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I promise I still exist. I hate that I have only had time to blog once a week. The Hubs and I have been traveling... and traveling... and traveling! But I have had some time to fill some custom orders!
The first is a continuation of my last post of custom graduation gifts for my sorority big, Katie :) In addition to making a coordinating necklace and bracelet set which I blogged about last week, Katie also asked me to make a necklace and bracelet for another cousin of hers who is also graduating soon. Katie instructed that her other cousin has strawberry blonde hair and enjoys wearing earth tones with gold and does like chunky, though not necessarily funky (though not necessarily chunky - opposite of the other necklace set!). I told Katie that I had just purchased some new gemstones in Arizona that I thought would do the trick - some of which were definitely chunky - as they were the shape and near size of a Milano cookie! Here was my layout:
Which, after some wire wrapping, lead to this:
Along with a bracelet to coordinate (NOT match!):
Katie was thrilled: "Oh, Christyn!! I LOVE THEM!!! Wow, they turned out nothing like I envisioned, and everything like I wanted, LOL!" Katie is happy = I am happy :)
Next I was asked by a high school classmate to make another necklace as a gift. Lindsay said: "After scouring Etsy for some sort of Confirmation necklace I thought you might be able to help me! My niece is getting confirmed soon and I am her Confirmation sponsor. I want to get her some sort of necklace and was thinking about engraving, but not sure if she would wear that all the time. I was hoping for some sort of silver cross/charm with maybe like a pearl and an initial T charm for "Taylor" -- possibly a dove if it's not too cluttered? I am thinking the simpler the better... because I would like for her to wear it often, but still have some meaning."
Lindsay and I exchanged several e-mails and I ideas before we decided to order a "T" charm from Artbeads and experiment with the necklace. I first added a cross, dove, pearl, and the T-shaped charm and on sterling silver chain and came up with this:
Lindsay and I both agreed that it was a little too much (how I love the word EDIT!) and we narrowed it down to this:
She said Taylor loved it, and was nice enough to send a picture of Taylor wearing her new necklace:
So, that's the latest! I will (hopefully) be back soon with more items from my Summer Line and maybe even more custom orders! Craft on!
I studied Chinese in college and graduate school, and lived in China for a few summers before moving to Los Angeles. I am especially fascinated with the Chinese language (I studied Mandarin for 4 years in college and can still hold my own when bargaining on the streets in Chinese in San Francisco or China itself!), Chinese art, and Chinese religions, especially Buddhism.
That said, I dig how Buddhists use their art as both a means of meditation and a teaching tool (ie mantra). I have tried to think of my own craft (jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, etc,) in similar terms, though in my case using the medium to both meditate on the beauty that is at our fingertips and also to praise God. While taking an art class in graduate school on the topic "visual preaching," I had to do a project on incorporating a scripture verse into a piece of art. I decided to use my Chinese painting tools to tackle the verse "Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts" (Colossians 3:15).
I thought about how Buddhist monks paint a simple circle as a way of representing meditation and the circle of life and reincarnation (called zen circles). In my case, the circle would represent Christ, who, to get theological, "is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). But using a painted black circle alone wouldn't be enough, I needed to add some red (making my favorite color scheme complete!), preferably in the traditional Chinese signature form. So I put the Chinese character for peace (pronounced "ping") in the bottom right hand corner and in red to represent the heart (at least in my mind!).
The scripture, and my new little piece of Chinese art, was complete. I later made several t-shirts with the Chinese translation of the verse written on the back and gave them to friends who liked the image. I also framed it and put it up in my living room (against my red, red wall with my other black and white frames and images). I was looking at the image a few weeks ago and thought to myself, "Hmmm, that looks like a bracelet." Well, here they are, the painting and the bracelet. I dig it:
