ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Penny Cheng

by Valerie

 

The Artisan Group is proud to announce this week’s Artist Spotlight Feature is Penny Cheng of Saniki Creations!


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SANIKI CREATIONS

We caught up with Penny and asked her a few questions about her incredibly intricate  chainmaille jewelry, and her experiences so far working with TAG. Here’s what she said:


Tell us a little bit about your shoppe. 

I started making jewelry by chance. My first intention was only to fix the jewelry my daughters purchased from those mall outlet stores where you can buy ten earrings for $5.00. After fixing a few earrings, necklaces and bracelets, I started to put my own spin on them, adding extra charms or beads here or there, or deconstructing it entirely to make something new. I found it rather fun and relaxing so I started taking apart any jewelry items I can find and remade them into something different.

After a few months of making jewelry, fixing jewelry, and giving whatever I made away to family and friends, I had a thought that I should be selling them instead and make a little bit of money to finance my new hobby, so in early 2009, I bought a domain, Saniki Creations, and opened up an online store to sell the excess inventory I had. Back then my creations were mainly beaded items made with crystals, semi-precious stones and a few wire-wrapped creations.

In 2010, while perusing images on the computer to get some inspiration, I stumbled upon an image of a chainmaille bracelet and thought to myself, “this is what I want to learn”. Within six months I taught myself most of the standard chainmaille weaves and commenced changing my store to specialize exclusively in this technique of connecting hundreds of little rings together to form jewelry pieces.


What is your favorite product from your shoppe and why? 
I love everything I make, or I wouldn’t sell them, but my favorite creation thus far is not a jewelry piece at all, though I do have pendant versions of it. My Chainmaille Framed Tree of Life Wall Decor, Cybele-Diana, is my pride and joy. This is my original concept to merge two of Earth’s resources, metal and stones, and two techniques – one I’m good at (chainmailling), and one I’m not so good at (wire-wrapping), together as an honour to nature and the circle of life it gives us.
When you’re not handcrafting such gorgeous chainmaille jewelry pieces, what are your hobbies? 
Being a full-time mom of three and running my home business doesn’t really give me a chance to have other hobbies. Designing is my hobby and I see potential products for my store everywhere I go. When I do have free time, I spend it with my family and do typical family things like picnics in the park, playing board games, pile everyone into the car and go the the video store for a movie then to the grocery store to get a bunch of junk food, and my favorite… Karaoke.


What do you like best about The Artisan Group? 

Joining The Artisan Group has been one of the best business decisions I have made. Being surrounded by supportive like-minded artists and professionals had enabled me to move my business forward, to set goals for myself as an artist and a businesswoman I wouldn’t have set before.

I have learned so much in the year I have been a member and the opportunities that The Artisan Group has given me and to the group as a whole I will be forever grateful for. The past year I had the honour of gifting celebrities (Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Ryan Gosling, Nicole Richie, Vanessa Lachey and Mariska Hargitay) plus had my creations inside swag bags and displayed at the 2012 GBK MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge and in September to gift the Press and Media at the 2012 GBK Primetime Emmys Gift Lounge. Opportunities like this I would not have done without TAG.

Penny recently participated as a display participant in a luxury celebrity gift lounge on June 1-2, 2012 at L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, in honor of the The 2012 MTV Movie Awards Nominees and Presenters.

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