An Email that Made my Day

Just sharing an email that I received this morning from Tina.
She is so kind to let me post it here.
Thanks Tina!

Let me tell you, I take my hat off and salute you.  This is a fabulous, artistic, and beautiful tutorial (Tina is referring to the Twice Around the World (TAW) Bracelet Tutorial).  Not to mention that is not hard as long as one follows your very clear instructions and pictures.  It also and leaves room for other projects using the same link.

You are great.  I will be doing it tomorrow because I believe this project deserves to be done in silver and/or gold filled wire. with round gem beads.  At the moment I ran out of the last one.

I love your tutorials and will appreciate if you keep me posted for any new one that may come out. 

My Artfire Studio SALE is still on till the 20th Dec.
25% off all tutorials including this TAW Bracelet Tutorial.

Wire Work How To and Matang Wildlife Centre

How nice to start the day with a message that reads "Congrats! One or more of your items has been featured in a new collection titled: "Wire Work How To", curated by BonniesPlace; Great job!".
If you have the time, do take a peek at some of the talented wire artists listed.
Who knows you'll get hook, like me.
Here is the link - Wire Work How To.
The following pictures are not related to wire jewelry but shots taken during Raya cum Independent day - last 31st August 2011.
A bit late but nevertheless....off wire rambles.

We took the boys to Matang Wildlife Centre, about 30 minutes drive from the city.

The Information Board is a bit confusing.
Maybe we got the orientation wrong cause we ended up on the wrong side of the trail....lol...

Dear hubby and William way ahead.

It looks bright here but actually its quite dark...the little one got scared and we got left behind a bit.

Catching up and manage to look at the signboard indicating the tree species - Kayu Malam (Night Wood - direct translation :))

Here's the Hornbill - can't see much here as the camera keep focusing on the wire mesh.

Any suggestion on  how to take clear picture of caged animals?

Here's the crocs...sleeping.
The boys got all excited...but that's about all the wildlife we saw :)

Most cages are empty!

No Orangutans...disappointed!

Here's, the stream.

Clear water but the rocks are mossy and slippery.

There was only one other group of people there so we kind of have the whole place to our self.

I think it's because of the entrance fee - RM10/adult, RM5/child.....expensive? Erm...kind off...considering...rather not say...

I don't know why but they don't want to dip or sit in the water  - maybe its the moss...

As usual, I am busy looking at the rocks hoping to find some interesting ones.
Look! Bit of love from this rock I found.

Snack time! Here's the Lemang!

Glutinous rice cooked in bamboo + coconut milk.

We purchased this on the way to the centre.

Look how much is cooking. He is making lots of them because it's Raya and his Lemang is very popular.

RM9.00/piece

Ready to eat? :) Peeling the bamboo...and...

Yummy! well....its sticky rice...and its filling...

Time to go home, exit...

A bit of fun over the sunroof....

The sun was setting by the time we hit the highway...

...stopped by our favorite stall for dinner...:)

Hope your weekend would be fun.
Happy Weekend :)

Learn How She Made It

Tracey of Tracey's Treasure include one of my tutorials - Braided Wire Cuff - in her Etsy Treasury entitled - Learn How She Made It.
A very appropriate concept as the treasury highlights not only tutorials on how to make jewelry but other crafts as well - bag, purse, dolls, pillow, wall deco, polymer clay, etc. Check them out and you might get hook on something...:D

My Braided Wire Cuff Tutorial is right at the bottom left hand corner here.
Thank you Tracey :)

What Made my Day.....

.....testimonial on the TAW Wire Wrapped Bracelet that I got from Susan this morning.
Here's what she said:

Dear Mei,

Wow, I am blown out of the water with this tutorial.  It is well written and no steps missing.  Very impressive photos and step by step instructions.  It looks like you thought this tutorial out very well before releasing it.  Thank you for all the examples and for sending the tutorial to me so quickly.  Please keep me on your e mail list for other tutorials.  I seem to gravitate to your tutorials.   

