creativity inspired

Pardon the mess…while we renovate…

It’s been all about baby here the past six months, so much so I neglected my online presence to the point where we needed to do a critical upgrade and reinstall to both blogs and website. When it comes to web space, you simply cannot “set it and forget it”. I often chuckle at times like this when I see people complaining when a site like Etsy goes down briefly. I can only imagine what it takes to keep a community such as that up and running. Not that I agree with all the practices of third part sites, which, is why I have my own space. I think it is worth mentioning however, if you are interested in getting your own website, be prepared to nanny it constantly or pay someone else to do it. If you don’t have that kind of time or resources it may not be for you.

So we are down for a few days…I decided to do a total regut of the jewelry buying site. We are also upgrading to a responsive web design – responsive being the new buzz word for websites that display/work properly on smart phones and tablets (like the ipad). Not upgrading and adding critical updates made the sites sluggish and vulnerable to hacks…particularly the blogs. What a mess! Definitely could have saved us a lot of work if I was paying attention and not in total baby bliss. Moral to this story: never fall asleep at the switch of your website.

No matter – onward and upward. I do like a good tear down and gutting & in many ways this is what it feels like…a complete and total renovation. It feels fresh & new and in the long run I will be happier with it. In other words, I’ll stop pulling my hair out soon…

I’m not up and running 100% yet anyway on account of the baby so do contact me directly with any requests…and stay tuned on what I have been doing while on “maternity leave” – mainly trying my hand at the textile arts: knitting, crochet, and…my absolute new obsession…spinning fiber on my Lendrum DT!!!

Leilani Cleveland Deveau is a self-taught jewelry artist with over ten years of experience. Her main goal is to inspire others to find & follow their passion. Leilani welcomes jewelry requests for custom, wholesale or consignment orders, as well as questions or comments from other artists in the handmade realm. Originally from Nova Scotia, she currently resides in a suburb outside of Montreal. You can contact her by email: leilani@heavenlyflower.com.

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02Sep

A Custom Necklace…for my Daughter…

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September means one thing in my household – my oldest’s birthday. She will be 4 this year, and for the past several months she has been pretty clear with what she wants: a “Hello Kitty” Necklace (just recently she also added a pink stroller for her doll but she is still pretty adamant on the Hello Kitty necklace ).

My children have no idea what Sanrio even is. All they know is that Hello Kitty is a girl and is a cat – seeing that we have 3 cats at home, it was a natural gravitation to the Hello Kitty character. And it’s all my fault that they have any interest. I was introduced to Sanrio when I was about 11 or so by my Asian pen pals…so I couldn’t resist pointing out Sanrio merchandise on shopping trips for my own nostalgia…not to mention they inherited my Sanrio stationary from back in the day! (My favorite was actually kerokerokeroppi but we don’t live with any frogs so I guess he’s just not as appealing. ).

So to humor myself I did do some looking around different BBS and jewelry stores to see what exactly is on the market for Hello Kitty necklaces. What I found was not surprisingly disappointing. Either cheap materials for too much money or…well, let’s just say I am not buying anything encrusted with pink diamonds for my 4 year old!

This creative mama knew she could make it work, and personalized at that. I started looking at official licensed merchandise. The charms were much too big and not what I was looking for at all. I knew I was going to have to make my own charm. I had these small pewter flower picture frames that I knew would be perfect. Now where to get an image that is essentially 8mm in diameter? I didn’t want to print an image as I planned to set it in resin and I was dubious I could get a good image on our ink jet. So I thought stickers…still couldn’t find stickers small enough. Then it hit me: nail art stickers! One trip to Sephora and I was in business….

The nail sticker is set into the frame with a UV resin. Just 20 min. under a UV light (or set out in sunlight, which takes longer) and voila! Done! I added a 4mm ruby Swarovski crystal bead and an engraved silver plated disk with my daughter’s name. Since she is starting to take interest in the alphabet, particularly her name and her sister’s name, I thought plain text would be best rather than a fancy initial.

I finished the piece with a 14 inch sterling silver chain. I am quite pleased with the overall size…perfect for tiny necks.

This was actually the first image I set in resin. I liked it better because the sticker was metallic so I thought it would look more like jewelry. However, once it set it was obvious that there was not enough contrast between the image and the metal of the photo charm. So my 2 year old will get this necklace…at that age she will care not that the image isn’t as strong as her sister’s, she will just be honored to have one as well.

I will not be reproducing these necklaces for sale due to the copyrighted material. However if you have your own personal image you would like set in resin feel free to contact me. I have photo charms and pendants in several different sizes.

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I apply creativity to everything I do: it keeps what could be a mundane life fulfilling & exciting. Everyday is an opportunity for expression, growth & healing, and I feel that my true calling on earth is to inspire others. You can never have too many interests! Most of my expression comes out in my jewelry which I have been designing and selling both off and online for well over a decade. I also enjoy the textile arts, particularly spinning! I hope to inspire you to find creative endeavors that enrich your life as much as they have mine.