Wired Chinese Knot – Treasury Knot On Turquoise Donut, Pendant, Wire Jewelry

Ursula had been my most, most wonderful customer that will never, ever gave up on my tutorial – I remember how she had wrote to me and asking me for guidance when she hits problems trying out Treasury Knot tutorial.
Let's do a little flash back. Treasury Knot is a name that I’ve given to this design when I finally turned Button Knot into wire jewelry form – my biggest achievement in year May 2009, and button knot is the most classic of Chinese Knot of all (also known as Japanese knot and Korean knot).
So Ursula wrote to me (thank you!), and asked me how to come about ironing out the challenges, she told me she had been trying and trying and her fingers are all sore and “broken”, that I had to beg her to stop practicing until her fingers recovered – I have been through that stage, and done that, I knew what is it like to have a sore fingers and yet the knot refused to turn out right. I knew that level of frustration. And so I told her she definitely need some break before she continues because 1. If her fingers are not in good shape they are not going to corporate and 2. If the knot can’t turn ouot right because she was tired it is very likely she is going to set aside the project and will never do it again. Just right before I thought she was going to give up she sent me these pictures. And many more after, of which I will slowly post. :)

So, in the end she got so good at it she is not only making what I’ve taught her, she start APPLYING. Now, applying techniques you have learned to your pierce to create a very design of your own is FABULOUS! That means Ursula had now reach the stage that she could freely apply this technique into any design at anytime she wants – just look at this Turquoise Donut, you think I will come up with an idea like that? I don’t think so, not just because I am more keen in inventing for something new, I am often blinded and limited by my very own designs – I encourage people to explore more of the opportunities, but I am often stuck with my own boundaries, partly because I try cutting down in checking out stuff out there so that I could invent.. guess that’s price to pay to stay pure and, for as much as I like, go being an internet police to see what who how have adopted my designs and not giving credit. I guess after awhile it became… well I don’t think I am being totally cynical, but just have to accept the way it is as today how everyone put themselves. I have to learn how to put myself too, and I understood how else expected me to carry myself and my brand, my design, whatever – ya know, but please when you do that, bear in mind that I am just another human being, could be like your sister, friend, or even a daughter.

Enough for this self-confession mini-rant. I know no body want to hear this, just like how nobody want to hear a celebrity cries.

So here’s some pictures I’ve put together awhile ago, in case you haven’t seen it. :)

Have a peaceful weekend, and I will see you again when I return from a short break.

Category: Wired Chinese Knot
Corra

New Movie Clips for PIPA designs, Wired Chinese Knot collection, Wire Jewelry

I chuckle a little reading the title itself, ha ha. Movie clips? I wished. :P

Hey sorry if you have enter this blog because of this blog post title – I didn’t meant to frame you lol, for as much as I would like to compose some movie clips I am NOT THERE YET! But you know what? I will be one day!!! (I don’t know, I am sorta fan of Susan Boyle, she gave me so much hope when she sang “I Dreamed a Dream” on that stage. :P

So now, spare a minute and 39 seconds of your time to see what I’ve put together for your viewing pleasure. This Wired Chinese Knot, PIPA design is significant to me and the Wire Jewelry community as more than a thousand of wire jewelry artists have shown their interest and brought PIPA Earrings Tutorials home in the very same year it was published - yes, thousands of wire jewelry artists, have shown their very supportive spirit and opened-mind to accept this new approach, new adaption, new concept of Chinese Knot! So yes, year 2008 certainly meant something to me, praise the wire jewelry community for the ability to accept the new concept.
Back to this movie clip.

Most of the pieces presented in this clip were composed in year 2008 itself – because it was a new concept back then in year 2008, I’ve put in fair amount of time and effort to invent/ re-invent of how Wired PIPA knot and other Wired Chinese Knot can adapt into designs, the key to have a design being widely accepted is to inspire people on how the design can possibly be or, vary, a.k.a. variation.

I plan to continue to present my designs/ collection in movie clip format if you would allow me, just let me know if you welcomed it by leaving me a comment here in my blog or a comment there in Youtube, rate it if you can, and if you have a Youtube profile, remember, remember, re-mem-ber to subscribe my video list so that I could subscribe yours too! Love these stuff! :)

Hope you enjoyed viewing!

