Wednesday, August 31, 2011

STILL SUMMER!


To tell you the truth, I love wearing bright, colorful, bold jewelry all year long... it's summer for me all year long -- jewelry-wise, at least! :) But in the summer it's even more fun, as colors really pop in the sun!

- Gorgeous Greek ceramic bead, evil eye beads -

- Glass beads from Rhodes -


- Glass beads from Rhodes -

- Evil eye glass bead -

PS: No, this is not my evil eye collection... be patient and stay tuned! :)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

"Crazy Crocus" MYSTERY SOLVED!


Thank you Yael for helping me solve the "crazy crocus" mystery! The flowers I have seen in my woods here look astonishingly like Crocus and they actually belong to the same family, but they are actually a variety blooming in autumn and from late summer! Hence the German name "Herbstzeitlose".


Colchicum autumnale, commonly known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron or naked lady, is a flower which resembles the true crocuses, but flowering in autumn. (This is not a reliable distinction, however, since there are many true crocuses that flower in autumn.) The name "naked lady" comes from the fact that the flowers emerge from the ground long after the leaves have died back.
It is an element of the submediterranean-subatlantic flora. Its area of diffusion reaches from Southern Ireland and the Southern area of Great Britain to France, the North of the Iberian Peninsula, the Southern areas of Middle Europe and Northern Italy, to the Northern portions of the Balkan Peninsula and Western Ukraine.
Autumn crocus thrives mostly on humid, rich meadows and woods -- in the latter case, preferably in sunny spots, where it is relatively warm and the plant is protected from winds.

FIRST SIGNS OF AUTUMN ON A HOT SUMMER DAY


A wonderful sunny day... the sun shining in the deep blue sky, and still full summer! But in the woods the first unripe chestnuts are lying on the ground, blown down by the strong winds...





And the crazy crocus is still in bloom in the same shady spot in the woods where I had photographed it a little less than 2 weeks ago... It has been in bloom all the way through the heatwave! Isn't this crazy??? Wild crocus blooming in August -- AND during a heatwave!

Friday, August 26, 2011

NEW PENDANTS!


So here they are... and they became pendants! The buttons were quite large (approximately 3.5 cm diameter) and they were perfect for pendants!


As you may remember, the first step had been decoupaging the wooden buttons with tiny scraps from a Greek magazine. Then I painted the buttons. And the last step was varnishing them with a thick layer of varnish, then adding some embellishments as you can see... hammered copper wire spirals and glass beads.
Very Greek, very Mediterranean, very island-ish, very summery... very ME. :)











---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See more lovely creations of the week on Zsazsazsu's blog!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Experimental Jewelry: VICKYGONART

I love experimental and unconventional jewelry! In this series I'm featuring jewelry artists who work with unconventional materials and techniques, and who see a ring or a pendant as a canvas to express their art and creativity.

Vicky of Vickygonart is a talented painter and jewelry artist from Andalusia, Spain, and one of the very first artists I admired on Etsy. I immediately fell in love with her colorful and cheerful handpainted jewelry, which is a celebration of the Mediterranean lifestyle and color and reflects the Spanish love for life and happy colors. Vicki's work rightly deserves the title of "Wearable Art", as she adorns a woman with unique, one-of-a-kind art pieces. Each and every one of her earrings, pendants, rings and brooches is lovingly handpainted with her distinctive style and choice of colors and motifs.
You can find Vicky's unique Wearable Art in her Etsy shop Vickygonart. Fiesta time... enjoy!










Saturday, August 20, 2011

HOT


I love these color weather maps of the Deutscher Wetterdienst! :)

The second half of August is traditionally the time when Autumn starts creeping in and days get cooler and sometimes rainy... In the North of Italy July is usually the hottest month. But this year has been a little strange... and after an extraordinarily cool and rainy July, August has been a full summer month, and now we even have a heat wave with temperatures well over 30°C!

This is the European heat alert for today. I am in that orange area in the North-West corner of Italy...

Friday, August 19, 2011

CREATIVE CORNER: Mini Decoupage on Wood


One of the exciting and challenging things about making "experimental jewelry" is that I get to experiment with lots of techniques on very small surfaces... I have these large unfinished wood buttons, and I decided I wanted to decoupage them as a basis for further decoration.



Rather then decoupage, I did a mix between decoupage and papier mache! I glued little scraps from a Greek magazine, using a generous layer of decoupage glue so as to drench the scraps and fix them well to the wood.





Stay tuned for the next steps!