Streetnoodles Giveaway (CLOSED)

Ellen is a wonderful woman behind the Streetnoodles Etsy shop. She has had a really interesting life and she is willing to share her story, hopes and dreams with us and she is giving away some great pieces too :)

Where does your shop name come from?

I know it's a funny name but it comes from my "starving artist" days when all I had in my cubbie were "top ramien"-like soup packages in assorted flavors of course :) ...for breakfast, lunch & dinner :(
After years of living in a big city & purposely staying away from my childhood home, I came back & bought my dad's house...and in that instant, I discovered the family I loved & hated & was inspired by...in their "ghosts", their pictures & the artifacts they left behind...i hope the shop reflects some of those inspirations.

How long have you been a jewelry artist? How and why did you start?
I’ve been involved in the arts exhibiting or behind the scenes for more years than i care to say, but in the pursuit of it I landed in the San Francisco bay area and lived there for 25+ years...met my husband and when we started to look for a house to buy, realized that unless we became millionaires over night, we just couldn't afford to live there.

The opportunity to move back to my small hometown and buy my dad's old "dream house" that had come in disrepair was the "kick-in-the-pants" we needed to give up our lives there.
In 2003 we moved back...due to a previous health condition, I had to retire early soon after and found myself at a loss...in trying not to go crazy, I taught myself jewelry making, thinking it wouldn't require much physical exertion & space...BOY WAS I WRONG!!!

First came a website that i had a horrible time getting traffic thru, as well as a faulty shopping chart...than came ETSY, which honed my skill and creativity...and still to this day inspires me to be better.

Where do you get your inspiration for the jewelry in your shop?

At first my inspiration came from my dad's house...in trying to clean & get it up to par, I would find "treasures" (my dad's box of poetry, calligraphy & carvings) & (my mom's old suitcase of her wedding kimono)...and of course "the ghosts"...friendly & familiar ones of course...hearing my mom's footsteps walking down the hall, checking to make sure everyone was okay...my dad's endless old tool stashes I think he must have forgotten about in all the nooks & grannies of the overgrown garden.
Later, I wanted to refine my shop to reflect a B & M shop dream I had growing up...of an opulent yet approachable boutique in an "out-of-the-way" parisian street...filled with pretty & interesting little bobbles...where you could spent hours looking at wondrous things over tea & cakes.....(a little over the top I know...but it is a fantasy :)

If you had to choose one favorite item in your shop, what would it be and why?

There is not just one, but there is a sentimental favorite "series"...my "bird series" which consists of brooches & necklaces. This whole series of birds is INSPIRED by my dad...we were never as close as my mom & me...he was a quiet intellectual scholar caught in wartime situation that left him not valuing what he had loved as a child...art, literature, poetry.

When I bought my dad's house I found in his garage, several boxes of his; one filled with his poetry, one of his calligraphy...and one filled with wonderful wood carvings of birds...so many birds...I found out later that when he had been sent to the internment camps during WWII, he was taught how to carve wood...he chose birds..they reminded him of "home"...but more importantly of his "freedom" lost...when he returned home...he never carved another bird again.

My regret in life will always be the estranged relation I had with my father. It got so bad that neither one of us learned enough Japanese or English to speak in depth with each other...when I realized my loss, I tried to communicate through a Buddhist priest who offered to translate letters between us. I learned that he grew up mercilessly teased by his peers because of a childhood accident that left him deaf in one ear...that he was an intellectual/ scholar/ and athlete at university...had become a writer for a newspaper...protested the "powers-that-be" that wanted to go into war with the world...was able to escape prison for his beliefs because of his family ties to the Japanese ambassador to America (who he was named after..which I wish I knew the whole story there)...traveling through California between Japanese communities, hopping trains, hitchhiking with a former "yakuza" with 2 fingers missing.

After about a year of writing through the priest...the priest had to go back to Japan...and our estranged lives crept back...for a long time I thought my efforts were unappreciated, till at my dad's funeral, I found the stacks of letters I had written to him on his nightstand.

Giveaway!

Ellen from Streetnoodles has her birthday on November too, just 2 days (November 26) before me. You can go and wish her Happy Birthday! on her blog. So as we are both birthday girls this month, she decided to give a way 2 pairs of earrings. Yes, there will be 2 winners!

Rules:
* please make sure to leave separate comment for each entry;

* in your comment, please include an email address so I can reach you (comments without email won't be published);

* winner of the giveaway will be chosen from random.org on Saturday, November 28th;

* winner has 24 hours to answer my email or new winner will be drawn.

Here’s how to enter:
* Mandatory entry: please visit Streetnoodles. Look at all of her wonderful products and then return to Made In Canarias and let me know 2 pieces you like.

* Extra entries:
- become a follower of Streetnoodles blog;

- add Ellen’s shop as your favorite on Etsy (leave your Etsy username);

- purchase from Streetnoodles and let me know (5 entries);

- follow my blog (1 entry); if you already follow me you get 2 entries;

- tweet this give-away (leave your tweet link, use @MadeInCanarias);

- follow @MadeInCanarias on Twitter (1 entry); if you already follow me you get 2 entries;

- post about this give-away on your blog (leave link, 2 entries);

- grab my button (2 entries; leave a link);

- 1 extra entry for the people on the top commentators list (look at the left sidebar).

*Remember to leave your email in the comments and leave separate comment for each entry.
 
Good luck!
 
Thank you Ellen for the great prizes!