Flashfilm interview

My interview with the Japanese based web magazine Flashfilm is out today. Flashfilm is the online magazine for international fashion and lifestyle. You can see the full interview here.

Many Thanks Flashfilm!

Inner Peace Pendant

As you can see from the slide show, i can not wait to finish the Inner Peace Pendant!
It has three components: the chocolate brown Ebony wooden bead, the sterling silver ring stamped with peace on the inside and of course, the red coral beads!

I did not go to City, but instead i searched through my pieces and bits of sterling silver and found the missing piece, just what i needed.......

I remained very content and happy for the rest of the day!

For a change , i use a Spanish marble tile as the background for the photo shot.

Etsy Front Page

It is such a nice feeling to wake up with an e-mail from our fellow artist duckduckgoosestuff , she let me know that my Organic Charm earrings is on the Etsy front page this morning........
go and check it out if you are in love with red and coral like me!

Thank you Celesterfrittata for such a beautiful list!

Coral has been my all time favourite for a long time now,
I just can't get enough of the vibrant Red......

Actually, i am making an Inner Peace Pendant with coral as part of the components, just need to finish off with a piece of sterling silver bail.....

( that is something that is missing and i need to go to the metal supplier in the city to get it!)

Nice Surprise!

It was a very nice surprise when i opened our kitchen cupboard the other day and saw these beautiful images dancing on the wall! The images were from the light reflected off the new steel plates (a present).

There was another nice surprise that i kept for a little while now, Ok, Ok, it was only 2 weeks. I was approached by a Japanese web magazine called flashfilm and they wanted to interview me...........
They are based in Japan, but the website is in English. I was really impressed by their graphic interface as well as the content!

It took way longer for me to do the interview than to design my new Retro Ring........
My reply is very short, way too short and it's just me.
Its all good and i will post it here when it is out on the net.

My new Reto Ring

Pure Metal, Pure Joy

By now you should know that i love my spiral, i just can't stay away from spiral, It is such a timeless symbol!
It is fun to make and i can assure you that it is fun to wear too!
With a bit of patina and polish, it catches the light beautifully.




Oh My Goodness!

This pair of earrings has been recycled and soldered together from bits and pieces cut out from my other projects and it all came alive under the intense fire........
It is so unique and full of character.
I love this a lot, the texture and the organic feel of it.

That is what keeps me going back to my work bench day in and day out!




Purely inspired by the metal strip that i just got. I was going to get something narrower for something else but they running of the stock, so i said i will take that.....!

It can't wait to came out of my hands and made its presence.
I suppose the metal spoke very strongly, with a cool and industrial accents......

I need to warn you that i have another pair of spiral theme earrings sitting on my work bench waiting to be photographed.
I promise you it won't be boring.
i will post it here when its done.

.........to be continued.......

20-June



Here it is, i hope it all worth the waiting!

I have this little fine silver spiral charm from the Hill tribe ( Thailand) a while back.
They are small and densely pact.
I am happy with the way my chunky hammered curve ( oxidized sterling silver) complement them!

Thank God........

..........there is light at the end of the tunnel!


The silvermonk family has been struck down with winter flu and end up with the youngman in the Emergency room (RPAH )in the middle of the night last week. It was just a flu that came without a warning and attacking the respiratory system, he couldn't breathe! ( it didn't help when he had a mint ice-cream before dinner; just after his music class......)

Luckily, the hospital is just a few traffic lights away and Mr.Silvermonk gone through them without a blink! We were almost the only patient there, considering it is situated in the centre of the city and next to the University ( it was Tuesday night and the city was just recovered from the weekend, the doctor said the business will pick up later the week!). The doctors were so attentive and cracking joys and adminstrative medicine at the same time. It is the same hospital where youngman was born! We were well looked after then and i just think that they are the best .

We went home in the morning with another dose of medicine to take later and angels on our shoulder!

Apart from the hospital adventure, what i also want to tell you is this beautiful table lamp that I got from the Market!

I did a trade with Simon who design this beautiful table lamp that use recycle material and all clicked together without using a screw or nail. This is the first time i trade with another fellow marketer and i love it!

It took my memory back to the late 60s when i was living in our ancestral village in the island off Mainland China. I used to take fire wood to the near by fishing port and waiting for the fishing boat to come in. I had my two hands full of fire wood and traded for fishes from boat to boat........

I LOVE TRADES!

It was a bit cold and rainy in last weekend's market, but i have a lot of lovely visitors and one of them is Leslie and her friend.

