I’ve been busy making new pieces for the holidays. Here is a preview of what is to be seen at my upcoming shows. For a listing of shows, click here.

Kimberly gold-reminds me of the galaxies

Linda gold petite

Erin silver

Kirstin gold

Dale gold

Sarah gold

Verna silver

Large Linda gold

Brittany gold

Asami gold

Lauren

I am continuing to make more as I am inspired by the beauty of the earth. Did anyone catch the full moon last night?? OMG. The sky was amazing!! I am looking forward to seeing everyone at my showings this month. Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays!

I’m stoked! Honolulu Magazine featured my company in their Holiday shopping guide! Although it’s a small feature, it’s still helping my company grow and getting the word out about my art. They featured the Lody necklace and the Zoe necklace (which isn’t yet on the site). The writer, Sheila Sarhanghi, is an awesome writer, witty and very knowledgeable. Thanks Sheila for the writeup!

My good friend Haj Gollestani was so nice to take product shots- he even set up all his lighting to be very professional and get the perfect shots. They turned out beautiful.

Click to view the article.

Last night, 11-10-09, I threw a party at the Sunset Beach Noelani Designs studio. It was a blast! My wonderful friends helped with the set up, Yhazi and Jessica( my wonderful assistant from University of Hawaii).

Jessica working her magic to make the office beautiful

I was so lucky to have so much help with all of the little things to get the party all perfect for all the ladies to enjoy a mellow evening with the ladies. Beautiful Paula greeted everyone with her lovely smile and gave everyone nametags. Sweet India and Siobhan served wine and cranberry cocktails and water at the bar to get everyone in a relaxed mood, Vanessa took care of purchases, Jenna took lots of pictures and made sure everyone was thinking positive thoughts. Kendyl set the mood by playing her lovely slack key guitar on the lanai to create a nice atmosphere upon entrance. And Kristyna from the Czech Republic prepped all of the strawberries, pineapple, apples and bananas for the chocolate fondue and also the brocolli for the cheese fondue. The fondue turned out so delicious and I think the ladies enjoyed the delicious fare. Kamala, a wonderful mother and sweetheart, came over to do eyebrow threading for all the ladies. (Eyebrow threading is an Eastern Indian technique for hair removal by using a piece of thread- it’s amazing and quick and painless!) And Tara and Stacy came over to pamper the ladies with neck/shoulder and foot massages. They were amazing!!

I think all of the ladies enjoyed themselves with the pampering services and the nice jewelry discounts. I celebrated the opening of the Jewelry Closet in my design studio.

Karen and Gina choosing their favorite designs from the Jewelry Closet

Zoe shopping in the jewelry closet

Zoe, my 9 year old apprentice, won an embroidered Noelani Designs hat.

Zoe is amazingly talented and has a great eye for jewelry design. She’s so fun to have in the studio, and she is a quick learner!

Ashley and Vanessa take orders

Sheradan (wearing the Sheradan earrings) and me in the Anuhea earrings

Vanessa (in the Vanessa earrings), Paula in the Lehua earrings, Sheradan in the Wai earrings, and me in the Anuhea earrings

The party was so much fun and went on from 6 til midnight. Late night my girlfriend Tiare came over with Julie and we decided to make a music video to Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” but we changed the words to be “Touch my Jewelry.” So we improvised and danced and sang like teenage girls with no inhibitions or cares in the world. Check out our video:

We had so much fun at the party. Thanks everyone for coming and having a great time with us!!

Last weekend I got to participate in a fashion show at Ocean’s 808, featuring local designer Angela Matsuo, who will be attending FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in the fall. I heard from Angela a few weeks ago, who had been referred to me by her good friend and my good customer Cheri, who I always call by the wrong name Keiko (since it’s her middle name and it’s cute!). I was so excited to have been invited to participate and to include my clothes in her fashion show, so it was definitely worth the long haul all the way to Honolulu. I’m being a little facetious here as it’s only an hour drive from where I live.

Angela and I

Angela organized an amazing event, with breakdancers, beautiful models, delicious food, and of course, very unique clothing designs. Here are some of the pictures from the fashion show:

the beautiful models in their unique outfits designed by Angela

I had lots of help from my new and wonderful UH intern/assistant, Jessica. She got the memo on the green dress:)

me and Jess

Coco Ho is amazing. She is one of surfing’s most recognized young women, because of her incredible talent. Just a couple of weeks ago, she received fourth place at the Surfer Poll in California, which is pretty much equivalent to the Oscars in the World of Surfing. I am so proud of her, to be able to sponsor her and to say that she grew up in my neighborhood and is an integral part of the community for her leadership qualities. Coco is definitely a local role model to young women her age and an inspiration to women surfers. Congrats Coco!

