Paris shows

Being involved in a creative endeavor, I now have an excuse to indulge my obsession with fashion - not that I needed much excuse to begin with, but at least now I can justify the countless hours I spend poring over the collections as "research" instead of feeling like I'm just wasting time dreaming over moonbeams. After all, jewelry design involves keeping up with the trends, be they in fashion, art, interiors, architecture, or other forms of design.

I've been mesmerized by the clothes from the recent Paris collections for fall 2008, especially John Galliano's designs for Dior. The four pictured below are my favorites.

Vintage with lots of drama, with interesting lines, and so very, very fresh - especially this white coat with the black belt.



I love the lines of this gown and the way the ruffles drape over the skirt.


And this one? Pure genius. Bordering on madness.



In the following posts I'm going to talk about the clothes Carla Bruni-Sarkozy wore during her inaugural state visit to London. Her wardrobe was simply scrumptious, and all designed by Galliano.

Pearl cluster necklace

New in the shop! The "Ophelia" necklace, channeling the Hamlet performance I saw at Shakespeare in the Park a couple of weeks ago. A cluster of white rice pearls, a sterling silver decorative circle, and a long sterling chain make up this pretty and feminine piece.

Check out more pictures of Ophelia at the shop.

Today I was very excited to discover a Mexican/Spanish/Peruvian restaurant and carry-out place by my office. We tried it out for lunch and I got some chicken enchiladas and plantains. It was a good day.

Classroom studio

Took pictures around my metalsmithing classroom.


If only I had this kind of set-up at home - dream on!


This is the room where we do all the soldering and other dangerous type work. Pictured are the rows of annealing pans and pickle pots. The torches are underneath.


Class today went a little better than last week. I learned a whole bunch of cool new things, including a start to what I mainly came here to learn - stone setting. We learned how to do a bezel setting on a cabochon. It looks rather complicated. I didn't get a chance to try it out yet because I was still stuck sawing away at my ring from last week, so hopefully soon. I'm a little anxious about trying it out, though - I know I'm going to end up breaking something again.

Works in progress

Working on designs for my friend Camille's custom order for her bridesmaids. Her colors are in the gold and brown families, since her wedding is going to be an autumn one.


A prototype of the bridesmaid earring. The one for the maid-of-honor will be more intricate. These are made of smoky quartz brios and vermeil chain.

New in the shop

I have a few new things finished, starting with these tourmaline earrings. She's "Eve," named after the awesome girl robot in "WALL-E."

Eve is now up at the shop!

Wishing all my American friends a happy 4th!

Because I'm a nerd

I bought this.

I plan on putting him on my desk at work and proclaiming my robot love. He will join Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and a stormtrooper.

I love action figures. And yes, I am aware - apparently I am a 12 year old boy.

Also, I unexpectedly found myself with a four-day holiday weekend. I'm going to use my windfall to rest, since I feel like I've been going non-stop for weeks, as well as catch up on jewelry production and all that goes with it (including working on custom orders). I also hope to take care of business-related stuff such as taxes, relax with some new books, and hang out by my sister's pool. It will be a relaxed kind of busy, I hope.

I also have homework for Sunday's metalsmithing class: I have to come up with sketches of design ideas.

Metal madness

My quest to take my craft to the next level has hit a bit of a road bump. This past Sunday I went to my first of five metalsmithing classes. I've been looking forward to them since early spring and when I finally got there, I'm sorry to say it was a bit disappointing.

There are a few things about the class that I wasn't happy with, compounded by my difficulties with the technical stuff, including the stupid jeweler's saw. The jeweler's saw and I are not friends. I'm afraid we may never be friends. What's more, I believe the jeweler's saw hated me as much as I hated it. It was a mutual fountain of hate between the jeweler's saw and me. Not only did I keep breaking the blade while attempting to cut a piece of silver sheet metal, I also hurt my hand badly from trying to hold the sheet metal at an awkward position. And it's all the fault of the jeweler's saw.

To add insult to injury, the studio uses these hard core acetylene torches in giant industrial-sized tanks with a monstrous nozzle for soldering work. Now, I first learned how to solder on the smaller butane torches. And it worked beautifully. The acetylene torch, on the other hand, was so huge and so unwieldy that I ended up melting the ring I was making. Because of its weakened state, the ring broke apart while I attempted to hammer it in shape.

What makes things doubly frustrating is that I thoroughly enjoyed the soldering class I took a few months ago. I was on such an artistic and technical high when I got home from it. I loved the whole experience; I picked up on the technique immediately.

This, however, is a slightly different story. I attribute some of my difficulties to my unfamiliarity with working with sheet metal. I think I much prefer wire.

So it has not been a very auspicious beginning, but I'm hoping these are just growing pains and that things will improve as the weeks go by.