mettle design studio

A few Months of Injuries.....Sigh

2011-09-13T21:58:00.000+10:00

Well, I've probably lost a whole bunch of readers, but then, never mind.... It ceratinly has been a few months of illness and weird eye things for me...

It all started out with the "apprentice" have mini viral attacks that had her miss 2-3 days of school on a weekly basis since mid July. Then I had some horrific (what i thought were migraines) head aches that turned out to be glaucoma attacks! Yuck! Turns out I have closed angle glaucoma.Here is a little bit about Glaucoma:

Glaucoma (the sneak thief of sight) refers to a group of eye diseases that affect the optic nerve and may cause vision loss. Optic nerve damage in glaucoma is primarily due to elevated intra-ocular pressure (IOP) within the eye. Glaucoma is classified either as open-angle (the more common chronic condition which is usually painless) or angle-closure glaucoma (the more unusual type which often occurs suddenly [acutely] and is associated with pain and redness of the eye). There are no symptoms in the early stages, and by the time the patient notices vision changes, visual loss due to glaucoma can only be halted, not reversed. Glaucoma is usually treated with eyedrops, although lasers and surgery can also be used. Most cases can be controlled well with these treatments, thereby preventing further loss of vision. Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to preserving sight in people with glaucoma.

So then I get my eyes lasered (I think that's called an iridotomy). After which things were fine until I get a hematoma in the right eye. I got a bit scared, but thank goodness, it was not a serious thing...

The next thing that has been happening is that my left hip has been hurting while I sleep at night. Had an xray. The result was that I will eventually need hip surgery...Sigh to that! Tomorrow I finally get to see the specialist. So I will write about that tomorrow.

The Lost Ring Of The Lizard King

2011-03-11T08:45:00.000+11:00

Reptiles have always been associated with mythology and have been credited with magical and supernatural powers. . Lizards are also associated with the Sun. The movement of a lizard was thought to be able to return sight to a blind person and it also represented good luck and divine knowledge. Turtles were associated with drought and viewed as the enemy of the Sun God.

It is also believed that Dragons were the true Lizard Kings.

Belonging to the family of extremely large, long-lived winged lizards, true dragons constitute the most advanced race of lizards known, far surpassing other orders in size intelligence and life-span.

The dragon is the most feared and esteemed of beasts. The beast that all the world knows and the creature that never was. It is the impossible creature that exists in art, mythology, religion and legend.

The three predators who most threatened our ancestors The Eagle, the Leopard and the Snake, merge in mythology to become a single creature The Dragon. Classical Greek mythology is alive with Dragons… One of the twelve tasks of Hercules was to defeat a fearsome dragon and Zeus also had an unwelcome encounter…

Typhon the Hydra

After defeating Cronus, his father, Zeus was confronted by Typhon, Demon of the Whirlwind, a creature created from hundreds of coiled snakes, hundreds of serpents writhing from its shoulders, vast leathery wings and eyes that flashed fire; its roar shook the Earth and flames shot from its gaping mouth.
Fearful of Typhon Zeus fled, taking refuge in Egypt but accused of cowardice, Zeus return to face his formidable mountain hurling enemy. Zeus won the battle at Thrace, wounding and chasing Typhon to Sicily where he crushed him under Mount Aetna. (A thank you to Europas Ice Wolves for some of the Info and the Typhon Image)

Gaea, the ancient Greek earth goddess was impregnated by just one drop of blood that fell from Typhons’s head and gave birth to Actaeus, first King of Athens. When she gave birth to Actaeus, she had an alchemist fashion a ring that was magical and gave it's wearer the power of insight and luck, so that when her son became a man, he would overcome all negative forces..... This ring was stolen and vanished until it was recently discovered jammed between rocks in the Agean Sea by some tourists .
The rest you know....

This is the Lost Ring of the Lizard King.....

Queensland Flood Appeal

2011-01-11T23:23:00.002+11:00

I am offering buyers a 10% discount with this coupon code: QLDFLOODAPPEAL
So sign in to my etsy store here: howlindoggie and make a purchase. You will receive 10% discount and I will donate 15% of that sale to the Queensland Flood Appeal. Leave a comment with your favorite piece of mine & you may win a pair of earrings at the end of January. I will pick out a name randomly and announce the winner on my etsy shop.

Thank you In Advance.

