The show is on...! :)

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a marvelous week. Here I've been working hard to get everything ready for this Saturdays craft fair…! I had my marvellous stamps from Baisimu just on time to make my authetification certificates for my artworks yay! I'm also hoping to finish my geisha piece soon and show you final result! :) But with the sudden heatwave hitting Montreal these past few days, I'm scared to ruin the paper with all that humidity! Hopefully, they are saying that tomorrow will be getting back to normal. *Fingers crossed*

I don't know if you guys would like to have a post about how to prepare for a craft show? I didn't do a lot of them but I've traveled around a lot and had some great and bad experience. What's new at this fair is that it will be Kirameku first summer fair and I'm super excited!! :)  I have to go fetch my banner from vista print at the post office and I can't wait to see what it will look like! Creating something on your computer is sooo different than seeing it printed! For sure I will let you guys know about my feedback on my banner as it is my first time doing business with vista print. Thanks to the recommendation of my follow Etsians, I was able to have a quite large banner printed and that fitted my budget. I promise I will be back with some pictures too!

But meanwhile, here is a photo of the beautiful peonies of one of my neighbours. I had to post it, peonies are so gorgeous!

To sum it up….! If you have nothing planned for the week-end or if you are curious and want to meet me in person, I will be more than happy to have you visit my table at the Venise-en-Quebec Samedis Artisans fair, this upcoming Saturday, from 10 am to 5pm. We'll be at the Church on 151, 14e Avenue ouest, inside if it rains, and outside if it's bright and shiny - and which is the original plan.
I hope I will meet many of you dear readers! :D

It is quite late up here and I'll try to catch some sleep despite the 34 degrees in our headquarters….
On this everyone, have a great night and I'll keep you posted on my social medias for those of you who can't attend this fair. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get all the behind the scenes goodies! :)

* M * 

Projects countdown

Hi everyone! :)

My apologies if you have seen a few ''test'' posts in the last  couple of days. I've unfortunately had issues with the blogaway app on my phone... I thought I had solve my problem switching to the blogaway app since I had so much technical problem with the blogger one. Well that's a bummer. In any cases, I'll try to solve this problem this week so I could be more active on this blog and update some more photos of Montreal ;)

Speaking of pictures, I promised you guys some photos of the photoshoot I had a couple weeks ago, well here they are! I had so much fun in that photoshoot! Do you like how it turned out? :)

Oh and, I don't know if you'd noticed, but that's the Coquette Dress dress from Fleet Collection that I'm wearing for the first part of the shoot! :) Love that dress! So comfortable and elegant!

And here's another shot, for your eyes only ;)

I'm sorry I haven't had enough time the last few days to edit all those gorgeous shots and put them online. My weeks were so full! The sweet Anna who won the The Stilettosaurus giveaway (congrats again dear! :) ) and I'm also working hard on my kiosque for the Samedis Artisans de Venise en Québec craft fair. Don't worry, I'm really not taking a vacation yet! I've been busy making some new models for the fair as well. I like for people who know my online shop to see some novelty and exclusivity whenever they stop by my table at a fair. I will list a brad new Berry ring tonight though. Didn't I promised you all some lovely shades of green? :)

I must admit it has been great on my eyes to take a break of my computer screen to focus more on manual things like drawing. You'll bappy to know that my geisha artwork is almost done! Yay! I've just got the flowers in her hair to finish up with a few touch ups and it will be all done! :) Here's where I'm at, I hope you like to see how it's coming along! :)

On this, I hope everyone had a great week! :) I'll be back very soon with the final results of the geisha artwork! :) Stay posted! And please, don't be shy and let me know how you like how the projects are coming along! :) 

* M * 

My travel Art kit

Hi everyone!

