What is that jewelry site for?

No i did not save the file and use it here, I screencaptured this so this is my own image file.
If you are into jewelry making long enough, you will know what I am talking and where am I pointing.
Shame on you, site admin. No I am not going to mention your website's name, why should I give you a free advertisement?

Gunadesign wrote his/her own version of PIPA design, and here's what he or she shared in the conversation exchanged:

"Dear Cora,
It was Eni’s decision to published my tutorial. I respect JL rules and make all requested adjustments. It is JL decision to published or not to published."

My name is Corra, by the way. And oh yes, of course I knew whose decision it was LOL, and of course you will respect whoever that's paying you (opps, actually, do you know that you are the one that's paying her? :D)

Incident like this happens once every two years, it was exactly two years ago (July 2010) Sue Duan from Taiwan published her own version of PIPA tutoria, sueduan claimed that she had never seen PIPA before, which was a lie, Gunadesign said the same thing too and really, I believed Gunadesign, because all the messages exchanged were humble and polite, what I can't get over is, the person who'd approved the tutorial - knowing exactly what it was.

Shame on you, site admin. And you, you artists should just stop selling there and go to Craftsy, and sell them fast before anyone write their own version of your design to sell, since no one cares. And in Craftsy you sell for free, they do marketing for you also, yo!

UPDATE:
- Comments being removed by site founder as expected. Account being deleted from the site, as expected too.
Now here's something you can see, how one can have double standard. What? -A person may not attack another person in public on the internet, it's usually called defamation or at the very least, is considered pretty unethical. So what are you doing for Gunadesign calling my name? You agree to it. :)

And as for Gunadesign, you have thanked me for making you visible in Malaysia, you are welcome, though I would wish one day i could make you famous, not infamous. :)

Corra @ de Cor's Handmades

Finest Art

I just created the finest art of my life. She has got the roundest ears I've ever seen!

My baby says Hello World! So dear crafters and handmade jewelry artists friends, please meet this happy angel of mine!


Corra @ de Cor's Handmades

Pin It

All at one glance

Updated on 28th April 2009 to include Build 6.0 and 7.0.

There’s still one more pendant that’s missing from here, but I am tired and I am too lazy to photograph it now. I will do it later, hopefully tomorrow morning and then I will post it.

 

I have been terribly busy at work and there’s no way I could be possibly create anything at all in time for Mother’s day – no way, period. And I have commissioned pieces to work on, all due for Mother’s day, I should be practicing this long ago, but really I can’t find time. So I went crazy yesterday – whole day, and half of today. After having my weekend coffee, I craved for dimsum. So again we visited our nearby dimsum place (http://decorshandmades.blogspot.com/2009/01/weekends-random.html), then we were home since.

 

I kept creating and repeating the same steps for the ROSE focal, and experiment the wrapping around the focal – I couldn’t be more thankful to have the drill’s help this time around, it  speed up my work for at least 100times, at least – promise, and I hit just ONE problem: I cannot remove the coils from the working mandrel properly, perhaps I held the wires too tight when the drill moves… I kept practicing (as you can see, for 6 times now) but same problem persisted. I sent a mail to master Perri the first time I hit the problem but the problem solved just a second after I hit on the Send button (unwrapped the first few coils and that’s it), so I sent another mail to tell her that problem resolved. But I guess I was wrong, I was just being lucky, the problem didn’t go away but improved after a few more attempts, simply don’t hold the wires too tight which, to me, it’s very hard to gauge how firm my fingers should be staying with those wires.

 

Overall, I had fun, and the latest one, the 6th pendant, which is missing from this post, has most consistent appearance. I am going to put that on me for a couple of days, if everything goes well then I will make it into silver, then get ready to be sent to my dear Mother. Wish me luck that I will be able to steal sometimes next couple of days!

 

P/S: I haven’t file tax yet.

P/S # 2: I will let DH settle his Mother’s mothers day gift this year.

 

Adios,

-Me-

A little bit here and there for the now and then

I am spending more time with my family these days, like, talking to my youngest brother over IM for more than an hour already now. We hadn’t been able to talk to each other for too long since the year I left for Melbourne, and then he left for U.K. when I graduated and returned home. He graduated and came home on the month I got married. We have not been staying together since.

