sasha + max studio

This necklace was made for my dear fine boned friend Alex.  It combines jade, a Round Rabbit pendant, and a Vintaj Etruscan charm folded to become a bail and to mimic the heart pendant   My friend Eva's gift of earrings - she likes simplicity.   This one is a more classic style for my mother.

A beady tree - just couldn't help myself. - what a beady tragic I am! Two more sleeps. Wishing you and your families a joyous and safe Christmas.

The necklace shown here was made with some of the beautiful beads I received from Anne of Gardanne .  It was a good week for earrings sales this week, which means I have more bead money to play with over the break - excellent! The day job finished for the year last Friday, so it is time to rest, play and get ready for a feast at our place on Christmas Day - it is summer here but we still have the big meal. I really love hosting Christmas lunch - this is year is a smaller group than usual with some family off celebrating in Denmark, others in New Zealand - it is wonderful to have family  together and for everyone just to relax. Some planning and shopping for the feast is yet to be done, so I'm off to peruse the recipe book stash for some ideas for what to have with Aussie chef / cookbook guru  Bill Granger's baked ham, and mango salsa. Not sure how your year has been ? Judging by the wishes over at Lorelei's blog it seems like a mixed bag for us all -  I wis...

A Saturday morning wading through the crazy Christmas shoppers in the Sydney heat and an afternoon of beading with my observers, cat buddies Sasha and Max.  The beading started well, made these 2 pairs of earrings, but it went downhill from there - sometimes you make a piece and it can look good in the "flesh" but if it just doesn't photograph well, it aint going to sell....so apart it comes!  This was the case with a bracelet.  What is great about beading, unlike sewing, is that you can start again without (too...) much pain and wastage. I will head back to more adventurous creations soon. The earrings were my beady fix for the day. I keep making very simple earrings with Jenn of blueseraraphim's wonderful beads  - the latest to arrive  in the mail  look like clouds or clots of cream with minty dots  - they are really unusual and so sweet - all they needed was to be paired with some tiny Swarovski pearls. The second pair have a wild safari look p...

No jewelery today. We went to lunch today down by the harbour - an amazing restaurant called Bathers Pavilion at Balmoral Beach , which is housed in what used to be beach changerooms - it was completely refurbished into a cafe and fine dining venue about 10 years ago by my old design colleagues, architects McConnell Rayner. This photo was taken from inside the restaurant. It was a perfect Sydney blue sky day, and 25C, which made us feel very happy after a big year of hard work. I am really looking forward to the holiday break.

So do stringing supplies count ? (shh my etsy friends from whom I have ordered beads during a supposed bead diet .. our little secret ... - it is hard enough giving up nice food, chocolate etc during the festive party season, let alone stay on a bead diet too.... at least beads aren't fattening!) I found a source of affordable Japanese chirimen cord in Japan called Fabric Tales and went (a wee bit) crazy - I have a thing for Japanese prints, have a decent stash of Japanese fabrics, and now will put these gorgeous cords to use in some creations over the holidays. Max, ever the curious cat, seems to have taken a shine to them too as you can see in the photo. Made sale no.2 on my 3 month old Etsy shop  - my Oriental Dreaming necklace which used the Chirimen cord (from another source) and was personal favorite. Sales have been slow but I guess don't mind (not too much.anyway...) as I keep reminding myself that this is my creative time, and that things take time to build. ...