Summer is finally here, and so is vacation time! Yay! I'm actually planning a small trip with my amazing boyfriend, but for now I can't say more than we are still looking where to go. There are so many beautiful destinations, but we can only spare a few days for travelling this summer. We would hate to visit a place and only see a third of what it has to offer us...! If ever you have any suggestions for a 3-4 days trip, we would be more than happy to be inspired! :)

Speaking of inspiration, I hope I could inspire some of you with my recent artwork posts. I thought that with these posts and summer at our door, I would give you my list of materials whenever I'm on the go. I always find it fun to see what people bring with them on a trip, I always learn something from it! May it be ''that was a bad idea'' to ''This is genius…!'' 

So here's my list of art material when I'm travelling :

* Digital tablet - I have some pre-loaded reference pictures on my tablet in case I go somewhere with no internet connection, otherwise I browse on my extensive Pinterest account. I find this is way more practical to be able to switch from picture to picture. It also saves some trees since I don't have to print 10-20 images to be able to bring them with me. Oh and yes, I always use references whenever I'm creating artwork, may it be for proportions, shadows or colours.

Time flies…!

Hi everyone!

Ouf, let me tell you it has been a few super busy weeks on this side…!
I had a great time at the YES conference Wednesday on May 21st and I was so inspired by all of the speakers…! Although I was most astonished by Aldo shoes..... I was so stunned to see how big Aldo had become and how gorgeous the headquarters were! I mean Aldo has been part of the Montreal shopping landscape for a long time, but you know when you love a store, you don't necessarily think about checking out if they are international. And Aldo sure is…! It was incredible to see how many store and how large the company grew within the last decades. Bravo!

Also, Julian Giacomelli inspired me greatly with his idea of having a more organic company. He gave a lovely speech (which I don't want to steal) but mostly, the essence is that it is possible to have a company where every individual serve multiple purpose and in wich the work flows naturally. A resilient, adaptive and learning business. His business model? Nature…! His speech was fascinating and I was sadden to see we had such a short time to hear his ideas. I would have listen to his theories for hours…! I really hope I'll have the chance to catch another of his conference.

There were many great speakers, but Ethan from Frank & Oak amazed me with how his company brought the ambassador idea to such a new level. I love how they took the idea of their brand and pushed the boundaries, thought outside of the box with their ambassador program and events. Frank & Oak is more than just about clothing, it's a lifestyle and they created a community around their brand as well. I think Frank & Oak share multiple similarities with Etsy and it was a perfect guest speaker for my reasons for attending the YES conference. His passion for his work and ideas got my thoughts spinning for Kirameku in a whole new direction. Thank you Ethan!
That sums up the amazing YES conference for me. We were invited from 3pm to 9pm and I was eager to get back home to write some ideas down…!

I've also been busy preparing Kirameku second photoshoot for our necklace collection two week-ends ago. We had a gorgeous day in Montreal and we were lucky that the lilacs were in full bloom while we were shooting. We decided to get advantage of those gorgeous bouquets! Soon, I will post some sneak peeks here and on Kirameku Facebook page so please stay posted! :)

Also, I had wonderful reviews about my Dangle and Drop earrings collection on the lovely Blonde Ambition blog. Please check out the lovely review that Katie left on her blog! :)

Last but not least, Kirameku will be attending the ''Samedis Artisans de Venise-en-Québec'', a craft fair in Quebec. You can find all the details in the new Etsy Local Events with will help you pin point the exact location on a map. I will definitely will be back with a reminder but if you are in Venise-en-Quebec on July 5th, come say hello! :) I will be exhibiting my berry rings as well as my artwork. And yes, my geisha piece will be there! As you can see, it is slowly coming to life! I can't wait to add the colours in her hairpiece…!!

On this everyone, I wish you a wonderful week! :)
I'll be back soon with some more news, no more disappearing for days I promise!
* M * 

Necklace giveaway!

Hi everyone!

I promised some more Kirameku goodies for you in May and here it is...! :)

Since May 1st and until June 1st, you could win this Frosted Berry Necklace, exclusively drawn at the The Stilettosaurus Blog. 

