As seen on CNNGO.com

Was just seriously so busy over the last week that I forgot to blog about a writeup on CNNGO.com

Link to article here: http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/none/ultimate-hong-kong-crafts-guide-759391

I'm extremely flattered!

Soho Carnival, Hong Kong, 7th and 8th November

I have FINALLY bitten the bullet and set up a Facebook fan page for Bejewelled Bespoke Designs. I am trying to really get my act together this month (also my busiest month!) but I have discovered that the more pressured I am, the more I seem to achieve.

Anyway, please take a look at the Bejewelled Bespoke Designs Facebook fan page, and if you like what you see - do become a fan! http://www.facebook.com/BejewelledBespoke

Now...this post is really about my first really big craft show last weekend. I had an absolute blast despite the following things:

1. I underestimated completely how many items I should have for sale and almost sold out of everything I had in my inventory on the first day. (It's a GREAT thing to sell out of almost all your stock, but I was honestly worried about the second).

2. I ran out of about 300 business cards in a few hours. (Writing your name on random pieces of paper was no fun..not after the 100th time)

3. I had no backup plan for rain. (Bin bags saved my life)

4. On the second day, I forgot - a mirror, the price list, and my packaging. (Disaster!)

I cannot stress how important it is to:

1. BE PREPARED - Everything should be on hand, especially if you're doing a 2 day craft show and you're exhausted after the second day, such that you can grab and go.

2. CHECK THE WEATHER FORECAST & CHECK AGAIN ON THE DAY - You never know. The weather can be totally unpredictable.

3. BRING A FRIEND - I was all alone at my stall and was swamped with constant crowds of people most the time, and had periods where friends dropped by and thankfully felt sorry enough for me to help out. I wholeheartedly would have dropped dead without them. Even the random Vitamin water, sandwich and coffee helped.
4. SLEEP - That way, you're on the ball. I spent the week before sleeping 3 hours a day preparing for the show, and then after the first night as much as I wanted to sleep, I had to stay up to make more pieces as I had sold out of 80% of my stock and had nothing for the second day. needless to say, I forgot a bunch of things and was even more flustered.

That said, I am overwhelmed with the response I had about my designs and am really excited about the way forward for Bejewelled Bespoke.

You can check out the photos of my stall

woohoo!

5 gift guides?!

Featured on WHATDesigners.com

My Madame Butterfly necklace was recently featured in the WHATDesigners.com mini guide for long layering necklaces!

Watch this space for more press - I was recently interviewed in Hong Kong's The List magazine and have not gotten around to scanning the interview to post up on my blog. I wholeheartedly appreciate all this attention and compliments that I receive from customers, bloggers, media, etc - it is the compliments and encouragement that really contribute to driving me on to create and design on a daily basis...however hard it is when coupled with a full time job.

Save the dates (if you're in Hong Kong!):

7th/8th November: Soho Street Festival, 12-9pm, Soho (Elgin, Wellington, Peel, Staunton Streets), Central.

28th/29th November: Random Art Workshop Christmas Fair (details at the RAW website http://www.randomartworkshop.com)

A huge shout-out to everyone who has featured Bejewelled Bespoke in the last month!

Just want to say a quick thank you to all those who were sweet enoughto feature me in all the write-ups I have received over the last month.

From the girls at SassyHongKong : The Secret is Out - Bejewelled Bespoke featuring La Fleur - A Lace Necklace and A Night at the Oscars Necklace

The FoundHandMade.com Blog: Fall Brown (Article on September 12, 2009) - featuring the Rose Garden Under the Stars necklace

The lovely Samantha of PrettyLovelyThings: I need I want I love
(I love what she's done to my photo of the A Night at the Oscars necklace!)

Mary of the Etsy Blog/The Storque: Etsy Finds- Free Worldwide Shipping Deals - featuring the Tulle Rosette Bib necklace from my Bridal collection

And recent Etsy Front Page features (once again thank you Etsy Admin!)

[Images courtesy of Bejewelled Bespoke, PrettyLovelyThings, FoundHandmade and from Etsy]

The most amazing piece I've seen in awhile

A newcomer to Etsy, caybeth, made this unique and truly amazing piece of jewellery I have seen in awhile. I fell in absolute love with the complexity and intricate detail that she must have spent hours and hours on, that I was compelled to blog about it. Each bead has been painstakingly stitched on by her, and since starting work on my Autumn/Winter 2009-2010 collection (which is yet to be released on Etsy), I can totally relate. And I thought my rosette necklaces were hard work!

The piece de resistance of this work of art is the rare Miriam Haskell peacock brooch that Karen (caybeth) has used. I.LOVE.MIRIAM.HASKELL. I adore feathers, peacocks, gold, complexity, huge statement necklaces...and my god (sorry I can't stop raving!) this piece deserves recognition in an art gallery!

