In the mood for snow

These snowflake earrings are new at my Etsy shop.

I wanted to create something extremely simple from the basic structure of snowflake crystals: 6 arms.

The result is subtle and light. These earrings shine softly.

There is also a snowflake pendant that looks romantic hanging from a fine satin band.

While serching for snow crystals I found this amazing web page where you can make your own virtual paper-cut snowflakes. But, be careful, many many minutes could pass while you were cuting snowflakes.

Winter nights

 

My house illuminated 

Look who is back...

¿Did you miss me? maybe. I have been blogging mentally but it looks like none of it has been recorded here...

The past days I have been working on some new pieces, took a short trip and got into a strange emotional state due to the winter.
It is not easy for me to live with only few hours of light specially if those hours reveal a gray sky. It makes me anxious to feel the night falling at 4:30 pm. Melancholy takes hold of me and I have to stop.

There's three months of this, 3, and if there is no snow, if the water crystals don't fill this vacum.... I don't know. If at least I would like to go skiing...

But no more crying. I will show where I was:

Cologne's Cathedral seen from a bridge

It was my friend Gregor's birthday and to celebrate we went to a very surprising exhibition that left us with a spinnig mind for several days and a sensation quite hard to define.

Bridge over the Rhein. New buildings.

On our way to Bonn, we had lunch at the Kameha, in Cologne, where a good friend of Gregor's cooks. Special dishes where prepared for this occasion. The lobster wontons with prune sauce and the progressively hot broth were fantastic.

The Rhein at Bad Honeff

We spent three days at Gregor's parent's house. A 100 years old house from a fairy tale in a pretty town close to the Rhein, full of vineyards and hills.

Drachenfels. The ruins.

There are castles all along this region. Some abandoned, some inhabited.

On the way back to Witten  we stopped in Cologne again to have lunch at the rotiseria Massimo, a small and excellent place. This was the dessert. My hands were shaking with delight...

Did you see how dark the sky is in all the photos? Nevertheless, the region is wonderful,so ancient and mysterious. There is nothing better than to scape and wake up in another time and place. I like to celebrate my friend's birthdays for three or four days.
Tomorrow I will show you what I have been producing and I'll tell you about some questions that have been lurking in my mind.

This is the exhibition we visited: Bodyworlds. And yes, those are real bodies!

Organic Friday

I love Friday mornings because they bring fresh food.

Germany is spoiling me. I just have to choose delicious things, buy them on the web while I drink coffee and wait for Friday when a very nice man arrives on his truck and climbs the stairs of my building with baskets of food. What else can a Dama de casa* ask for?

Ahhh, I know. Could somebody please wash the lettuce because it's the house of some little worms that make me very nervous?

My friend G has volunteered for this job; he finds it very amusing to scare me with the bugs.

* in Spanish ama de casa is housewife but I prefer the term Dama the casa. 

Dama: Dame. I just don't know how to make this game of words in English.

They are here!!

Let's welcome this immaculate bench block with a loud round of applause

And another round of applause to the hammer, so shiny and effective.

What else can I say... they are perfect. I will compulsively take care of them.

New earrings need a name

This earrings are ready. Except that they need a name. I don't know what name to give them.

But I do know that they look very elegant when worn. Simple and luminous. Modern and at the same time pre-Columbian. The soft and lustrous smokey quartz complements the hammered texture of the silver plaque. I want them!!!

What name do you think I could give them?

The Amethysts sprouted

Hola, Happy Monday!

There is a new pair of earrings in my Etsy store. They are called Amethyst Sprouts because I imagined how it would be if the amethysts begin to germinate.

They are very sober and comfortable to wear. I will make them in other colors soon.

A very good Christmas gift, don't you think? And... shipping is free inside Germany and half price to other countries during November.

it's this

Delicious bacterial process.

Please, write a color. The most popular color here and in Lirio y Lili will decide next week's mystery.

Extra challenge for me!!!!

Breathing white

If there wasn't so much to do, I would return to the woods to breath white among the trees.

I would find the druid of these old forests and ask him for some light; to see beyond my doubts. I would ask him for the brew that would let me fly crossing the ocean to the ever green country where my valiant women live, because today I need to see them and tell them some things.

What's this?

Tell me,what is this?

If you saw last week's answer, you have a clue.

The answer on Saturday...or Sunday...

Fall Mornings

it's this

I like afternoons with sun and wine.

