FAVORITE BOOKS: My First Art Jewelry Book

There are books that are dear to your heart... some of them even change your life or give it a new direction. This was my very first book about creative jewelry making... Until then, I had been making beaded jewelry and I loved it -- but I was searching for new ways to express my creativity in new, experimantal ways. I found this book in a bookshop in Berlin one summer back in the 90s... This wonderful book opened a whole new world to me... It was the first time I read about jewelry making as a form of art, and about "jewelry designers" and "jewelry artists". It showed how amazing pieces of jewelry could be made using materials such as polymer clay, fabrics, paper, plastic... and many other "non-precious" materials. I still remember how I would spend hours admiring the dreamy pieces in this book... how I reveled in the amazing colors and shapes! What I was most fascinated with was the discovery that it was actually possible to create a piece from scratch, modeling it with different materials, and giving it a completely unique, one-of-a-kind character. This stuck with me ever since... and my journey never stopped! I still love this book dearly, and even though I have many more creative books now, this is still the one that's dearest to my heart.

FAVORITE BOOKS: Doors, Cats and Windows

I love this tiny little photographic book! It was a present from my sweet cousin Sylvia. She told me she had found it in a lovely bookshop close to the ruins of ancient Olympia, in Greece... and that she had immediately thought about me and that it was made for me! It is truly "made for me"... this booklet shows dreamy images of - as the title says - Doors, Cats and Wondows. And not "just some" doors, cats and windows! All the photos were taken in Greece by photographer Pierre Putelat. It's amazing and incredible how these themes so dear to my heart are enclosed in just one small booklet! I love cats, I love the dreamy blue doors and windows of the Greek islands, and I love Greece!

It is a tiny, moving booklet full of poetry and magic, and it touches my heart every time I get lost in these blues, in these wonderful little corners that are so dear to my heart! Is it magic? Yes, it is. Sylvia can always do that.

Can you tell that it's a great source of inspiration for me??? Oh I can get into the images and just dream away... and be in that dreamy whitewashed alley, or look into that window with blue shutters, and open that blue door onto an enchanted garden, and pet that sweet kitty dozing in the shade...

German Finds :)

I'm very happy that I finally found a really good course book about the Greek language! I had long been thinking about learning some more Greek beside the very basic things I know, I have a few conversation booklets but I was really looking for a real course book and I couldn't find any in Italy. Being a country of travelers and lovers of Mediterranean countries, Germany offers a huge choice of guide books and language books, so here I found the right book! As a language teacher myself, I'm very picky and I wanted a good and serious book - you know, the traditional good method with dialogs, grammar and exercises. I had seen in the internet that the best comments were about one particular book, Griechisch Aktiv by Dimitrios Mastoras, and also http://www.rhodos-info.de/ (a great website about Rhodes by a German couple who has been traveling to Rhodes for 30 years) recommends this book as the best available. Bayreuth is not Berlin, but I was so lucky to find the book directly at Hugendubel bookstore without even having to order it!