At $495, in my opinion, it's a steal for a rare vintage brooch and HOURS of insanely hard work. A mass produced designer bag costs alot more than this handmade beauty.

http://caybeth.etsy.com is definitely one to watch on Etsy. Keep up the awesome work!

A Weekend in Manila

There is one thing every girl needs to know about Manila. Well, every girl living in Hong Kong that is. A fantastic hair cut and colour, AND the return plane ticket (yes, including taxes!) cost about the same for a decent hair cut and colour in Hong Kong. Minus the dread in your heart that every second sitting in that chair hoping that the Hong Kong hairdresser cutting your doesn't flip that pair of scissors around and start razoring it.

So start booking that flight! As for hotels? A night will set you back less than $50 USD at a brand name hotel. And if you're lucky, like we were, you get upgraded.

Run, don't walk!

For everyone else...here's my selection of photos from my weekend in Manila. I apologise in advance that there aren't as many as my camera died halfway through the trip. Lesson learnt - charge thy camera battery before you leave!

First things first. I went shopping. Right smack in the centre of Makati City (Manila is made up of several cities, and Makati is one of them)..is a collection of shopping malls, each one large enough to make up a suburb, called Greenbelt. There's more than Greenbelt..Landmark for one..and I forget the other names. Basically, the place is huge. You could walk around it for a whole day, get lost, and still need to come back for another day.

In one of the malls, a very eccentric but gorgeous jewelry shop window display caught my eye. Each piece is placed in a ziplock bag, filled with water and suspended from the ceiling. Of course, I walked in. Then I walked out with a very amazing bracelet that set me back too much money. As a jewelry designer myself, I'm a sucker for jewelry. And I just can't help supporting other designers.....a good thing for them, a not so good thing for my wallet! Joyce Orena is the name of this particular designer. If you love statement jewelry....you will be leaving a trail of drool in her store.

M Cafe is a restaurant by day, bar at night..with an outdoor DJ, great sounds and wonderful people at the Greenbelt "suburb" of shopping malls. I love the lamps hanging from the large tree just outside that I had to climb up to take a proper shot at what I would love my garden party to look like - if I had a garden, and if I were to hold a party at home (two things that are virtually impossible for the struggling artist in HK). lol.

My favourite dish - Adobo. It's grilled or roasted pork spare ribs in some garlic infusion and black sauce. I am terrible at descriptions. Whatever. It was wonderful. I ate the entire thing. I wanted more. Find it at Fely J's at Greenbelt.

A random sign along the highway. The Filipino people are highly religious and most are Catholics. In the middle of the drab, car smoke and industrial buildings, this really stood out. We should have a similar sign in Hong Kong...with different words, ie: "Don't be rude".

I thought Greenbelt was huge. The Mall of Asia is the mother of all malls. I didn't finish walking around it despite spending more than half a day there. It was also where I got my fabulous haircut and colour for a mere HKD$300 ( ~USD $40). The lady at Mary Pauline's listened to my every word and it looked perfect. Did I mention manicures are basically free at USD$2-3?

The boulevard by the sea just outside the Mall of Asia....there is just so much space!
During the evenings and late into the night, this boulevard is transformed into a strip of restaurants, bars and clubs. We were there til 7am in the morning partying it up at a new club called LAX. I was a little intoxicated. I thought it best that I not have my camera on me..lest I lose it. Psst..drinks were USD$8 a pop.

Jeepneys are an institution in Manila. They're a mode of public transports. When the Americans left, a savvy local businessman turned unwanted military jeeps into public transport. By allowing the jeepney owner to decorate his jeepyney accordingly, the result are the many of these colourful vehicles can be found around Manila. It's spawned other "copy cat" modes of transport - converted vans for example.

A boy taking a break from a hard day's work.

My favourite jeepney decoration - horses!

Hop on, hop off...doesn't matter whether the jeep is moving or not! Payment is made by getting fellow passengers to pass the fare to the driver at the front. Sometimes, a driver may have a helper assisting in collecting fare money.

I'll be back Manila...with a charged camera...and hopefully for a longer stay so that I can visit the outlying islands..Bohol..Boracay...the list goes on!

I cannot believe this but .......3 Gift guide features in less than a week?!!! *runs around her tiny apartment screaming*

I don't know what I have been doing that is any different to get my items noticed enough to be featured. In fact, I have been pretty slack at promoting, getting on forums, etc because work has been so busy that I barely had any time to even LOOK at Etsy or worry about the store.

Hmmmmm...thoughts?

Front Page - FINALLY!

