Rain of Fire

Putting this pair together didn’t go very smoothly. I had a hard time deciding on the paper. It’s a pattern I like - beige background with purple, blue, and green leaf swirls, plus red and yellow birds and butterflies - and I was trying to be a little bolder about matching cranes to beads. Took an angled shot from underneath so you can get a better sense of what the paper looks like.

Not quite sure what I think of the outcome. Feedback on this one would be great :)

Gold fishhook earrings with bicone Swarovski crystals, and Halcraft blown glass beads in the center of gold-plated chain diamond, with leaf and bird patterned cranes, pine resin beads, and glass beads. 3.75 inches, or ~9.5 cm. A birthday present for Dorothy :)

The last time I tried hanging big beads vertically. Unfortunately that leaves a large gap between the large hole in the bead, and the thin wire going through the hole, giving the bead plenty of room to flop around. This time I tried hanging the bead horizontally, with chains in a diamond instead of the single straight chain.

I need to go buy gold wire. I’ve been cutting the heads off of gold pins and bending the leftover…not the best way to do it. I also had a hell of a time trying to bend the chain links with two pliers, where there’s barely enough room to get a good grip with just one.

I’m also wondering if the blue crystal on the top is a little too high. Up until I got back from school, this pair hung a little over 4 inches…after taking out the blue Swarovski and moving it up to the fishhook, they measure just a little under 4 inches.

Posted by Alina at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tried out a new origami piece - turtles! They came out a little better than I expected. I had a tough time deciding where to spear them with a needle so I could prod the wire through.

Also starting to experiment with the bigger beads.

Silver fishhook earrings with blue Swarovski crystals, red cranes with pine resin and glass beads, and Millefiore hearts dangling from a silver wire loop. ~ 3.5 inches / 9.25 cm long.

Silver fishhook earrings with green glass beads and shiny green turtles on silver wire loops, with pink faceted beads on silver-plated chain. A little over 3 inches long (nearly 8 cm). Probably my shortest earrings yet =3=

Gold fishhook earrings with red glass beads and two red sakura-pattern cranes per earring, hanging from gold-plated chain with fiery red Swarovski crystals. Just over 4 inches long (10.5 cm).

Should’ve waited for a better day to take the pictures…It was sunny out today, and I opened all my windows, but the pictures were still kinda dim and came out funky.

Posted by Alina at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

…smelled REALLY bad when I first bought it. Odor seems to have worn off after being quarantined in a plastic bag for a few days.

Materials: silver-coated fishhook earrings, silver-coated jumprings and chain, nail polish enamel, origami paper, glass beads, Swarovski crystals
SOLD

Materials: clasp earrings, nylon-coated silver wire, nail polish enamel, origami paper, glass beads, faceted beads, flower beads
SOLD

Posted by Alina at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What the hell.

Posted by Alina at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

rainfall

Hasn’t happened yet. The weather is changing fast, I feel like the rain is coming soon. I love summer weather, especially with heat bothering me less and less now, but part of me loves the rain too.

A little impatient this year. We need the water.

Connie came over yesterday for another art-making sleepover bash. I tried my hand at making a necklace. It took a lot more beads than I was expecting (near depleted my supply of faceted beads, actually), so near the end I gave up counting beads and used chain for filler. The design was a little bit timid. I decided not try any bold color combination, this being the first try.

(Tried for the first time at another thing too, and that would be photo filtering on Photoshop. Up until now I’ve been posting the pictures unedited. Don’t worry, the necklace isn’t secretly green or yellow or something.)

Materials: silver-plated chain, spring rings, glass beads, plastic faceted beads, pine resin beads, and what appears to be plastic shell imitation beads. They could be real shell.

Posted by Alina at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Materials: fishhook earrings, silver-plated rings and chain, straw stars, origami paper, nail polish enamel, faceted beads;
SOLD

Materials: fishhook earrings, silver-plated rings and chain, origami paper, pine resin beads, glass beads, nail polish enamel, copper wire;
SOLD
p.s. pics -slightly- edited in Photoshop by Connie :O

Posted by Alina at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wish I could dedicate something to the people who died seven year ago today. Say how much I miss them, tell them how much the world is different without them. The problem being, I don’t know anyone who gave up their life on 9-11.

I miss them anyways.

My history teacher told us about the sweeping change that enveloped America. Everything was different, but I don’t remember it being any other way. Was it really seven years ago, when people were happy and peaceful, and you could dash into the airport at the last minute and still make it to the gate on time to catch your plane?

What else has changed? I don’t remember. I’m fifteen, it’s been just almost half my life, but I can’t remember what it was like before then.

Just a vague sense of national pride.

I don’t really know what to think anymore. For a third grader, it was so simple - this is good, this is evil, but now I’m older anditalmost feelslike I’m conscious of toomanythings, too manythings runningthroughmyheadwhatweretheythinking when theydidit whydidtheyhaveto hurtsomanypeople arewethe evilonesintheireyes? didtheyeventhinkofus whatdidwedotodeservesomanytears poorIraqiancitizens sufferingforagroupofpeoplewhoprovokedanation -

Today is also my half birthday.

Posted by Alina at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ow x-x I need padded working gloves or something. I used my fingers a lot to bend the wire.

Materials: silver fishhooks, glass marbles, copper wire, silver-plated chain, origami paper, nail polish enamel, pine resin beads, glass beads;
Approx. 3.25 in.

Posted by Alina at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We’re on Etsy!

A joint account for me and Connie. Since I tend to dry up my wells of artistic inspiration fairly fast, we’ll be moving through a number of products, the present one being…earrings. Nothing there yet, we’re still working it out. Feel free to check back in the future! :D

Bluestars: star paper, silver-plated rings, silver-plated chain, nail polish enamel;
3 inches long;
SOLD

[Edit: The picture Janvi took is cooler O: so I’m posting that one]

Posted by Alina at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I sprayed one of the cubes with fixative, and then put it somewhere…still haven’t found it, but I had all the other pieces ready so I just gave up and made another one.

Materials: origami paper, fixative spray, nail polish enamel, fishhook earrings

The color scheme isn’t the best. The 3 colors of paper all came in one pack, and they all had the same nice leaf pattern. This was purely experimental, since when I started folding them I had no intention of making earrings. 72 pieces of paper total. Each of the big pieces on top is an inch across, which is a little bigger than I would have liked. Very lightweight (hollow, which sort of magnifies the scraping sound from the metal links).

Posted by Alina at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

…origami earrings. My ears aren’t even pierced.

Materials: assorted origami paper, kidney wire hooks, silver plated chain, rings. The origami pieces are covered in nail polish enamel, because I couldn’t find anything better at Jo-ann.

(sorry about the crappy photos)

More coming later. Requests taken, I have a lot of pretty pattern paper for cranes, or whatever else you might have in mind. And I seriously have every color in the rainbow of star paper.

And while I’m at it, last Saturday I went to the 24th Annual Joint International Artist’s Exhibition (what a mouthful), sponsored by the Asian Society of Arts of America. It’s the last piece I submitted as Chai laoshi’s student, plus my last year before I surpass age limit. Chai laoshi moved to Seattle, and my last lesson went six hours instead of the normal one hour because I was determined to finish this drawing.

Materials: Charcoal on pastel paper

Posted by Alina at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

whoops. Still haven’t learned when to shut up.

Also, leg tendon hurting like a skdjfhmotherofkjdfwkjef

Posted by Alina at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)