VINTAGE FAIR - JOURNEY EAST @ OUTRAM

Just a quick cross promotion for this mini vintage event held at Journey East Furniture showroom on 11th and 12th April 2015! I am bringing lots of cool jewellery so vintage lovers in Singapore, do drop by this weekend if you are looking for bargains in a homey relaxing atmosphere! Cash payment only, more info at lemonkitscharms.com

Preparing the jewellery.

Dates:
11th April (Sat): 11.00am - 6.00pm
12th April (Sun): 11.30am - 6.00pm

Address:
Journey East Furniture
315 Outram Road #03-02, Tan Boon Liat Building
Singapore 169074

Directions:
-From Outram MRT
Take overhead bridge to opposite Outram MRT at Outram Road entrance, take bus 970 or 75.
Drop two stops at Blk 2B (behind Tan Boon Liat Building)
Cross Zion Road at traffic light and walk around to Outram Road to front entrance.

-From Tiong Bahru MRT
Take bus 5, 16, 33, 163, 195, 851
Drop one stop at Blk 1.
Walk along Tiong Bahru Road, past Zion Road, to Outram Road & turn left to front entrance.

ANOTHER BEADED COLLAR

It has been 6 months since I last blogged, got rushy-busy and complacent about writing and many things happened including the death of my dad in November. But now I'm back and sorting out my Twitter and Tumblr account which were dormant for years. 

Here is the second beaded collar that I was talking about in my last post! The lovely customer (friend) who commissioned this was the same person who wanted the black collar. Beading took over 400 hours and includes Japanese tiny seed beads in gold, pink-lined and pearly white. The lace is an antique, possibly Edwardian era. I carefully covered every space of the lace with beads and my hands cramped after this was completed (still does a little). My sister saw the work in progress and asked if I would do another. My reply was 'probably not!'

Completed front.

Back of the collar.

BEADING... BEADING...

For the past 2 months I have been trying to complete two commissions for a customer friend who wanted beaded lace collars, something that looks like french lace but fully beaded and worn as a detachable collar.

I sourced this beautiful handmade black lace from Poland and then proceeded to embellish all areas with hex-cut japanese glass beads in black and purple. The beads have an iridescent coat for shimmer. Decided on the tinier-sized seed beads, although it takes more time to stitch but the results will be more refined for a delicate thing like this. This took about 200 hours. However this is less work compared to a white victorian lace I am currently working on which I will post once it's done!

LOCAL MAGAZINE FEATURE

My vintage & retro jewellery shop is featured in the july issue of NEXT by NTUC media,  many thanks to Rachel Chan! This is a great timing too, because my shop is 5 this month! The lady up there is not me but one of my regular customers wearing a handmade skeleton lolita necklace, coincidentally she lives just down the street from me and is an artist too. Meanwhile yes I am still making art =)

NEW ART PENDANTS & GILDER'S PASTE

I've been trying out my hand on art pendants since last month, ruined quite a few during the glazing part where the glass is sealed with the artwork. Especially tricky.... having a lot of problems with bubbles & blank holes around and under the glass after the whole thing has cured! =( 

Also imperfect glass from suppliers, colors that aren't as vibrant once the glass is set, etc...  So this is the first successful one, it is a magnifying glass dome with one of my old artwork 'Girls in Cemeteries' on a gold-plated base. The little rose is a cute accent. Hope you like it! Available in my Etsy shop here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85387654/art-glass-pendant-necklace-girls-in

Also tried out this thing called Gilder's Paste. It is GREAT I want all the colors muahaha... Wax-based, works like shoe polish, the ones I got were a little hardened so some thinner needed to soften it down. Simple. It's about US$9.00 per tin including shipping. Tried it out on 2 pendant settings and they are looking dandy so far, will still need a layer of varnish to seal them. I mis-bought 'Verdigris' when I needed 'Patina', so recently ordered the plain white; hopefully I can mix them down to a minty color.

HIROSHIGE & JEWELLERY BOOKS

Today I shall share 3 newly bought books, first is Utagawa Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei) ukiyo-e prints which he made from 1856-1858. The book below is released by Taschen, and at a great price. I love Taschen publications, they are always reasonably priced with quality paper. The cover is printed on satin fabric and generously sized in full colour... best way to appreciate the prints. Bought this at Borders in California while it was on sale.