Susan

Susan also shared the wire wrapped cross pendant that she made for her son's school silent auction to benefit the school, which was based on my Wire Wrapped Cross Pendant Tutorial.
Really wonderful Susan, thank you for sharing.

If you would like to get 25% off the TWA Wire Wrapped Bracelet tutorial, check for details here -

TAW Wire Wrapped Bracelet - 25% Off for Facebook Page members.

For the First Time......

......one of my creations is featured in Etsy Treasury created by Riorita.
The featured item is for the Braided Wire Cuff (tutorial). Here is snapshot of the treasury titled
Atarved Adorned (I don't believe my eyes! I meant STARVED of course!)

Check out the other beautiful featured items in the Treasury at this direct link - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=130996
Thank you Riorita for the feature.

Long Overdue - Blog Awards

This is a long overdue blog post. I received 3 awards back in June and July but delayed posting till today. Here they are:

One Lovely Blog Award

This one is from Diane of MyGemstoneBox - Thank you Diane, I am honored.

The Rules

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered (some of mine are not newly discovered though :)). Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
* :) 15! That's quite a lot but I shall try. 
OK, I hope you all don't mind being my victims :) Here goes. I would like to pass this award to:

1. Robyn Hawk of A Fly on the Wall's Views and Reviews by Robyn Hawk
2. Marjorie of Puppy Love Jewelry
3. Susanna of Card of the Week.com  
4. Shuku of The Great Unknown
5. Jedda of This Little Project
   
6. Mandy of Beads Me 
7. Sharon of Live Wire Jewelry 
8. Melissa of The Wired Quilter 
9. Heather of Azure Islands Designs
   
10. Dianne of Art By Dianne
11. Kudzu of Bits and Pieces
12. Sandy of Sandy Petals 
13. Lynette of Dichroic Glass and Art 
14. Tania of Free Step-by-Step-Tutorials
    

The Premio Meme Award
I got 2 of this Premio Meme Award. One from Mortira of Inspirational Beading and another from Emma of Glitter Glow Beading. Thank you Mortira, thank you Emma.
Check out their blogs and get inspired especially the tutorial section. 

The rules are simple. List seven facts about yourself and pass the award to seven worthy bloggers.

1. I started this blog to share my wire wrapped jewelry with the world and I am afraid it is turning into something else...LOL....hope not....focus! focus!...
   
2. Best way to relieve stress - wire wrapping and laugh out loud and heartily.
3. Generally cheerful and happy go lucky kind of person. I can be funny but i reserve that for special occasions...:) just kidding lol.
   
4. Always want to do more than what I can, in terms of time.
5. Shy :), most of the time enjoy being alone and don't talk much.
6. I used to be a very patient person but as I get older, I am losing it.
7. Dislike people who constantly worry about their looks, extra quick with excuses and telling lies.

This award goes to:

1. Janice of Doxallo Designs 
2. Kerry of Kabs Concepts 
3. Cathe of Just Something I Made 
4. Lorelei of Inside the Studio 
5. Heather of Azure Islands Designs 
6. Shay Stone of Shay's Creative Journey 

Phew! Finally done...one of my longest post in recent months or is it year?
Now I am off to inform all of you.
Have a wonderful weekend! Cheers!

SATeam Treasuries - Wire Wrapped Butterfly Pendant

As far as I am aware of, I have never been in a treasury before. Tonight, to my pleasant surprise I found my tutorial for Wire Wrapped Butterfly Pendant in the SATeam Treasuries (blog post here). The tutorial pix is right at the bottom left. I see a lot of familiar names and tutorials there too. Check them out!

