Award

I've been awarded The Versatile Blogger award by Lindsay. Please check her blog... it's full of fun tutorials, stories about her life and her art...


There are several rules to accepting this award and they are:
1. Add the award to your blog -- See sidebar.
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you. -- Mille mercis, Lindsay!
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself. -- See below.
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers. -- See below.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

So... here's the 7 random things about me :
1. I graduated as an elementary school teacher... saying I WILL NEVER EVER TEACH... and then went on to study sculpture... and now... well... I teach sculpture to teenagers and I love it!
2. As a kid I preferred playing with bows and arrows (that I made) than dolls... My mum told me that one of the few times she saw me playing with my dolls was when I sat them all on the sofa and then proceeded to shoot them all with my brother's toy gun... Herr Freund ... Freud (LOL Lucie... c'est ce qui arrive quand on se bat pendant 1h30 avec blogger... Je suis plus amie avec Jung que Freud!) would have a lot to say about that... after all he saw the child as a polymorphic pervert...
3. I grew up in a farm like setting. We had a lot of animals : sheeps, pigeons, chickens, rabbits, pigs, a cow, a donkey, a goat, a horse, dogs, cats and a monkey... and we rescued also an owl at some point and a crow... I learned a lot about life and death watching them... I remember being woken up in the middle of the night to witness the cow giving birth... and I remember the day we had to put down the cow, I remember the look in her eyes...
4. When we bought the cow, we bought another young calf ... we knew from the start that that calf will be reared for the meat... I liked him a lot... I guess I was sad when it was killed... but ate his meat anyway... and today his skin is in my living room... he's been dead for about 30 years now... his name was Ferdinand... (je mange toujours de la viande, Lucie... mais très peu...)
5. When I lived in town , I had a pet rat... I needed a pet and it seemed to me that a rat would not suffer to live in an appartement like a dog or a cat would... his name was Basil... because of Basil The Rat (one of my favorite episodes of Fawlty Towers).

6. I've always had a thing for rusty things, weird stones, bones, old things...
7. I don't think I will ever grow up... because most of the things I did as a kid- like drawing, crafting, collecting- I still do... only I'm better at them now..
I said most of the things... I don't shoot dolls anymore... only did it once and really don't remember it... so as far as I know... maybe my mum made up that story...

I pass along The Versatile Blogger award to these great bloggers:


Jodi http://blog.so-charmed.com/
Sherry http://stillwatersart.net/
Lucie http://eclecticbijoux.canalblog.com/  surtout ne supprime pas ton blog!
Alek http://infinitystop.blogspot.com/
Gayle http://avintagegreenlife.blogspot.com/
Sharon http://thefabricofsweetrepose.blogspot.com/
Janna http://palimpa-lim.blogspot.com/
Jay http://hiddenmissives.blogspot.com/
Dorcas http://wondrousstrangedesigns.blogspot.com/
Solekoru http://solekoru.blogspot.com/
Mireille http://mduroy.canalblog.com/
Lyle http://almostheavengifts.wordpress.com/
Jen http://www.jenworden.com/
Professeur Boilot http://www.professeurboilot.com/
Lindsay http://alienbeadings.blogspot.com/

There are many more awesome bloggers on my list... just check the sidebar

Now I'd like to know why blogger won't let me highlight words when I want to insert a link or change the size of the font... any idea?... I had to play with the html code and it takes ages doing so...

So do not worry if I don't leave a comment on each blog tonight... I just spent 1h30 writing this post...

Edit: I think I figured out why... I was using the old version of blogger... the new one seems to work better...

The Keeper

ingredients : hemp, leather, steel chain, vintage bone beads , holey stone from Moldovia, Victorian clay pipe piece, two tiny Roman glass beads, bullet case, horse hair, vintage silver charm from Syria, vintage African trade bead, ostrich egg shell heishis and one of my ceramic boxes.

A note on the small bone beads... 4 x 9 ... 9 is the Hermit in the Tarot, if you multiply 9 by any number... then add the numbers you will always get 9 ... 4x9 = 36 ... 3+6= 9 ...

A note on the horse hair, hair are related to the sky, to freedom and strengh...

I don't write very often about the process.. I almost never make stuff that don't have a meaning... a lot of thinking goes in the process of choosing the elements... For exemple, I am aware that the bone beads I use once were living beings... same goes with the leather...

The Roman beads, many hands touched them before ending in mine... and so on...

head study

small study I made last year... about 15cm high

Been spending the last couple of days with the King of The Blues... enjoy!

update

It changed a bit... might change again... and got another one in the making... love needle felting!

Thanks to those who took the time to comment on the previous post... :)))

Oh... and to those who pin my work on their pinterest boards... that is very nice of you, I'm honored but at the same time I feel a bit uneasy about it... can't really explain why... and don't want to hurt anybody's feelings... just have mixed feelings...

grave digger

Yes... I did it again... robbed an ancient grave site... in my head... what's on the left is spoken for... me... ;)

Vintage wool... well at least 15 years old... I washed it but there are still pieces of straw in it... it belonged to a very kind ram that we had.. he's buried somewhere in a field but the exact spot is long forgotten... maybe that's better like that... otherwise I would have dug it up to get his skull...

