Okinawa

Okinawa is one of the loveliest places I've every visited! Being the southern-most island, it is the only place in Japan with near tropical weather. Coral covered seabed and beach-lined coast promise great snorkeling and all sorts of beach related activities. There is no high rise, busy traffic or crowds. What impressed me most is the people - gentle, curteous and very, very helpful! They won't hesitate to go the extra mile, helping a foreigner find her way around.

As souvenirs, I've brought back starry sand grains from their famous Kaiji beach; 'sand of love' or 'lucky sand' as they called it. I've kept these in miniature bottles with colored sand. I've brought back lots and lots of photos and happy memories. I've also brought back a few extra pounds from the good food and rest, LOL! All I'm giving back is goodwill and well-wishing to everyone in Okinawa! I miss you all!

My first time - 'ecstasea' featured in a magazine!

It is here! Wow, I'm so thrilled! There's an article introducing my shop in the international divers' magazine X-Ray Mag!

This article introduced seaglass and seaglass jewelry by artists all over the world, including myself and my BIGGEST all time FAVORITE : palmeras from Spain
http://www.palmeras.etsy.com/
















Here's the latest issue of the magazine: http://www.xray-mag.com/pdfs/xray35/X-Ray35_FS.pdf

Enjoy!

My shop will be featured on X-RAY MAG!

It's the first time my seaglass jewelry shop 'ecstasea' is scheduled to be featured in a magazine! I'm absolutely thrilled about it!

This magazine is an eco-friendly, bi-monthly international dive lifestyle magazine established in 2004. There are in-depth reports of environmental issues, fantastic pictures of all kinds of sealife, professional guides to the best diving spots ... and much much more. The most important to me is, their core value of environmental conservation and respect of all lifeform are also my convictions.

I read in one of their articles that coral is far more useful in their natural environment than as jewelry hanging on someone's neck. It is so true that it puts shame in me - I have used a coral branch in one of my necklaces...But anyway, that will be my first and my last!

Subscription is free and readers are worldwide and growing. So if you want to be a part of them as well as read about my feature (due in April), here's the link:
http://www.xray-mag.com/

Seaglassing Pals

March 6 is a big day we've been yearning for more than 2 months!

Jen and Laura are my new seaglassing pals. I thought I'm the only seaglass collector in Hong Kong until Jen and I 'found' each other on the seaglasslovers site! Laura is new to seaglass, but after March 6, she will become addicted, I'm sure...!

I used to go beachcombing on my own, talking and exclaiming about nice finds all to myself. It feels so wonderful now that I can share my favorite island (Cheung Chau island) and my favorite hobby (collecting seaglass) with friends! Oh sure, they will be keeping pieces that I drool over, but the next tide will bring in more great pieces! Nothing is too precious to share!

After an exhausting 3 hours' snail-pace of bending and squatting at the beach, we badly needed some rest. Recharged with delicious snacks of frozen fruits and peach tea, we round up the day browsing the seaside souvenir shops. We have so many new ideas on crafts and jewelry! What a wonderful day!

English Seaglass Jewelry

English seaglass is the ultimate prize for seaglass lovers! The combination of two or more colors on a single perfectly rounded and frosted piece is unlike seaglass from anywhere else! The century old history brings nostalgia and awe - these were leftovers thrown into the sea right from onshore glass factories!
The Northeast coast of England is the 'Mecca' for seaglass lovers, I believe. But second best to personally collecting the prized gems is to buy them from reputable seaglass sellers. I have selected some special pieces and made them into unique jewelry. Keep it close to your heart and wonder about the story behind each piece!

Chinese New Year Promotional Sale!

Chinese New Year is one of the most important celebration amongst Chinese communities, especially in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan! This year, the first day of Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine's Day on Feb 14!
This CNY is also extra important for me, as well as other shops that belonged to the etsy Hong Kong team, which has just established! 'CNY promotion: free shipping from Feb 16-21' is how I celebrate this special occasion. Some of us are offering free shipping too!

There is a variety of high quality, unique handmade products from our shops!
Take a look at ecstasea, my seaglass jewelry shop, or other shops of the Hong Kong etsy team:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ecstasea
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BejewelledBespoke
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OhSmile
http://www.etsy.com/shop/littleclouds
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyMartini
http://www.etsy.com/shop/emilyorpin
http://www.etsy.com/shop/somethingrenewal

Be a fan of Etsy Hong Kong on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=811791529#!/pages/Etsy-Hong-Kong/279619562407?ref=mf

The Background Counts!

A couple of days ago, there was a question posted on etsy forum about how to capture the colors of theme objects accurately on photo. There were suggestions of types of light source (natural light works best), brand of cameras (quality isn't really proportional to price), camera settings, computer monitor settings... That set me off thinking about my experience with seaglass photography. I believe the choice of background colors is very important too.

Our eyes work differently from a camera - a piece of seaglass on a white background may look the same to us in natural or artificial light, but not so for the camera.

For example, I find it very difficult to capture the blue-green colors of teal and turquoise seaglass if I used a white background. This is because of the subtle fluorescence in bleached white paper or fabric. The camera picks this up as a diffuse blue tone, resulting in the turquoise / teal being comparatively greener than they really are.

I've overcome this by using a beige background or one with a yellow undertone, or white material that has no fluorescence - eg. ceramic.

These are the same batch of turquoise seaglass, taken under the same lighting condition (diffuse sunlight) with the same camera and same camera settings. The only difference is the background: white paper and beige paper for the first and second photo respectively.

White is another problem I had. The exposure is never quite right when shooting white seaglass on a white background. White on black background is sometimes too contrasty either. Then I've found that a pale shade of grey or goldtone works wonders!

I still do not have a working principle for matching background colors with subject colors, but the there's always nice surprises in the process of finding out!

Diffuse sunlight gives us the most balanced color spectrum to work with. But I just love the way the setting sun lights up my seaglass!

Well, most of the time, I just use different backgrounds for interesting results!