Wire Project

I love working with wire. I was very surprise at the beginning that every piece of jewelry materials can be made home, with wire. Clasp, earwire, bead caps, chain, even beads can be made with only wire. That's why I love working with wire. Your ideas flies as high as you wish. But sometimes , your limit is to find the bead store that has everything you need with wire working.

It's a bit difficult here in Germany to find wire jewelry tools. At least for me. Since all the references I've got are in English, I had some dificulties in finding German 'word' for such tools. Like Jig, what German word for Jig? I had no ideas, Until I came to the hobby store near my place, and found jewelry that I knew exactly was made with jig. Then I asked the owner, the tools to make that such jewelry. Lucky me, she knew the tools and gave me for only 10Euro. Quite cheap, instead of buying from some US retailer. I also got lucky to find wire winder that I found very perfect and easy to use on ebay, long time ago, when I started working with wire.

So, my future project is 'sharpening' my skills on wire techniques. I wish I could have some course like they had in US, but maybe later.



This bracelet, use 24G silverplated wire for bead wrapping and 22G for the chain and clasp. Using Indian hadmade glass bead and Czech Beads. The earrings use the same material, except the earwire that I purchased from somewhere.

My sunflower part2

Kayaknya hari ini gak koki banget buat gue. Pokonya judulnya banyak pikiran, sampe2 gue salah naik bus. Mestinya gue naik bus no.70, buat jemput Kay di sekolah, tapi ntah gimana, karena satu dan lain hal, karena ada sesuatu yang lagi gue pikirin banget banget, sampai2 gue baru sadar kalau gue salah naik bus setelah 5 menit gue di dalam bus. Bodo bener ya...:-(

Sempat panik, karena rute yang gue ambil ini gak ketemu sama rute yang harusnya gue ambil. Paling-paling bisa berhenti di stasiun utama, tapi ya bakalan telat jemput Kay. Ya udah, karena udah bingung, gue telpon laki gue, dan kebetulan dia bilang, rapat yang harusnya jam 11, diundur ke jam 12. Akhirnya dialah yang jemput.

Sampai rumah, lebih sebel lagi. Bunga matahari yang lagi gue seneng2-i, yang lagi mekar2nya, lagi gede-gedenya, patah. Patahnya telak banget, pas di cabang yang banyak calon bunganya. Wuah, gimana gue gak tambah senep. Curiganya sich sama orang2 yang lagi kerja ngeberesin balkon di atas wohnung sini nich...tapi gak ada yang liat, jadilah gue manyun..:-(

Alkhirnya gue akalin pakai batang kayu yang semula ada di pohon bunga merah, dan gue ambil salah satu tongkat spiral buat pohon tomat. Gue isolasi aja, biar tetap tegak, dibantuin sama Simone, tetangga depan. Simone pun bilang, kalau orang2 kerja itu emang suka ngerusak barang2. Emang bener sich, jendela pintu depan ini aja khan kemarin baru diganti, karena baret2 sama orang yang tempo hari ngecat gedung. Payah juga deh nempatin rumah baru, banyak kerjaan tambahan...

Gak tau bisa bertahan berapa lama...BT gak sich. Untung kemarin udah gue photo....:(

red and pink crystal bracelets

As the weather forecast saying that this weekend gonna be rain, so we decided not to go out far. But we took the kid to the pool on Saturday, just a couple hours, and then stayed home when the rain started pouring.

As before, weekend at home will ended up on my jewelry table. One of my customer asked for the match earring for the bracelet she purchased, and I still had some project lying in my head waiting to be done, especially when I got some fresh Czech beads delivery on Saturday.

So, this bracelet using red-pink flat Czech beads, fresh from Czech Republic and swarovski crystal.

berkebun day!

Karena week end ini diramalkan hujan, kita jadinya tidak berencana pergi kemana-mana, kecuali kemarin bawa 2 bocah berenang. Jadi hari ini kita di rumah, santai-santai, berkebun juga ngga sich, abis mendung..:-)
Nah abis foto si bunga matahari, fotografer alias laki gue, gue suruh foto pohon tomat yang lagi berbuah, banyak dan udah mulai ada yang merah. Walaupun terus terang gue bingung kalau nantinya udah waktunya dipetik, apa kemakan semua ya ama gue sekeluarga? lha wong rombongan ini susah banget makan sayurnya.

Sebenarnya disamping tomat, gue juga ada pohon cabe, tapi gue pantau belum berbunga banyak tuh, masih dikit. Dan dari persediaan dapur, bawang merah, bawang bombay bawang putih juga gue tanam di pot gede tanaman itu, lumayan kalau lagi butuh daun bawang tinggal potong. Kentang juga, gue tancapin semua. Belum tau kapan manennya...

