Elsa Mora

A Sweet "Historical" Moment in my Small "Jewelry Career" :)

Dear friend,

Today is such a happy day for me, because I am sharing something really special with you. This is my very first piece of jewelry professionally made using the lost-wax technique. 

I dreamed about this piece so much before it became a reality! This cameo setting went trough a whole process that started with the wax carving. I basically carved a piece of special wax used for this purpose, and little by little the different elements started coming to life.

As you can see, this is a sweet natural scene with tiny little birds, branches, fruits and a flower. The bud on top is the bail and it has a hole for the chain. The metal used was brass and the surface was treated to look antique.

Once the wax was carved I shipped it to the casting company. It was a pleasure to deal with the person who was in touch with me. They are experienced professionals and they took good care of my little treasure. I almost couldn't sleep for weeks because I was just too excited about my new adventure!  

And then they arrived!!! I could not believe it! My little fragile wax carving had become a solid, strong and beautiful piece of jewelry that can now last for over one million years!!! OMG! This is sooooo wonderful!!!! 

And the rest of what I am going to do with these cameo settings is even more exciting! I designed this cameo to be the home for a tiny, original and one of a kind papercut (I will use resin to encase the papercut into the oval shape). I am in love with the very idea! And I can't wait to start working on it. Unfortunately it won't be immediately because there is so much related to my work right now that I have to finish! But I am already cooking different miniature papercut designs in my brain. I ordered 50 of these pieces so I will create 50 miniature different papercuts for them. (Right now  while I write this I am wondering if I should do a small show with them, that would be a nice way to present all the pieces as a group...I will keep thinking...they are small, about 2" tall so people will need to have good eyes :)

I just had to share this little thing with you today my friend, I could not wait one more second!!

Now let's have a great Friday! And a wonderful weekend!

Lots of love!

Elsita :)

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And today, THE HIDDEN SEED has also a botanical theme :)

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New Little Friends in Oval Houses :)

And these well-behaved friends have been in my studio since last week. They were quietly waiting for me to take their portraits which I did yesterday :) Now they are on my Etsy store, ready to find their soul mates. Yay!!

My pictures don't make justice to them over here, they look a looooot nicer in person with their glossy surface and the delicate one of a kind drawings. Another detail is that these chains are fancier because the beads in are so tiny! They measure only 1.5mm and they have been plated with fine silver for a beautiful clean finish. Yay!!

About the last photo up here:

Top: Anthropologie

Pendant: One of the little friends made by myself :)

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And on The Hidden Seed today: A sweet yellow top made by myself :)

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Have a great day my friend!

Elsita :)

Wearable Little Friends :)

This is exciting!

Today I wanted to give you a little advance about something that has been cooking in my studio, specially at night when the kids are in bed :) (You can click on the picture to see the larger version)

These are the most adorable little friends, this time living in oval houses :) I am enjoying making them sooo much! Each miniature drawing is one of a kind, very elaborate and with plenty of sweet details. The color ivory looks so delicate in combination with the black ink. And the best part is that each friend will become a pendant as soon as the bail is placed on the back. Yay!!! (These ones are a little bigger than the square tile pendants, but still small and delicate)

I am trying to finish them this week because next week I will have lots of relatives at home visiting and this creative party that I am having lately will need to slow down :) These pendants are only like 2% of what I am doing now with my hands, the other 98% is all about my two shows for the end of this year. I will share everything with you little by little.

Happy Wednesday my friend!

Elsita :)

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And today on The Hidden Seed: Roman and Relaxed :)

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Little Bird of Paradise :)

Yay!!

This sweet bird of paradise is already listed on my Etsy Store :)

I am so excited, because I was able to make 7 of these necklaces with the little vintage bird and the wooden tile. 

I started this creation here. But in this new version I decided to go with the extra sweet red scalloped edge. I just loooove that little detail!

This pendant is really special in person, there is something really nice about the colors and the finish of the surface.

(the 7 pendants look absolutely the same, it is hard to tell them apart. They are all the same color, size...each one looks exactly like the one in the pictures)

I hope that you like it too :)

Have a wonderful day my friend!

Elsita :)

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And on the Hidden Seed today: The Vampire's Wife :o

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New Cuties Have Arrived!! :)

Yay!! I am so happy because today I am featured artist at www.artistday.com! I invite you stop by the site and leave a little comment if you have a chance and also do a little rating using the bar on the right because my page is a little virgin right now. Thank you!!!!

And here we have some new cuties that are already listed on my Etsy store. Ten new little friends living quietly into their tiny houses :)

 

And I am very excited because tomorrow I will show you the super sweet version of this pendant that I made to share with you on my Etsy store. I was able to make only 7 of them due to my limited time, but they look sooo adorable! 

And now I need to take Natalie to her summer camp but before I leave I want to say:

Happy Monday my friend!!!!!

Love!

Elsita :)

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Oh! And in an amusing note, I would like to invite you over

to THE HIDDEN SEED to see the connection between 

fashion and green vegetables! :o

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The Sad News

Dear friend,

Just a short note to report that yesterday was a pretty sad day in this city because of the unexpected news. Bill and I attended a Hollywood event at the Academy and both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett were mentioned. We all knew that Farrah was very sick but who could imagine that Michael was going to die at 50 (Bill's age)

Michael Jackson had a difficult life. I always saw him as a little boy who never grew up, for some reason I could never see him as an adult. But he was and he had two children and as weird as anybody could think that he was, Michael was a human being like you and I trying to have a life, the last few years were specially hard for him and I know that he had a few true friends that loved and supported him completely. Imagine how sad they must be right now, as well as the rest of his family. 

