Manuela Wutschke • Glass Artist

Relaxed

2012-01-27T11:53:00.002+01:00

Hope to survive the dentist today - fingerscrossedforme - and have a relaxed weekend meeting some friends.

I needed some color these days
made some little beauties that made me smile
and started focusing on new ideas and a lot of plans for this year.

I am thinking more and more about striking a new path (I will still make beads of course) and who
knows, with a little bit of luck and a lot of work ....

A Beautiful Day

2012-01-26T17:36:00.000+01:00

Freezing temperatures and plenty of sunshine - we spent such a wonderful day in Lüneburg today
shopping, walking, looking at the beautiful houses and
having lunch in a charming restaurant on The “Stintmarkt” (Fish Market) right by the water.

The Beginning

2012-01-26T10:36:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time a self crowned vulture wanted to switch places and become a lovely bird.

“Live with vultures, become a vulture; live with crows, become a crow”

Laotian Proverb quotes

Too much of a good thing can be simply wonderful ♥

2012-01-25T14:20:00.000+01:00

A little bit of

"fiery red
exploding red
valentines red
blood red
purple red
robin’s breast red
red, more red ☺ " ... can one have enough Red?

Red

2012-01-24T11:51:00.003+01:00

I wish I had a magic horse (maybe THIS ONE?)

to bring me to a sunny land ...

.....but perhaps wearing Red would do its magic also ☺, I cannot stand the rain here anymore.

A wonderful feeling of warmth, especially on these days that lack access to sunlight.

Red just right for you now ♥ tones and shades of red in my ETSY, enjoy ♥

When I´m Feeling Blue

2012-01-23T12:41:00.000+01:00

More Blue on ETSY - Enjoy ♥

Galaxy

2012-01-22T10:28:00.002+01:00

“Who are we?

We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”

Dr. Carl Sagan

Sun in Aquarius

2012-01-21T12:38:00.000+01:00

magic .... exciting .... unusual and inspiring

Today ....

2012-01-20T13:37:00.008+01:00

I am sitting here thinking of all these people, family, friends - it brings back memories of 1989.

And today over 20,000 people had been gathering since earlier in the day in Bucharest and other cities, demanding the resignations of the prime minister and the president.

Is Romania preparing for a new revolution?

"I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches."

Alice Longworth Roosevelt

Too nervous to work but I needed to occupy somehow my hands .... and here are the results of my "handWork" from yesterday TEST SERIES Colour on Metal

(btw - this blog is for other works than glass .... if you want to stay in touch, please put it on your favorites)

Little Break .....

2012-01-18T19:29:00.002+01:00

....little time for ME


Broken Wing - more on my Painting Blog

Song of the Earth

2012-01-18T10:40:00.000+01:00

The air is like a butterfly

With frail blue wings.

The happy earth looks at the sky

And sings.

Joyce Kilmer "Joy"

Sunshine in my kiln

2012-01-17T22:11:00.000+01:00

... and not only - it seems that Yellow was my color today ☺

Toys Are Us and more from the color splash theme HERE ☺

Couldn´t believe my eyes this morning ... haaahaa .... thought I have used and orange glassrod last night but look at this one ☺☺☺ ....

Oh boy, I was really irritated seeing this bead, it was overhelming and it seems that all the light of the spectrum was catched in my kiln.
I was so concentrating on my new design that I had in my mind that I didn´t thought a lot about colors.
I never have this glassrod sitting on my table ... hmmhmmmmmm ...... what a mystery.

Somewhere I have read that "husbands and wives fight more in yellow kitchens and opera singers throw more tantrums in yellow dressing rooms".
What a lucky girl I am - no yellow kitchen ☺ here.

But yellow can be really cheerful and truly wonderful - just think about a bright and sunny day with all the flowers spreading their fragrance ... awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

I love this bead - it has a lot of depth you cannot see in the pic and to be honest I was temptated several times to lick it *haahaa***** ....

End of the Day

2012-01-16T23:10:00.001+01:00

Feeling down?

Saddle up ☺

My Sunset Sky

2012-01-16T15:40:00.000+01:00

Clouds come floating into my life,

no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

Just updated my Etsy Store ... have a bright day with lots of sun and beauty.

Fluid Dynamics

2012-01-15T12:40:00.003+01:00

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted … but what I love are ripples on smooth water … it gives a lot more interest to all details , don´t you think so?

The sun is shining here but I have to work a lot ... so no Sunday for me, hope you will enjoy yours ♥♥♥ and thanks for all your beautiful mails.

Clouds roll by ....

2012-01-14T11:49:00.002+01:00

... it´s a sunny day here.

- Cabochon on a steel screw for interchangeable jewelry - 29 mm diameter, 9.5 mm high, thinner toward the sides • in my ETSY shop ♥

Wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Wolken ziehen vorbei, es scheint die Sonne hier ..... ich wünsche euch allen ein schönes Wochenende ♥.

Handgewickelter Glascabochon für Wechselschmucksysteme - Durchmesser 29 mm, 9,5 mm hoch in der Mitte - in meinem ETSY shop jetzt.

Woot Woot .....

2012-01-13T16:28:00.002+01:00

Have you heard about?

What? What?

Manuela´s painting ....

Seriously? No beads? No more beads?????

Awwwwwww, I think no, not today .... her Baby is sleeping☺

The Song of the Bird

2012-01-12T19:08:00.003+01:00

They bought a round for the sailor
And he told them a tale
Of a world that was so far away
And a song that they'd
A song of a little bird
fell in love with a whale
He said, 'You cannot live in the ocean'
And she said to him
'You never can live in the sky'
But the ocean is filled with tears
And the sea turns into a mirror
There's a whale in the moon when it's clear

And the bird on the tide

Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes
So tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part
I'll never sail back to the time
But I'll always pretend you're mine
Though I know that we both must part
You can live in my heart
Please don't cry
Let me dry your eyes
And tell me that you will wait for me
Hold me in your arms
I promise we never will part
I'll never sail back to the time
But I'll always pretend that you're mine
Though I know that we both must part

You can live in my heart ... (Tom Waits)

Pizzicato

2012-01-11T09:47:00.000+01:00

Wearable energy

43 mm long x 21.5 mm wide, 3 mm mandrel hole

Thank you Mary Jane Dodd

2012-01-10T14:08:00.000+01:00

Have I told you that I love earrings?
I do, I have always loved earrings, it was the only sort of a jewelry piece I had for a long time.

I couldn´t even count them when I was a young girl and I loved them all.

Audrey Hepburn said that ... "You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you" ☺☺☺

And I still love earrings - the tiny ones, the big ones, long earrings, short earrings .... all kind of earrings. I am bringing earrings from every trip with me and I love them all.

Can you imagine how happy I was when this sweet tiny package arrived yesterday?

So beautiful, made with so much love and such a lovely package.

Thank you so much

Mary Jane

you made me so happy

and thank you so much dear Lori

(I won them at the Virtual Craft Show

Lori

organized last year ♥).

If you want to see more of Mary Janes Dodd beautiful work - please visit her SHOP or this ONE and have fun creating.

