t(h)ree sisters

...for dryads and other tree protectors.

lucky fish!

No new jewels just as yet but here's a new photo of my lucky goldfish!

Oh, and I did finish the papers for library school on time. Sort of... :-p I'm really not used to writing anymore. Oh well, I just have to stick it out for a year & then I can hang around in libraries professionally, yay! ;-)

pink - grey - dark brown and a pinch of grass green...

new pendant

new assymetrical pendant (talisman/talisvrouw) in vetrofond odd tapenade + silver!

self conscious glass beads

[This is going to be the short version from the Dutch side (sorry) (homework calls; have to finish these tasks for library school -home of the book geeks extraordinaires! ;-) ) (the plan is to become a library assistant by the end of the school year)]

This week's bead treasure:




I don't normally talk about my glass beads. They"re an essential part of my jewelry design, for sure, but I tend to see them as a whole with the silver elements, the stone beads, the "whiskers"...
Only since I got my groovy new torch last summer, my glass beads scream to be exposed. A bit at least, in this very bad scan. It's lots of groovy new Vetrofond mixed colours, copper and shimmers... and some effetre and CiM.

Finished jewelry will have to wait, I have to write some papers now first... :-/

goldfish!

• last saturday glassworks had their second open day! how nice it was seeing all the glasspeople again & meeting Sarah Hornik who had come from Israel for the occasion (she had taught classes in the Netherlands and Belgium days before). Her glassbeads are amazing! You have to see them IRL, they're like small sculptures or totems even...
  Also had a little taste in new Vetrofond odd colours -quite literally a new taste because G & Q (of Glassworks) cooked up some yummy names to go with the colours...lovely autumn shades, with subtle copper glitters...
  
• I'm a busy bee making new pieces like this talisman/talisvrouw (Reichenbach glass + rutilated quartz, amber and jasper + Thai silver) and this one with goldfish! A mix of vetrofond tangerine (with shimmer) and effetre rosaline & aventurine
  
• My site, aarghh.be, is well on its way to shed its old skin! I'm working on a new design with new content (and an English mirror! :-D ) (start of 2008).
  

fun with dystopias

I do love me some dystopia.

If you know me a little, you know I embrace my inner geek and watch a lot of Sci-fi with a side of fantasy and horror. It seems as if these genres tell more about the narrator's vision than others, and dystopias (usually some sort of SF, although LOTR can be one too) even more so, focusing on the negative aspects of a imaginary society to point out a hopefully better one.

It can be quite sad and desperate and woe is the human race, but at the same time it can give a good laugh too. Like why do the buildings always have to look so Art Deco and the bad guys (and good guys too) wear Gestapo uniforms? Dresses and flowy clothes suddenly not convenient anymore? You try to do those combat moves in a stiff uniform, LOL!

Most of them have precious little nature in them, it's all city and ruins (and space). And for some reason people don't sweat in the future (although some movies do show the grubbiness of life, thankfully) .

So most of the movies in the list I've watched, but I'm really crazy about just a few, like Serenity (FINALLY some feminism, thank you Mr Whedon!), 1984, Metropolis of course (trailer), Star Wars (the old trilogy pretty please...), THX 1138 (you'll never think about Bach's opening choir of the Mattheus Passion quite the same... ;-) ), Fahrenheit 451 (Oskar Werner who played Montag, the main character, had also played Mozart in a 50's bio pic and I used to have quite a crush on him!)(I was about 12... ;-) ), the Matrix, Blade Runner, La cité des enfants perdus (Director Jeunet being of my favorites, cf Amélie Poulain), Dark city (a classic with a dreamcast, and a creepy kid in said gestapo uniform... :-p director Proyas made The Crow and I, Robot as well) and my recent discovery of Himmel über Berlin (I saw City of Angels when it came out, but boy am I glad it didn't compare to this -at all! what were they thinking?!).

And that's just a few movies, don't even get me started on literature! ;-)

my new studio

At last I could work in my new studio last weekend...and my BBBB (Bethlehem Betta Bead Burner) (movie) works wondefully on natural gas and an oxycon ... what a difference with the hothead and that little plumber's torch I worked with all that time!
Thanks to Griet en Quinton of Glassworks I discovered this groovy torch. Thank you guys! ;-)

Just a short post for now, just take a look:

BBBB

(omg my hair's long! :-p )

*squish!*

the treasure:

Sushi and Patrick and Betta

Right -updating isn't my strongest point, I know...bear with me. ;-)

More than a week ago I posted in the Dutch side of this blog about the loss of Sushi, one of my cats. And mainly because I didn't feel up to it I haven't posted it here yet. The last days I stayed up with her all night so you can imagine I was exhausted...She had a lung condition. The vet put her to sleep in the end, there wasn't much quality of life anymore for her...but it sucks to have to take that decision. Still, I got to say my goodbyes, and despite her severe illness (she barely could move in the end) our last moments together were good and intense.

But there's also positive news, like the photoshoot I did with Patrick! He was in search of a model, I found a new means to show my jewellery...this was our first shoot, there will probably be others. A very exciting new world! And posing for photos isn't as easy as t looks, especially if you're as self-conscious about yourself as I am...but the results are well worth it!

And I bought a new lampworking torch, a Bethlehem Betta, to be installed in my "new" studio (my mom gave me a room in her house)! It won't be installed before August 14 probably, so I need to be a bit more patient. (It's hard to find qualified people to do this)

Also, I found a cheap copy of Allende's Daughter of Fortune. Just the summer book I need. Weee!

Chopin's ballads

Only they can comfort me today it seems. I just put the cd on the computer since my radio/cd-player doesn't play cds anymore (I won't throw it out just because the cd player doesn't work!).

And I think I've fallen in love with Blogger and all the neat little features to mold it into your own page!

Yeah, I don't have much to say really. Today I've been cleaning the house, computer and garden for most of my day and spent it mostly on my own, so naturally I start talking to myself in my pretty new blog...

I'm trying out some styles and colours for necklaces for friends, and hope to work a bit on my website but I have to juggle with my time and energy.

hello world ;-)

About time my own site got info in a foreign language... So far it's all in Dutch, which makes sense since most of my artistic activities are limited to Flanders, Belgium...but with me writing and updating only in Dutch I left out my international contacts...so this is to make it up to you! ;-)

On the menu on the right you have some links to my 2007 jewelry collections. In time I'll add more: to my glass art, photos, webdesign and who knows what else!

And in the "mini me" section you can find some interesting bits, pages I made over the years about subjects I'm passionate about, especially archetypal (Jungian) psychology, mythology, fairy tales...they influence my artwork and the tradition of storytelling is as rich and as old as that of jewelry/body adornment. They go hand in hand for me: packed with symbolic meaning their language is immediately understood by the soul, by the unconscious and you can savour them over time and discover new levels of meaning to them.

Ok, now I've done my best to confuse you all, LOL. Nevermind, just remember I love fairy tales and make jewelry. :-p

I also suffer from CFS, which explains the gaps between posts and creations.

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