Incantations for the new year

Here is my Christmas Tree decorated in my favorite festive colors: gold and orange. Also on the tree are hanging these oval ornaments, that I made myself. They all have an old fashioned black and white image, surrounded by white glitter and underneath a scroll with a hand calligraphed word. The words all refer to qualities that we want to have in our life or hope to invoke in the new year, such as:courage, prosperity, benevolence, curios, knowing, valiant, etc. I call these ornaments "Incantations". This is the second year we are having them on our tree and it feels very personal. I hope that all your wishes for the next year come true. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Sale

Here is the reason why I haven't been blogging: I am preparing for my holiday sale. I will show brand new designs in silver with gold leaf and of course some lovely gems.
This year I teamed up with my good friend Pam, a talented artist, who makes wonderful ceramics. The sale will be at her house. We'll be joined by some other artisans, including my daughter, who made really cute t-shirts.
The sale is this Friday from 5pm to 8 pm and on Saturday from 11am to 2pm. drop me an e-mail if you want to come : elisabeth@technoir.net

Albina's necklace

I have been so very, very busy making jewelry. Here is a very special piece I made for Albina's birthday. This necklace has my beloved fine silver ginkgo leaf as a center piece and big iridescent Labradorite rondells. I think this is my favorite Ginkgo necklace I made and will offer two of them at my up-coming sale, for which I am working a lot.

The birds

A couple of mornings ago the crows assemble on my front yard tree making an incredible noise. When I went outside to see what this was all about, I was taken by the sight of their silhouettes against the blue sky and was reminded of paper cut outs.

Window Stars

2 weeks ago I visited Ms. Searle's 7th grade class and brought in an art project that was connected to their learning about historical Islamic culture. We made paper stained glass stars, trying to replicate the beautiful and intricate geometrical patterns found in the mosaics of Islamic architecture. We talked about how their very advanced creation of patterns and arabesques was connected to their religion and the flourishing of science, particularly mathematics. This is another example that proves how close art and science are.Often people don't put the two together and actually think of art and science opposed to each other.
I also liked this project, because it is perfect for the holiday season without being traditional or leaning towards any religious holiday symbols. Its just festive and can be used by anybody.