Click on photo to enlarge

Lemonade Award - Yeah! Another Award

Yay! Another award :) The Lemonade Award is awarded to sites that show a positive attitude and gratitude. I would like to thank Joani of Inspirations in Clay for this Award and very happy to be considered as a positive attitude and gratitude blog owner. Here are the rules for the award: 1.Put the logo on your blog or post 2.Nominate blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude and link to your post. 3. Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog. I am passing this Award to the following blogs. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for having great positive attitude and gratitude: 

Szarka of Ask Szarka 

Pearl of The Beading Gem's Journal 

Leslie of No Stone Unstrung 

Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime 

Jan-Ra of Woven Wire Jewelry 

Matthew Weld the Artist Within 

Marjorie's Cracked Plate Jewelry 

Sherry's Jewels 

Marika's Handcrafted Jewellery

Gaelyn of Geogypsy

Kreative Blogger Award

I have been awarded the 'Kreativ Blogger Award' by Jamie of Creations by JAE. Thank you Jamie for the award although I am super slow in posting this. Today I will be posting two awards. OK! Here goes

These are the rules:

1. The winner may put this award on their blog.

2. Please put a link to the person that presented you for this award.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to all their blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees. I nominate: 1. Shuku of The Great Unknown 2. Corra of Decorshandmades 3. Dani of DG Designs 4. Perri of Shaktipaj Designs 5. Jane of Handmade Jewelry Club

There are more blogs I want to nominate, but the rules say only 5! ..so if I didn't nominate you please remember that I was thinking of you!:)

Got Featured on Beading Gem's Journal

Just to let you all know that I have been featured again *:)* on Pearl's Beading Gem's Journal today. This time around is for the "Facing the Cobra" cuff completed recently. *thanks very much Pearl for featuring me, thank you for the encouragement* :D

There is always a first time - My 1st Interview

Just a very short post to tell you that my first interview by Jane of We Love Handmade Jewelries! is out here: Jewelry-artist-interview-meet-mei Enjoy and be inspired!!!

My Tutorial got Featured

This happened yesterday (US time). Leslie of No Stone Unstrung choose my Sparkly Ring Tutorial to be featured in her blog last Monday. Go ahead to her blog and read what she has to say about my tutorial.

Spring Cleaning for My Blog

De-cluttering and Revamping my Blog After blogging for more than two years, I think this is a disease - revamping the look of my blog and decluttering :). So, I did just that last night and my blog was not accessible whole of last night as I can't put it back to "anybody" can view when I am done about midnight....Duh! And now, this morning, I discovered that my 3 column layout is now 2 column in Firefox (it looks ok with my PC at home!) but 3 column in IE...duh! duh! duh! Migraine coming liao! How am I going to fix that....HELP! anybody with html knowledge....need your kind help please. (edit July 9, this issue is settled, thank you everyone). Blog Traffic/Views Another good news for my blog and me and thank you to all my readers and visitors. I don't know when I reach this total but I only noticed it last night while working on my blog. My blog has more than 100,000 views/visitors. Yey! Is that a reason to celebrate? Ah well, treat myself to Big Apple Donut afterwards. :) Testimonial for my Sparkly Crystal Ring Tutorial This testimonial really makes my day. It is from one of my Sparkly Ring Tutorial customer. So, here goes:

Hello everyone! I hope this is allowed by the moderators. I am usually just a lurker here, but I wanted to say a little testimonial for Mei's Sparkly Ring Tutorial. I purchased her tutorial from her Etsy shop in May and I have had so much fun with it. The directions and pictures couldn't be any more perfect. My 13 year old daughter jumped on the bandwagon and now we have rings all over our fingers and our toes! My girlfriends have all put in their requests (they know they always get jewelry for bithdays and such) and I even had a woman offer to buy one right off my finger in a restaurant! This has been a great way to keep my teenage daughter happy and busy during these boring and hot summer afternoons. Plus I got an unexpected bonus, my 3 year old daughter who has been giving me FITS with potty training, finally had success when I dangled a ring as the carrot! Whoowhee, Mei, I love you! LOL

Today is a wonderful day but I better get back to work.....back to deadlines..:)

