One of kind jewelry for one of a kind you!
I'm thrilled to announce that I won the 1st place for CenterFest 2016 Visual Artist Award last weekend! The three on-site judges selected 4 award winners from 147 exhibiting artists. I feel so honored when they told me I've won the award, thank you Durham Arts Council and Center Fest for acknowledging my hard works and I'll continue to make good art!
A winner deserves a selfie lol
Me selling : )
At award ceremony
From Durham Arts Council Newsletter
My booth at the show (E8)
Just returned from my trip to Chicago for Old Town Art Fair, it was a beautiful weekend and it was so refreshing to catch up with old friends from SCAD and college. Oh man, I will totally move to Chicago in a heart beat if they don't have over half year long brutal winter.......Well, at least I get to visit it every year during the most awesome season : )
Finally, finally...!!! It took me over a year to eventually make up my mind and finalized the designs then remade our wedding bands, and the results are amazing! I'm totally in love with our new rings (says from a narcissistic jeweler lol)
Custom made wedding bands: Hers - 18k white gold, rainbow moonstone, diamond, paraiba tourmaline; His - Platinum
She said YES! (To the ring and of course to the man!!!)
Knowing this great news just made my day today! Congrats to M & S!!!
Custom made engagement: 18k yellow gold, Passion Topaz, White Sapphire.
This ring is designed for my mom, the two rubies represent my sister and me, and the center aquamarine is my brother, as to those diamonds, well, according to my mom, she just wants something sparkles and fancy (you got it mom lol)
Truth to be told, my mom really lucked out on this one, fortunately the color combination of our birthstones aligned beautifully, and the design resonate my mom's personality just perfect. Can't wait to see my mom's expression when she receives the ring!
Hand-carved wax, 18K white gold, natural ruby, natural aquamarine, diamonds.
Enamel, copper, 24k gold vermeil, 14k yellow gold chain.
I got this custom wedding bands request from Brain and Margaret last month. They are getting married in June, so it only allows me 1.5 months to come up with the ring ideas to finish both rings. I always enjoy making custom designs, it's challenging, interactive, and I love it comes with the rush and high when I'm under the pressure of deadline (only my SCAD FAHMily will probably understand this part lol).
I started this project in the middle of April, had few meetings with B&M to figure out their expectations about their rings. Brian's ring is simple and contemporary, I designed a half round brushed finish 6mm 14K White Gold band for him. I used a half round 14k white gold wire to hand fabricated the ring, it was HARD, but with lots lots of annealing and hammering, I'm very happy that the end result for his ring is just perfect.
The real fun stuff is to design Margaret's ring, she has a clear picture about what style of her ring should look like. Fortunately, we are both huge fans of Art Nouveau era style, so it was very pleasant process to communicate with her about the designs. I decided to go with the floral scene for her ring because one of the most recognizable characteristics about Art Nouveau is all about flower flower and flower!
I combined her favorite flower "Lily of the Vally" as the main theme, hand carved the wax, and set with mix of three 2mm diamonds and four 2mm Period (which is also her birthstone) around the flower buds and veins to give a nicely visual flow. Dustin Walker did an amazing job setting the stone and milgrain texture. The ring is cast in 18K White Gold, and the milgrain texture is added on the veins and bezels. Her choice of white gold, diamond, and period makes the color combinations just as perfect as this ring ever could be!
Congratulations!
We went to Nate's family birthday party in Gastonia last Sunday, it was a beautiful day with great companies, while I was chatting with Londy (my cousin-in-law) about her surrogacy experience, she asked me if I can design this jewelry set for baby's biological parents. I was thrilled and honored to be able to play a part for her amazing surrogacy journey.
Her initial concept is to use the baby's EKG pattern from her most recent 13 weeks ultrasound exam to make into a piece of pendant for the biological mother and an accessary for the biological father. I think her idea is really sweet and personal, the pendant is a great choice for her; as to the father, I suggested to make a tie pin for him, it's totally wearable, and when the father wears the pin, it's close to his heart as if he can feel baby's heart beat right next to him.
The communication was smooth and pleasant, we soon decided the final design for both pieces. The pendant is pierced and fabricated from a 18ga sterling silver sheet with brushed finish, and the tie pin is pierced and formed from a 20ga sterling silver sheet also with brushed finish.
This is going to be a Father's Day gift for the couple, so they will have something tangible to hold onto while they are expecting baby's due day in the December. I truly admire Londy's generosity and courage of being a surrogate mother, and her thoughtfulness of this sweet gift idea for the couple. I wish the very best for her surrogacy and I hope the soon-to-be-parents couple will enjoy the jewelry set!
I just finished this pair of custom made earrings for Sadie right after I came back from San Francisco (ACC San Francisco) this week. The theme of this pair of earrings are continuos vines growing around as a teardrop shape, and set with two emerald which is also her birthstone. The materials are sterling silver, 24K gold vermeil, and lab created Emerald. The finished earrings actually turned out to be even way better than I imagined, now I wanna make one for myself, too...... : P
I met Irene last Summer via my college friend in San Francisco, we hit it off right away, she's a really outgoing, fun-loving, hospitable and energetic girl, and sooner after she becomes one of my VIP customer after she came to visit my booth at ACC San Francisco last year.
She invited me to stay with her during my visit in SF this year, not only we had a amazing time together, she also brought her friends to visit my booth this year again. And of course she added couple more pieces of jewelry in her HTY Jewelry collection this year with me.... : P
These two custom orders are part of her new collections, her best friend Jing is moving to New Jersey next month, so they decided to give each other a piece of jewelry to cherish their everlasting friendship. I was honored to be the jeweler to build the rings for them.
One main reason that keeps me going for doing craft shows is that I get to visit my old friends, and I have chance to meet new friends in this crazy journey. Most of time I'm doing shows by myself, but I never feel alone because I know my friends get my back no matter where I am.
The rings are made in Sterling silver, 14K gold, and rainbow moonstone.
This is a wedding gift ordered from Zila, she wants to give them to her sister and herself in order to show the special bond of their sistership. The design combines the cross to represent their religious belief of Christianity. The two-toned silver & oxidized colors give the sense of contemporary yet vintage touch to it, and the forged texture makes a nice contrast between the design of cross and the edge. I also stamped B&C as the initial of their English name at the inner bracelet to personalize the cuff.
I still remembered how excited she was when she tried on my Silver & Gold Garnet Tear Drop Earrings on. She had to go home with them, it just looked so perfect on her (seriously!). Sometimes it's the jewelry founds the its wearer, and it worked out on her case.
I was having a trunk show at Nora & Nicky's in downtown Raleigh this summer, we had a great conversation together, I even convinced her friend to purchase a cute royal blue dress to go home with, that was a great night.
Few months after, I received this email from her friend Ellie, she said she would like to ask me to design a pendant as her surprise birthday gift to match the garnet earrings that her friend purchased. I took her middle name Rose as my inspiration to make a rose cut out pattern pendant along with her favorite gemstone-- Garnet. Ellie was very happy about the result, I felt really happy as well, it was almost like I was making this special gift for my own special friend because the connection we had when we met at Nora & Nicky's.
This is a custom made Silver & Gold teardrop garnet pendant for Jamie in order to match the tear drop garnet earrings she just recently purchased from me.
Material: sterling silver, 24k gold vermeil, electro-forming, 14k gold filled
