Being Italian

It is getting so difficult being Italian. I am not talking about citizenship, of course. I am talking about being proud of living here, of being part of this country.

Election day is getting closer and closer, unfortunately that takes out the wrost of our politicians...
I keep on wondering what is the image of our country from outside Italy, and I can guess it is not that nice. I don't want to go through each and every thing that has been said in the last month, that would be of no use. But I would like to see someone else on that stage.

I would love to listen to a dream, to a wind of change... Even something idealistic, and too much to become true!
I cannot see where is going my country until we keep on voting the same people, sharing the same ideas, expressing old values...

I want something new just because I really love my contry, and by the way I feel proud to be Italian, and I want to feel even more proud. Not only of past things, of our great culture and ancient times... I want to be proud of what we are and going to be.

But I can see no way to realize it at the moment...

Christmas is over

Christmas is over, and while everything is back to "normality", I can show you what I did for Christmas present.
This year I decided to have many simple and lovely presents, I also wanted to buy much handmade!!

La Tenaglia Impazzita is run by an Italian artist. Giulio is specialized in mosaics, amongs his marvellous masterpiece there are some beautiful objects that are much more affordable for my pockets. I chose a photo frame. It was the marvellous present for a family, and they really appreciated the artistic touch of this simple object.

One of my dearest friend is an avid reader of Jane Austen novels. On Etsy I found the perfect shop for her present from now on!! Pemberley Pond is run by Laura and Luisa Lodetti, two Italian illustrators. They hand-decorate marvellous notebooks, posters and bookmarks. recently Austenians chocolate is available in her shop. And I can assure the taste is fabolous!!

Christmas is also a time for remembering of ourselves, to have time to relax and every year I make myself a present. Wnadering etsy's marvellous shops I stopped by RickyandNina in UK, to buy a beautiful vintage box of stamps. They arrive in perfect time, in a safe package.
I hope my next sale come soon, in order to use them to decorate packaging.

Thinking about stamps I decided to give a stamp to my sister too. She liked them quite as much as I do, but I wanted something particular for her, so I asked to a French artist to make something special for me. Aurélie made a particular stamp shaped as a bassoon in very short time.
I wanted a Bassoon because my sister plays that peculiar instrument. t is not very popular, and so anytime she finds anything related to it she is enthusiastic!! And she loved the stamp at first sight!

Buying handmade you can be sure that your presents are unique. You also say to those who receive it that you care for them.

Another great advantage is buying online: few moments to decide what you want and you'll get it without any effort!
I'm very happy that etsy made me in contact with these extraordinary word full of extraordinary people.
Christmas is over, and my present are full of life!!

Necklaces

I think a piece of  jewelry should be something that you wear without thinking about it. it should be not heavy, and must give you a touch of something.

With this idea I have prepared my new necklaces:

 The steel cable allow me to put more and more beads with different light and colours, without adding so much weight!

I use mainly natural semi-precious stones. Smooth or faceted, that doesn't matter if the colours are well combined.

I always think: would I wear something like that?

I know that could narrow my view, but I'm not going to sell you something I wouldn't wear myself!

Sometime this thing becomes a problem, because I want to keep them for myself and not to put them in my shop...

But the marvellous thing about doing jewels yourself is that you can have one and sell another..
;)

Starting sales...

Time has come, and after some months I had my first sale on etsy!!
This bracelet of mine was send to France. Hopefully it will become a fine present for someone.

I wanted it to be a present just as it came out from the envelope! I hope my packaging could render the idea!


It was a great emotion to prepare it from someone who considered my work valuable!




From my hands to their hands...






Soon after a new sale came.. just yesterday night! The buyer is a friend of mine who now lives in Germany. When I saw the order I smiled and then I thought she could tell me before buying. I wrote an e-mail to her and she answered to me saying that the price is already too low, so she doesn't want any discount for her purchasing ...
My very first earrings are going to become the present for a friend of hers ...
I'm very happy about it, I perfectly know that my friends see what I do with "the look of love", but I can't help appreciating their words so much!

What's new?

Putting my new hobby on Etsy made me think a lot about what I am doing...
Now when I create something I try to be as "original" as possible, though that is not always easy!!

My new life on etsy is also something I am never tired to talk about with my friends. One of them seemed particularly interested in this world, but he is not very confident with computers and social media. He is a goldsmith and he is trying to find a way foe his job in this particular moment.

