Studio tour

Last month I was approached by Michelle from the blog Roasted Montreal for a little Q&A and took the opportunity to send her some updated photos from my studio. As I have hardly made any update on that here, I though I'd show you the photos so you see how things look around here, at lear, how they look when it'd clean and tidy ;)

My studio is located in my home's basement which, thank goodness, is very bright, have lots of windows and during the day it doesn'tt look like a basement at all, with all the sun coming in. That may be my favourite part of it. On the downside, it's not very private. I share the space with my family: there's our tv space and library too. The idea is to close my space with a glass wall (we don't want to lose that light I told you about) but when is that going to happen? alas, I don't know. It's kind of a big project that won't come cheap and there are already other big projects for the house that are more urgent. But I'll stay positive and hopeful that this year I'll make enough dough to make my studio private! 

In the first pics you can see my desk, AKA packing station with all my bric-a-brac. Most of the time I work on my laptop there, too. As you can see window sill space is very well used with lots of curiosities and also tools and jewellery stuff. The there's my bench which I love to pieces. In the bench I do most work except soldering and oxidizing (for that nasty stuff I prefer to work on a restroom where we placed a special ventilating system for all the fumes from soldering) so it's always full of tools and current works and experiments. 

Overall, I enjoy this space so much and appreciate the fortune of having a place to make all the jewellery my heart desires. 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

xx
Iveth

A winter day

A while ago I made this little bronze house. I made it because I wanted a paperweight for myself and well, because I am obsessed with houses, so the two things came together quite nicely. I love my little house and I use it mostly as a small sculpture that sits on my desk, beside some of my treasures like my rock collection and old photos. 

Since the beginning I though I'd put it on my Etsy shop but I just couldn't get myself to photograph it. I think my mind works funny about my product photography: When I design something I see stories around the piece and my mind doesn't wait long to start imagining, seeing how these stories look, so it's not just the item but what's around it, what it means. And when I made the little house there was a lot of daydreaming and imagining about it so I knew the kind of photos I wanted to take to show it to you. When the particular idea/the plan for the shoot didn't quite translate good out of the daydream, I didn't push it, I just let it rest there knowing it'd come. Some weeks ago I was working on the studio and there was copious snow falling outside; the little bronze house shoot came to mind again and I said "yes, a winter scene. In a forest." And I started cutting the little paper trees. I put a piece of  white tissue paper covering the trees to make it look softer but I was delighted when the paper made the scene look like "snowing", at least looks so to me! hehehe, my imaginations runs wild, I tell you. You can see bellow how it looks without the paper. 

Anyway, the little bronze house as well as the photos you see here, are very special to me, I hope you enjoy them.

Available now on my shop.

Winter

Winter is unforgivable, relentless, harsh but there's something it can't be denied: it's sublime beauty. 

A couple of days ago we were in the middle of a freezing rain storm and it was all kinds of beautiful and troublesome. There are plenty of things to endure in the winter months: dangerous roads, the long months of horrible cold, slippery sidewalks, few hours of light, and so on. But there's a beauty that cannot be found anywhere, anytime, but in those same barren lands of winter and to look at the land as it transforms to this white and frozen wonderland is a sight I cherish.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! I wish you a great 2015.

health and happiness to you and yours,

Iveth

Green (thumb)

Is it possible? a green thumb, me? looks like it!

I have manage to keep my plants alive and happy and now fruits are growing, yay!

How are you? enjoying your summer? I hope so! We have been enjoying it, too! went to the maritime provinces for a couple weeks and it was absolutely lovely to be near the sea. I'll post some photos soon!

Have a lovely day :)
Iveth

About cloudy days and grainy photos.

So many photos I need to take (for the new collection and an exciting feature) and the days for the last week or more have been cloudy, gloomy, rainy...A couple weeks ago days were amazingly sunny and I knew I needed to take advantage but procrastination won and I missed my chance of nice light for pictures. Now I'm at the weather's mercy and getting a bit panicked as I truly want to 'unveil' the new pieces by the end of this month.


Aaaanyways. I took these grainy (annoyed with the light) photos today when I was sitting at my desk trying to get some work done but of course I didn't. My little one was around and she decided to try on my ring and be my hand model ;) That gorgeous ring is a vintage piece made of bronze and I added the lapis lazuli cabochon on it. It's a truly gorgeous piece and I'm in love with it, I'm thinking maybe keeping it or maybe to sell it, I don't know...I had it cast in silver, just two pieces which I will set cabochons of amazonite and lapis lazuli on them respectively, those I'll put for sale for sure :) Anyone would be interested in the vintage one?

