New Collection!

It's Christmas! Well, not exactly. It's still in Nov. BUT... Christmas's around the corner. Isn't it the perfect time to stock up on presents for that special someone or someones? hahaha

At JRareto, you can find a range of gifts below $20 and each unique piece comes with a beautiful jewelry box and handmade packaging. (worth $4) An alcohol swab is also included for sterilization.

This pair of earrings below was sold recently. I packaged it in this nice little small jewelry case and included a hand drawn card.

So let's see some of the new arrivals! or rather, newly made!

This piece of necklace is one of my favourite so far. I think it's rather simple yet sweet and classy. The Swarovski crystal dangling below the rose has a neat bead cap on it. I kind of like the bronze chain too!

This item is currently on sale now on my Etsy shop at

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JRareto

This is also one of my favourite piece in this new collection. The Dusty Pink rose goes well with the clear crystal green and brown beads. Kind of vintage and victorian looking. 

This piece below... hmm reminds me of a faerie in a forest. So I named it Forest Delight. Sounds like a cake name right? Makes me feel like eating Black Forest Cake now. 

Christmas hat! 

Lovely roses studs. My mom loves the pink ones. I told my friend and she said of course moms love the pink ones. Cause they want their daughters to look sweet. lol 

Of course, I must cater to people with different tastes! So I made 3 other colour variations. 

Turquoise Blue

Cherry Red

Fuchsia Purple

Pastel Pink

These studs are on sale too! :)

The "pink panther" range cause all the roses are pink!

Want to see more?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JRareto 

or check it out under My Collections.

:D

My First Sale! :)

Thank God I made my first sale yesterday! It came so suddenly and surprisingly. I sold the most expensive item in my shop to my brother's friend who came to our house to work on a project. It's like a  miracle happen! Totally didn't expect it. But it's all God's grace.

I still remember how I was quite listless about having no orders from the online platform and I also remember praying to God to lead the way. I told myself not to be so impatient and just take things naturally. To me, having someone buy my items is something I could not imagine. And now, it has happened.

I immediately thought about how worried I am about my thesis and future job. I'm worried about my future. But, many past perfect examples have shown that I only need to trust in Him. There's no need for worries. Simply not necessary.

Without worries, life would be much happier.

And who doesn't want a happier life?

So...Stop worrying and Start trusting!

Over the Moon

YAY I'm over the moon!

I have finally launched my online shop at Etsy.. Dreams do come true. I am actually quite a "3-minute hot" person and hence, I could never imagine myself doing something so concrete. View my listings are like wow. Sense of personal achievement. It doesn't matter so much if there isn't any purchases. But most importantly, it's a place to host my collections. :)

Check it out under the My Collections page!

Stocked up

Yay, went to buy more FIMO clay and accessory parts today. All stocked up to make little presents.

My Macbook is going crazy today. Was trying to copy a few file onto my hard disk but I was shown the "Forced to Restart" screen at least thrice. How disappointing. My Mac that has lasted me 3 years is now old and sickly. Going to send him for repair tomorrow..

AND

Off I go to Cameron Highlands!

Going to enjoy myself so much and take lots of pretty photos!

The Angry Bird Story

Finally managed to put together 2 new art work. The first is this heart-shape mirror. It looks like a hole in the middle because I put a piece of white paper opposite it. If not it will capture my room which is in such a messy state.

I bought the originally wooden colour heart shape mirror from Art Friend. Using the Pentel poster paint, I painted the frame in dark blue and grass green. I love painting on wood! The colour appeared so even and silky smooth. The only concern one might have is, isn't this not waterproof then? What if you spill water on top?

In the past, I used the nail transparent top coat to waterproof my art work. BUT, that's obviously too expensive if my art work is big. Furthermore, using that small nail brush is way too tedious.

So then, I recently bought a bottle of satin spray that could waterproof my art work. It will create a layer of lacquer and can be used on wood or metal.

The little house which angry bird stays in is made of fat ice cream sticks. I painted them in red, yellow and black (the colours of the Germany flag) because I love Deutsch!! hahaha

The angry bird story is actually pretty simple to narrate from this picture. The pig has stolen the eggs from angry bird and so angry bird is going to take revenge. The angry bird is not stuck in its house, so it could potentially fly out and go missing.