*******************************************************************************

P. S. And if you like, you can visit also MY ETSY SHOP for the first bird of the year 2012 inspired by the mix of rain, snow and the never ending full moon bathing our lake in unbelievable colors and keeping me awake all time ☺.

Creative Joy

2012-01-09T11:19:00.006+01:00

Last night I watched on tv a report about the Hutterer colony in Decker, Canada - their way of life is not really calling my name but they had something on their face like a light that comes from within and they looked so happy, there was a lot of contentment ... they looked beautiful... something I am missing on the faces of a lot of people here for a long time now.

One of the Hutter women said (btw they speak South-Tyrolean dialect) that she is wearing only a clock and no jewelry, she had a ring lont time ago but she put it away because it made her proud and that was not good. She said proud is like geer ....

I think that it makes a difference about what we are proud - I am rather seldom proud, I have a very low self esteem, I am rather all time very critical about my work.

But today I am really proud about this bead for a lot of reasons:

I worked over 1.5 hours on it and I had a hard time with - my mandrel bended because it was to thin for the weight of the bead (35g, 42 mm long, 25 mm diameter) ... can you imagine how hard it is to get your glass round on a bended mandrel that is looping when you rotate it?

But the reason I am proud of it is that it meets the criteria of a good bead:

It has 7 different layers of glass, a lot of this and that inside, 2 different colored handmade murrine flowers and a lot of depth that you cannot see in the pic
Good ends
Smoot surface
Great colors
A well balanced design
It creates interest
and .... last but not least ...
it is my own design, and it has significance ... there are a lot of thoughts, feelings, ideas and a lot more behind this bead.

aaaaaand .... after more than 2 hours and about 50 attempts I have got some good pictures (but still far away from reality ☺).

But the most important was that it made me happy and I had a lot of creative joy.

A lot of work for one single bead - don´t you think one can be proud ☺?

About friendship, special people and what makes me happy

2012-01-08T13:17:00.003+01:00

Can you be friends with someone you have never met?

It´s something people offline perhaps cannot imagine but there is something very special about opening your heart to friendship only using your typing hands and an open mind.

Some people come into your life (even if you haven´t met them before) and you know right away that they were meant to be there and it only takes a heart to reach people with your touch.

I have met during these last internet years some very special friends (thank you) spreading their love with a smile you could feel while reading their emails or a kind gesture and one of them is Elena.

She is so special and there is so much we can share – being both Romanians we have a lot in common. We lived both the hard life lining up for gas, milk, bananas, soap, oil etc. and so much more (a good friend asked me to tell her about Romania last days and so many things I thought I have forgotten came back into my memory).
But we wouldn´t be where we are today without our convinctions and our perseverance fighting for our dreams. And boy, I can tell you, we had so many dreams ..... and I still have a lot.

I love the deep generosity of the Romanian spirit, we are a very sensitive and caring folk and we don’t have too many obstacles in our hearts. I am still looking at this wonderful piece of art she sent to me for Christmas.

She is making the most wonderful ATC´s and this is one of the wonderful postcards …. It is such a beauty, all handworked with the handmade Romanian lace and a lot of love.

A smile, a posting, a gesture, a little postcard ..... it starts it all and it doesn't takes very much to become friends.

Thank you Elena.

The Girl with the Kitten

2012-01-06T14:11:00.003+01:00

A kitten - symbol of wildness of nature upon the innocence of childhood -

its a symbol so often used in paintings ... and I just had to try one in glass (well, my kitten is not on the wild side ☺ but it has Mona Lisa´s smile meowwwwwwwwwwwwwww)

Btw - THIS one from Jean-Baptiste Perronneau is one of my favorite kitten and girl paintings, isn´t it beautiful?

Das Kind mit der Katze - Wildheit der Natur ./. die Unschuld der Kindheit .... ein Symbol so oft genutzt in der Malkunst und DIESES hier ist eines meiner liebsten Bilder ☺.

*lach*** meine Katze sieht nicht sehr wild aus LOL aber, stille Wasser sind manchmal tief ☺

Sleepy Planet ./. Meteor

2012-01-04T23:38:00.000+01:00

"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London

Sometimes I am a sleepy planet (in fact I really think about a hibernation during the wintermonth ... it´s raining and raining and I am feeling blue ☺)....

.... but most of time I feel like a METEOR ☺☺☺

Relaxing deluxe

2012-01-04T12:29:00.001+01:00

Just imagine ..... doing nothing and then resting afterward ☺. Awwwwwwwwwwww ..... the days after the holidays, I am always feeling like I need some holidays from the holidays *LOL*.

Relaxing deluxe - Whirlpoolbeads for the days after the holidays.

- big bubbles, tiny birds, tiny and big cats and a very big smile, enjoy -

Nichts tun und danach ausruhen ☺ .... relaxing deluxe: Whirlpoolperlen für die Tage danach. Nach den Ferien habe ich immer das Gefühl, ich bräuchte Ferien. Geht es euch auch so?

A Light from Within

2012-01-03T12:26:00.005+01:00

The new year started challenging myself and scrubbing glass to let some light in *☺*

and turning mirrors into windows.

It was a good exercise …. A sort of wellspring of creativity.

Good idea for the start of the year, isn´t it? I wished I could get a better pic.

I am very pleased with how they came out, there is something about doors and windows that has been always very attractive to me.

Perhaps because ….

“People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. “
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Der Start ins neue Jahr hat mit einer Herausforderung begonnen: Fenster polieren ☺ .... ein gutes Spiel für die Kreativität.

Ich finde sie schön .... was meint ihr?
Sie strahlt so ein besonderes Licht .... ich wünschte, ihr könntet sie in Natura sehen.

Fenster und Türen - eine ständige Faszination für mich, wahrscheinlich weil ...

... " Menschen wie bunte Glasfenster" sind ": Sie funkeln und leuchten, wenn die Sonne scheint; doch nach Anbruch der Dunkelheit wird ihre wahre Schönheit nur offenbar, wenn sie ein inneres Licht haben."

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

My Wish for You

2011-12-30T17:07:00.004+01:00

May the sun shine, all day long,

everything go right, and nothing wrong.

May those you love bring love back to you,

and may all the wishes you wish come true!

Fly high,

look up and see beauty.

Beauty, truth, friendship, love, enthusiasm, creation –

no limits for yourself, go as far as your mind lets you and if your ship doesn´t swim in, fly out to it,
a lot of happiness, wonder and magic

that´s what I am wishing you and your families.

Happy New Year to you dear friends ♥

T H E R E

I S

N O T H I N G

E I T H E R

G O O D

O R

B A D

B U T

T H I N K I N G

M A K E S

I T

S O .

(W. Shakespeare, Hamlet)

So ……

fly high and leave behind pain

See you in 2012

♥ may it be a good one ♥

Aim for the Sky

2011-12-29T20:26:00.001+01:00

"The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still,—and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world.

The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!"

Willa Cather

Aim for the Stars ......

2011-12-28T18:11:00.000+01:00

Just a few days more and a new year will say "hello" to us and as all of you I am asking me how it will be?

I have no far reaching goals … only a few wishes and the hope that I will have the power to correct those things that I can correct and accept all those I cannot.

