Female Voices :: Women in Journalism

This Fall I attended an event for work where they were honoring female journalists from around the world. I was so impressed by these women and their ability to share with the world a truth that many governments do not want shown.

While the big draw was to promote a lifetime achievement award for Lesley Stahl, I have to say I was much more interested in hearing about some of the other women, such as Zehra Dogan, a Kurdish journalist. Zehra founded a feminist Kurdish news site called JINHA where she reported a series of articles about Yazidi women making their escape from ISIS captivity. I can't share the links as the site appears to have been taken down. Zehra is also a painter, and it was her art that landed her in jail by the Turkish government in July of 2016. The painting depicted a photograph (widely circulated on the internet) of a Turkish city bombed during a battle with Kurdish militants. What the government seemed to take issue with is her painting Turkish flags on buildings, which had been included in the photo.

What is so astounding about Zehra is her persistence to find, and tell the world the truth. From her jail cell, she founded yet another newspaper where she is reporting about the women political prisoners and human rights abuses in prison. She also continues to paint, even though the administration refuses to supply her with painting materials. She instead creates her own paint from food, drinks and menstrual blood and makes brushes from the feathers of birds that fall into the prison. Zehra's courage has inspired others to tell her story. A local New York mural in lower Manhattan, by Banksy, shows Zehra behind bars and counting days imprisoned. In the lower right are the words "Free Zehra Dogan." 

I attended the event with my daughter, who is studying communications and human rights in college. I was inspired to see how she took it all in, and encouraged that she is the next generation of female voices in the world.

The Sea :: Aegean

This is the final posting for my sea inspired series using sea glass beads from Znetshows.com. I still have a few beads left, so good chance I'll be back with more designs. But later in the summer, or maybe this fall. I've been swamped at work lately and haven't made it to my bead table at all yet this summer other than this handful of sea glass designs from early June. 

I made one last pair of sea glass earrings, this time in a beautiful sea foam green. And I included a companion pair using silver sequins. I never really thought of myself as a sequin person, but in these designs I love how it gives off just a bit of chime in your ear when you wear them. I can imagine sitting high up on the bluff of the sea with that bit of sea breeze giving everything a bit of sway.

For this series, I've given you a few places that top my bucket list to visit. This next place is featured in my inspiration board. The Aegean Sea, home to some 2,000 islands inhabited through the ages by Greeks, Turks, Phoenicians, Philistines, Egyptians and countless other travelers. If I were a time traveler and could go back in time, this would probably be my first stop. All those flowing fabrics, strappy sandals, dangling jewelry and plenty of wine. Who's with me?

The first time I can remember reading about the Mediterranean I was cracking open that enormous book of Homer's Odyssey that talked about journeys on the sea, colossal statues and sirens off the sea cliffs. Even though it is full of myth and legend, it had me dreaming of warm breezes and clear blue seas. Don't forget to check out all the other designers and the most current edition of Creative Spark.

Cyprus :: Boat Design

For years, I've had a love affair with this old Cypriot design (5th- 4th centuries B.C.) sometimes called the 'boat' design. I came across this design years ago from a replica by The Metropolitan Museum, and I have been wanting to incorporate it into a pair of earrings ever since but just hadn't found components I liked.

I love the simplicity and fluidity of this half moon shape, which has appeared in many materials such as crystal, carnelian, shades of metals; especially in copper. Perhaps the 'boat' shape comes from the area's fishing activity? That I couldn't confirm, but would make sense.

The island of Cyprus sits in the Mediterranean Sea, nestled up by Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. This location gave it a cross-road position in the area and strategic export trade for the Mycenean people who settle on the island. But it also made it a prime location for repeated invasions through the centuries. Thus, the island was visited, invaded and talked about through the ages in many languages. Writers have called it by names such as: Kryptos (Greek for hidden), Cuprum (Latin for copper), Kerastis (fertility), Kypris (name ancient writers gave to Aphrodite; including Homer), Kypros (Greek for Henna, a plant native to North Africa) but Kypros also means copper (pre-Greek word; Etocypriot language). Just to name a few, but there are many more. 

Most attribute the naming of the island back to the copper discovered on the island during the Bronze age (2500 B.C. to 1050 B.C.), which is pretty friken old in my book. 

While I love the smooth shaped stone of the Met's design, I wanted to use a metal in my earrings. It seems more like what would have been created in Cyprus centuries ago. I also decided to use a bit of chainmaille at the top to hold the design together and give it that old world look. I included earring posts with medieval flare that I'd been hoarding for some time, but have now found the perfect home. Maybe not exactly a 'replica' of the original Cypriot earrings, but I never seem to follow instructions to the letter. That's just me.

