Author: Jewel Envy

Spotlight on Chia-Chien Tsai

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Chia-Chien Tsai is better known to everyone in the studio as Ellen. She was Jewel Envy’s very first intern when she was still a student at Ontario College of Art and Design. I remember her barely speaking a word and working hard to finish all the grunt work we would give her. While she was still a student we were amazed by her wax carving skills which we would take advantage of by giving her the duty of creating wax trees for casting. After graduating from OCAD Ellen joined the studio and has been with us ever since.

Ellen’s latest creations: Sterling silver, opals, pearls, red laquer.

Ellen continues to use her wax carving super powers to create organic and beautiful shapes in wax that she casts in various metals and her latest work has a unique combination of gems and laquer. Ellen’s fabrication super power is soldering hollow pieces – an difficult task and one you only get one chance to so do while soldering! She is a much more vocal member of the studio now and her sense of humour never fails to make me laugh. 

Hybrid exhibition revisited through the comments by you!

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This year
during our group exhibition around the theme “Hybrid” we asked
viewers to interact with the show by leaving comments. Viewers could provide
their own interpretation of a piece, comment on a piece, or let us know their
favourite work in the show. We had a wonderful response and below are some of
the comments about the work!
Love the beginning of Life it reminds me of a beautiful Bloom. – Marion
Coral Reef & Chochos by Helena Perez Lafaurie: I felt connected to
the planet the moment I saw H.P.L.’s pieces. The raw beauty & asymmetry was
so perfectly balanced with the final form and colour, Love! – Jenny
I like the unique pieces. Awesome local business. Very nice staff and
owner. – James
Fascinating, thought provoking, marvellous – Veronica
I really like the pieces, but three items really call out to me: Gillian
Batcher’s whimsical & imaginary animals are so cute but also so well
crafted. They make me happy when I look at them. Lafaurie’s organic piece made
of emerald, silver with a wood base harkens back to the elemental: we know that
for eons and eons, far below the earth, precious jewels have been developing
their unique strata. The wooden stand with its indigenous ethnicity depiction
is unusual & an important statement of life on this planet. Thirdly, I love
Alexis Kostuk’s foray into indigo enamels. Her necklace is luxurious and strikingly
simple, even with so many components. I would wear this piece instantly! The
whole exhibit covers every aspect of fancy. Well done! -Andrea
Are beautiful dinosaur bees the future? – Devon
I like Amanda Henderson’s Mixed Gold, Silver, Copper Necklace. –
Jeannine
Alexis Kostuk. Elegant, nice shades of blue, eye catching. – Bernard
Hybrid is a fantastic concept to combine different creative pieces and
colours and create something unique. It’s really interesting and fascinating to
create in this way. – Marlene
Hybrids are a very relevant idea in our world today with the rapid
spreading of ideas and information. I am always surprised and amazed by the
unique creations I find. – Rania 

 

 

Spotlight on Alexis Kostuk!

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We are trying something new here with our social media and part of our new initiative is to make sure everyone at Jewel Envy receives equal representation across our various platforms. That means you can look forward to seeing artist spotlights each Sunday as we work through a rotation highlighting each member of the space.

Today I would like to highlight what Alexis of Glaciale Goldsmith has been up to. If you have been in the store recently you may have seen her amazing new line of sharks or her marriage of metal pieces. We have posted some pictures on FB and Instagram but that is the obvious work she does; today I want to highlight some of the behind the scenes work taking place.

As you may know Alexis is the studio manager here. What that means is that she is responsible for a fair bit of equipment maintenance, social media, studio organization and coordination as well as retail and teaching. One of her recent initiatives was to move us over to steam dewaxing for our casting burnouts. She spoke with various casting houses and came up with a plan to help us make this switch. The reason for doing so is that during the wax burn out process one of the most toxic stages is when wax reaches a temperature where it actually burns out of the flask. This releases toxins into the air and although we have a good ventillation system it was not removing everything and some people were getting headaches from the burnout.

By switching to a steam dewaxer, the wax comes out of the flasks using steam and pressure at a much lower temperature before the wax has a chance to burn. This means cleaner air for us, cleaner castings for the jewellers here and an overall improvement in the casting process. Switching over has not been without a few bumps along the way but with an interest in troubleshooting and excellent problem solving we have a safer system in place for all. Thank you Alexis for your perserverence!