 

A total 6 years of separation. 8 years now. And I always feel guilty for not being there for him and see him grow up. But he grown up anyway, as time waits for no one.

 

So I was sharing the incident I have had this evening with him and, I realized that talking to him, aren’t like myself talking to any other people that’s at his age, although we are 6 years apart and I am older, of course, but he is wiser, well, sometimes. :) Perhaps it was because he is not in the picture, he gets to see things clearer. I don’t know.

 

I remember he once told me about how clear the sky was in Egypt and how stars filled up the whole night sky… he told me he won’t dare to take off his glasses otherwise the fox nearby would steal them away… he told me its extremely hard to cross a road in Egypt – best way to cross a road is close your eyes, else you will be too afraid to take the first step…

 

And as time passed we both got tired of talking about serious stuff, our attention drifted and he starts drawing funny stuff for me to see and I start doing something else. And FYI when I have absolutely nothing in my mind, I will do meaningless stuff, stuff like, reading old mails, or reading junk mails. And since today I have had such incident, I did a search on my mailbox – and study how I’ve met this young lady. Then I found those mails. I read them all – from the first mail I’ve got from this young lady. It was an Etsy Convo, and from there I get to know how this young lady have found me. I read on, then realized that all E-mails, all of them, have been the asking How-To, Where-to… E-mails, even the very last graceful conversation we have had was about requesting for information from me, and I was undergoing pain of losing a relative, that mail didn’t sound like I was at peace.

 

Hmmm. So, what have I done wrong? Done too much? Doing not enough? Hmm.

 

Guess I will never able to find it’s answer though I’ve asked myself just one question after re-reading all the conversation we’ve exchanged - If given a chance to repeat the whole thing again, though it had to come to this unfortunate ending, will I, or will I not help? My answer is a Yes. I still think I would feed this young lady with whatever answers she’d asked for, I’ve been through the searching process, I know how hard things can be especially being a Malaysian, I can’t be like you folks in States whereby whatever you want, you could just reach out your hands and you will get it. So yes, I would still help. But not everything work out, and so it seem I was blamed for doing not enough. Hmm but that life is right? Not everything work out - I’ve learned that and still am learning.

 

Oh brother is going to sign off his IM and calling it an evening, I think I should to… Oh wait..

 

Ah a PM just arrived. :)

Linda, thanks for your warm encouragement and love for my creations. I am at peace.. hmm actually, I have been at peace since the funeral of my uncle on the weekend, and am not affected by the incident this afternoon anyway.

 

Goodnight all, I will see you later.

-Me-

20090303 Group Lunch Daily Grind

    

Photo courtesy: LC.Tan

Venue: Daily Grind Bangsar Vilalge, Malaysia.

Remark: Vein at my forehead is getting obvious these days. Ugly. >.<

Happy OX Year!!!

Just a quick entry, photo captured in Garden @ Mid Valley City, Malaysia. :)

Sorry for not being able to update this blog at my usual promptness, but I am still around popping in and out to deliver tutorials and approving blog comments, so do continue to participate the blog contest and win the Ang Pao and I shall see you soon! ^__^

How this is done?

It is always good to know that my work reminds some of you of your passed experiences, that which we’ve learned/seen/had fun with. I have never hide the truth that I have been playing around with Chinese Knotting, and these knotting had existed way before our grandparents were born. I remember long ago someone posted an instruction on how PIPA knotting is done, in chord version - in forum and in Yahoo Groups which everyone would get a copy of it, their intention was clear, it does indeed generates some impacts, but life goes on. I was fortunate enough to have had a peaceful conversation with one of the person who’d done that, and she was being fair and admits that it wasn’t the right thing to do, then she left me complete space since, for that, she’d gained my respect.

 

Now question is: How “low” one could go? I don’t have the answer really. What I can say now is, this is not the first time when I interpreted a Chinese Knotting with wires and then the next thing you know is someone posted an instruction page of chord version, or pictures illustration on how those knots can be done. So now that I have announced - I have something new to introduce, and so quickly, I’ve just (or rather, already.) got a message telling me that she is going to post a link “here and there” on how my new weave could be done. So… watch out, people, you might be able to see someone is posting something about my new weave soon, just be prepared to see who will be that person that would do such thing for discouragement sake.

