Soigne

Soigne moved to www.soigne.ca

2009-09-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

We moved to www.soigne.ca.
see you there
Beata Kacy

Soigne featured at Handmade Jewelry Club

2009-08-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jane for featuring Soigne at Handmade Jewelry Club.

If you are interested to check the post please check 22.08.09 date in the link below.

http://www.handmade-jewelry-club.com/2009/08/knitted-bracelet.html

Soigne featured on Glass Addictions

2009-08-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Jennifer Cameron for featuring Soigne on http://www.glassaddictions.blogspot.com/.

Thank you all for leaving lovely comments.

Cheers
Beata

Day with Polymer clay....

2009-08-05T00:03:00.001-07:00

...shots on the beach wth my fav pendant

2009-08-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

Soigne at Blim Guest Series—Gourmet Soap Making Workshop

2009-07-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 29 | 3 – 6 PM | Soigne will be part of Blim Guest Series. If you want to learn home made soaps come and join the workshop. More info in the link below.

http://blim.ca/2009/07/29/sat-aug-29-blim-guest-seriesgourmet-soap-making-workshop/

Prefect location for Soigne workshops

2009-07-12T16:07:00.001-07:00

During the trip to Olympic Peninsula I spotted this gorgeous building painted in Soigne colors. This would be the perfect place for our workshops..ahhhhhh! :)

Treasured treasure..."wanted and desired"

2009-06-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend together with my partner we went antique hunting down in Washington State. Among lots of little bibelots I found a gorgeous suitcase from around 1920. The suitcase together with Ms Bertha Silva traveled by boat in 1929-1930 through Mexico, Argentina, Chili, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia, Panama and Bolivia.

Besides the suitcase we found a gorgeous leather belt which would have been used for an ammunition during the war. Please enjoy the pictures below.

Students work - Dalia and her explorations!!!

2009-06-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Dalia attended few workshops already to explore and create her mix media pieces. It was fascinating seeing how much our own culture reflect our art. Dalia is from Saudi Arabia where jewelry are a big part of their culture.

Environmental Pendant

2009-06-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

If you are seeking a model to your jewelry or clothing modeling please give me shout and I will direct you to the right person.

Get ready for the summer!!!! felt is not only the winter solution!

2009-06-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

Felted brown choker

2009-06-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

Flirty necklace

2009-06-07T23:20:00.000-07:00

Felting, felting felting....pictures from the latest workshop and facts

2009-06-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Felt is the oldest form of fabric known to humankind. It predates weaving and knitting, although there is archaeological evidence from the British Museum that the first known thread was made by winding vegetable fibers on the thigh. In Turkey, the remains of felt have been found dating back at least to 6,500 BC. Highly sophisticated felted artifacts were found preserved in permafrost in a tomb in Siberia and dated to 600 AD.

Many cultures have legends as to the origins of felt making. Sumerian legend claims that the secret of felt making was discovered by Urnamman of Lagash. The story of Saint Clement and Saint Christopher relates that while fleeing from persecution, the men packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters. At the end of their journey, the movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks.

Never Enough Bags

2009-05-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

I am happy to introduce my new line of bags. Strongly inspired by Nik Palmer (his work is exhibited in posts below) I am working on my new leather & felt line. I have been working with felt for few years and incorporating it with leather sounds like not a bad idea. All the felt in the bag is hand made. Bags are available on special order; new collection will be available in December on Portobello West and in November at the East Side Culture Crawl at Octopus Studios.

Materials in Fine Art Practice

2009-04-24T00:14:00.001-07:00

Today was my last class in Materials in Fine Art Practice at the University of Emily Carr. Thanks to Elizabeth Wilton my fabulous teacher, the class was quite an art journey. The two jewelery pieces below are just a small part of all the exploration we did in contemporary art. Materials chosen in my pieces opened up an entire new path of ideas and meanings for me. In these particular pieces we were exploring traditional methods of knitting, crocheting and weaving using industrial materials.

