Kagoshima

 Greent tea latte with a beautiful ceramic by Hiroko Matsumoto.

 I went to shrine to drive evil spirits out of me.

 I like shinto priest's costume.

 Beautiful trees, like Japanese painting.

 Mochi pounding with Misaka san from White Gallery.

 Unique tea bowl.

Old shinto shrine gate.

Sakura jima, active volcano in my home town.

A Happy New Year from Japan.

I wish everybody have great start in 2011.
I could meet many people through my jewelry in last year.
I appreciate every encounter.

I'm spending end of year and new year in Kagoshima,  Japan which is my home town.
It's already past 5 years since I moved to New York.

There are full of nature and I can find my identity which is connecting to my creativity in here.

Am I Love Cupid?

I keep busy days for X'mas order in these days.
I got a really sweet order couple days ago.
The customer ordered a seaurchin diamond ring from Japan for his girl friend as X'mas gift.
He requested me to put a message " I promise"  on the ring and he asked me to send to a city in U.S.
I was wondering what he wants to promise...but I was just working on the ring.

And one day he wrote me, he met a girl and keeps distant relationship with her and he promised to see her in New York in next year, so he promise to see her.

It is sounds so romantic!
I'm so glad that he choose my ring for his girl friend X'mas gift.
As his request, I wrote a message card and enclosed with a ring.
I was glad to be a Love Cupid!  :)

As a request, we can engraved a message for our jewelry.(under 10 letter is $22.)
You can put message for someone, your special memorial date, your birthday,  favorite word,.
To engraved date makes a  jewelry more personal stuff.

Sunday

From my studio window...leaves turn red.

Usually I work with interns during weekdays but I work alone during the weekend.
I like making jewelry while listening to my favorite music and drinking tea.
Sometimes my friends visit me during my work.
It is nice to talk with them.

I'm working on spine bracelets (4 ribs) for DDCLAB.

My bone collection is one of my specialties.

People like bone collections so I'm making a lot bone collection jewelry.

Spine Bracelet (4 ribs).

Now this is available at DDCLAB in the meat packing district.

DDCLAB

427 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014

www.ddclab.com

American Natural History Museum

I went to American Natural History Museum in last weekend with my friend.
This museum is one of my favorite museums in New York.
Since I'm preparing for a new collection, I wanted to go there to get some inspiration.
Even though I have already been there several times, I'm always excited to be there.
Curiosity about nature is one of the inspirations for my jewelry.
When I go to the museum, I feel like I'm going back to my childhood.
At the entrance, there is a huge dinosaur skeleton.

It is really exciting to imagine that such huge animals used to exist on this Earth.
We went to a special butterfly exhibition.

There was a big greenhouse in the museum with many living butterflies inside of it.

I found a really beautiful blue butterfly there.
It was like a piece of jewelry.

The thing that caught my attention　he most in this exhibition were the pupas.
There were many kinds of pupas.

Some of the pupas were shaped like Astro Boy's head.(Do you know Astro boy? It is a Japanese robot cartoon.) They looked really cute.

Some of them are colorful.Some time, they were swaying back and forth.
These were butterflies that were about to hatch from their pupa stage.
It is really interesting to see the life inside the shell.

I had received great inspiration from the exhibition.
I hope I can come up with great ideas from this inspiration for my new collection.

An interview @ Vendome Luxury

Bevel NYC and Ayaka Nishi had an interview @ Vendome Luxury trade show in Paris.
I'm talking about my back ground. Am I look nervous?

The Spine Ring

Some have people asked me why I started making bone jewelry.
I answer, it is because I have discovered the organic, natural beauty within the shape of bones.
It is really difficult to curve such a beautiful line.
I think God has a really great sense for design and beauty.
And that wearing bone, which has a strong association with death, is also quite meaningful.
I'm glad to introduce a new item for the bone collection.
I've just made a spine ring!
Since some of my friends love the spine bracelet (but it is pretty expensive ($1700, because it's heavy, solid-sterling silver)), I thought if I made a ring which is just like the small spine bracelet, it will be affordable and yet still the same design!So, I made this ring.

To wear a piece of life.
Invisible power dwells within a piece of bone.

As we hurry through life, it is hard to think about death and life, but I believe that thinking about death is linked to thinking about how to live, so it is not so bad to think about death sometimes.

In this picture, the spine bracelet is like the mother and the spine ring is like her baby! So cute!
It will come with sterling silver, 18K gold plating, oxdized silver (antique black), 14K and 10K gold.
Price will be $230 for sterling silver, 18K gold plating, oxdized silver,
Price upon request for 14K gold and 10K gold.

This ring is size-adjustable and fits your finger snugly.
I haven't put it up for sale in our online shop yet, but if you are interested in ordering in advance, we can accept your order directly by e-mail.
info@ayakanishi.com