 

Oh by the way, I’ve just got an offer from Y – she would like to send me her very famous Ring tutorial for FREE. According to her, she is doing that with pleasure since she owes me a compensation for the losses I have had for her getting my tutorial on Z’s behalf. Hehehe… how lucky I am, right? I’ve once told Y that that is the tutorial I’ve LONGED to have!! But Y, if you were to give me your Ring Tutorial for free – please do it publicly, and state it clearly the reason for you to do so, It’s not my birthday yet, and it is not yet Valentine’s Day, so it has to be exactly what you have stated in your message to me, then only would I dare to accept. :)

 

*wink*

A day in life

We've bought a new coffee beans a few days ago.

"Let's goto sleep earlier tonight so that we could wake up earlier tomorrow, then we could make us some coffee with the new coffee beans soon!!!" Dearest said to me that night.

We laughed and of course we didn't go to sleep right away, quiet evenings are precious to us, we went back to our regular daily activities instead: I went back to reading a book, and he resumed his hunting over new technologies information.

I am still reading "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho. I read it half way through whilst I was in Australia, and then pretty much stuck after got back here in Kuala Lumpur.

Here's some interesting paragraphs to share:
"It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life there are over. Slowly, I began to realize that I could not go back and force things to be as they once were: those two years,which up until then had seemed an endless inferno, were now beginning to show me their true meaning."

And this:
"We could spend the rest of our life saying that we love such a person or thing, when the truth is that we are merely suffering because, instead of accepting love's strength, we are trying to diminish it so that it fitst the world in which we imagine we live."

This is a novel of obsession.
Pretty good read. Hope you like it too. :)

P/S Aussie trip's blog entry updated, more photos uploaded! Click here to view.

 

Love,

Corra

Deleted Post

Update as of 4th January 2009. Dear all, we have modified this blog entry simply because we would prefer to be generous in our minds, hearts and actions. We do not want to engage our readers in petty and pointless banter over trivial matters. However, the essence of the post(s) remain true and faithful to its original message(s).   Lots of love, Corra

So it happened just as I would have expected it, the entire discussion had been deleted. Now I truly hope they will not prohibit me from accessing the forum.
     

Update as of 4th January 2009. The forum had indeed removed my posting privilege to protect it’s assistant manager, since 3rd January 2008.

If you haven't seen what had happened, here it is.

Update as of 4th January 2009. The original posts extracted from the involved forum is now been modified. However, the essence of the post(s) remain true and faithful to its original message(s).

History/ Background:

When I published my first tutorial, my first buyer was a well known jewelry maker that does excellent wires weaving, while I was happily processing the transaction, I’ve got an Etsy convo from another supposedly well-known jewelry maker. To cut it short, I was being accused for copying her tutorial. I denied it simply because I have never even seen her tutorial. After clearing the air with this jewelry maker, she decided to leave thing as it was. I then contacted the person that bought my tutorial and told her that since I’ve already spent so much effort in writing my tutorial, I won’t want to sell it to someone that didn’t want it in the first place. I offered a refund, but the buyer told me that the person that thought I’ve copied her work had already paid her back - I knew they are sharing my tutorial amongst themselves, they didn’t even tried to deny it.

Just when I thought things had already been sorted out, another person that is totally outside the picture had sent me a few hateful E-mails, claiming that she is the Assistant Manager of a supposedly famous jewelry related forum, asking me not to sell my tutorial, or should I wished to teach people how to make jewelry, I should teach my own country’s people and write my tutorials in my own language. According to her, there are too many and more than enough wire jewelry tutorials out there, and hence I am not needed.

Dear reader, I do not need to disclose how hateful the mails were, It is a shame that someone could even write such sentences to a stranger, without fearing in ruining someone. An educated person will not say things as such, and sadly, I was being naive back then, I tried so hard to explain, I even shown her all my creations before I’ve wrote the tutorials, and shown her my photography works. Finally she came into the conclusion that I did not copied – but when I asked her if she would ever apologize should she found me not being guilty, she disappeared – no more reply from her, nothing.

Later, I realized these bunch of people used the same mean-spirited method on some other newcomer(s). Unlike them; we, the newcomers choose to support each other, and decided to stay away from them. We believed in “what goes around, comes around”.

