sasha + max studio

Happy Chinese New Year! Off to celebrate with my husband's family tonight with a feast at Sydney Fish Market. Short and sweet post today - just thought I'd share images of how my goodies are packaged once sold. I buy my boxes from Fusionbeads in the US and wrap them in Japanese Washi paper and tie with butcher's string. Just done a restock of Washi paper from one of my favourite stores,  the book and art store that is Kinokinuya in Sydney city. What a great shop full of amazing design books, goodies and cards. Sadly there are not many book stores left in Sydney now. I love Washi paper, the intensity of colour and delicate prints are truly a perfect match for the Sasha+ Max style.  The above are 4 different patterns, must say its always hard to pick which papers to buy.

Best wishes for 2016. I hope that you have had a great holiday break. Australia typically shuts down for 2 weeks as it's summer here. We spent a few days down in country Victoria, at Mt Macedon, the region famous for "Picnic at Hanging Rock", staying with dear friends, eating, wine tasting and drinking, bush-walking - perfect. No resolutions from me, except to get the landscaping done at our "new" home where we have been for 8 months, finish painting walls, and perhaps to give torch fired enamel beads aka Barbara Lewis style another try as I have outdoor space and won't set the cat or home on fire. It's been hard to get back into the day job routine this week, but funny enough there is always time for jewellery making! Here are some new creations using handmade lampwork and polymer beads from my favourite artists. All available at www.madeit.com.au/sashaandmax

Wishing you and your loved ones the best for Christmas. Thank you for your support over 2015, and wishing you the best of creativity and handmade for 2016.

I've been a busy beader -  both the Etsy and Madeit stores are filled with lots of lovelies for your holiday gifts. Shop sasha+max at Etsy Madeit

Simple is best sometimes...

Hi there, why is my post thus named Technologically challenged you might ask? Well I've been trying to work on a mail chimp database to get my act together with a quarterly newsletter. I've added a button the top right hand side of this blog....I'd really love it if you can give it a whirl then we can see if the thing's working!! I also need to get my act together on Instagram... working on it! Here are some new bits of eye candy. The first features a gorgeous bead made by an Australian lampworker, bought at a Sydney bead show  - have hoarded this for 12 months... meet Flower bed necklace.  The second is named Shades of Grey. It features Kazuri beads with some recycled wooden ones from a broken 'Elk" necklace. Nice and chunky.  These Sorrel earrings have the most amazing lemon lime beads, a bit hard to photograph but wow, they are intricate. And these Sierra ones are some nice modern geo fun Have a lovely weekend.

Some little treasures from this weekend's beading table efforts. A weekend of beading, friends to dinner, quality Main Coon cat time, and some gardening in our new courtyard as we recently moved from an apartment to a townhouse (my new project- the courtyards are very grey, think prison exercise yard aesthetic! Need some TLC and I think I need to hire a landscape designer). The necklaces are in the Sasha + Max Studio Made it store I'm "modelling" them with my new fake suede top from David Jones's Studio W label- it was a total bargain and will be a steady favourite this spring. Reminds me of Labrador puppies.. weird I know. Cactus bead is from the very talented Nancy of Round Rabbit.