Thus I thought about a collaboration among us! I cannot but learn from him about jewlry, and I can be of some use to introduce him to social world!

The first result of this collaboration is this woderful pair of earrings:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/111569403/copper-earrings-hammered-very-light

 

These beautiful earrings are in copper. a leaf of metal hammered to obtain the particular effect of reflecting light. The greatest thing of these earrings (in my opinion) is that they are particularly light but spactacular, so easy to wear, while give you a touch.

stay tuned to know what is going to come!!

In Clode's drawer

Yes, definitely I've got the title!

My drawers are always a mess! And nobody is authorized to open them, except for me, of course. Inside there I can found anything, really! Last week I found even money (that's the good thing of having such a terrible memory)! My sister is always complaining about my drawers, and when something disappears in our room, she is always convinced that it is there. That's almost never the truth.

But drawers for me are also something... poetic! There is an expression in Italian "il tuo sogno nel cassetto" which means the dream you keep in your drawer. You can keep it there because it is secret, or because you are waiting the right time to use it. Anyway, anytime someone asks me about my "sogno nel cassetto". To have a free drawer to put my dreams inside of it! :)

This shop is a partial realization of me, of what I'm doing, so it could be, one of my drawer for my dreams (Of course, I have more than one!!)

Here a bit of things you can find in my drawer now:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/99899793/in-shades-of-blue-earrings-variazioni

http://www.etsy.com/listing/100110209/glass-bracelet-in-green-and-turquoise

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/100832529/bracelet-in-murano-glass-in-shades-of

http://www.etsy.com/listing/101087436/earrings-blu-agata-and-lava-stone

It is a matter of size sometimes...

Bracelets are a totally different matter from earrings when you create a piece of jewellery...
Because bracelet may have a right size!

When I started working on this bracelet I didn't consider it, since I was busy in preparing the stones. The solution came quite easily, anyhow: putting various rings at the end it becomes suitable for different "wrist".

Matching agata with nacre is quite unusual, but I like these two colours togheter!
The result is a very fine bracelet.

I think I'll prepare a pair of earrings with the same motifs, since I still have agata and nacre...

Stay tuned!

what's in a hobby

I need to keep moving my hands, particularly when I'm nervous or worried for something...
That's why I play the guitar.
That's why I like cooking.
That's why I started this new hobby!

Earrings are my favourite piece of jewelery! What i like most is that they move while you move. According to this idea I try to make all my earrings move somehow. Though the long tubeis static, the final agata at the end can move.

That's just an hobby for me, of course. In etsy I found a way to share it first of all, and let see what is going to happen...

Even blogging was just an experiment at the very beginning and eventually made me in real contact with extraordinary people here around...

Too much time is passed since then and my blogroll is to be updated... I'll do that too.

Hope you enjoy what you see so far!

Time goes by...

...and new projects come to life!!

I've been thinking about my "English" blog, and how to keep it alive. Italian lessons are still something I want to do here, and language learning in general is still among my main activities.
Recently, I started something new...
A new hobby, if you want to say so... I started creating jewellery. At first I was not so satisfied with the result, but I kept on trying and... what I'm doing now is a bit more pretty to see (or, at least I hope so!)

Yesterday night I opened a virtual shop on Etsy. I "studied" a bit before opening it and I finally decided to try...
Here is my first item:

I bought the glass during my last visit in Venice. In the fine little shop where I bought these two, there were no others with the same colour. What I really like about these earrings is the colour! It reminds me of water, and the shape too convey to this idea! That's why I decided to put nothing else than the glass for these earrings.

I hope you like them, and hope that you enjoy visiting my shop!
Stay tuned!

The earrings are available here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/clode83

to fly away?

foto from Flickr

I was reading The independent online, and on a lateral ad I saw these words!
I'd like to... In this very moment I'd like to fly away from here, from my "to dos" list, from my job duties, from my whole life... If you are asking yourselves (and even if you are not), yes, I've got a sort of idea of where to fly... and probably I don't even need a plane to go there...

But I'm here, and I feel I should find a way to stay here. It would be easier to escape, or it wouldn't... don't know...

there are so many things I don't know so far...

Flowers and memories

Foto from Flickr

Every time I see this flower I can't help but think of my Grandmother. She used to have one of those plants and she was so proud of it. She showed it to every body, made pictures... I don't know why she loved it so much, if you look at the flowers, they are peculiar, but you could say they are not so pretty. And she could explain to you every single piece, and the meaning of it, so to understand why it is called 'passion flower', and all the symbols of crucifixion...