Ada paprika juga lho...cuma paprika ini sebenarnya udah nyaris mati waktu gue balik dari amrik kemarin, tapi nggak tau gimana idup lagi. Malah berbuah, walaupun buahnya rada-rada bantat kayaknya..


Yang rada baru, citrun ini. Gue beli dari Bauhaus. Pas beli udah berbuah sich...mudah2an tetap berbuah dan gak mati. Kemarin gue jalan-jalan ke Dehner, pohon citrun model gini yang udah jadi dan udah tinggi sekitar 2m dijual harga 300euro. Buset...muahal beneeerr...:-)

my sunflower

Gue perhatiin dari 3 hari yang lalu, si bunga matahari besar pemberian mbak AMi ini, sudah mulai bersiap-siap untuk mekar. 2 hari yang lalu, si kuningnya udah muncul, masih sedikit. Kemarin si kuningnya sudah mengembang. tapi hari ini, gue liat udah mekar benar-bener mekar. Gede banget...segede piring kali..hihi..maklum, gue masih norak sama bunga. :-)

Anyway, setelah tiap hari dipantau perkembangannya, gue suruh laki gue potret, buat di blog. Mumpung masih segar dan bagus, buat kenang2an. Walaupun kata laki gue, kurang bagus, abis si kuningnya rada ngacir. Tapi biarin deh, yang penting gue senang.

My piece would be shown at Mag

Hi again,

As I told you, this week is a very busy week for me. We plan to invite some friends to come to our new house this Sunday, I opened an ebay Shop, doing some jewelry request. But the most happy and surprising thing is, I've got an email from BeadStyle Magazine Editor that they gonna put my jewelry on their Gallery pages. Oh my God...This is a dream come true.! :-)

I almost forgot that I once email them and give them one of my piece picture. It's almost 2 months ago. It's a beautiful choker, I know it. I share it later when the magazine already at the stand. :-)

So, after I read the email, I couldnt help smiling. I called my husband who unfortunately is on a business trip, I emailed my sister to share my happines. I am. Really. This is BIG for me. HUGE!!

And, after I brought my sons to sleep, I replied their email. And they asked me to send the necklace, so they can take the picture and put it on Oct-Nov issues.
Wow....

God loves me. I shold love him more...

my latest invention part 2.

Hi,

As I promised, just wanna talk about the 2 flowers I made yesterday. Btw, it's 6 o'clock in the morning, too early to be waking up, but too late to go back to sleep. I woke up this morning at 4, cos I remember I still had something to do with 'ebay'. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I just opened an ebay shop this week, I tell you later about this shop. But, the reason that I woke up that early is, because ebay give special price for seller to put their offering today, 50% off. But I forgot that I have to read all the message till finished, and I read it after I put all my jewelry on ebay and waking up very early, that the price doesnt include jewelry. Oh fool me...!

Ok back to the flowers I made. Both of the flowers, brown and big blue flower, I bought at Perlenmarkt, Munich. My favorit store. Although at this store everything is a bit expensive, but I love coming there, because it always give me new ideas, refreshing my brain. I remember one time, I spent 3 hours with my sister just browsing around there, and forgot absolutely that I was not very good that day, that my head ache and forgot that my husband and 2 sons were waiting in the car. That's what I love about Perlenmark. You forget everything but beads. :-)

So, the 2 flowers came from Perlenmarkt, 1-2 months ago. The brown flowers, I made exactly as I expected, as choker with lace, velour lace. I had a litle problem with the clasp, I didnt have the end piece for lace. But I remember, my other bead source, Solly, from beads per minute once gave me a clasp which I didnt know exactly how to use it before. But now I know, how to make it use. So there you go...One beautiful choker. I was thinking to give more sparkling to the lace, but then I dropped it off, I dont want to give people trouble which to enjoy, the flower or the sparkling beads. So you see, simple but elegant choker.

The Blue one, I had a little problem to figure out, what it should be. I planned to make another choker with 2 strand leather cord, but I changed my mind. I want something else. I tried with Lariat, but nope. I couldn't find a way to make the flower also as the clasp. So I try something else, looks like Lariat but it's actually a necklace. Glued the flower to the cord, and put one big handmade glass bead at the end. And ..there you go. One unique and enchanted necklace.

