Rachael Ray Necklace Webcast

Live broadcast from the Shanghai jewelry markets Sunday night (Mon morning 10.30am Shanghai time) from 8.30pm CST. I'll be shopping in Annetta's store with Annetta. Our customer is interested in taking a look at similar designs to the "Rachael's Choice" necklace. A design that was created and bargained for by Rachael Ray.

Come along to www.ShangBy.com at 8:30pm central to see me there, shop the Shanghai way or just chat in and say hi.

See you there! Love & Jewels, XXC

Scuba, Coupon Codes & Giving Thanks on Sunday!!!

Been trying to find time all week and scribbled down some stuff (typed really but it was a scribble like mess of words and sentences trying to form some kind of picture that just wasn't happening...) in short
1. Feels like an African summer in the office which is GORGEOUS bc it's face numbingly cold outside. Have my hiking in Nepal beanie out. Scared a colleague with it today :)

2. On tropics (I knew there was some kind of train of thought happening *slaps knee and nods head*) planning an extremely well deserved trip to Laos for Chinese New Year. Last time I was in the tropics was last year bout this time in Borneo-Ba-jorneo. I photo of me diving in Sipidan for you. I have a way of making myself look uncool in every photo and this one is one of my best.



3. Working on getting the ShangBuzz Black Friday 15% off Special out and heading home for clams (bf cooking YAY!) then out for Friday chill-axing ... Go to ShangBy and shop tomorrow with coupon code "Friday" to get 15% off all of the online catalog. Very, very cool one day thang so get shopping!!

Have a fabulous weekend!!!!!! Sunday we're heading over to really eat at a Thanksgiving party. No rest for the wicked during the week unless you had a self imposed holiday. Maybe you have to be from the States to really make that happen... I'm just a ring-in :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXJewels!!!!! Claire
P.S. Was a bad girl and bought Tunisian Mantra... getting Frosted Peaks fo sho next week!!

Ooooo SHINY!!

Oh-la-la. New bracelet on ShangBy.com for a ridiculous $6!! Have been looking at this bracelet with my work eyes not really thinking about how I personally feel about it when BAM, I was seriously just coming back into the office (for some reason I like to do a mini sprint back into the office if there's no one looking. Possible combination of wearing my super comfy silver cons and the fact that it was fa-REEZING in the corridor... ) when the image of this bracelet and a midnight blue version of that incredible dress Keira Knightly wore in Atonement jumped into my head... I could also see it in gold or silver pearls. I love metallic colors. I'm so drawn to them. It has to be a survival of the fittest middle child gene that makes me attracted to mettalics so that when I accessorize people get distracted by the shininess and I get more attention.... that explains a lot.... I want these Marc Jacobs boots so bad it hurts!!!!

Japan & Yearning for Vintage

H&M Comme de Garcons line was outed in Japan on November 8th to mark the opening of a new H&M store in Japan. Comme de Garcons designer Rae Kawakubo started the label in 1969 and specializes in looks that shock - more Through the Looking Glass costumes than casual day wear. A huge fan of Japanese designers, I've always loved creationist fashion focusing on art foremost and practicality a little further down the line. Oooo I also love Eely Kishimoto, a British and Japanese duo who are also the creative directors of Cacharel mmm... A cute little EK dress for you AND the fabulous Commes de Garcons for H&M blazer my colleague Nina's boyfriend (taking a breath!) won in an H&M inter company competition. Yay! It has a fab almost top hat and tail like tail at the back.


Side note about something I reallllyyy miss about home. Vintage shopping. Any time we go to Atlanta I always make a dash for Little Five to go shopping. Got armfuls of stuff there mid year. Also had a piece of glass peak through the bottom of my gold mary janes and cut me when walking down the street, had my first Chai Latte in YEARS, got some sweet outfits for a friend's kick-ball 80's party, was tempted to drink absenthe at lunch time at the Vortex ("the green fairy is back!" .. sounds like a nightmare right) and went and saw one of my most favoritist bands, Animal Collective play live last year.

I've also heard that vintage shopping in Japan is fantastic. I wanna go so bad :( I studied Japanese through high school and have started to learn again with this awesomeawesome girl called Ikure. We wrote some hiragana and katakana last week and hung out. Class is a little weird because she can't speak English so we do a Chinese and Japanese mix. It's totally awesome. I remember a bunch of Japanese songs from primary school that I sing all the time to my boyfriend who's not excited, but Ikure loves it. Can't wait to go to Japan, go vintage shopping and bust out some Japanese!! Pic of my sister in Japan shopping a coupla months ago. Jealous x 10 to the power of bazillion.

It's SO cold here in Shanghai atm and they won't turn on the heating in our office until the temp is below 10 degrees - and it is bbbbbrrrrrrrrrr!!!! Working on a ShangBuzz we're sending out today. It's about why men love ShangBy. Have a J-Lo look for less, the awesome new products we've got up on the website and a little blurb from me. Can't wait to share it with yall!!