HBBH 3 :: Greek Independence Day

Marlene and Shelley, now famous for their holiday bling hops, have decided that there is no reason why a holiday hop should only be scheduled in Nov-Dec. There are plenty of holidays year-round, and why not take advantage of them?!

And here we are. A holiday hop in March that celebrates pretty much any holiday you can think up for the months of February or March. My partner, Mary Govaars of MLH Jewelry Designs, and I decided on the Greek holiday of Independence (March 25th) because, well just because who doesn't love Greece and a little Mediterranean colors ... especially in the dead of winter ... on the East Coast! Well the East Coast for me, the West Coast for my partner Mary. 

Take a look at this beautifully designed necklace by Mary. She used that serine Mediterranean blue colors in the beads. Those large blue diamonds are vintage howlite; aren't they just gorgeous in this piece! She mirrors the pattern with silver that have that distinctive Greek pattern to them. She also added drop beads that have a moonstone hue. I think she absolutely nailed a beautiful Greek look! Thank you Mary for such a lovely necklace and beautiful package to open.

I have a lot of friends from the Mediterranean for some reason. Not a bad thing; mind you, just enough who know I love beads and who like to bring my souvenirs home in the shape of beads, or charms. You all know that I'm not complaining! I simply LOVE to get something interesting in to my beady concoctions. 

The piece I sent Mary included lots of beads and charms from the region including evil eye beads and charms in the shape of whirling dervishes and crescent moon with star. I used gold and wood seed beads in various sizes to create a freeform peyote bracelet in a tone on tone pattern. This is actually my second ever freeform project, and I have to say I'm really liking this type of bead weaving!

The symbol of the dervishes brings to mind this region to me for some reason. The word Dar in Persian means door with the term dervish meaning going from door to door. Dervishes have taken a vow of poverty; mainly to learn humility. They are not allowed to beg, and what money they acquire must be given to others in need.

Dervishes have become popular from the performing Dervishes throughout the region. You'll see them from Turkey, to Greece to Egypt and elsewhere. They spin endlessly, and my bloggy friend Kashmira saw a performance where the Dervishes had lights on their skirts and all you could see was the flowing lights. She even got up to dance with them. Wish I could have been there! (click on the link to see her post from her trip)

There is another small piece to this story. You'll also notice a crescent and star, which is a symbol from the Turkish flag. One of my friends is ethnic Greek who grew up in Turkey. She embraces two cultures, two flags, two countries. Truly a sense of what it means to find independence and to live a life in peace.

Ok, this is a hop. You all know what to do. Take a hop through the list below and see what all the other participants shared in their swaps.

Alicia Marinache              Catherine King                      Chris Schlicht
Cynthia Machata              Dyanne Everett-Cantrell         Gina Hockett
Jennifer Reno                  Laura Reed                         Leanne Loftus
Lennis Carrier                  Lori Bowring Michaud           Marti Conrad
Mary Govaars                   Renetha Stanziano               Rita/ Toltec Jewels
Sandra McGriff                 Sarah Goode                       Sherri Stokey
Sonya Stille                      Tammie Everly                    Therese Frank
Tiffany Goff Smith            Marlene Cupo                      Shelley Graham Turner

BTW: My Turkish Designer

I've talked a lot about My Turkish friend that I ride the train with every day into Manhattan. She loves to take me shopping at the bead stores in the Garment District. We meet up for lunch and shop away! And well, what beader doesn't LOVE that? 


She has an eye for design, and pushes me to think differently about mine.  This project is not a combo I would have come up with, but well that is the fun of it all. She originally wanted lapis, but when I pointed out these pretty little midnight blue sandstone rounds she said YES! that's it.  But then she wanted a large charm attached. 


I was just asking her yesterday what it was about something large hanging off her bracelets that she likes so much? She says it adds just that little bit of (insert Turkish word). And our fellow Turkish friend is shaking her head violently in agreement. I'm still a bit in the dark on this topic, but I play along.


She has managed to grab my entire stash of left over tassels that come with my semi-precious stones. You know the ones you clip and throw aside?  She loves them, and begs me to attach them to her jewelry. But in this case she went for an ambulance cross in powder blue that she picked up on our bead shopping. She also asked for matching earrings. I have to say when she was showing off her new ensemble yesterday on the train she did look great in her design!

Do Overs: Pearls & Suede

I've told you all about my Turkish friend I ride the train with every morning on my daily commute into New York.  She, and another friend of mine (a Designer) often flip through magazines and catalogs on our hour-long ride each day. We talk about jewelry, current styles and of course the celebrity gossip of the week.

One morning my Turkish friend flipped past a pretty pearl bracelet in the Sundance catalog and asked if I could make a similar bracelet for her?

