About special orders and being happy because SPRING

As I told you the other day, I've been so lucky on the special-order department lately as I've been getting those kinds of projects that are inspiring and make me try new ways to make my jewelry.

Some weeks ago I received an email from a person I admire asking me to my make a little pendant specially for her friend. She asked me for an ace of spades that, when you turn it over revealed a kind of a secret heart. I thought I could use two different cuts of silver, solder them together and then oxidize one side, polish the other for extra contrast. The one you see in this photo was a trial, I made a second one that came out beautiful.

I was super excited about this order, let me tell you why: Almost nine years ago I came from Mexico to join Alex here in Canada to start a life together. He came here first and was, as always, the one that found all local music that we both like listening to. The first Canadian bands I fall in love with (and still are) thanks to Alex discoveries were Arcade Fire and Stars, at that time with the albums "Funeral" and "Set Yourself on Fire" respectively. To say those two albums marked for me those first years in Canada, and made for our life soundtrack while getting to know this country, our life together, Montreal, the winter, is an understatement. We fell hard for arcade fire and stars. So, when Amy Millan from the band Stars stopped one day at my booth at Puces POP craft fair I was, well, fangirling. And then when Amy asked me to make this necklace for her friend, I was literally jumping, such an honor! And then when Amy told me the recipient was Emily Haines from the band Metric I was pretty much living the dream. And that's the little story of how special this order was for me.

So that experience make me happy and so does Spring and my red bouquet of ranunculus! Like, a couple weeks ago while everybody south shared their spring experiences I was sulking because it was so freaking cold and snowy and all around yucky here in Montreal. I honestly was feeling under the weather. But since a of couple days ago things are getting better for us Motrealers, we had a couple of very sunny days and mild weather, ahh, thank goodness. I feel hopeful again, I can see the light, the end of that tunnel that is Winter.

Thanks so much for reading this :)
Iveth

Weekend

Such a busy weekend! it left me feeling like a need a Friday night! But hey, no time for that because a busier week is ahead of me, tons of work and tons of some more work :) I managed to use my camera a bit during the weekend, taking photos of friends, mostly. And also alleys, always a must. 

And look my meteorite necklace! it is going tomorrow to the UK to wonderful illustrator Katie Allen: I was so lucky she designed some business cards for me recently! check out my twitter profile to see a lovely mountain-crystal illustration she made for me, love it :)

That's all for now :) So tired...Bed. ZZZZ...

Wish you a lovely week!

zzzzz...

Tiny paw

Just finished a super cute paw necklace for a dear friend. She is going to give it to one of her friends who loves dogs :) 

Isn't adorable? 

How have you been? Is 2013 being good for you so far? I wish you all a lovely day!
Iveth

Ring obsession

Yes, I have a ring obsession. Ever since I was a silly teenager I loved to wear rings more than any other kind of jewellery. And when I was on my twenties my fingers where full of rings of different sizes and shapes. I haven't changed that much since (on the ring love department, at least). As you will see on the photos below, most of the jewellery I use more frequently are rings.

I must say though, that brooches are my favourite jewellery thing, but for some reason I wear them less frequently. Maybe is one of those silly things on the back of my mind that says the things I like the most are for special occasions? hm mm...

In those photos you'll see the things I wear the most and that I always keep handy ;)

My little jewelry plate with the jewelry I use the most and my vintage ring collection on the side

Amelia's silhouette necklace, angry cloud necklace, my whirlpool ring, bubble ring, green bead ring, Louise Koo's silver and wire ring, organic shapes ring, branches, Markhed Designs green pearl ring (which was Marie's Christmas present to me :) gold stacked rings (a gift for my dear friend Ale), my rocks from the desert ring (sneak peek for the fall line!), lost button earrings and lightning bolt earrings, phew! That's was long and pointless. Thanks for bear with me through my inventory, hehehehe.

Have a great day!

Life

Days come and go, we laugh, we dream, we love, we live and most of the time life appears to be a strong, solid thing.

Then, things happen, nature does its thing and suddenly I remember how truly fragile and absolutely precious life is.

I feel very sad for what happened in Japan. The images are so scary, the magnitude of the disaster so big, so many lives lost. People who laughed, who dream, who loved.