Off for now to eat some 50 cent delicious noodles. Muchos loveses and jewels XC

High Fashion Spill

I love fashion. I love expensive brands, they don't have to be outrageously famous - just be different leaning more towards the unique quirky side. Was checking out one of my favorite websites for high fashion in pounds (Chinese RMB to £ s = ouch!) www.net-a-porter.com. The accessory enthusiast that I am, I was sifting through the jewelry when I came across this.


It's a Bottega Veneta faceted coral necklace for a just $2000....$2000 really!!! Faceting jewels requires craftsmanship, and although I'm not hugely into the faceted look, it does add value to the design - but $2000!! When I read the price I was literally aghast. Not the playing it cool in front of the sales assistant so that they can't tell there is no way you are going to buy that because that price would pay your rent for 7 months.. nope. There were some wide eyes and a jaw drop! Why, because I was at the markets yesterday when I saw this organic coral necklace that I think is much edgier for 1/40 of the price :)




It's $42, you can find it here - http://www.shangby.com/product/2275

At the markets I was doing one of my most favorite jobs - adding products to the ShangBy catalog - looking at quality, what's in fashion right now and what is popular with our customers. Had to add this is this necklace to the catalog. It's so hot! I want it so bad! It's no frills, just turquoise annnnnnddd

it's $29!!!
Check it out here - http://www.shangby.com/products/2807

Gimmegimmegimme!! This necklace is a fabulous Missoni - whose Italian summer aesthetic has sprawled over decades but always seems like something completely new and different. This necklace reminds me of the game MouseTrap (a maze, some marbles and a trap - killer awesome!!!) Like the game, it's constructed. It could be a mobile. This necklace would look a-mazing (I kill me :) over green or black or a metallic gold dress.... ooooo shiny...


It's so cold I've been wearing my giant animal like orange wool scarf I bought in Puerto Natales in Chile last year at my DESK!! Brrrrrrrrrr!! Everyone knows what goes best with cold weather - indian food!! Cooking with a crew over tonight at my place and dhal is on the menu. Wanted to make saag paneer but weeknights and normal working hours aren't going to give the cheese curds long enough to settle. Drooling on my keyboard thinking about it.......... Comment me! Shanghai or ShangBy questions - I'm warm and snuggled in my scarf at my desk ready to answer you. Muchos Jewels & Jewel love XXXXXXXXXXXClaire

That Dress

I've been researching Palin, Clinton and Obama lady looks for the upcoming ShangBuzz and I've been bowled over by the blogging backlash against Michelle's dress. When we were watching Obama's acceptance speech and my colleague Nina and I both loudly agreed that it worked. It's the kind of dress that invokes a comment and I think not all but a lot of her looks have this effect. Michelle pushes the boundaries of conservative spotlight style. There is nothing stuffy about her looks. They're fresh, she doesn't hold back the color palette and she's not afraid of showing off her hour glass figure. Go girl!


She looks wears this dress better than the girl who wore it on the runway.

I think Time Magazine rocks. I have a thing for the obituaries - it's more the celebrating life section (possible the Irish Catholic celebration of death thing - I went to a lot of funerals growing up.) in Time and the quotes page is great. Was checking out their site online - this was a quote from today....

"I voted for Obama, but I didn't vote for that dress." JESSICA BETTENCOURT

... and the claws are out for all the ladies who didn't love the dress!! The people in the know however, are comparing Michelle's style to Jackie O - which I can kinda see, in the sense that a lot of Jackie's outfits seem conservative to us now, but she was pushing the style envelope back then and her legacy still lives on. I think that's what Michelle is doing and I think it's an empowering move on her behalf.

Brushing away the post-Obama party cobwebs and stepping out for a Friday night frolick in Shanghai. It's rainy and I have to ride my bike in the rain. With a billowing red poncho on... I make it look chic tho... really... Have a fabulous weekend gorgeous readers! Doing a live broadcast on Monday night 8.30pm CST next week, go to shangby.com then and watch me on camera!!

XXXXjewels and love and all that, Claire

Barak Loves ShangBy

..and ShangBy LOVES Barak!!!

Huddled around a beautiful MacBook Pro (covet dos for the day) at our office in downtown Shanghai we watched Barak's acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago which was incredible!!!! Yes we CAN!! Our CEO and his family (word up to Team Bell) have been actively supporting Obama and my boyfriend is from Estados Unidos so I feel kind of part of the Ame-rica family. Going out to celebrate with the ShangBy crew in just a minute.

YAY Obama!!!

Crown Covet

Is it weird for me to covet a crown? It's made with lots of the baroque pearls I was raving about AND shockingly (get ready for this) the owner of the crown, Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran and I share the same birthday - the 14th of October!! I knew it!! Only a libran would be flamboyant enough (or just royalty sweetpea) to accessorize an outfit with this! Sure it was a coronation, kind of important.. what I'm picturing is more of an "under the sea" party theme... LOVE!