I really think that she somehow 'loved' this plant and the great effect it gave to her garden, but I've never asked myself whether she loved this plant more than her granddaughters, we were for sure her favourite flowers.

Starting a new work

Foto from here

I met Henry James for the first time when I watched "portrait of a lady", and I must confess that I didn't appreciate the film, this led me to avoid the book, and in my literature studies he was never mentioned directly, I mean, studying Joyce I found referrment to James' work, but the interesting thing is that he has no chapter dedicated in the Norton Anthology (my literary bible).
Now I'm dealing with him because of my final dissertation and I'm starting to believe that he deserve something more...
I'm reading his novella "The turn of the screw", rather, I've already read it and I'm now analizing its content and the way it s organized, That's why I'm not referring to it as a ghost story, because first and foremost I'm aware it is not. We cannot define it in a specific genre, because the author himself wants us to be confused about it. The "ghost story is full of hints of a paranoia of the narrator, the young governess who went and lived in Bly. The reader is led to doubt on what she describes, and in tragic scene at the end of the story is no longer sure of what has happened.
The story has caught the attention of many artists and critics since when it was written and in 1954, when the Biennale commissioned him a new work, Benjamin Britten chose this very story, and "The Turn of the Screw" became an opera. The particular ambiguity of this story created several problems to the composer and the librettist, Myfanwy Piper, but the thing on which I'll focus my attention will be the interpretation of Britten who found himself to choose between Innocence and Experience, and this time chose Experience.

Stay tuned for next steps...

In Padova

I can't draw. And I don't like it. Even when I was a child, I hated the moment our teacher used to ask us to draw a picture. Because I can't do it.

But every time I pass by this little shop I can't avoid stopping in front of it, and I would like to enter it once. Now, I don't dare because I know that there is nothing for me inside, but stopping in front of the window I wish I could draw and paint, just to enter. I know that in a place like this probably there is an old shop assistant, one of those who perfectly knows everything about art. One of those who knows everything about Giotto, for example and can explain you how to make a perfect picture. Because in these old little shops, assistants are always like this, I'm sure!

This shop is in the very centre of Padova and it is one of my favourite place, because when I stop there to look at the window my mind can wander and imagine things, because like many old things is something rare and beautiful.
And still, I can't draw, and I don't like it.

...wait and see...

Sometime, all you need is a bit of calm, and just wait for the things to come...
but you feel that you should do something
looking around you see everything is stillness and silence
and breathing deeply you decide to wait and see.

Language education

I live in the north-east of Italy, in Veneto, the Italian region were the local dialect is used the most, as I learnt from my latest exam. My family is a mix of different cities inside this very same region, my father’s family is from Rovigo (the city where I live), but my mother’s family is partly from a village near Venice and partly from a village near Treviso (I’ve already talked about where they live). Anyway part of my family live in Verona, and others live between Mantova and Ferrara… And they are only those with whom I am in contact.

At home wespeak Italian, and that was the language that we, children, were supposed to learn, but of course when we get in contact with our granpas and granmas we hear other languages. In my father’s family a chair is a ‘carega’, but in my aunt’s house (near Ferrara) there were other objects, ‘scarana’ (chair-sedia), ‘granadel’ (broom-scopa), ‘bagaj’ (thing-coso/a). And different ways to say things, another language…

I learned Dialect when I was grown-up, I used to spent much time with my granparents and the only language used at home was dialect; my sister didn’t like it, she insisted to speak Italian, and sometime reproached me for my talk. At school, no doubt, Italian was the only language allowed, and also with unknown adults. My granma worked as a tailor, there were many people at any time of day at home, and I could appreciate moments in which (and clients to whom) she spoke a fine Italian, and others when dialect was possible.

Until high-school I’ve always used Italian at school, but then in my class I was the only one coming from the city (if we can talk about city…) and all my mates came from villages around Rovigo and Padua the language used among us was definitely dialect. I still remember a group of girls from another class saying “How rough, they speak dialect!”. That’s how it was considered.

Venetian dialect is the language of great writers and artists through different centuries, and part of this language became Italian in the long process called “questione della lingua” that started with Dante, went on with Manzoni, until the language that is now called Standard Italian. So, it is clear that it is not rough or anything, they were (and probably still are) a group of posh girls!

