glass + jewelry by kristien

desktop calendar for February

2012-01-31T11:53:00.000+01:00

Your eye candy for February: Blooming scars (2009) in lampwork glass and found wood.

Desktop calendar for February: click to download!

Glass stems sprouting from cracks in a piece of salvaged wood. It's the same piece you can see on my avatar (here and here).

In the meantime it has been remodeled by two other artists with long whiskers, so this is one of the few photos that remains...

Yin & Yang were once upon a time this cute and innocent...

Artwork Remodelers, who, us?

Lolly Pop-up!

2012-01-15T15:15:00.001+01:00

In less than a week aarghh is coming back to Antwerp for the Lolly Pop-up! I'm showing pins and note cards and earrings, but there's so much more -all wonderful Belgian Etsy designers and creators.

I've got to get back to my rendez-vous with Mr Schopenhauer *sigh* but I'll try to be there on the 21st. See you then! ;-)

Here's a litte sneak preview:

it IS almost Valentine, after all.

red blood cells on a blue china dish

a new release! what could it be...? dot dot dot...

note cards!

a wish and a present for 2012

2011-12-28T23:42:00.000+01:00

Dear reader, thank you for following my blog!

I know I don't post that often and at irregular intervals, so thank you for sticking with me. That will probably stay the same next year, as I'm still a full time student and a night time artist.

But I've got something for you to look forward to! At the end of each month I will post one of these for the upcoming month:


January 2012

It's a desktop background for January and it's all for you - click to download and set as background! (edit: link now works, lol)

Each month will feature some of my lovely lampwork glass growth or tentacles with the month handwritten (in Dutch) in good old pen & ink (well, Ecoline). Something pleasant yet practical. ;-)

January 2012 features fungi... Enjoy!

Have a wonderful 2012!!!

And here's something else to look forward to: aarghh's coming back to Antwerp for this wonderful project:

The one and only Lolly Pop-Up store!

helping out: magick4terri

2011-11-28T23:07:00.001+01:00

Late night post: Terri Windling needs your help. She's a most wonderful artist, editor, author, and blogger, a generous and inspiring person who is facing serious issues at the moment.

Magick 4 Terri is an auction that runs until Dec. 15, with many wicked cool offers from authors, illustrators and artists like Neil Gaiman, Brian & Wendy Froud, Alan Lee, Charles Vess, Cory Doctorow, Cassandra Clare, ... !!! Try to contain yourself, it's seriously awesome. :-D

So if you are a fan, you can bid on one or more items by your favorite author or artist, win it (with a bit of luck) and do some good at the same time. You can see how it works on this page.

You can also offer something yourself, as I did this brooch:

Bids start at $30 and I take care of the shipping costs. Good luck!

blowing bubbles!

2011-11-28T10:03:00.001+01:00

I reduced the price of my bubbles necklaces as I'm concentrating on other collections now. Wouldn't they make a lovely holiday gift? ;-)

brown, orange and green

pink, light yellow and warm green

tea rose orange & swirly green

dark green, yellow and lilac (with green dots)

yellow, dark blue and green

Meanwhile I'm busy working on my papers...deadlines are approaching way too fast (as usual). I just have to start writing!How come it's always that hard just to start?!

However, research on my paper on dance theatre brings me to exciting new places: the world of traditional Indian dance mixed with contemporary narratives at the December Dance festival in Bruges.This is Akram Khan, the curator of the festival talking about Kathak, a classical dance from North India:
:

Lost at E minor*

2011-11-07T09:29:00.000+01:00

A musical analysis due tomorrow: The 1st part, an Allegro poco, from Vivaldi's bassoon concerto RV 484 in E minor. Have a listen:

I used to be good at this! Now I'm mostly staring at the black mass of notes with a rather puzzled expression on my face. Authentic cadences where? I-IV-V-I which way? My musical abilities are getting rusty! Oh well, I'll just have to work a little harder than before (and I'm not quite used to that...LOL).

It's for one of the few musicological courses left on my curriculum for my BA in musicology which I hope to get next (school) year. I'm considering to take on another major, in Fine Arts so I could at least do some research on glass, but I'll have to find out if that's realistic.

*Lost a E Minor is actually a blog on art & design! If you're in need of inspiration and food for thought, that's the place to be.

I'd better get off the internets and back to work now...

look over my shoulder: work in progress

2011-11-04T13:52:00.000+01:00

soldering the fine silver settings on the sterling silver pendants (without bail, that gets soldered on last)

this is part of a pair of earrings a bit like these: filing off excess solder, texturing, brushing and polishing inside the setting; getting ready to set the cabochon

a pendant after the setting: finishing off by sanding, cleaning and polishing

Did you know Aarghh has its own fresh Facebook page?

Happy Halloween from Knopff, Ensor & me!

2011-10-31T10:46:00.000+01:00

gems found at Mu.zee in Ostend

on vacation mode...

2011-09-14T11:19:00.000+02:00

...so I'm taking you with me:

gazing through a crystal ball...

2011-08-12T16:03:00.000+02:00

Hokusai's Kōshu Inume-tōge (The Inume pass in the Kai province), subject of my comparative paper of his and Caspar David Friedrich's mountain landscapes.

Since my sixth year I have felt the impulse to represent the form of things; by the age of fifty I had published numberless drawings; but I am displeased with all I have produced before the age of seventy. It is at seventy-three that I have begun to understand the form and the true nature of birds, of fishes, of plants and so forth. Consequently, by the time I get to eighty, I shall have made much progress; at ninety, I shall get to the essence of things; at a hundred, I shall certainly come to a superior, undefinable position; and at the age of a hundred and ten, every point, every line, shall be alive. And I leave it to those who shall live as I have myself, to see if I have not kept my word.

Hokusai wrote this introduction for his 36 views of Mount Fuji (1830) which he published when he was in his seventies. He kept on painting.

This is reassuring... I've always felt that developing as an artist, maturing into your own style, takes lots of time and shouldn't be rushed. I think that's why I've shied away from taking lots of art classes -I have done a few, but just to learn the technical basics (drawing, lampworking, metalsmithing) so I could work on it by myself afterwards. I feel I have still a long way to go, so much to learn, but it doesn 't worry me. On the contrary, it gives me a rare sense of serenity. I read this wonderful reminder (and Hokusai's quote) on Terri Windling's blogpost Growing into your work.

been busy...

2011-07-24T09:00:00.000+02:00

silver lining

...but all's well: passed my exams, spent some quality time melting things & creating in the studio, participated in a fun project, restocked my Etsy shop and now working on my 2 remaining exams, writing a paper on the oldest printed book (hint: it isn't Gutenberg's Bible!) and one on comparing Hokusai & Friedrich. Good times!

auf dem Wasser zu singen

2011-04-25T09:50:00.000+02:00

a treasury I made, in greens and blues, inspired by flickering water surfaces and tree groves, based on Schubert's song...

Drat, now I want to climb on a little boat on a lake and do nothing but float to the center, a foot in the water. And to get serenaded. But I'd better get back to the books... *sigh*

treasured & linked

2011-04-20T09:24:00.000+02:00

Here comes the sun by atelier stellaria featuring a bubbles necklace:

...and framed cuties by fellow Belgian Etsian Octopurse featuring these delicate balance earrings:

And ecological link love from handmade Europe featuring the Napjesdrager! Thank you so much! Do check out the other ecological blog links too and let yourself be inspired...

and now for something slightly different...

2011-04-15T20:41:00.000+02:00

I made a collage.

I know I should be studying, but I always tend to get inspired in these exam or study periods... Of course I'm not supposed to give in to it, so most ideas get scribbled down a sketchbook. But it is tempting, and now and then I have to let myself go a little...

With glass, metal and fire lacking I have to do with what I can find. Quite literally: this is a little collage made out of a handful of thorns, 3 butterflies, 2 bees, 4 cat's whiskers (probably Yang's and Shelley's), a bumblebee, a mosquito and a pupa. I've collected them over the years, they died of natural causes (or quasi natural, as one of the butterflies was trod on by a toddler :-/ ).

I love the organic shape of wings, of thorns, of whiskers...They seem perfect even though each one is different.

The work wasn't all that different from gluing murrine on a sheet of glass -only, with such light wings I had to take care not to breathe to hard! V-e-r-y delicate work. But boy it felt good! And now I I'm satisfied and can get back to the books. Until the next idea strikes... ;-)

glass heroes

2011-04-13T12:31:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I was in London, visiting the V&A museum. What an inspiration! The contemporary glass section featured many of my glass heroes (mainly heroines actually!) and felt so happy to finally "meet" them...I didn't make a lot of pictures, but here's a little glimpse of all the beauty:


"lollipop"; design by Oiva Toikka & manufactured by Nuutajärvi glassworks


"Birdbath"a panel by Judith Schaechter (detail)


Colorbox 1-5 by Jun Kaneko

A vessel by Toots Zynsky which I forgot to take a picture of, but here's a wonderful video of her work process:


I forgot who made this gorgeous cast glass and can't find it on the V&A site... but look at the fantastic green hues and matte reflection! It could be a meditation piece...

And there was a Chihuly dangling in the hall...

Not glass, but sheer poetry:

Lehti, in photo-etched brass by Maria Jauhiainen

I have some more photos at flickr. Sorry for the rather short post, but my college exams are coming up and I feel the heat...so it's back to the books for me. Wish me luck!

and the winner is...

2011-03-30T21:57:00.000+02:00

*drumroll*

...

...

Twelve entries for the give-away! Thank you so much for participating! :-D

Well, 13 comments but one of them was my own, and of course that didn't count.

(Wouldn't it be so very silly if I organized this whole give-away and then declared myself the winner? :-p Reminds me of a short story by Hugo Matthysen: the absurd ending of a Poirot case where he has all the main suspects of the murder gathered together, and for every suspect he argues why they had motives but wouldn't have committed the crime until he finishes his round, and no suspect is found guilty! So they ask him who actually has committed the crime, and Poirot replies with his meager smile and in his terrible French (Walloon) accent: "the murderer... c'est moi!" I thought it was sublimely silly when I was 15...)

Anyway.

The. Winner. Of. The. Bigfatbirthdaybashgiveaway... Is...

Congratulations Yoke!!!!!!! :-D A yummy, funny, silly and sweet infection is coming your way very soon!

Thanks everyone for playing! :-D

ghost cat

2011-03-20T17:10:00.000+01:00


ghost cat!

...or how a full moon sheds light on the netherworld as well. Or not? Jack -yes, Jack!!- came by on his daily nightly walk and obligingly posed for about half of the shutter time of the camera.

He's by the way fully recovered from his scary face wound. Two years ago I was able to lure him into my house when he was wounded and wild, and get him to the vet to get treated (and neutered as well...). When he came back he settled at my friend & neighbour's house and became a happy, food loving cat. For some reason he's not too keen to visit my home again, LOL! Too many veterinary memories... ;-)

birthday bash give-away!

2011-03-16T22:08:00.000+01:00

This is the first birthday in years where I'm not a. ill, b. starting an internship or c. starting a new job, so it's time to celebrate! I'm turning 33 today so that's an excellent excuse to spread some ~~infection~~ love... ;-)

First, consider this collage by the awesome Jenn of Venus Envy Art:

yes, you have been infected...mwahaha

Look how happy they are, running and screaming in joy with their newly found infections... This could be you! :-D
Yes, I'm giving away a set of 3 glass pins from the Infected! series!

All you have to do is leave a comment here on the blog and let me know what you'd love to be infected with! You have 4 choices: viruses and bacteria, but also very nice cells and blood cells. Have a look at Etsy or Flickr to get some inspiration...

I will announce the winner on March 30th, so comment away! :-D Good luck!

Isaura in late sunlight

On a side note, would you consider signing this Petition for a spaying/neutering policy for stray cats in Ghent - the animal rescue where I got Isaura from (you can see more of her here) issued this petition to raise awareness about this -right now the city doesn't have a policy and stray cats are mostly all euthanized...This has to stop! Neutering/spaying combined with resocializing and finding new homes for the cats is a humane solution. This is what volunteer organizations like Kat zoekt thuis do, but with very little means or government funding. We're far from a decent general policy concerning stray animals here in Belgium, but every little helps, even if it's just a signature. Thanks!

infected!!!

2011-03-08T09:00:00.000+01:00

I've been infected!!! Oh noooooooooo, what to do? They're all over me!! Get them off! Get them off! HELP! HELP! Help. HELP!!! HELP! H...

You know what, you could help me, actually...

Why eh...won't you take some of this infection and eh... spread it yourself? Eh? Eh? Nudge-nudge, wink-wink?

There's a fine choice of viruses:

And bacteria:

Or maybe you prefer these lovely blood cells:

There are even white ones:

And just really cute cells:

Who knew getting infected was so much fun? And spreading the infection even better?!

It's no use resisting, these are cells and viruses and bacteria that you'll actually want to show off.

Brought to you by yours truly in a healthy fit of of silliness. All infectious goodness on Etsy and Flickr!

a delicate balance: new earrings

2011-02-27T10:13:00.000+01:00

pea green, dark green & white

dark orange, red & white

blue, green & white

white, red and dark yellow

I changed the design a little bit, leaving out the ring on top (as you can see on the first pairs) because the weight of the glass bubbles keeps the balance really well, just like the pendants:

pendant 2


pendant 3

I love how the transparent spheres catch the light!

You can find them on Etsy.

If you like to see more of this series, the photos are bundled in a set on flickr and you can track down other posts and the work in progress on the blog by clicking the tag "a delicate balance" (under this post or in the left menu on my blog)!

And this is the 6th blog post of the year! That's already half of the number of last year's posts... :-o

There's still more to come, I want to tell you about a little project that I just started. Something that's funny as it is icky... :-D icky sticky glass. What could it be? More soon, I promise!

a polyp ring

2011-02-26T16:35:00.000+01:00

I made a new ring by accident. Well, I made up the design as I went along... the murrina (the little glass cabochon) was the starting point, and at first I wanted to include it in a new pendant design, but halfway into the process I decided it would make a pretty ring. And while the result is not bad, it's not quite perfect...

