Jack Daniels Industry Night 4/11/2016 Carondelet Los Angeles

Carondelet Los Angeles 

I was asked to engrave at the Jack Daniels 150th Anniversary Party which took place at the Carondelet Los Angeles. Carondelet was built in 1928 as an Italian villa.The venue is right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, and features hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, exposed beam ceilings, and a fireplace it's quiet trendy and has a romantic feel to it.

I arrived 45 minutes before the event started and was set up in the patio area ready to go in about ten minutes. I had a quick look around before the guests arrived. There were different rooms which meant that the guests would be in seperate rooms throughout the evening...Max the organizer was so detail oriented and his staff were very welcoming. I started work promptly at 7 and everyone was quiet pleased with the Jack Daniels Rock glasses which were complimentary. All the guests signed in with me and I engraved the glasses with their first and last names and the glasses were then placed by the exit so as they left the glasses were ready for them to pick up all in alphabetical order as they left the venue.  

I was done promptly at 11:00 PM and ready for a long drive home. 

Below is a sign made for me by Max and his team...Really loved it! 

Thank you again for the opportunity to work with you...

Akoko

 

Sundance 2016 Here I Come! #Buyaladyadrink

Late December I was invited to engrave at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Utah for Stella Artois.I had never been to Utah before so I was quite excited. The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, is an American film festival that takes place annually in Utah. With 46,731 attendees in 2012, it is the largest independent film festival in the United States. Utah weather was quite a shocker to me as it was ice cold. 

I arrived at around mid day and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by huge posters advertising the Sundance 2016 festival all over the airport walls! Since I did not know where I was headed to this made me comfortable that at the very least I had landed in the right place.

The festival occurred January 20-31st. 

I had an hour to get to hotel and up to Park City Utah in time for my first event. Quiet a tight schedule but I made it. The location was up in the slopes and superbly cold. I hauled my bag full of my equipment up the cabriolet and headed up the slopes. 

Below are pictures going up to the Stella Artois airstream. 

 

  Stella Artois has three limited edition chalice this year. One is Designed by Kenyan artist Wini Awuondo’s. The chalice shows graceful hands accessing safe water. Buy a chalice & join in support of @Water. #BuyALadyADrink 

I was super proud to see Wini Awoundo's chalice being Kenyan myself!

Since 2015, Stella through Buy A Lady A Drink campaign, helped Water.org provide more than 290,000 people in the developing world with 5 years of clean water, and in 2016 we’ve partnered again with Water.org to help more people around the world who don’t have access to it.We believe it’s important for all of us to leave a mark. For every limited-edition Chalice sold, we can help provide 5 years of clean water for 1 person in the developing world. Please help this cause by purchasing a Chalice. 

#Buyaladyadrink #LeaveyourMark 

The three chalice that are available 

Engraving Events and Fall Season Happenings

Over summer I had the pleasure of engraving at wedding held at the Prestigious W Hotel in Beverly Hills.  The guests got to enjoy  stunning views of Los Angeles and Hollywood in the comfort of your own W lounge chair or private luxury cabana during cocktail hour.  The main reception was indoors and everything was planned out to the tee. 

The engraving started once the guests had dinner and each guest came up and write down the names they wanted to be engraved. After engraving the glasses the bride and groom had provided a little brown bag for the guests to place their  glass in! Every detail again was taken into consideration. I was able to complete all the glasses by 11PM and had a little fun with the bride at the photo booth. The videographer by the way was one of the best in the industry! 

 

Here's a clip of the video...

W Hollywood Hotel Wedding | Cheryl + Kevin

From Anything Everything Productions

Watch “W Hollywood Hotel Wedding | Cheryl + Kevin” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/137917471

The bride also left me the best review of all and I was quiet touched... Thank you again, Cheryl. 

Here is the review. 

MightyMangs said... 

We hired Akoko to do on-site glass engraving as a wedding favour for our August 2015 reception. We were so excited to find her because we really wanted to give personalised wine glasses as a party favour. We did a lot of research, trying to find someone that would do on-site engraving Southern California. We found three vendors in total (including Akoko). One was WAY too expensive, another one was not very pleasant to deal with but Akoko was just perfect! Here's why: 1. She's experienced. Akoko does a lot of on-site work for big companies like Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdales, Hennessey and Stella Artois where she'll engrave perfume bottles, beer glasses, liquor bottles, etc. 2. She's super nice. We were determined to surround ourselves with nice people on our wedding day because who needs the stress of dealing with meanies and drama queens? Akoko was really responsive and easy to work with from the start, and most importantly, was very friendly and sweet to all our guests throughout the night. 3. She's reasonably priced. Bear in mind that this is a specialized service. But at the end of the day, the cost-per-guest still worked out to be within our budget. 4. Her work is solid. Everything is hand-done. The "font" is like an elegant calligraphy. How We Made It Work: We purchased stemless wine glasses with our names imprinted on them (we went through DiscountMugs.com). The glasses were then placed at each guest's place setting at the reception. Throughout the night, guests had the opportunity to go up to Akoko's station to get their glasses engraved on the spot. We got a ton of compliments after the wedding about the personalised party favours! We ended up having her engrave names on musical jewelry boxes for our flower girls as well (I dropped the boxes off with her and then picked them up about 2 weeks later). If you're looking for something unique for your wedding... Akoko is your girl!

