Wow Tiaras attended the International Ladies Club of Macau Christmas Charity Bazaar on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, with a good turnout and some flattering praise from local expats seeing my jewellery for the first time. Especially from one lady who bought some earrings from my stall and proceeded to wear them for the rest of the day, which I took as a lovely complement!
Although far from a wedding show it provided a good chance to meet other expat businesses that work out of Macau whilst supporting a very worthy cause. It brought back the excitement of attending large bridal shows and meeting interesting people. On reflection, I now feel I want to make a concerted effort to get back to the UK next year for one of the big wedding fayres!
Here are the pictures of my cousin in her beautiful dress with the unique bridal jewellery that I designed for her wedding. The design process for this Moroccan inspired bridal head dress, bracelet and earrings is discussed in the post below. I'm sure you will agree that she looks stunning and I wish them both the very best for the future. If their life together in any way reflects their wedding then it will be full of fun, love and family. It was an amazing wedding and it was wonderful to be part of it!
In September my cousin-in-law got married in a magical ceremony in exotic Marrakesh. She had asked me to make some Moroccan themed wedding jewellery to go with her classic "Suzanne Neville" wedding dress (See my 15th June blog entry) and I thought it might be both inspiring and helpful to share the design process we went through. I was extremely proud to be asked to be part of her special day and hopefully I will soon have some beautiful pictures to show just how stunning she looked.
Initially she gave me a range of images to show me her dress, the style of the venue, the colour scheme and some general jewellery pictures for inspiration. We also talked about how she planned to have her hair and what sort of headdresses might be suitable for her hair type. With any bespoke order this sort of information is vital and can be sent to me via email along with any other important details. Once I have this I can put together one or more 'idea boards' with sketches or photoshop images of potential designs for the bride to review. Below is the 'ideas board' I created for a Moroccan themed bracelet (Full size picture here). I can then modify the designs as much as necessary until I have something that I am comfortable the bride is happy with, from which I will produce the final piece.
Below is a second idea board for the bridal head dress. (Full size picture here)
Pictures of work in progress (as shown with the bracelet here) and of the finished items are then sent for approval before the items are carefully wrapped and shipped by express delivery. (Full size picture here)
My 10 weeks in Europe and the UK literally flew by. The couple of weeks of holiday I managed to grab were appreciated but it is a relief to be back in my own office again. Working on the road and out of a suitcase was certainly a challenge and I won't be doing that again in a rush!
Although there were lots of exciting things going - including not one but two family weddings - updating my poor old blog took a back seat. The absence of blog entries really is in stark contrast to how busy things have been for me! I created over 30 amazing pieces along with working on a new web page which I am hoping to launch before Christmas (preview below).
Things don't look like they are going to slow down either! As well as getting lots of tiaras ready for next season, I have a little show here in Macau at an expat gala, I'll be attending the level 2 silver smithing course and I'm also hoping to run an introductory course on wire jewellery making. I should have plenty to write about so I'll try to find more time to keep up with posting.
As well as making lots of vintage tiaras recently, I have also been attending my evening silversmith course. After completing the course project I was set free to make something of my own design. I decided to put my new skills to use and make some hang gliding cufflinks for my husband (left picture).
I have made cufflinks in the past but kind of made it up as I went along. I sculpted a casting and made a mould and then got cast in silver (right picture). It was a bit expensive and if I'm honest wasn't a brilliant success but I learnt some lessons.
I was so much happier with my latest attempt, enough to show them off here that is... my husband loves them too!
It has been full steam ahead in the studio recently making lots of unique bridal jewellery pieces. I have never been busier - which is great - and it feels wonderful to have people appreciate my hard work. I'm also designing some jewellery for my cousin's wedding which is going to be in Morocco. I am always excited about designing a whole range of bespoke wedding jewellery for the bride, mother of the bride and others at a wedding. I would love to show you the work I have done so far but obviously it will have to wait until after the big day! However, I can show you an intricate autumn themed bracelet and earring set I made for someone attending a formal ball recently.
After all my work recently the studio workshop was looking a bit of mess. After a quick clean up I decided to get some photos of the place so you can see where I work while it looks tidy! I can't help the artist in me, I just want to make things and tidying is such a distraction.
I'm finally settled and getting back to business - see some of my latest tiara designs here in my Etsy shop. I have lots more that will be added over the next few weeks.
I should have known that it was going to take longer than a couple of months to find my feet after the big move! One reason for the delay has been the struggle to find materials which meet my strict eye for high standards. Although China is the supplier to the world, mass production sometimes comes at the expense of quality. Therefore I have decided to continue getting most of my supplies from Europe and the US.
As well as getting my supplies and studio established, I must be honest and admit that I have also been a bit distracted by all the socialising that seems to happen in this former Portuguese Colony. Only last week I attended the ILCM Ball where a few of the gorgeous ladies were showing off some of my bespoke designs that I had made for them. As you can probably guess, I am having way too much fun! Not to mention I'm attending an interesting silversmith course and a conversational Cantonese class. More on these and maybe some pictures in due course!
By the way, although I might not have updated wow tiaras and my blog, I have still been making a few bespoke bridal pieces, like this pearl veil below.
I get really excited when I hear back from my Brides. Pictured below is the tiara that was sold to Beth who wrote: "Stunning! Better than expected! I am so pleased and would recommend this store to anyone!". Read this latest feedback for yourself here. It makes me so happy to feel that I have contributed to a Bride's special day. I do this work because of the feeling I get when I make your day... I can honestly say after giving up my career as a doctor that I don't do this for the money. It is your happiness, expressed through feedback about my work, that drives me.
So, the fact is, if you think I deserve a bonus for my work then the biggest bonus you could give is to remember me after your wedding day and send me a photo of you wearing one of my bridal jewellery pieces. That gift would really make my day!
See more customer feedback that I am proud of here and here. The latter is a necklace I made for someone last year, so I don't just specialise in bridal jewellery and tiaras.
You can also read 62 independent compliments along with pictures of my work here.