Coco received her award for 4th place at the Surfer Poll, wearing her customized Noelani Designs necklace

I had the opportunity to meet with Coco a few days before she left for California. She emailed me letting me know she had a special event and wanted to wear some special jewelry with her new black dress. So she came over to the studio and picked out some earrings and customized her own matching necklace. She chose a black mother of pearl hoop with 3 black freshwater pearls on gold chain to be a pendant on a gold chain. Beautiful. Funny enough, I had a very similar style a few years ago named the Coco, after another friend of mine. Coincidence? I think not. The Coco necklace will now be available in my collection- it will be a little while before it’s up on the site, but it will be available at private showings. Email me if you’d like to purchase one.

This is a survey sent to me by a Japanese client who is considering representing my line at their trade show in Japan.
Thought it might be interesting for my readers to get a little background info on me to see who I really am… (sorry for the typos; it’s just a draft)

1. Where you are from. When you were born(if you don’t mind)
2. When you moved to Hawaii (if you are not from here)
3. When you started designing and how you started.
4. What inspires you for your design.
5. What main concept, feeling, expression of your products.
6. What kind of material you use. Anything special?
7. Any media exposed? Please list them as much as possible.
8. Including your back ground, something catchy and interesting story to go along with your brand concept OR totally opposite story.

1. I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, my mother is Hawaiian and I spent my summers growing up in Hawaii visiting my grandparents, always wishing that I lived the island lifestyle.
2. I moved to Hawaii after I graduated from college in 2005. I moved here December 24, so living in Hawaii was my Christmas present to myself.
3. I started designing jewelry in 2002 by making some Christmas gifts of earrings for my girlfriends. I was at a craft shop and I bought some special pieces to make for my friends, and didn’t know how to make earrings, but I tried, and they were happy with the earrings
4. Nature is a very big inspiration for my pieces. I like to see how I can recreate nature in an earring, whether it be symbolic of the trees outside my window, the crystal blue ocean water at my footsteps, or my favorite flower
5. The main concept of my artistic expression is to allow every woman that wears the jewelry to feel beautiful by wearing the pieces. I love how a piece of jewelry can bring an outfit together and make a woman feel so complete and confident in herself. I really want women to feel beautiful by recognizing the goddess within themselves and share that with others. I feel that my jewelry is able to make women understand their inner beauty.
6. I like to use very high quality materials, such as 14k goldfill wire, sterling silver, and freshwater pearls, mother of pearl shell and special stones. I try my best to recycle and be as eco-friendly as possible because I care about the well-being of the planet. The shell that I use comes from the discarded mother of pearl shells in Tahiti. The black pearl farmers use only the pearl inside the shell, and for them, the shell is waste. So I am happy to reuse it so there is not as much waste.
7. I have been featured in a lot of local (Hawaiian media) as well as Japanese media. Local magazines include: Ala Moana Magazine, FreeSurf Magazine, Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii Modern Luxury magazine, and many others. Japanese media includes: FRAU magazine, Beach Girls Magazine, Aloha Tengoku TV show, Surfing Lani TV show, and Hawaiian Express TV show.
8. I am a single mother, living on the north shore of Oahu. My son Aukai is 18 months old and he was born here in our house. It was a very special and empowering moment to give birth to him all natural. I love being a mom although it can be very difficult at times. We live a very simple life and like to spend time at the beach, bodyboarding, running on the beach (with him on my shoulders), riding bicycle on the north shore bike path, or just playing in our yard. I love designing jewelry and I love supporting and empowering women who are doing awesome things with their lives. I currently sponsor professional surfer Coco Ho and singer Anuhea. I think it’s very important to give back to the community around me so I am beginning to expand my company to hire local women to work with me, so that everyone can enjoy beautiful jewelry with good energy that is made in Hawaii.

my dog Meli and son Aukai

This year was my fourth year in a row participating in the Haleiwa Arts Festival. This is, by far, my favorite art festival all year long. The first reason being that it is in my hometown, so I don’t have to drive very far to get there! The festival is always held at the end of July at Haleiwa Beach Park and the weather is always gorgeous. I love meeting my customers, and since I sell my pieces to a lot of shops, I don’t always get to meet my customers. But at the Haleiwa Arts Festival, I get to meet the people that support me and love to wear my jewelry, and I get to hear their feedback about the pieces. I love it!

