Artisan Market Monday: Mad Love shop clothing

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Spring is here and with it comes lots of new handmade goodies in at the B3 Artisan Market!  One of our newest favorites is MadLove shop, a line of artist-designed screenprinted clothing made by Angel D’Amico – Bauer.  Each piece is hand screen printed with her original artwork, making each piece truly unique.  Blue Buddha stocked up on a variety of her prints on t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tanks, and more in sizes S-XL, so we’re sure to have something for even the most discerning fashionista.  We even picked up a few truly beautiful soft scarves just in time for Mother’s day!

 

IMG_20150410_145608She says about her work:

Mad Love is specially ONE OF A KIND hand screen printed, hand dyed, hand painted, fashionable and unique items. made with Love by me. I make each unique item one at a time, as if each piece were a creation of art.

Angel D’Amico – Bauer is a Chicago based Freelance Illustrator and Designer. Loving life and living her dream, Angel has a unique sense of style and a wide range of skills from drawing to painting, digital art, graphic design, playing and composing music, hand screen printing – MAD LOVE Clothing and accessories, book making, sewing, photography, crocheting, cookie making, and some other random skills. She combines her fine art skills with her digital artwork, to create beautiful, unique, and exotic environments of work.”

 

YaY! Over $1000 raised for the St Baldrick’s Foundation

 

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This March, Blue Buddha decided to raise funds for the St Baldrick’s Foundation, which is a volunteer-driven charity that supports research to fight childhood cancers.  Volunteers sign up to “Brave the Shave” and pledge to shave their heads to raise funds and awareness about childhood cancers.

Our Marketing Director Britt Johnson is a long-time St Baldrick’s supporter.  Through brave the shaveher efforts, she raised $750, and she followed through with her head-shaving pact even though she was sick that whole week.  What a rockstar!  Big round of applause for Britt!

But wait, there’s more!  Through our St Baldrick’s Day special edition Bisected Byzantine Bangle (where 25% of the cost went to the St Baldrick’s Foundation), the B3 community raised $105!  We hope you are weaving and wearing your bangles with pride knowing they support such a worthy cause.

We also collected cash donations for St Baldrick’s through our retail store, and on March 14th we hosted a special fundraising day where 25% of the cost of B3 supplies sold in our retail store went to St Baldrick’s. Between those efforts we raised $171!

All together we raised a total of $1026 to fight childhood cancers.  Thank you so much everyone for your contributions!  Together we can help support these crucial research efforts. 

 

 

Artist Market Monday: Nailmaille

 

If you’ve been paying attention to the chainmaille world for a while, then you’re certainly familiar with Nailmaille, high quality chainmaille pieces created with bent surgical-grade stainless steel nails and neoprene o-rings by artist Mike Wille alongside his colleagues Michael Munke and Jessica Knutson.  These unique pieces are handcrafted in every sense: even the tools to bend the nails are handmade!  These pieces are perfect to express your inner badass with style.

 About their work:

“Nailmaille® jewelry is the evolution of traditional chainmaille to maille made out of stainless steel or copper nails. Each nail is individually bent, then woven together with other bent nails and/or neoprene rings to create our unique pieces.

The quality of Nailmaille® pieces is unmatched. These are not just nails from the hardware store. They are surgical grade stainless (316L), painstakenly polished and bent individually with special attention to the uniformity of each bend.  

All of our work is handmade including the tools that we’ve repurposed to assist our artists in creating original art jewelry.”

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How to Make Shaggy Loops Chainmaille (Video Tutorials for Jewelry Making)

Hi B3 fans!  We’ve started making videos to compliment our tutorials in order to better offer you more ways to strengthen your chainmaille skills. We’re beginning with the projects that have free PDF tutorials. Shaggy Loops is a great introductory weave that has many variations, from simple ring size substitutions to advanced designs that incorporate color fades and very tough rings.

We need your help! In order to make sure we’re going in the right direction with our videos, we would love to get feedback from you!  We know many of our long-time customers already know shaggy loops … so we’d ask that you take a second to put yourself in the shoes of a newbie, or to just view the technical aspects of the video and consider what things we’ll need to look out for as we move to more complex weaves.

In particular, we have some questions that may be useful to help guide your feedback:

  • What do you find helpful about our videos?
  • What do you find difficult to understand?
  • What do you think about the lighting? The sound?
  • How is the point-of-view for the weaving demonstration?
  • What sorts of projects would you like to see videos for?
  • Rebeca particularly wants to know if the shower curtain ring demo is useful. (We use these rings in teaching, but perhaps they aren’t needed for video.)

Thank you so much for your input, we really appreciate it!  Happy weaving.  :)

 

What this woman is doing with small metal circles will absolutely blow your mind

For the past 12 years, Chicago jewelry artist Rebeca Mojica has been quietly crafting an accessories revolution. What started as a crazy spur-of-the-moment idea has morphed into the latest underground trend, embraced by people of all ages and walks of life.

