The hyacinth girl

'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;

'They called me the hyacinth girl.'

-Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden,

Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not

Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither

Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,

Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

                                           in Wasteland, T.S.Eliot

Czech glass beads, silk, Vintaj chain, Swarovski pearls, lava beads, copper wire, and handmade ceramic beads and focal by Michelle Johnston (Chellev2).

Mermaid Tales

The story of the beautiful mermaid that wanted to feel the earth beneath her feet.

The fish and creatures of the sea are her confidants.

One day, her wishes come through and she steps on land for the very first time...

Her beloved is frantically looking for her (yes, I know, there are some gaps in the story, but you have a good imagination, don't you? Besides, I couldn't depict the whole story 'cause if someone ever buys the necklace, they can't be walking with their chin on the ground from the weight of the 300 pages, now can they?...)

They fall into each other's arms and live happily ever after.

The End.

Inspired by Linda Larsen's journal in the Handcrafted Jewelry e-magazine.

Transformers

Starting my jewelry making adventures not so long ago, I started buying everything I could get my hands on; (NB: I am not implying I no longer buy everything I can possibly can...as my imaginary bank manager can attest to...SIGH) I knew little of metals, had trouble deciphering the sizes of beads and components, and had no clear idea of want I wanted to do with the little techniques I had started playing with.
So I bought a few items that I tossed aside as soon as I got them.
That's what happened with the copper-plated components below.
(If there are any palm-readers out there, feel free to send me your findings).

At the time, all I knew to do was to stick a bead onto a ready made headpin, make a standard wrapped loop and boom - a boring earring.  I might not have known much about making jewelry then, but I could tell they wouldn't make nice pieces.

Going through my stash the other day, I came across them again. This time I had a few more techniques under my belt. Could I actually make something nice with them? Hmmm...

So I applied a patina to the components, got some nice pictures that I glued to them, covered with Ice Resin, made headpins and earwires which were patinated, cleaned with steel wool, tumbled, and wrapped with freeform or fat wraps with various gemstones.

Now that's what I call transformers!

I'm quite happy with them! And I didn't waste my components. Sweet...

Ok, I think this post needs a break from all those dangles... (and so do I - there were 56 copper headpins handmade and wrapped with small beads...aarrghhh). Here's something  different.

I think the teal ones look like little people.

Talk to you soon.

What's in a name?

Some of my dear customers have commented on how they like the names of my pieces - I've even heard that the name was the clincher when deciding whether to purchase a piece.

So because I started the year in sloth mode (I don't get it, when I'm working a full time job I come home in the evening and work on my jewelry, the same for almost the whole weekend, and now that I'm on holiday, nada!), I had a brilliant idea:

I will just sell the names! I can be lazy all I want, the neighbors can sleep without my hammering, and I can actually go for a manicure! So I already prepared a few items for sale:

• The wolves howl in your absence
• The constant artist (ok, borrowed from the movie "The Constant Gardener", so it's 50% off...)
• The style maverick travels the world

So, any takers?

Hmmm, thought so. Anyway, not as fun as actually making some pieces, so here's two that I managed to come up with.

Give a bee a helping hand

There's a bee on some dill, there's a hand... What else can I tell you?



Give a bee a helping hand

Off to see the world

Color blocking for jewelry - already got the thumbs down from my home jury panel, but then if I followed their taste I'd be wearing suits with ladylike blouses, high heels and single strand pearl necklaces, or low waist ripped denim jeans with snickers and black t-shirts - depending on which of the jurors we're talking about...

Off to see the world

Cheers all!

Enjoy your patch of grass!

I don't make New Year resolutions, because a) I don't like to put pressure on myself, given that I change my mind frequently and then suffer with the guilt of not following things through; and b) it's not necessarily at this time of the year that I decide something's got to change.

Having said that, there is one thing I would like to change this year, and maybe I'm just pondering it for longer because I'm on holiday and have more time to do so. I'm the kind of person who tends to think the grass is always greener over there - and "there" is any place but where I am now - and I really mean a physical place. So I'll try to make 2012 the year when I start appreciating more the patch of grass I landed in, in this corner of Africa.