Below is a hand sculpture that I did this morning on Silver. Really liked the way it turned out...this was a commission that Was brought to me after the client had visited several engraving places and they had told her that it was impossible to get it engraved..I absolutely agree that laser engraving cannot work on hard to reach areas but that's where hand engraving comes in handy! 

  

Great News! #Handmade@Amazon

I am super thrilled to announce my participation in the Launch of handmade@amazon. I've had to keep this a secret for so long but am finally glad I can share the news about this amazing opportunity! Am stoked and nervous at the same time:) I am still trying to get all my items to my new store...

On Thursday, October 8th, at 12:00 am PST, Handmade at Amazon officially opened my store to customers!! 

www.amazon.com/handmade/Akoko-Art-Engraving

http://www.amazon.com/Akoko-Art-Handengraved-Crystal-Glass/dp/B0179YWEG2/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=ACRS00F9OVBAK

Also new for me I was commisioned to engrave mermaids. The first two were quite challenging getting everything together but once j got the hang of it I really liked them! I did a few After for sale and they are also available on My website at AkokoArt.com or at Amazon. Below are pictures of the mermaids on wine glasses. I was quiet pleased with the mermaids and As you are aware I can engrave them on any type of glass you want....

 

This year I've had more commissions than ever which is a good thing! One of my pieces was commissioned by long time collector Roger. Gifted to Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch!

Florence Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as matriarch Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch. Thank you Roger and Flo for the lovely photo!

#BradyBunch

Hope you all had a great Halloween if you celebrate it! This year u decided to take on cheerleaders role and threw on sneakers with it...my daughter went in as Spider-Man again.i am always looking forward to the candy that my little girl brought home, well the bucket was half empty!:) otherwise I had an awesome time and here's my outfit...enjoy.

New Floral Collection ready for the Fall.

Wow, Summer is over....

It's amazing how much I look forward to summer and all the fun in the sun and then it's over before I completely and fully embrace it. I must admit am not crazy about Fall..the cold nights short days and layering clothes..the list goes on

 This summer I started a new floral collection. I have gotten great reviews on the collection which includes wine glasses, toasting flutes, perfume bottles and more. 

Below are a few pics from the collection 

To purchase any of the pieces above please visit AkokoArt.Com

If its October, its time for Art in the Park.  There will be over 105 artists and artisans at "The Civic Green" in the Newport Beach Civic Center--100 Civic Center Drive. I will be one ofthe artists participating. 

The 18th Annual Galaxy of Glass is currently going on at the Fallbrook Art Center. The Show has had rave reviews over the years and this year all the artists in the show just raised the bar with show stopping pieces. I've included a few pictures from the opening night as well.. 

 18th annual Galaxy of Glass deemed 'best one ever'.

You can read it on: http://villagenews.com/arts/18th-annual-galaxy-of-glass-deemed-best-one-ever/

Michele Watch Trunk Show and Engraving Event

Nordstrom South Coast Plaza. 

Saturday September 19th 2015 

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of engraving  at Nordstrom South Coast Plaza for Michele Watch Trunk Show. The event was scheduled from 10am-5pm. The engraving however took place from 1-5PM. Big thank you to all you joined us and previewed the latest variety styles of Michele watches, including limited pieces.

I was extremely impressed with the new collection! Perfect for the avid watch collector and also suitable for everyday wear. The watches have interchangeable straps so investing in the watch head you like is the first step. The straps are also quite versatile and you can choose one to dress up an outfit, make a statement or downright casual! Finding the ideal head as a first time buyer is definitely an exciting time as this is basically your foundation and reflects your personality. From their signature diamond two tone collection to gold metallic diamond. I decided as soon as I started engraving I would be definitely wear the white diamond deco collection as seen below.

 

When I arrived at the store there was already a client waiting for me to engrave her watch.. Below area few of the engravings I got to snap a picture of in between clients...I definitely enjoyed personalizing the watches. Everyone was quite pleased with the engravings! I must say I had quite an amazing afternoon. 

If your thinking of buying a Michele watch I would definitely go for it! 

For a complete schedule of Michele Trunk Shows see below

http://www.michele.com/en_US/shop/content/michele-trunkshow_schedule.html

Koi- Symbol of Love and Friendship.

Last few weeks I've been under the weather and Thankfully I feel so much better now. Cheers to good health! So much catching up to do and so little time as the summer is slowly coming to an end. I am proud to say that I've tackled most of my pending commissions and am looking forward to working on new Pieces and upcoming Engraving Events. 

I recently engraved Koi fish bowl a few months ago.  koi comes from Japanese, simply meaning "carp." It includes both the dull grey fish and the brightly colored varieties. In Japanese, koi is a homophone for another word that means "affection" or "love"; koi are therefore symbols of love and friendship in Japan.

 The original bowl seen below in bold pink colors sold a few weeks ago. The  couple who bought the bowl loved the colors and placement of the fish and how the light reflected on the bowl. I was sad but happy to see the bowl go to a loving new home! I just completed the second bowl in the series and it will be available for purchase at Art A Fair, Laguna Beach which runs through the end of this month. The new bowl titled "friends" is the second one in the collection and is numbered #604 which has bold hues of blues and green. Friendship is a gift that you offer yourself, so choose your friends as carefully as you choose your Most lavish gifts! 

XO

Cosmic Koi bowl hand engraved and signed. #567 

Koi varieties are distinguished by coloration, patterning, and scalation. Some of the major colors are white, black, red, yellow, blue, and cream. 

 

Friends #604 

 

"Fish recognize a bad leader."
#Conan O'Brien