The idea came to Rebeca when a friend mentioned she wanted her lip pierced, but couldn’t do it due to work dress code. “I wish there were temporary piercings. You know, like temporary tattoos!” her friend bemoaned.  And that’s when the light bulb went off over Rebeca’s head, and faux piercings—or as all the cool kids call ’em now, Fauxcings™—were born.

Believe it or not, NONE of the piercings on this woman are permanent (not even the ears).i-got-a-lot-of-junk-in-my-face

Each day, this gal chooses 10 Fauxcings and groups them together
to create a “coil” that matches her outfit.coiled-ear

If you’ve wanted pierced nails but didn’t want to drill a hole in your nail,
Fauxcings™ can help you get the look you’ve always wanted!

If you've wanted pierced nails but didn't want to drill a hole in your nail, Fauxcings can help you get the look you want!

Fauxcings™ allow you to sport jewelry in places that typically aren’t good for permanent piercings, such as your hand webs.

Fauxcings allow you to sport jewelry in places that typically aren't good for permanent piercings, such as your hand webs.

What, really? Yes, really. Let’s take a closer look at that! webs

Pierced eyelids used to be rare and reserved for only the most daring.
Now, anyone can have one … in the blink of an eye!  (Pun intended.)pierced-eyelid

Fauxcings™ allow people to try out a piercing for a short time, and they’re perfect for those who are scared of needles. Though they are meant as a do-it-yourself accessory, some folks visit professional piercers to make sure the job is done right. Bob Loblaw, owner of renowned Foresight Studios in Chicago, says he’s seen an overwhelming increase in the number of people coming in for Fauxcings™.

“Rebeca has truly started a revolution,” Bob says. “She’s made piercings accessible to huge numbers of people who wouldn’t otherwise have gotten pierced. You see that line of people around the block? Well, 90% of them are here to get a Fauxcing™. People of all ages and walks of life, it’s amazing. These are people who can’t agree on who should be mayor; people who usually would be at each others throats because one person is a White Sox fan and the other is a Cubs fan…and yet they come here and wait in line and bond over their Fauxcings™. Maybe this is what the world needs to bring us together. No, seriously. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rebeca gets the Nobel Peace Prize at some point.”

It’s true, Fauxcings™ aren’t just for millennials and Gen Xers. They’re for everyone. For kids! For grandma! For pets! Fun for the whole family!

This 7-year-old boy loves his lip Fauxcing™.

DISCLAIMER: Blue Buddha Boutique and Fauxcings, Inc. shall not be held responsible for the loss or damage of teeth which may or may not occur as a result of continued use of the product.

DISCLAIMER: Fauxcings, Inc. shall not be held responsible for the loss or damage of teeth which may or may not occur as a result of continued use of the product.

This young Chicagoan enjoys sporting Fauxcings™ in his ears
and in Marly and Carly’s ears, too.
kid-n-cats

After the above photo was taken, Rebeca—who also dabbles in necromancy—
brought Marly and Carly to life
… and the kitties still wanted to sport their earrings!  zeela-earring pierced cat

Young or mature: everyone loves Fauxcings!

Photo credit: Béria L. Rodríguez @ Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit: Béria L. Rodríguez @ Wikimedia Commons

Rebeca recommends using Fauxings to spruce up everyday accessories and household objects, bringing out the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Got a shirt with a hole? Don’t bother fixing it — instead, Fauxce™ it!pierced-shirt pierced-shirt-close

Take a travel pack of Fauxcings™ to restaurants; and add some bling to your silverware.
You’ll have the best looking spoon in the joint.
Sure, you might choke, but what is life without a little risk?spoon-piercing

 

If you like what you see above, you can purchase Fauxcings™ here in 7 sizes and 1 dozen beautiful colors in Anodized Aluminum. Go small and delicate with D20 and F20 size (20 gauge), all the way up to massive size X12 rings – 12 gauge 7/16″. Purchase colorful mix packs, so you can swap out your Fauxcings™ to match your clothes! A different Fauxcing™ every day!

Use code FAUXCING at checkout to receive 10% off your purchase of Blue Buddha’s premium Anodized Aluminum rings (offer ends at 11:59 pm CT Wednesday April 1, 2015)

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Even celebrities have been spotted with Fauxcings™.

Photo credit - Kurt Kulac - Jennifer Lawrence at 214. "Wetten, dass.. ?" show in Graz, 8. Nov. 2014 - via Wikimedia Commons

Photo credit – Kurt Kulac – Jennifer Lawrence at 214. “Wetten, dass.. ?” show in Graz, 8. Nov. 2014 – via Wikimedia Commons

 
Make a statement – tell the whole world you aren’t afraid to bring out your inner (colorful) rebel.
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What do you think of Fauxcings™? Have you had one?
Do you want one now?


Leave us a comment below, or post a link/tag us on Instagram
with hashtag #fauxcing to show off your Fauxcing!

Disclaimer: jump rings are not intended for use as fauxcings on humans, animals or other objects. Improper use may result in injury, death or lifelong mockery. In other words, don’t try this at home.