Category: Wired Chinese Knot
Corra

Wire Jewelry, Wired Chinese Knot – Knot-The-Net Earrings and Pendant in action!

 

 

This is Tammy, my very, very happy customer, featuring handmade earrings jewelry, Knot-The-Net Earrings and Knot-The-Net Pendant (made to order design). Photo courtesy of Tammy’s lovely (i heard he is sexy too) Dad.

Fine Art Jewelry, Wired Chinese Knot.
100% Handcrafted/ Handmade.

The order came in while I was waiting to board – leaving Malaysia for a short holiday. iPhone is my best friend wherever I go – Notification E-mails got pushed in and I get to react immediately. I’ve notified Tammy that I won’t be able to execute the project until I am back in country, which is a week later, and she was totally understanding and kind, she told me not to rush it and instead, I should enjoy my trip.  what an understanding individual OMG!
I have used Dark Green Swarovksi Crystal Pearls for this design since Swarovski Crystal Pearls are the perfect imitations of natural pearls – just don’t scratch it because, unlike natural pearls, each Swarovski Crystal Pearls are made begin with a crystal sphere which would give the pearl at it’s ideal weight (hence it’s name!) and then each of them will be uniformly coated with iridescent/ mother of pearl like layers, the coating combined with the crystasl-base of the pearl bead then presents the pearls with luminosity and luster just like natural pearls – BUT! (don’t you hate this? hehe) since they are “coated” with men made materials, the color of pearls would degrade or scratched away. That is partially why I’ve choose dark color of Swarovski Crystal beads to begin with Knot-The-Net technique.

First: Dark Green Swarovski Crystal Pearls are generally misleading – people would perceive it as dark pearls right from beginning.
Second: Swarovski Crystal Pearls are more fragile than you will believe. Once it’s scratched it’s forever.
So, by applying Knot-The-Net technique to these Dark Green Swarovski Crystal Pearls it:
1. Enforces Eyeball effect. People will look and probably look harder to find out what these earrings really are. Come on you can’t argue with me with it’s uniqueness can you? And chances are when they looked hard enough they will realize it was Dark Green pearls instead of Black, haha – speaking outta my very own experience though.
2. Act as a Safety Net. The net constructed with 92.5 Sterling Silver wires wrap your precious pearl beads and protect it from being scratched when you wear it or before you successfully put it on – what? You have never dropped your earring(s) prior wearing them? Yeah right. :P

And there are some tips too for you if you are going to shop for your very own pearl beads. When we shop for natural pearls, the easiest way to identify genuine or men-made pearls is by:
1. Looking at their shape. Yes you can sure have perfect round pearls but please be ready to read it’s price.
2. Get the seller to scratch the pearls surface with knife (!!!) – wooow wooow, I said, just scratch a little! Then by observing if it’s inner layer shows exactly the same color/texture as it’s surface, you know you are getting natural pearls. Oh by the way, nevermind that little scratch cause you could get the seller to replace it with one that’s not scratched, chances are they have more than enough to scratch on and proof it to you their pearls are worth getting because they are natural pearl beads.

So, if you are interested in trying out this project, you can get some Swarovski Pearls at wholesaler price from Amazon:

Happy Knotting-the-Net you all!

Corra @ Malaysia

Engagement Ring

A dear friend came to me with a question: how do I get an engagement ring that she would love?

Wow. Isn’t he seeking for insurance? Designs are very subjective I told him, what I would prefer might not be what she would like, and boy, I haven’t even met her yet! So in the end I suggested to get a better stone, and then bring the stone to a gold smith that has better reputation, and make the ring slightly larger just in case it can’t slid through her finger when he had his knee on the floor…

Then the word insurance came right through my mind.
Speaking of insurance, had anyone insuring your jewellery? I once heard from my grandmother that jewellery insurance is a norm in the olden days, but as of today I have not have many friends that need to apply insurance on their jewellery, the common practice though is to put them into safe in bank, and when the bank is broken into they loss their precious jewellery all together. So how does jewellery insurance work? The concept is pretty straight forward – you buy your ring, with few diamonds, say it worth USD$10,000.00, you get your seller or broker to issue you an appraisal to assure you it’s value, you then bring this appraisal to jewellery insurance company or agent who will then charge you a fee base on the value your seller stated on the appraisal to cover your ownership to the ring in case you have lost it, they take it and they approve it, you then go home and say it is *touch wood* stolen, or an animal swallowed it, I don’t know, right? You go to your insurance agent and tell them – I want the exact same thing. That’s when you will totally go home with a happy face, preparing yourself to see your broker or seller once again but this time, someone is going to pay for the bill. Of course there are still alot of behind the scenes that you should study before jumping in and dealing with after you have jumped (in), your insurance agent would probably getting the same stones as you for a better price, or the fee that you have paid work out very well under their probabilities/statistics, but what really matters is – you don’t have to be paranoid in losing your precious diamonds. :)