I guess that, if something good can be pulled out from tragedy, is the realization of how wonderful life is and how important is to live and enjoy the simplest of things. To enjoy every minute, every day and be thankful to be so fortunate for just being here, today.

I decided to put in good use my Refuge/Home necklace. From now on, every time I sell one of this necklaces, all the proceeds are going to be donated to help others in need. For the moment, I'll donate the money to the Red Cross on its efforts to help the people in Japan.

I'm glad to announce that as I sold one yesterday, our first donation -your first donation- is going to be soon on its way.

Thank you!

Buttons and Ribbon

I've been neglecting my blog so much lately but today I'm back!

This week has been really great because I now have my new collection on the shop and couldn't be happier about your awesome response, comments and hearts, I'm so glad you like it!

I'm still trying to finish a couple more new things and I hope to have them on the shop soon :)

Here is the collection for those who haven't seen it yet:

I wanted to give a vintage, worn out feel to those pieces, so they look even more homey and lovely, like a little treasure you'll find on a thrift store or and old house.

The inspiration behind this pieces is my love for homey objects, specially those who mean special things to me like buttons, which I found so pretty, lovely and I like to collect them and use them every time I can. I thought it'll be awesome to wear a special button all the time that reminds me of those lazy afternoons at home sewing a toy for Amelia or my little keepsake bags which I give to my costumers as a gift.

An then there is the banner, I'm obsessed with banners lately and I love ribbon so much. So that was my interpretation of those objects and my attempt to transform them into a piece of jewelry. I think I succeeded, right? ;)

Oh yeah, the spoon! well, I made this first a long ago as a request from my friend Maribel who, like me, adores food (specially sweet stuff) and cooking and this little spoon represented that part of her personality and likes. I know there are lots like Maribel and I out there, so my Spoon Necklace is for all those foodies!

Please come to The Angry Weather and check the collection in detail! All the items on my new line are ready to ship!

Thank you and have a great weekend!!!

The Handmade Olympics!!

Hi there! I hope you are doing great today :)

I want to tell you I'm super, super excited as yesterday I got to know my Refuge/Home Necklace made it to the shortlist on the Handmade Olympics organized by Rikrak Studio!

The Handmade Olympics is an event on Rikrak Studio blog with several categories where lovely, innovative, eco-friendly, handmade and vintage goodies (and blogs) can participate to win great prizes!

My refuge/Home Necklace was nominated by lovely Clémence Herbillon from Galejade Jewelry for the "Our favorite handmade goodie that inspires loveliness and wellness" category. She was so sweet and kind to put my jewelry out there and then my Refuge Necklace was chosen to be a finalist and then you can vote for me or for your favourite to win!!

This is so cool and i feel so fortunate to have my necklace in the competition, not just because i'm competing but because when i created that necklace, it was with this in mind: a piece of jewelry which reminds you of a place where you feel comforted, secure and happy. In my case, this place is home, so i conceive it as the little house with the troubled cloud in the background, outside your protective space. So out there, are people 'feeling' my jewelry and that makes me happy!

Ok, now here's the link of the event i'm participating (event number 4), can i just say i would LOOOOVE if you can follow the link and vote??!! there are so many other awesome competitions going on so don't forget to vote for your faves in all categories!!!

Thanks so much Rikrak Studio for having me in your blog, thanks so much Clémence for nominate me, thanks so much Ez for select my Refuge for the shortlist and thank you, for your support!!

The Refuge/Home Necklace

New Listing!

New necklace on my shop!
I called it the Tiny Meteorite Nekclace because the inspiration came from my another meteorite necklace. This version is a lot smaller and cuter! but still, very cool.

This came up really beautiful and i'm so proud of it :) It hangs from a 30" inch sterling silver chain that goes trough the pendant: no jump rings, no loops, just the meteorite and the chain, perfect together. It looks so cool on, very modern and geometric-ish. It's also looooong and lovely, plus the pendant weights about 5 grams so it feels really great on :)

It feels so good to bring something new to you! i hope you like it ;)

Please visit my shop, The Angry Weather, for more details. Thanks!