It didn’t take too long for this to occur. Few months later, the owner of the forum (her boss) contacted me and invited me to join her forum. I hesitated, and told her about the incident. Apparently the owner of the forum wasn’t aware that someone was indeed using the name of her forum to send “hatemails”. The forum owner found out what was it really going on, and sorted things out. She came back to me and insisted that I join her forum. This was how I started to post my works in that forum. I continued to do so although I knew in the back of my mind that I may need to deal with that person in the future. Quote from the forum owner, “you want to sell your tutorials, and we need that in our forum, it is a win-win situation.”, which I somewhat, agreed.

Initially, it was OK to post in that forum, but after awhile that person started to be pretentiously nice to me in the forum – complimenting my pieces, forgetting the distress she made me go through. I felt she was being nice, because she was asked to. I’ve reacted couple of times upon her “compliments” resulting in warning e-mails. After much communications, I promised the forum owner that I will not react inappropriately, should this person leave me alone – I had peace the first couple of months. Recently; on the 2nd of January 2009, this person included a URL in my post to another jewelry maker’s creation (this happens to be the person who accused me of copying her tutorial as mentioned above) – encouraging me to take a glance at her creation again. Unable to tolerate this any longer; I posted the entire incident in detail on the forum, resulting the removal of the entire thread as well as my posting privileges.

Summary:

I guess whoever that needs to see the thread has seen it, I’ve backed up the conversation, knowing that she will be protected by the forum, and the thread will be removed. It happened just as I’ve expected it. I’ve posted the content here for a few days, long enough for my readers to know the truth. 

To the person that sent me those hatemails – although the thread has been removed from the forum, I wish you good luck.

This is what I have said, in my words, copyrighted by myself (as much as I’d like to copyright this, but can’t, as this does not contain any commercial value or intellectual property):

Update as of 5th January 2009: Receiving one after another harassment E-mails on daily basis is just not of my preference. The involved person requested to be hidden from the public eyes for this matter, at least in my blog, hence the alterations. Person name had been changed, however, the essence of the post(s) remain true and faithful to its original message(s).

X, are you angry? You owe me an apology, until then, let's not pretend you would like my works/creations/designs. You owe me an apology because of the following reasons: 1. You viewed my tutorial without authorization. Y helped Z bought my tutorial, Z paid her back, and I sent the tutorial to Y, she passed it to Z(yes, big shots does that too), they were both somewhat authorized to see my tutorial - you were not. Who else viewed it without authorization? You tell me. 2. You sent me mails. Hatemails. in those mails you've asked me not to sell my tutorials. You said, there are enough tutorials in the market, if I were to write one and sell, I'd better write them in Chinese language (but hey, I am an Aussie graduate! haha!) There are other people out there, received the same treatments from you and the rest of people I've mentioned, I do hope they'd stayed strong enough for what they wanted to do if they are indeed, not guilty. 3. You accused me for copying Z’s design, where I haven't even seen any of her tutorial. You knew you were wrong, but you went disappeared and not responding to my E-mail when I asked you if you would apologize should you find out I wasn't even remotely close to being a copycat. And now you are directing me to Z’s creation? Oh come on. I've promised XX not to bring this into the supposedly-reputable-jewelry-forum - condition is if you will not leave me chance to. I have also warned you as gentle as I could, one more cases as such I would reveal this. It surprised me that this has to come just in the first 2 days of year 2009. May be in year 2009, you will want to be responsible for what you have done, especially, what you have done wrong. Thank you, Corra.

Truth cannot be hid, and it is clear that X still plays the same old trick – hit and run. She was trying to be friendly and compliment me when she’s posting under the public eyes, that is just so worthless to me.
She will not apologize even though she knew she is guilty, period.

Update as of 4th January 2009: I’d stay firm on this matter. I will do whatever it takes to reveal the fact.

Update as of 7th January 2009: How funny one could claim in her so called home that I’ve broke what had been promised. I did not break my promise. I even have a proof of what I have promised. It was the so called home owner had disappointed me by turning her back to someone she had invited to her home, and then right now disappointing her guests for hiding the truth.