We all have good days, we all have bad days …. Maybe tomorrow will be the same, maybe not, good to have feelings and expectations.

"Maybe" - that´s a pretty good word for the next year.

Round bead 26.5 mm x 26 mm

Aim for the stars and maybe you´ll reach the sky.

Shakespeare reminds us how we while away our life:
“… we play the fool with time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.”

I wish you all a very happy holiday season, love, health and great adventures in the New Year.

Pink Sky Pendant on ETSY now

A Splash of White

2011-12-27T15:01:00.001+01:00

“There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,

There's times when you know that you might;

But the things you will learn from the Yellow and Brown,

They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!”

Rudyard Kipling

(Clair de Lune - a little bit of White for the night between the years)

I have made this necklace one year ago for the Perlen Poesie International Bead Award - you can view it HERE together with my other necklace "Rainbow Sky"- and then reworked it these days.

Now I think that it is just perfect - I love it a lot and you? What do you think?

Merry Christmas Everyone

2011-12-24T15:12:00.000+01:00

Sending the warmest Christmas wishes to you and your family.

May joy and happiness snow on you,

may the bells jingle for you

and

may Santa be extra good to you!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Holidays are here ....

2011-12-18T00:07:00.007+01:00

... and I am enjoying every single minute of these busy and crazy days.

Dear friends it´s time to say

thank you

for so much sunshine and smiles, for making me feel so special and my year so wonderful.

I´m looking toward to some warm and cozy Christmas days with family ... it´s time for me to let me spoil ☺ and that´s what I am wishing you too

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
and ... don´t forget to
give joy and get joy
(P. S. at the age of 91 I wanna be HER)

Star wishing

2011-12-14T18:39:00.002+01:00

We wish for things that we do not have hoping that it will come true …

We look up to the sky looking to the stars .....

or blow out candles on the birthday cake making our special wish especially when the year comes to the end and the new one is young and fresh.

I have always a lucky charm in my pocket: My luck-bringing-charm-bead, a special rock, an angel or sometimes a bean ☺ to hold it into my hand ….. and you?

There are so many ways to make a wish .... I hope you´ll find your special lucky charm to make them all come true ♥

Golden Moments

2011-12-13T11:27:00.001+01:00

Angels ......

- on ETSY now -

Sometimes we see their ethereal, heavenly shadow, bright with light and radiance. Sometimes we only feel their nearness or hear their whisper. And sometimes they look no different from ourselves.

- Eileen Elias Freeman-

And soon it will be Christmas ....

2011-12-12T11:57:00.001+01:00

The Spirit of Winter

The new fallen snow, holiday lights everywhere and the smell of winter sweets made my Christmas spirit start flagging ☺

.... and one of my favorite Christmas song did the rest .....

Sweet as .....

2011-12-11T17:13:00.002+01:00

Chocolate.

This weekend was sweet ☺and we spent it making Chocolate Truffles and Chocolate Bars and having a lot of fun.

The boys were joking a lot while everybody was looking for the bottle of rum we needed for the truffels but it misteriously dissapeared ☺.

Hartmut did a great job ... his truffle chocolate ☺was the winner one (but I liked mine best *heeeheee *)

These are the chocolate bars we made - everybody decorated them with what they liked most - I have chili and mango on my bar, Hartmut put salt on, the others roses or fruits.

Aren´t these great? mhmmmmmmmmm.....

Such a feast for the eye ... and not only.

Some of my friends will get handmade chocolates for Christmas ... hope they will love them ....Christmas can come ♥

My bloggerfriend Tally got the first present chocolate bag yesterday while we met in Lüneburg and had a rainy and snowy but beautiful "girls day" and I am looking forward to hear if she loved our chocolates ☺- hope she did LOL.

Hope you had all a wonderful weekend - ours was sooooooooooo good and sweeet ☺.

Mare

2011-12-09T12:52:00.000+01:00

The Voice of the Sea - on ETSY now.

Big and beautiful and hollow, some of them with the touch of glass burried under the water, caressed by the ocean breeze and lulled by the waves.

Fire and Water

2011-12-08T11:45:00.001+01:00

Take some fire and mix it with water, add some emotion and one of the most fascinating gemstone will be born:

An Opal ♥ with a soft and milky shine or sparkling fiery but always a magical colourful world, the perfect combination of the beauty of all precious stones.

Two beads and a magical opal world - Full moon

... and The Sentinel - both soon on Etsy

Wish you all a beautiful day, I am looking forward spending the next days with friends and having some fun.

Time

2011-12-07T14:21:00.001+01:00

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Thinking about time it is hard to believe that the year is almost gone and soon another one will be gone and another and another .....

So much darkness here the last days, it is raining all time and our walks are getting shorter but there is still beauty to discover like the berries dusted with frost, shining in magical colors from the trees and transforming even these days into a winter wonderland.

Winter frosted berries ... in my Etsy shop now. Enjoy.

The Power of our Subconscious Mind

2011-12-06T12:13:00.001+01:00

We are receiving so many informations and inspirations day by day, so many pictures and symbols impressing our subconscious and making it work without rest even when we are sleeping.

Aafter days filled with a lot of input I am sometimes amazed what my mind it is doing .... LOL.

Yesterday I sat down to make some beads ... my mind was busy with a lot of thoughts and I came out with the idea of a glassy pajama party ☺.

Made some cats, birds .... even a sheep ☺☺☺ (I was reading too much yesterday on the Internet heeheee) and then, making the last bead ...... a cricket was looking at me ...

Do you remember Jiminy Cricket alias Pepe?

It is said that whatever you think and ponder about deeply with strong emotion makes a strong impression on your subconscious.

I was wondering if there was somewhere a cricket smiling at me at he mineral and fossil exhibition in Hamburg ☺☺☺ because I didn´t intended to make a cricket ... not even thinking about a cricket ☺☺☺.

"All the resources we need are in the mind." (Theodore Roosevelt)

Naturs Precious Jewels

2011-12-05T11:09:00.006+01:00

One of the most beautiful exhibition we have seen this weekend was that about Flying Jewels that was hold in Hamburg during the mineral fair. It is an amazing selection of the richness and abundance of forms created by Mother Nature.

Robert Jakob and Markus Klein - both collectors - contraposed biological and geological objects showing the natural commonalities of color, shape and form of rocks, minerals, butterflies, beetles.

There is a "great Code of Nature .... that one beholds everywhere: in wings, in frozen water, on the inside and outside of mointains, the animals, the people, in the lights of the heavens, in smoothed and leveled layers of bitumen and glass, in the iron fillings surrounding magnet and other mysterious happenings of chance" (Novalis)

Some more pics from the International Show for Minerals, Fossils, Precious Stones and Jewelry in Hamburg - we had so much fun:

There was so much waiting to be discovered ...

We met even king Bansah ☺

And after a wonderful weekend I woke up in the morning with a big smile: it is snowing .... Mother Nature gifted us with Ice Jewels flying on earth, big and beautiful and white.

