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!

Coke Bottle Seaglass

It's so exciting to find well weathered seaglass that still has the characteristics to be identified as what it used to be! For that, I love coke bottles. Though the colors of coke bottle changed over decades from clear to seafoam with blue or greenish tinge, their ribbed surface are unmistakable. I've found a couple of ribbed pieces that I could put my finger on immediately, other well weathered pieces blew their cover as well because of that unique color!

Have a look through your stash again and watch out for it - anything looks familiar?

Merry Christmas!

Christmasy jewelry and charms - fun to make and wear, but would you wear it all year round? Here's my idea of a versatile pair of Christmas trees earrings: you could wear the posts and 'trees' separately after Christmas! These will become a pair of star posts, and another pair of 'water droplets' dangles if worn with another pair of posts!

I love to make balls of seaglass in many color combination - these holly and mistletoe balls are especially lovely. Use them as cellphone or handbag charm, cute all year round!

Seaglass Clusters

Seaglass tinies, in many different colors...so pretty like little flowers! Inspired by the flower hydrangea, I have made balls of seaglass with different colors. All shades of blue like the sea on a calm sunny day...light blue and green in colors of the seafoam waves...teal, honey and amber in colors of the temperate forest in autumn...in any color combination I could think of!

I am collecting even small seaglass to make some cluster earrings and rings too!

Christmas SALE

This year I'm starting early - Christmas sale for the whole of November and December! Thanks to the very efficient Hong Kong post office - it usually took ~1 week for my items to reach almost all international destinations! So if you have your eyes on anything, start grabbing now to guaranteed everyone get their presents before the big day!

There are still room for discount in most of my jewelry - afterall, the satisfaction is not entirely monetary! But some item prices are so low that if still no one's buying, there must be something wrong with the style/design! I will know which are the unpopular ones by the end of this shopping season!

I have been making all kinds of different styles and designs, providing a wide range of choices for anyone who care to stop by my little seaglass corner. But it is always difficult for me to design men's jewelry - would men voluntarily wear jewelry, or made to do so by their girl friends/spouses?

Happy Christmas shopping!

Rainbow, anyone?

My favorite beach has been very generous to me. It has given me seaglass of all the colors of the rainbow, and much more! Believe it or not, I have actually found more than 20 different colors on this fantastic beach!

Unlike beaches in North America, lavender is the rarest color here. But I seem to find more turquoise than my jealous American friends, LOL! Have you wondered about those seaglass in my front page? You bet they are authentic, I found each and every piece!

I have made 'rainbow themed' jewelry from some of these colorful seaglass. Though I really had a hard time parting with these jewelry, it is my greatest satisfaction to know that somewhere in the world, someone will always treasure and wear them proudly!