Leslie has an amazing blog where she show case her treasured jewelrys that she sought out from all around the world.........

Her support and appreciation of artistic handmade jewelry is incredible and i am sure there's a lot more out there.......

Thank you again for all my customers in last weeks market, i have a really good time!

Free Hoop Earrings

With any purchase from my online shop.
Just want to encourage you to enjoy the fun of internet shopping.




This is your everyday Earrings, simple and comfortable!

Hand forged from 18G sterling silver wire and slightly hammered at the bottom to catch light!
The earrings are 2" ( 50 mm) in diameter. I can also make it with a thinner sterling silver wire (20G), just let me know in the message to the seller upon check out!

Don't forget the Art and Design Market in Kirribilli is on this Sunday, 8 June. (Under Milson's Point Railway Station).

Hope to see you all there!

2008 Winter Collection 4

If you love retro, this is for you!

I have been wanting to incorporate the phrase " All is well " in my jewelry design for a long time now. ( sounds like very bad grammar, but you know what i mean!). The design just came to me when i got this beautiful, rich, chocolate brown Ebnoy wood.
It's simple, clean and modern, very Retro, just how i like it!

The Phrase " All is well " is from St Julian of Norwich, a thirteenth Century nun who had an extra-ordinary experience at the age of 30.

In one of her many visions at that time she beheld a tiny mustard seed in the palm of her hand and realized that if God ceased loving that seed for even an instant it would spontaneously disintegrate, and so does the universe.

It is about reassurance.
After all, it is love that bind us all together and in the end........

All is well!

2008 Winter Collection 3

I am loving my winter collection at the moment.
The temperature is getting colder outside by the minute and i am hugging a cup of hot chocolate, and you just can't not get inspired by this chocolate brown ebony wooden ring.
So delicious.........

The Circles Of Love Earrings is neat and modern.
It's been wrapped around with a fine silver strip and the green Peridot in the middle just give you enough attention!

Etsy Front Page

Good things comes twice and I am thrilled to have appeared on the Etsy front page twice in the space of 3 days!!!
(wow that was a long sentence i just wrote! Need to breath.........)

What a beautiful, wonderful Treasury.
.......so delicious, thank you WonderfullySewKnit.
My Spiral heart Ebony Pendant sitting quite happily among all the wonderful goodies.
Go and check out all the beautiful handmade goodies before it expired (27 May,7:00 pm)

I missed out to see it on live on both occasions.
Thanks for Ginger and Misti let me know all about it.
The result of a frontage appreance was i got tons of views and hearts.

It all happened while i was dreaming......
Before i woke up, i dreamed that someone stole my backpack and gone with my wallet, and later in the dream, i found my wallet.....then i was in a zoo or something cleaning up the steps......
Who knows what it all means, but what would be cool if i can do all my listings and renews while i was dreaming!

2008 Winter Collection 2

These two new additions to my 2008 Winter Collection is a continuation of my Song Line theme. It was inspired by a trip to the centre of Australia a few years back.

I like the organic feel of the hand cut lines and the dark chocolate Ebony wood give the pendant a nice modern look!
The SongLine Ebony wooden Pendant looks good on both man and woman.

The SongLine Cufflinks and the SongLine Ebony Pendant are now available on my online shop.

To be continue.......

2008 Winter Collection 1

I definitely not trying to confuse people, but it is winter here down under and i have my eyes on this beautiful wooden beads for a while now.
The temperature start dropping outside and apart from feeling like hugging a cup of hot chocolate, i remembered the delicious brown, chocolate kind of colour Ebony beads and rush in to get some supply. Inspired by this new wooden beads, i incorporated them with some of my designs from other pieces........

There you go, my first winter collection!
They are now available in Beehive Gallery (443 King street, New Town, Sydney), and Etsy.

Spiral Stud Earrings

Spiral Heart Ebony pendant

more to come!

My Ikea red cabinet

My mother's day came early, we went to ikea and got this to put on my balcony studio, to show off some of my paintings, to store youngman's growing toy collections, to just enjoy the beautiful red.....

Mr. Silvermonk was very impressed with the high quality and the intelligent way that it all put together.......

A truly Intelligent Product Design!

Magic In Sand

You will enjoy watching this incredible sand art video by Ilana Yahav,

Its so simple, beautiful and creative.......

Thank you Anna for e-mail me this video.

Random Act of Kindness

“A time to be open, to act upon thoughts of hope and goodness”.