Yes, You Can ♥

2011-12-02T12:32:00.001+01:00

... you can win
and the only thing you have to do is to visit

The Virtual Craft Show HERE and comment (further details on Lori´s Blog.

I hope you have some fun, today is the last day and I don´t want to miss the opportunity to say once again
Thank you Lori,

thank you for the wonderful way you took care of all artists and for the big amount of work you put again into these show. I feel happy to be one of the 70 artists who are sharing their work and want to make somebody happy with a handmade gift. Enjoy, wish you all good luck ♥♥♥
*********************************************************************************

And talking about people like angels ...

Yesterday I had some fun at the torch .... I was thinking about what makes us happy and what not and once again I wondered why couples start to look alike each others when getting older .... look at these two for example☺☺☺:

... or what about these ones?

It is said by the scientists that those who have same genes tend to like each other and get married and they would gradually start looking similar and the happier they were, the more likely they were ☺.

And here I have another happy couple ... even if they don´t look as if they are smiling but all angels ♥

They are going into my ETSY shop today - I have also a FREE SHIPPING day today,
Coupon Code VIRTUALCRAFTSHOW

The Green Town

2011-12-01T15:11:00.000+01:00

First of December and my town is still green.

Last days it seems that my trees are thinking about starting to bloom. What a craziness - today is the first meteorogical winter day, unbelievable.

And because I am feeling so summery I decided to part with one of my necklaces I had at the Pismo Gallery this summer and I love a lot:

The Green Town - on ETSY now:

“The horizontal belongs to nature – the vertical belongs to man, which means, that any place where snow and rain are falling down vegetation has to grow free, roofs have to become forests, streets have to become green valleys... " (Friedensreich Hundertwasser)

And for those who don´t like so much color ... a freezing winter cat (there is some ice under her feet ☺)
- Little Princess - on ETSY too ♥

P. S. And last but not least I have some good news ... a beautiful giveaway from me to come on Loris Blog - keep your eyes on it tomorrow ♥♥♥

Wild thing

2011-11-30T12:41:00.001+01:00

Wild thing

You make my heart sing ♥

Laughter is a message that we send to other people - no laughter, no message, right?
(although … I am laughing to myself sometimes when I am alone too and I can have fun alone on my beautiful island of glass *☺*).

Bird of the Day

2011-11-29T14:43:00.000+01:00

Coming from far away, from the land of ice and fire, she stopped only for a few moments here, spread her wings and flew away to the sunshine land.

Cats

2011-11-28T11:52:00.004+01:00

Some time ago I made cat beads and then I stopped – some of you asked me, where the cats are and I never answered because they were gone, simply out of my heart.

The true reason is that I never felt that they had a distinct language and I didn´t had that unique heart approach as I have with my birds.

A long time ago a precious customer and friend told me that the problem she sees with the cats is that "they look like silhouette cardboards, too flat, too cutesy without the artistic depth, while my birds are always very deep and the movement is extraordinary."

She was soo right, that whas exactly the problem I had and not only that.

My goal is to create something that only my eyes can see, not reinventing the wheel but doing it different, something that can be recognizable and part of me. There are thousands of birds and the world is full of cats but creating your own and unique ones .... that´s the important part ☺.

I have always believed that a style is a reflection of who You are as a person and that’s what makes you and your work unique, transforming that what is seen by the eye with your heart and with your mind.

Cats seen through the eyes of an artist

(well, I know, I am not an artist but I feel sometimes so ☺☺☺)

– a new set that I really like and I feel that these cats are starting to develop in my own style -

Robert Wade said, that “the artist will always discover something personal to say about any spot in the wide world where he or she chooses to set up the easel”.

The 1st of Advent

2011-11-27T14:33:00.002+01:00

The first of Advent

- (Advent are the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas when we light a new candle on the Advent wreath every Advent Sunday) -

came this year very early ☺ …. we had spring temperatures yesterday, it was unusually warm for the end of november but as every german city Hamburg started celebrating the holiday season with traditional Christmas markets

and a lot of beautiful events and we spent this weekend a wonderful time visiting a lot of places

like the yearly special exhibition in the Museum of Arts and Crafts and the beautiful fair in the "Koppel 66" (both very well known not only in Hamburg).

And before we went home I had to stop by at one of that special artisanal perfume stores in Hamburg to buy a spicy and unusual Micallef perfume.
I love her fragrances because she has an individualistic approach to her compositions pairing well known notes with unusual partners to bring out a new synergy.

Rare essences - in my ETSY shop too ... a warm and spicy set like a sunny winterday when everything is sparkling and full of mystery.

And talking about shopping ... don´t miss the Virtual Craft Show ♥

First Snowfall

2011-11-25T12:55:00.001+01:00

A soft and featherlike blanket of white under the elegance of a blue grey winter sky - I have always loved the muted colors of these days with their special light.

And not only the days but the nights full of mystery walking under the blue moon magic with the hearts full of dreams ....

....and eyes sensitive to all that beauty - Enjoy.
- on ETSY -

Ocean Eyes

2011-11-23T14:18:00.002+01:00

A lot of good news here ....
Only a few days left till the first virtual craft show starts

November 26th to December 3rd

7 Days, 70 Artists (me included ☺☺☺), GIVING AWAY 70 things (one from me ☺).

Here's how you can win:

Visit Loris Blog
for each of the 7 days of the show and you get a point for each of the following (you don't have to do all four)....

Commenting
Facebooking her page
Twittering her page
Blogging her page

                                                                        *******

This is the last set from me for some days - I am taking a short break and wish you beautiful
                                                        Thanksgiving days

Dreams • My Eyes are an Ocean .... on ETSY

Weightless

2011-11-22T14:02:00.004+01:00

Like a child jumping on a bed – that was my first thought and it made me happy.

I have always wanted to experience floating in space like an astronaut with my body in a state of weightlessness, like a flying bird or like a fish in the water …..

Santa came very early this year with the first presentsS .... Last days he brought a trampoline and now I cannot stop jumping for some minutes several times a day on my way from here to there, it makes me feel happy horsing and fooling around … I am so happy with.

Perhaps it is the extra ratio of oxygen that gives me such a feeling.
I have this one (but with the folding legs) and I love it a lot.

Weightless Oxygen Bubbles and Angel - available later in my ETSY shop. Enjoy.

P. S.
Speaking about Santa - The first annual virtual craft show is starting in some days and I have a beautiful gift for you among other talented artists .... be sure to click on Nov. 26th Loris Blog for further details.

Miraculum

2011-11-21T11:00:00.000+01:00

Somewhere on a winter night under the blue moon ..... magic happens

Winter Magic

2011-11-20T11:58:00.002+01:00

Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream.
(Barbara Winkler)

Under the surface - The Miracle of Winter
Set and ....

.... something new from me:

A big hole focal bead for multistrand necklaces or .... perhaps using it with a silk scarf?

Both to find in my ETSY shop ♥ Enjoy ♥

Spread your Wings ....