And that is what I did with the wool... I needle felted it (good job I bought a few needles... broke one)... the focal is a ceramic piece I made years ago... There's an iron spike a colleague gave me, some burlap I dyed and very soft leather... the neckpiece is upcycled from an old necklace ( I might not keep it or alter it a bit)... now should I add the ostrich egg shell discs or not... that is the question...

A piece of wood that Alek sent, I carved it a bit... it somehow wanted to be a ghostly horse...

Custom order... something between mourning jewelry and memento mori... very different from what I usually make...

Been a bit busy after all despite the cold...

Thanks for all the comments you left on the previous posts... :)

Hope you're all keeping warm and creative... :))

... me thinks blogger has pms again... won't let me add link to the post... can't highlight the words... wordpress is getting more and more tempting...

The Rain Maker

Made last year... a bit of everything... amber, turquoise, coral, silver, pearls, jasper, lapis lazuli, agate, bone, wood... and more...

Dreaming about rain... it's freezing in Europe... -14°C (about 7°F)

spoiled bat...

First thank you all for your birthday wishes... from the bottom of my heart :)))

This is what the mailman brought this morning... goodies from Sherry... some yarn, a beautiful card, some jewelry supplies, some yummy candy (yes a tequila with worm lolly), a gorgeous necklace, earrings and a ceramic pendant she made... I'm spoiled

And this is from Suzanne, we had a nice dinner together yesterday and she gave me those goodies... the tiny beads in the plastic bag are Roman beads... :)

And this is my very messy work table...

Stuff I fired last week... the pendants were made using the mold Alek sent me some time ago..
And a necklace...

today...

May you all have a great day! :)

Sulpicia Lepidina

Ingredients : turquoise, Baltic amber raw and not raw, a vintage silver plated bead, wood beads, vintage African brass heishis and three Roman era discs ( one shell, two agate), sterling silver hook.
Total length: 4" or 10 cm

Sulpicia Lepidina was the wife of Flavius Cerialis, prefect of the ninth cohort of Batavians. They lived in Vindolanda (Hadrian's wall) around 100 AD.

on my bench

no... I did not rob a ancient grave... ;)

little boxes

Made two weeks ago, fired this past week.. they were quite fun to make..

And yesterday my jewelry making mojo made a come back... 'bout time...
Made these and some other stuff...

And more music... Tymon Dogg...I knew that this guy was a talented musician, he played with Joe Strummer... but only got curious about him this week... not much on youtube... but he has a website... I ordered one of his albums... he's brilliant..

something old some things new

Made in the year 2000... I wore it a lot... need to re-string it... it's high fired ceramic...



And a couple of wooden amulets..

Nursing a cold... sneezing and all... hope you are all keeping warm and staying away from those sneaky germs... ;)

looking back

I've always had a thing for jewelry and wearable ornaments... not the sparkly stuff though...
But I only started making my own some 13 years ago while I was still an art student... the coin only dropped in my third year of studying sculpture... I could make beads and with those beads I could make my own jewelry! Here are a necklace and a few bracelets I made then...

On my last year of studying sculpture, I was given the opportunity to take part in an exhibition about Charlemagne in the Karl Ludwig Museum in Aachen (Germany)... it was called "Charlemagne 2000".
This lost wax casting in pewter was made for that event... I made a few other things... some I gave away, some got lost... maybe I'll find them when I do the attic's spring cleaning... we'll see...

Have a great week! :)

show time!

When I saw this necklace pouch on Alek's blog, I fell in love and reserved it before it got to her etsy shop... the photo does not do justice to it, it's awesome, light weight, and just plain gorgeous... I love it!


And it did not travel alone.. look what Alek sent along... isn't she crazy?
A bag made from an old traditional greek dress, pieces of wood she picked up for me, a very old knife she found in a field while cutting wood, an old piece of pottery, an ex-voto(?), shells, stones, a replica of a greek coin, a post card of one of her photos (she's not only a talented jewelry designer she's also an awesome photographer), some greek ceramic beads and a cool carved wooden block (will be useful when I get my clay out again in a few days)... Thank you so much Alek... mille millions de mercis! :)

And this awesome pin was made by Sherry... It did not make it in the photo I took the other day... Isn't it cute and fun? I love how Sherry upcycles things I would never think of using... Merci merci merci Sherry! :))

And the first post of the year would not be complete without an update of the monster.. yes some tiny changes have been made... can you spot them?

This one has been in the making for a couple of months (maybe more)... I don't think it's done yet... it's kind of a long process to make this kind of piece... I'm toying with the idea of putting it in my etsy shop... I don't know...

I hope you all have a great start of the year...:)