Shop Update.

elta rings, shown in brass + sterling silver

vik mountain studs, in sterling silver + brass

a little shop update, in that grey part of the season between collections and the puzzle that is pre-fall. introducing the elta rings and vik mountain studs, both inspired by the stark mountain landscapes from my travels to iceland; i especially love wearing my elta rings together in different metals to evoke memories of the mountains and trees as seen in the reflections of a lake or stream during a mountain hike. check out the rest here. :)

special edition releases + an imminent shop update.

remember these guys? ;)

in honor of the upcoming independence day holiday and to give independence to some necklaces i've been holding onto for awhile, i've re-stocked the shop with a super (super) limited edition of the natural dyed cotton rope necklaces. there's a three and five bead version available, and when i say super limited, i mean super limited (as in there may or may not only be one of each in a couple of these styles! ;). my favorite part about these are the found stone/pumice beads - the three bead style features very lightweight glazed pumice beads while the five bead style features slightly smaller glazed lightweight stone beads - these guys are brilliant beautiful! each bead is like a tiny world strung on cord; there are mountainous rises and falls, crevasses and pits in each of these beads - no two are alike but each is amazing. snag 'em up, i tell ya! and no bias here, honest. 

however, if rope necklaces aren't quite your thing and you've been waiting patiently for more metal jewelry updates - hurrah! a shop update will be coming very soon, either end of this week or first part of next. this update will include a few new pieces such as the aska ring, the raya ring (another view here) and the edda ring. if you've been following along on instagram, chances are you've seen them in recent updates - they'll finally be available in the shop soon, soon! 

and lastly, a little holiday discount because what would a holiday in america be without a reason to shop? ;) use code 'happy4' for 20% off all purchases through sunday, july 7th. happy fourth of july, everyone!

the things we keep jewelry, so pleased to meet you.

the day i have been waiting for, working towards, thinking of and counting down has finally arrived and i could not be more thrilled - may i finally present to you: the things we keep! 

the jewelry webshop is now open, and i'm seriously almost jumping out of my seat to finally share with everyone the culmination of the last several months of work. each piece started out as a hand carved wax form, and each one is hand cast and hand finished right here in nyc which makes each piece entirely one-of-a-kind. i really hope everyone loves each and every piece as much as i do, and the most humble thank you to everyone for all the encouragement, excitement and support over the last year. :)

lately.

+ a trip to iceland

+ lots of new ceramic works

+ plant hoarding

+ tea drinking
+ webshop opening soon!

my return from iceland was just this past monday, but already it feels like decades ago. i picked up and left amongst a massive to-do list, and am just surfacing (a little bit) from another snowballing list of things to do that seemingly never end. well, upwards and onwards they say! even if that upwards and onwards is me attempting to summit mountains of crumpled up paper to-do lists. i kid, i kid.

some very exciting news to share - the jewelry webshop is almost ready! i was fortunate enough to enlist the help of two very special ladies to squeeze in a lookbook shoot a couple weeks before my trip, and it's only a matter of sorting through a few site kinks until everything is live. stay tuned, more webshop news to come both on the blog and on instagram.

in the meantime, drinking lots of tea while being super antsy for spring to come, and spending way too much time in the ceramics studio lately. a few new pieces are shown above, with lots more to come! it might be time to start planning for some studio space, i'm being run out by ceramics and plants. not altogether a terrible problem to have. :)

a small update + happy labor day weekend.

ttwkjewelry.com

i know summer doesn't officially end for another few weeks, but already it seems like everyone's transitioning into the rhythm of fall.  i too am looking forward to the leaves changing, the cooler temperatures, and - the best part - apple and pumpkin picking upstate, but for now i've been trying to squeeze out the very last bits of summer while i still can.  it's crazy how fast time goes by the older we become.  

there's a few things going on behind the scenes, but in the works is a new site!  please visit ttwkjewelry.com and sign up for the mailing list for updates as the site gets closer to launch.  i'm super excited about this, it'll serve as the more comprehensive "home base" that will hopefully tie the blog and the shop together.  there's a little spot for messages too, so please feel free to say hello or let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see and i'll do my best to incorporate your feedback.

chris has a rare day off on monday for labor day, so we're headed out this weekend for some unofficial last of summer relaxation.  hope everyone gets some time to relax this weekend, too!  what have you got planned for your weekend?

jewelry show tonight.

sorry if this is a bit last minute, but i'll be exhibiting a few pieces of mine at the annual student show at the liloveve gallery space at 457 grand street in brooklyn for you local nyc readers.  please stop by, say hello and sip on some free champagne if you're free!  opening reception is from 5 to 9pm tonight, more details here.