You can't really see it on the first two pictures, but the ring isn't round -it's a little lopsided. On the back, the oval base and the ring don't fit perfectly (although they're soldered and strongly connected) and there are some unaesthetic gaps. So I guess this one will have to stay in my own collection... ;-) And next time I work on rings of a similar design, I know how to fix it.

When I'm working on a piece of jewelry, it's the first realization of a design that I'm most attached to. They're the freaks, the poor little monsters and misfits, all cracked and gapped and limping, but they mean a lot to me! With the following realizations of the design, I correct the mistakes so they're technically and aesthetically better and ready to go out into the big world and I love them too, but they don't have the same appeal to me as their first-born siblings...

I wonder what would Mr Freud have to say about that, eh? :-p

carnaval des animaux

2011-02-24T08:20:00.000+01:00

My very first treasury (this is fun!) with animal masks and animals who dress up, prints, paintings and sculptures - do we shapeshift into animals or do they become human?

sunsets & summer trees...

2011-02-21T10:49:00.000+01:00

During the week of holidays after my college exams I was able to retreat to the studio for a couple of days, for the first time since September. I guess it's a good thing the studio is in Ronse and not in Ghent, or I would be there all the time instead of working for school! ;-)

As usual, I had many ideas, but I didn't have all that much time. So instead of rushing to try to realize those ideas, I worked on a couple of pieces that I had started in Feb. 2010, from a batch of glass cabs I had made in the summer of 2009. It was nice to finally get around finishing these! Or at least these three, as I didn't get to finish the whole pile...

In other news, you can find them on Etsy!

I called this series essence (on flickr & etsy), because the organic shapes and colors remind me of moments of quietude... Which in these dreary & cold February days mostly means the warmth of summer to me, so here I am again with sunlight and green leaves! :-D And one starry night too.


sunny green trees brooch

starry night pendant


sunset earrings

glass cabs!

pounced! treasury

2011-02-20T19:03:00.000+01:00

thank you LongWinterFarm for including my sunset earrings!

purrfect interlude

2011-02-15T08:11:00.000+01:00

So...what do you do when you're stressing out over your impending college exams?

- take cat pictures.

- cuddle cats.

- record purring! Here's Yin and Isaura. There should be relaxation CDs with nothing but cat purring! Although they do sound a bit like heavy engines, come to think of it...hehe.

- repeat as needed.

- pass exams.

I did it ! I passed the 1st semester of Art History. Now on to the next...

sketchbook project & etsy & aarghh

2010-12-07T14:01:00.000+01:00

No, the blog hasn't been forgotten or misplaced, but as for a change this year I have been a wee bit busy, going back to college, volunteering at the Sint Lucas library and all. But it's been great, so far! Lots of work: class, researching in the little specialist libraries all over the Blandijn next to that pretty Boekentoren (right >>). Now the deadlines for papers are coming up, and exams in January it has its share of the stressies, but... ooh it feels good to be back. So long I don't flunk, of course. Argh! See? Stress.

I will feel better after January's exams so I know if my study method works. The subjects aren't too hard, but I fear my brains being rusty. LOL. We'll see. Wish me luck!

That means I haven't been back at the studio, but I've done some little things here at home, in Ghent. Like the Sketchbook Project! An initiative by Art house coop in Brooklyn NY. The goal was to fill a moleskine sketchbook, working in a theme you could choose from a list.
I'm quite self-conscious about my drawing and painting abilities, so I thought it would be good for me to participate and see what happened. Drawing didn't work out, so I painted. And cut. And then I drilled. And sawed, stamped, painted some more, sewed, and was done with it. I had such a great time! Nothing like drastically altering a once pristine sketchbook. ;-) It has become a little freak...
My theme was Night time stories and I used a quote by Breton, from his first Surrealist Manifesto, about the poet Saint-Pol-Roux leaving a placard outside his door whenever he went to sleep. The placard said: "the poet works".

torturing the poor thing:

:::: see the whole project on flickr.

The sketchbook is being sent back to Brooklyn where it will go on a tour in the US! The neat library system (each sketchbook has a barcode) will keep all artists up to date of how many times their sketchbook has been borrowed.

And in other news, I'm back on Etsy! You can find some of the creations of last summer:

"lunar essence"

"green goddess"

"a delicate balance" earrings

And the website & blog have received their yearly dusting. I even went as far as to add a webpage about me/my creations. It's not an artist statement really, but it's a start.

Tweeting & tumbling from the Wiener Werkstätte

2010-10-11T08:31:00.000+02:00

Twitter logo origins revealed! Goes back to 1906! :-D

I visited the Wiener Werkstätte exhibition at the Zilvermuseum in Antwerp this weekend.

It was ok.

Of course seeing works of Josef Hoffmann (and others), the collection of silverware designed for the Stoclet and the Wittgenstein family was fantastic, but I wasn't too happy about the set-up...

The glare of the spotlights was rather annoying (and nothing says clean and sterile like a spotlight! Why not use natural light?! Especially for Art Nouveau/Jugendstil, which is such an organic style), the display cases were very big and the objects small, so it was almost impossible to get a close look. I love to see how the objects are made, what techniques were used...and with such detailed and small work it's best to be able to see it from real close by so you almost have to squint! And what really put me off were the fake flowers in the exquisite vases. Come on! That's ridiculous. I guess they had to bring some color to the sterile and monochrome set-up, but the result was rather funereal.

Anyways. The works themselves were inspiring enough! loved the square mazes, the stylized patterns and the delicate chasing/repoussé (like the little bird) and the set semi-precious stones (mostly lapis, carnelian & malachite).

:::::::::::::::::::

I've started tumbling! I've been at it since this summer, but wanted to give it a test ride first before I let you know. It's a blogging service, especially handy to share all sorts of content: quotes, links, pictures, film, audio,... A neat way to share all sorts of little things that I encounter on the web & that inspire me! If you like to follow it you can subscribe, or maybe you do already by following the friendfeed. Or not. ;-)

summer pendants & autumn plans

2010-09-23T15:56:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm home again after spending some time in the studio in August-September. It was much needed, and awesome. And as always, way too short. I could easily do with a month or so more studio time, just to finish what I've started...

But time's up and I have to keep my creative self in check... School is starting again next week and there will be no time for doodling. I can't believe I'm going back to college! (yes, again...) The time is finally here, and I'm giddy. :-D

And to celebrate, I'm doing a workshop in October with the talented Lotte De Mey on stone setting! Check out her unique pieces on Penelope's Verbs and her paintings (this is her portfolio). I adore her work and I'm really looking forward to the workshop!

And now for some pictures: this is what happened in the studio this summer!

A green goddess talisman:

Pebbles:

A delicate balance in pendants & earrings:

...Do you remember this ring?

It has been sprouting crystals lately:

...and something else all together, can you guess what this is?!

The Napjesdrager in details

2010-09-23T11:52:00.000+02:00

before firing//after firing//light shining through//light shining on...

a delicate balance // pebbles

2010-09-09T12:08:00.000+02:00

How would you balance an egg? And several tiny glass spheres?

I allowed myself some play time in the studio last weekend and this came out of it. Of course I didn't have quite enough time to finish it yet but I couldn't wait to give you this first glimpse!

The glass spheres balance on 1mm mandrels...just like that necklace with the sprouts I designed in class and I used the last bit of that same silver wire I had molten & pulled. They were fun to make! Juggling with molten glass... :-D

The colors are equally playful: white/black and yellow/orange/red/blue/green in both pastels and transparents, all mixed.

They're going to be pendants & earrings.

The Pebbles now have a different personality: subtle and serene.

Preferably with a little ball chain...

I collected all the neutral colors I could find in my studio, all the variations of white glass:

1 -Vetrofond odd Belgian lace
2 -Vetrofond odd Seashell
3 -Effetre light ivory
4 -Effetre pearl grey
5 -Vetrofond Odd Pink Swirl
6 -Effetre Uranium yellow pastel
7 -Effetre avocado
8 -Effetre sage
9 -Reichenbach CoE94 Sahara
10 -Lauscha Milky Way
11 -Effetre Tongue pink
12 -Vetrofond Odd Ivory
13 -Effetre silver pink
14 -CiM Ginger
15 -Effetre pastel pink
16 -CiM Butter Pecan
17 -Reichenbach CoE 94 Champagne
18 -Effetre white (with stringer to the left) CoE 104
19 -Reichenbach CoE 94 Florence Opaque

In the end I didn't use no.7 and no.9, as their color was a little too pronounced. So I made a bunch of tiny beads...

They will be pendants and brooches.

The Napjesdrager comes to life

2010-09-07T11:42:00.000+02:00

(also on flickr)

Here it is, my Napjesdrager, in a long overdue (and just plain looong) post, from sketch to kiln-formed result! And quite picture-heavy, sorry about that.

I worked on this project for about a little more than 3 weeks in August, from sketch to finish although it had been sitting in my head at least since 2003! Ideas have their way with me, not wanting to leave and nagging me until I give in and (try to) realize them...

Back then I didn't have a clue about lampworking yet. I dreamt of stained glass windows in the style of C. L Tiffany, E. Burne-Jones and M. Chagall, and wondered how awesome it would be to mix the colors on the glass sheets themselves (instead of having to use existing colored and patterned sheets).

I had a 40x40cm transparent Effetre glass sheet that would be my canvas for the Napjesdrager, a face/mask with leaves. I wanted to include murrine and all sorts of lampworked elements like curvy/wavy stringers, marbles and pebbles and later on also stars and buds. As if the murrine were pointilist dots and the stringers the stroke of a brush.

Most traditional Green Men have fierce looks with their eyes and mouth wide open but I wanted my spirit to be a serene and contented one. More like a Green Buddha. And at night I had the help from a little moth fluttering all over its face! The book on the right is the "Geïllustreerde Flora van Nederland".

On a walk through the woods nearby (Ronse, where my studio's at, has lots! What luxury we have there...hiking trails practically starting at our front door!) I gathered leaves from all the napjesdragers I could find, and pressed them.

Filled the leaves with water color...

And decided to color the alder leaf (on its chin) purple, the same color it had turned after pressing and drying it.

I had made a bunch of murrine beforehand and seperated them by color. Each leaf has its own color code, and so began the time consuming work of placing each little bullseye or star design on their leaves. I took care not to place them too close to one another, so they had a bit of space to flow into when they were fused and so they would keep their round(-ish) form.

Some lampworked wheels and buds were needed, and of course I managed to drop & break one just before I glued it on. D'oh! You don't want to know how much I drop and break and lose in the studio (don't speak me of jumpy silver findings and precious stones! They seem to have plotted against me.). The speckled stone floor (you can see it in some of the photos below) doesn't help much either. So I swear a lot when I'm in there. That gives some relief. ;-)

The glue I use is just child-safe craft glue. It burns away in the kiln quite neatly, although there can be some devitrification with the smallest murrine.

Almost done with the leaves... Only one left to go! The murrine are on the small side, from about 1mm to 6mm diameter. Commercial murrine come typically in fixed sizes, but in pulling my own, my designs benefit more from the organic effect of variable sizes.

Phew, all done! Finally I could start on its eyes, mouth and stems (from bent and wavy stringers like the one of the left), and glue on the stars and buds.

Now what would I do with the background? I had pulled these bent stringers in colors I used for the murrine for a groovy 70's style vortexy thing, but discovered the leaves alone weren't strong enough to mark the face/mask. I had been rather hasty in designing the panel and had overlooked that tiny detail...oops.

So I decided to trace its face with cut glass rods. It made him a bit more alien and vaguely Humpty-Dumpty, but hey, I liked it. :-p

I tried out a more wall-papery background, but feared it would draw too much attention away from the fine murrine, so finally I decided on just a few stringers.

And so it looked before heading off to the kiln... Fusing would change the design profoundly and I was curious to see how the lampworked elements would take it.

And then it came back...

F^$#%§!!!!!

Oh NoooOOOOOOOoooooo my baby it had cracked!!!

Was it compatibility? The heating schedule? Yeah, luckily it was just that. The cracks had happened early in the fusing process, you can tell because the rims of the cracks are rounded and have melted a little. So the temperature had raised too quickly. I had modified the schedule I used for the tiny squares, lowering the heating t° rate a bit (180°C/h) and soaking it longer in the annealing state, but apparently I should have lowered the heating rate drastically at probably 40°C/h.

My mistake.

But that isn't the end of the story. Yes, I'm an idiot for not checking the heating schedule any better, but overall for a first "big" fusing project it did go pretty well, and I now have a schedule I'm more confident in. It was an experiment, something I made just for me...and secretly I'm relieved it is imperfect now, so I don't have to sell it and can just keep it with me in the studio. It amuses me how attached I am to my projects! I can't part with them, although it wanes after a while, when new projects find their way in, but at first...I'm pretty possessive. LOL.

I'm looking if I can design a standard on which the bottom side can be mounted, and the top panels can be hung. Maybe a welded steel construction or so, if I can find someone who can do that.

Poor Napjesdrager...but also: that lopsided eye just gives it more character. Not just serene, but a tough little bugger it is now! Being cracked and still smiling...

The Effetre sheet played nice (it is said to have compatibility issues and not really fit for kilnwork), all the different lampworked elements worked well and it gave me lots of techniques for future projects: maybe using just those curved and wavy stringers in an Art-Nouveau inspired panel, or a dazzling mosaic-like work with just the cut transparent rods, and of course, lots more projects with murrine. It's like pointilism but even better, because I get to design the dots themselves...From far off it's just a colored form, but you can get closer and closer to discover the details.
On my to-do list for this year (my "good intentions") is creating letter murrine, so I can add text to the forms as well. So far I've made an "A". Well, it's a start. :-p

Next post I'm showing you some of the fused details of the Napjesdrager, who I feel is the first in a series of masks and guardians.

