fini 2008!!!

Mes deux dernières créas pour clôturer 2008!!

My last 2 pendants to finish 2008!!

Christmas Merry-Go-Round

Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's question: How do you celebrate Christmas? What traditions do you have?

Well... I wouldn't go as far as describing the way I celebrate Christmas as full of of traditions... in fact, the only tradition I really have kept over the years is to eat and drink until I cannot physically stand the sight of either... When I lived in France, Christmas Eve used to be the big night: huge meal, several bottles of wine with the family tribe, open the presents at midnight, then boggie the night away in a local nightclub or in church for the Christmas Mass - and yes, I have been known to do the latter in the middle of the dance floor...:)
Next morning is spent looking at the gorgeous presents from the night before - and bracing yourself for lunch...Aperitif first, of course, which takes an hour. My mum likes to go for the catered Christmas style, and it always starts with a huge plate of shellfish - I say shellfish, well, one year we were unlucky enough to have another type of shelled buddies on the plate, YUCK!!:( white wine flows freely and after an hour of scraping crab legs, we're all already pretty squiffy and having a good time, then arrive 2 kinds of meat (complete with tons of veg and salad), some poor kangoroo or other supposed to bring exotism in the middle of rural Brittany - exotism is why my mum goes for the caterer's funky menu... I said to her to go for shark or snake next time, but she told me off French style, shrugged-of-shoulders and mouth a perfect O: "Oh dis pas de conneries!" - then cheeses with red wines, then dessert with "digestif", by then 5 hours have disappeared. Dad then flops on the sofa and snores loudly over the Christmas programmes.
The rest of the day is spent dropping on family (or being dropped on), sitting, eating, drinking, catching up..

In Turkey this year, Christmas is a quiet affair, just my husband and I, and our little dog, Jack. We ate like pigs last night, did it again all day today, opened our presents this morning, gave Jack his treats from his own stocking, went for walks by the sea, enjoying the crisp sharp sea air and sunshine. Lovely...

Check out The Merry-Go-Rounders replies: direct links can be found on your right.
Thanks for reading!
Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Natural Little Treasure...

A little natural treasure this time... almost literally from my backyard: I took Jack (our terrier) for a walk a few weeks ago and discovered quite by chance a natural mineral growth a few meters away from our house. The houses around here are built on hills - not enough flat surface to go round, this is earthquake country - and we live a pigeon's wing's away from the sea. I did some research on the internet and found on Eni oken's www.jewelrylessons.com a free tutorial to download on identifying rocks, from Shelby of www.skeenastormstones.com. Still unclear, I contacted Shelby, who was about the most helpful and lovely person EVER, and who talked me through all the tests and possible things my mineral could be. In the end, we got it: it's CALCITE! Thank you Shelby for all your help and advice!!!

Calcite has metaphysical and healing properties too! This is what I found about calcite on http://crystalsandjewelry.com:

It increases and amplifies energy. One of the energies it amplifies is learning abilities, so it's a great stone for students.

All calcites are helpful in lessening of fear and reducing stress. Calcite is probably the premier cleanser of stored negative energies in the human system, and works on all levels from the physical to the etheric. This makes it a very purifying stone. It can also be used to clear negativity in the environment, such as a room that it's in.

In the realm of relationships, calcite brings its properties of grounding and centering, to make it a stone of reconciliation. Calcite can ameliorate arguments in a relationship, and help maintain a practical balance between the people in the relationship.

Physically, calcites are good for back pain, increasing physical strength, teeth, eyes, and are generally good for healing. Clear calcite can be used for treating all conditions. It can also be used for detoxifying and as an antiseptic agent. Calcite is especially helpful with emotional and mental conditions.

What a treasure!!!!

Play Misty for Yuna

Yuna is a little 5 year old girl who is fascinated by opalites. Her aunt (my sister-in-law) owns "Play Misty for Me", an opalite necklace I made last year, so I've been asked to make a similar one for Yuna. I hope she likes it!




Yuna est une petite fille de 5 ans qui a flashé sur les opalites du collier de sa tante Yannick. Yannick est ma belle-soeur, propriétaire du collier "Play Misty for Me" que je lui avais envoyé l'année dernière, et elle m'a demandé si je pouvais refaire un collier d'opalites pour Yuna...J'espère que ça lui plaira!

Merry-Go-Round

Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's question: How do the seasons and weather affect your art and craft?

