new york

I simply adore Elsa Mora 's work. She makes magical little things with beads, felt, embroidery, papercuts and more. Her brooches are colourful and lovely... This one in particular caught my eye. Inspired by a vintage brooch she saw on Etsy, Elsa set out to recreate it using seed beads in place of jewels -- with beautiful results. See more photos and explanation for this project on Elsa's blog . Also definitely worth a look is her tutorial on making a brooch using a papercut and polymer clay . Using this technique, she crafted this super cute fox brooch . I'm looking foward to trying this out soon!

I'm looking forward to the the open studio sale at the Mergatroid this weekend! StudioShop Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th 11 to 6pm 5pm Mergatroid Building, 975 Vernon Drive , Vancouver Featuring work by a collective of artists in the Mergatroid Building who include, Su Foster , Eikam , Laura McKibbon (Cul de Sac Design) , HeyDay Design , Dahlhaus , Braden Hammond , Bronsino , and on Sunday only, Karin Jones . UPDATE : A couple of revisions to the above info, thanks to Dahlhaus : "Our time for the studio shop will be from 11-5 (instead of 6). And unfortunately Braden Hammond won't be able to open his studio doors this weekend as he was planning on. The rest of us will be there so if you are in Vancouver, please do come by for a glass of wine and some nibblies while you shop in our studios."

So fabulous, and looks pretty easy. I love how these three colours look together. Full tutorial here . [ via ]

As I was browsing through the whimsical jewellery over at Calourette (the swing pendant posted over at Swissmiss having brought me there), I came upon this ring (also available in silver). The ring says "inapprivoisée," a French word meaning roughly "untamed," although it seems that the dictionary doesn't think it's a word at all. The fact that the verb is conjugated actually makes it "untamed (fem.)," or "woman who is untamed." The choice of word reminded me of Le Petit Prince , specifically the part where the Little Prince meets the fox: - Je ne puis pas jouer avec toi, dit le renard. Je ne suis pas apprivoisé. - Ah! pardon, fit le petit prince. Mais, après réflexion, il ajouta: - Qu'est-ce que signifie "apprivoiser?" - C'est une chose trop oubliée, dit le renard. Ça signifie "créer des liens..." Which translates approximately to: - I can't play with you, said the fox. I'm not tamed. - Oh! I'm...