De Napjesdrager: inspired by trees

2010-08-19T11:42:00.000+02:00

(also check the work-in-progress @ flickr)

Ingredients for a fused glass panel of a face made of leaves:

++ tree leaves drenched in sunlight

++ my mother's well-used and worn 1960 ed. Geïllustreerde flora van Nederland, an extensive field guide to recognizing plants and trees. Her book has dried leaves and strings as bookmarks and when I was young we used it to press leaves and flowers!

DBNL has the 2nd edition of 1909 online! The b/w illustrations are the same of the 19th ed. I love those drawings, although they're very clear, they're not technically perfect. It makes me yearn for a time without internets and computers and easy digital photography where everyone had to be able to draw to a certain extent...

This edition speaks of the Cupuliferae, de Napjesdragersfamilie. A tree family that included oaks, beeches, chestnuts, birches, hazels and alders. It's an obsolete term, nowadays this family is split up in Fagaceae (Beech, oak, chestnut) and the Betulaceae (birch, hazel, alder,...). Napjedragersfamilie is still used to describe the Fagaceae and the cups that hold the seeds of these trees, and I fell in love with the word napje. It's also rather archaic. I remember it mostly from fairy tales and Breughel paintings and the nursery rhyme of the Bibelebontse Berg, where people (and bears) ate from wooden bowls.

++ Tree lore, green men and Tales of the mythic forest

While this fellow is not exactly a green man, heads covered in foliage can be found on medieval cathedrals and churches, much like this Mr. crankyface in the Sint-Baafsabdij in Gent. They're said to be remnants of pagan, Celtic lore and are among others connected with tale the Robin Hood.

++ gorgeous transparent & translucent glass colors:

I took this picture when I started to prepare this project months ago, in the meantime a couple more colors joined the palette, like Vetrofond Tapenade and Cosmic Storm and some ambers and browns.

The effetre dark and light grass green (I tend to call them glass green ;-) ) are my favorite colors. Just as plain and simple as they are, they remind me of summer and of the sun shining through trees and that just makes me happy. Years ago a friend gave me a gorgeous Henry Dean vase in this color. I also used it a lot on Nur der Mensch:

So now you know a little bit more... are you ready to meet the Napjesdrager? ;-)

www.flickr.com

edit: whoops, typo. There's a beech on the beach. Silly me!

"there's still life in this lady yet!"

2010-06-13T10:02:00.000+02:00

- Lestat, dancing with a corpse (Interview with a vampire, from back when they didn't have to sparkle and just could be delightfully evil) (oh, and this cute snippet: Lestat angrily playing a bit of a Haydn sonata -how come the bad guys always have such a great taste in music? :-p )

Yes, I'm here! My full time library job and the daily commuting to Antwerp has kept me pretty damn busy since March so everything else had to be postponed (or canceled like library school... :-/ ) for the time being. But it definitely is an enriching experience. And since my contract ends in July I'm gearing up on my new art projects -I'll introduce them in separate posts.

Meanwhile I haven't yet told you about my internship at the Sint-Lucas Library back in February-March. It is part of the Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst with its art and architecture department situated in Ghent. It's the only (Flemish) art college still having a glass program, by the way...

Working in this library (with a nice glass section) felt like being a kid in a candystore! The main library users were art school students and staff, and I loved to observe how most of them used (or rather didn't use) the catalogue and went for their gut feeling and let themselves be inspired by what they found in the stacks (that's how I like to work as well, even for academic purposes - sort of a combination of classical search strategies & intuition/association).
The library also has a neat blog, a librarything with the new acquisitions and a flickr page, and you can like it on FB.

I haven't had much studio time in the past 3 months, but I did manage to snap some kitties, critters and flowers...

I do love this portrait of Assepoes on the weathered bench though.

And those pretty poppies... check out the original sizes of the garden photos on flickr, and download them if you like!

earth & moon

2010-02-22T10:29:00.000+01:00

This weekend I finished the moon spirit, a sister to the earthy one I created this summer. I'm pleased with with the way she turned out: a silver halo with starry sprinkles (7 of them, not unlike Rossetti's Blessed Damozel...hehe).

The TalentDevelop newsletter just had a piece on muses and creativity, and referred to a page on the history of daimons, genii and muses which fits right in here, with my little girls! ;-)

More on Flickr, also some work in progress photos.

of rings, sketches and a zazzle

2010-02-17T10:31:00.000+01:00

I'm getting increasingly busy again with the new semester at library school (and a short but exciting internship at the Sint Lucasbibliotheek in Gent! I've already raided the glass section...), and as a result my blog and art projects suffer a bit (thank goodness for little sketchbooks that I can carry around everywhere!).

Last week I participated in the Dag van de Ambachten, like last year at the awesome Glassworks studio, and was so busy melting glass and interacting with artists & visitors that I totally forgot taking pictures!

Luckily I can sneak some studio days this week in which I hope to finish some of my current projects before it's half a year later again. All jewelry: the purple sister to my earth goddess pendant for my dear friend Vocisconnesse, the coral pendant (or brooch?), murrini ring, drop pendant and more which I've baptised the specimen series (the organic shapes go back to my fascination with nature when I was 11-12 and collected treasures in boxes and filled notebooks with my "scientific" observations...back then I wanted to become a paleonto-bio-geologist and took it very seriously, LOL)

Meanwhile I'm also working on my first project in pâte de verre (wikipedia), although it may take until summer before I can start. Well, until then I can do some sketches and make some preparations... Moldmaking being one of them. Oh dear. In April I'm attending a demo of a bronze casting, hoping to get some insight there...

Oh! I almost forgot: people inquired if I made prints from the glass gardens, the fused squares from Nur der Mensch, the glass/copper panel I made last summer. Well, here you go! I opened a Zazzle store which has just that (and mugs!).

The (blank) posters, note- and postcards sell per 1, but the (also blank) "invitation cards" are per 10. I included them because there you have different sizes and paper options (from recycled to pretty linen textured), and you can customize it all. If you have suggestions for prints or items you'd like to see in the store (the dog T-shirt for sure... :-p ), let me know.

Also, any tips on photographing transparent but textured glass panels?

Back to business: meet the new projects!

2010-01-04T13:29:00.000+01:00

Thanks for letting me share that personal stuff of my previous post with you. I went back and forth about writing and publishing it to the world, putting myself out there, but whether I want it or not, it is part of who I am/who I've become. I don't need to talk about it all the time, but I'm glad I got it out. :-)

And the future looks bright: these are some little things coming to life on the workbench:

Fossilized coral (I just lovelovelove it! Look at them! They're practically paleontological murrine! :-D ) pendants and brooches with glass coral branches...
Opal glass cabochons with fused murrine, waiting to become pendants, rings, brooches, ... (not sure how to name them yet -I can't call everything microcosmos, can I? :-p )
... and a broad, solid silver ring set with a single murrini. I must give you a better view when it's finished. Right now it's on my finger, as a good luck charm for my upcoming tests at library school. You know, new jewelry needs test driving. It's a very hard and tedious job... ;-)
and this little goddess is getting a sister! Now what head to choose...? hehe

I'm also working on a bigger project (relatively speaking) involving torchpulled murrine, fusing and copper and am already dreaming up the next one. So stay tuned...

So...how was your decade?

2010-01-03T18:19:00.000+01:00

Ten years ago I thought my life was over. I had just quit my childhood dream, something I had worked for intensively: studying piano at music college. It hadn't happened suddenly, although it felt like that at the time: after a good and well-prepared entrance exam I emotionally disintegrated in a couple of weeks' time and just couldn't manage to pick myself up again.

I didn't understand why I wasn't the happiest person on earth to finally be living my dream of becoming a pianist. I felt quite the opposite, sinking away in the quicksand of a depression that had surfaced a year before. A combination of other factors -not choosing the right piano teacher, my dad's heart operation- made me an easy prey, and before the 1st semester was over I called it quits and never wanted to touch a piano ever again.

The following year was equally turbulent: I practically fled from my life to work in Bournemouth, Great-Britain as a care assistant in a rest home for a couple of months, meanwhile my parents split and we first heard about my dad's autism (Asperger's). Now they're a couple of facts in just one sentence, but at the time it caused a tsunami of triggers -emotions and memories- that lasted for years. Suddenly my depression started to make sense, and piece by piece I put my childhood and my life back in order.

It is easy to state it like that, it doesn't tell you anything about the emotional hell I went through on a daily basis. Good days were the ones on which I didn't get crushed under emotional triggers, and they were scarce. It wore me out, also physically and by 2004 I had lost about 10 kg. Always having been thin, it nearly got me hospitalized. I'm still recovering from it as I haven't been able to get quite back on weight yet!

It didn't really have a name, the therapists I worked with didn't use them and I knew well enough for myself what it was all about, but it was a bit awkward to tell to people, or to explain the lack of diplomas and gaps in my resumé. Post-traumatic stress syndrome comes close; living for a prolonged period or growing up in a continued stressful situation will do the same as experiencing extreme stress under extreme circumstances for short periods. It made me f***ing crazy. Panic attacks out of nowhere, hyperventilating all the way, extreme emotions, sudden phobias...

So it didn't come as a surprise when doctors thought I had chronic fatigue syndrome in 2006. It was a relief to put a name to it, and be able to tell people if they needed an explanation. It didn't have the taboo of psychological troubles.

Meanwhile I had moved to Gent and glass and metal had entered my life... I've never quite gone back to playing the piano anymore, but those two base materials have filled that gap better than I could imagine: they helped me find my muse again.

Since 2007 my life seems to be on the upswing, and all that soul work slowly started paying off. Good days became more frequent, and then they became the majority again. Now I rarely have bad days. Triggers still overwhelm me but I seem to bounce back more easily than before, as if I've built mental muscles. Balance is bliss...and the perfect fertile ground for creative work, which in turn feeds the soul.

So that was my decade.

In 2000 I

could count the times I had been on the internet on 1 hand
didn't have a cellphone
upgraded to a 2nd hand computer with Windows 95
bought an orange T-shirt I still wear
discovered aromatherapy, shiatsu & macrobiotics
listened mostly to medieval & dark wave (classical music was out of the question)
cut my hair (from looong down my back to spiky short)
made notebooks from old printerpaper
got rejected applying for a job with a famous jewelry designer in Antwerp...haha!
smoked marlboro menthol cigarettes whenever I could find them (not in Belgium)

How was yours? :-)

Winter tales

2009-12-07T20:30:00.000+01:00

The dark days don't ask for much, just a rocking chair, a hot beverage, a purring cat and a good book...

I was lucky to find a 2nd hand copy of The armless maiden, a book I've been searching for a long time! One of the authors signed it for its previous owner, who also scribbled across the margins here and there. I don't mind at all -I love these little messages in 2nd hand books!

When I was ten, I discovered a library book with messages in it; a previous reader had commented on the story and was reaching out to the next reader(s)... of course I didn't dare to write in a library book (yeah, like I was such an angel, LOL), but I was extremely tempted to do so! Imagine a secret circle of kids communicating through scribbles in library books... I even suspected the librarian didn't erase the notes because she silently approved of it! ;-)

What would our own books be without those little notes? It makes them ours, doesn't it? I am a fervent scribbler myself, though just in my own, deemed "work" books. And actually, the oldest piece of Dutch is one of those scribbles in a 10th century manuscript.

Also reading: The forest in folklore and mythology by Alexander Porteous and Warming the stone child, an audiobook by Clarissa Pinkola Estés on my I-pod. These are my winter tales...

glassy inspiration at the British Museum

2009-11-13T09:56:00.000+01:00

A short trip to London with visits to the British Museum, the National Gallery, The British Library, and a wonderful concert by candlelight & Fauré's Requiem in St Martin in the Fields...

Yeah, I got my cultural fix alright. ;-)

Tiffany's Favrile glass

a brooch by Lalique

Roman glass

Roman murrine brooch

Minoan gold

goddess figurines -phi & psi

Cycladic statuettes

The rest of the pictures are on Flickr/London set and the label inspiration takes you to my other cultural expeditions...

simplicity on aarghh.be

2009-11-07T17:41:00.000+01:00

Despite all the name changes...
This is the new look for http://www.aarghh.be/
The picture changes when you refresh the page. Can you find out how many there are? ;-)

Here are some of the old skins...it seems like ages ago!

www.flickr.com

Bookmarks!

2009-11-07T17:18:00.001+01:00

The changelings:

blog --- http://kristienberghs.blogspot.com/
twitter --- http://twitter.com/kristienberghs
friendfeed --- http://friendfeed.com/kristienberghs
librarything --- http://www.librarything.com/catalog/kristienberghs
myglassart --- http://www.myglassart.org/kristienberghs

facebook --- http://www.facebook.com/kberghs

The ones that remain the same -because it's not possible to change the name unless I delete the account (which I won't!):

flickr --- http://www.flickr.com/photos/artemissne/
dawanda --- http://en.dawanda.com/shop/artemissne

etsy ---http://www.etsy.com/shop/aarghh

From now on I'll be updating from the new sites. If you're unsure where I'm at, start from http://www.aarghh.be and you'll be fine. Thanks!

What's in a name?

2009-11-07T16:43:00.000+01:00

Big news: I've decided to drop artemissne as a name for my creations, and to just use my own. A big step! ;-)

Artemissne has kept me company for about 3 years, and was linked with the screen name I had adopted before: missne. Missne was an elfin character from my favorite children's book by Inger Edelfeldt -mysterious, unknown and perfect for my online life and the rediscovery of my own identity.

So when my creativity started leading its own life, I thought it deserved a name of its own too, a small jump to artemissne. There you had Artemis, missne, and art in it. I liked it.