Well, I'll start with my 2 favourite seasons in Turkey: Spring and Autumn. They are both very similar in that they bring breathing relief thanks to cooler temperatures; Spring brings new life, new colours, new beginnings and new inspirations. The outdoor lifestyle is once again ours, as well as BBQ nights and lovely walks in the warm sun. Spring here is fabulous! It makes me look at stones with vibrant colours, crystals that have unbelievable shine and sparkle in the sun. I sit outside, look at my sketch books, watch the sea from our balcony and play. It's great! Colour combinations become more daring, designs get chunkier... Autumn is really like an Indian summer somewhere else, with temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius right until 3 weeks ago, but days are shorter, night falls earlier, so colours are more subtle. Autumn is when I like copper most. I'm drawn to long necklaces and lariats, darker stones like labradorite and onyx, and big hoop earring too, so OTT normally but that are only a hint when I finally can let my hair down, weather permitting.

Now Summer here is something else: It's HOT, I mean blistering, I mean I burn the tip of my nose whenever I go check the mail, my long hair is permanently up, or I risk heating up even more and become a new mutant version of the tasmanian devil, I'm sticky, I'm unconfortable, my lovely stones naturally so cool to touch become slippery and hot and difficult to handle under my sausage-like fingers, a project that doesn't run smoothly becomes a major harrassssssssment as my energy plummets and my temper rises as high as the temperature gauge... So, I think stupidly, let's go out and get inspired? Not in Bodrum, darling! The city centre's gorgeous and sweet narrow paved streets parrallel to the shore are littered with smelly tourists rubbing armpits to unlucky noses with debonnaire carelessness, killing inspiration as well as assaulting everyone's olfactory senses. The beach's no better. So big stones are out, coz they stick to my skin at weird angles, short necklaces are out coz I get strangled when it tangles up with my hair, in fact everything's out! I long for light and airy jewellery, thin cool clean-lined silver and natural small stones and crystals which will roll around and let my skin breathe. I hardly wear any jewellery in summer.

Now Winter's just about started here, and I regenerate, I've got my big stones back through Autumn and I'm happy. I read a lot, I want to try something new, I spend hours on the internet reading blogs, recording whatever inspires me in my sketch books, creating is faster, I feel I'm moving forward, I find new inspirations. But Sweet Shredded Coconut, I really do HATE the cold, so I can't WAIT for our looooooong 60 days of winter to be over... :)

Check out The Merry-Go-Rounders replies: direct links can be found on your right.
Thanks for reading, and happy Winter everyone!

Little Treasures/Petits Trésors

Little beads chosen for their colour, their irregularities, their uniqueness, transformed into 3D pendants made of woven and sculpted wire.

Des petites pierres et perles, choisies pour leur couleur, leur irrégularités, se transforment en pendentifs 3D uniques, en fil de métal tissé et sculpté.

An Eni Oken pendant for Feryal, one of my local stone suppliers.

Un pendentif Eni Oken pour Feryal, chez qui je trouve la plupart de mes pierres.

Deux pendentifs style sculpture, un avec une pierre que j’ai gardée d’une de mes premières ‘fausses’ ventes sur Dawanda (quelqu’un commande et ne donne plus aucun signe de vie…). Une pierre fabuleuse de couleurs, une fluorite, qui a besoin que la lumière passe au travers, sinon on ne voit pas ses couleurs…L'autre avec un jaspis aux tons chauds ocres et rouges.

Two sculpted pendants, one with a stone that I kept from one of my first ‘false sales’ on Dawanda (someone orders then disappears…). The stone is a fluorite, it needs light going through it to show off its colours…The other with a warm ochre and red jasper stone.

Custom Ring/La Bague d'Aurélie

Aurélie m'a demandé de faire une bague en argent qui irait avec son alliance en or blanc. Après lui avoir envoyé quelques idées, elle a trouvé bague-à-son-doigt: ce design tortueux agrémenté de deux pierres, labradorite et pierre de lune. Merci pour la photo Aurélie!

Aurélie asked me if I could make a silver ring that would look good with her white gold wedding ring. Afeter sending her a few ideas, she found what she was looking for in this tortuous design with two stones she likes: moonstone and labradorite. Aurélie, thanks for the pic!

Going back to my roots/Un pas en arrière...

In an effort to find myself again, I went back to making ornate pendants. I started making these after buying a fabulous tutorial from Eni Oken (the only tutorial I ever bought on wire-wrapping), and now I mix her technique with classic cabochon wrapping methods. Very satisfying to make, very versatile design, suits a multitude of stone shapes, all in under 3 hours. Baaaargain.