Our Little Visitors

2011-01-10T01:17:00.000+11:00

This beautiful spider cam to visit last night as we had quite a bit of rain at about 3am. As I love spiders AND rain, I welcomed both. This spider is a typical Australian house spider called a huntsman. They are not dangerous, although can grow to be enormous. This little spider is as big as my hand. A bit scary that big, but only the notion of it crawling on me. Otherwise I let them be in the house, especially in the summer months as they catch mosquitos and other little insects... I have to think of a name for both of them....

Any suggestions?

Things That I find Really Tedious About Running a Business

2010-10-19T23:26:00.000+11:00

The things that make me yawn and push me to be lazy about my business are mostly 'bookwork' related, ie. doing my tax stuff especially, even though I have a great accountant, I still have to have all my paperwork in order.

Now in addition to that paperwork, I have been closely monitoring the Australian Dollar, as it has shot up and for a while has been pretty much one-on-one with the US$.....so.................

I have needed to change my US$ prices in order to accommodate our Australian costs... ugh what a pain!!! On top of that making stocklists with all the different prices and costs... I had done paper & pen ones, but decided that i must update them into my computer as they will be much easier to alter & keep track of...

So out comes Exel and a New List is born... Hurray!! At least I've started... BUT since I'm on the computer and not doing an all nighter filling wholesale orders, I have to distract myself to blog since it has been a while since I have put words on the blog...

Well, I had better get back to the business of keeping track of the business side of the business....
Exhausting... I much prefer just being in the studio...

And the worst thing is the price of Gold AND Silver has gone through the roof.........

Etsymetal Charm Swap #6

2010-09-20T00:27:00.000+10:00

It's on again!! One of my favorite swaps. I'm a member of Etsymetal, which is a group of Metalsmiths who have stores on Etsy.com.

A few times each year (or maybe that's only twice a year) 20 of us (the group is much larger than 20) sign up for a Charm Swap. There's always a mad scramble to sign on, as there are so many extremely talented metalsmiths whose work we all would love to have. The Charm swap ensures that each participant gets to have 19 marvellous pieces of work (plus your own = 20 pieces in total) in a small form which can be placed on a Charm bracelet/necklace. Since this is the third CHarmswap that I have participated in, I already have quite a hefty charm bracelet (so far there are 40 charms on mine, and I anxiously await the next 20, one of which is mine). Here are some shots of my progress so far.

This is what I was toying with, as I came in to the swap late July, which didn't leave me much time. Some one dropped out as I was lucky enough to be one of the stand bys, so I was in!! YAY!!
A decision was made and I started on the Kikuchi Kamon Charm for the swap. I have now almost finished all 22 of them. We each make 2 extra Charms so that we can make up one bracelet to sell in our etsymetal store on etsy and one single charm to sell in the store as well.

These are the progress shots of the Kikuchi Kamon Charm that I am working on.

Artists That I have Always Wanted To Collaborate with

2010-07-17T02:35:00.004+10:00

Firstly, I have to say that I would be happy to collaborate with Furniture Makers, Industrial Designers and Metalsmiths/Sculptors and Lighting Designers.....

Here are some the Artists That I would Love to Collaborate with:
Joey Roth - Contemporary Industrial Designer (fabulous TeaPot & Ceramic Speakers!)
Akira Isogawa - Amazing Japanese Inspired Clothing
Ross Lovegrove - Wonderful Lighting Works
CYDWOQ - Fabulous Footwear.... I love footwear and have always wanted to make shoes...

I would love to collaborate on some home 'accessoires', detail on some "frocks", Lighting and Footwear.
I am waiting on replies for permission to use their photos, so this post will be upgraded.
Meanwhile, please check out these wonderful blogs and you will find out bout more collaborations:

Andes Cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/
Lisa Hopkins Design - http://lisahopkinsdesign.blogspot.com/
ceeb wassermann aka howlindoggie: http://mettledesignstudio.blogspot.com/
Rickson Jewellery - http://www.ricksonart.blogspot.com/
Purified - http://purifiedart.blogspot.com/
Susan Moloney - http://susarto.blogspot.com/
nanopod: Hybrid Studio - http://www.nanopod.tv/

Enjoy the Links!

The Newest Member of our Pack

2010-06-25T17:38:00.000+10:00

Introducing Rocky! He is a Great Dane X Cane Corso. We adopted him about 6 months ago when he was 8 months old...

He loves his 'brother' sparks..
as you can see in this video..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUmArVY6xJg

Heavy Rains....

2010-05-26T23:52:00.002+10:00

We have had massive rains for ages now and I almost forgot that before it all got started we had a neat looking twister on the horizon. I saw it as I was getting in the car out front of the house. Please excuse the quality of the video, but it was taken quickly as I didn't know how long it would appear. I think it just went up the coast and a week of bucketing rain followed.