I FINALLY made the front page of Etsy in the Wedding Attire Gift Guide - what a lovely surprise to wake up to this morning =)

Custom Made - The Summer Bride's Necklace

I'm buried in custom orders galore! I love this particular piece I just finished for a wedding. Ta-dah!

The two back freshwater pearl and Swarovski crystal strands can be taken off after the wedding and the necklace just worn as a simple yet elegant triple strand freshwater pearl necklace.

There's just no better way to unwind than...

.............To take advantage of the warehouse sale season in HK and SHOP!

I have thus far resisted all urge to spend up in the earlier sales - Bvlgari, Dior, MNG, Jimmy Choo...the list goes on. However, when I received the Marc Jacobs warehouse sale notification in my Inbox....whatever self control I had left after resisting a gazillion sales of "up to 80% off" just crumbled.

Coral/Peach oversized leather tote (Was HKD$5590, bought for HKD$3300):

- It's such a beautiful summery colour, just in time for the hot sunny weather! Worn with my favourite Tigerlily playsuit. (Yes, that is my man sticking his butt out for the camera in the backgroun -_-)

The silk/cotton blend black high waisted shorts I have been lusting after for absolutely ages! (Was HKD$5000, bought for HKD$900)
- Worn with a Valleygirl cotton cutout top, a vintage ribbon rosette belt and a Bejewelled Bespoke long necklace of vintage black beads and gold.

Black halter v-neck dress with A-line skirt and crossover back (Was HKD$3500, bought for HKD$1000).
You can't see it, but I love how there is a waist tie so you can cinch everything in and if I had more of a bosom, (*sigh*), it would look just perfectly vintage inspired.

I actually don't feel too terribly guilty, because the man ended up with a gorgeous light grey fitted cotton blazer and some preppy grey/blue plaid shorts.

=D

Sassy Hong Kong and Twitter!

The lovely girls at Sassy Hong Kong - a social networking group for women in HK - featured Bejewelled Bespoke in their blog!

Check it out here:
http://sassyhongkong.blogspot.com/2009/04/bejewelled-bespoke.html

Thank you!

A little trip to China - A photo blog post!

A picture says a thousand words. With this saying in mind, I thought that the best way to write about my latest getaway to a second tier city in China called Changsha is to do a photo blog-style post.

And so..voila!

This lady had pushed her street-side cart from her countryside farm all the way to one of the university areas of the city to sell Tianjin-style snackfood. She does this every morning and gets there by noon - just in time for lunch. The lengths and lengths of crunchy sweet or savory rolls are sold by weight to university students and residents alike.

The twisted biscuits are coated in caramel, and very sweet but doughy. I really enjoyed the square pieces of ground dough, nuts and caramel that were chewy and crunchy at the same time.

Window shutters of a residential apartment block in the rain. A piece of architecture that really caught my eye.

Doggie fashion in China. Such cute little red and black sneaker boots! - I could see this on Etsy ;)

Looking through the window of a corridor in a old apartment block of a community called a "Dan Wei". I learnt that Chinese families are given an apartment if they have served the government somehow for some time. This was in a university 'dan wei' - many of the residents were elderly but at some point in their lives, had worked for the university.

Graves on the side of Mount Yuelu after the Ching Ming festival. This festival is where families pray or pay respects to their ancestors. They light firecrackers to ward off evil spirits and bad luck.


A peek out the window. Someone had put their laundry out to dry.

The entrance to an apartment block in a 'dan wei' - the colourful letterboxes in an otherwise quite old and drab building caught my eye. I love how the old bicycle was positioned just right outside!





Burnt candlesticks at a temple in Changsha.

Drying nuts (?) on a make-shift balcony of mops.

These little bamboo rickety chairs are what we sat on in some restaurants in Changsha. They are so tiny that it took awhile to get used to. My knees were practically in my face! The food in Changsha is predominantly spicy. People tend to eat heavy lunches washed down with local rice wine or beer. The beer was so light that it was almost watery - drinkable for me as I am not a fan of heavy wheaty beers ;) Even though it was a weekday there were huge groups of people having long lunches..and getting drunk!

A small road makes way for make-shift markets. This "seafood" seller sold frogs and eels (?) - the latter was being gutted by the roadside very deftly.

I love this photo of the market. Everything here looks so fresh and bright - which is such a contrast to the surroundings. Colour in country China seems hard to come by and the markets are one place where you suddenly have all this colour!






The city centre of Changsha on a rainy day.

Mothers' Day Sale!

Apologies for the lack of updates. Have been travelling a whole heap over the last 2 weeks, and I am finally back in action this weekend!

Without further ado, I'm announcing my first sale - just in time for Mothers' Day on May 10th.