Biggest Full Moon in 15 years

Most of you lives in the other end of the world, I’ve seen this already, and you will be seeing it too – don’t miss it, you will have to wait for another 8 years should you missed this. :)

You are always one step behind if you decided to do that

Just had to let these out.

Ah....
How painful it is to find that it was another Malaysian that would turn around and let me down. I have gained all supports and love I needed from people around the world to keep me moving - from U.S., Europe, even Singapore (thank you), except for my very own fellowship Malaysian.

I know this thing is going to happened, I just didn't expect it to be a Malaysian. After all not many people will do what I am doing. (Dear M, I knew how lonely you were before we've met). Seriously, it wasn't easy, else I wouldn't need to go through so many things by myself just because it was impossible to obtain any help just a year ago (Yes, it's almost one year now since de Cor's Handmades been established, yay!). That's why I always try to help - answering the same question again and again, and not expecting anything in return.

Owell. Shits happen, I supposed. I shall move on.

Like what I always tell those who'd write to me to share their thoughts: words can't bring me down, and I will be always a step ahead - if you decided to copy what I've done.

P/S: Thank you so much (you know who you are) for watching out for me, and notified me.

Geeks talk

Excuse my IT background. :)

Was reading about geeky stuff at my friend's blog, and realized that he is re-reading Microserfs for the 3,141,592nd time.

And this passage pretty much sums up the story of his life, he claimed:

“Many geeks don’t really have a sexuality - they just have work. I think the sequence is that they get jobs at Microsoft or wherever right out of school, and they’re so excited to have this “real” job and money that they just figure that the relationships will naturally happen, but then they wake up and they’re thirty and they haven’t had sex in eight years. There are always these flings at conferences and trade shows, and everyone brags about them, but nothing seems to emerge from them and life goes back to the primary relationship: Geek and Machine.

It’s like male geeks don’t know how to deal with real live women, so they just assume it’s a user interface problem. Not their fault. They’ll just wait for the next version to come out - something more ‘user friendly.’” - From Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs

Our fingers

LOL!

I feel a little sorry for myself whilst editing pictures for my new tutorial. My poor fingers!!! Life should have been easier, isn't it? I hope no ones complain! :P

Dear reader, if you make jewelry too, I'd bet you have fingers like mine too - no matter how you'd butter your hand with creams every 30 minutes. People get to see the end result too easily, but seldom would they get to see what's behind the scene and what they are really paying for.

I pray for wisdom and intelligence to not to miss and appreciate every single artist out there, for your hard work and passion, and most importantly, your creativeness.

Overwhelmed, Best Testimonial, ever.

I am not sure if I have spoken to Wendy Sue, or knew her in person, I believe I don't. But Google Alert brought me a pleasant news today, I am totally overwhelmed.

Quote from Wendy:
..........................................................................................................................................................................
Postscripts:
I recently found the Malaysian Eni Oken in de Cor's Handmades. I think her work is just as amazing as Eni's. I think both of them are very talented wire jewellery artist. Their work are very original and decidedly theirs. Whilst Eni's style of work is more varied, de Cor's focuses mainly on the Chinese knot. I myself don't really know much about Chinese knot but my guess is that it's one of those common symbols within the Chinese culture. I believe I've seen that knot before in some Chinese culture ornaments. She adapted the technique onto wire wrapping and come up with magnificent pieces of jewellery. The technique is the same but the results are astoundingly varied. Very brilliant work she has there. She also has some tutorials on sale on her site in PDF format. I've yet to try out any of her tutorials (time seems to be an issue for me here!) but will definitely do so in time to come and I'm looking forward to that day.
.................................................................................................................

Wendy, if you are reading this, my name is Corra Liew. :)

Eni Oken is my teacher, I won't say she "was once my teacher.", because she still "is" my teacher. She taught me of the wire jewelry making basics, her tutorials furnished me with the fundamentals, I am glad that I started off wire jewelry making with her teaching. :)

Totally overwhelmed. I won't trade these with gold!

SAD

I am so sad!
I've created a pretty by accident, and I can't reproduce it! I've already gave it many, many attempts, it just won't come out as nice anymore!

T_T

C'est la Vie

Life hadn't been and wouldn't be kind to anyone, I guess, and hey that's exactly make life interesting and make you wanna find out more about it, isn't it?