One of the Items I Most Treasure By an Artist

2010-05-14T22:37:00.007+10:00

Ever since College, I have always had a soft spot for a jeweler/sculptor turned industrial designer. The fact that he attended the same college probably plays a part in it. I must say, his designs were all outstanding. He did some work for alessi for a while. His name is Marc Newson.
My most favorite piece of his is the sleek aluminium Lockheed lounge. He has done so many interesting pieces that it is always difficult to choose only one.

I would love to have it in the studio! I gather that a collector already owns it...

It was one of the early pieces. I have always treasured this "lounge" and have always wanted it for my studio.

check out these blogs for their most treasured pieces:
Andes Cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/
Jewelry by Natsuko - http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Tosca - http://www.nanopod.wordpress.com
Susan Moloney - http://susarto.blogspot.com/
WATTO- http://www.wattoonline.blogspot.com
Ceeb Wassermann - http://mettledesignstudio.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Rickson- http://RicksonArt.blogspot.com
Tamra Gentry http://jewelrydesignchronicles.wordpress.com/
Purified Art - http://purifiedart.blogspot.com/
HandMade Division Blog http://handmadedivision.wordpress.com/

A free Gift With Purchases from any of my Webstores

2010-05-06T00:01:00.004+10:00

I thought that I would like to say thanks to all my wonderful customers who read my feeble attempts at writing on my blog. This goes out to all of you who buy my work and read my blog. So, wherever you may buy my work, for any purchases US$60 and over, you will receive a pair of rustic sterling silver dangle earrings on hooks. You have a choice of either lapiz (a dark blue) or labradorite (a greyish stone with rainbow colors through it, very pretty)
Here is a pair of Labradorite Dangle Earrings:

So, please mention that you have read my blog and tell me which pair of earrings you want with your purchase upon checkout.

There are only a limited number so this offer is only valid until stock runs out.

Capsule Hotel In Tokyo

2010-04-24T10:14:00.005+10:00

While we were in Japan earlier this year, we had thought about staying in a Capsule Hotel for a few nights for a couple of reasons:
a. for an adventure, as we have never stayed in one before
b. we wanted to be in the area for the next day.
Unfortunately for me, I broke my wrist and so it made it extremely difficult for me to climb up into one of the capsules. We decided not to do it this time.

Our friend Kirsty stayed one night in one. It was a very large capsule hotel that had one floor for women only. Kirsty said that the women's floor (on Level 9) was empty when she checked in at about 10pm. It was a bit creepy as she was the only one there for a few hours. The lockers were very small, so if you had a very large bag, it would not have fitted in. Also as it was in February, the heating was on full and it made it difficult to sleep in a very small space.

You get given a towel, pyjamas and slippers.

For privacy there is a small blind that you can roll down. There is also a TV which costs extra.
Kirsty didn't think that it was really worth the money, as it was almost the same price of a Ryokan (if there are two of you as they charge per double room at a Ryokan, so it's almost the same price as a Capsule) but worth it for the adventure for one night.

If you're thinking about staying in one here's a link:
http://www.capsuleinn.com/

Family. I found some that I was looking for....

2010-03-29T19:27:00.003+11:00

Whilst in Japan, I was looking for some of my relatives, as my mother's side of the family is Japanese. With the help of a great Japanese friend of mine (I've named one of my pieces after her: Moeko) we found one of my cousins. She still lives in Tokyo in the same building that I remeber going to when I was 13!

It was just wonderful meeting her again after such a long time. It was a very emotional experience for all of us.

All of this, plus our Japan trip, my broken wrist and the inability to use my right hand AND having to ask for help has made me think about where I am at this point in my life. So I have started to reorganise parts of my life that I feel need to change. Those parts concern my business.

That's all for now. My next post will be about Tokyo Capsule Hotels

Beauty Around the Emperor's Palace

2010-02-22T23:20:00.002+11:00

So much beauty everywhere. We had to keep looking down and up and around... a visual feast. Firstly these gorgeous manhole covers. Theses are different than the others on a previous post.

These two square concrete covers(I think they are also some type of hole cover) And can you belive it! They have inlay!!! In different colors...

All the trees around the Street area surrounding the Emperor's Garden had these gorgeous Sakura pattern around them.

It was just so wonderful to walk around a find so much beauty everywhere......