J’essaye de me retrouver, et je suis repartie vers les pierres hyper décorées que je faisait au tout début de mon aventure avec la méthode wire-wrapped, apprise grâce à un tutoriel d’Eni Oken (le seul tutoriel de wire-wrapping que j’ai acheté). Maintenant, je peux mixer sa technique avec la méthode classique pour sertir un cabochon – bien que ces pierres sur les photos soient percées… J’adore les faire, c’est un design qui s’adapte à beaucoup de types de pierres, le tout en moins de 3 heures. Le pied.

Halloween Merry-Go-Round

Our second Merry-Go-Round post coincides with Halloween, so the question this month is: "What's the scariest part of creating?"

I have to change the question a bit, because for me there are several scary bits in crafting...

*Time: It goes, it flies, it disappears when I'm crafting. 3 hours vanish and it feels I've only sat down and worked for half-an-hour. There isn't enough time in the world for me to create all the designs I have whirling in my head. Some of them will never see the light of day...

*Taste: Are there really many people out there who like what I make? Or do most think that I am full of myself, that I'm really nothing special, neither's my jewellery, and I shouldn't really be allowed to present such rubbish work to the public... I tend to forget the positive reactions my jewellery receives, and focus on the negative ones. One person may look at one item, and decide that the rest isn't worth looking at. Ever. And there's nothing I can do about it...

*Self-confidence: I always look at Artists' jewellery (I'm a crafter, not an artist), and I sigh and wish I had the skills to make such beautiful art, and it gets me down and I look at my creations and they are nowhere near their standards and is it really worth carrying on? and I'll never be able to make gorgeous things etc...until I kick myself in the butt and remember that they, too, had to start somewhere. And anyway, I can't stop making jewellery. So tough tities to those who don't like my stuff.

*Have I got it? Have I lost it? Have I ever had it????

*Creator's block: Some days, nothing works. I start a new project, but it's not hanging right, it's not symetrical, it's too heavy, the colours look horrendeous together, the shape's wrong, it just does not look right, etc... In every creation there's a part of me, so I feel empty when it goes wrong.

*Compulsion: The more something looks wrong, the more I want to get it right, I will change details, redo sketches, make another piece from scratch only to toss it aside or allofasuddenIgetinarageandIthrowitaccrosstheroom, and *sigh* get depressed for a few hours... I also absolutely HAVE to get up in the middle of the night to try a design that's just popped in my head. Drives husband crazy.

*Moving forward: where do I go from here? Having an online shop has been a great experience and the bane of my crafting existence. I lost myself trying to think about what would sell, rather than create what I would like to wear... I'm still trying to find a style of jewellery rather than lots of different ones. I don't feel it's merged yet. The more skills I learn, the more I want to learn, the more confused I get.

Tremendous fun though, wouldn't change a thing.

Please go read the Merry-Go-Rounders' answer to this Halloween scary question:
(Direct links are near the top on your right)

http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com
http://fancypicnic.blogspot.com
http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
http://florcitasart.blogspot.com
http://halfanacreblog.blogspot.com
http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com

Happy Halloween!!!

Parure J'ai laissé mon coeur à Beijing...

Thank you to Aurélie for sending pictures of herself (no, that's not me!) wearing her new "I left my heart in Beijing" set. She bought the necklace, and asked if there was any chance of a matching bracelet and a pair of earrings... but of course! So here they are, and they look great on you, Aurélie!

Aurélie a craqué sur le collier ‘J’ai laissé mon Coeur à Beijing’, un collier lasso avec labradorite et breloque, en métal argenté, avec comme lasso un cœur fabriqué main, en wire wrapping, par lequel passe la fin du collier. Aurélie m’a ensuite demandé si possible de faire un bracelet et des boucles d’oreille assortis… et voilà !! Merci Aurélie pour ces photos!!

Cette parure est une de mes préférées, car le collier est classique avec un twist, il est très long, les pierres ont un feu fabuleux, le bracelet est fin, et tout est assorti grâce à l’œil exercé de leur nouvelle propriétaire ! Travailler avec Aurélie a été un véritable plaisir ! Encore merci, du fond du cœur !!

Ban lifted/Interdit suspendu

Just found out I can access my blog, as ban was lifted while the court is waiting for more evidence... Won't hold my breath... Can't help but hope!!!!

Je viens de m'apercevoir que je peux accéder à mon blog!!... vérificatons faites, l'interdit sur Blogger a été suspendu pour le moment, car la cour de justice attend d'avoir en sa possession des dossiers apparemment manquants... Je ne peux qu'espérer!!!