2011-11-19T10:36:00.000+01:00

... and have a wonderful weekend ♥

The Inner Child

2011-11-18T12:42:00.005+01:00

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”

Pablo Picasso

An Angel for the Inner Child - in my ETSY shop ♥

Childrens Art makes me always smile .... it is that natural drawing when only joy counts, drawing without fear if it will be good or not, if somebody likes it or not, if it will sell or not ... if ... you know, without all that "if´s" killing our creativity and working only for yourself and not caring about the market place .... doing only what you like and love.

Enjoy and have a beautiful weekend, ours will be filled with joy and laughter ♥

P. S. Draw a Stickman ... and have some fun ☺

Special moments

2011-11-18T00:15:00.000+01:00

Sometimes dreams come true.

I am trying from time to time my hand on glassy boulder, Yowah and Koroit opals.
The main problem was not achieving the sparkle but the brown ironstone boulders and this is the first one that approaches to that what´s in my head:

Sparkling rainbows, fireworks, lightning, shifting, depth .... and on the top an opal bird ... my best opal ever ♥ *LOL*. Enjoy.

Cabochon for Interchangeable jewelry -

Boulder Opal

... and a Blue Opal:

The Song of Life

2011-11-16T11:33:00.001+01:00

Like a quilt in the evening sun

.... a lot of patches, a lot of pieces, a lot of colors, a lot of sizes, all mixed and held together by color and love with every piece fitting itself into the big puzzle of life.

In my ETSY:

Song of Life - Song of Color

Winter´s Glow

2011-11-15T17:53:00.000+01:00

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.

Terri Guillemets

Winters Glow (in my ETSY)

- a Bracelet with a whimsical green and golden sparkle for the cold and grey winter days -

Fluttering around like a bird

2011-11-14T12:10:00.000+01:00

While the northern hemisphere is preparing for winter,

the southern one will experience soon the heat of the summer.

I wished I could be these days with the eyes in the north admiring the icy art work of mother nature while warming my feet on Bondi Beach ... that would be great ☺.

Carnival of Color

2011-11-13T15:16:00.000+01:00

Mother Earth has its greatest show performance these days. After winter-like temperatures the weather has taken a U turn and turned into sunny autumn days overhelming us with a frenzy of color again.

We spent these weekend days almost outside walking through the woods kicking leaves into damp and breathing in all that magnificent russets and glowing reds.

Carnival of Color - inspired by nature - available in my ETSY shop now. Enjoy.

The Owl´s Song .....

2011-11-12T13:32:00.000+01:00

Stories from the Torch - Whispering words of fire and wisdom

Wish you all a wonderful weekend ♥

It´s a good day

2011-11-11T14:35:00.003+01:00

“Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds?”

Pablo Picasso

.... that´s an interesting question...

After years of making beads I am going back to my first love ♥ (LOL. that doesn´t means that I won´t make beads too ☺)

Nectar & Ambrosia

2011-11-09T21:43:00.002+01:00

... that was my first thought.

A car for the gods, divine ... put it on my Christmas wishlist ☺☺☺(to find in Hamburg, Alsterhouse - just in case you are thinking about making it a present to me ☺☺☺)

My childhood was marked by the gods, no kidding ☺☺☺.

Greek Mythology, "The gods of Olympus" and "The heroes of Olympus" .... I do not know how many times I have read these two books but I can assure you that it was enough to become a god expert LOL.

It was better than a thriller - Hera to be mentioned first of all and her talent to spin a net of intrigues - Mount Olympus with its great gate of clouds at the entrance where the gods reigned over the mortals feasting on ambrosia and nectar while Apollo’s lyre was entertaining them together with the Graces and the Muses.

Nectar and Ambrosia - According to the legend, a dove brought every day ambrosia to the king of the gods, Zeus.
According to my beads it was a beautiful colored black and blue raven ☺...

Nectar and Ambrosia - for the goddess in you ☺

Set

and Focal

Beautiful Fall

2011-11-08T12:06:00.006+01:00

As the beautiful fall days are coming gradually to an end and all the amaazing rusty reds are turning brown and muddy we are enjoying these last sunny days walking through the forest or visiting exhibitions that are starting everywhere celebrating the upcoming Christmas days.

I have put my last fall bird pendant necklace (I don´t know if I will have the time this year for other ones in this style) in my Etsy shop - it is a very beautiful one and I wish you a lot of joy with.

And for a little bit of fun today - The Talking Fish (also in my Etsy Store).

I am always wondering about that special relationship between men and fish, Henry David Thoreau said that
"many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after" ... hahaaa ....

I think that it is that mystery of not knowing what´s on the other end of the line that makes fishing so attractive or perhaps men and fish are alike ☺☺☺ beeing both not very talkative *LOL*.

This is the backside .... I thought that a dog is a must have when going fishing ☺

Happiness

2011-11-06T22:47:00.006+01:00

You think money can´t buy happiness?
Oh yes, it can, you just have to know where to go shopping LOL.

We spent a beautiful day in Kiel in the city museum that was hosting the 14th annual fair for applied art and design (a small gallery of the exhibitors can be viewed here). Again I wished I would have won the lottery ... so many beauties to marvel at.

I bought my first Christmas presents (pssssssssst, not so loud, I know they are reading my blog ☺☺☺) and for me 4 beautiful glasses from Annet Schmidt-Bleyl. I wanted to buy them three years ago and now I did it *happyhappy*.

But most of the time I spent with Susanne talking about life, jewelry, this and that and the possibility of giving some classes together next year but first of all having fun together.

If you are living in the area and interested in silversmithing you can contact her and spend a beautiful day or two in her studio silversmithing a jewelry piece.

On our way home we stopped for a late coffee and a glassy talk at Katharina´s home (thank you for the nice hour(s) ☺) and finally arrived home a little bit late but happy.

And talking about Christmas .... The first Christmas bird was born yesterday in my studio .... a sort of deluxe edition ☺ one day in my ETSY but not tonight because ........

.... I am sooooooooooooo tired

Wish you a wonderful night, emails to be answered all tomorrow ♥

Emoción

2011-11-05T13:46:00.008+01:00

Daniel used at least one hundred times the word "emoción", do it with emoción ☺ im my floral class and everything he did was emotion. The way he touched every single blade of grass touched my heart. It was art.

You must have the inner emotions to express art and move other people.
You cannot make yourself feel something you don´t feel and you cannot move, surprise and approach to other people if you don´t do that what your heart thinks that it is great.
That´s your only chance to move other people - doing that what comes from your soul regardless of if you are painting or sewing or cooking or .... making beads .... or .....

When you are moved by what you see you have the chance to move other people (not to be confused with copying that what you see).

Emotion is harmony and harmony is color.

Feeling the color - A lighter or darker shade makes such a great difference, having a resting point for your eye where all the colors break even, paying attention to balance warm and cold colors or using a single color in different shades, tints, values, textures and hues to bring everything in harmony .... Shades, tints and tones instead of big and loud.

Mother natures creations for example are all "Emoción" - aren´t they?

Dragonfly pendant necklace in my ETSY shop for an emotional weekend ☺. Enjoy.

P. S. Wann have some fun? Try ARTsology

Blurred Stripes

2011-11-03T18:56:00.002+01:00

I love the swinging and twisting line, the dancing curve that seems to disregard any rules ☺.

