Of Recent Adventures.. and in the pipeline ;)

Hi all!

The last few weeks have been a whirl wind of experimentation, planning..executing.. messing up, waste... but finally, success!

I have made a few new earring creations since last post...

First off, some more gemstone earrings, this time featuring a pink quartz, AAA grade with the slightest mystic sheen:

The onion briolettes are simply adorable. See them HERE.

I am on a cluster kick again lately, thanks to my housemate who's been feeding the frenzy, and I couldn't help but to make a pair of Bollywood earrings to match the Bollywood necklace:


And while Loki was sleeping in Dad's lap,


I was creating these:

Inspired by the sea:


And by Tiger's Eye (both the actual animal's eye, as well as the natural stone!)
Tiger's Eye is secretly a tribute to Loki, because his eyes are super fierce and look awesome in the daylight.


I am also selling some handmade stickers that I have wayyy to much of on my Etsy Account:

If you are in the need for supplies, check out my store for some destash packaging materials, beads, etc!

And lastly.. something that I have been working on since October 2011 to create:

That's right. Sailor Moon inspired perfume lockets.

Ok guys, please use your imagination with this one, because I know that initially it sounds like a stretch. Perfume lockets are not new, and definitely not this type of locket (though I have worked hard to get my hands on a unique design), but as I fell in love with solid perfumery, I wanted to combine my interests. As many of you already know, Sailor Moon has been a huge muse for me over the years, and continues to me. I wanted to transform my thoughts about her character into a scent. I know, many of you are probably shaking your heads and think I'm nuts. I might be a little nuts. I might be pushing a little. Oh well ;) What's creativity without a bit of crazy and unexpected? Am I making a whole Sailor Moon series of solid perfume lockets? Maybe.

.. so after months of research, market research, designing, failing, sucking, making some really disgusting smelling things, I think I'm almost ready.

These lockets are made by a family owned business in the USA, and the quality is simply breathtaking. When I got my first one to hold in my hand, I was surprised. NOTHING beats the quality of these perfume lockets. They come with a little recess on the inside where you can swap out the aluminum pan with other scents or refills as you need over time. I am designing over perfume locket centerpieces right now, but am not ready to release them. Heck, I couldn't wait to show you these, and I'm not even ready to reveal the exact details of these yet, but thought it might be fun to show you what's in the pipeline.

Pretty cool, hmm? I'm pretty stoked to say that with a huge amount of Googling, I have yet to come across a Sailor Moon inspired Solid Perfume. I'm stoked.

Many consumers do not realize how much time artists put into developing work. Just like how the R&D department of a Biotech company takes a huge amount of money to run to make a product, causing the end product price to be 400-1000% or whatnot of material price, same idea applies across the board to something like what I do. The price of a piece reflects not only the materials, but the time spent on developing it, including all the fails, wasted materials, time spent redesigning, time spent on designing package... well, the list goes on and on. Keep that in mind the next time you're shopping for an artisan good; though I am not a full time artists, I have grown over time to value other handmade artists' goods because I know first hand how hard it can be to make art one's livelihood :)

Thank you all for dropping by and taking part in my little adventures of late.
Please head over to the He Qi website and take a look at all the new goodies there.

If you choose to place an order, I am currently giving away a sample of my new Vanilla Clove lip balm with all purchases!

I hope everyone starts on Monday with bright, positives attitudes.


Until next time,
Lisa
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Oh yes, I did-- Sailor Moon Earrings & More Cosplay jewelry to come?

For those of you who've been following for a while, you'll know I grew up watching Sailor Moon, and I still watch it on Veoh sometimes when I'm crafting. It's one of those easy going animes that I somehow never manage to get sick of. I think I know every episode by heart at this point, but can still watch it again and again.

I've been trying to perfect the first Sailor Moon transformation earrings. I've seen lots of cosplay earrings, but most of them are hurriedly thrown together, poor quality. A lot of cosplay jewelry out there is meant to be worn only a couple of times, but I wanted to create pieces that last. Who says cosplay earrings can only be worn during cosplay? ;)

It took a couple weeks of research to finally come out with these babies:

^ It's kind of hard to capture the gold dust (see below on details of this stuff). It looks more yellow in this photos, but is actually more gold in real life.


They look like this when worn:


Pretty accurate to:

Not exact, but close. The whole point is you FEEL Usagi's presence reverberating from the piece.

This piece was commissioned by my friend Cassandra-- she's Sailor Moon for Halloween this year! With her permission, I will happily post photos of her here later ;)

I took poly-clay in yellow, and sculpted them to the shape of moons. This was surprisingly the hardest part!! I didn't use a mold (they don't really sell molds this size/shape... :\), so making the pair of earrings as exact as possible was... painful. After they were shaped, I coated them 18K gold dust to give them a "brushed" feel. They kind of look more like metal now than poly clay, which is great. I'm currently working out some things with someone who makes custom metal charms-- maybe I can get a custom moon made? I don't know.

Anyway, this brings up more ideas-- I really think I'm going to start a line of cosplay earrings. Since I'm FANG (FFXIII) for Halloween this wear, I wanted to make her earrings & bracelet-- woo hoo! I'll let you know how that goes, if it goes at all.

Anime-wise, I've also been watching BLEACH. I was SO SO SO tempted to dress up at Matsumoto, even though it's just a black over white kimino and pink "scarf". So simple, so beautiful. Oh well, maybe next year.

Any other anime lovers out there?
What are you for Halloween? WE SHOULD ALL SHARE PHOTOS. IF you guys email me or post links to your photos here after Halloween (OMG esp. if you can include a He Qi piece in there somewhere!) I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to create a photo compilation on FB just for you guys! Let me know what you think.

I also have two CLOVER/PEARL bracelets made and ready to be posted.. but I think I'll wait till tmrw :P

love,

- Lisa
heqicrystaldesigns@hotmail.com
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