Tokyo Disneyland

2010-02-14T10:36:00.004+11:00

My Daughter really enjoyed Disneyland. She went on every ride that was open an as not all rides were open due to the winter season, we just managed to cover what she wanted to see, with the exception of "Haunted Mansion", that was closed for renovation.

"Tinks"

The Tea Cup Ride was a favorite for her. I just stood and watched as I had my broken wrist in plaster

The Entrance

Canooing

We knew which rides were for smaller kids, as they had "Pram Parking" out front.

Haunted Mansion

We managed to spend the whole day there, which gave me lots of brownie points for Gallery visits and Museums and the Emperors Palace.

The Japanese and their Things of Beauty

2010-02-11T09:07:00.001+11:00

I am always amazed at the beauty I have found in Japan. Even on the ground, the Manhole covers have a wonderful beauty and design sense that can only be truly Japanese.

Each different design is from a different area. As I so love things of metal, I was really inspired by these! Wouldn't they make beautiful stepping stones in the garden, or better still, a path to the studio...

The next post will be on the Emperor's Garden ...You should see the manhole covers aroud near the Palace...

Isn't it just wonderful that something we usually step on without thinking, is a thing of beauty in Japan.

Days 4, 5 & 6 - Sapporo, Hokkaido

2010-02-07T14:27:00.002+11:00

Here we are in Sapporo.
We were having such a fantastic time, as there was stacks of snow and the apprentice was overjoyed with finally being in "real"snow.

So, on that first day, as we were returning to our Hotel, as my luck has it, I slipped on this icy road and fell backwards onto my wrist and broke it.... Lucky that it was my wrist and not my head & back, although they are very sore also. I went by ambulance to one of the hospitals and was most impressed by the speed and great way they handled my injury.
the icy road

So, injury aside, we decided to go to a "snow adventure park" instead of trying a one armed ski or an unbalanced snowboarding session at a large resort, as i was only capable of hobbling around...

We ended up going to "Northland Resort", which is just a tad north of Chitose and is a snow fun park for children.

Here is the apprentice doing a bit of 'cross country' while I was sitting watching with a hot cup of coffee.

I have a broken Wrist

2010-02-04T00:37:00.006+11:00

My apologies for not updating our Japan Trip, but I have a broken wrist, and, as I am right handed, I am very slow at left handed typing.

So to all of you who have been reading lately, please be patient, i will update when I am on the plane home and as i have to rest, i will be slowly blogging...

So please keep coming back and checking..

Thanks!

Tokyo - Day 3 ...Shibuya

2010-01-26T01:50:00.002+11:00

Today we decided to 'finish off' the shopping thing, so we wanted to go and have an experience... we went to Shibuya, the area that most of the younger generations go to shop. It is quite close to Harajuku.We had a blast! and walked until we were exhausted. We decided that the Japanese are the biggest shoppers on the planet.

Happiness is a happy shopping experience! And most things are quite reasonably priced! The problem is that there is sooooo much variety, you need a ton of money..and several suitcases.

This crossing has 100's of people crossing every time the little green man says "go". A sight to be seen! A sea of raven haired people merge from all four directions and pass each other without incident.

Number 109
This whole building has about 300 or more small boutiques, each featuring a different 'style'. The whole 10 floors were packed with mostly young japanese girls in various styles of fashionable attire, so 'the apprentice' and I stood out, as we were NOT wearing large false eyelashes and perfectly 'coiffed' hair. And we looked exhausted, while they all looked like they had just stepped off a catwalk....
What fun! I'm so glad we experienced this mega shopping experience.. I think I'm still stunned...

Tokyo - Day 2....Shopping

2010-01-21T19:57:00.004+11:00

We decided to do the shopping 'Thing' today, as we leave for Sapporo on Saturday for some well deserved snow!!

We took the Tokyo Metro to Ginza, which is the more upmarket shopping area.
I found this most amazing bag by Issey Miyake. We also had a look through the food department of the Matsuya Department Store, as well as the Issey Miyake Section where I bought my wonderful bag.

We wondered through alot of Matsuya, and then moved on to
Ikebukuro, another shopping district with a lot of electronic stores and Seibu Department Store

Here is "The Apprentice" at one of the large crossings.

We saw all these people standing around near a crossing and noticed that it was the "smoking area"...

Japan - Day 1

2010-01-21T09:10:00.002+11:00

We are finally Here!!
After a tedious flight on a tight squeeze and not eating much of the awful airline food (even though our airline is supposedly a great one) I was finger printed and photographed at the airport. Customs was a breeze compared to aussie customs, we were out with our bags in a matter of minutes!