Btw, I dont think I wanna sell those piece. Not yet. :-)

my latest invention

Hi,
Just a quick note, I have so many things to do right now. I'll give you more details on this project later. ciaoo

Why do we always hurt the one we love... (part 2)

Hi, sorry kemarin gue ketiduran..:-)
Tadi sambil nganterin Kay sekolah, gue mikir lagi. Kalau antara 2 orang pasangan, mungkin lebih besar porsi masalah kepercayaan disamping harapan. (Sama aja sich, antara ortu-anak juga ada masalah kepercayaan, dalam hal ini ortu yang percaya bahwa anaknya adalah seperti apa yang diharapin, dan ternyata belakangan baru tau, bahwa anaknya tidak seperti yang dibayangkan dia dan diharapkan dia. Balik lagi ke 'harapan'. Dalam kasus ini, sama seperti halnya dalam kasus pasangan atau bahkan pertemanan, lebih bermain masalah percaya dan perasaan dikhianati. Gue ngerasain sendiri waktu gue tau bahwa teman yang udah gue anggap seperti kakak gue, selama tahunan baru gue tau kalau ternyata suka 'nusuk' gue dari belakang. Rasa sakit, kecewa, marah, dan perasaan dikhianati semua ngumpul. Walaupun gue gak punya 'harapan' apa-apa ke dia, selain bahwa dia akan melakukan hal yang sama ke gue, seperti halnya yang gue lakuin ke dia, menjaga nama baik dia, dan ternyata yang terjadi sebaliknya (--tetap "harapan tidak terpenuhi"--:-) ).

Mungkin dalam urusan berteman akan lebih terasa nyakitin, karena kita tidak pernah berpikir bahwa teman kita bakalan ngecewain kita, beda dengan halnya orang pacaran, mungkin kita udah siap-siap kalau-kalau mesti bubar atau apa. Gampangnya, orang yang gak pernah kebanjiran bakalan panik 2 kali lipat pas kebanjiran daripada orang yang udah biasa kebanjiran.

Tapi dalam kasus orang pacaran, biasanya sakit hati itu muncul dari pengkhianatan, harapan-harapan yang tidak terpenuhi dan ntah apa lagi.

Dan balik lagi, gue gak bisa namuin jawaban lain selain bahwa semua perasaan kecewa, sakit hati kita, perasaan dikhianati kita dari orang lain itu, semua berasal dari 'harapan', 'keinginan', dan 'kemauan' kita atas diri seseorang. Expectation kita terhadap seseorang, yang tidak bisa terpenuhi. Karena biar bagaimanapun, orang lain itu adalah manusia lain di luar diri kita, yang punya kemauan sendiri, keinginan sendiri, harapan sendiri.

Dan buat gue pribadi, sekalipun gue tau bahwa sayang, cinta, harapan dan kepercayaan itu bisa menimbulkan kecewa, sakit hati dan dikhianti, gue coba untuk tetap memiliki perasaan2 itu. Karena biar bagaimanapun, manusia butuh manusia lain, hidup membutuhkan harapan. Dan semuanya balik ke diri kita masing-masing, seberapa tinggi kita bisa meletakkan harapan kita, seberapa jauh kita berani ngambil resiko dari keputusan kita. Kata orang, hidup adalah serangkaian pengambilan keputusan.

Why do we always hurt the one we love...

Tadi siang gue ngobrol sama teman gue, teman yang udah seperti saudara, kakak, bahkan ibu sendiri, sekaligus guru buat gue (dalam arti positif lho..). Sambil ngobrol ngalor ngidul, sampailah kita ke omongan atau lebih tepat pertanyaan, "kenapa sich justru orang2 yang paling kita sayang, kita perhatiin, justru suka nyakitin kita?", atau kalau bisa gue balikin, kenapa sich kita selalu nyakitin orang yang kitá sayang?. Makanya gue inget judul lagu ini, Why do we always hurt the one we love?.

Dulu banget, gue sempat mikirin jawaban atas pertanyaan serupa, waktu gue baru bubar sama pacar SMA, hahahaa..malu deh! :-).
Terus gue inget salah satu atau mungkin satu-satunya jawaban yang bisa gue temuin saat itu adalah, karena kita mengharapkan terlalu banyak dari orang yang kita sayang. Dan tadi sambil gue ngelonin anak-anak tidur, gue pikirin lagi tuh pertanyaan. Benar gak sich karena too 'great' expectation, makanya orang sering kecewa dan sakit hati.