I'm all smiles

I didn’t take too many pictures this year because I was so busy talking to customers and customizing jewelry that I forgot! My great friend Vanessa came to help as my assistant. She was so awesome, as she helped me keep customers happy by helping them pick out jewelry for themselves and keeping the shop tidy. She was also in charge of designing our layout inside our tent shop. She did a great job and many of the customers commented on the beautiful presentation of our shop!

Naia, me and Vanessa

busy busy busy with customers

The setup worked out great for everyone, as they were able to flow in a circle throughout the whole shop. I spray painted some branches that we placed in the center of the booth with earrings hung from the stems. It looked really cool. Vanessa had just bought some tables for her house that worked perfectly in the booth to set the branches on. I love how everything came together!

the jewelry trees

My girlfriend Sheradan and her cute lil baby Sage stopped by too to say hi and take pics. Sage is soooo cute. Check out the Sheradan earrings!

baby Sage

My website designer, Mimi Silvia, even stopped by with her hubby John. I love Mimi! She does such a great job at designing my site and keeping it all updated on time with my last minute requests! And she apparently likes to do the work, so I’m very happy about that. She went home from the festival with lots of new Noelani Designs jewelry for herself. I hope she’s happy with her new pieces!

Mimi and me

Well the festival ended up being a great success and at the end of the two day festival, Vanessa and I celebrated in my usual tradition of jumping in the water at Waimea Bay. We literally “jumped” in, as we jumped off the big rock! There’s nothing like a nice sunset swim in the bay at the end of a long work weekend…

Noelani Designs is going international!! I am really excited about appealing to the Japanese Market as I have been featured on three different Japanese TV shows in the past 4 months and on Monday, Beach Girls Magazine came to do a photoshoot. Heidi, the coordinator, called to set it all up and we planned for Monday morning at 8:30. Heidi, Akemi (the writer), and the photographer ( I forget his name!) showed up and I just did my usual morning routine with Aukai. We did laundry, I hung the clothes on the line. We watered the garden and banana and papaya tree, then we went for a little bike ride to the beach and Aukai and I kicked on the bodyboard. It was so entertaining for the crew because Aukai was excited to have people following him around and taking pictures. He was definitely enjoying the attention.
The photographer was great at capturing real moments, and not afraid to run quickly to a different location to catch an image. He was literally running here and there and everywhere all day.
It was kind of exhausting for me to have some pressure on me to perform to a certain standard and also being so self-conscious of my camera presence and how my hair looked all the time. I laugh as I think of this.

Well anyway I am excited about receiving some press in a different country and the prospect of people all the way in Japan buying my jewelry!!

Akemi, myself, Aukai and the photographer

I have been gearing up all month for the upcoming Haleiwa Arts Festival which will be held this Saturday and Sunday, July 18 &19. This is by far the biggest festival I participate in all year and I love it!! I get to see so many people enjoying the festivities and the art is incredible. I wish I had more time out of my booth to walk around and browse for hours, meeting the artists!! If you aren’t already completely busy this weekend, you should definitely devote some time to come and support our local artists. There are over 150 artists from the islands and all the creations are original and handmade here in Hawaii!!

Here is a preview of the rings I will be showing:

I pounded out 25 rings in just 2 hours. Some are toe rings!!

While I was making jewelry on my lanai, one of the invasive Madagascar lizards came to check out my pliers. He was just cruising next to me for the longest time!

They are pretty but invasive and compete with our local lizards for food!

So hopefully some of you are inspired to come out and check out the festival. If you mention this blog, you’ll receive 10% off of your total purchase. You can go to www.HaleiwaArtsFestival.org for more information and a complete list of the artists.

Well I got the chance to go home to North Carolina to be in one of my best friends’ weddings 2 weekends ago. I am finally getting around to posting some of the pics. Shan and I grew up together in Charlotte, NC. And although we didn’t meet until we were 15 on a 5 week bus tour of the western United States, we became wonderful friends and still remain close friends a whole decade later. I can’t believe I’m old enough to say that! Wow time flies. So anyway, Shanley got married and she was a beautiful bride!!

beautiful Shanley on her wedding day!

We had so much fun at the reception and Shan picked out beautiful dresses for the bridesmaids. We danced into the night to an awesome band, “The Maxx,” and I had a good ol’ time down South! I even danced so much I tweaked my knee!!

I love you Shan and congrats on your newest adventure in life!

Shan and I gettin ready for her big moment