Good times at Indie I Do

It was fun to be a part of Vancouver's first "alternative" wedding show Indie I Do. Burlesque performers, tattooed photographers, corset wedding dresses all added to the fun, relaxed feel of the show. Once again, Lotus Events did a fine job of organizing and Heritage Hall looked great.

One of the burlesque performers and the announcer rocked some of my jewelry. I was promoting the OAK One-of-A-Kind line and the idea that you can have your grandmother's jewelry re-made into something more contemporary you would like to wear. (see post below).

And I tried out a new display for my booth area. I've had a folding screen kicking around for a while. I found it (free) outside a church on the west side and then added the fabric. For the show, I scanned a gold frame I have, added the images of the jewelry, printed them out and hand cut around the edges. Double sided tape and voila!

Do you have your grandmother's old jewelry?

\You know, that brooch, those clip on earrings that nobody wears anymore? BuenoStyle can create a custom, OAK (One-of-A-Kind) re-creation for you using those old pieces sitting in your jewelry box. Check out this custom piece made for my friend's mother:

Paddy supplied the vintage rhinestone scarf clip and one of the gold/faux pearl chain. I decided to make it a 3 strand necklace with a vintage rose side clasp. Pretty, n'est pas?

And here's what I can do with some of those old clip-on earrings. Even if you don't have the pair:

Check out more OAK reworked vintage here.

How to give - even if you are broke.

January is one broke-ass month for so many people. For myself, it's the beginning of the slowest time of year. Things don't really pick up in the jewelry world until Spring, when women start to shop for pretty Spring things. It's the time of year when I usually have the most free time. So this year I plan on starting to volunteer at least one day a week. There's a fantastic website if you are interested in volunteer opportunities. It covers Alberta and BC. There's opportunities all over the lower mainland, it's not just restricted to Vancouver.

If you can't spare the time to volunteer, here's two websites where you can donate for free without ever leaving the comfort of your desk!

Donate Free Rice for having a good vocabulary.

Donate 5 cents every time you click!. Up to $75,000 per quarter this year to be split equally between Kiva and Save the Children.

If you do find yourself flush with cash this January, consider a small scale loan through Kiva. What the heck is Kiva? Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. Each pre-screened entrepreneur is hard working and hopes to create a sustainable livlihood.

That right - it's not charity. It's a loan. I loaned $20.00 to group of women embroiderers in mexico (San Cristobal) who requested a $1,350 loan to buy raw materials and equipment for their embroidery business. So far, the loan is 55% paid back, and I have $13.00 of my orginal $20.00 back in my Kiva account ready to loan out again. It's a fantastic system for helping out people who need a hand up.


Check out this video for an overview of how the system works in detail.

A clean studio!

I managed to get it all cleaned up in time for the interview yesterday! It should air April 9th, 2009. I totally had to set up a display for the camera, hence the banner and jewelry on display. This will eventually come down... but I will be keeping the new type case organization methods. I had these old type cases kicking around my condo for ages and I can't believe I didn't think of this before!

Check out more studio photos here.

Messy Studio

I've always admired artisans who have a clean, lovely, organized studio.
Since I have had my studio (3 years) I have always shared half of it, leaving me squished into one L-shaped area. So my creating table more often than not looks like this:

As of January 1st, my sub-letters moved out and I have decided to take the plunge and keep the whole studio to myself. Here's how the whole space looked after they moved out:
Yeah....
I wanted to do a big clean up anyway, but I have had the extra added push of being filmed in my studio for the Steven and Chris show (CBC) on Jan 9th! Yes - that is tomorrow! I've been busy cleaning and organizing in preparation. In fact - what am doing here at home blogging about it?! I should be at the studio now! I"ll post the after photos tomorrow. Wish me luck!

beautiful decay

My heart skips a beat when I am walking through a back alley and discover something like this: I'm a sucker for broken down texture and abandoned objects that, to me, take on a life of their own as objets d'art. This piece is a large, decaying landscape painting left in the snow against the dumpster in a back alley behind my apartment - soaking wet, faded and rotting away from the ornate wood frame. I'll spare you the wide shots showing the "yellow snow" it was leaning on. Luckily, the painting (probably a print really) lay in 2 large torn pieces so I gingerly put them together on some (clean) snow and you can see the faded landscape in it's entirety.

If you are a fan of decaying texture like this, check out this flickr group.

Stylefinds: BuenoStyle Branches Into OAK

Stylefinds: BuenoStyle Branches Into OAK

BuenoStyle's OAK line on cover of Shared Vision!

The January issue of Shared Vision magazine is out featuring the lovely (former) actress Meg Tilly wearing one of my OAK necklaces! You might remember her in The Big Chill or Agnes of God. It's a great article (by Pamela Post) that delves into why she left the Hollywood scene to raise her kids. Be sure to pick it up, or you can read it here

To see more photos of the OAK necklace she is wearing, check them out here



Interior shot above. All jewelry by BuenoStyle

This Into That

I am in love with these gorgeous shelves made out of recycled books, by Jim Rosenau.

Check out more about his procedures and see more of his work here

Quote from his website:
"In the back of my mind lurked Nicholson Baker’s essay, “Lumber”, about how the term once applied to more than just wood. It also meant the ideas stored in your head. Eureka! Could books somehow be made into lumber? And what would I make of them?"