Great answers given by my Spanish speaking readers: they imagined stones, caramel, ice, water, breath...

Next week there will be something delicious to guess.

The Archimedes' Drill

Syracuse, 3rd century BC.
Archimedes, the famous mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer of this Greek colony is faced with a big challenge: he has to find a solution to remove the great amount of water that enters the hull of the Syracusia, a mighty luxus ship he has just designed for his King.
And so was the Archimedes screw born. A simple yet revolutionary mechanism: a screw shaped blade that revolves inside a cylinder and was turned by hand. With this device it is possible not only to evacuate water but also to extract liquids and solids from lower planes and transport them to higher places.
Among many uses, the application of this mechanism allows the body of this drill to turn while a drill bit perforates the metal. The Archimedes' drill. Elegant.

This beauty is 10 cms long and arrived by mail some days ago

Practicing. By pushing and releasing the spring, the screw turns and with it the drill bit 

Please notice that I am not holding it very straight.  I'd better practice with old drill bits.....

I will report on my progress. For the moment I am fascinated by the simple mechanism, the fact that it is very small and it doesn't require electricity. Another member of my nomadic studio.

What's this?

What is this?  Who can guess?  Write the first thing that comes to your mind, come on, the strangest the better!

I will post the answer next Saturday.

it's this

It wasn't that easy to guess after all.

I didn't post the answer yesterday to give you more time to guess, also because I got a box of tools that caught my attention for a long time and because we were celebrating Diwali so I spent a lot of time looking at the flames and laughing.

Next week a new mystery.

What's this?

Hello.  Who is going to guess what this is?   This week is really easy to get it right.

Last week they guessed at Lirio y Lili.    I will post the answer tomorrow.

I think in forms of coral

I am drawing a ring. A friend of mine is planning on making a special gift ;) and when he saw the little seeds ring at my Etsy shop, he asked me to design a ring in that style.

While we were talking I showed him the Neptune and Neptune 2 rings and we decided it would be interesting to mix the seeds and Neptune styles for the new design.

So I got back to the object that once inspired me to see what it would say to me now:

Soft forms shaped by water and time. This cavity fills the inner structure with air.

Another interesting space. This could be the place to set a stone or a pearl.

This orifice is a window to the inner structure. Negative space, air, light and shadows.

And this light mole inside the cavity. I would like to get this effect.

Object of inspiration: pieces of coral I gathered on the beach at El Calao / Colombia

(photos of El Calao via Sergio Carder)

We'll see what comes out of this.

it's this

TOMATO

From the Nahuatl Xitomatl: plump thing with navel.

Those seeds like ships from another world suspended inside the red gel. Walls made of miniature globules: rich red, yellow and white, shining like crystal sand on a crimson planet.

Next week.... another challenge...

What's this?

What's this? Guess... This one is easy, something very familiar, something you probably see every day. Close your eyes and remember where have you seen this.

Last week there was no What's this?. I was opening one online store, and then another and then preparing for the store on my own web page and so time went by too fast.

Do you already know what this is? The answer comes tomorrow.

For now,  happy Friday. I'll take a walk.

Oh tumn!

Lirio Jewelry opens an Etsy Store!

Lirio is pleased to present the new online shop at Etsy!!!

               < to my shop!

I will be listing more jewelry in the following days so please keep on visiting the store or subscribe to the shop feed (last button on the right).

Opening a store with the Etsy community is something I have been wanting to do for a while to allow Lirio a wider exposure. It will also be fun to participate in forums and virtual labs with other fellow goldsmiths there.

          

To celebrate the inauguration of the store shipping will be free to any country until the 29th of October!

And very soon: the special Christmas Collection!

             < to my store!!!

So, did you like the shop? Any comments? What kind of jewelry would you like to find at my store for Christmas?

it's this

 

Frozen peas under a lamp light. They made me think of pollen grains.

Well, at Lirio y Lili they almost got the right answer.

A new image riddle next week.

When did this happen?!

How come the summer is over?!

If these begonias are still blooming on my balcony

and I want to bake again one of this with those magic berries

and I am waiting for another like this to bloom

and this little friend at the river was having such a good time!

Ahhhh, the warm perfumed mornings

the refreshing breakfasts

the slow walks with him

through wild gardens

and violet lakes

I will miss the sunsets with crickets singing

and the nights of magic.