Arte Y Pico Award

Today my blog received Arte Y Pico Award from Marika of Marika's Artisan Handcrafted Silver Jewelry. Thank you Marika. I am so honoured by this award. Next, I need to pick 5 blogs to pass this award to. If I have the choice, there are more than five blogs that I would like to pass this award to but the rules says only pick 5, so here goes. The rules for passing the award on are (you can copy&paste): 1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter of language. 2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. 3. Each award-winning has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself. 4. Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. 5 Show these rules. So I've decided to pass this award onto these following 5 blogs: 

1. Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime 
2. Szarka of Ask Szarka 
3. Abby's Abstraction 
4. Pearl of Beading Gem's Journal 
5. Clare of All About Jewellery Making

Testimonial

The best thing to hear after a day of work (yeah! I have to work this weekend) is a very positive comment from someone who purchased my Sparkly Ring Tutorial. Here's what she has to say. This really made my day.....:)

Dear Mei, I have been having so much fun making rings using your tutorial! Thank you so much for creating it. I have to say, I am so pleased with how professional the tutorial looks and how incredibly clear the directions and pictures are. I love that I ended up with great looking results from the first ring. Plus it has inspired me to be more creative with wire overall. My 13-year-old daughter and I have covered our fingers in sparkly rings! If you are planning on creating any different wire tutorials please let me know. Laura Marino "Each dawn we open our eyes to a gift we don't deserve and haven't earned. Another day, another hour, another breath. The greatest miracle is taking the emptiness of life and filling it with eternal meaning. It's an invitation from the king!" -Carol Walker (my mom)

Thank you Laura. :)

Sparkly Crystal Ring by Candice

Sparkly Crystal Ring Tutorial ******************************** Here is another sample of the sparkly crystal ring made based on my Sparkly Crystal Ring tutorial. This is made by Candice of The Fortunes of Me. Here is what Candice said about my Sparkly Ring Tutorial:

I just purchased your Sparkly Ring tutorial yesterday and made my first Sparkly Ring today. I could not believe how easy this ring was to make. The instructions were written out so clearly and there were so many illustrations that anyone could make this ring. This ring design is so versatile. I made this, my first, with an 8mm swarovski pearl and sterling silver. I will be keeping it for myself. But there will definitely be more Sparkly Rings to come from me and it is all thanks to you and your design.

If you would like to purchase the tutorial for this ring, look to the top right hand side column of this blog. Otherwise, you can check it out at my Etsy Shop - WireBliss. Happy wrapping!

Sparkly Crystal Ring - Testimonial

Yesterday I received an email from one of my Wire Wrap Sparkly Crystal Ring Tutorial client, Cheryl. She made some beautiful wire wrap rings as I showed here the other day - sparkly-crystal-ring-by-cheryl-lloyd. I was so happy with what she wrote and asked for her permission to post it in my blog. If you would like to know what she has to say, read on below:

A very quick email update for you - I know you'll appreciate this! - I've now made about 20 rings based on your tutorial now (in the proper size crystals & wire!) and without even 'trying', I sold two to family members popping in & drew very positive comments from a few more friends, again, just turning up for a cup of tea and a chat.

It does seem that people are happy to buy rings on impulse. Today, our mobile hairdresser came over to cut my husbands hair and she also couldn't resist looking through all the rings and trying some on. She didn't buy one on the spot because I didn't have the one she liked in her size, and mainly, she didn't wear rings whilst working). I'd have been very happy to give her a ring because I like her, and also because she would have been very good (free!) PR!!!!

Cheryl, thank you for sharing and I hope you will make more sales soon. If you are interested with the Sparkly Ring Tutorial, you can purchase it here. Look out for the "Buy Now" Paypal button at the top right hand column of this blog or you can visit my Etsy Shop. If you have any question, you can email me or just leave a comment.

Getting Featured at Beading Gem's

This is one of my happiest day since I started blogging and showing my wire jewelry here. Why? Because Corra and I are featured in Beading Gem's Journal today. I feel so honored for being featured as this goes to show that I am being recognized for what I love making - wire jewelry. Yeah! Thanks a lot Pearl. I love your journal and have linked it here so that I can visit you more often. Happy wrapping. Yes!