It was a Southwestern pattern with freshwater pearls, suede and silver (right).  I never seem to copy any pattern exactly ... I usually add my own flare and interpretation to a piece.  

In this case, I did not use any of the silver chain. Wow has silver become expensive lately! But taking out the silver worked in my favor for this pattern. My friend doesn't like 'heavy' jewelry, and so I am forever trying to 'lighten' up the pattern for her.  She has a bit of a Goldilocks thing going on ... "too much, too little, not enough, can you take that out." Over time I've gotten better at knowing what she'll like, but I still take plenty of pieces apart when designing for her!

With this bracelet, I really liked the pearls and suede together. Somehow it makes a very dressy piece wearable on a day-to-day basis (top, left). I used an antique silver button to give it that Southwestern touch. I confess, I wore it to work a few times before I gave it to her just to see how 'wearable' it was (shhhh, I didn't tell her).  I got lots of compliments, but still have yet to make a version for myself.  Perhaps someday when I have a spare moment .... But this one went to my friend who declared it 'perfect, and exactly what she wanted.'  Phew

She then wanted a necklace, but this time with all the silver. The silver on the bracelet has a cluster of little silver circle "stamps" attached ... which would make a necklace ridiculously heavy.  So with the necklace I took even more creative license.  I used patterned connectors (to dress it down a bit), created my own wire wrapped pearl chain and added another light-weight alternating silver chain for contrast. She doesn't like things too "matchy-matchy" and it couldn't be too heavy. What I showed her was simple, and hung right at the collar bone ... just as she asked. Again she declared it perfect.  I was batting 1000 on this one!  For the earrings, the first version I added suede with the pearls.  But my batting average plummeted.  I didn't even take a picture of them because we both agreed it was simply better to start over.  She decided that she might like a black pearl instead.  I went back to a simple drop earring, which she liked much better.  So only had to 'do over' 1 out of 3.  Not too bad.

Superstition: Wearing Evil Eye

I first heard about evil eye when a friend of mine was laid off in 2008.  After a rather brutal dismantle of an entire department, she had been laid off with 100+ of her co-workers during what most of us would consider the worst economic downturn in our lifetime.  My Evil Eye friend wanted protection in her new gig to ward off any more corporate 'baloney.' We went shopping for beads straight away, and found these lovely little lampwork beads that I promptly turned into a pair of earrings for her.   



THE MEANING OF THE STONE:

Energy: projective  
Magical Property: worn for courage and successful competitions (always wear in meetings when you know there will be an announcement about new corporate structure)
Divinatory Meaning: will find courage and prosperity

My Evil Eye friend heard the superstition from her husband's large Italian family who still speak only Italian in the home today even tho they live in the good 'ole USA (aka Brooklyn). I didn't hear anything more about evil eye until I met my Turkish friend who also has a strong belief in the power of the evil eye.  Apparently this superstition is widely believed throughout the Mediterranean.  Who knew? 


She prefers only a tiny little blue bead on a choker, and leaves the larger version (upper right) to protect the house.  She informed me that when moving into a new home you set an evil eye into kitchen tile, flooring or an archway of a door to deflect evil from making it into the house.  The color blue in a door is believed to have the same effect.  Blue (the color of the Aegean) is thought to absorb the negative energy and can be seen throughout the Mediterranean. 

Last year when my Turkish friend took her annual 5 weeks off to visit Turkey, she came back with my own version of an evil eye choker. And I guess I look as tho I could use some protection from evil looks at the office; yet another friend came back with a stash of various size Turkish evil eye beads from her trip. 


I was now swimming in evil eye and needed to figure out a few patterns for these beads.  I started with a fun wrap bracelet that my daughter and her friends are now wearing (right).  The large thick blue stones are still designed by hand using primitive means -- a 3000 year-old craft. It is layered molten glass, iron, copper, water and salt.  The combination is the secret to shield oneself from the forces of evil. Good to know. 


My favorite part of this superstition is that it has no religious boundaries. It works in many cultures: Judaism, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian.  The old saying 'an eye for an eye' seems to work pretty much anywhere. It is believed in Turkey that an 'eye for an eye' literally deflects negative energy and redirects back onto the person who is trying to send out 'bad vibes.'  Ok, now that is pretty cool!  


I found a great little store in the Garment District of New York City near my office that sells Murano glass who had a 'super size' version of the blue evil eye.  I had to have it!  I picked up a large evil eye pendent that I thought would be perfect with blue sea glass and a Greek-style toggle (upper right).  


