Category: General

Everybody meet Helena!!!

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Oh hello there, Helena!
 Helena Perez-Lafaurie is a Jewel Envy goldsmith after my own heart. She designs
these chunky sterling rings that are pretty much everything I look for in a chunky
sterling ring.
Some are classic chunky, and some have a big, beautiful onyxs.
 Some have colourful and sparkly stones.
 And others still have texture and great detail.
Each ring has a bold, strong shape that really accentuates the attention to detail. They are heavy, but so comfortable on my finger it’s almost like they were made just for me. Helena does custom work, so she can make one just for you, too!

Under the Sea

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Alexis Kostuk of Glaciale latest creations!
Under the Sea Ring. Sterling silver, Blue onyx, white sapphires.

Shark! Sterling silver with diamond eyes.

Under the Sea Ring. Sterling silver, lapis lazuli, sapphires.

Sharks! Dangle earrings. Sterling silver.

Reef ring. Sterling silver, turquoise.

Shark! Sterling silver with tourmaline eyes.

Sharks! Stud earrings: appear as if the sharks are biting your ears. Sterling silver.
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Sasha Oda one of our Jewel Envy talents in jewellery making.
Her pieces are characterized by clear lines and fine ornamentation.

Check out her pieces at Jewel Envy or today at the
Toronto Art Crawl

Jewelust by Amanda Henderson

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 This is Amanda Henderson:
 
 She is one of the resident goldsmiths here at Jewel Envy. Her company is called Jewelust, and she designs and creates amazing jewellery that you should definitely come in and check out and wear home!! 
Here is a little sneak peek of the work that she has here in the studio:
 These are her square-top stacking rings. Some are in rose-gold (oooh!!) and some have simple texture, and some have pretty little roses adorning the tops.
 
 The profile is so unique, and they are just as lovely from the side as from the top. They are sold individually, but I think they look best stacked in different colours and styles, so I would definitely have problems choosing just one!
 This is from one of her signature collections – the Whirls. She creates these graceful ribbons of metal and uses them in different ways. This is a simple pendant style, but she has been known to add the whirls to more elaborate pieces.
 Here are some bar pendants. These look so great together, don’t they??! I really like wearing sterling and gold together, so I would probably get the top one custom-made with yellow gold, and a white diamond. Or rose-gold with a black diamond. Or both!

Amanda is a great designer, but she also does incredible custom work. Come by the studio and get to know her a little better, and get something pretty for yourself at the same time!
~sash
ps – all of her social media handles are @jewelust, so you can check her out on Instagram and Facebook as well.

Holiday spirit!

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I have been having a blast helping customers with picking out gifts and taking down details for custom orders today. In the moments in between I have been thinking about ways to decorate and the gifts I would like to buy.

I came across these decorations recently from IKEA – I gotta say these are right up my alley.

Thankfully, the Knit Cafe is right next door and I think they are a great place to hit up for gifts for the crafty people in your life.

They have Knit Kits to make beautiful creations like this!

And since food is always on my mind I just added making homemade marshmallows onto the list of holiday projects to take on.

If you have a recipe to recommend, let me know!

I am also interested in any crafts or homemade treats that are special to people; share with us!
-Alexis

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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