I have always avoided straight lines and stripes in my beads, in my clothes, paintings, home and in my life.
Perhaps because they have for me such a spatial claim to power and there is something very rigid and dominant that makes me feel not very comfortable.

There is only one way I can imagine using straight lines - making them shaded with that blurring you can create in graphite or charcoal paintings using your finger or a special wiper.

I came out with a technique making stripes without making stripes haahaa ... sounds weird, I know *☺* , well I have made something similar like these blurred stripes a longer time ago when I started to think about a technique to convert Hundertwasser drawings in glass but then I put the idea aside for some years ...
I am asking myself often why I am always distracted from ideas never bringing them to an end.

Sometimes I am envious seeing people grabbing an idea and following it meticuluosly until reaching the limit, but that´s very rarely LOL tsstss ... I am not very patient and have no discipline ☺ but that´s me and I love my way of life too much to change it.

Blurred stripes from me ♥ on ETSY ♥ in an adventurous color combo for powerwomen ☺Enjoy.

Beauty is where you find it ....

2011-11-03T12:00:00.005+01:00

... I found it HERE on a grey Novemberday.

Our teacher was Daniel Santa Maria (born in Barcelona, you could see Gaudi´s inspiration in his work and the contrasts of the Spanish nature) who worked for a couple of years as a teacher at the Escuela de Floral Art in Barcelona and is since 2003 Vice European Champion of the florists. He was asisted by Britta Ohlrogge, a wonderful florist fascinated by organic materials and their growth forms (she was taking in such a wonderful way care of us) and some Spanish floristry friends.

His statement:

"Originality consists of returning to the origin." (Antonio Gaudi)

He was demoing a lot of floral objects mixing common and exotic materials in a new and unexpected way, in his hands everything looked so easy. I could have watched him work for ages .... it was so amazing.
There was so much love speaking through his hands .... a true artist.

My day was great, it was wonderful to work with new materials, have a great lunch with lovely people and finding new challenges.

And now I am sitting here with my bitten and burned hands but so proud of my first floral art works.

More Novemberbeauties to find here ♥

News from the Series "Green is the new Red"

2011-11-01T20:56:00.003+01:00

When I started lampworking there was no night without bead-dreams: I had a lot of colors and patterns buzzing in my head, I had to keep a notebook near my bed to write all that visions down.
As time passed by, these dreams were fading, no more bead dreams kept my nights busy for a long time ... till last night.
Oh boy, don´t know what happened but every hour I waked up with tons of ideas ...cannot await to see if something will work in real life too ☺ .... But before starting testing glass I will take tomorrow one of that days I call "make something new every-day" off and have some designing fun with something new (more to come ☺).

Talking about colors .....

Green is my favorite color (when I am not addicted to purple LOL), I'm so drawn to it because of its serenity and cleanliness. It makes me feel relaxed and comfortable.

You can always add a touch of this and that and make it vibrant and fun, add some pink, it works great with red, hot orange and what I love most to combine with is aubergine to make it brilliant ….. I have so many good color schemes in head my to keep green from being boring.

Like these ones:

Summer lime and winter grey – a beautiful necklace or

One of my pendants I love a lot:

WinterFishes in a wonderful shade of green looking a little bit like patinaed copper touched by the complete complementary color scheme.

For you ♥ Enjoy ♥ on ETSY now

November

2011-11-01T14:05:00.001+01:00

Die Blätter fallen. Fallen wie von weit,
als welkten in den Himmeln ferne Gärten;
Sie fallen mit verneinender Gebärde.

Und in den Nächten fällt die schwere Erde
aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit.

Wir alle fallen. Diese Hand da fällt.
Und sieh dir andre an: es ist in allen.

Und doch ist Einer, welcher dieses Fallen
unendlich sanft in seinen Händen hält.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Creatures of wind and water

2011-10-31T23:18:00.001+01:00

Dragonflies .... Creatures of wind and water, full of mystery and beauty, symbol of changes and a dreaming mind.

Have a beautiful night.

Reversible Dragonfly Bead
with a lot of mystery beneath the surface - on ETSY now.

Papaw-Bird

2011-10-30T14:54:00.001+01:00

If you have never been a fan of papaya this might just change your mind :):

Squeeze a lime over freshly cut papayas, eat it .... mhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, delicious.
It smells and tastes like heaven ☺ and looks like heaven - it´s the fruit of the angels.

Papya inspired beads from me today in rich golden orange pink shades .... for papaya lovers ♥

P. S. 20 facts about Papaya - if you like to read HERE

... or if you are a Papya Hater ☻, you may try this one.

or ..... come visit me and have dinner with me:

Wild rocket salad with pink grapefruit, avocado and papaya and my new favorite:

Cabécou (a soft goat cheese that comes from the Midi-Pyrénées region of southern France) with
mixed Provence herbs and honey baked at 160 °C for 15 minutes in Parma ham.

Simple but delicious ♥.

Ice Queen Bracelet

2011-10-28T11:53:00.001+02:00

I´m a little bit late (I am a really bad time manager the last weeks *LOL*) but just as promised some days before ...

the Ice Queen´s bracelet ♥ - Enjoy.

Wish you all a beautiful weekend, enjoy the last days of october.

Life of Flowers

2011-10-27T10:46:00.044+02:00

I am sure they have their own life, feelings, daily up and downs ... why shouldn´t they? (I just wanted to share with you this wonderful video my lovely friend V. sent to me last night, thank you so much for sending me this hug ♥)

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

My hydrangea blooms for example (yes, I still love them) - they have gradually been fading from a deep blue and pink color to very light blue, pink almost green and blend into beautiful new creations.

When I was a little girl I loved to look at something beautiful for a time and then I used to close my eyes and cover them with my cupped palms pressing a little bit on my eyeballs. I could see traces of colors starting fading out more and more starting to change and become new creations ... magic happened like looking through a prism (awww ... I loved my prism a lot).

It´s this fading color attracting me so much.

A big round Hydrangea - in my ETSY shop

The Land of Ice and Fire

2011-10-26T21:00:00.000+02:00

I’m very good at thinking about what I would do if I ever won the lottery, seriously, I am thinking a lot about.
There are some people I love I want to make happy, there are so many dreams to be lived ☺.

And one of this dreams is

Iceberg Watching

... beeing and Ice Queen for some days, standing on the deck of a cruiser and viewing dramatic fjords and those wonderful colored imposing icebergs ... wow! It must be fantastic.

And ... just in case a dream will come true - the Ice Queens Necklace is ready (in fact there is also a bracelet, but I will show it to you another time LOL).

Necklace - in my ETSY shop now ♥

Sometimes I love to teach ....

2011-10-25T15:42:00.001+02:00

You don´t believe it?

Take a look HERE and let us have some fun together at the French Riviera next year in June. For further information please contact Claire:

Atelier VeryClaire

1 chemin des Guerchs

06330 Roquefort les Pins

veryclaire@mac.com

tél : +33- 0624369166

"Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own." (Nikos Kazantzakis)

I cannot tell about me that I am the ideal teacher *☺* but I am sure that you will have a wonderful time in France and be able to create bridges of your own after the class .... let us give it a try ☺.