My 2nd piece of work is this flower pot/ pencil holder/ container looking object. I really love the colour navy blue. Somehow, it tends to look smoother on wood than any other colours. This is meant to be a birthday present for my friend. I don't think she knows I have a blog... so it's still going to be a little surprise. 

My mom says it looks like a flower pot. My mom loves gardening. Unfortunately, in such a pragmatic society, a gardening job is unlikely to raise 4 children for you. She hopes to do it as a hobby in future. When that comes, I can make little flower pots for her and she can plant her flowers inside to be given as gifts for friends! 

I'm glad I revived this hobby of mine. I really enjoy doing art. Not those super artistic painting kind, but art work like all these. 

On a more serious note, I went to see a doctor yesterday night again because the previous set of medications seems to be taking NO EFFECT at all. I was still running high fever every now and then, coughing like mad and my throat was horrendously painful. The new doctor said the medicine prescribed is prob too mild. He prescribed me stronger medicine and one night is all it takes for it to show significant improvement. That was the 1st night I slept without waking up in a pool of heat. My throat was much less swollen. Though I am still coughing mad, at least I'm now alive on Earth. 

Fate sealed.

O well. Seen a doctor. Looks like my 20% of being able to go Malaysia tomorrow has been reduced to 0%. Why does this happen like all the time? I vaguely remember this happening the previous time as well. Just when I was ready to embark on an exciting journey, I fell sick. And it's not just a little sick. It's terribly sick.

On the good side, I managed to spend some time making these cute little figurines. I decided to make a mini version of angry bird instead. First of all, smaller version means using less clay, hence save some money. Smaller version also meant greater skills required for intricacy. Challenge accepted.

My mom loves the red angry bird the most while my youngest sister loves the king pig. No wonder they are "enemies". haha. The angry bird is ready to fire at the king pig. Fire! Unfortunately, that was a miss! And so... with a cheeky smile, the king pig won! Sounds like reality, doesn't it? :P

Ronnie likes the sunflower a lot. It was a 2D sunflower as there's only 1 layer of petals, unlike the one we made for the cake which has 2 layers of petals. My grandmother likes the below hello kitty figurine the most. It was so hard making the outfit as the black clay was sooo sticky. Something is definitely wrong with it. The body of the kitty was too big. I would like it, if it's more proportional in that sense. But it was soo hard to shape it already.  

Next up, I am going to put together these figurines to construct nice little presents!

PS: The good thing about doing clay is I don't have to open my mouth and talk! Yay. Now, opening my mouth to talk is so ridiculously painful. At times like this, I wish I could hang a board over my neck that reads "I'm a mute".

FIMO time? Time for some competitors

It's the weekend again and I most certainly look forward to this as it's time for some...

FIMO Time! 

But this time, I'll be using some clay from the Sculpey brand because I couldn't get hold of FIMO at Art Friend previously. 

I realized that there's a lot of differences in properties between these two brands of polymer clay. FIMO is very hard and brittle. Though I got the FIMO "SOFT" clay, it's still hard. I use some force to pinch some out, and the whole piece breaks offs with little bits falling on the table. So what I do is add a little bit of water to soften it. I have to use my strength to mix in the water and smoothen the clay. Tough job.  

Sculpey is a lot more manageable. You do not add any water. However, some of my Sculpey is more moist than others. So moist that it sticks to any surfaces it touches. On the table, it sticks to the table. When you try to leave it up, it continues sticking to the table. It just LOVES the table. If you force it to leave the table, it goes out of shape like blue tack. Rawr. But if the Sculpey bought is manufactured well, then it's very easy to work with. I don't think you can tell if it's too moist while purchasing it, so just count yourself lucky if it works well. 

Ronnie's Aunt's Birthday is tomorrow and we decided to make a birthday cake out of polymer cake. We found some nice photos of cakes online and decided to model it (though in the end, it turned out nothing like the picture). It was really fun playing around with the clay. Ronnie had a hard time using the plastic rolling pin to flatten the clay because the clay just LOVES the table. Same problem as described above. Thankfully, I somehow managed to subdue it and helped with that rolling step. :P In the process, we also figured a few new uses for the clay tools bought. Yay!

