Let's Talk Insp-oo-ration

My heart for your pearls of inspiration.


K, so I've been discreetly taking photographs of people wearing nice jewellery on the ttc. I was told in class today that I should try to actually start a conversation with these people and pass out my card. But because I don't like to impose my oddness upon others, this has been quite hard. I debated with myself at sevvvvvv-ral stops today along the ttc as to whether or not to change seats beside an elderly black woman with funky jewellery. So, instead I took a picture, and she was weirded out. LOL, so I deleted the picture. Moral of the story: better to talk than stalk...


I bet she is the funky fun grandma to somebody cool.. blah. I wouldn't know now.





Right, so: I also get inspriation from my obsession with screen capturing nice jewellery on tv.. GOSSIP GIRL






has the most amazing peices. and the interesting thing I find about it, is that some of that stuff is so old fashioned and classic costume jewellery, not like you are seeing as street wear these days. It always makes me want to play with pearls in a modern way...




I also like to go by shop windows and take a look at the manicans. This way, I can have a little section of my portfolio dedicated to demonstrating how the shape and style of the peice might be matched with the customers outfit. If I learned anything from film school: photographic examples make it so that explaining an artistic concept isn't so darn hard..




I'll reiterate that my business won't function the way I want it to until I have clients who want to inspire me to make jewellery for their personality types... Tell me what you like about you.. and then you can like your jewellery too :P

Simply Pretty

Any suggestions on what to imagine when you don't want to think what you are thinking, or be where you are being? I think I might invest in one of those corny mindful meditation tapes, because I draw such a blank for what fantasy life I'd love to have. I want to shut out the worrying...

Do you ever get concerned that when there comes a day you don't worry any more, you'll be at a loss for what to do with yourself? I don't really have this fear, because I don't think that I'll ever really stop worrying. I'm going to stop saying the word worry now, because I am annoying myself.

Either way, today I went out and purchased a sketch book, markers, pencil crayons and the like, and have started to actually sketch jewellery design ideas. So far, so sloppy. I get kinda tired of drawing dozens of perfect circles, and eventually they all end up different sizes and the necklace doesn't look as good on paper as it does in my head.

That says something about my artistic style.. it's funny that beading is so much about percision and patterns, but when I used to paint or draw it isn't at all about what comes next...

I have to learn to incorporate this kind of immediacey into my designs, arbitrary, less strict. I'm so caught up with how I don't feel my designs are complicated enough to compare, but honestly, sometimes I see some very intricate designs and think, if only that were a little less cluttered, you could see her collar bones clearer, it would lead me to the neck line of her dress in an elegant way, adorn her tasteful cleavage instead of drape it in distraction.

Simply pretty.

Pricing Sucks

If everytime I see a number bigger than 100 my brain freezes, what exactly am I supposed to do? 2 hours of sitting and having something explained to me at least 18 times on repeat because I JUST DON'T GET IT. Apparently I'm blocking it out.. throw back to Mr. Blair from Arthur Ford who made me fear numbers irreconcilably.

I don't have a number necklace... I don't want one, and neither should you.

Maintaining Mania - Look in the mirror.

One of the first things they tell you not to do when you are trying to control your manic-depressive cycling is NOT to try and extend your Mania. For instance, when you start to feel euphoric, best not to go to that big party with all the amazing drugs, and exuberant people -- this is not the actual example from my life, but nonetheless I did try to hold onto my euphoria last night. I discovered today, the very hard way, that this was not a good idea. As this morning I fainted at the bus stop.

Very embarrassing. I was feeling too good. My heart started to race, my vision started buzzing and beaming a sort of silvery colour and then I lost all circulation and ended up flat on my bum in a mud puddle (yes, it was raining), and that, only after bumping into three people -- one of which was wearing a white shirt and I believe before blacking out I might have left a make-up stain on his shirt.

*sigh* I really am trying to control this, I have to try harder. I was so pumped about all I've been doing for my business this morning, but for some reason I am starting to see I will have to try harder to take care of myself to take care of the business.

Rosey and Crystal Clear

So I thought I'd talk a little bit about my emotions in this post. If it isn't apparent by my company name, I am manic-depressive... or in other words: a bundle of combustable emotions packed into beautiful brown skin.

It has been a roller-coaster for the last, I'd say 3-5 days. Going back and forth from I hate everything, espescially that which I make to Good lord that's hawt, and so am I. Today was an espescially up day, but not too up, which is good.

Today I made 2 necklaces, and mourned my dwindling bank account by eating caramels and drinking ensure, to ah, ensure I don't pass out from lack of foodage -- you see my compulsion to over-spend (and yes, look it up, it is tooootally a symptom of this mental illness I have), has made it so I choose beads over nourishment -- Yes, that should pity you into buying my wares...

Either way, I'm a peace out now, because I realize I'm rambling. Za point of this post was to say: YAY! a good day. No staring at scissors and bead reamers in awe of their sharp dangerous tips. Instead I choose other sparkly things.

Popular Beads

So today I went bead shopping, to my own detriment. I told myself I wouldn't. I never listen to her. But yeah, so I bought these beads at Hi Beads at Bathurst and Queen, and it made me very wary when the store owner told me that they were very popular. It was very obvious that he was trying to encourage me to buy more before they are sold out. That wasn't really what bothered me. I don't really want to be buying the popular beads. Besides my love for the popular swarvoski crystals, working with beads that every other designer is working with isn't really my aim. Blah, lets just hope that my design is original enough that it's not an issue of having a limited pool of suppliers accessible without a car.

Manic Jewellery Business Start up

Manic Jewellery is up and running -ish.

I am still getting used to letting go of my jewellery! Yesterday I left my peice "crying silver" with Elephant Shoes (Bloor and Lansdowne) for consignment.

It was hard, mostly because I haven't had a chance to wear it out yet. Isn't that terrible, I'm willing to hold off selling it because I don't have the chance to wear it on a test run. Yikes.

Either way. So, now I have this blog, an etsy page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ManicJewellery ;

a facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=100503840002602

and I am still looking for more ways to promote so I can get a decent rating on google. I need to start making the money I've spent in supplies back. Otherwise, I have no money to make more and improve.