I don't think I had this posted on my Etsy site for more than a week before someone snatched it up. Curious about who would want a large evil eye; I checked out their profile.  This person doesn't sell anything on Etsy; they appear to only buy things.  And the only thing they seem to be interested in buying is evil eye (all 50+ items tag as 'favorite').  Hmm ... I wish them much luck as they appear to be hording quite a stash.

Inheritance: My Turkish Coral Project Continues

As a second installment to this story, my Turkish friend took one look at the first version of this necklace and with a  bit of a sigh said "I don't know, do you think this looks like me?" as she held it up against her shirt.  First version you can find here How I met my Turkish Friend. I did know right away that I was in for a second version of this necklace.  In my defense, she was admiring a very similar necklace done in all pearls and so seemed somewhat logical to me that she'd like this style.  Silly me.  Now my other train friends and I just laugh and shake our heads because this is a very common theme with my Turkish friend.  

"Do you think you can just make this 1 inch shorter?"  "Could you change out the clasp?"  "I think the color should be more grey-blue - don't you?"  I've learned not to finish the project until she has a good look at it as I simply end up ripping it all out and re-stringing it. 

So if you read my last blog entry you know that she asked for me to rework the necklace to have just 3 simple strands.  I kept the bead variations within the same color tones.  The combination uses coral, orange agate, rust-colored jasper coins and carnelian (a very popular Indian stone seen throughout the inlays at the Taj Mahal). Check out this link to see just how beautiful the inlay is within the Taj, and how prevalent the carnelian orange color is throughout the patterns: Taj Mahal inlay work.  

The graduated necklace hangs down to her mid-section in an 'opera' style length. She had this one on the other day and she tells me that as she is sitting at her desk and someone at the office is admiring it, one of the strands slowly pulls apart and the beads pop off one, two three ....  My friend has a tendency to be rough on the jewelry.  One pair of earrings she was looking at she literally twisted off the charm on the earwire right in front of me.  I usually need to make sure I use some heavy-duty materials for the projects I make for her.  

So this one I restrung with a wire called 'fireline' something that is nearly indestructible.  But if it is possible, she'll find a way.  I may need to have yet a 5th go at this project!

At the end of this project, I still had quite a few of my friend's coral beads left over. So I created a bracelet with the same color pattern, but not too 'matchy-matchy' as she she said. She never wears the two together, but separately they really are very pretty. Beading Daily

Inheritance: How I met my Turkish friend

A friend of mine who grew up in Turkey asked me to give new life to strings of coral she had inherited from her mother.  The beads are simply stunning.  You can still pick up bits and pieces within that show the natural coral patterns.  

It all started with a train ride.  I take the train from Connecticut to Manhattan every morning where 'standing room only' is very common.  So if you can find a seat then you 'squeeze in' and attempt not to elbow anyone, get elbowed by anyone, or literally knock knees through your hour+ ride into the city.  Needless to say, if you ride the train daily you get to know people; probably way better than you expect.  Another fellow rider, now good friend of mine, was flipping through a Sundance catalog (highly recommend checking it out for those of you that like a little Southwestern style in your jewelry)  My Turkish friend and I were looking over her shoulder as she flipped.  Yes this was before we really knew each other ... but that is sort of how it happens on these train rides.

Our other friend, a clothing designer who works for Walmart --- yes that is a head scratcher, but she does have amazing style and can pull off just about any outfit. So our Designer friend points to a multi-strand turquoise necklace noting how much she wanted it and how lovely it would look with a flowing white summer dress for her upcoming trip to the Mediterranean.  Of course we agree, as long as it is her rock'n this outfit, but I notice the price and say wow it really doesn't cost that much to make a necklace like that.  And so it begins ... I am known as the personal jeweler of my train crowd.

The next day, or maybe it was a week later ... our time together blurs as the ride is pretty monotonous.  My Turkish friend shows up with a zip lock bag full of these gorgeous coral beads and says .. can you do something with these?   It's a 'classy' operation I run as the Train Jeweler.

I created a multi-strand necklace that starts at the collar and graduates the 5 strands. This has become an on-going saga about the length of the pieces I create for my friend. Anyway, for this version (yes I had to do multiple versions) I used diamond-shaped, flat connectors to graduate the strands. The color tones I used were inspired are from jewelry I saw all over India; including some coral tube beads I inherited from my mother-in-law who got them in India where she grew up. I did include a combination of beads from her mother and mine in this necklace --- thus the name of the piece. The neckalce is made from a combination of coral, orange agate, rust-colored jasper coins and carnelian (a very popular Indian stone seen throughout the inlays at the Taj Mahal), gold and gold vermeil Beading Daily

This version was completely taken apart, so the only thing left is the picture.  She decided that she wanted 3 simple long strands.  See Inheritance for the final version she now wears. Beading Daily