Blogger banned in Turkey/Blogger interdit en Turquie

Haven't been around lately because:

Since last Friday afternoon, people living in Turkey have been unable to access blogging platform Blogger or any *.blogspot.com domain from a Turkish IP address, due to a ban imposed by a court in the south east of Turkey.

The ban, initially blamed on Oktar, a well known turkish creationnist responsible for the ban of Wordpress and Google sub-domains last year, is the result of a court case initiated by Digiturk, a subscription based digital TV platform that owns the rights to the live broadcasting of Turkish football league games. Apparently, Digiturk asked Blogger to take several blogs or blog entries down containing links to pirated transmissions of the live games. Blogger did nothing, Digiturk went to court and under Turkish intellectual property law, they managed to get Blogger banned completely, effectively banning millions of websites that have nothing to do with Turkish football or pirating.

Whilst Digiturk have every right to complain to courts about people who infringe on their copyrights, it is because of loopholes, ancient laws and severe lackings in understanding the internet, that such a ban has been possible. Why the Turkish government does not see it as a violation of freedom of speech is beyond me...

Depuis vendredi, il a été impossible d'accéder à la plate-forme Blogger ou n'importe quel domaine *.blogspot.com d'une adresse IP turque, en raison d'un interdit imposé par une cour de justice dans le Sud-Est de la Turquie.

Au premier abord, l'interdit fut attribué à Oktar, un créationniste Turque responsable de l'interdit en Turquie de Wordpress et des services Google en 2007. Il apparait maintenant que Digiturk, une plate-forme de TV numérique qui possède les droits de transmission de matchs de football live de la ligue turque, a demandé à Blogger d'interdire plusieurs blogs ou entrées de blog contenant des liens vers des transmissions pirates de matchs en direct. Blogger n'ayant rien fait, Digiturk est donc allé devant les tribunaux et conformément à la loi de propriété intellectuelle turque, ils ont réussi à faire interdire Blogger complètement, en interdisant de cette façon des millions de sites Internet n'ayant rien à voir avec le foot (mon blog, notamment).

Tandis que Digiturk a parfaitement le droit de se plaindre des gens qui empiètent sur leurs copyrights, c'est à cause des trous, des lois anciennes et le manque sévère de compréhension de l'Internet, qu'un tel interdit a été rendu possible. Pourquoi le gouvernement turc ne voit pas cela comme une violation de liberté d'expression? Vraiment je n'en sais rien et j'en reste sans voix...

Xmas/NOEL

In a bid to offer sweet and cheap xmas gifts in the current world crisis, I have listed 4 new pairs of earrings in my shop, made with Swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls, glass beads and semi-precious stones, costing between 8 and 10 euros each.

Petits cadeaux pas chers et tous mignons pour Noel, dans ma boutique vous trouverez 4 nouvelles paires de boucles d'oreilles, avec pierres naturelles, cristaux et verre...

I've been Tagged!

The talented Julia of Spotted Sparrow, tagged me!



Here are the game's rules:
1-Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4-Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



Now, 7 facts about myself...

1- I did Chinese for a year a lifetime ago at Uni.

2- I can't speak Chinese to save my life...

3- I love high heels but have never been able to wear them in a dignified manner...

4- My husband says I make the best profiterolles in the world!

5- I can't live without cheese.

6- I'm a huuuuuuuuge Harry Potter fan.

7- I used to be able to sit on my hair.



Now let's see...

http://weefolkoutfitters.blogspot.com/

http://www.isabellasart.com/weblog

http://marikach.blogspot.com/

http://miniaturesbyrachel.blogspot.com/

http://www.lilypangart.blogspot.com/

http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com/

http://lolamaeonline.blogspot.com/

Vintage

Première tentative d'oxydation de l'argent...méthode bonne franquette: avec des oeufs!!!
Deux paires de boucles d'oreilles en argent .925, enfermées dans sac plastique pendant une heure, avec 3 oeufs durs, tous chauds, bien fracassés...Nettoyées, frottées à la laine de fil de fer très très fine, polies... Un p'tit air victorien/gothique pour une paire, et le bleu et le blanc qui ressort bien sur l'autre, dans l'ensemble je suis assez satisfaite du résultat...

My first try to oxydise silver, using eggs. Those 2 pairs of earrings I made a few weeks ago needed something extra...So they spent an hour in a plastic bag with 3 hot crushed eggs...Washed, wire wooled, and polished, one pair mow has a true vintage/gothic/victorian feel, and on the other, the colours suddenly came alive! Overall, quite pleased...