Here is our final product! Bits of roses on the bottom layer of the cake, coupled with a big and cheery sunflower at the top.

Enhancing a little using the "Beauty" effect, here you go! 

My Best Friend: Art Friend

Today is such a happy day! I managed to visit ART FRIEND after work. I went to the Buona Vista one which was opened quite recently. Or at least, more recent that the rest. haha. It is a nice, cosy place next to the MRT station and there is an escalator leading up to the store. No down escalator though. So you have to carry all your heavy "loot" down after a fulfilling shopping time.

I was so so excited!!! My best friend, here I come!

My best friend giving me the warmest welcome!

When I get excited, I tend to overlook the quantity of items I am buying and just pick them into my little shopping basket. Exactly like how I order my Yong Tau Foo. Recalls...

Friend A: Jinci, 6 pieces of YTF is min number. You got count a not?

Me: Huh? Don't need to count la. Count already then not happy liao. Just take whatever I like. Later too conscious about budget then not 幸福 already.

(Me busy picking all my favourite pieces while replying my friend.)

Time to pay for my YTF...

Me: Auntie, 多少？

Auntie: 小妹来，六块二。

Me: orh, ok.

(My friends around me... O_O)

And that's how I made my name for being the YTF Queen. Anyway, back to my best friend :D. There are so many materials over in Art Friend but I'm quite familiar with most of the materials there already. I've been to the outlet at Bras Basah and Orchard. The layout is pretty much the same. Then I went happily picking my art materials.

A special mention goes to a paint brush I bought. The prices of the paint brushes are not that easy to locate. They have special tags and you have to refer to the coding sheet labeled near the brushes. Being the "anything goes" me, I just picked out a nice looking brush and went to the counter. To my HORROR, that brush cost me $7 plus bucks?!?! Of course I didn't buy it in the end. I immediately chiong back to the brush area and picked another more "inferior-looking" one. But that cost $2+ bucks as well. 

Thankfully, I am a member of my best friend! Of course, how could I not support my best friend right! If I'm not wrong,  members get 10% discount off the retail prices. Now comes the moment of truth.

How much did I spent??

For all the materials you see in the photo below, (plus 2 more secret items which can't be revealed as they are main components in the gifts I'm going to make), it costs me....

$49.90!

What a nice figure! 10 cents less that $50. Makes me feel a tiny bit happier as this odd-number pricing seems cheaper.

I wanted to buy FIMO clay, but apparently Art Friend doesn't sells it. So disappointing! But but but...my best friend knows me well enough. I found Sculpey!!!! It's the same as FIMO, but there's like ~4g more material in the pack and costs less! Only $3 plus dollars compared to $4 plus FIMO. YAY.

So here goes my happy art materials shopping trip after work. Cheers!

FIMO - Red

Yay, I finally couldn't resist the temptation to open up the FIMO red clay. It was soooo fun! The clay was ultra hard so I added some water to it and kept kneading it till it became softer. I think we're supposed to add water if not it's so flaky and hard to mould.

So... what can I make using just the Red FIMO. Of course, I started out by making hearts. Then I made lips then I made cute little red buttons.

For the hearts, I turned it into earrings which I added a few beads on top. Not a fantastic looking pair, but not too bad for my first try I guess. :P

I thought it was pretty easy to mould the clay into shapes. But I was wrong! It was so difficult to get the right shape and mould identical ones to make a pair. Perhaps it's because I didn't purchase the FIMO crafting kit that comes with the knife and all. O well, for a start, Wasn't too bad at all! Fun fun fun!


Final products with other FIMO clays I've made will be updated after I complete them!

FIMO time!

Recently bought 3 packs of FIMO soft clay to play with! I have played with it a long time ago but lost touch with it for many years. Suddenly got that excitement to play with it again! For a start, I bought the Mandarin Orange, Cherry Red and Glow in the Dark colours.

So what's so special about thie FIMO clay?

You can knead the FIMO clay into any shape you want, put it in the oven, and it will harden itself like a rock! You can use it to make nice figurines as gifts.

It's time to do some art and craft again. I'll be posting more pictures shortly on what I'll be making. But in the meantime, I better go start on my assignments and work before I procrastinate and it's due time.

Awww. FIMO clay I shall see you soon!