Next time, when you're let down and you ever bumped into something you're unsure of, try to ask yourself "What's next?" instead of "what do I do now?". Try that, you will get what I am trying to say! :)

Hugs to you all!

If you find me behaving out of ordinary

I am a friendly person, too nice to be mean actually. If you find me being impolite in forum or when I talked strangely to somebody, there must be a reason and most of the time, trust me, that's the most polite way I could have responded already.

If you are curious, come to me directly, I will be happy to share with you of my experience and why am I behaving out of ordinary sometimes, in some way. :)

Cheers.

China Earthquake

My deepest condolences to China.

A friend from China told me yesterday about an incident happened in the disaster. When a house collapsed on a mother and her 3 to 4 month old infant, the mother protected the baby’s body with hers by kneeling prostrate over the baby. When rescuers arrived 5 days later, on May 17, they found the mother is dead, but that the baby was alive. Shortly thereafter they found the mother’s cellphone, where she had written the text message to her baby that read “My dear baby, if you live, you must remember that I love you.”

Another one I read from newspaper, a woman said she saw her very own mom was buried, and dying, she knew her mom is not going to make it, so she decided to move on and safe others that have higher chance of survival instead of spending time trying to safe her mother.

I have absolutely no idea where you can donate in your country, perhaps you can try UNICEF. Please do whatever you can - they need help, they even fighting for clean water now.

For Chinese reader:
住北京的B 告訴我，廢墟下找到的媽媽與小孩，媽媽的身體是弓著的，孩子在懷中安然無恙。屍體挖出來以後，手機上寫著：“孩子，如果你還活著，請記著，媽媽愛你。”

Something that warms my heart

Today's thought: A perfect stranger could let you down if you let them to; a perfect stranger can make you a better person, should you let them to, too.

I have never hide that my PIPA Earrings is a transformed version of Chinese Knot - a knot that's named after it's shape, the PIPA Knotting. There are more than 500 Chinese Knots out there and I should know it if not earlier, now, that of me incorporated PIPA knot into wired form meant something in wired jewelry world.

Bear in mind that not every Chinese Knot can be incorporated with wires - actually, most of them can't, so researching on this is not as easy as I would like it to - you won't want to know how many Chinese Knots I've tried and I have failed - my fingers never gets the chance to heal, though I would like them to, I am just too stubborn to discover more possible knots.

So, what's the matter now?

Well, there are few people I will look for when something not-so-nice happened to me, and often these people's reaction will be "what, again?", "Yes, again.". "Well I see troubles always follows you", [J] said. Hmm. I supposed so - but what have I done wrong to deserves all these? I shouldn't be discovering new techniques? :) Guess not.

Despite the minor few that have hurt me, intensional or without, I decided to let it go - i just don't like the idea of complaining and blaming others or myself for bad things that have already happened - shits happens every now and then, that's life.

So here's something restored my strength today - Look how concentrated Candice is when she was making her PIPA pendant. I was emotional when I see her pictures - looking at someone taking my tutorial so seriously touches me BIG TIME - I never seen someone making PIPA pieces before, only my husband had - he see me making PIPA all the time. Whereas me - I only get to see other people's finished pieces..

I know making PIPA pieces requires full concentration, but seeing someone concentrating in action just make me emotional. Candice, though I know how to make a PIPA piece inside-out, I still spend at least 3 hours to make a piece, so you are not alone. And, I seldom make PIPA earrings too, simply because I cannot replicate an identical PIPA, I thought it's just me. :)

So dear readers, if you are reading this, and if you are one of those that have purchased my tutorials - I hope you are not regretting it and never will be. And just a little note to you, if you are here for tips: I can guide you through the process of making your own PIPA pieces, even my tutorial can do that part for you. And if you are interested in any of my PIPA pieces and would like to know how to make them, I am more than happy to share it with you - only if you are ready for it and already have the basic knowledge of how wired PIPA is made. Myself and my tutorial can help you success into making your own PIPA pieces, but working out on it's details to ensure your PIPA is perfect - is totally on your own.

Courtesy, growing pain.

I just hope I would grow wiser with age.

Seriously. It's not feeling being threatened, nor worrying about what you have thought.

It's about courtesy.