most teas I can't even smell through the little box they come in. I promptly made a cup and it was fabulous. This tea actually surpassed that first cup I had all those years ago. Only one teabag made a wonderful cup of tea.

Great tea from teaman, if you love tea give him a try, best tea ever!!

Monique

Are You Ready for a Treasure Hunt?!!

2009-07-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

I recently joined an amazing forum called The Handmade Artists Forum. This is ana amzingly supportive forum full of talented artists. We recently started an etsy team and the HAF team is having a treasure hunt!!

Follow the clues in our Treasury and you could win a beaded bookmark and phone charm from Suzies Armoire

Here's the Treasure Hunt

Start at the Crazy Moon Pendant and see where you end up! Then send a convo to Handmadeartistsforum.etsy.com with the ID# for the item that contains the clue that led you to the end of the hunt. Everyone who finds the correct ID# gets entered in a drawing to win the prize!!!

Have Fun!

Handmade Tuesday

2009-07-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm late!! I'm late!!

Would you believe I totally forgot it's Tuesday? Well I kind of did until right now, good thing I had my stuff ready.

I've been designing jewelry for some time now and I never thought of using wood. I'd seen wood used in jewelry, of course, but it never appealed to me. Then I joined The Handmade Artists Forum and met the jewelry designer who runs Jewelry by Janelle50 and saw her amazing work with exotic wood. Check out these two beautiful pieces and then go check out her shop.

Finding Jump Rings In Odd Places

2009-07-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

I lose a lot of jump rings, sometimes I knock them off my workspace. Sometimes I drop them. Sometimes I fling them across the room in frustration. So I also find them all over the house. I find them on the floor a lot. I find them in my clothes, in my bra and in my hair. I've found some in my driveway. i even found one in my daughters diaper, not recycled, but still.

Perhaps, i shouldn't have been surprised when I found a jump ring in my sandwich. Or rather in my mouth compliments of my sandwich. I don't know if I happened to fling said ring into the kitchen and it somehow stuck to my peanut butter. Maybe it landed in my hair and fell into the sandwich. Maybe I flung it so hard it flew down the stairs where the cats played with it, thus flinging it into the air at the exact moment i was making sandwiches, so it could land in either my peanut butter or jelly. Maybe I should just be more careful with my rings.

Now I'm going to have to shake out my clothes and hair before preparing food. And keep an eye on those cats.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Monique

Handmade Tuesday

2009-07-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and feature a different handmade artist evry Tuesday. Tell you a little about their stuff and why I like it. Today allow me to introduce Paw and Claw Designs.

I'm a total geek so I love this stuff. My favorite are The Answer to Life, The Universe & Everything earrings. If you've ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy series by Douglas Adams you can appreciate the brilliance behind these.

I also love this Die, Die, My Darling Pendant. I love Magic: The Gathering, and have a whole box full of these twenty sided dice. This pendant is such a great geeky statement and this ones in pink!!

Lot's of other geeky wondernous abounds in this shop from earrings featuring elements from the periodic table, to guitar pick earrings, to retaining ring pendants. Check them out you'll love 'em!

Monique

New Stuff

2009-07-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here's some new stuff I've recently listed in my shop. Starting from top left and working my way around clockwise we have: Stretchy Half Persian Bracelet, Purple Crystal Romanov Necklace, Rosettes Bracelet and Double Spiral Necklace. The stretchy bracelet can be customized with twelve different colors of anodized aluminum.
I'm loving the double spiral necklace, I almost don't want to sell it. If the crystals in the heart were blue I'd never be able to part with it.

I also finished my elfweave bracelet with the lapis lazuli. I love how this one turned out. The bronze of the rings really brings out the gold streaks in the stone. It's just amazing.

I'm working on a lot of earrings right now. I made some polyhedrons and some tao 3. I'm going to do a few pendants and then some bracelets. I've got a pile of pictures to get ready to post and then in a few days I'll list some new items. For now I'm off to bed, right after I finish this next bracelet.

Monique

Elfweave Bracelet

2009-06-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

I finished my wrapped cabs last week. They're wrapped in half persian 3 in 1. The rings are all bronze, the outer two are 20G 1/8" and the middle one is 22G 1/8". I filled the backs of the cabs with some E6000 to hold the chainmaille in place. The backs turned out pretty decent, but I still had a few tiny bubbles I couldn't get out.

I'm going to attach one to a bracelet of elfweave. The darkest one is my favorite, so I'm going to use that on the bracelet. I'm liking
how it's turning out so far, the bronze looks really nice against the lapis lazuli, it's tarnishing a little while I'm working on it, but I'll fix that once I'm done. I haven't decided if I'm going to leave the rest as pendants or attach them to something. I'll probably leave them as pendants and move on to my next project. I'm thinking I'm going to do some japanese weaves next. Off to maille!

Monique

What I made and what I'm working on

2009-06-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I worked on six helm bracelets. I made them in red, green, blue, pink, orange and purple. I'm waiting for some more rings to come and then I'm going to make more in silver, yellow and rainbow. They're made with 16G 5/16" bright aluminum and Epdm, with 18G 3/16" anodized aluminum. I love colors, they're so much fun. I plan on making matching chokers and a million other colored bracelets of varying weaves. I really like the stretchy that the EPDM provides, it's nice to not have to worry about clasps. I made my kids a few stretchy bracelets for this reason, they can get them on and off themselves.

Right now I'm working on chainmaille wrapped cabochons. I've got three lapis lazuli cabochons 18 x 13mm ovals. I'm wrapping them in half persian 3 in 1 with braonze 20G 1/8" jump rings. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do when done. Probably bracelets, but I haven't decided what weave to use for the bracelets. Maybe GSG or half persian 3-1 sheet 6. Or maybe I'll do some japanese 12 in 2, which I've been wanting to do again for awhile. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

How I Got Started

2009-06-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've started this blog to document my progress in starting a business. I make jewelry, I've always been a crafty person. I started crafting at around age 10 when my grandma taught me to crochet. I was raised under the belief of "why buy something when you can make it yourself?"

Next I learned embroidery, sewing, scrapbooking, beaded jewelry, woodworking and knitting. I've jumped back and forth over these various crafts over the years, learning as many techniques as I could.

I started making my own jewelry at age 14., I loved it and my bead collection grew over the years. Fast forward 12 years to last December, I was searching through etsy and came across a chainmaille bracelet. I loved it! It was amazing and I delved into the subject of chainmaille jewelry.

Being the planner that I am I began researching chainmaille and chainmaille jewelry. The art of chainmaille is over 2000 years old, with it being used primarily as armor. There are european, japanese and persian weaves, but the celts, romans and the Norse were the original proprieters of maille. Much later around Shakesperean times chainmaile began being used as jewelry.

In January I bought some jump rings, pliers and taught myself chainmaille. The first thing i made was a japanese 12 in 2 weave choker. It took me a couple hours to finish, and by the time it was done I had a new passion. I started weaving like crazy. I loved it more than any other craft I've done over the years.

I soon had my jewelry box overflowing with chainmaille. My friends and family got lots of chainmaille. One day my husband came home and saw me working on yet another piece and said "Why don't you try selling that stuff?" Why don't I? A few weeks later Tora Jewelry was born.

The name comes from my love of tigers and japanese art. Balancing starting a business and caring for my children, ages 2 and 5, was difficult at first, but with help from my husband I'm off to a pretty decent start. I'm mainly focusing on my internet shop for now, but I am planning on scoping out local Farmer's Markets and other local places to sell.

Wish me luck,
Monique