So on top of absolutely free shipping (and registered post too!), you get an extra 10% off every purchase...and wait for this: 20% off if you buy two items or more!

http://bejewelledbespoke.etsy.com


If you see something you like but want it in a different colour, different chain, or want me to change it in any way, just drop me an e-mail (bejewelledbespokedesigns@gmail.com) or convo me on Etsy!

Psssst: A special mention to the lovely girls at HK Fashion Geek Blog for linking my sale! -> http://hkfashiongeek.blogspot.com
Follow their blog for delectable shoe finds, fashion updates and much more!

Blog feature!

The lovely Tara of Youniquely Chic has featured me on her blog!

THANK YOU!!!!

Sneak Peak!

The result of a hard day's work!

Silk, ruffles, roses, line, tulle = a gorgeous rose bib necklace in cream with a ribbon tie. Guaranteed to breathe life into that ubitiquous LBD or a strapless top.

It has yet to hit my Etsy store because I also spent the other half of the day putting up listings. I have about 6 new designs listed today so check it out. My favourite has to be the Piece de Resistance Earrings. These are earrings which I made two months ago, and I never actually got a chance to list them because I had so many orders for them from people I met here in HK. I've finally gotten through it all, so here they are:

They're made from 14K gold plated components with cubic zirconia briolettes. They literally sparkle! Each briolette is wire-wrapped by yours truly - so you can see why it takes ages to make.

Love them? Or love my items?

Mention you saw this post on my blog and get 10% off your purchase at http://bejewelledbespoke.etsy.com !

All my items come with free shipping to anywhere in the world - and additional saving, and hey, just another reason to take a look.

Dedicated to the best thread on Etsy!

A few months ago, I rediscovered Etsy. Sure, I'd made the odd purchase here and there over the last few years but never really did it interest me as a seller. Moving overseas to a country where they are yet to establish true craft markets (correct me if I'm wrong but I've searched!), suddenly Etsy was the way to go for someone who couldn't be bothered sitting down for a month to create a website.

A month or two ago, I discovered the forums. And a few weeks ago, I discovered the best thread on Etsy, started by the wonderful mikiep.

I thought that I would dedicate this post to all the wonderful people and their stores that I have met on this thread. You guys are just "rad"!

(Disclaimer: Use of "rad" and "super mega ninja" is solely due to influence from Chris @ StoverTileAndDesigns)

mikiep - Ever elusive (to me anyway!), full of great advice, and does the most whimsical illustrations on Etsy.

RavenX - mikiep's lovelier half, her store Dirty Pretty Things stocks the most delicious scented candles on Etsy.

YouniquelyChic - The super rad ninja Etsy guru who knows everything about Etsy, marketing, crystal jewelry, photography...you name it, she can probably do it!

StoverTileandDesigns - Chris makes the most amazing granite creations in the Etsy community. My man doesn't know yet, but we are hauling back a beautiful Blue Paradise cheese platter from the States. We give Chris the sole credit of reviving the word 'Rad'.

yarn2spin - Stocks yarn, and lots of it! Check out her blog for cute angora rabbits. They are adorable! Pssst: Her other store here is having a crazy sale right now ;)

DavidBurnsSmith - Artist extraordinaire! You have to see his Five of Cups paintings - definitely a collector's item.

SatinDolly - A polymer clay artist, and also the one behind our new team, Etsy Global. Her polymer clay rose creations are simply outstanding.

RachaelsGarden- Karen is a talented painter and creator as evidenced by her handcrafted and painted birdhouses. Check our her store (dedicated to her daughter) of magical items of folk art paintings, and personalized keepsakes galore!

BettysOriginalKnits - Coined the term 'man yarn'. Check out her man hats and her lovely shrugs. Her hard work really shines through her creations.

inkihandmade - This girl not only spends crazy hours at school, but she does really creative sewn, crocheted, and printed works of art. Everything from tags, to bags, to artwork - an incredible store.

kiwiarts - Beth does some gorgeous artwork in the form of paintings, bracelets and glassware. She too is a ninja multitasker juggling a million things at once but manages it so well!

GalleryVittoria - Transforms beads into intricate works of art - all very wearable and so so pretty. Her seafoam green earrings are in my top 10 wanted list!

Ishycreations - Kitsch, cute and whimsical creations ranging from peanut butter jelly earrings, guitar pick necklaces and some funky paintings!

CatherinetteRings - Steampunk galore! Daniel makes some intricate and eye popping handcrafted rings that are the standout of this store and there is just soooo many to choose from.

Last but not least... SimplieGirlie - Absolutely adorable baby wear, if I have a little girl she would be wearing some of these to die for pinafores!