Science and Art or Art and Science

As people who are familiar with me knows I LOVE Science....especially all the fun experiments you get to do in the name of science:)  I do a few Science shows in schools and a lot more experiments at home with our little one.

This weekend I am having a Jewelry show and decided to mix it up a little with Science...Maybe create a bit of Instant Snow for the guests while they are sipping wine or tea to get them into the winter holiday mood or let the kid in everyone's heart come out while playing with the amazing Chinese bowl that sprays water to refresh.... and a few others... 

Will post some pictures after the show and I am excited to mix up Science and Art.  Along with Jewelry, I am also making a few of these adorable gifts with live succulents in it which are easy to take care of and liven up any work place (and ofcourse home)..

@The SantaCruz Heritage Fair unveiling Childrens artwork jewelry line

So ofcourse I didn't stop at just entering the competition.  I have been working on this new line to customize jewelry with childrens' artwork.  I wish I was more ready than I am by this time of the year but atleast I still managed to unveil it at the SantaCruz Heritage Fair well before Christmas.

The idea is simple:  With just 3 steps, you can get your child's artwork turned into a family heirloom that you can enjoy daily and keep it for ever.

(a) Pick a drawing (or more if you want).  This is the hardest part
(b) Send us a copy of the drawing or a good scanned image.
(c) Select the product you want in the shape you want, in the size you want

And we will miniaturize the drawing, make it into a stamp, imprint it onto Fine Silver, antique it (or not depending on your preference) and send it to you.  And if that's not enough, I add a nice design on the back of the pendant (or keychain) so you can use it reversible. It is also possible for a little extra charge to put two drawings on each side or the name of the child and the year they drew the picture so even after a decade or two, you can always look at it and tell exactly when they drew it.

The products to choose:

(a) Pendant only  (b) Pendant with chain  (c) designer necklace  (d) bracelet (e) key ring (f) charm necklace or bracelet (sizes will be between 0.5in to 0.75 inches each).

Sizes:  (a)  approx. 1 inch  (b)  approx 2 inches

Shape:  (a) Circle (b) Oval (c) Square (d) Rectangle (e) Triangle (f) Flower

Pattern to choose if you want to for the backside (free of charge)

A couple of examples....

Celebrating Childrens artwork

Along with the relaunch, I am bringing out a new line of products in Kuukivi.  I have to say my little son is the inspiration behind this entire line.  He draws the cutest cars and stick figures and ofcourse gives them to us.  While I do save them, I dont get to enjoy them as often as I would like because they are always inside a box for protection.  That's when I got the idea to look into how to save them and still enjoy them whenever I want to.  That's when I encountered Metal Clay Silver, pure silver in powder form with organic binding thus making it look and feel like clay and once the design is done, just firing it up in a kiln burns off the binding leaving pure silver piece behind.

As luck would have it, found a great teacher Pat Evans and started taking classes and expanding my horizons.  Recently there was a competition for metal clay Silver with a requirement to have a hinge in the piece created.  That gave me an idea to create a miniature scrapbook made with Silver with my little one's drawings and a couple of my favorite textures added.  Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful memorybook I created.....I made this to look like a scrapbook found after a century or so - really antique with bumps and dents and.... Then I included my little one's first ring (gift from a friend when he was born) onto the hinge and his picture on the front set in resin.....

Kuukivi reborn again....

2years, 8 months and a week after the last post, Kuukivi is reborn again.  We came back to North California a few months ago and I decided to relaunch Kuukivi again.  Only this time, adding a new innovative product line and focusing more on that but ofcourse will always have new original design line as well.


It has been a very interesting 3 years with me starting a science museum in Tampere, Finland which I was working on even while I was working on Kuukivi here.  Unfortunately the financial model didnt work out in Finland and had to close the science museum there although children absolutely loved the place and got me the nickname of Science Lady (which my son makes sure it stays).


I just wanted to stop procrastinating and start posting Kuukivi blog again...will add the details about the new line and post pictures very soon...  I do have a FaceBook page for Kuukivi and did post a few pictures in the last few days which I need to get them here as well....

Apart from my original designs, I started learning and using MetalClay Silver for added flexibility in designs etc and its Fine Silver....I love working with Metal Clay for another reason too.  I wanted to make Kuukivi as green as possible and MetalClay gives me that option as the Metal Clay Silver is completely made from recylced Silver..

End of the path....

I have been meaning to write this blog for a while now but just couldn't get myself to type. I decided to close the Kuukivi doors and hence there hasn't been any updates either on the website or the blog. It has not been an easy decision and I still love creating but we moved to Finland recently (yes, to my nice big studio) and managing a California business from Finland is just too complicated for the amount of business getting generated (especially with the current economy). I might revive it in another form later but for now, there is no Kuukivi.

