Wow, Busy Summer

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!

Sneak Peek

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.

Give it Away, Give it Away Now

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

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.

Lot's of Stuff Going On

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.

Handmade Tuesday

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.

New Stuff

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

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

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

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