Gillian

STEAL VS SPLURGE

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As goldsmiths, designers and business owners, most of us here at Jewel Envy know the work involved in creating handmade jewellery. As buyers and shoppers and coveters of beautiful things, we also know that value is important as well.
With a quick spotlight on HYEWON JANG, here is today’s steal vs spluge:
 
The earrings on the left can be yours for $100, or you can splurge on the righthand pair for $150. To tell you the truth, the decent price point probably means that you could buy them both and consider the whole purchase a steal:)))
 Hyewon tends to work with clean geometric silhouettes, accented with softer, more feminine details. Her work is beautiful and unique, with just the perfect amount of colour and sophistication.
We have plenty more of her work in store, so pop in and see what else we’ve got!

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Gillian loves animals.
The latest addition to our zoo are the owels.
They are a hoot !
And they have gemstone eyes to really see well at night .
Ckeck them out,
they come as ear studs, lapel pins and pendants on beautiful two tone chains.

Come visit us at Craft Show by Craft Ontario!

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An amazing art show is coming up this Thanksgiving weekend and we want to be sure you don’t miss your chance to see and buy work by talented local artists. Remember the holidays are just around the corner and this is a great opportunity to get a jump start on selecting the perfect gifts for the special people in your life. Both Hyewon Jang of H Jewelry and Gillian E. Batcher of PASH Jewellery Design will be participating along with 40 of our esteemed colleagues. We hope to see you and your friends at the show!

Show Details:

Friday October 9 – Sunday October 11, 2015
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street, Toronto

SHOW HOURS:

Friday Oct 9:  12:00pm – 5:00pm
Saturday Oct 10: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday Oct 11: 11:00am – 5:00pm

The Stop’s Farmers’ Market at Artscape Wychwood Barns focuses on
local, sustainable, organic, and artisanal products and will be taking
place on Saturday Oct 10 from 8am – 1pm.

TICKETS:

Admission to the Craft Show will be by donation at the door. Big or
small, whatever you can afford or deem appropriate… Every little bit
helps Craft Ontario in building new programming such as this to help
promote our members and Ontario’s makers!

Autumn Days

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It is going to be a very busy weekend for the goldsmiths of Jewel Envy. What a way to start the fall!

Here’s what you can look forward to this weekend:


The Roncesvalles Polish Festival
Come celebrate our Polish community with some perogies and free wax carving. We will teach you how to carve jeweller’s wax to make jewellery. At the end of the hour, you can choose to take your wax home, have us cast it in bronze for you, or take a 4-hour workshop to learn how to cast in sterling silver and polish. (Perogies not included.)


The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
Not one or two, but three of our goldsmiths are exhibition their work at TOAE this year! Alexis Kostuk, Hyewon Jang, and Ellolite (Chia-Chien Tsai). They will be there all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so get out to Nathan Phillip Square and say hi! There will be a ton of great art!

The Post Market
Here’s what Toronto Life has to say, “This Sunday, The Post Market is popping up for its autumn shopping fair in The Great Hall
on Queen West, giving visitors the opportunity to browse a variety of
vintage, handmade and contemporary wares from Toronto-based retailers
and artists.” The only thing left to tell you is that Sasha Oda of Archerade will be there, with lots of new jewellery for you! What better way to spend a Sunday and walking and shopping along Queen West?!

As for me, I’ll be at a rock music festival, so while I’m missing out on all of these great jewellery events, I will cheer myself up with a bit of Weezer and Alexisonfire.

Whatever you do this weekend (and I recommend all of the above events!), I hope you have a great one!

Amanda
Jewelust

TOAE 2015

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This year we have three of our goldsmiths participating in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. Be sure to drop by Nathan Phillips Square from September 18-20th to check out all the new work they have been creating!

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The date is getting closer to Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I haven’t done a show for a while and this is definitely exciting for me! I am still making lots of new pieces and trying to get things done. Hopefully I will see all of you guys there. Show starts at September 18th to 20th.

by Ellolite

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