I designed the logo at that time -a spiral reminding me of my love of fossils and all kinds of stones as a child, natural forms and patterns that still inspire me.

Sometimes you need to take another name to grow into your own. That's what happened, crazy as it may sound: I'm ready to use my own name for my creations. Call me a late bloomer. :-)

So practically that means I'm changing all the artemissne extensions on most websites to kristienberghs, and I apologize beforehand for the bookmark updating troubles. I'll update with a list on this blog.

Aarghh remains aarghh though, so you don't have to worry about the mothership. I don't intend to change the name of my homepage, it has been with me since I first set foot in virtual space in 2001. It refers to a castle in my favorite Monty Python film, and to the various sounds I make when either burning my fingers in the flame, touching hot glass, cutting myself on glass, sanding or sawing or filing off my fingers, nails, nose (1 occasion). That's what you'll get from playing with fire! :-p

green tea time

2009-10-12T09:41:00.000+02:00

groene thee, originally uploaded by artemissne.

blooming scars

2009-09-14T08:18:00.000+02:00

Glass blooms that grow from scars, cracks and knots in wood.

A reminder that (emotional) scars can be fertile ground for new life...

...unless you'd rather see it as mutant lifeforms. Zombie glass attack! :-p

more @ flickr.

a goddess pendant & designing spiritual jewelry

2009-09-10T12:25:00.000+02:00

As you probably know by now, I love designing after certain themes or concepts. One that I hold dearly is the talisvrouw series that led me to explore a feminine spirituality in bead, necklace and pendant design.

My interest in pagan and folk religion taught me how meaningful jewelry can be and how popular and widespread talismans and amulets are, whatever religion or age. Jewelry that goes beyond aesthetics and fashion and becomes magical: it protects and gives strength to the wearer (if you believe in it, that is!).

Of course the believing is optional. Aesthetic appreciation wil do just fine! ;-) I just wanted to explore the concept of spiritual jewelry with things that were meaningful to me.

The elements I wanted to use were clear from the beginning:

-A fine chain made from the tiniest gemstone beads and handmade silver beads from Thailand and Bali. I start out with a set of colors/stones and a certain fluid rhythm in which the links are arranged. Just a cluster of colors & shapes.

A chain is a symbol in itself, made up of individual links. It's being part of a greater entity, of having roots that go way back, way deep. It reminds me of a dream my favorite author and storyteller C.P. Estés had, in which she stood on the shoulders of a very old woman -she apologized and wanted to get off her and told her it should be the other way around because she was strong, but the older woman replied that it was perfect the way it was, because she was standing on the shoulders of her ancestor, and that line went all the way back to the center of the earth. Or something like that. I forgot where I've read it, but love the image.

-I choose the gems mostly for their color and form, not particularly for their symbolic properties. I'm not so sure what to think of that, although I am crazy about certain stones and less crazy about others. Some of my favorites you can find here. The Balinese and Hill Tribe Thai beads are handmade and especially the Thai beads are incredibly detailed for their very small size (1mm diameter!). They just seemed perfect for this project.

-The neolithic spiral designs were my inspiration for the glass beads that would become amulets (I also use the spiral in my logo). The spiral stands for evolution, the way it expands from the center but if you travel the other way around it could mean a journey to the self, getting to the point (literally), unraveling the truth -whatever that may be. A psychological healing process can be described as peeling layers of an onion -you seem to be confronted with the same *shit* over and over, but each time you get a little closer to the core of the issue. And it does get a bit easier each time, a little less layer to peel off.
The spiral is also a Great Goddess symbol of the neolithic (check out the tombstone at Newgrange, Ireland) and finally, it's a great design to translate on a lampworked glass bead.

The first necklace was still beaded instead of linked. Then with the Dryads (right) I made the chains a lot longer and attached the spiral bead pendant to it so you could wear it long or double. I loved the beads but wasn't entirely happy with the pendants, so the idea of creating a seperate pendant with integrated goldsmithing and lampworking techniques grew on me, and that's how the goddess pendant came to life.
A black-and-white reproduction of Minoan pottery showing the descent of the goddess became my model, and this summer the pendant became fact. I wanted to create a human figure, even as stylized as she is with a flower as her face and a curved, organic bead as her body because these "little people", dolls, saints, house gods, teddy bears are rich in symbolism as well.
They are the little helpers we can trust with our deepest secrets and fears and they tend to talk to us in dreams.

She's the first, but you can bet there are more to follow...

work in progress & results:

www.flickr.com

glass + copper. No more, no less.

2009-09-07T22:55:00.000+02:00

Two materials I've been wanting to combine for a long time. They go together so well, and I was eager to work on a project in which I could combine the techniques I had learned for each medium. Sawing out the forms in copper, sanding them, designing the murrini at the torch, arranging them and firing the little squares (the "gardens") in the kiln, and finally setting them in the panel. It took me about a month.

The grass green glass was my red thread. It's one of my favorite transparant shades -it reminds me of summer and the sun shining through leaves...it just makes me happy. So I used that in all the green murrini, but mixed the shades with other colors.

When seen from afar you can just make out the colors of the glass squares and read the quote, but as you come closer you see more colors and finally all the murrini. It is quite detailed, the squares are each 5 x 5 cm, the murrini between 1 and 7 mm each. The whole piece measures 15 x 78 cm (without the bar and the chains).

"Nur der Mensch schafft einen Garten, niemals die Natur. Sie sehen also, wie unsere Entwicklung vor der Intervention des Bewusstseins abhängt. Es gibt zwar den Faktor der Entwicklung, der Evolution in der Natur, aber sie vollzieht sich langsam, sie benötigt Millionen von Jahren."

C. G. Jung, Traumanalyse

The garden is a metaphor for our own creative process. A garden doesn't occur naturally, we create them consciously. But a garden is also a reflection of nature, so by creating one we tap into the same creative process as nature uses and connect with her within ourselves. And that brings balance.

That's why creating is so vital to us...

work in progress pictures:

www.flickr.com

meanwhile, at the studio:

2009-07-09T09:24:00.000+02:00

(click for full size)

My creativity is slowly but certainly accelerating to full speed and not a moment too soon, because there's much work to be done! My little notebook (on the bottom right side) is bursting with scribbles and sketches and the to-do lists I've made make me slightly panicky...but I'm equally happy I can finally devote my time to my art, at least for the summer vacation.

The picture shows part of the microcosmos project. I've been lampworking some glass test "nods" and making some more green cell murrini that are going to be fused on those glass squares, and I've been searching for a neat stencil font for the text on the copper plates. Of course you all know what I'm talking about. ;-) Just bear with me, it will become clear soon...

Also, I'm about 1/4 librarian now. I would be excited if it weren't for the fact that the certificate we'll get at the end of the ride isn't enough to land a job. Due to our silly Belgian education system, adult education and evening classes don't equal regular education even if it's the same level. So in fact I should get a bachelor from somewhere else...and while I love studying, I really just want to do the glass (& metal) thing. I feel like I have plenty more to tell in those media and I'm not sure if I can put my creativity on hold for some more years of full time studying...What to do?

Well, to be continued...

the myth of the goddess

2009-07-03T13:06:00.000+02:00

inspiration..., originally uploaded by artemissne.

...an inspiration for my talisman/talisvrouw series. Brilliant book!

The myth of the goddess: Evolution of an image by Jules Cashford and Anne Baring

wabi sabi: inspired by imperfection

2009-07-03T10:32:00.000+02:00

This old plate (Boch/Belgium) is my newest find at the ViaVia in Gent. It has two missing stripes...for me, this is how it should be. Not quite finished, but you can imagine how. And worn out by time and use...

How I love this.

Years ago a friend mentioned this was actually the core of Japanese esthetics, which led me to explore the idea of Wabi Sabi (wikipedia).

Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers & Philosophers by Leonard Koren (on amazon)

a secret rose garden

2009-05-21T14:33:00.000+02:00

...lies hidden just outside Kortrijk. It's close to my goldsmithing class at Syntra. Nobody seems to know of it -whenever I bring my picnick before going to class I have this gorgeous garden all to myself and pretend to be Lizzie Bennett or Marianne Dashwood.

The first roses are starting to bloom and I just couldn't resist...

design museum Gent

2009-05-21T11:13:00.000+02:00

I haven't had any studio time since February, since the silver necklace with the sprouty cabuchons and let me tell you, I'm starting to lose it! An eye that doesn't stop twitching, occasional mouth foaming and snarling... I stocked up on extra chocolate and strawberries to keep myself from becoming a danger to society. But I don't know what will happen when I run out...

Although I have to practice my patience a little longer, library school exams come first and the renovations in our home & studio in Ronse are nearly done...in less than a month it'll be all good again. And meanwhile I've been mentally preparing all those nagging, needy ideas, so when I'm able to set myself free in the studio it'll be quite the sight! ;-)

So last Sunday my friend Jessy met up in Ghent -she has a knack with organic and natural elements, turning them into her "Pure Creations", take a look at her Dawanda and blog! And if you happen to be in Kontich on Saturday, she'll be there at the Meifeest markt. ;-)

We hadn't seen each other in ages it seemed, so there was a lot of catching up to do over cappuccino, Moroccan food and my very favorite shop Phulkari. Which is in the same street as the Design Museum! The weather was a little too chilly to enjoy outside, so we decided to take a look at all the pretties and let ourselves be inspired...

BCC's Big Read book meme

2009-05-12T05:58:00.000+02:00

Which ones have you read?

"Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:

1) Look at the list and make those you have read bold.
2) Star (*) the ones you LOVE.
3) Italicize those you plan on reading.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien * (but can't be bothered with the movies)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte *
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (first 3 only actually)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible umm...I liked the bit with the horses. Apocalypse.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell * (yay SF dystopias!)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy * in college.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (started it when I was 18)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -I guess tales reworked for kids by Charles & Mary Lamb doesn't count... :-p read some sonnets, and parts of some of his famous ones
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien *
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -started it in college
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell -saw the movie
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -started it
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -does the audio book count? or the movie?
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -again, movie
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -while I lived in Bournemouth
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery -while I was visiting friends in Wisconsin
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -saw the movie. Read the Cement garden in college, hated it.
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (but wasn't impressed)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (ooh movie! Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, yay!)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley*
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy * (did you see that movie adaptation with Kate winslet & Christopher Eccleston?)
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -and the movie obviously
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie -started it
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett * I want that garden!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce -meh
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ooh I love his illustrations
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens -the Muppets? or the Simpsons version? :-p
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -just recently thanks to bookcrossing! :-D
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -ooh! wanna read! Emma Thompson + Anthony Hopkins = awesome
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -in college. finished in one day...
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White -movie. kinda meh.
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad * And Apocalypse now. ;-)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery* en français bien sûr
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (actually read the "cat version" by J. Smith-Aiken first, only discovered years later that the bunnies were first... :-p )(never saw the movie though)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas -ok I cheat: I had this book in a graphic novel version of 8 classics as a kid, this one was in it (as was Black Beauty, which I thought was brilliant as an 11-year old)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare -Kenneth Branagh version
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl *
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo -movie

If I count correctly, that makes 43 books! Not too bad. :-D However the tendency seems to be mostly SF/fantasy (well d'uh), almost all children's literature listed (except for Charlotte's Web at first sight) and some 19th century classics (Austen, Brönte, Hardy, Dickens,...)

I see I've got to work on my Russian classics though...but they're so thick! And have no illustrations! Or movie adaptations! LOL. I think I have War & Peace lying around here somewhere, a mustly old fat book with small print. This is where a kindle would come in handy... ;-)

Also, no Dutch, Italian or German literature?! Boo!

Via Tenaanval via Other stories.

anything but homework!

2009-04-29T14:43:00.000+02:00

So Helium Vola released their new cd and it is awesome...a cover with rusty old grubby things, the crystal clear voice of Sabine Lutzenberger and the wicked vision of Ernst Horn who mixes medieval music and electronic avantgarde like it's nothing...
I saw him live at an accoustic Deine Lakaien concert a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile I'm drowning in homework, struggling to finish the report of my library training a month ago in the public library of Ghent...

So naturally I find time to make pictures of the blooming garden and the kitties. Hrmph. Better get back to it...

See ya.

listed!

2009-04-19T13:30:00.000+02:00

pretty in peridot - Dawanda (talisman-talisvrouw series)

Yay, I listed some new necklaces and earrings on Etsy and Dawanda! It does make me happy when I do, 'cause I haven't found a rhythm to do this on a regular basis yet. I'm in awe of artists who can -for me there's work or school that comes first inevitably, and then there's a loooooong road from the initial idea to the final finished and listed piece of jewelry. Mostly because of practical reasons like the studio still being built up (and the house being renovated) to finding the right (natural) light to photograph and finally, health reasons too. Although I have been feeling stronger than before (touch wood!), that chronic fatigue still requires me to take things easy.

morrocan blue - etsy (from the duizendbloem series)

So some of the items you see here, finally finished and ready to set out into the world find their beginnings more than a year or so ago! Go figure.

This one for example, is part of the fairy tale fragments series, which I introduced back in june but only got around finishing a week or so ago. This one is all silver, fused and forged, with gemstones depicting melting ice and blossom petals (please view full size on flickr!):

emerging - etsy -and all about Persephone!

I wish I could stop restraining myself and just throw myself into creating full time, but that wouldn't be wise in these economically challenging times...so short, bright bursts it is then...

budding green - etsy

And there's one more thing: a film tip: Let the right one in. Swedish. A boy and a girl and their friendship (OMG so sweet!). And the occasional severed head (she's a vampire after all).

Loved it. ;-)

Spring cleaning

2009-04-08T10:16:00.000+02:00

uitzicht bib gent 6de verdieping, originally uploaded by artemissne.

Some days I'm just no good. I'm absent-minded, asocial, clumsy, thoughts turned inward and just can't seem to get started even though my to-do list is huge...