OK, I'll get to work now, too much to make for Puces POP and Urban Craft, I'm a bit behind on production! No free evenings or weekends for me until fairs are over, but I love it, don't get me wrong: specially now that things are slooowwwly.

To the bench! (Thank goodness husband is making dinner: mushroom risotto, mmm!)

Thanks for reading :)
Iveth

About New Year and cookies.

Times goes faster and faster as I grew older, or so I feel. We are now living 2013 and we better make the best of it!

Happy new year to you all!

Iveth

PS. photos don't have much to do with new year-things but I really like them! hehehe These are our first time ever home made cookies :)

Iveth

Happy Halloween!

These are two of the pumpkins on our balcony and also a couple of beautiful leaves from the maple tree in front of our home :)

I wish you all a wonderful day!
Iveth

Ice world

We got freezing rain the other day. Is it wrong to get excited by a freezing rain storm? I mean, not precisely excited about the dangerous driving/walking conditions but there's something magical in seeing everything covered by ice. It's like a crystal world. And when the sunshine hits the ice, is absolutely stunning :)

Bits from the studio after a very productive weekend

A month ago I was complaining about how slow sales were; now I'm so scared with the amount of work I have! particularly because I have two upcoming craft fairs (exciting!): one at the end of this month and the other on December.

Last weekend I was extremely productive and managed to make lots of pretty jewels :) As you can see on the photos, I made my thunder necklace in 14k gold, it looks so lovely. And my favorite is the desert rock stacked rings in gold and oxidized silver, they look gorgeous!

Now what I need to do is to photograph them and post them on my Etsy shop :) Oh, and the lovely rainbow bracelet above, I made it as a special order for a lovely costumer, I'm really happy with the results!

Last but not least, the lovely postcard you see on the first image (from Audrey Jeanne) is a gift from my sweet friend Clemece, I love it! thanks Clemence!!!

I hope you have a great week :D

Iveth

Bits of this and that

One of my favorite birthday gifts this year was an iphone my husband gave me (although it's hard to decide as this year he truly payed attention to my "hints" and wishlist! hehehe). I'm in love with the thing. It's so cool to be able to check out my facebook or twitter everywhere, but mostly, I love the cool photo aps!

As I haven't made many blog updates lately, I though I'd make a resume, with images, of what I've been up to in the last month.

Around the house

Places and spaces

Outside

Lots of beer and lots of sweets

Work...

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a great day!

Some photos and F.A.Q.

Wow! what an exciting weekend this has been :)

Today at noon there's going to be a new featured seller on Etsy and I can't help but feel a little nostalgic that is going to be over soon. I won't have an inbox full of etsy circles notifications and 24hrs a day of continue FP goodness anymore. Regardless, this experience makes me feel so thankful and so inspired to keep working, I couldn't be happier!

I wanted to post here a couple more images that weren't included on the feature, just so you can have more insight on me and my work space and because I just really like them ;)

And now, a round of F.A.Q. by the people who kindly sent me messages this weekend :D

Q. How do you manage to have a business, a blog and take care of your little girl?

A. I wouldn't be able to manage it if not for: having a sweet, independent little girl who is content of just singing along with me while I work on the jewelry or the computer; having a sweet husband who helps me sand and anneal pieces every time I need; god bless Amelia's nap time; god bless baby tv (not proud of this, though!); god bless I can't sleep before 1am; and one of the most important things is that I've had to learn to live with a little bit of a messy home and the unexpected.

Q.Where do you buy your tools and supplies?

A. I buy all my stuff here in Montreal at 620 Cathcart or the Montreal jewellers paradise. No tool/internet buying for me :)

I love this one:

Q. Why do you charge $149 dlls for a 3cm piece of silver?

A. because I don't sell pieces of silver, I sell my work.

Q. How come your work table is so clean?

A. Well, I cleaned and organized it for the photo shoot :) but regardless, my work space is very clean indeed, I have a two and a half year old and I work at home! I clean and organize my work table every night, so I'm sure the dirt would not be spreading around my apt and Amelia won't be any close to dangerous tools, compounds or small pieces of things she could put on her mouth.

Those are the ones I really had to address publicly ;) it was definitely so much fun getting to know lots of new people, costumers, etsy sellers! And I want to thank all the lovely people who now is following my blog, welcome to Mademoiselle Cranky Pants (which was the nickname of my little girl when she was a new born ;))!

Thank you!