So much to do....

2011-10-24T20:34:00.003+02:00

... so less time.

As long as you are green you are growing ......
Handmade lampwork woven bracelet in my ETSY shop for the all green lovers.

Grün .... So lange man grün ist, wächst man ....
Ich liebe es, das Grün und das Armband ☺, das Wachsen sowieso (nur nicht in die Breite *haahaaa ****).

So viel zu tun, so wenig Zeit .... irgendwie rennt sie wie nie zuvor, ich versuche sie diese Tage einzufangen bei den herbstlichen Spaziergängen.

Und für die Hamburger unter euch .... auf Schnuppes Tipps ist immer Verlass ♥.

Ich wünsche euch allen einen schönen Herbst,
Eure
Manu

Whispering words of love

2011-10-22T20:40:00.001+02:00

I walked around with a smile on my face today. It was one of that perfect days when nothing goes wrong.

You can call you happy meeting through out your life the one or other person unlike any other -
from the beginning you can talk for hours never getting bored, you feel as if you know each other for ages.

I could call me lucky to meet two of this special friends today spending some time together, concluding the day visiting a nice exhibit in the mill in Bergedorf, Hamburg.

(Bilder von der 3.KUNSTMESSE - noch bis morgen zu sehen
in der Bergedorfer Mühle, Chrysanderstr. 52 a
Young-ja Bang-Cho: Malerei auf Maulbeerpapier
Sigrid Drobner: Glaskunst
Renate Heine: Collagen
Jana Osterhus: Malerei
Susanne Osterhus: Malerei
George Riemann: Cartoons, Malerei
Marlies Schulte: Aquarelle, Metallbilder
Jürgen Thoms: Fotografien)

Whispering words of love (I love this bird, doesn´t she looks as if she is talking to you ♥?) - A beautiful focal bird bead to find in my ETSY Shop now.

Angels that fly directly into my heart

2011-10-21T23:00:00.000+02:00

Heaven´s door?
That was my first thought LOL .... isn´t this door wonderful? It is half way open and looks like an invitation to enter the house ...but I could resist the temptation ☺.

Doors have something amazing - every time I see one I am wondering who might live behind them?

Discovered it in Valbonne (Cote d´Azure) this summer.

And speaking about angels - one of my favorites are

Gabi´s angels - take a look at her Blog if you like or visit her Etsy Shop .... you will leave it always with a smile.

Have a beautiful weekend, hope somebody will be an angel to you ♥.

Mango Flowers

2011-10-21T14:37:00.003+02:00

Today we had creamy pumkin-mango soup seasoned with chily .... mhmmmmmmmmmmm ♥

I´m a mangolover, I just love mangoes, when they are right they are sublime.
I guess these fruits are from heaven made for angels. And these days I discovered Champagne mangoes, smaller that the other varietis but with a divine flavor. Smaller in size, sweet and juicy and with a sweet smell when ripe.

A luscious mango flower pendant

- on ETSY for you, enjoy the weekend and have a good day -

Side by Side

2011-10-19T16:48:00.003+02:00

... Year by Year

we are looking back upon 16 years of living our dreams together today.

(P. S. Scientists have discovered that the longer people stay married, the more they begin to look alike.
You better start putting name tags in your underwear!
Going to take a closer look into the mirror haahaaa .....)

Seite an Seite - Jahr für Jahr
Heute feiern wir 16 Jahre, in denen wir unsere Träume zusammengeträumt haben.

P. S. Wissenschaftler haben entdeckt, dass je länger wir zusammen leben, wir uns immer mehr ähneln. Wir sollten anfangen, Namensschilder an unsere Wäsche zu nähen ☺☺☺ hahaaa ... ich gehe mal einen Blick in den Spiegel werfen *grins*.

Last Dragonfly of Summer

2011-10-18T10:58:00.000+02:00

Last days a little red iridescent dragonfly landed on my table.

He stayed there for a while with wings reflecting the warmth of the sunlight.

It seemed like Mother Nature has chosen it to symbolize the end of the summer days - a very impressive example making me hold on my breath for a while contemplating that minuscule work of art.

Wished I could catch that fire in my beads .... here is a glassy one in my ETSY shop.

Enjoy your day, I am looking forward spending it with a lovely friend.

Thinks he´s an Eskimo

2011-10-17T18:16:00.003+02:00

... little freezing birdie ☺

When I was a teenager my mom forced me to wear those knitted hats she loved to make for me - as if my head was not enough oversized without one LOL.

I was the only teenager who was forced to do so and I hated her for this. But nothing helped, there was no way to rebel against her wish and for a long time the word hat was a taboo subject for me.

Years after I felt in love hats,

(it might be the first sign of maturity hehehe)

chunky knitted caps, it seems that I cannot have enough of them and this is a reason to look forward to the cold winter days.

- new SET going on ETSY -

Nomade

2011-10-16T18:21:00.002+02:00

The world is full of beauty and charm and one of these special places is Antibes (French Riviera) welcoming you with one of Jaume Plensas most beautiful sculptures:

Nomade

You can see him from far away - white lace full of mystery, the blue water behind, sunshine on your face, salt on your lips, words of love in your heart.

“It is made to embrace you as you walk into it, to transform the body as it creates a home for it....” says he about his sculpture made of steel letters welded in the open shape of a man inviting you to enter it, "like a grandmother embracing her children".

And that´s how Jaume Plensa explains the origins of Nomade and the context of his work:

"I always imagined that our skin is permanently tattooed with text – our life, our experiences – tattooed, but with invisible ink. And then suddenly, somebody is able to decipher these tattoos; that person becoming a lover, a friend. That is probably why I work with sculptures like this, this human form composed solely of letters, like cells. It’s almost biological.....

People believe that a letter is nothing, that it is anonymous, but in relationship with other letters they form words, the words with other words create texts, the texts with other texts create culture, and so on"...

Sea Nomads - on ETSY now:

Silver Lining

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000+02:00

There is always something emotional about fog similar to moonlight ... a kind of twilight making my imagination grow.

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow compared writing with driving at night in the fog,

he said that

"You can only see as far as your headlights,
but you can make the whole trip that way"

and that´s how I feel sometimes making beads, it is such an emotional journey like a blessed warm fog with a silver lining at the horizon.

Carpe Diem

2011-10-13T12:50:00.001+02:00

"I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour"......
Hazel Lee

Today is one of that days when you cannot stop thinking about how important it is to live in the present and make it as beautiful as you can, so beautiful it will be worth remembering, not looking back and not grieving over the past, not beeing troubled about the future .... Life is so short.

Thank you

2011-10-12T00:00:00.001+02:00

Such a lovely surprise -

My Bead Soup Necklace
was featured by

Sweet Freedom Designs

along with several other Bead Soup creations on her blog.

Thank you so much, I feel so honoured.

When Summer comes to an End ....

2011-10-11T14:40:00.004+02:00

Fall Fashion Girl - Lampwork Pendant and
Silver Smithing handmade by me

... it´s time to wear Fall fashion - a bird pendant both sides decorated in beautiful pink, coral, rust, sparkling gold and blue fall shades.

