Making one of a kind rings

I love rings.
I think I enjoy making rings the most and also enjoy wearing them the most.

It's fun to be able to see it on your hand and change what you wear everyday like you would your clothes.

A recent ring I made is one of those bigger rings that will make an impression.

It is a ring from my Arabesque Trois Collection, a flower motif with swirl designs on the petal. This time I came across a nice labradorite as my center stone. A nice blue color depending on the light and is cut so that there is a nice big flat surface.

Before I set the stone. 

 The back of the ring

Ever since opening our store in Jingumae (which is between Shibuya and Harajuku) I've started making one of a kind rings. It is great because stones are always unique in color and shape, cut and size. To design a ring just for that stone has been a greasing learning experience. I often come up with other new designs and idea when I'm working on one ring. Can't wait to share them~!

Tiny flowers

We are almost at the end of May. 

One of the things I enjoy about living in Tokyo are the seasons. I know there were seasonal changes even in California or Los Angeles. It was just not that apparent for me? Or it could easily be that I was not aware that plants and scenery could change so much. 

I did love the jacaranda trees in LA.  Everywhere I went there was that bright purple tree! And I remember it was was in May when it was graduation season for my school. 

Every year at this time, you can find these tiny flower that grow on the side of the streets. It inspired me to make my hanna collection which are gold tiny flowers you can wear as rings, necklaces and earrings. 

I found a spot right under my mailbox where it grows every year from a crack of the concrete. The flowers seem to cover more surface each year, something that I'll be looking forward to next year. 

July

It is almost going to be our fourth month after opening the store.  Can't believe how fast time has passed. 

Since we have opened our doors, we have been making little  changes like making a window for the door and making our edible plant garden in the front.



It's getting hotter and some days are more humid than others. But the sunsets are really pretty. Yesterday,  it wasn't cloudy and rainy and we saw a glimpse of the sky. the store was more orange like the sky. 




In the photo you can see the sky reflected. 

Every week we change the jewelry on the dress form. This is this week.

Long lapis necklace by Mityl. Long necklace with golden sculptural piece by Steven Hanna. Carrot necklace by Corinne Simon Jewelry. 14k melody necklace by ileava. 

new door

It is getting a little warmer day by day and plum blossoms are in full bloom. Love it when I get a whiff of the scent.


We are at a new chapter for ileava. 
We are going to open our very own store!

This is the door that will greet me everyday and everyone who may be curious to see what is in this little store.

We found an antique door and fixed it up a little and gave it a fresh coat. Now it looks really warm and welcoming.



Can't wait for all this to come together. Although there is a lot to prepare still~

why do I love rings so much?

I  started wearing rings, a lot of rings in high school.
As I started taking jewelry classes and was done with college, I realized that I was ruining my rings by wearing then next to each other. I really like those clinking sounds that all my silver rings made...

Now I don't wear them next to each other but I still really really like rings.
There are few rings on both hands that I wear all the time but the rest I change up more often.

This is my recent ring that I made. 
Another ring that I wouldn't mind having myself ... I think this new ring is going to go on my pointer finger. 
It is the tallest and largest ring that covers your finger among the rings in ileava. It is another version of the ring I made a while ago, here I have both on.

It feels almost like metallic lace covering your fingers.

Love rings!

Thought process

Just found something that I made a while back. 

Mockup on the left, Arbesque 2 earring on the right in silver. 

Sometimes when I have an idea I sketch them. And sometimes I make a little mockup of it. This is when I had the idea for the arabesque 2 collection. 
I wanted to make the pieces very light and simple but with a little bit of the curlyness. 
After I made the mockup, I think I concluded that it will be too light if I made it out of wire and decided to make the collection with wax and cast them instead. 

Sometimes the stage where I'm testing out the designs are where I have the most fun~

new pieces just in time for the holidays

New 18k gold pieces are finally here!

They are from the Lani Collection, all petite and perfect to wear everyday.

The heart is going to be a christmas gift for my special someone in the family.  The eclipse, and the crescent with a diamond is something that I am eyeing on but can"t decide which one...

It's already December though. I've got to start thinking about presents for my family!

Update.

Ileava has a new project.

We now have a store~! !  The store is Ileava and co.


It is in Seibu Department Store in Shibuya, Tokyo.
So, come visit us when you are in town!

We are now preparing for the holidays. So many pieces that I would be happy to receive as gifts!!


Here are some of the views of the store~

this a view of the back wall portion before the holidays

Now I clearly know I need more and better picture of the store~ stay tuned!

And this is going to be.....

It is really happening and it is really just around the corner.
The long check list gets checked off but the list continues to grow.

Here is a peak at the displays we are making. This will get cut up and attached to another board. 

Stay tuned for the final out come.

tiny flower

a very nice and loving uncle had commissioned me to make earrings for his little niece.

I hope she liked it.

Great news! 

We are excited to share that ileava is going to open a store in Shibuya !

We are planning to open in September which is just a month away. 

we are in preparation mode, thinking about our store to look like this and to have that, and need to buy this and want to make that...

Time seems to be never enough.

But I cant wait for the moment I can post the photo of the completed store here~!

exciting month

April is an important month in Japan. 