Sounds pretty cool yeah? One day I will have to be paranoid over my precious diamonds. Hahaha! Here’s some stones that I would look – and I only manage to find one book about jewellery insurance. If you are having too much hassle I guess best just go for the Trios. :P

Happy weekend all!
Corra @ Malaysia

Wired Chinese Knot: Gold-N-Blue with Knot-T-Net pendant, Wire Jewelry

Totally One-of-a-Kind!
Fine Art Jewelry, Wired Chinese Knot.
100% Handcrafted/ Handmade.
Another jewellery made out of Knot-The-Net technique, this time I decorated the piece with bright blue Swarovski crystal beads to give it some fun effect, the net was constructed by tying the knot with gold color non-tarnish brass wires. Sorta remind me of how Japanese utilizes knots to construct cute jewelleries. :)

eBook/Jewelry tutorial for this technique is available: Knot-The-Net Pendant tutorial, DCH013. 
Be inspired will ya? And TGIF all! :)
Here’s some tool to lure you to jump into wire jewelry making :P

Corra @ Malaysia

Being Featured!!!

[Click above picture to visit Shopaholic Den’s site]

So I am on it, thanks YY. :)

And dear readers, I think you should go over to check out her pick for the summer - Not like Malaysia has summer, we don’t, but we pretty much know it’s summer now in States when we see winter clothing are on sale in our department stores.

Go get tanned already!!! Here's something useful if you are going to the beach:

My new MacBook Pro is here!!!

 

I am totally impressed by Apple! They are good at marketing, their tracking system is totally impressive, and their stuff are slick and sexy! YUM!!!
I was told there will be a learning curve – and it was right, I felt miserable operating it, but I am sure I will get use to it pretty soon enough! I am ready to take it on!!! Wish me luck you all, I am so going to make full use of this beautiful machine!

Take care! And here's some recommend reads, mostly about Apple’s Marketing Strategies:

Corra @ Malaysia

By Offering Wired Chinese Knot Jewelry Tutorial, I got this in return

I have got an E-mail three days ago, and suddenly realized I have been useful to the wire jewelry making community.
Jude found me in Flickr. *Yay Internet!!!*
With Jude’s permission, I hereby posting the content of the E-mail:

Corra, I've been an ardent fan of your work for a number of years ever since I first saw your pieces on Flickr (which I belong to). I joined JL a while back but was sidelined for a long time with pneumonia resulting from that H1N1 virus.
At one time, I could never imagine how anyone could do Chinese knotting with wire since it's a skill to do it well with cord, let alone trying wire!! But I've been playing with wire wrapping & weaving a little & while still very much a beginner, I feel that with time & practice, I'll be able to improve & make some nice pieces. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so will keep at it till my work looks even, neat & at least semi-professional.
I was looking through your gallery at JL & had read before of some others using some of your tutorials. Imagine my disappointment when I saw none offered at JL. But by doing some checking & following some of your links, I found where I can buy then now. Oh, joy!! Admittedly, it will be a while (I hope not a long time) till I've become skilled enough to be able to do any of them. Trust me to always love the most complicated ones & to strive for the hardest first. But I'm practical & will start with easier ones even if it's not quite what I want at first.
This message is simply to thank you for still offering your tutorials so others can strive to make beautiful jewelry too. All too often, an artisan jealously guards their work & doesn't wish to share. I suppose it also makes more sense to share since not all can afford to buy the lovely pieces they see so a teacher may make more money selling tutorials. But it still shows a generous heart to share your knowledge & skill with others. And for that, a very sincere thank you goes to you!!
P.S. I can't think of what your poor fingers must go through doing all that wire work!!
kind regards,
Jude