The flowers are sparkling in the sun having a cubic zirkonia stamen cane ♥.

And the best about it that you can string it even on a very, very thick cord up to 9 mm

- in my ETSY shop now -

It is raining and raining again in Germany
and I just needed something to keep me busy so I thought that after 5 years my studio needs a sort of refreshment.
And because I have bought a new kiln and some other stuff I had to think about some new design too LOL.
That was the reason that got me started ..... and now I have got a lot of ideas that will keep me busy
cleaning everything and rethinking about what I need and what I don´t.
I am thinking about starting some teaching in my studio too and I am working on a new teaching schedule.

Hope to be finished by the end of the week ... wish me luck ☺.

It´s all in the Eyes

2011-10-10T17:44:00.001+02:00

☺ Smile ☺

It is contagious

It does wonders for the soul

and

most important ☺

It does what words cannot do

"Happy Hour" - on ETSY now

Warm memories ....

2011-10-09T17:30:00.001+02:00

.... for cold winter days (on ETSY now)

The Darkness of Fall

2011-10-09T11:27:00.001+02:00

My favorite fall word is "Hydrangea", those fascinating bushes that, unlike most other plants can change dramatically their colors.

I love that certain morbid charm reminding me of the world of Cabaret and Varieté when Pink and Blue is turning black at it´s darkest value like a gothic Lolita.

It is that mystery that can´t be defined, that grey-green-black darkness of those mysterious and undefinable flowers that makes a dead hydrangea as intricate as one in bloom.

Beads inspired by my favorite fall flowers

Have a lovely Sunday ♥, enjoy the beauty of the nature wearing the most beautiful fall colors.

Purple with a Red Hat

2011-10-08T20:22:00.004+02:00

I have spent the last days together with my daughter going to the theater, eating tapas, morrocan tajine-food, living together with other students in her flatshare and having fun ....

... but also thinking inevitably about aging LOL.

I decided to wear always purple ☺☺☺ with a red hat of course *****haahaaa**** (anyone else looking for Purple? ... on ETSY now)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves,
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter .....

Jenny Joseph

Late Summer

2011-10-04T10:49:00.002+02:00

Purple glow between melting and freezing ... the perfect color for the dark time of the year like the color of the berries under a rich and gorgeous sunset.

Before I leave for some days ... one of the bracelet I love most - on ETSY now.

P. S. I will let my shop open but I can ship today or only on Saturday.
Have a wonderful rest of the week, see you in some days

xoxo Manuela

October - Time to Sit Still and Watch the Leaves turn

2011-10-03T13:25:00.002+02:00

♥ both Dandelion-Beads in my ETSY Shop ♥

"Clouds gather, treetops toss and sway;
But pour us wine, an old one!
That we may turn this dreary day
To golden, yes, to golden!

Autumn has come, but never fear,

Wait but a little while yet,

Spring will be here, the skies will clear,

And fields stand deep in violets.

The heavenly blue of fresh new days
Oh, friend, you must employ them
Before they pass away. Be brave!
Enjoy them; oh, enjoy them!"

- Theodor Storm, A Song in October -

Sunday Treasury

2011-10-02T18:29:00.000+02:00

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A beautiful handwoven jewelry in my ETSY shop now ♥ enjoy ♥

And the Winner is ......

2011-10-02T10:07:00.003+02:00

Be an Angel to someone whenever you can ♥


Woven Pendant, Signature Worry Angel Bead - in my ETSY Shop

“We all dream a lot - some are lucky, some are not. But if you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.”

Tim Rice

So ... let´s see who is the lucky winner of the B-Day Candy today ☺.

First of all let me tell you how happy it made me to see so many comments - I loved every single one and believe me, I wanted to make you all a present but ..... there is always only one lucky winner ...

and

the happy winner today iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

Tatyana from TATKIS -

Congratulations ♥

(Please send me your mailaddy for shipping your bead next week. Hope you´ll love your present.)

Thank you again to you all, have a beautiful sunday,

xxxox Manuela

Good News Girls .....

2011-10-01T11:42:00.001+02:00

Never diet again - If you’ve been thinking about making a change to your diet for a long time, you may consider this big invention ☺☺☺

the elastic tape rule LOL ...... ☺☺☺

and all your dreams and wishes will fullfill ... whatever they are:
tall posture, long legs, small hips, big hips, peary shapes, apple shapes, wasp waists ... ☺☺☺ ... just kidding.

And if it doesn´t works ...

I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.

Sending smiles and hugs for a wonderful wishes - if you don´t know what to do, maybe you want to take a look in my ETSY shop - I have new cabochons for interchangeable jewelry. And don´t forget the Birthday BlogCandy ... you have still time to play till tomorrow morning.

Royal Regatta

2011-09-30T17:47:00.000+02:00

The Inspiration:

We spent one of the last days of our vacation visiting the Trophée Panerai which is hold every year from September 17th to 24th in Cannes.

What a show!

Just imagine classic yachts, traditional sailboats and dragon boats displaying their grace on the sea inviting you to dream a whole week . Every single one had so much beauty, I wanted to touch them all as the polished wood was sparkling in the sun competing with the sea.

Sailing must be magic .... imagine lying on your back on one of these decks, alone with the sea starring in the sky and enjoying the lapping of the sea against the side of your yacht.

One day between the rich and the beautiful ♥ feeling like a queen.

The Beads:

- in my ETSY Shop -

Wearing Red

2011-09-30T09:43:00.005+02:00

♥ on ETSY now ♥

To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.

~ Anne-Sophie Swetchine ~

P. S. For the Blog Candy please scroll down to the post before ♥

B-Day Blog Candy

2011-09-29T20:44:00.004+02:00

Today I want to say

"Thank you"

for so many beautiful thoughts on my Bead Soup and lovely wishes for my birthday.
I have a candy giveaway for stopping by this week.

It´s such a long time I had one and I think it is the perfect opportunity to celebrate with you.

Do you want to win?

1. Leave a comment on this post.

2. If you like you can link this candy and give more people the chance to win ♥

3. Come back on Sunday morning, October 2nd, when the winner will be announced.

And this is the bead you can win - wish you a lot of fun ♥

Ein "kleines" Dankeschön für all die lieben Kommentare und Geburtstagswünsche. Es ist so lange her, dass ich ein BlogCandy hatte ... vielleicht möchtet Ihr gewinnen?

1. Auf einen Kommentar freue ich mich

2. Vielleicht möchtet Ihr dieses Posting verlinken und mehreren Menschen die Gelegenheit geben, eine Perle zu gewinnen? (Es ist keine Bedingung ☺)

3. Am Sonntag wird verlost - vielleicht seid Ihr der/die glückliche Gewinner/in?

Viel Spaß und Glück wünscht euch

Manu

Feeling so Special

2011-09-29T12:49:00.001+02:00

"There is always a lot to be thankful for, if you take the time to look. For example, I'm sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt" LOL

What I wanted to say ....

♥ thank you so much for all the lovely wishes, presents and first of all that you made me feel so special today ♥

P. S. There are some new cabochons in my Etsy store - just take a look if you like and enjoy.