New school year starts in April not, September.

New employees start their new jobs in April. 

Fiscal year start in April. 

Cherry blossoms make us feel that spring is here and the weather is getting warmer. 

A lot of "new-ness" is felt everywhere you go.

There is a new building that is going to open tomorrow~

It is called Shibuya Hikarie.

It is a building that houses theatre, restaurants and cafes, shopping and a floor that is dedicated to arts and culture. There are offices spaces above and parking lots and the subway station should connect right below all of this.

I am trying to see when I can go check it out~

I get excited when I see buildings that are being built, and I can see the process. and yes I have shared it here before but it was two years ago when I took this photo.

A year later of so I took this.

This was also the same time I was preparing to do the pop-up store, at the department store right across from this one. We pack all the displays and everything else that we need and stack them up on the dolly so that we can take it inside and start setting things up.

Well, this time we had 3 white plastic containers and one cardboard box stacked up on each other and bound together with a durable rubber cable. 

You can see the similarity right?

The great and exciting thing is that there is a store that will carry some of the ileava jewelry, starting tomorrow! 

Yeah~!  I can't wait to go see it all!

In another month or so, there Tokyo Sky Tree will have its grand opening. Always a lot of exciting things happening in Tokyo!!

April

Playing around with my new rings. 

This is the ring, I now where on my thumb. And I'll probably have to move it to my pointer finger when it gets warmer. My finger is half a size bigger......

For now I'm liking how flat the ring is and how this the line is. It will be part of the arabesque  collections.

I hope everyone will like it too ~!

Doing another pop up shop in Shibuya this time!

Tokyu Department Store Toyoko 4/5~4/11

hearts hearts

When my sister and I were young, my mother would put hearts or stars on the things that we owned.

Our names were too similar so she assigned me a star and my sister a heart, instead of our names. Sometimes I feel that this is why she became more of a caring person. 

It was now time to make a heart that was feminine but not too girly, not too cute but stylized.

Something that people who like hearts can wear at any age.

The 18k gold has a matte finish which gives a nice glow, the oxidized curl inside the heart give a sharpness to the heart and an tiny diamond for a little sparkle.

Usually I wear it with the blackened silver chain, as you see in the photo. When I want to feel more golden, sometimes I do, when I go on meetings or when I know there are more grown ups I have to meet, then I change it out with a gold chain, and the look really changes.

So, even though I really like stars more than hearts, I wear this heart time to time. Does it make me more of a caring person...... working on that!

snowflakes

It has been a while since it last snowed in Tokyo. It is really colder in January and February here than it is in December.

But even if it snows all day, there are never snow on the asphalt, only on lawns and dirt. So there would never be enough to make a good snowman in this neihborhood!
I was thinking of making a very very small snowman, but thought that I needed to pull out my good gloves that I wear for skiing or snowboarding... and that wasn't going to happen today.

This was a card that I made. My dog making the snowman.

So, as I watched the snow fall today, while making waxes and new pieces, I was thinking of the new Kate Bush song Snowflake.

I wonder how many times it will snow this year~

going out

"I won't be out too late."

I would say to my dog. If only he could understand. He always looks so devastated~

I wore my new necklace with a long champange colored pearl necklace. The length of the pearl makes me feel more slender.

The diamond shaped necklace is a gold and blackened silver with a little bit or sparkle as accent.  More styles are on the ileava site too.

Happy New Year~!

I hope this year will be a great year for everyone!

I put this up on the wall. The greens and the acorn are so cute and they are real~!

ring sizes

Getting ready for another pop up shop for the holidays~!


Here I was changing the sizes of the rings from the Arabesque Collection. Sizes 11,13,15 (Japanese sizes) they seem to all fit within each other like a pattern when I sized them~
so that is why there is a photo.
I like that I can change the sizes of the ring so that anyone can wear the design. I've made small pinky sizes and a mans' thumb ring before and they both looked really good on them.
I am happy that the rings found a nice home.

.... and these would soon find their new owner at the pop up shop hopefully!

new addition

On my right hand I always wear my" bear that hugs my finger" ring. 


I have a new addition. Anoushka.

The curly and dotted design wraps around my pinky, which makes the design visible from all angles.
At first it kept feeling like I'm going to loose the ring. The pinky finger is a weird one, it tapers. ( If you know what I mean)
But now I don't have to curl my fingers in when I wear it. I'm used to it. My bear is also happy that it doesn't interfere with it. It won't leave scratch marks on either of the rings!


There are more rings for the pinky. 
Very thin, golden and stackable. 


I wanted to stack more rings on my finger but I think I'll  wait and see if simple is the look I'm into right now.


You can see more of the rings for your pinky at the ileava site.

a lot of hugs

All the hug rings lined up for a photo.

There are so many hug rings now, it makes me smile when I look at them. 

It is weird to think that if I had never gone and lived in California, I might not have be accustomed to giving hugs, or letting someone hug me.

Now there are more people in Japan who knows and gives hugs, but it is just not the way things are here.

Sometimes I miss the small differences. But it would be very different if I start to see all theses Japanese people hugging each other instead of the little bow, or the wave....