It frustrates me initially and I try to fight it, but that doesn't help a thing. I just don't get anything done. Eventually I give up and accept that I'm having one of those days again. Until I realize I have been working all along, the internal clockwork has been busy sweeping, dusting and rearranging old thoughts and ideas.

The morning after feels like this view (from the 6th floor of the public library in Ghent) and I feel ready to tackle whatever comes my way.

the notebook

2009-03-29T15:17:00.000+02:00

the notebook 2, originally uploaded by artemissne.

I guess it was an accident waiting to happen...it's what hanging around in places with lots of books does to you (as a librarian's trainee). ;-)

I started having these "great ideas" for notebooks and the like. Just the same old stuff, my own marbled paper (in silver oil paint, very lovely on a dark background!) and my love for pretty paper. Kraft, which is just great in its brown unbleachedness and some fanciful ones, like japanese lace paper (mizutamashi) and conté paper in vibrant dark blue.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artemissne/sets/72157616072430858/

Vote Earth! Switch Off Your Lights For Earth Hour by Shepard Fairey

2009-03-28T09:49:00.000+01:00

Vote Earth! Switch Off Your Lights For Earth Hour by Shepard Fairey, originally uploaded by Earth Hour Global.

get your candles out tonight! ;-)

http://www.earthhour.org/home/

small interlude: Bartók plays Bartók and where's Budapest when you need it?!

2009-03-06T14:43:00.000+01:00

Happy memories:

Yesterday I rediscovered this album on my Ipod: historic recordings of Bartok playing his own works (as well as some baroque). I bought this cd-collection in Budapest 12 years ago on an exhausting 5 day student trip (with 2-day coach trip from Belgium included...argh!). The trip itself wasn't that great, organized by the student association who was more into Hungarian discos than you know, actual culture. Or at least anything that didn't just include booze and decibels.
Luckily I managed to escape on our last full day in that gorgeous city, where eastern and western influences mix and create a magical atmosphere...

With some creative navigating (I had a map, but didn't know which side of the river I was on!) I found the old centre, and in those few hours I was on my own (we had agreed to meet somewhere in the center) I found Franz Liszt's birthplace, tried one of those tiny but oh so scrumptuous pies and discovered this one cd shop...I found those CDs of Bartok playing his own music and for that alone the trip was worth it! These were CDs that you just couldn't find in Belgium back then.

Now you must know that Eastern European (classical) music (scores and recordings) used to be quite affordable compared to the Western kind. So when you or someone you knew went on holiday, you asked them if they could bring back music...
That's to say, my Mom had some piano learning books which she got from a friend who brought it back for her, with lots of Bartok, Kabalevsky and a bunch of others from which I learned to play the piano. Which was tons more fun than some of those dull Belgian/French method books! Especially Bartok almost comes naturally when you're a kid, the brightly colored muscial themes and harmonics are straightforward and recognizable, although not in a traditional classical way. His music for kids reminds me the books/illustrations of Dick Bruna (from Nijntje ;-) )

...and a great day it was: dag van de ambachten 2009

2009-02-09T14:27:00.000+01:00

So this was it then, a day dedicated to the arts & crafts at the generous hospitality of G & Q of Glassworks! See the pictures, taste the atmosphere... Didn't think we would get that many visitors and i even sold some of my pieces! That was a happy surprise, as I'm not a good seller and feeling sort of awkward when I have to talk about my own pieces. But it's so rewarding to see people fall in love with them! :-)

Griet & Quinton had organized it all, transforming the studio into a gallery, with arrow signs on the road leading you to it, up to roaring hot fire heater elements and yummy tea & soup for us hungry artists. And then they had their hands full with demo'ing and introducing people to the Wonderful Way of the Lampworking Artist! And the dogs, Edward & Emma, did a great job of course being just themselves... ;-)

And it was fun to meet Claudia, such a skilled lampwork and jewelry artist! Her work is so incredibly detailed and expressive, it is amazing! We did an earring swap at the end of the day and I chose this adorable pair with a tiny daisy on the one and a small green leaf on the other earring, and I haven't taken them off yet! :-D

I was happy to be there with my Mom, who took all the pictures and did so much behind the scenes...The day flew by so quick, so I forgot to take her picture of course! But I promised to make her a necklace instead. ;-)

Last/not least: I was also glad I was able to be up on my feet all day -which is still quite hard, energy-wise. I was dead-tired at the end but so far seem to have recovered well enough. I have to touch wood, but my chronic fatigue seems to be getting better, little by little. I've been feeling this for the last 6 months or so. I still have to be careful of course, but I'm so glad I don't have to keep condemning myself to a completely secluded, asocial life all the time! :-)

So, three cheers for the Dag van de Ambachten!

dag van de ambachten @ glassworks!

2009-02-01T09:21:00.000+01:00

The wonderful G & Q from glassworks invited me (artemissne) and Claudia Trimbur-Pagel (glasting) to their open studio on Dag van de Ambachten (Crafts Day) next Sunday feb 8! There will be demos (glassblowing, lampworking, a little bit of goldsmithing) and much rejoicing...

Het atelier van G & Q (glassworks) staat volgende zondag (8/2/2009) voor jullie open naar aanleiding van de Dag van de Ambachten en Claudia Trimbur-Pagel (glasting) en ik (artemissne) zijn er ook bij! Komt dat zien! :-D Demonstraties glasblazen (parels, heuse marbles -want zeg nooit zomaar knikker tegen een marble...), fusen, goudsmeden en een heleboel pret in een prachtig golvend landschap vlak aan de taalgrens. Zeker een bezoek waard!

Jullie zijn welkom van 10 tot 17u aan Akrenbos 101, 1547 Bever (zie kaartje).

Tot dan!

Grotere kaart weergeven

Goldsmithing at Syntra West: my course so far

2009-01-22T10:29:00.000+01:00

Here are some of the results fo the 1st semester: on the left our assignments in brass and another alloy which name i always forget (it's the paler metal in which the bracelet and that one ring is made).

But now it is getting pretty interesting... designing a necklace on our own. Woohoo, now we're talking!
So you see those silver grains? That's the start. They are molten and poured into a mould for wire, and then that longish wonky clump gets rolled through the rolling mill until the wire gets the diameter it needs...

My chain design is a pretty simple one: just connected round loops with pins here and there. But of course those pins will hold glass cabuchons, and that's where the fun begins! ;-)

I'll try to update as I progress...

Studio tales

2009-01-17T19:19:00.000+01:00

Well, that was a nicely busy day! The page on my studio is ready in a more or less acceptable form. I had this page in mind since late 2007 but only got around doing it now! Luckily I had some help from my blog -tagged with studio- and my flickr "studio stuff" collection.

I hope this is a good place to start for people who want to know what the heck I'm doing and how I do it -I'm open to suggestions if you like to know more!

right now I'm setting up the goldsmithing studio there -the soldering torch got installed recently, and I'm looking into some mobile IKEA kitchen workingspaces to serve as forging and possibly stained glass window setting tables. The studio space and money is limited, so we have to be creative. As if that ever were a drag... ;-)

Aarghh, the brand new Etsy shop! And a tiny rant.

2009-01-12T15:56:00.000+01:00

aarghh.etsy.com: now how does that sound? :-D

So that's for a good start of 2009! Etsy "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade" is a marketplace for artists/sellers and buyers like Dawanda. Only American based, so everything's in dollars over there.

I'm gradually adding jewelry to it and I will probably start selling glass beads and murrini (my own, of course) on it too! It's just we had so little natural light here today that my pictures didn't really come out well, so for now there's only 1 necklace up. The rest will follow when I can do a better photoshoot!

And I had a little adventure on Facebook: participating in a discussion! Even expressing my opinion. Oh my! It must have been a first! :-p I don't usually do that, you see. I'd rather steer away from discussions and stand on the sideline, nodding politely to all the parties while thinking my own thoughts. But not expressing them, oh no!

- Well, it's on my to-do list of 2009: learn to speak up! I'm 30, for crying out loud! I think I can, right? LOL. Well it's never too late to learn... ;-)

Don't bother about the specifics -it was on animal abuse which is something I have very strong feelings about, so I had to step in (for once). I doubt it had much effect on the persons concerned but it felt good to give a voice to my thoughts in a constructive manner, not engaging in name-calling and anything. Even if I don't think they were into reasonable discussions whatsoever and they probably thrive on whatever attention they can get, be it positive or negative. Of course if I had the chance I'd go after them with an axe or so. Yes, that would be lovely! Axe-murder in the morning, tea in the afternoon: who's with me? People who hold so little respect for animals get the exact same amount of respect from me. Anyway, glad I learned from the experience and happily moving on!

19/1/2009 ETA: Yay! the FB lampworkers community stepped in too, mass-unfriending this person. Which seems right: it's the least we can do. Pity spaying and neutering isn't allowed on cat-haters...sure would solve the problem!

21/1/2009: just saw he removed the entire thread (I replied to). Typical! Well, I won't spill any more words on this sad little bully. But this whole thing did have a positive outcome after all: it brought a group of lampworkers closer!

2009 is gonna rock!!!

2008-12-31T12:10:00.000+01:00

the crew* behind artemissne wishes you the best New Year ever! :-D

Project patchwork is coming along pretty nicely, oh yeah baby! Check it out, the picture links to all the indiviual patches @ flickr:

*Assepoes, Isaura, Shelley & yours truly... ;-)

Project Patchwork: artemissne goes glass fusing!

2008-12-24T09:19:00.000+01:00

This is why I fell in love with glass: it's so versatile. Work it cold, work it hot and then cold again. Paint, glue, etch, poke, melt, pull and cut it...Glass looks fantastic!

One of the things I wanted to try out this year with my little Paragon SC3 kiln was fusing glass and it didn't take long to get this idea of combining both lampwork and fusing techniques: constructing a patchwork quilt from square patches of glass covered with murrini and millefiori. Pretty little flowers and patterns, lively colors, lacy effects, lines and dots and waves, all in a busy yet harmonious, transparant whole of a glass quilt. Can you picture it, catching sunlight? :-D

So these are my very first fusing tests. I fused them as lightly as I could: just so that glass pieces stick together and the edges are softened a little.
I used this antique green glass, salvaged from an old leaded glass window. Because I didn't know what COE it had and if it was compatible with anything else, I only used pieces of itself.

Next time I'm starting with my Italian Effetre glass plate (which was actually the reason why it took me so long to get started: it's so difficult to find! Glass rods are all over the place, but the plates...not so much.) and some Bullseye (which has lots of plates but the rods are rare -at least here in Europe).

To be continued...and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

BUY HANDMADE! Also, get 10% off on Dawanda (in my shop)!

2008-12-11T12:15:00.000+01:00

Would you buy handmade, personal, ethical, possibly ecological, local and real pretty presents? I do! :-D

I LOVE shopping at Dawanda and Etsy. You can find gems there that even the better boutiques and galleries don't pick up on, you have personal contact with the creators who sometimes even become friends and every time the postman rings it feels like Christmas...

So go pledge.

And then take a look at http://en.dawanda.com/shop/artemissne where you get 10% off from now until 31/12/2008!

a new skin for aarghh.be

2008-11-26T08:59:00.000+01:00

There! I managed to get the new skin of my homepage designed after all. It's a yearly ritual for me, sort of setting the tone for the next year. It's like shopping for clothes, really. I love it. ;-)

So 2009 will be sunny and fresh, with lots of light shining through. I even went for a white background. Never thought I would! :-p Yellow green, grey green and fuchsia are the colors, and microcosmos the theme.

microcosmos: just add sunlight!

2008-11-04T18:59:00.000+01:00

Here are some more photos from my work-in-progress glass/light object. I've been experimenting with organic forms in transparant green glass and millefiore. This tiny grove isn't much higher than 6 cm!

microcosmos: teaser!

2008-11-02T09:49:00.000+01:00

straight from the studio...

Awesome.

2008-10-15T11:21:00.000+02:00

You're warned: this blog post contains awesomeness. And pictures! :-D

There's no charge for awesomeness though. :-p

Sorry I've been away for a bit! it was just all a bit much, I guess. But not necessarily bad, just much, and I do need my time to recharge...social butterfly that I am!

Talking of which, on my holiday begin September I visited the Buttefly Garden in Knokke for the first time in my life. OMG!!! Why, oh why didn't I visit it sooner?! It was so much fun! Go visit it, bring your pick nick and camera and let your inner child take over...

And there's more cuteness to be had: 2 1/2 weeks ago I adopted a very fluffy white cat from this brilliant local cat rescue initiative: www.katzoektthuis.be. They're a couple of volunteer families spread over the city of Gent, taking care of the stray cats they can catch, or at least feed them. The rescued kitties get a medical check-up and are spayed/neutered before finding their way to a new home.
So I had been surfing the net and searching the soul for months to decide whether I would get Assepoes and Shelley a playmate (you may remember I lost Sushi last year), and then in one moment when I saw Isaura's picture I was sold...

She's about 1 1/2 year old, very white, very fluffy and loves soft bouncy balls and commenting on all my moves. And her playfulness has a great influence on Shelley and Assepoes... ;-)

And with all the piano moving and reorganizing and rocking chairs in the summer, my living room has finally become something of a room to live in!
It just needed a finishing touch, something that reflected the soul of this little house. A picture! :-D Vocisconesse's (site - blog - shop) to be exact...

Her refined illustrations were exactly what I was looking for: They bring the outside in -the natural elements with the leaves and butterflies and organic textures- and the inside out -archetypal references, the intrigueing atmosphere... Lovelovelove them!
They hang above the (now tuned & happy) piano, at eye height. And they really love to be watched from a distance, they almost beckon you, and then you just want to discover all the tiny details with your nose to the frame!
Caduca and Sempreverde want you to unravel their story, and perhaps come away with them...
If you're intrigued, check out Vocisconesse's Dawanda shop and the museum of tarot in Riola (Italy), which features a tarot deck (Tarocchi di Connessione, 22 cards of the major arcana) she's created (you can buy it on this page, 7th from the top).