Fleurs tissées/Chainmaille flowers

Une autre création en tissage d'anneaux de jonction en argent .925, qui m'a pris une journée entière de travail, car ne comprenant vraiment rien aux tailles/diamètres/épaisseurs recommandées (et j'en passe!) des anneaux pour tel ou tel tissage ou projet, j'ai fait la seule chose que je pouvais: J'ai pris mon fil d'argent, une épaisseur seulement, ma petite scie, mes petits doigts et plusieurs tailles de mèches de perceuse, et j'ai enroulé, scié, enroulé, scié... jusqu'à ce que je me retrouve avec une pile d'anneaux de tailles différentes. J'ai construit et défait au moins 5 fois la même fleur (trop rigide, pas assez rigide, anneaux trop petits/trop grands, etc... ), pour arriver, tard hier soir, aux boucles d'oreilles que vous voyez ici... Je les adore!!

Another chainmaille creation, in sterling silver, which occupied my entire day yesterday...Since I'm totally impervius to the diameters/thickness/AR/springback/whatever/ recommended for such and such a weave, all I could do was to grab one gauge of wire, my saw, several drill bits and coax my fingertips into coiling/sawing/coiling/sawing...until I got piles of different sizes jumprings. I constructed and undid the same flower about 5 times (too floppy/too tight/rings too small or too big, etc...) and ended up, late last night, with these sweet little earrings...Time well spent, me thinks... I love them!!!

Merry-Go-Round

Jump on our first ever Blog Merry-Go-Round and join a group of artists/crafts women as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft... Here's how it works: every month, we all blog about the same question, which this month is: What was the journey to your craft?

You can read all our answers in our respective blogs:

http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/

http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com/

http://fancypicnic.blogspot.com/

http://lilypangart.blogspot.com/

http://florcitasart.blogspot.com/
http://halfanacreblog.blogspot.com/
http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com/
http://blog.glamasaurus.com/

And here's how I started crafting:

About 5 years ago, I stumbled quite by accident upon an evening silversmithing class, which was taking place at the college I was teaching Foreign Languages at the time. I joined, and never looked back... I have been making jewellery ever since.

The class was a revelation for me: I never really 'crafted' before, and I found making things with my hands immensely enjoyable, and my brain, which totally craved learning new skills (instead of teaching them!!), was swimming in pure bliss, in a kinesthetic environment...I threw myself into it, made tons of mistakes, enjoyed then the 'making' more than the 'designing', now the opposite, and I always wanted to know more, make more, change styles...So I taught myself wire wrapping and beading techniques, recently tried chainmaille, and plan to explore PMC in the near future... I'm sure, one day, my craft will come together... :D

Here are a few of my creations...

More chainmaille/Deux mailles de plus...

Continued with the therapeutic chainmaille, fingertips are now developing thick skin...But can't stop!! I'm addicted!! Two new weaves: Byzantine and Tryzantine. Deux nouvelles mailles: Byzantine et Tryzantine...Je continue mon apprentissage, ce 'tissage' est vraiment therapeutique, une vraie drogue!! :P

Chainmaille

I've tried chainmaille today for the first time and had a WHALE of a time! I thoroughly recommend it! Check out http://www.mailleartisans.org/ for tons of fantastic FREE tutorials, articles and info on this ancient technique (weaving jumprings)! I made the jump rings from scratch, friction-burnt a couple of fingertips in my frenzy, and was totally amazed with the results! The weave started up as a 'quarter persian', to which I added a ringto every 2, my first chain was way too floppy... Aujourd'hui j'ai essayé quelque chose de nouveau... oh, nouveau pour moi, mais la technique est hyper ancienne: chainmaille! Les chaines sont faites d'anneaux de jonction uniquement. Je me suis amusée comme une petite folle! Visitez leur website http://www.mailleartisans.org/ où vous trouverez des tutoriels GRATUITS, ainsi que des articles et des infos. J'ai coupé les anneaux moi-meme, (Ah, mes doigts, je ne les sens plus...)...Que pensez-vous du résultat?

Cadeau/Present

My lovely 60 something year-old neighbour found out only yesterday that I make jewellery, barged in and demanded to see the Easterya collection...She was so sweet, I had to give her something, and she chose this necklace, she said the agate leaf will help protect her heart...Ma voisine, une gentille dame de 60 et quelque, a appris juste hier que je fabriquais des bijoux...Elle est arrivée en trombe à la maison et a demandé à voir toutes mes merveilles...Elle est adorable, et j'ai voulu lui faire un cadeau...Elle a choisi ce collier, car, m'a-t-elle dit, la feuille en agate protègera son coeur...