It's gorgeous. I hope Taschen releases THE other ukiyo-e master's prints (Hokusai). I've been eyeing Hokusai's One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji & Hiroshige's other ukiyo-e collections for the longest time but they are currently too pricey on other publishers. 

Next are 2 jewellery research books by Julia C. Carroll. I own all of her 3 books 'Collecting Costume Jewelry' 101, 202 and 303. Actually browsed these at Borders and purchased them on Amazon.com. Hands up if you do that too lol.

They are quite informative. 303 is thinner than the earlier books; it shares some info on vintage cabochons, materials and construction. 202 highlights on Coro, Trifari and other makers' patents. Lots of clear, coloured photographs and detailed information.

Adding the weight of these 3 thick books to my luggage made it quite hard to manage but they are worth the trouble.

Happy reading whatever you may be reading!

ONE JOB DONE NOW THE NEXT!

Happy December everyone!

So glad I'm finally done with listing all of my vintage jewellery stock for the year, it was almost non-stop since Oct, besides doing a few illustrations. The photo above shows the highlight of my US trip finds, carded earrings unworn stock dated 1955 (yep a big pile!) and many sets which I was reluctant to part with! If you're interested they are available in my blogshop. The newspapers have been reporting about the increase of online shopping worldwide so hopefully that will create some awareness and remind people to try out online shops.

Anyhow gearing up for 2011's big event which is Chinese New Year with more jewellery waiting to be shipped, meanwhile for Dec I shall focus on making as many artworks as possible. Full of ideas but when not getting to them quick enough they flutter away especially when my notebook is not with me at the moment!

How's your december & Christmas sales doing?

TWO NECKLACES I MADE

I've got nothing going on in my life for blog topics so here's are 2 little gifts I made for friends recently:

This one below is a birthday gift for my best friend of 17 years, a necklace & earrings set handmade with Swarovski crystals. Nothing out of the ordinary design but it'll stay in fashion for the next few decades... quite confident of that!

This second necklace was created some time back and was collecting dust on my desk because I was too lazy to mail it. It's for a pen-pal hopefully she doesn't read this post before she receives it. It's made of shells, pearls and quartz. I hope it survives Italian customs! Nothing better than handmade gifts =) I urge you to create your own birthday cards if you want people to keep your mementos!

I'm currently doing some illustrations for no reason, my next post will be my latest artworks! Also I am always open for commissions for ACEOs and small sized artwork... just ask!

BUSY MAKING NECKLACES!

All those in the photos are floral themed necklaces! Hehe I love em too much. This is also the reason why I've been slacking off blogging - to prepare for early Christmas sales for my jewellery shop... Visit it at: http://lemonkitscharms.blogspot.com

I'll be uploading more throughout the week, so do check them out if you're interested in buying a gift for someone! Please shop early, you know how finicky the postal offices get especially at Christmas season, packages can take up to 8 weeks to reach anyone for international airmail!! So now is the perfect timing if you plan to shop online before the post offices start delaying because they are swamped.

Also a belated Happy Halloween (we don't have this festival in Singapore though!) Lastly, I'll be heading to the US from mid-December to mid-Jan =) so my shops won't be open during that period.

SELLING MY JEWELLERY!

12-14th Feb at National University of Singapore

It was great on Valentines Day! Not so good for first 2 days. I made a mini table using my luggage, a chair and a carton box due to a lack of display space. You can spot it on the right corner!

***

Below photo shows my first outdoor fair selling my handmade jewellery at The Arts House on 2 & 3rd Feb, which used to be a nice colonial Parliament Building! I was sharing a table with my good pal who does nailart services, however the crowd flow was dismal. There wasn't even a trickle of passerbys from lack of advertisement or something; obviously we were very disappointed and most of the vendors stationed within the building (ours was outside) shared the same sentiment. Anyhow I'll be having another shot at outdoor fairs this time at the National University of Singapore tomorrow. Hope it does better! I will continue my artworks after all these retailing.