Thank you Di

allelulia I'm home! And just look what was waiting for me on my return, but the cutest most perfect bijoux gift! My own little travelling Becassine, where did you get her Di? I love her....shame I cannot look like her when I travel.....

incidents in Indonesia

ere I am in Surabaya this week on the bi annual factory visit which was going very well until we took a trip to the beautiful Shangrila hotel in the centre of town.....a crowded bus failed to stop and managed to write off the car we were travelling in! Within minutes we had attracted quite a crowd of locals, I snapped some pictures of the general chaos that ensued, quite a contrast to the tropical haven of our destination....

islamic tessallated tiles

eville is also home to the famous Alcazar which is a moorish fortress built in the 10th century, - the moors not only introduced beautiful architecture to the south of Spain and amazing culinary skills, but they also were brilliant mathematicians- the tile work throughout the palace is all based on mathematical tessallations, regular, irregular and star-shaped tiles are juxtaposed to create geometrical patterns that flow over the whole surface,- the individual pieces, called "alízares", were cut out by blows delivered by a pick and then fired using a limited palette. In 1922 M. C. Escher was so inspired after studying the Moorish use of symmetry in these tiles, that he produced all those intricate works using these regular divisions of the plane.....

another bracelet

ery addicted to wrapping lengths of cord...here is the thickest bracelet I have done so far, I think that they look better if they have lots of different coloured cords...

silky cords

he only thing that I really managed to make successfully while I was away was a bunch of bracelets- made by twisting lots of different coloured embroidery silks around thick cord and then securing 10 - 20 of these coloured cords with a thick wrap of linen, which then had loads of seed beads sewn all over the top- all for the still fictitious etsy shop that is still a figment of my imagination!

Sol y Sombra

inally back home from 3 glorious weeks in sunny Spain,and an amazing trip to the beautiful Seville where as you can see from the photos above of little details that you see as you amble through the city, there was an abundance of yellow...something to do with their famous oranges perhaps? Don't let anyone tell you that Spain is not the most beautiful country in the world, with its stunning mountains ranges, rolling plains, soaring eagles and rich cultural heritage....

dobbers and medals

iane Foster, my new best friend, is not only very clever with words, handy with the soldering iron, but she is extremely kind and generous! True to her word she has made all her classmates a dobber which is a jewel like image encased under a glass blob which is then soldered to another to produce a deliciously chunky pendant which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!!!
I could say that the best thing about it is that it is mine or that it has been made beautifully, but it is the choice of words that makes it so magnificent.......