• I live in a city whose streets are littered with trash and the plastic bags swirl at your feet when it's windy.
• Where the palm trees and the acacia trees which bloom a beautiful crimson red in the rainy season, preceded by the purple jacarandas, also line all the streets - there are so many of them!
• A place where bureaucracy and disorganization is so bad that if you have to take care of the same document ten times, each time the procedure is different and the documents required change at the clerk's will;
• Where you can afford help at home and therefore don't even know where the broom and the ironing board are!
• Where the police stop you randomly and fine you for imaginary infractions - and there's nothing you can do about it...
• Where women dressed in colorful capulanas (traditional cloth) come to your house to sell you prawns fresh from the sea, yummm!
• Where you're so distant from your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and everyone else that sometimes it feels you're not part of the family anymore.
• Where you're never farther than 5 minutes from the sea and the fine sand.
• Where you avoid going out at night because of the crime rate, and you drive with your windows up and the doors closed, and constantly look at your car mirrors when you stop at a traffic light.
• Where there's no long commute to work.
• Where the mail simply does not work and import taxes are so high that it's so hard to get the supplies you need to pursue your passion - jewelry...
• Where animals roam free - as they should.

So do you see? How can I love it? And indeed how can I not love it...

My wish for all is that you appreciate your patch of grass. Happy 2012!

View of Maputo and the bay

Fresh seafood everywhere

A pack of rare wild dogs on the last visit to the Kruger Park

Walking on the beach with faithful Max

It's Christmas, alright!

Because I just got an early gift!

I was featured in Susan Lenart Kazmer's blog, the Ice Queen! http://iceresin.com/icequeen/

Susan is a famous and successful artist, jewelry designer and metalsmith whose work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum of Art, the Ohio Craft Musem and the American Craft Council Shows.

So when I got an email last month asking if they could featured my necklace on the site, I nearly fell off my chair. See hubby? My pieces aren't as crazy as you think! (Or everyone else is too!)

I feel so coool.. (and ice-queenish...)

Merry Christmas all!

It started with a kiss

I'm no matchmaker

I've been making earrings lately.

Coralina

Which is very unlike me... I'm a necklace person. And I have not been able, after two years of doing this, of getting it into my head, that people like matching earrings! It's because I never wear them, I always wear either/or!

But why don't I immediately make the earrings after I finish the necklace, when I know they'll probably sell? Can you tell I'm really good at the business part? My friend Elizabeth excells at that! I love having her by my side when someone is looking at my stuff. She'll go "have you noticed this or that bead?", "do you know this part is also handmade?", "what? you're not getting your sisters a gift too?" She will be my marketing manager when I become a famous artist (but she has clear instructions not to alienate her daytime job boss just yet...)

Urban safari

Beach waves

While I just stand there in silence, hoping the genius of my work will be enough to mesmerize the customer into parting with their hard earned money... I just find any inkling that I'm pushing someone into buying a piece highly uncomfortable. Plus I'm shy. Very shy.  When I was a child, if I wanted ice-cream, in an effort to make me more outgoing, my mom gave me the money and told me I could have it if I purchased it myself. I would go without just so I didn't have to go up to the counter. Pathetic, I know. Of course her strategy paid off in the long run, given that I'm now a shopaholic...

Sunburst

Which brings me to blogging. It's always been easier for me to write than to speak. And I'm enjoying putting my thoughts into words, but also the fact that I can basically say whatever I want, because the only people reading this are the few friends I've sent the link to. And my hubby who told me he reads it from time to time. So sweet... So blah, blah, blah, blah...

You see, I have not done all the internety things you need to do to atract traffic to your blog. I believe they call those techniques SEO - don't ask me what it stands for, I just thought someone misspelled CEO (as in Chief Executive Officer...)

Ammonite swirls

Coral drops

I don't tweet (or chirp, or coo, or hoot...), I don't have a FB page (well, I have a personal one which I haven't checked in a month..), hell, I can't even make the damn text in my blog entries wrap around the pics... arrrrghhhh... I really need to get into this stuff, otherwise what's the point of having a blog no-one reads? Well, maybe just because like my banner says "it suits my fancy"!

Fiquem bem.

P.S. Of course, now I did it the other way around - these earrings have no matching necklace...oh boy...

African earring tree