Home Depot supplies, nuts, copper wire...

Recycling product: pop can tabs, weaved with stripes of coke cans

Felt Classes and Student's work

2009-04-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

More examples under "workshops pictures".

Fuse Glass workshops and student's work

2009-04-05T23:11:00.000-07:00

Fused glass is a term used to describe glass that has been fired (heat-processed) in a kiln at a range of high temperatures from 593 °C (1100 °F) to 816 °C (1500 °F).
Most contemporary fusing methods involve stacking, or layering thin sheets of glass, often using different colors to create patterns or simple images. The stack is then placed inside the kiln (which is almost always electric, but can be heated by gas or wood) and then heated through a series of ramps (rapid heating cycles) and soaks (holding the temperature at a specific point) until the separate pieces begin to bond together.

2009-03-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

I have been asked a few times for advice on marketing for artisans. It's my belief that business cards can represent our identity, as they are a small and compact version of us and our company. However it is often difficult to express this identity on such a small piece of card.

Recently I was asked to design a card for carpenter, and I found it challenging and fun. My first thoughts where how to express what that man does without a long winded textual explanation. After much research i found myself at Lee Valley woodworking supplies store, a place where the artisan in question buys many of his tools and supplies. My hope was to find something inspirational within this artisans environment, and that I did. I found small pre-cut pieces of wood veneer @ $3 for 100 pieces, and I knew that these would be the perfect medium to represent a carpenter.

The next challenge was to be how i would print onto these veneer pieces whilst keeping true to the artisan in question. He is man with a love of antiques and traditional methods of woodworking. All his products are hand made with little or no machinery used. Luckily over last few weekends I had the chance to participate in letterpress workshops at University of Emily Carr. That was it! I would use the traditional letterpress techniques to print onto these veneer business cards.

And so with a little bit of research, and a small amount of money, I had hand made cards done in just a few hours. Due to the technique each business card was slightly imperfect, and as such unique; again a reflection of the the artisan they represented.

On a side note whilst researching these particular business cards I found the perfect paper for any environmentally minded companies. The example below shows recycled paper, with big chunks of old newspaper visible on the surface.(the letterpress method looks to be used in that case as well to achieve a nice embossed look)

Polymer Clay Earrings in 15 minutes

2009-03-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

For instructions how to make below earrings please email me at beata.kc@gmil.com.

For long winter evenings...knitted bracelet and the neclase

2009-03-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

Take knitting to the next level, try with wire and simple silver beads - ideal for long evenings in front of the TV

Inspired to Create!

2009-01-24T22:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you Nikkey for posting such a lovely feedback about the course on your blog.

http://insptocreate.blogspot.com/

Students art work.

2009-01-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you Jane, Nikkey and Brittany for fun course and for
letting me use your art work in the post.

Found Object Pendant

2009-01-17T20:32:00.001-08:00

Mixed media pendant: felt and polymer clay

2009-01-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

In previous posts you a had chance to see polymer clay
beads and felt ones. Today I put both together and created
this mixed media "chain".

Classes and Student's work

2009-01-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Laura, Josee, Ruwan, Emily, Lauren
and Emerson for fun course and letting
me use their work and pictures on my Blog.

It was great seeing Ruwan making pendant with his own design,
it is the one with a deer and aging distress element on the paper.

Crochet on the bead

2009-01-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

As a continuity for bead making, mixing different media and techniques I used single crochet stitch around a wooden bead. It is a simple task, just follow the instructions below:

SC - single stitch
CH- chain
HK- Hook
Dec - decrease

CH of 2
1. 3SC in 2nd CH from the HK
2. 2 SC in each SC (6SC)
3. 2 SC in each SC (12 SC)
4-6. 1SC in each (12)
7. 1SC dec over next 2SC (6SC)
8. 1SC dec over next 2SC (3SC)

Enjoy!!!