I hope that they stay very strong in order to deal with the press over here (which is brutal). 

Lots of love,

Elsita

What a Day! Here is the Story for You.

Dear friend,

Yesterday was one of those days that seemed to be part of a movie to me, like a suspense movie. The most crazy thing happened: I lost my wallet with some money but most importantly with my credit cards, drivers license, museums membership cards, supermarket cards, zoo membership card, and all sort of other cards. 

I left the wallet in the supermarket cart. I realized about my mistake about 15 minutes after I had left the supermarket and then I drove back immediately!!!! I found the cart in the same place where I left it, I found the little list of groceries but I didn't find my wallet. I asked the manager but they didn't have any lost object in storage.

So I called my bank to cancel the credit cards and then I drove directly to my local DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to issue a new drivers license. Over there was really interesting, DMV's are great places for finding amazing characters, perfect to inspire many of my little dollies. One of the characters over there (his name could be something like Arrostino) gave me a form to fill out. I didn't have my social security #, I can't retain numbers like that in my brain so I had to call Bill's assistant and as always she was so fast! She found the # and gave it to me. Thank you forever Laurie!!!

Then the lady with the bright orange hair asked if I wanted to use the old photograph or if I wanted to take a new one, she asked this looking at my old photograph on the computer, which is probably the ugliest portrait of myself that I have ever seen in my whole life. I said: well, if it takes too long then let's keep going with the old one, who cares? (I do, I could hear her say in her brain) Ok, she said... sign here and it is $23 dollars. But I didn't have any money with me!!!! I had to ask her to keep the papers so I could go back home and find some money. I went back home and I did not find any cash so I asked my neighbor Sally for help. Thank you Sally!!!! I will pay you back after I write this story!

I drove back to the DMV and I saw the lady with the orange hair again (Anatamarinda is the name I gave her), she said: are you sure you don't want to take a new photo? There is no line over there now....OK, I said, because I knew that I was going to make her happy. She smiled so I went to the little place with the blue background and a new photo was taken. I am sure that it will be as ugly as the previous one. There is something about Departments of Motor Vehicles and portraits that doesn't quiet work. I am sure that you know what I mean.

So, after this, Anatamarinda told me that I was going to get my new driver's license on the mail in about 3 weeks! :o But in the mind time I could use the little paper that she gave me. Perfect! Now I am a legal driver again. So I drove back home, I sat for a minute in order to process the whole thing when I heard something: riiiiiiing!!! The phone (IT WAS MY BANK) 

phone:Hello, yes, is this Elsa Mora?

me: Yes, that's me

phone: We just wanted to let you know that your wallet is here and that you can pick it up before 5:00 PM

me: What!!!???? My wallet? But I didn't go there today!

phone: Well, it looks like someone was trying to use your ATM card over here...

me: OMG! 

So I run to the bank and there was Mister-Perfectly-dressed with my wallet. I was sooo happy. I could not believe that my old wallet was back in my hands with the one million membership cards! The only thing missing was the cash, because Mystery person decided to keep it as a souvenir.

So I went back home and sat again in order to process the whole thing all over again. In the end I came to the conclusion that life is that way, unexpected things happen all the time and you just do what you have to do. And it is also better to do what you have to do it with a positive mind. In the end it was kind of exciting, I enjoyed my time at the DMV, I loved how happy Mister-Perfectly- dressed was to deliver the wallet to its owner, I loved how my neighbor Sally was so happy to lend me her money... I was just happy to see that I wasn't alone, whatever happens to you there are always people out there to give you a hand.

The other thing that I learned is that my wallet is so heavy! Carrying a light bag for a few hours felt wonderful! I think that I will get rid of all the things that I don't need to carry with me Yay!!! 

Lots of love!

And take good care of your wallet please!!

Elsita :)

(And I am soooo happy that the little patters were well received yesterday!!! Thank you!!!! I have to end this post saying that yesterday was a good day, Yay!!)

Papercut Paterns!

Yay my friend!! 

I have been soooo excited cooking something new! 

And that is: My first set of Papercut patterns for you. Yay!!

You can learn everything about them here!

Love!

Elsita :)

New Cuties on Etsy!

Yay my friend!! Here you can see some new cute pendants that I listed on my Etsy store :)

I won't ever get tired of making them because creating these tiny characters has become a therapeutic activity to me :)

 

Every little wooden tile is like a mini home for a new imaginary friend :)

Then, they are happy to go into the tiny box and fly away to remote places :)

 

You should see them waiting in line on my table. I place them in the same order that you see here.

And they are all exited to see who is going first.

 

If they could talk they would say tiny words like: I will miss you little friend, I hope that you have a long and happy life! Have a safe trip!

 

:)

 

My little friends :)

Just make me happy.

 

And as soon as they leave, new little ones start arriving in my imagination. I love the whole cycle of bringing these tiny little ones to life.

Lots of love!!!!

Elsita :)

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And today: I posted a Book Review HERE.

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Our Weekend :)

We had a perfect family weekend and Father's Day celebration with Billy back from Australia. Yay! CONGRATULATIONS to all the fathers, I hope that you had a great time yesterday :)

This picture is from our lunch at this great french restaurant not too far from where we live. I was the only one that decided to have a healthy lunch (an amazing salad with grilled tuna fish, fresh vegetables and the best dressing ever) The rest of the family had French Toast and other yummy treats. French Toast for lunch??!! Good for them!!

But then later at home Bill cooked a super delicious gourmet dinner with fresh ingredients from our farmer's market (Billy is a very good cook).

I hope that you had a great weekend too :)

Now let's have a good Monday my friend!!

See you tomorrow!

Elsita :)

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On The Hidden Seed today: My picnic outfit :)

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