Jewels & Moments of Yay

Woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday. Dragged myself out of bed for a run, and was locked out when I got home (I'm a pretend morning person, sometimes when I get into a routine I think I am a morning person, but really, really, deep-down, I am surely not) then riding my bike to work I was grazed by a car, ended up on sprawled over my bike in the middle of the road in peak hour traffic in Shanghai. Not sure if it was the fengshui of my hair style, my imbalanced morning frazzled qi or just those once in a while days, but I felt like that morning, sprawled on the road, I'd paid the cover charge for a decent afternoon. Happy days, I got one :)

Lots of moments of Yay - hanging out in the office, drinking coffee, chatting to customers, getting to see MissJessicaT, pillaging books at a friend's apartment who is leaving China very soon, and getting to the markets and creating jewelry. Definite moment of Yay - seeing strands of these gorgeous earthy green tooth pearls and getting earrings made.
I've always loved jewelry, but it all kind of started at my part-time job working for Georg Jensen while I was at university. Modern GJ is all about clean lines and organic shapes - it's understated and it's chic. This really got me into the organic shapes. I love the rough textured detail of these tooth pearls. They have a gorgeous luster and straddle the casual, office and cocktail category vamping up jeans, nice with cute little dresses and sophisticated enough to be worn to out.


Also, a huge tear drop shaped white baroque pearl pendant jumped out at me - reminiscent of that pearl painted in "Girl with a Pearl Earring" Vermeer painting (I know the pic attached is the movie with Scarlett Jo - I like this pearl better than the one in the original painting). It's this standout singular white pearl that hung on a yellow or white gold chain and it's imperfections make it less conservative and more contemp cool. Really dying to have it. Added it to the list ;)





Treasures from the jewelry markets you want me to find and jewelry you want made email me, or post me a comment and I'll sort you out. Confess! You know you're a jewelry addict!

Muchos Jewels & Love,
ClaireXXXXX

Look at me! Look at ME!!

Whenever I buy things I have an awful habit of harassing people to make them look at what I've bought. I'm not the smooth kind of girl who buys something fabulous on the sly then POW! you're out and she's said she's just wearing jeans and she turns up in the justoffthecatwalk Marc Jacobs pink houndstooth dress (I'm coveting it soooooo bad) that she bought "the other day... " but forgot to mention... A-ha-ho.. no- definitely not me. When I buy something I pretty much wanna put it on then and there and strut, if it's not something to strut in I just glow and maybe make a really over-excited muppet face that I'm sure secretly scares people. A lot.

Maybe I just want to extend that walking on sunshine just-made-a-purchase feelin. Other people have different ideas. I am one of five kids. Guess where in the line? Oh! that's interesting! How did you guess already? For those of you who don't know what's it's like in a big family it's basically like this - the middle child pines for attention from anyone, but gets none! And then they end up buying a brooch (photo below) and some Mary- Janes and showing every one - first my manager, then the CEO of ShangBy (that's right - look at my brooch!) then my sister on skype and now you!!

Look at my brooch!!!

It's made from a sliver of polished agate. Lately I've been seeing so much agate in the stores in different romantic whimsy shades that have swept me off my feet. My gorgeous over-sized agate brooch included, I've also had a necklace made with cloudy fuchsia, black and orange agate and a pair of earrings made of sky blue agate pics below.

On my list of things to do this weekend - get some winter chic happening by getting myself over to the fabric markets. Need some floaty fabrics to go with my agate. Saw a Vivienne Westwood Anglomania coat made online which I love the style of - also looked at an Elizabeth and James (Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen's label) fitted blazer.

Friday tomorrow!! Happy Halloween! Thanks to lovely NinJa for comments. Email me at claire@shangby.com if you share the agate infatuation and want to wax lyrical to me, or if you want some for youself!

Love and Jewels XXClaire

Coming Out!

It's not an infatuation, it's real, pure one-sided, material love. When you work for ShangBy.com and you're at the pearl markets every day putting a stop to a habit that has long been out-of-control is obviously and conspicuously difficult. Why fight it when you can embrace it. Bored with pretending, I'm leaping proudly out of my jewelry box and announcing to the online universe - My name is Claire and I am a jewelry addict! Welcome to my homage to jewels! 

It's 10:30am, and armed with coffee I'm off to the jewelry markets. I head into jewelry stores jammed with stones and pearls and unconsciously start surveying the selection - sorting out the old from the new, the lovelovelove from the just okay. The turn over in the markets is so high that most days I found something new that I adore. The week so far - 

Monday - watched MissJ make a baroque "fireball"  seawater pearl and tourmaline necklace and went crazy for the fireballs which look like dramatic dollops of lustrous white pearl tears. Attracted to the quirky, the shape of these pearls says wild, free and high end cool without the stuffy after taste. Thinking earrings - single dropping pearls (large size) with 14K gold hook settings. 

Tuesday - wandered into a store and saw bright blocks of color in my peripheral vision. I tried half-heartedly to avoid turning to see what was there. Ten chunky solid stone rings in different colors of agate, turquoise, onyx and coral started to beg me to try them on. Most of them were too big :( but fabulous all the same. It's for the best, let the bank account recover and then presto, the smaller sizes will have been ordered into the store. Very sensible result.

Riding my little bike off to my cobbler who's made me some silver Mary-Janes. Can't wait to see how they've turned out. Full report with photos to come tomorrow including a look at designs of mine I've had created in the past couple of weeks and design plans for the future.   

Mucho love and jewels,

XClaire