My Hip Mom's new line

2009-01-06T23:48:00.000-08:00

My mom Jolanta always surprises me with her new ideas and young, fashionable, hip eye. She loves recycling old sweaters and turning them to new urban look of accessories.

Polymer clay and felt beads looking alike

2009-01-04T23:14:00.001-08:00

As I promised today I am posting an example how to combine polymer clay with felt beads mimicking look of clay ones. As beads on wire they are great example of mixing media and techniques giving us contemporary look.

Polymer Clay Beads

2009-01-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

Today I got inspired on Granville Island and decided to play with polymer clay using millefiori technique to make beads. In the next post I am going to combine these beads with felt beads which are mimicking poly once. Below are some interesting info about Polymer Clay.

cyt: Wikipedia
Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). A. Pellatt (in his book "Curiosities of Glass Making") was the first to use the term "millefiori", which appeared in the Oxford Dictionary in 1849. The beads were called mosaic beads before that time. While the use of this technique long precedes the term millefiori, it is now frequently associated with Venetian glassware.

Bakelite, an early plasticused in both practical and decorative applications, was extremely popular with designers and had an early form of polymer clay available in kits, but the phenol base of uncured Bakelite was flammable and these were discontinued. Modern polymer clays are based on a plastic modeling compound brought to the attention of German doll maker Kathe Kruse in the late 1930s as a possible replacement for plastics that had become difficult to obtain during the early days of World War II. It was not suitable for use in her doll factory, so Kruse turned it over to her daughter Maureen, who was known in the family as "Fifi". The formulation was later sold to Eberhardt Faber and marketed under the name FIMO (FIfi's MOdeling Compound) in honor of Maureen.

Merry Christmas !!!!!!!

2008-12-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

Portobello West -December 13th & 14th

2008-12-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for visiting Soigne at Portobello West. Se you all next year, December 2009.

Soigne Gift Certificates are now availiable

2008-12-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

Soigne at Culture Crawl 2008

2008-11-26T00:22:00.001-08:00

Thank you all for participating in this year Culture Crawl and visiting us at Octopus Studios. Thank you for all the great feedback and support, with out you Culture Crawl wouldn't happened.

Ginger 62, Art Show, Vancouver 2008

2008-11-13T23:50:00.000-08:00

Last night Soigne was participating in Art Show at Ginger 62. Thanks to Wendy, marketing guru of Action Pants, there was over 30 participants of various art media. Valerie Arntzen, organizer of East Side Culture Crawl, and various news media of Vancouver B.C. where admiring Action Pants artist.

Check New Soigne SPA Lab

2008-11-09T00:11:00.001-08:00

I am super excited to introduce Soigne Spa Lab, please check all the details under SOIGNE LAB section on the right hand side.

Soigne Space

2008-10-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

This pictures are from Octopus Studios where Soigne classes are held.

Gallery uploads

2008-09-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Finally managed to upload some pictures on Flickr and used they slide show convenient tool. You are more than welcome to check link under SOIGNE ATELIE. I captured a screen shots from Flickr and got this cool mini kind of mix media jewelry collage.

I am currently teaching basics of mix media jewelery. Within 4 hours you will make 2 -3 pendants using soldering iron, glass, photographs and lead free solder. During the class we will cover different methods of aging the metal to "antique" the look. You will be provided with detailed handouts and all the information to start your little home pendant production. More details and pictures of the pendants in the next post.

Felt Addiction

2008-09-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Lately I spend lots of hours mastering my felt skills. Using wool, felt needles, soap, hot water and the bubble wrap you can make amazing items with no strength and little time. Soon Soigne will offer two evenings course covering dry and wet felting techniques.

Welcome to Soigne - jewelry atelie

2008-09-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Soigne was born out of the passion of experimenting with metal, clay, wood, glass, cement, resin and found objects. It all begun in my home kitchen and slowly got extended to me and my partner Nik's art studio where we spend most of our free time. Welcome to the blog and enjoy my updates.

coming soon:

art of felt making
jewelry classes
felt making classes
need to photograph your art?