Now, I speak Italian the most, with some of my friends I speak dialect, at home I know that there are different dialects to use with different people, and there are still words that are unknown to me in some of my family languages. But dialect is a kind of code for me, I cannot recognize the code-switching moment, but when I use it I feel at home. I consider it much more expressive, because is the language in which I usually express feelings, bad feelings most of all. When I’m too nervous to control what I’m saying I don’t use a proper Italian….

If you ask me, I speak a very good Italian, I can speak a good English (or i hope so!), and I get angry in Dialect.

"occupation for an idle hour..."

I need to do something with my hands today, I don't know if you ever have this feeling, of using your hands to do something, and the result is this.



The first try was definitely less succesful, but the second time I watch on them to be sure of the final result! Then with a bit of creme ganache it was done!

Ready to be eaten tonight!

My favourite sport

...though I cannot practice it as much as I wish!
The first time I have ridden I was 3, I can barely remember it. My uncle has a horse, and since I was a child he tried to teach me how to ride.

There is something special in riding a horse, it is not only a matter of open air and wind in your hair, there is a relation between you and the animal, and first of all you need to understand how this relation works. And in the same way the horse need to understand you. So in the very first phase you need to understand how you can communicate and how he answers. You define a contact, explaining that you (are supposed to) control the situation, and then a great part of your energy is dedicated to understand his reactions.

The gratest thing is when you realize that you're no longer thinking about it and everything is going on. This thing of being in relation with nature in such a way makes it magic. I'm not sure I can render this idea... There is not only a way to move or to do things, it is something more complicated, and thus much more enjoyable.

I'm really lucky, because anytime I go and visit my uncle I cn ask him to let me ride, and I started when I was so young that even though I fall down, and I experienced some "dangerous moments" I've never given up.

Little daisy bracelet for me!
Lucky me, I have children that bring me flowers sometimes, at least them!

Teaching English...

Foto from Flickr

…is a serious matter! I’m not only a language learner, of course, I’m also a language teacher. I said ‘of course’ because when you start to study at University, people start to have a different consideration of your knowledge. You become somehow an “authority” and when they need help in your field, they come and ask.

But studying English at Uni you understand that rules work a bit differently from what your teachers used to tell you at liceo. And here starts your dissidio interiore. You want your students to be part of this truth that has been revealed to you. You want to tell them the whole story. For instance, you don’t want to tell them that ‘some’ is used in affirmative sentence, while any in negative and interrogative, but you can’t provide them an alternative rule… You don’t want to show them schemes for MODALITY where it is said that can translate the Italian ‘potere’ and HAVE TO is used when it is not possible to conjugate must and so on.

But if you try to do something like this your students will start to look suspiciously at you. No more rules in English? And what about all the things that have been said so far?! What about books written that way?! Those books that provide you few simple rules to use and understand English?! And you, as a teacher, give up and provide them those schemes and rules that make them feel safe (because that’s what their asking you).

Sometimes, you give them a different example, nevertheless, an exception that could convey to what you know is the4 whole story! Who knows, it could even create some… doubts…

How do you usually judge a book?

I must confess I do judge books by the cover, if it somehow strikes me, I'll give it a chance. When I say cover I mean the title, or the colours of the cover, or...

The author. I usually give a second chance to someone who told me a beautiful story. (but no more than a second chance, when it disappointed me...).

Then I start to handle the book, and if it smells of love story, I'll give up. I read love stories, but not when that's the main point. Love ( and death and other few topics) occurs in everybody's lives, so you don't need to consider it the main point when you're telling a story. Have you ever read a story without finding love in it?!

So far the book is in my hands...I read something about the author (if I don't know him/her) and then I read the back, usually there is a summary of the story, or something like that (the italian "quarta di copertina"). And that's the final phase, the most critical, now there must be something that strikes me, that intrigues me...
And, of course there is a very final thing that I consider, but it is just a little thing: the price. Of course I don't give up because of money (sometimes I can look for another edition), but when I didn't work, and consequently I had no money of my own, I used to go to bookshop, decide what I wanted and then I went to the city library to take it. This system never failed, and if the book was good I used to buy it.

I've been disappointed very few times by this method that I could say it is almost scientific!
And you?! How do you usually judge a book?!


P.S.
The photo has very little to do with the post, but last time I went to London, instead of the city I visited Notting Hill and Portobello road... and of course I could not but snap a pic of the very famous travel book shop!!!