In the meantime, I've also discovered ITunes. Or better, the ITunes shop. Oh dear! I visited it only once, searching for a catchy tune which I had heard on the radio. It took me to a couple of results from which you could hear samples, and one intrigued me so much I ended up buying the whole album! It downloads immediately to your library, and from there on to your IPod (oh, the wonder of technology! :-p ). And so these preppy Couperin keyboard pieces have been my soundtrack for the past month! (now I want the score and play it myself... ;-) )

today I doodle.

2008-09-25T17:49:00.000+02:00

lots to do, lots to finish, but nope: today I just managed some doodles.

Meet the new talisman/talisvrouw chains!

...and the winner is:

2008-09-22T09:04:00.000+02:00

No. 5 -Which turned out to be Isabella! CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-D Some fiery redness is on its way to you!

Win a free necklace (yup, again!) & Kasseifeesten in Zegelsem/Brakel

2008-08-29T17:08:00.000+02:00

Op zaterdag 20 en zondag 21 september 2008 doe ik mee aan de tentoonstelling tijdens de Kasseifeesten in Zegelsem! Dit is het plannetje voor de avontuurlijken onder jullie... ;-)
Als ik meer informatie vind over de andere exposanten dan laat ik het nog weten, maar het ziet er alvast een mooie mengeling uit van keramiek, textiel, glas, zilver en verf!

En natuurlijk moeten we dit vieren met een juweel! Deze ketting kun je winnen als je commentaar achterlaat (met je email adres) op dit blogbericht (kijk onderaan dit bericht). Als't echt niet lukt stuur je me maar een mailtje op artemissne [at] aarghh [punt] be. Reageren kan tot aan de Kasseifeesten (20/09/2008)! Men zegge het voort! ;-)

Deze ketting is de enige in zijn soort (tenminste van mijn hand): helemaal van glas -maar geenenkele parel is door mij gemaakt (oh nee!), het zijn stuk voor stuk Tsjechische gefacetteerde glasparels die door vuur gepolijst werden...Het is als Swarovski maar zonder de naam, wel met evenveel pit!

Durf jij zoveel rood te dragen? ;-)

Free necklace! :-D

Hello all, I'm participating in the Kasseifeesten -which is exciting if you're in Belgium. If you're not, no worries, you still have the chance to win this fierce necklace! Just leave a comment or if you don't know how to, mail me at artemissne [at] aarghh[dot] be. You have time until the start of the Kasseifeesten Sept. 20!

This necklace doesn't have any of my own glass beads (gasp!) but consists of gorgeous Czech red and bloodorange faceted glass beads. So show your fierceness and give me a shout! :-D

essential vintage for the warm glass artist

2008-08-16T17:19:00.000+02:00

Or: this is how you can make your own frit!

Frit is crushed glass (= lovely picture from combustion glassworks!)that you can use to decorate beads with, or sprinkle on glass pieces to be fired in a kiln (with fusing). It's a very thankful technique, it gives nice, organic results even without a lot of practise! I had to delve into my archive (it's an aarghh-ive actually, hehe) to find a good picture with a bead with frit decoration on it. It's one of my first from 2005, from when I just used a plumber's torch: effetre transparant pink ("rosaline" I call it) + ivory frit...(on a piece of flat polished rose quartz!) (click to see full size!)

So...what's with the vintage and how do you make frit?!
It's so simple. I know you can buy ready made frit and frit melanges, but it's so much more enjoyable if you make your own AND indulge yourself in some necessary vintage/antique shopping as I did yesterday morning! ;-)

You see, the key ingredient of this recipe is an old coffee grinder (1), preferably one with a cat and an umbrella (because that's just wicked). Of course you need the glass -in this case a piece of effetre transparant cobalt rod (4), but it works with any kind as long as you can make the pieces that go in the grinder small enough -hence the other tools: a rod cutter (3) and a glass nibbling pincher (2) that I normally use for my Tiffany/leaded glass work to get hold of the small bit of glass and to snap it off the rod. Try to cut the pieces as small as you can, under 1 cm length. It's nearly impossible to snap them off with your bare hands so use the pincher as a lever and protection for your hands!

As for the grinding, it seems to work best if you just put one or two pieces in it, and add bit by bit as you go. Also, look for a coffee grinder that has a closable lid -you don't want glass fragments flying your way!

The result (5) is what you can see in the plate (note: this has to be vintage too of course... ;-) ) - it's frit of all sizes, from chunky bits to dust. If you wish you can sift them, or use it as it is!

As for the rest, I've been doing all sorts of stuff lately except spending time in front of the torch or in my goldsmithing studio, instead I've been doing some necessary reorganizing of my home... It's funny how one decision -of installing a rocking chair- starts a chain reaction of things that need to be done! And there's no way to postpone them, it's so small here that everyting has to fit perfectly. Well, that's the charm of my tiny cottage...

Right now I'm living with the contents of two book cases piled on the floor so there's just a path to get from on side of the living room to the other. The big carpet that almost covered 2/3 of my living room before is lying partly folded, in the middle of the "path". I want it gone, but there's the small detail of the piano standing on it, way too heavy for me to even move, so I'll have to ask a professional piano mover to do it...

I hope this can be done before September. I'm starting the goldsmithing course @ Syntra Kortrijk then and I hope to dedicate myself more to my art!

Last school year was pretty hard with my new job (oh, I totally forgot: they found a way for me to stay a couple more months, weeee! :-D ), library school and my new glass studio, redoing my site, opening a web shop, etc... I felt quite scattered at times. There's so many projects that are still awaiting their creation! I've been itching to make bigger pieces again, sculptural or stained glass windows.

Like the mysterious "project 2008" I've been hinting of: I first got the idea when I heard about the Canvas Collectie in January, a new national art competition. Had plans for a light object I'd be meaning to create since ages, it seemed, but I quickly realized that that competition wasn't really a forum for me (my art isn't exactly provoking or controversial -all I really want is create "a thing of beauty", and you know your Keats. I'm only a century too late to hop on the Arts & Crafts/Jugendstil/Art Nouveau train, but that's ok, I'll find my own way!), and I didn't have enough time to finish it anyway. So that's one pile of sketches and a handful of small test thingies in glass and copper.

Then I had the bug for making a new stained glass window for my cottage: again, plans, sketches, colour schemes... and that's it.

Then another idea, also one that has been simmering in my brain for some years: a stained glass window with which I can combine several glass techniques, both warm and cold... Well, at least that one is under way. Although it will probably take some more months before I can actually start!

Now the last one is the microcosmos glass garden, an idea I really want to elaborate more! I took this picture of the prototype to remind myself to keep working on it -it will probably take me to strange new places, like collaborating with other craftspeople...and who knows what else! LOL.

That aside, I also have a handful of necklaces for the different collections waiting to be finished...

Life as an artist is soooooo hard!

;-)

microcosmos

2008-08-13T21:03:00.000+02:00

(click to see full size!)

something to look forward to. :-)

friendfeed -a way to subscribe to my blogs, photos, everything!

2008-08-02T09:02:00.000+02:00

Just thought to let you know I added this.

Instead of bookmarking and subscribing to this blog, the other one (droomtijd, though not much there yet), twitter, my flickr photo stream and my links on deli.cio.us, you can now subscribe to the all in one click! If that isn't handy. :-p

Subscribe to kristien berghs - FriendFeed by Email

If you subscribe you'll have to activate your email address so be sure to check your inbox and spam box (you never know - the mails are automatically sent by Feedburner ) for a mail with this title: Activate your Email Subscription to: kristien berghs - FriendFeed

Hope it enhances your blog experience... ;-)

The Markt van Morgen: this is how it was! Finally! :-D

2008-07-28T15:01:00.000+02:00

bedankt dat jullie er waren, Mireille en Els (en iedereen die niet op een foto is beland... ;-) )

Thank you so much Elizabeth, for giving me this lovely opportunity to write this report! I had a lot of fun working on it. Otherwise I would have been too lazy to do it and this would just have been a couple of pictures and maybe half a paragraph...

The Markt van Morgen through the eyes of a quirky Dawandanian who's still new at this world of art markets. And what a grand adventure it was...Two weeks later and I finally have somewhat recovered! LOL

This is an account of the day itself, so I'll spare you the tedious details of the whole preparation & excitement that went on anticipating the market...

I'll probably go down in history as the one jewelry designer who managed to lose the treasure box with all of her jewelry in it, only to find it back in the nick of time with the help of some wonderful neighbours who deserve statues to be erected in their honor! Or more realistically some custom made jewelry by yours truly... ;-)

The day itself had its own challenges, as we had been treated to typical Belgian weather the weeks before: showers, winds, all sorts of interesting weather phenomena but the one you'd associate with the usual summer vibe: sun. But miraculously it was lovely, only that sunday! Some clouds, some generous sunny patches...brilliant! You see, we had had to make our own stands (the organization only provided tables and chairs), while I loved styling it I hadn't found the time to design, let alone make a rain-proof stand!

Now how do you style a stand? Is there a manual?! I didn't have much of a clue at first. It's not just finding a practical way to show your art work but also how you want people to perceive it. How to give them an impression of who you are and what your art stands for.

I had sort of wanted people to be intrigued by the look of the bigger items than just the jewelry itself. Jewelry can be kind of abstract if taken out of context -i.e. when its not worn by real people. So I tried to create the atmosphere of my jewelry with items I could drape, hang or hook them on.

And I guess it worked! People were drawn to these "installations" and when they came closer, discovered they were covered with jewelry. (potrait by WALTERito)

I was really happy with how it all turned out -the contrast between the two long winding horns (from that quaint little shop in Antwerp), the smaller ones that carried the ring and some earrings and the pissed-off clay elephant that I had borrowed from a friend: this elephant had the most funny expression on its face (I had filled it with sweets) and on the other hand the funky ensemble of handblown (not by me) vases of different sizes & colors and huge transparant glass rods matching and contrasting the colors of the vases (the ones I use for glass beads are much thinner, these thicker rods are used for glass sculptures and presse-papiers), thanks to my fellow obsessed glass people & suppliers G & Q ...even down to the jewelry boxes I had folded myself (with a little help from my KANTL colleagues...!), the little photo album I had assembled and printed (with examples of all my collections and some action photos so people could see this was indeed all handmade) and my address cards.

We arrived one hour before it started, which gave us just barely enough time to build our stand! Officially it started at 12.00h but visitors came flocking towards the market already. We had found a great spot in a corner of a building area, so we could make ourselves a little “fort” with the table. And the fence was ideal to put up all the Dawanda posters Elizabeth had sent! It was as if we had found a Wishing-Table because in no time we had it draped with the black cloths, and all horns, vases and elephants were accounted for.

And so it began. Thankfully, I wasn't alone manning the stand as I received great help from Hilda, my mom! She went out hunting for food when we got hungry and helped out when our stand got flooded by visitors...

Now that was something I hadn't quite anticipated: so many people! (<= this is Liesbet & me) It was both flattering to receive all that interest as it was overwhelming! Luckily I could refer them to the photo album so they could see how it all was made, and refer them to my blog and website if they wanted to know more. And I also received quite a bit of inquiries on Dawanda -both from artists and buyers. Especially younger people loved to know more, and the Dawanda flyers went flying off the table. Most people didn't know of its existence so with a bit of luck we opened a new world for them...

However, as I had foreseen, the slightly older generation still has a lot of restraint toward buying things on the internet. If you can't hold it in your hands, how can you be sure to get what you pay for? They're scared off by whatever news they hear of internet scams, so I tried my best to reassure them. Dawanda isn't some faceless company, you have direct contact with the sellers and it doesn't always require credit cards, especially not from local sellers. They also weren't sure how to find their way through the site and follow the buying instructions, so I may have to work on a sort of visual manual some time...

But most people were enthousiastic: a perpetual art market at your fingertips! ;-)

I wasn't the only Dawandanian there, Ella from Ella since Osix (see picture) who had her stand at the other side of the market came to say hi. She makes these gorgeous, cheerful shoulder bags from vintage textiles. I was impressed at how well she's been presenting & marketing her art, finding different channels to sell and attracting a wide range of customers! Something I have still to learn a lot about.

Also Nadine from PandoraPearl had come all the way from Dordrecht, NL and paid a visit with her friend -she would have participated at the market if she hadn't had such a big sale at her 4^th of July sale the week before! She makes lovely wire-wrapped jewelry with all sorts of glass, semi-precious and pearl beads. Maybe she'll be there with a stand next time.

I saw a lot of my friends back as well (I grew up in Antwerp where the market was held, but swapped it for Gent a couple of years ago). There was Mireille (who's creating handmade stuffed dragons and Pullip dolls' accessories which she sells on Etsy, and she's got a jewelry shop coming up there too!) who finally got her lucky, bubbly fish necklace, I saw Liesbet and Tinne back, Jessy and her boyfriend Joris whom I handed my photocamera so he could play a little...and luckily for us we have some pictures now! Dank u Joris... :-D You can see them in the Markt van Morgen flickr group!