Thank you for all the people who supported me and Kuukivi for the past 2 years. All your reviews, advice and support kept me going. Closing Kuukivi doesn't mean I am moving myself into darkness. Just means some other doors will open soon:)

Please keep in touch and will send personal emails to everyone before closing the website.

thanks again,
Sheela

tough market or bad choice of show(s)?

So when i tried for a particular big time handmade craft show a few months ago, I got the feedback that the circles I used in the pendants are not handmade so they cannot accept the applicaiton even though I explained that I am in the process of replacing all of them with handmade ones even as we speak. I felt bad but also gave me determination to replace all the pieces except the chains themselves with handmade things - pendants, links, rings you name it. I felt all good about it and with the new line of "Silpi", handmade sculpture pendants with beads threaded and coiled I thought I am finally ready for any handmade shows. So I go for San Francisco gift fair with all the pride in the world and got shocked to learn that 'handmade' doesn't exactly need to mean 'handmade everytime'. You can make one pendant or shape and cast it and its still considered 'handmade'. I got advise from fellow designers to do just that to get the price even lower. So, its a compromise between mass produced by machines and literally handmake every piece. i am not sure I am ready to do that yet but felt cheated somehow. The SF show didn't go well as I wanted but learnt a thing or two about the market.

I signed up to go to Las Vegas ASD/AMD show fully expecting it to be a 'wholesale' only show and with the assurances from the organizers that there are other 'similar' vendors coming. Two days before the show the organizers call and say the fine jewelry section of the show which is what I signed up for is 100% filled with diamonds and platinum and what the hell am I doing in that part of the show!!!!! I refused to be moved to the other section of the show they have which I felt is filled with mass produced and really low price jewelry with almost no handmade ones. They reluctantly agree to leave me in the fine jewelry section warning me that next year if I want to come to the show I have to go to the fashion/costume jewelry section and will not be allowed in fine jewelry (even though 25% of my collection has 18k or 14k gold with precious stones and black diamonds).

But by then warning bells are ringing in my mind that this might yet be another wrong show I picked trusting the organizers to tell me the truth. Ofcourse there isn't a single vendor in the fine jewelry section who has anything but "manufactured" stuff and mostly with diamonds. And i also observed that the only booths that were busy at the show were actually doing "retail" in the wholesale show. On talkign to a few people I was enlightened that atleast in that particular show, as long as 10% of the products they have are for wholesale (or a single 4 or 6ft glass showcase full), they can sell any other items for retail!!!!

Is there a secret manual that I am missing here? How can I compete in handmade section for prices with people who can cast them and provide at lower price or in a wholesale show where people can sell 90% of the inventory in retail!. Since its expected, most of the buyers were there for retail, not the right type of buyers I was looking for. There was a company from china which was selling rings or earrings with 14k gold and a single small stone for $15 - $25!!!. It probably will cost me that much in raw materials if I want to make them handmade. Considering everything I didn't do that bad...got a couple of good accounts, and a couple of good leads who are starting new boutiques in LA and SF but the point is that's not enough to keep me in the business for long. I really learnt about some of the nuances of the business the very hard way - a few thousand dollars worth indeed...

I really enjoy working with metal, shaping, fusing, soldering, texturing you name it. But I am at a loss and don't have the courage to try any more shows at this time:)

SFIGF shows starts...

well, it started yesterday. I should post (take the pictures first) pictures soon but the booth looks way way better than the ones I had last year. After searching for months, I came across linen displays (necklace busts, earring holders etc) which were offered by Rio Grande. Ordered one sample to look and feel...really liked them but ended up waiting for maybe 4 weeks before decided to place an order and.....just a week before that they discontinued the whole series!!!! don't even have any of the models I want left to ship...I am soooo disappointed and there is no one else in the entire internet world that provide linen displays!!!! I searched for a couple of days and ended up ordering white leatherette displays. Put them on a dark brown thick cotton cloth for contrast. All the 14k and 18k jewelry went into a lockable showcase again with the brown cloth at the bottom. Sprinkled a few semi precious stones around for sparkle:)

It was an ok day at the show. Towards the end of the day a couple of people came in and said they came for a different section of the show but their jewelry buyer is coming in on tuesday. They looked at all the pieces and said "you are the finest jeweler we have seen in the show". Such a great complement...hope I will get a good big order too:)

more on the show later.....btw, I am blogging from the show today:)