Realized I’ve highlighted a few sentences? I’ve got something to say too:
In reply to the first highlighted sentence – Yes I was once doubted myself too, and I must admit it takes ALOT to convert one Chinese Knot into wire form, I am glad that I have found a few, and I am glad that I have contributed this new “slang” into wire jewelry community. :) *peace*

In reply to the second highlighted sentence – Yes you are right, I do not sell through Jewelry Lessons. I used to sell through my blog by placing PayPal buttons on the blog, trust me, if you have already build a reader-base because you write sincere blog-post, your blog can fetch you money. I sell my tutorials via my blog just as much as I sell them through Etsy or ArtFire. I made the effort to take away all the PayPal buttons on my blog when JL changed their policy, under their new policies, whoever that sell through their blogs and websites are automatically known as “competitor" to JL, and if the condition is true you are not allow to mention your blogs/websites URL – and JL is not satisfied with me removing PayPal buttons, they perceived my blog is still their competitors because I have mini-Etsy and mini-ArtFire on my blog, aside from this, the 50% of commission upon each tutorial sold is way too much for me to take, I sincerely think the contributors are worth more than that, If I were to sell through Kindle they will pay me more than that, and I don’t have to worry about promoting my book, I am basically paying to ride on their existing market-base. So, please tell your friends about me and get them straight to me alright? :)

In reply to the third highlighted sentence – There are many tutorials out there right now in the market, if you observe, people are encouraged to write a tutorial to share their knowledge, which is good! BUT PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR MENTOR CAREFULLY AND LEARN THE RIGHT SKILL! If you have learned something incorrectly, It is often very hard for you to unlearn it, so, BE CORRECT right from the beginning, if you are learning to make Wire Jewelry so that you can sell your creations for a living, make sure you do not compromise, and therefore your customers do not need to compromise too.

Last but not least, thanks Jude, for writing in. I am forever grateful for receiving a thank you note like this, this motivates me heaps and I promise to continue to be useful to the community.

And here’s my handpick items for father’s day gift that’s available in Amazon – for your reference. :)

God bless you all!
Corra @ Malaysia

See what I’ve got!!!

Previously on Vote & Poll. Click the above picture to see the vote result, as of today, there are 32 votes on Mac and 7 votes on PC.

So here’s the decision:

I will make the ROI is good, even though that would mean to unlearn most of what i have already know and learn something new. I am good at that. I know. :)

Here’s precisely my hand-pick items, that’s also available in Amazon if you are interested.

Happy weekend everyone!

- Corra @ Malaysia

KnowHow: Make Your Product Picture presentable in 3 seconds

 

A dear friend was planning to start a business in Etsy but have no idea how she should start. I gave her some guidance and told her one of the most important key to success. Few days later she then sent me the above picture, saying:
“I don’t know why it turned out so… blue. I have already took your advice – morning light and clear background, camera settings etc, what did I do wrong?”

I took her picture, and fired up my Photoshop CS4. Believe it or not, in less than 3 seconds, I’ve turned the picture to become like this:

Amazing! Yes or yes?! SAY YES of course! Hehe.
I sent a copy of this above picture, and told her that now she can use this picture for her product listing. By the way, she is in the midst of taking inventory and deciding what to sell and what to ditch, I will announce her store here in my blog when her store launched! :)

So now!

Anyone interested to know how to do this? We all know it is extremely important to take a good picture so that our product can SELL! You may have the greatest product but yet got stuck because you’ve presented an UGLY photo of your product!!!

Now – I have created a vote and poll, to know what you think. Leave me a message and If I have enough readers want to know how to do this in 3 seconds, I will write a simple instruction for FREE. Why do I do this? Cause I want to help, and am in no interest to give you something you don’t need, simple as that.

P/S The watermark is to protect the photo whilst it’s displayed in my site.
Smile!!! It’s Sunday!!

Corra @ Malaysia

Cream Pearl Knot The Net Pendant, Wired Chinese Knot

Totally One-of-a-Kind!
Fine Art Jewelry, Wired Chinese Knot.
100% Handcrafted/ Handmade

Pendant’s weight: 1.9gram, 4cm tall and 2cm at it’s widest measure.

Technique: Knot-The-Net Pendant tutorial, DCH013.

 

Have fun looking!

Corra @ Malaysia