Here was the difficult part: Our knowlegde of Japanese is limited!!
So we winged it with the help of non-english speaking Japanese (LOL)and purchase our Train tickets for the "Morning Liner" (an express train) from Narita Airport in to Tokyo, which is approx a 65km trip across the countryside.

We then got to our Station (Ueno)where we had to change to the subway. The only problem was that there are no Ticket Booths with people, just machines and they are in Kanji (japanese characters)but Lucky me!! "The apprentice" (my beautiful daughter) spotted the ENGLISH button, so then she figure out how much it would cost for us to get to our destination and which, out of the 50 buttons to press, was only Y160.

The hardest thing here is to try to figure out the addresses as the buildings do not run consecutively...
And just when you think you're getting a bit lost (in translation) someone pops up and really helps you..
Cute Traditional Houses

Sascha in the street where Our 'Ryokan' is. It's the green/blue glass building in the background.

This building won an architectural award. It's where we are staying. Andon Ryokan. I would definitely recommend this Guesthouse. Friendly atmosphere, quiet and has a modern/traditional feel. We are staying here for at least 6 nights. As we want to try a capsule hotel, we will UNFORTUNATELY have to leave this beautiful guesthouse in about a week. So we will definitely have to return here on our next visit to Tokyo.

( We wandered around the local area (Taito-ku) and found this litttle tiny restaurant that only serves Unagi
it was delicious!!

Organizing our Trip To Japan.

2010-01-13T06:33:00.002+11:00

Well, the time has flown by and it is only a week until we set off for Japan! The 'apprentice'(my beautiful daughter) is so excited to go, as we all adore japanese things/design, etc. She's getting ready for a snow boarding experience in Sapporo, if we can organize it.

And lucky us! Looks like it's going to be a cooooollllllld winter... just what we wanted! plenty of snow (haven't seen REAL snow in a few years, living in the land of OZ).
We are glad to be getting away from the scorching heat of Australian summer..

Bag is almost all packed as we are entering an opposite season... just have to put the make-up bag in and we're all set.

A few studio things to do; then put my etsy shop to sleep for couple of weeks... i will make an announcement that i am away but some things can still be ordered.

Back to work to finish off a couple of things. I will post on my blog almost nightly when we are in Japan - a bit of a travelogue....

Pendant Swap

2009-12-23T01:05:00.003+11:00

This has been a long time coming!

This was a fun swap! There were 4 of us: myself, Andes Cruz, Tosca Teran & Ann Jenkins.
We each made a pendant (three actually) and received three gorgeous pendants in exchange in the mail.

Here they are in all their glory. Mine were obviously the sawpierced japanese floral discs with a pearl drop at the end. Andes Cruz made the greenie turquoise pendant with the little spherical pieces surrounding the stone. Ann Jenkins made the one in the grass with the multi colored enameled flutes on a domed disc. Tosca made the jellyfish-like glass and metal pendant.

They are all so beautiful. It's great to see the differing styles and techniques we all prefer to use.

I'm hoping that others may want to do a fun swap like that again.

I've been Busy...

2009-11-03T23:45:00.006+11:00

Well, life has been keeping me from writing ... well, the truth is that I've moved house and studio ans as you know, it takes a while to get settled in and iron out the 'bugs' in the new places.

We've had dust storms, electrical storms, wind storms, tropical style rain, blamy spring days and a quick cold change, followed by today's heat wave of 41C and no wind.... my poor vegies.... all limp and waiting for rain... and all that in a span of a few weeks.

Here are a couple of new stack rings:

Just recently, I participated in EtsyMetals Charm Swap #4
i got this bag of goodies:

EtsyMetal Charm Swap # 4

2009-08-28T17:45:00.003+10:00

Well, I am a greedy one as i have so far participated in 2 charm swaps and this one is the 3rd for me. I have tried to make charms that are relevant with what is going on in my working life, (being a full time jeweler... and an accident prone one too..) so this time is leaves.. falling leaves off a tree, and then when spring comes we grow new ones... something like that...

What I mean is, if something is going to get lost, then I will be the one to lose it, or, if any hammering of finger happens, then it is usually mine.... But i take it all in as a bit of a humorous part of my insane working life...

I was going to keep writing about what kind of a day I had today, but more of that later...
here are my "leaves" for the swap and my Gorgeous Charm Bracelet with all the charms from the wonderful etsymetal metalsmiths. I will be adding the Charm Swap #4 charms to this bracelet. I will be full up. Then I may start a neck piece for the next few charmswaps that i may participate in..