Multitasking

I have been a busy bee over the past week and have made several pieces while I watched movies including Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Baker (quite fun!), and Gone With the Wind. See, I like to watch movies (and a few select TV shows) and I feel less guilty if I am doing something productive at the same time. This is where the jewellery comes in...

After the Juliette, of which I showed an in-progress picture in my previous post, I made several pairs of earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. I admit I am quite in love with the bracelet, called Reina. It has a large wooden bead flanked by two oval peach moonstones plus smoky quartz and small beige pearls. It is feminine yet a little chunky, and is perfect for the summer.

Simple chandeliers

I finished a lariat/necklace last night and will write more about it later because I'm very excited about a pair of earrings. The stones are peridot, amethyst, spessartite, and lemon topaz, and although the earrings are not finished, this is a representation of what they will look like:

In preparation

Seeing as how I will be doing a craft fair again this summer, I checked my stock of earring display cards and was dismayed to discover that there weren't many left. So off I went to order some more! I have always found the products from Overnight Prints to be of high quality and can't wait to receive my latest order. For those who have not seen my table at previous craft fairs, this is how I display my earrings:


Lariat: Kat.
Top row L-R: Nadira, Francie, Hyacinth, Laurie, Thora, Martine, and Patience.
Bottom row L-R: Isabelle, Tracy, Jacinda, Tina, and Beatrix.

Upcoming craft fair!

I am very excited to report that I will be at the Steveston Salmon Festival again this year with my jewellery! It will take place on Wednesday, July 1st inside the gymnasium at Steveston Community Centre in Richmond, BC. More information will be announced soon!

Meanwhile, below is a picture of some of the items I bought recently. The large garnet briolette will be used for my friend Elisse's wedding jewellery, but the blue topaz, amethyst, and golden tourmaline are not reserved. The colours are a lot of fun and I can't wait to turn them into something wearable!

EotW: Kirsten

The latest EotW is an intricate pair of earrings with seed pearls, petal pearls, round pearls, rose quartz, morganite, and chalcedony. The clustered beads are connected with ball-end headpins to add a shiny silver look. Perfect for a wedding or a fancy evening out! Here is the Kirsten:

Zadie last dance...

Five pieces have been added to the shop: Ceili, Shefali, April, Celeste, and Nala.

I also made the Antonia last night, but it will not be added until the next time I add pieces to the shop. It uses materials that have never appeared in Aria Industries pieces including shiny brushed oval hoops and large CZ rondelles. It is simply stunning and a preview will be posted soon.

Meanwhile, I had previously written about a pair of earrings I was making for my friend, Ying Ying. The Zadie earrings feature iolite, hematite, smoky quartz, and rough diamonds, and tonight, Ying Ying is celebrating her birthday with drinks, dinner, and dancing!

Bead show shopping

The Whole Bead Show is returning to Vancouver during the first weekend in May and it is only two weeks away. I went for the first time a year ago with my good friend Margaret and left with some gorgeous step-cut grey topazes, which can be seen in the Christine necklace/bracelet and the Trista earrings. My favourite thing about going to the show is that while local vendors like Country Beads (love love love) and Kimdoly attend, there are also many vendors from far away places. Of the travelling ones, my favourites were Bedrock Supply from Edmonton, Stones and Findings from Toronto, and Rocky's Design from New York. Hopefully I will be able to find some more beautiful things this year!

Shades of white

One of the styles that will be posted in the next week or two is the Shefali. It has tiny faceted crystal quartzes and morganite plus two types of rainbow moonstones. The overall colour is white, but there are some beautiful blue and yellow flashes when light hits the rainbow moonstones at the right angle.

Triple threat

Today is the last day of the necklace sale so don't miss out!

Here is a special preview of three upcoming pieces... From left to right is the Ceili (pronounced KAY-lee), the Nala, and the April:

EotW: Lorna

It's Sunday, which means a new pair of earrings is being featured for the EotW promotion. This week's special is the Lorna and it has beautiful colours inspired by fall foliage. The stones are spessartite, a variety of garnet, and graduated shades of brown tourmaline.


I have been busy in the workshop lately and have several creations finished. One of them is a pair of earrings for a friend's birthday - the Zadie has a small cluster of iolite, hematite, smoky quartz, and champagne diamonds dangling on a fancy chain. The other creations will be posted in the shop in the next few weeks and include the April (pink topaz, peridot, amethyst, and smoky quartz) and the Celeste (aquamarine and pearls). I had plans to make something with my mystic pink quartzes, to be named Monique after my friend's baby daughter, but got sidetracked by some green tourmalines yesterday.

Easter sale and EotW: Ivana

There is a surprise Easter sale at the shop and it is only from Friday (today) until Monday. All of the necklaces are $10 off for a short amount of time so if you have had your eye on something for a while, now is the time to get it! All necklaces purchased during this period will earn two entries in the gift certificate draw at the end of the year so why not check out the Dagmara, the Heather, or one of the others?

Meanwhile, it is almost the end of the week, which means a new pair of earrings will be announced as the EotW in two days. Before that happens, the currently featured pair, the Ivana, will also earn double the entries in the gift certificate draw:

Hard at work

Although nine items were posted just two days ago, I am very happy to report that the workshop is already busy again! One earring has been finished for the Shefali design, which has rainbow moonstone, crystal quartz, and morganite for a translucent white look. Next in line will be the Ceili earrings, which I briefly wrote about on April 2nd.

After that, I am uncertain what pieces I will work on despite having several design ideas in my head. There may be a simple lariat (stones to be determined) and/or a necklace of andalusite, garnet, iolite, and smoky quartz.

Icicle jewellery

A selection of earrings, plus a necklace and a bracelet, have been added to the shop just this afternoon. These are the Isis earrings, which were inspired by icicles.

Colours: blues, greens, and greys

The Lenya earrings are finally finished and will probably be posted in the shop at aileen.etsy.com this weekend along with all the other pieces. The actual act of posting isn't that easy however since it involves taking countless photos (and picking three good ones), writing the description, and then posting. But I don't have a lot of activities planned for this weekend aside from picking up the Ikea jansjö lamp for my new beading space so there is a good chance I might get this done.

In other news, I find this combination of blue topaz, kyanite, labradorite, and green garnet absolutely stunning and can't wait to put it together. There is a possibility I will skip the green and use a large labradorite briolette I have been saving for a while.

Something blue

I was rifling through my box of small beads last night and came across several possible bead combinations for future pieces. My favourite is the pairing of apatite with turquoise since both are the same blue, but one is opaque while the other is clear. I even have briolettes in matching sizes to pull off the design, which I will likely start working on in the next day or two.

Vanessa is Lenya

The name Lenya has been rolling around my brain for the last two days and I have decided the earrings I had temporarily named Vanessa will actually be called Lenya now. I'm not sure where the name came from, but it sounds a lot like Enya and is the actual lastname of Lotte Lenya, the woman who played SMERSH operative Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love.

New supplies

I am super excited to report that a new shipment of beads will be arriving at my doorstep in the next few weeks. Among my purchases include some faceted blue topaz coins, a long narrow chrysoprase briolette, and a marquise beer quartz bead. I already have plans to use the beer quartz with garnet and smoky quartz marquises in a simple drop necklace and can't wait to put it together!

There has finally been progress with the Vanessa earrings - one of them is finished, in fact. Hopefully there will be a little time to work on the other one over the next two days since there aren't going to be new episodes of Ugly Betty or Grey's Anatomy this week =)