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!!

Dark blue-green, earrings in Murano Glass

My latest trip in Venice was really great time spent with a dear friend of mine.

He was very kind and waited for me choosing glasses in a little shop along the street.

I love this colour (and he loved it too) It's dark but shining too.



This time I decided to use only Silver 925 as a metal. Hooks and the rest are totally in silver.

Probably I want to make them just more.. precious!!

Though they seem heavy, they are quite easy to wear.
Perfect for summer, to make you shine!!

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

Back from holiday

Italian lessons start again after holiday and to report the days spent on the mountain or the seaside...

Dove sei stato in vacanza?: where have you spent you holiday?
Ho passato le vacanze (ferie): I've spent my holiday

in montagna: on the mountain
al mare: on the seaside

Ferie/Vacanze: it is almost the same thing, the only difference (not always underlined) is that usually the word Ferie is used to indicate a pause during work.

Andare in vacanza:to go on holiday



The picture I've taken is from Lago di Ledro, a very nice place not far from Garda Lake, near the Alps. I really love mountain, probably because I live quite near the sea and when here it is very hot, all I can desire is a bit of cold breeze...

leave you with a song, hope you've enjoyed your holiday!

2009...

... is over!
Its wishes, hopes (fulfilled or not), feelings are past, and so ready for the new year to come.
Ready with our memories of what this year was (everything, nice or not because what we don't like could help us anyway!), with good intentions for the new year, with everything we've learnt so far!

HAPPY 2010!

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.

"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!

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!!!

A merry Christmas

My sister did her best to arrange the tree and Presepe! She did a good job indeed!

A merry Christmas, full of laugh, of people, children happy to receive so many and wonderful presents, friends smiling and joking, my family joint together, delcious food prepared with love, new traditions to carry on... That was my best Christmas present!

What about you? did you have a Merry Christmas?

Love and peace be in your heart in these days of Joy!

Buon Natale

A place called home

How many places can you call home?

Well, of course there is my home, where i come back every evening, and where i'm not always happy to be back(travelling is much more fun). But there are other places that I can call home, and I realize it every time I go back there, and I can find my way there...

My Granma used to tell me that her house was our home, that we should consider it so, because whenever we need to be at home, we could go there, and so it was! Even now that she is no longer in this world and her house is something completely different, I consider it home.



One of the first time I went to my uncle on my own (after several years...) I went out for a walk in the country around there, and there I realized that I could perfectly recognize where I was and I didn't lost, I felt at home. It was ages since I last walk there, but even though I was alone I managed to find my way...











My mum's uncle live in a beautiful place near Treviso called Valdobbiadene, and they make a marvellous wine called ProseccoandCartizze. I seldom go there, last time it was a couple of weeks ago... everything is the same. Only it seems to me a bit smaller! The huge room where we used to have lunch when I was a child is now so tiny. How could we run in such a small place?! And the kitchen where my mum's aunts used to prepare so much food (those lunch started at 12 and ended not before 4 p.m., children were allowed to leave the room before the end of lunch!). And again finding things the way I can remember them I felt at home




These are the things that make me feel at home, places where I can wander, people that loves me. Places where I can arrive and leave whenever I need, where even being away for so long, once I'm back everything is the same.

So, How many places can you call home?

Let it snow, let it snow...

This morning I woke up early enough to bring my sister to the train station by car because it was raining and when I got back... it was snowing!! I live near a crowded street, full of cars, expecially in the morning, and today it is particularly silent...

"let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..."

Discover Dean Martin!

Back to my passions...

This year at University I don't have regular courses, but just few exams left, and that's why is so difficult to work hard! Also, I want to start playing my guitar a bit more this year. I have a project, well, I have this project since the day I get my degree in guitar, but I found several obstacles so far...

This time I want to try seriously this way, and who knows where it could lead... I miss it so much! Playing my guitar some hours each day...
Sometime I wonder how I managed to study at the University, and in a Conservatory for so many years, but it was not tough, never! In Italy classical guitar in a conservatory is a ten-years course, and when you start it you think it is such a long path that you probably never see the end, but when you reach the end of this path you realize that you're never ready, or at least that's what I experienced, I could never thought of me ending my studies...

Teaching music is a way to keep me in contact with my studies even when I don't have time enough to study, but now I want something more, I want to try to do something more!
wish me luck, or better "in bocca al lupo" (musicians are always superstitious!!)!

Some hours in Rome...

...not even a day! I had time just for a walk, starting with San Peter.






Passing by, because I had no time to stand in a queue...












Then I passed by Castel Sant'Angelo, and I stopped few minutes in the park, just to read my map and decide the next target...

















Which could not but be Trinità dei Monti, and to reach it I went along a street, where I could see Bulgari, Cartier, Buccellati... and I was wondering what kind of place it was... The to decided the next stop of my trip I realize that I was passing by via Condotti!!


















It's almost impossible to take a picture without people in it, when you're in Rome...


I went up the stairs, and up there I decided the next stop...













...can you guess where I am?!
I thought I could sit for a moment, bu when I reached Fontana di Trevi I realized that it was too crowded!

So, I stopped just a minute to watch the tourists taking picture of the wife/son/daughter/boy-girl-friend throwing a coin...







Then through unknown ways I arrived in Via Venezia from where I could see Altare della Patria, but I didn't dare go up the stairs here! (once in a lifetime, and I had already done it!)













When you're there you cannot avoid to see Colonna traiana and Foro di Traiano, of course!


















And if you go up to reach Piazza del Campidoglio you can see the whole city (almost)...













And then you can easily recognize Marco Aurelio when you arrive...

So far I was almost tired (it is a really long way...) but I thought I could take a bus to come back, so I decided to go on (Colosseo is so near...)

















...but I just managed to reach Tempio di Vesta which is just opposite La Bocca della verità! Then I had to come back, no more time, and no more energy for my quick trip in Rome!

more Photos!

These days I had time enough and I wondered trough the blogosphere. By chance I found a beautiful blog (click here to see it). The photos you'll see are wedding photos!

I must confess I am not exactly fond of wedding photos, usually (or at least in Italy) there are people in unnatural pose with strange expression on their faces.

But these are totally different! There are unusual landscape and photos taken during the party or the ceremony that seem to reflect the different personality of people. Probably the best thing is go and see!
Hope you'll enjoy as I did!