We got a surprise visit from G & Q (& T & friend, but not E & E...hehe) who discovered a couple of other lampworkers/customers who were there too! And Karen en Els, my classmates from libraryschool and fellow facebook plant throwers (we seem to have a thing for the lil green patch application...LOL). And my Antwerp clan Noor with Phil, Elke and Johan with Elisabeth -we've all studied/lived in Leuven... I saw back people I hadn't seen in forever, like years! So it was wonderful to see my friends and have their support. And meeting new people too: fellow glass beadmakers and Werner Vitt; a master lampworker from Brugge who founded the glass classes I followed there 2 years ago, a metalworker and a photographer, Walter who made some amazing portraits to capture the market's atmosphere. I even spotted fashion designer Walter van Beirendonck checking out some of the stands! (not mine though -I'm by far not controversial enough for him, LOL)

So was it all a success? It certainly was a lot of superlatives for me on many levels. It was so great seeing my friends, meeting like-minded artists and finding out how people reacted to my jewelry, and pushing my own creativity to meet the art market's deadline the weeks prior to it... I even made some sales! Hehe. But at the same time it was also quite stressful for someone like me: that said deadline of getting everything finished on time, and dealing with several people at the time for a couple of hours straight is an introvert's nightmare! It left me dazed & frazzled by the end of the market, and I was more than happy to break it all up and go home. However, after a good night's sleep I had returned to my normal self again, and knew that all in all it had been a wonderful experience.

Mom & happy customer -portrait by WALTERito

And now two weeks later I feel achieved and that I have really deserved my summer holidays..and guess what, the sun is finally here to stay!

A hedgehog summer romance

2008-07-28T09:07:00.000+02:00

...or did you know your pc can't live without floppy discs?!

The art market report is ready and wants to be posted so badly, but since it's going to be published (partly) on another blog as well everything's got to be synchronized...So I continue testing your patience!

Meanwhile, let's have some romance to start the week with: two hedgehogs meeting in my garden under the lemon balm and the oregano yesterday evening (you can just about make out the other one under the lemon balm at the right):

I heard a short screech like a little pig outside and went to see what it was, with Assepoes. And there they were...funny little creatures. They really can't be buggered at all... :-p

And I almost finished my two other summer projects: install a rocking chair in my living room (thus having to rearrange the whole living room, causing me to make a new computer desk, moving the goldsmithing workshop to the kitchen, installing another book case and a cd case...)
Well, it worked! And it's awesome. Pictures sure will follow (once I cleared the floor of books and music scores...)(ooh: found someone who sewed yummilicious new covers for her "lillberg" couch -the same as my rocking chair! and it has cats! :-D If I ever find time I'd do the same; for now the seats are perfect for me in their off-white covers and embroidered cushions and a cosy sheepskin...)(and Assepoes and Shelley love it and have become total couch potatoes!)

Then of course I had to do something with my computer. It's been going slower & slower for months and driving me insane. I have been doing all the usual cleaning up; defragmenting, registry cleaning, antivirus and antispyware, but it didn't make so much of a difference. So last week I went by a computer shop to hear if they could do something. True enough, they could reformat the hard disks so I could start over with a clean slate. Literally. Then I did some websearching and found out I could do this just as well myself.

This weekend I put everything on my external HD, checked and double checked and was ready to do the formatting. But...

Since my Windows XP setup cd is outdated (well d'oh, it's 4 years old) the newer, updated version wouldn't allow itself to be overwritten by it. Right. (then wat's the use of a recovery cd after all?!)
No problem: I configured the BIOS's booting preferences so it had to accept the cd nonetheless. Nope, wouldn't work -it took me a bit (see, I'm not all that technical really) until I realized I don't actually have a cd-rom drive: I do, but it's external, connected via USB. And because it is USB my BIOS doesn't know it -drives on USB connections are apparently too novel a phenomenon for my poor old BIOS.
So I searched for BIOS updates and learned they can be found, either for a price or at great risk of killing your system. Hmm...

So I've been trying to find a way around that, and found only this solution: install (so buy) an internal cd-rom drive (dvd reader/writer/whatever) and go hunt for floppy disks. They're needed for booting the pc, the internal cd rom for the set-up of either Win XP again or Ubuntu (belgische site)(I plan on experimenting a bit). So when it comes down to it, your state of the art, newest of new computer still prefers good old floppies to anything else...

I do hope I can find some -found a few dusted ones but not enough of them: you need 6 of them for booting.

It was fun though having to use DOS-commands again. Makes me feel 16 all over again...LOL!

And while I'm at it, I'll put it some more RAM as well. Look at me being all nerdy! :-p

So I'm going to do some shopping today, and I hope I can find some cheap things, because upgrading your old pc almost costs as much as one of those mini pc's now... (I'm eyeing the superslim and pretty EEE desktop, but it will be a while before it lands here in Europe...)

And I need my trusty old computer to be strong and happy before the new school year starts...You see, I'm going back to school. Yup, library school. Become a proper librarian now (at least I have my role models: the Librarian and Rupert Giles).

The reason? I lost my job at the KANTL. Probably. The colleague I'm replacing half-time comes back to work nearly full time again, and the chances that I can stay in perhaps another function there are slim...so that's that.

It made me cranky for a while (I got the news the day after the Art Market, so that was a cold shower!) and I'm still not happy about it -but I'm making it my chance to go back to school full time -starting with one semester- and who knows, I might even graduate someday! ;-)

just a little heads up:

2008-07-21T13:18:00.000+02:00

I'm working on a little write-up of the market so you'll have to wait a little bit longer...

Meanwhile, have a look at the photos here and here and here!

markt van morgen

2008-07-12T09:18:00.000+02:00

Almost there!

I just discovered the gorgeous revamped look of the site:

Woohoo! And I'm getting everything ready, finishing touches to the last pieces of jewelry, the packaging, the display...trying not to forget too much! Boy, what an organization!

I received some great posters & flyers from Elizabeth @ Dawanda with which I'll decorate my stand with...

...and I just created a flickr group for the Markt van Morgen, so if you're there and you've got a camera, join the group and show off those pictures! :-D

Tot op de markt van morgen morgen!

Hehe. :-p

...and the winner is:

2008-07-02T20:06:00.000+02:00

Comment number 7, which proved to be by Annick! Woohoo, congratulations!!! :-D

And to the others, thanks so much for joining in!

This contest was such a fun thing to do, I enjoyed it very much... I should do this more often, don't you think? ;-)

And to more good news: my jewelry box has been found!!! With pretty much everything in it and intact! My mom heard it from a neighbour who knew the woman who had collected it & kept it untouched in her hall until my mom went to retrieve it... utterly amazing, isn't it? :-D
I will create something special for her... :-)

And now we're on this wave of fate and randomness, all sorts of luck: I found a bookcrossing book yesterday, in town! Completely by accident... One about an Egyptian queen, Nefertiti, in French...it has been traveling for 1 1/2 years, from the Auvergne in France. And I'm going to release it in the wild again very soon -you have guessed it: at the Markt van Morgen next week! (So I'm trying to read as fast as I can, LOL!)

And to finish, this is a little sneak preview for the market, starring my two models Trixie and Killer! :-p

Dawanda blog feature! Markt van Morgen! FREE NECKLACE! new collections! mild panic! Endicott Studio! Dr Horrible!

2008-06-25T19:11:00.000+02:00

Well, the title says it all...I've got nothing else to add. :-p

The awesome news is that the Markt van Morgen got featured on the Dawanda blog! It also got mentioned on the German and the French part (I'll include links when they become available) of the site, reaching a big bunch of people. This is so great! Many thanks to William & Elizabeth of the English side of Dawanda. (for the connoisseurs there's die Deutsche Seite & le site francophone...)

They were so kind to mention my shop only now of all times it's totally empty...what a sorry sight! Because of the jewelry box of course. Yes. You can imagine I've got a lot of preparation still to do, building up a whole new collection in such short time is...well, a challenge. Hence the mild panic...

Here's a sneak preview of what I've made so far: chunky stones, sparkly orange & goldfish and bubbly silver!

But having to start from scratch also pushed my creativity, in the meantime I've worked out not one but two new collections, one you can see in the picture: I planned out to create a lighter (also more affordable) version of the duizendbloem necklaces: a silver chain, two silver rings, two glass beads. But before I knew it had developed a mind of its own, forcing me to use these exciting, for my style daring colors & color combinations and bead shapes! So you see, creativity is a lot like a cat. It will just barely endure you and just act as it pleases... ;-)
Quite possibly I'll just call it Bubbles. (wait-now I'm suspecting I had a My Little Pony called that once. In a sense that's actually fitting...LOL)

The idea for other collection came to me on the day the Endicott Studio Blog closed down... it was only my most favourite blog! It is a gem. I'll give it more attention in my inspiration blog, droomtijd, when I find time.
I didn't know it at the time, so after I had that Aha!-moment of my collection I paid a visit to their blog and found out about it. Somehow it seemed to be connected: this site taught me about integrating myths and fairy and folk tales in art/literature from all over the world, and there I was with a collection I wanted to call fairy tale fragments!
It's funny how things want names. And names only come when they are needed. I had been making jewelry for it for some time, I knew what it wanted to be, but I couldn't find a name for it until then!
Silver is definitely the protagonist in it, mostly forged pieces and soon precious metal clay too, with glass and gorgeous precious stones as guest stars. The pieces don't tell the whole tale, they're just elements, but they'll weave into your own.

And then I smack myself for not having thought of this name sooner. It's so obvious. LOL.

And now... for some FUN!!! :-D To celebrate Spring! Oh wait, I mean Summer! The end of the school year! The Upcoming Art Market! Wednesdays! Dissapearing Jewelry Boxes! Just Because! ;-)

Here's your chance to win one of my necklaces! :-D

It's this one (click to see it almost life size) ::::::::>

It's all OOAK, completely handmade, annealed, tested, signed, blahblah. I made it from a collection of poor orphaned glass beads, some are the very first I ever made (wooo! keep it safe, someday it might be worth a lot!) (or not :-p ). I was a bit sorry for them, eclectic bunch not getting any love, not bad enough to throw out (I don't do that, btw, I keep them all!), not fitting in with the others either. So I strung them up with some quartz and suddenly they became this cheery necklace! Gone were imperfection and being the odd ones out!

So these beads are so much fun to wear and awaiting their new owner!

What you have to do to in order to have a chance is comment to this blog entry. There's time until next week, wednesday June 2, 20.00h CET (Central European Time). Please make sure I can contact you! (If you feel uncomfortable sharing your email address then mail me at kristien [at] aarghh [dot] com after you commented here) All individual commenters will have one chance!

An innocent hand (or better: an internet application) will select the winner. Good luck to you all!

And with these happy words I leave you to delve into my studio (again)... not emerging before the art market I suspect! (only 17 days left omg help!)

P.S. one last little thing: a teaser trailer for Dr Horrible ("Soon coming to a computer near you" LOL) ( if you love Joss whedon, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day and Neil Patrick Harris) is up. Enjoy! :-D

...and to Paris!

2008-06-19T13:12:00.000+02:00

I've been busy!

2008-06-19T12:48:00.000+02:00

creative juice

2008-06-12T10:21:00.000+02:00

via

:-p

(edit - fixed the video)

I got featured in the Dawanda Shop Directory blog!

2008-06-08T20:26:00.000+02:00

Thank you Sara! :-D

-She works with textures, both in fabric and paper, has a shop on etsy, dawanda and her own site AND manages (among others) to maintain the Dawanda Shop Directory blog all by herself and writes for DIY City Mag!

Actually, I got featured last Monday but with the loss of my jewelry I didn't really feel like announcing this lovely news...

But now almost a week has passed and I had my final exam for library school yesterday (it went fine, thanks for asking!). I have also been creating some new necklaces and earrings last week for the"light" collection of duizendbloem...really needed to do that!

And no, the box and the jewelry is still missing and I shouldn't hope on ever finding it or getting it back. But at least I have pictures of most, and some of them were used in Patrick's photoshoot last sunday so at least I have something beautiful to remember them by. Luckily I'm not a materialist, although the whole thing has made me a cranky idealist. I miss them!

That said, I have an art market in a bit more of a month and I'm planning to make the best of it!

Oh, P.S. de schele Rosse is now called Jack, or even Jack the Sixth! He's doing better, although it will take a long time before his cut will heal.

nope, nothing.

2008-06-03T17:42:00.000+02:00

Of course it wasn't at the lost & found both at the station and the police. And no, my name or address isn't on it, apart from my stamp on the silver (which just holds my initials). It wasn't meant to be anywhere but in my backpack.

In a way it's a compliment...LOL. Not to be brought to the lost & found right away. If I'd find a box full of mysterious jewelry I'd probably want to play with it for a bit first, before reporting it. And I'd be so decent to report it... not sure if I can expect the same from others. Well, the police have my phone number -I did what was needed.

And with that storm we had with heavy rainfall it might have been flushed away just as well. Seems also fitting somehow, being reclaimed by the earth...(sewers)(shh!)

I haven't made an inventory yet, because that would be really depressing. I'll have to shut down my Dawanda shop temporarily. Although I'm surprised it hasn't made me as mad & hysterical as I would have feared. It is only jewelry after all...
Maybe it can't beat my small victory in helping an old, toothless, defenseless ginger cat (who's now happily eating & napping here). Which sounds sappy but it does put it all in perspective.
Also, it's harsh, but I have a clean slate now. Working towards the art market in July I can develop my 4 collections equally and make a great whole.

Oh yes, I developed a fourth collection. I meant to tell you that under happier circumstances, which I will do in full tomorrow together with some other news when I'm less cranky.

And thanks for your thoughts...I appreciate it.

still nothing...

2008-06-03T12:54:00.000+02:00

I turned my house upside down, mom her car & her house and she also drove past our route to the station to find any clues, but nothing.

So what I've been dreading is probably true: I left it on top of the car, we took off and it must have fallen off somewhere. Somebody might have picked it up, maybe the torrential rain from yesterday afternoon carried it away...

Can you believe it? One moment of absent-mindedness & you lose something very valuable (to yourself).

I understand how it happened, a number of unlucky coincidences. I could hit on myself for letting it happen but I won't. Having had a couple of very busy days: library school with tests on saturday, then the train to Ronse and the photoshoot on sunday, I had left my backpack in the car and didn't get it out after the shoot because I was too tired, monday monring we had a new front door installed and during that we went to the train station. So I had to carry all my stuff in my hands, which was a lot, the backpack still in the car, my mom had to go back to fetch her new front door keys while I waited outside with the car still locked...and I placed the bloody box on the car to relieve myself from the weight of all my things. And didn't think about it anymore until this morning.

