Life In Plastic Is Fantastic

With the cost of metal (especially precious metal) continuing to rise, I often find myself thinking about less expensive alternative materials. Acrylic is an interesting material I've always wanted to work with. Here's some inspiration from UK jewellery duo Tatty Devine. While this piece is indeed £270.00, a piece on the same scale in silver would be in the thousands of dollars range! Not something most of us can afford.
-L

http://tattydevine.com

Queen West Art Crawl

This weekend is the Queen West Art Crawl--an amazing collection of 250 artists in a variety of visual disciplines. The range and quality of the work is impressive. I coveted, amongst other things, two large drawings of cows on mylar. Cows always make me happy.

Of course my main reason for venturing out was to see my incredibly talented friends and studio mates.

Below are pictures of the three of them in action!

Katie Pitt of Kathryn Rebecca

Alexis Kostuk of Glaciale

Lauren Hanham of Lauren Hanham Jewellery Designs

Visit in Paris!

Hello everyone!

In the beginning of September, i visited Paris for my vacation. Paris was gorgeous city with endless things to see and many places to go. While i was visiting Paris, there were 8 big fashion and jewellery shows going on at Paris Expo, so I had to go to at least one of them as I felt lucky with the timing. The jewellery show I went is Eclat de Mode that showcased 530 exhibitors' work and it was mostly a wholesale show for buyers, jewellery designers and jewellers. Since it was big event for jewellery designers and jewellers, the exhibitors came from all over the world. I wanted to see a lot of jewellery made with unusual material and there were many interesting and beautiful works I wanted to share with you.

So, here are some of my favourites..

Ring by Anne Donckele http://www.bergueandco.com/

Pendant and Ring by Daniel Vior http://www.danielvior.com/

(It was great to see Plique a Jour in contemporary jewellery!)

Brooches by taratata bijoux http://www.taratatabijoux.com/

Bracelet by Joid’art http://joidart.com/

Leather jewellery by Christina Brampti http://www.christinabrampti.com/

Textile jewellery by Zsiska http://www.zsiska.com/

P.S  

I was selected as one of jeweller to participate in The Value of Metal exhibition from September 15th to October 16th at The Guild Shop(click for detail). 

Come visit to see beautiful one of a kind jewellery and get inspired! 

Rosalyn

As the seasons change...

So to does our motivation at Jewel Envy!


It's been an amazing summer in the studio, we were lucky to have two fabulous interns to help us with our work (many thanks to Heba and Teresa - we miss you both already!).  


After FINALLY accepting that summer is over and fall has officially arrived I have been working away in preparation for the Queen West Outdoor Art Show & Sale.   The show is part of the exciting Queen West Art Crawl weekend.  


I have been putting the finishing touches on my latest collection "Autumn Notes" to showcase for the first time. As well,  Lauren and Alexis have been busy creating beautiful pieces as they will be a part of the show as well.  


Here are the details if you would like to stop by.  

Saturday, Sept 17^th – Sunday, Sept 18th

11-6PM

Trinity Bellwoods Park (located on Queen Street West between Dufferin and Bathurst, just after Shaw Street)
Toronto, Ontario

My booth # is C72

Alexis booth # is C19

Lauren's booth # is C23

Come by to see 250 artists work from all over Ontario.  There will be painters, potters, jewellers and more.  

Hope to see you there!

Kathryn Rebecca

I am participating in an exhibition, The Value of Metal, co-hosted by Ontario Crafts Council (OCC) and Metal Arts Guild Of Canada (MAGC). My jewellery will be showing at the Guild Shop from September 15th to October 16th. They are fun and beautiful. Please come visit!


118 Cumberland St. (Yorkville)
Toronto, Ontario
M5R 1A6
Canada

I have been working on ginkgo leaves and making molds for them. I glued each leaf on a piece of wax sheet in order to increase their thickness so they are easy to cast. Before pouring the paste without shifting them, I glued those leaves on the bottom of the box. Wait for a day for the mold to dry and it's ready to go!

ChiaChien Tsai

when things start to pile up, it's time to organize!

Random detritus, including mokume and a piece of deer antler

Container of containers

pile 'o boxes

Lately whenever I pause from doing work I gaze around my bench area & frown at the mess that is piling up around me.  I know I have enough storage space for placing my tools and materials away.  However, it seems like when I start working and switch between projects the detritus of "partially finished', "just started" and "I should fix this" piles become sequestered in small containers and plastic bags crammed between tools.  Also, piles of random tools that I don't use everyday but need to keep around and easily at hand - such as popsicle sticks and small containers to cram things into.  In an attempt to bolster myself into maintaining a cleaner space I constantly decide that I just need the "right" containers to help organize.  Enter: the dollarama, where cheap plastic containers line the shelves in abundance. I think I might be heading in the right direction with these beauties...

Look upon my organization skills with envy!

So beautiful!

Now maybe if I convince myself to drag my extra bookshelf to work I can continue my organizing binge...  

Alexis

The summer of Mezuzahs

Hi Everyone,

It has been quite the busy summer and a project I have been working on since December is 2010 is finally coming to fruition! It all started with an off the cuff question from a client inquiring if I had ever made a Mezuzah. (A Mezuzah is small cylindical sculpture placed on the door of Jewish homes that holds a parchament paper with a sacred prayer). At the time I had not made one but as I like a challenge I said I would be happy to.

This conversation led to me being asked to design a Mezuzah for the Kehilla Residential Program for a new project.  (Kehilla creates affordable housing for low income Jewish families.) So now it was design time. I did many sketches and had many meetings about the design and what I could produce multiples of in a reasonable time frame. We finally agreed on design and then the funding challenge began. As Kehilla is a non-profit they are always in need of more funding! The team went straight to work and after talking up the project they were able to secure the finances to proceed.

I am now in the process of making 100 Mezuzahs for the fall fundraiser! The image on the left is of the final design. It features the Hebrew letter "shin" and is made from stainless steel and copper. They will be available for purchase through Kehilla in time for Sukkot!



Looking forward to updating you on future projects!

Gillian