Mungkin iya, tapi mungkin juga nggak. Tapi sampai saat ini gue cuma bisa temuin jawaban itu. Misalnya, antara orang tua dan anak. Ortu pasti sayang anak khan, at least sebagian besar yang merasa dirinya ortu pasti sayang sama anaknya. Makin dewasa anak, pasti adalah sedikit banyak, sikap dan sifat anak yang orang tua gak setuju, atau sebaliknya. Terjadilah friksi. Kualitas dan kuantitas friksinya itu sendiri tergantung individu masing-masing. Semakin besar friksi, semakin dalam efeknya. Terjadilah kecewa, sakit hati, marah. Dan kalau kita telaah, ortu yang marah sama anaknya karena apa? ya karena anaknya gak bisa menuhin yang diharapin ortunya. Ortunya mau si anak jangan pacaran dulu, kuliah sampai selesai dulu, baru lain2. Tapi karena si anak udah kadung jatuh cinta, gak didengerlah si ortunya. Padahal ortunya berharap kalau si anak mau dengar dan nurut sama ortunya. Kenyataan sebaliknya, si anak gak menuhin harapan ortunya. Atau dengan kata lain, ortunya berharap terlalu banyak dari si anak, sehingga akhirnya, dia kecewa sendiri pas dapatin kenyataan kalau si anak gak bisa menuhin harapan dia. Sementara dari pihak si anak sendiri, dia juga kecewa, marah dan sakit hati ke ortunya, karena mungkin ortunya dianggap nggak mengerti dia, jiwa mudanya dsb. Harapan si anak adalah si ortu mau mengerti dia dan kemauannya.

The 'usual' becoming 'unusual'

I made this watch about a week ago. Although I had the watch face almost a mounth (a friend bought this for me from US). I notice this watch face when I was living in Michigan, at Michaels, art and craft store nearby our place. It occured to me to buy that beaded watch starter kit with gem chips and everything you need to make a beaded watch, but since the wacth face is rather 'usual', I'd prefer to buy it somewhere else where I could find more enchanting watch faces. And time went by without I'd ever ordered some of them, and we're moving back to Germany.

So when my friend Lya, told me she wants to visit me in Germany, I asked her to buy this for me. Even the 'usual' face, would be good, when you have no other choices.

And I made this watch. I kept the other parts that came in the packet in the drawer, and using my swarovski beads instead. And I took 2 holes spacer Lya brought for me, and metal clasp I bought from Michaels long ago. I decided to make two layer beaded watch to create more sparkling, to give more attention to the beads, not to the 'usual' watch face.

So, many thanks to Lya.
Special thanks to Ridwan, for the 'nice angle' Picture.

Multitasking

When a friend asked me how I manage to do all the stuff I am doing right now, besides taking care of my family. The 1st answer to that question is: 1st thing first. And the 2nd answer is: multitasking.

I always put all the family things first, like cooking for the kids, or bring the boy to school when my husband on a business trip (which is often), take the boy to the play ground and things like that. On the second row is the house. Cleaning the house, ironing, taking care of the garden, although I am still a beginner and just burnt my flowers by giving too much vitamin:-(. (Poor flowers, I was so upset). And the next row is my hobby, my jewelry and my business, my web, and also some stuff I do for friends, like giving some extra time on maintaining dunia ibu mailing list by being one of the moderators, but lately I specialise myself on editing their buletin. And of course reading and replying emails according to their necesities.

But sometimes they are not come in a row. Sometimes they all mixed up together. There were plenty of time that I have to do more than one job at the same time. For example, there was a time, when I needed to finish my jewelry project and need to use the scanner, and at the same time, I had my obligation to my dunia-ibu friends, to do the buletin, and still I had to clean the house. SO, what I did is I put the scanner on, started scanning. While the scanner was working, I started cleaning the house, and everytime the scanner finish scanning, I came back to the scanner , and started another session, and went back to clean the house, like what I do now. The buletin came after finishing either one of them. That's what I called multitasking.

Other example. A friend asked me to make her bracelets or necklaces. And want it to be done by weekend. I usually doing my jewelry things on weekend night, but on such condition, I could stay awake till morning just to finish my friend's jewelry after I brought the kids to sleep. And of course everytime they awake, I must go back to bed, and bring them back to sleep.

But I understand, not everyone will aggree with what I've done and how I did it. Some might think that I'm 'kerajinan'. too much energy. too much playing around or whatever they might say. Some may take their own conclusion and delivering some big gossip, just because they dont know, and they dont want to know and they just need to spend their time talking bad things about others in order to make themself feel better. Some might think, why should I do this jewelry things, doesnt live with these 2 little kids giving me much job to do, day and night?. The anwer is yes, there's alot to do for the kids, for the family. But I still have something to do for myself. I want people know me not only because I am the wife of someone, or mother of these kids. For some reason, I need more than that. I need to be one whole 'person'. I love my family. I love doing things with them, for them. But still, I want people recognise me for my works, for my self, for the things I've done. Although, I haven't done anything great, not in the world average view, but this kind of 'multitasking' thing, does make me feel great. I can have my family and myself in one packet. What else can one hope?

Life is beautiful. It's you, who make it bright.

Have a nice day,