Well, nothing a white bordeaux from 2005 won't solve. And this afternoon I'm starting to create new jewelry.

At least I saved a cat's life & it all could have been much worse.

oh. shit.

2008-06-03T10:10:00.000+02:00

Please tell me this isn't happening...

It looks like I've lost my jewelry box yesterday, the one I brought to Patrick's photoshoot. The one with all the jewelry I had made thus far. Yup, quite a lot.

I refuse to believe it, but I can't find it back.

I know I had it before we left for the station, I know I put it on the car when my mom went to get her keys and I'm almost certain I put it in the car as well. I know I stuffed things in my backpack (which I had left in the car) and meant to put the box in it as well, but I'm drawing a complete blank as to what happened since...

Good news is though that when I got home I managed to catch de schele Rosse and my vet was able to operate on him right away. So I was busy with that all day. And de schele Rosse is fine and feels quite at home...

It was only this morning that I suddenly couldn't remember where I had put my box...

Let's hope I spectacularly misled it.

The strange thing is I didn't feel anything was wrong, I even was quite relaxed which doesn't happen that often...I usually check and double-check and still go through disaster scenarios in my head, but not so yesterday.

Crap.

Can you help looking for a medium translucent light blue box please? Crammed with jewelry in seperate bags? Or pray I find it back? Thanks so much!!!

de schele Rosse -a cat's tail

2008-05-30T07:36:00.000+02:00

I really ought to be studying... but I just had to tell you about this!

I found myself immersed in a new "project" all of a sudden. He's called "de schele Rosse" -a not so nice name for redheads, only in his case it's a fitting description: he's got a squint and he's well, ginger...

I first met him a couple of weeks ago. Living near the city's end with a park & community gardens nearby we sometimes get visits from dumped cats. He caught my attention because he's quite vocal, telling his life's history as he walks by...
He had his squint already back then, it looked like a bad scratch from a fight but otherwise he seemed ok with it. And as he was weary of humans I couldn't approach him anyway. He's also very much unneutered, can't go 5 steps before marking his territory...Poor thing. :-p

He came in at dusk & dawn to eat at my cat cracker self service. LOL.

A week or more ago I noticed he had dirt or something hanging from the right side of his throat (you can see it on the photo as well), but a couple of days later I saw it from behind and it proved to be quite a nasty cut! Another fight? A dog or other predator maybe (besides loose dogs there aren't any here, unless you count pretty fierce rabbits...)? Luckily he didn't seem to be bothered by it that much. Still it looked pretty serious, gaping wound and all (sorry for the visual!).

I realized he had to go to the vet to get it mended, but how to catch a semi-feral hormonal tomcat? So the past few days I have been cat whispering the best I could, letting him get used to my presence and over the days sitting just a little closer...Yesterday I was able to pet him, and discovered he was well used to that!
That's a good thing, means he is well used to humans and can learn to trust again...

Then this morning I discovered that the way to a man's heart is indeed through his stomach... LOL. I gave him some milk (goat's milk, didn't have any other at hand) and he lapped it up as if he was in fast forward! It was very funny. Then he had a meal of fancy canned food and throughout he let me pet him and I stayed near so he learns to associate me with fun and yummy things...before I catch him over a couple of days for his vet visit.

To be continued...

Mmmmurrini... (quick one)

2008-05-26T18:45:00.000+02:00

See, murrini are just so much fun! :-D I discovered Sarah Hornik has found her own murrini mania and the gorgeous beads she made with them! Check it out, it's totally inspiring -and a bit frustrating for someone who has two weeks of exams in front of her. Waah! I want to torch right now!

In other news I'm busy doing my library school homework. What a model student I am... :-p I'm putting the links on Open Source Software on deli.cio.us by the way als er klasgenootjes geïnteresseerd zijn... :o)

droomtijd - new blog in the making

2008-05-25T17:49:00.000+02:00

You know, that question about what inspired me & I couldn't answer (a couple of weeks ago when I got interviewed on the indiego), it kept haunting me. Actually it is something that I've been wanting to map out for myself for a long time, only I didn't realize it until I was asked that question...

I had started my little colors/play project site with the new release of my homepage earlier this year which is a nice litte gateway into my inner world, but I haven't found the time to update much. It takes too long, playing with the webdesign and the graphics/photos... I just didn't have time! How cruel.

So I thought to make it a little easier on me, and start a blog for it: droomtijd... there I have all the practicality of wysiwyg and my blogger account and the wonderful world of tagging, so no more losing bits of paper with ideas jotted down, everything scattered all over the place, no more excuses! :-D And as the blog progresses I can add the "best of" of it to my site, as I plan to do with my studio tales (not much tales yet, sorry).

I was surprised that the blogname, droomtijd, wasn't taken yet. It's Dutch for dreamtime, or even the Dreaming which I knew was an Aboriginal idea. It is fundamental to their spirituality and has to do with both the creation of the world in their creation myths and the place (not physical) where (Aboriginal) artists find their inspiration. Or at least that's what I made of it after visiting an exhibition on Aboriginal art years ago.
And I just love the sound of it. Almost wished I could have come up with it before, as my "official" (blog) name is as vague and as misty as possible...which was what I was going for at the time.

By the way, I will explain about artemissne, my art's name, later. (it's not that exciting though) Maybe in the new blog, that seems to be appropriate.

Anyway, I'll let you know when I've posted anything of substance in there. It may be a couple of weeks before that happens, have got to survive some exams first (library school...) and also a photoshoot by Patrick next sunday! He's got something mightily decadent planned...oh dear! :-p

Picasso Jasper

2008-05-20T17:02:00.000+02:00

(click to see full size)

This one's just up on Dawanda. Do you remember the glass beads? :-)

Let's talk about CFS!

2008-05-20T08:53:00.000+02:00

So, I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I've mentioned it here and there on my site and my blog.

It's ok.

My cats (this is Assepoes btw) really like me that way, because my need to rest just gives them lots of extra snuggle time... :-)

My social life however is pretty non-existent. Yay for the internet, otherwise I would be a complete hermit. Luckily I can throw gummy bears at people (on facebook), or twitter to give a sign of life if I can't muster up the energy to call or write/mail.

And I am lucky compared to others, as I can work (part-time only). Well, I couldn't before, so I am getting better. At least, I refuse to believe that this is un-curable, but it may take a long time. Like years and years.

CFS kicks in by being triggered. Through a physical and/or emotional crisis, usually a bit of both. Oh, and living in pretty extreme stress for a long period of time will do too. For me it's a logical result of what had been going on in my life, and by the time I went to the doctor to get diagnosed I already knew what was going on, the diagnosis was no surprise.

Still, I was so relieved to get the diagnosis because it gave me something substantial to work with. Before that I just had these seemingly unrelated symptoms and ailments that were always waved off as stress-related and unrelated to eachother and therefore not important.
I got a great deal of not being listened to (you're too young to be this tired, you're making it up, you're depressed, it's autumn/winter/spring/a hot/rainy day, so everybody feels a bit tired, etc.) to "helpful suggestions" from professionals, telling me to go out, take dance courses, even choosing a mate (I'm not kidding you!).

So by the time I got the diagnosis I had been living with it for some years already. I quit my studies in late 1999 when I was 21, 2000 was turbulent and it must have started in the course of that year. It just didn't look like CFS back then because I was going through a crisis and was such an emotional wreck that I thought that was part of it. Over the years I learned to cope with my post traumatical stress (PTSD English/Dutch) but the fatigue stayed loyally... it was only in 2006 that I was diagnosed!

I am not being treated for it. Not as such. Since I already had learned to live with it and doing what I could on my own my doctor could only recommend taking more magnesium and omega 3, and that was that.

Living with it is hard work though. This is how it is for me:

+++ I can't hurry. At all. So I get up early to get myself ready in the morning, doing one thing at the time and pausing when I need to. It takes me about 2 hours every morning to get up. If I do hurry in the morning, I "crash" by 11-12am and that's it then. Back to bed; back to square 1. And general rushing to get things finished also doesn't work anymore. I do what I can, and have to leave things unfinished.
+++ I can't improvise or act impulsively anymore; doing so would cause an immediate burn-out (= back to bed & recover for 2-3 days). This really sucks though: I have to plan my life rather rigidly now where I used to be spontaneous and adventurous before. I have to get up and go to bed on regular hours. Anything that upsets my rhythm makes me ill afterwards... So I live an extremely regular and boring life. ;-)
+++ rest, downtime, naps, recharging the batteries. Even if they require cancelling dates or class or taking afternoons or even days off.
+++ eating consciously! This is quite a challenge. I've never been a big eater, but being long and thin I always could eat whatever I wanted. Even more, I'd better eat as much as I can because I lose weight way too easily thanks to a nervous constitution. So with CFS I find that I can't digest much of those fattening foods anymore so byebye dairy, sugar and meat. As a result I have to fight to keep on my weight and not lose any more, so I always have something with me to eat since I easily get low blood sugar. Well, I've found new friends in nuts and seeds who fit in pockets and can be nibbled on throughout the day...
I don't cut off all the meat/dairy/sugar though, but have made adjustments: water, juice and tea instead of soda, honey and goat's milk in my coffee and all sorts of goat's and sheep's cheese (but rather some veggie-based spread on my bread), and just occasionally (red) meat. Mostly fish or tofu things.
+++ Besides the eating consciously, making sure I have my daily share of vitamins/minerals/... (and also include periods of not taking anything so my body doesn't get used to it) I also do quite a bit to cleanse my body every now and then. Toxins and old emotional traumas are said to stay in your body and clog up your organs and eventually lead to illness, fatigue being one of the warning signals. On a daily basis the cleansing involves just drinking lots of fluids, but every now and then I do a liver cleanse (very effective, but let me spare you the details though ;-) ) and do other strange things like drinking clay water (yuck but it works!).
+++ keep moving. I've never been a sporty type but I always hiked & biked. I don't have a car so I do all of my shopping on foot, by bike or by bus. I've been doing this for years and as long as I don't keep buying cute little sécretaires on impulse I'm fine...(thanks Monique! ;-) )
So I'm not fit at all, but at least I have this. And I've found that I can go biking again for fun too, and for a bit longer periods than before. It depends on how I feel that day, but if I'm free and well I go for it. Very handy: I live near some gorgeous walking and biking routes!
Also important: yoga stretches and taichi/qi gong.
+++ clumsiness! This was a dreadful discovery for me...LOL. No really, I used to never break things. I love and excell at working in tiny details with a sure hand and I take care of my things. I'm careful. And yet I've never broken as many plates and mugs (and yup, glass beads too) as the last years.
+++ idiocy. Honestly, this is for me the most embarrassing effect of the fatigue. There are moments when I can't think or speak anymore. As if my brain is turned off. This is very annoying, especially at work or school (at home I don't mind, the kitties understand me without words anyway). Sometimes I'm physically present, but just not able to do any decent mental work. A bit like a computer freezing up (wish I could increase my RAM or defragment my brain...). The only thing that helps is (reboot...) rest up and if I can do that it's usually better the next day. But you can't always do that at work or in school and certainly not during exams...
+++ having a lower immunity. If there's a bug going around, I usually get a visit. And strong physical reactions to even "normal" stress.

But if it weren't for this condition, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing - living for my art. It forced me to revise my life completely and make conscious choices that went straight against how I had been brought up. It wasn't an easy process, I had to change my own views first and then I had to convince the people surrounding me too. And then to pave my own path, because there isn't really a handbook on becoming an artist...(unless you count Julia Cameron's Artist's Way of course!)

So it's ok.

library school made me do it.

2008-05-10T21:22:00.000+02:00

disclaimer: no books have been hurt in the making of this post.

wait -no, I lied...

I've become a serial book killer!

And the joy it gave me... :-p

Have a look for yourself.
See, I needed gift boxes for the art market I'm participating in in July. And I wanted something special, and totally me.

I had been thinking about it for a bit, and then suddenly it all came together: a friend who showed me how origami boxes were folded, I went through some boxes at the KANTL of books that were up to be dumped, I saved an unused 1956 journal from the dump as well (unrelated to the KANTL though), and I remembered some ancient music scores that I received years ago, as a heritage of an old lady who I'd never known. And when I got busy I added some cheapo Shakespeare edition to the mix! You know, the kind with paper yellowing the day after you bought it, and sloppy prints with words and passages left out or misprinted...I bought it years ago, so proud I had all of Shakespeare in one band....
So I cut all the books open (yay for old bound books & scores, as they are so much easier and neater to "dissect" than those bloody paperbacks!) and glued a merry collage on square newspaper leaves. Then I cut those collages in 4 and started folding them. (Are you tickled? I got my step-by-step video tutorial from here.)

These are a few favorites:

Le Petit Pischna. Believe me, I'm doing pianists all over the world a big favour by (graciously) getting rid of one of his scores. I've played it. (though not from this score, the remarks in crayon weren't for me. For once...)
The scores -in floppy oversized pre-1960 style- proved very easy to fold too, as if the pages had been waiting all this time to become an objet d'art like this... LOL

The 1956 journal. I saved from an old paper dump (I don't scavenge dumps all that much though, or at all! But it's just....if I see something that can be re-used I can't leave it.) I don't know why it appealed to me this much. But it was totally unused, apart from a few addresses and a calculation of telephone calls in the back. How mysterious! I don't know who it has belonged to.

The map of Northern/Southern Limburg (Netherlands/Belgium) from a lonesome tome on the 19th century history of the region.

No need to explain that one...

...and this is a close up of the stamp I had made. It's just so much fun to stamp things! :-p Not even a year working for the government and I've already developed a stamp fetish. Oh well... LOL