Craft fair season

It's the beginning of October, which means the holiday season is almost upon us! I'm extremely excited to announce that ARIA INDUSTRIES will be selling in downtown Vancouver soon! The event is the Urban Artisan Craft Fair and it will be held at Roundhouse Community Centre. It is actually a two-day affair, but we will only be there on Sunday, November 25th because we have another engagement the day before - the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair in Richmond! For those in the area, please come see our jewellery in person!

Sweet tweets

Do you follow ARIA INDUSTRIES on Twitter? There are lots of preview and behind-the-scenes posts and sometimes, there are also special deals for Twitter followers only! Don't forget to say hi at @ARIAindustries!

And pssssst - there's a deal right now =)

Black beauty

The first week of school is now over and I'm happy to report that I'm back in the studio (aka my kitchen) and working on some new pieces. Four pairs of earrings have been made so far and the second is a study in ovals: it consists of a pair of long textured hoops anchored by two faceted oval black onyxes. Here is a sneak peek...

Teardrops for Harlow

There are eight brand new pieces at the shop at aileen.etsy.com and one of them is a pair of earrings named Harlow. This feminine style uses a teardrop shaped sterling silver component from Hong Kong and is attached to pink chalcedony briolettes that were picked up during a trip to New York. Finishing off the earrings are delicate white pearls.

Carla and Roksanda

My most recent custom order was for Carla McNeil of Butterfly Networking. For several years, she had worn a half-black and half-white string around her wrist as a reminder that she could choose to see things in the dark or in the light, but the string broke recently and she needed a replacement. Carla liked the style of the Letitia bracelet so we reviewed stone options together and selected obsidian and black onyx for the black half, while snow quartz and white mountain jade made up the white half. Here is the stunning result, named Roksanda...

Strange bedfellows

The last several weeks have been rather hectic because I just moved! Things are still a mess, but I couldn't stay away from my pliers, wires, and gems so I made a custom bracelet and four pairs of earrings in between unpacking and cleaning. One of the earrings features these beauties, which have little in common but look strangely appealing together. The opaque seafoam coloured stone is amazonite and the translucent mustard-yellow one is chalcedony.

Big, bold, and beautiful

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures of my recent acquisitions, hasn't it? I picked up these beauties on a recent trip to my favourite local bead store and can't wait to pair up the large white agate briolettes and the aqua chalcedony coins. I think they would look fabulous with some small beads with punchy colour, like amber!

Funny Dorota

Running a shop (aileen.etsy.com) means I get many messages from potential and previous customers and sometimes I save them for sentimental reasons. This one was kept because it was just bizarre - this woman had never ordered anything from me, got my name wrong, and the Dorota earrings had not been sold!

Odd ones out

I love making new pieces and picking the exact stones for them, but sometimes this means there are stones left behind. These lonely beauties were the last of their kind and are waiting for their turn:

Salmon Festival round-up

The Salmon Festival Craft Fair always draws a varied crowd and one of my highlights was running into a friend I hadn't seen since elementary school! In terms of jewellery, the Melrose, Emlyn, and others went to their forever homes. Here is a shot of some of the earrings:


As always, a winner was drawn for a $25 gift card. Congratulations to Genevieve Hohnadel!