(a neat aside - see those two wax rings top right?  yep, those are my pieces featured!)

shop update.

they're finally available! i dyed this rope about a month back when i did all the fabric and yarn dying, and these were amongst the first to go into the dye baths thus the colors turned out much deeper and richer than some of the later fabric/yarn batches.

limited edition cotton sash cord necklaces dyed in either a madder + cutch or indigo + madder colorway in two beaded styles, now for sale in the shop. when i say limited edition, i mean it - there's only four total available in madder + cutch and one available in indigo + madder. while the colors on the rope turned out even better than i had hoped, it's really the beads i'm super excited about. i managed to score these amazing glazed pumice beads with smaller glazed (what looks like) stone beads mixed in, and these guys are just the texture mecca. i mean it, folks. mecca. all sorts of nooks and crannies, caverns and little stubbly goodness abound on these beads, and no two are alike.

there will be also be another update along a similar vein in a couple of weeks on convertible necklace/bracelets, so stay tuned!

sneak peek.

just a couple snaps of some updates coming soon to the shop. all hand dyed with natural dyes, beads alternate between glazed pumice and stone, with the most interesting textures on the surface of the beads. super lightweight, too! ideal for these 95+ degree days we've been having. stay tuned.

on procrastination, part two.

i'm god awful with ideas.  i have them, tons of them, but i get so overly excited about them that i start them and rarely ever finish them.  which is why, now that i'm unemployed, it feels like a better time than ever to finally put my foot down and finish projects i started ages and ages ago that i never really thought i'd finish.

i first started making these necklaces back in january (you might remember this post, what started it all) with the intent to make more and start selling them, but for multiple reasons got sidetracked and had only a necklace here and a necklace there - not wise if i'm trying to make enough to gain any sort of critical mass.  it's been this way up until recently, when i finally buckled down and busted through a couple afternoons making these, alongside the other wax work i'm also doing.  i'm very proud of myself for finally finishing these (and hopefully on my way to making more) and i've finally listed them on etsy.  so please, visit!  and take a look!  and buy one!  encourage me to stop being a slacker so that i can get up off my rear and make enough supply to meet demand!  yeah!  did that encouragement (hopefully) work?  ok, great.

a reductive process.

a few of you might remember this ring i made back when i took a jewelry/metalsmithing course while still in la; i had such a good time and learned so much in that class that i've been hooked on making jewelry ever since. i signed up for a wax carving class recently, and even though it's only been a couple weeks in i've already got two* pieces to show for it! the ring above is the second piece i made during class, the cuff (below) was something i made on my own time while at home.

(*note: my very first piece made in class was another ring, but for some reason it didn't come back from the caster last week, so hopefully i'll have it finished and ready to show by next week!)

i find the entire process to be so relaxing, but so fun. i've kept a little notebook of sketches and ideas i've had along the way, but this is easily something i could see myself doing more of, on a consistent basis. i've also toyed with the idea of selling these, though i guess it makes more sense to gauge interest in these pieces first before i start building an entire collection.

so i guess the question to anyone reading out there is: feedback, thoughts, general opinions? would you personally buy or have any interest in buying these?

i made these while procrastinating on cleaning the house for the umpteenth time, and i’m pretty pleased with how they turned out. i couldn’t get it to show in the photos, but the best part about these beads was the gold clay i used had tiny little flecks of gold dust, which when folded into the pink matte clay distributed an even dusting of the gold flecks throughout the bead, totally an unintentional plus. i was inspired to make these after seeing alyson fox’s ‘a small collection’ on jenny’s blog/shop; kinda neat that the desire to own one culminated into necessary creativity since those necklaces sold out so darn quick.

last ring i made from the jewelry metalsmithing class i took.  hand cut, shaped, sanded, soldered and polished from solid sheet brass.  likely my favorite out of the three i’ve made…this could definitely be something i’d love to pick up as a hobby if time allowed.

yarn$ chain$.

two yarn knot necklaces, knitted + crocheted by yours truly.  i’m particularly fond of how the blue one turned out.

close up of the (half) good luck knot.

mociun jewelry.

images from mociun

the entire spring 2010 collection is perfection.  my hands-down favorite is the hexagon ring - one can dream, right?