Your favorite piece of jewelry GIVEAWAY!

Thank you so much for supporting my little Etsy shop! I now have almost 1000sales in my shop. Wow, what a milestone! When I open my shop in October 2007 I didn’t know what I was expecting. I open because I make jewelry. Even though, I was making jewelry for over 10years (just for fun) and I was working at fine jewelry store as “jewelry sales person” I really have NO clue what it takes to sell my handmade jewelry. But it was fun to list and I was very surprised by occasional sales. You know, the feeling, “wow, somebody bought my handmade!”

But then, I got let go from my job. I had to get serious because I really didn’t want to go get another “job”. It was about 2years ago. At this point I think I had about 20 – 30 sales total. So from then, I worked really really hard. Slowly start to seeing regular sales and my design grew with my shop. So, which piece is your most favorite in my shop? For me, I have to say “poppies hook earrings”. It’s so simple & fun to wear! But what color? I can’t decide…. Now, please tell me your favorite piece here by leaving a comment and I’ll draw the winner on June 1st. please check back here to see if you are the winner!

Thank you each and every one of you!
Natsuko xoxoxo

Shiny new toy & new purse!

I got me a new toy! It is bracelet mandrel. I had request to make bracelet from local gift shop ZODIAC. So I’m having fun with my new toy. Making bangles & more bangles… I think I should’ve got one that’s tapered, not stepped but oh, well. Live & learn. Right now I’m just making samples still but new bangles collection will coming soon in my shop!

And very same day I got my mandrel, I received my new purse I purchased from lovely Etsy shop jennjhon in the mail. This purse is so beautiful! It’s beautifully made, perfect size & so nice to touch! I do not (…can not) treat myself that often but this purse was worth every penny and more!

Snow Leopard Network talk about ---

How do you view the topic of "copying"? What does it mean to you? ---
Ok, “copying” for me have to be an exact duplicate of my work. I think we are all inspiring each other in some way and specially I make jewelry in simple design, it’s so easy to be look like. But if you design from within and put your own twists, it’s always your original & yours only. I love to look at all the beautiful things on Etsy but never to copy anyone. But maybe those beautiful things are store in my head and sometimes could appear in my jewelry designs. So, I will not say it’s copied just because the design elements and styles are like. And a lot of times, “copy” defines the “original”. “copy” makes the “original” shine. But I don’t know how I would feel if I see some jewelry that look exactly like mine. Like I say, I make simple jewelry so I see some that’s similar to mine. But what if I see exact same poppy earrings as mine? Wow, that would be creepy! Although, it's kind of heard to copy exact. As I have my own “recipe” for enamel colors. So, your own recipe & many repertory wold prevent from copy cat. But wait… “copy” is not always a bad thing. When you try to learn new things by copying, it’s a good thing! I remember I made every felted doll in the book when I was little. The book was awesome. Came with patterns and everything. I think it’s bad when you make something by copying others and call it your own. That’s bad, bad, bad!

now, please go see what other “original” artists are talking about regarding this topic ---

ArtJewel designs- http://www.artjeweldesigns.blogspot.com/

Andes Cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/

Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/

Tosca Teran - http://nanopod.wordpress.com/

Tamra Gentry - http://jewelrydesignchronicles.wordpress.com/

alisa miller - http://alisamiller.blogspot.com/

Mary Spencer-http://wattoonline.blogspot.com/

Thomasin Durgin - http://www.metalriot.blogspot.com/

Susan Moloney - http://susarto.blogspot.com/

Snow Leopard Network Blog Carnival

" What thing have you created that you most treasure? This is the topic of our new blog carnival! It was interesting to think about. I made many many things in my life. I was crafting girl ever since I was just a little girl. But I really don’t have anything I made except jewelry (I wear my handmade jewelry all the time but most of them I wear because it’s new design and I just want to see how it’s wear or something I keep because it’s not sellable), dress or scarves I occasionaly wear (I guess I like to make something I can wear:) but not neccesaly I treasure… so! Then I remember this piece. It was my first cloisonne piece that I made. It was about two years ago just few month after I start to taking enameling class once a week, my teacher at the time hold special cloisonne class one day. Cloisonne is enameling technique that use wire to separate area of enamel color. It could be very intricate and require many many firing. But maby because I was use to working with wire or perhaps she was brilliant teacher, my first cloisonne piece came out so beautiful! I couldn’t belive I made it!! And till this day, this is the best cloisonne piece I ever made. Or maybe I just not making much cloisonne piece…. It’s not my favorite thing to do…

please visit other blog carnival participants!

andes Cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/

ArttJewel designs – artjeweldesigns.blogspot.com

Alice Istanbul Designs http://istanbuldesigns.com/blog

Purified Art - http://purifiedart.blogspot.com/

Rosy Revolver: A Newfangled Rhetoric - http://www.rosyrevolver.blogspot.com/

And fabulous snow leopard network’s blog - http://snowleopardnetwork.wordpress.com/

MetalRiot - http://metalriot.blogspot.com/2010/03/treasured-item.html

Ps. I love Flickr! I was looking for this picture in my Flickr page and it was fun to see my earlier pieces!!

I am taking a part of “ring a day” challenge! Make a ring each day & post in flickr group page. And you have to checkout this page! This page is so great!! Load of fabulous rings after rings… so much creativity, so great inspirations! As for me, more than likely I’m not going to be able to make a ring every single day. But at least I’m going to thinking about it! I’ll post in my flickr page & my facebook page what I made. And while not every piece is going to be in my shop, you can expect lots of new ring designs are coming into my shop!

Here are first two…

Rustic heart ring

Organic poppy ring

Yesterday, I made heart ring with enamel on it! It’s still a experiment but I’ll sure to post pictures!!