Go Indiego!

Oh my, this is so exciting I need to tell you this right away: I got featured on Indiego! :-D
What the heck, you ask? Well, it's a free ad service run by Jesper and Katie for independant artists. You can sign up and get the opportunity to post up to 5 ads and in exchange you add the indigo widget to you site (as you can see in the side bar), which displays all its members in random order.
It seems so simple but I think it's really effective -Every time you visit this page (or hit the refresh button as I've done so many times... ;-) ) you discover a new artist. And I love the variety of artists and personalities and mediums and techniques...I made a bunch of pleasant discoveries!
I'm in this week's feature -it changes every week and so far we've had the pleasure to meet Morelle and SarasTextureCrafts through it...which makes me think, is there a possibility to read past features again? That would be nice...as these little interviews show what makes an artist tick (or read about a certain artist's food cravings, LOL)
Even though I didn't answer the question on inspiration...
Actually I'm still thinking about it! You remember last post when I mentioned the creative process...I've jotted down just some bits and pieces, in my special little notebook. :-p It's just not something to be answered lightly, and I'm thinking about how to put it in language...It's such a rich, multi-leveled idea. And our language can't really quite grasp it I'm afraid. But I'm working on it...let me get back to you on this!

Well, thank you for giving me this opportunity! :-)

and I'm back!

After a week of being in my studio without being able to do anything in there (ok, I managed to work one afternoon...) due the house being renovated and turned upside down, I'm glad to be back home...

The house certainly is looking sooo much prettier now (& more importantly being way better isolated!) even though there were a few glitches. There's no front door at the moment. LOL. But that's being taken care of.

Next week is off to the KANTL for a spell, and then again back to Ronse (where the studio's at) the week after to paint the new windows. I'm sure I'll have more time to do some lampworking then!

funfunfun:

• OMG it's an octopus. And he's called Davy Jones! :-D I'm the very lucky winner of this wicked necklace by Glamasaurus! She's creates totally cute jewelry which she sells from her site and dawanda. Thank you so much, Andreanna! I'll be stalking the postman... ;-)
  

markt van morgen

Ik doe mee aan de markt van morgen op 13 juli in Antwerpen! :-D Een kunstmarkt voor ontwerpers.

De juwelen die ik ga verkopen, zet ik ook op dawanda, dan kun je alvast neuzen & uitkiezen. Zoals deze ring (links) en een ketting van glas en lava!

Als je graag iets wil reserveren geef je me maar een seintje op kristienberghs at gmail dot com, of als je verliefd bent op iets kun je het natuurlijk ook meteen kopen! (je mag het binnen de week na ontvangst terugsturen als blijkt dat het toch niet je ding was, no worries!)

twitter

Ok, this is the experiment: I twitter. Updating little bits of your life as you go (called microblogging), so friends and family can keep track of your life...I heard about it through Felicia's blog (have you ever watched her webseries The guild?! it's hilarious) and was quite sceptical at first (why on earth would you want to make public every silly little thing you do? What sandwich you're having for lunch, etc. ?!) but it kept me thinking...until I realized it might be just the thing for me!

You see, I'm a horrible person to keep in contact with. I've been known to reply to mails months after I received them, or even not at all. I used to be moderately active on some forums but I've changed into the master lurker. I don't answer my phone all the time. I even forget to recharge it and discover that only after a few days...

I simply can't. But don't think I don't try! I'm just not a social butterfly. At all. It's a mixture of being extremely introverted (which isn't the same as being shy, mind you), high sensitivity, my own creativity and suffering from CFS. I just don't need other people around me all that much. I either get emotionally/mentally overwhelmed and physically exhausted which causes me to shut off and retreat until I feel better, or I'm so submerged in a creative process that I lose track of time. And of course afterwards I also need to recover for a bit, because those processes are always intense, even though I can't live without them. Maybe I'll write more about the creative process some other time. So often, when I'm back to being me, a long time has passed without me realizing it.

So I'm giving Twitter a go, see if it works for me.

You can follow my updates in the side bar...

...and thanks for listening (you don't have to reply, I totally understand! :-p )

not your Disney fairy tales

I just discovered the trailer of this new movie "The Fall" and its beautiful images took my breath away! Apparently it's filmed all over the world. And it's got Lee Pace in it, which is always a good thing! ;-)



It made me think of the fairy tales of Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth (trailer) and The Orphanage (trailer). They seem to share the same combination of beauty/innocence and violence/horror.

cat's eye murrini

So dear readers, this is how a murrini (a millefiori that doesn't look like a flower) is born... :-p Many thanks to my mom who patiently took the action photos...

Actually I don't have a picture of the first step because I only realized halfway through that I wanted some pictures of the process -it involved making a blob of black glass and pressing it into the pupil's form.
I layered it with a hint of pineapple sparkle (vetrofond) first and then lots of amber.




layering, keeping it hot, layering...oh -missed a bit! ;-)


actually only afterwards I realized this eye reminded me of something...hence the lolspeak.


melting, rolling, melting...

and we're pulling! weee!

Priceless.

Who's our cute little Sauron eye? :-p



Thanks for watching. ;-)

work in progress - glass bead

come and look over my shoulder... ;-)

in stitches!

Yay! I finished my ring! :-D It's all silver. I loved the idea of a patched up ring -something worn and ragged in a precious material like silver. Must be the influence of the Wabi-Sabi book I've been reading a couple of months ago...

So it took me two full days of sawing, texturing with linen cloth, drilling, sewing, soldering and forming the metal...didn't add stones yet, but I might with a next project.

And this ring -at least the stitches- is your next clue for The Project! :-p Don't get your expectations too high, it's just something I've been planning on doing for quite some time but I fear it won't be until the summer vacation, after library school has finished.