But wait, you can win much more than that! Somdyuti (the Stilettosaurus blog owner) wanted to thank her blog followers so she's giving away much more than Kirameku necklaces. She's giving away 7 lovely piece of handmade jewelry. That is perfect for upgrading your jewelry drawer for this upcoming season! 

Want to win this gorgeous Frosted Berry Necklace? Well don't wait till the end of the month! Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway :)

I would love your thoughts on this necklace, because there will be more in this series posted in a few days! So stay tuned! :) 

Want to see your favourite ring turned into a necklace? Contact me on my Etsy Shop to order a custom piece or simply leave a comment below! :)

On this everyone, have a lovely day!

* M * 

Artwork in progress - part 2

Hi everyone!

I was almost able to publish this article with my phone, and I was so happy to be able to do so…! But seems like the Blogger app might not be the easiest and more efficient app to do so… So I'll complete this blog post on my computer because I do not with to delay any further this post…! I'm having so much fun creating this artwork, I wanted to share with you what I had done yesterday in my studio. We are finally having some bright, sunny days in Montreal this week, I can't what to open up the door of my atelier…! :D

Original artwork - All rights reserved Kirameku - do not use these image without permission

I also took a few pictures of my materials, thought it could be nice for you to see with what I'm creating those effects on paper. I'm using a special edition of Windsor & Newton water-colour paper in a cold press grain with my marvellous, high-quality Faber-Castell pencils.

On this, I hope you enjoy this artwork! :) I'll be back with more - and better - pictures soon!
Have a great day everyone!

* M *

Raincheck plz…. Litterally!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring and that flowers are starting to bloom on your side of the hemisphere! :) I want to apologize for the lack of new products posted on my Etsy shop. The new items are pilling up, I just don't have any sun to make my photoshoot, literally! It has been gray and dull for weeks now in Montreal and whenever we get a bit of sun, I'm always at work. And obviously, by the time I get back home, sun is gone. We still have our scarves and hats here in Montreal as the temperatures are unusually low for Spring. And my umbrella is my new best friend….

Yep, you figured that one out, forget the second photoshoot for the new wedding necklaces for now. I wanted to have the photoshoot outside under the blooming trees but there's not even a leaf bud in the trees yet….! So, can we have a rain check on the rain…?!! It has been raining on and off for almost a month now… feels more like Fall than Spring, let me tell you…

Why not use a lithgbox then you might ask? It's not that I can't use one, simply my items are very small and to achieve all the angles that you see, I found it best to use a simple background and not have a restrictive access to the ring. Plus, there is the aspect that my studio is quite small for now. I can't wait to move to a bigger apartment and have a room dedicated only to Kirameku.

With all that, I must admit it has been a hard week for Kirameku. Also I finally had long awaited replies from craft fairs I've applied to and when they informed me of the price of their tables, I simply fell off my chair. Well, I guess those fairs won't be for this year… I was really looking forward to those fairs but those prices are so not in our budget!  I am still waiting for other fairs to open to submit Kirameku, hopefully we'll have better luck there. Fingers crossed, my goal is to attend at least 3 craft fair for this year.

On the bright side, Kirameku is finally getting up to speed with technology! :) I switched to a brad new smart phone last week-end and I love it! It's a bit confusing, but I'm getting the hang of it, you know with the apps changing all the layouts and responsive websites. I'll be able to share with you more pictures of Montreal as I'm now equipped with a great camera on this cellphone. I'll also be able to tweet some live feed, how cool is that? :)

I'm ending my tray toned article with a punch of colour. Here is the latest model that was listed, the Hot Pink Stardust Ring. It was supposed to be listed in summer but I just loved it too much and couldn't wait to share it with you! :)

Also, I have good news. For all of you who loved the Smoked Azzuro Berry, you'll be more than happy to know that I could get my hands on a fews strings f this model that was discontinued at one of my suppliers. I couldn't find much, as they were once again in liquidation and it's a shame, but as soon as I have a bit of light, I'll list it!

So stay posted and don't forget to pamper your Mom next week-end! :)
* M *