It was almost a year ago since I made my first custom cufflinks for a friend. I was waiting for the right moment (or the right mood so to speak) to design my very first pair of cufflink.

And here it is....

The "Random Act of Kindness"

This pair of Cufflinks has been stamped with letters spelling the phrase “Random act of kindness” The letters are arranged randomly and has been oxidized to give it an antique look!

I am very happy with the design idea and how it turns out.
I am planning to explore the random text concept further down the track.....

I promise i will not let you wait for another year for the next new pair of cufflinks!

I made it......

....into Trunkt. I am sure some of you already know what Trunkt is! For those that you don't know, well, it is the "Buyer's Guide to Independent Art and Design" and "a Collective of Amazing Artists"

There are only 3 images in my my Portfolio at the moment. In the coming week or so i will upgrade my account and start to adding more images to my Portfolio! I am really happy.....



Now, we are talking, for me there is nothing more happier than just simply sitting in front of my work bench and made something out of nothing! By "nothing", what i mean is i did not know before hand what i was going to made and it somehow just happened...... Like the Surf Ring in this case!

The Surf Ring really made me happy!
I like everything about it, the colour, the shape, and the movement......

Earth Hour.......

It was Earth hour last night from 8:00pm to 9:00pm. We were watching TV as usual and Gabriel reminded us that it was time for "Earth hour". We turned off all the light except the digital light from the washing machine and it was all dark and scary for the young man.

We all went to bed early ( Gabriel was excited because he got to stay in our bed!) with Mr.Silvermonk playing guitar and the Young man declared: " Nothing is going to stop me from doing Nothing...." and then he made up a very fast tempo song. Well, it was rather philosophical, a wake up call for all of us. i don't know how he work out the conundrum.

And i hope we bloody will do something now! If we are not willing to sacrifice now, his generation will suffer the consequences.

Guess what i found?

on Bronte beach......





I've never seen such a big Octopus in real life in the wild.
It was just a stone throw from where we dug and built our sand castles, amazing!

At one point, my survival mode kicked in and the memory of my childhood catching crabs in the mangrove got hold of me and i really wanted to take the big thing home for dinner!!!!!

I came back to reality when Mr. Silvermonk gently reminded me that it is a protective area and that we can have fish and chips for dinner from our favourite shop across the road!

I remember once when my Mum came to Sydney and I took her to the local Park to feed the ducks ( with Gabriel). She was so excited that the first thing came out her mouth was " the duck was so big , let's take one home for soup". The next thing i saw her, she 's already caught one with her quick reflex...... I was in shock, embarrassed and had to say "let it go Mum, it's against the law, we can have a roast duck from China town for dinner!"

We will be in real big trouble if we only see the environment as a "resources" and not a source for wisdom and inspiration!

At least for now we know that the beach is healthy and that is one of the very good things to celebrate in Easter!

New Additions

I am in love with my new hand-forged additions. The fan shape earrings are modern and organic. I especially like the slightly concave shape and the leave shape ear hooks. They really compliment each other! I have two versions~ one is small with mirror finished and the bigger one with matt finished. The small fan shape earrings is available now in my etsy shops.

I also made a matching necklace with turquoise on a snake chain. Its simple and looks fantastic.....
The Fan shape Turquoise necklace is also available from my shop now!

Another new addition to my etsy shop is this gorgeous pair of butterfly earrings. Its light weight and looks cool....



I had a fantastic market last weekend thanks to all the new and old customers ( your support has been much appreciated!).
Here is one of my customers visiting my stall and wearing one of my piece ( one of a kind!) she bought a while back. Does'nt it look gorgeous on her?!

I will be in the Kirribilli market again this month ( Saturday, 29 March) . My stall will be in the tunnel and if you missed out last Sunday, come and check me out.....

Gabriel's Drawing......

Gabriel's Drawing......, originally uploaded by silvermonk.

Gabriel and his Dad went to The Rose Seidler House,designed by Harry Seidler in 1948 for his parents.

He got very excited about doing some sketches of the house.......

what a beautiful sketch!

We made a big fuss whenever Gabriel draws a picture because he is always busy with his Lego toys, his piano and his sports. I myself prefer making things (jewellery) rather than drawing on paper and it's all up to his Dad to encourage him to draw.

I wish i was there. i love looking at open house, the interior and how the space works.
Well, i was having a fantastic day in the Kirribilli art and design market, and i think it is good for them to have a father and son adventure every now and then!