Fall feelings

Last week, Erin from "Still Live, With Cracker Crumbs" announced that she and Lisa from "Boondock Ramblings" will not have a "Comfy Cozy Cinema" event on their blogs this year. Instead they'll be doing "Sweater Weather Cinema" with fall movies ... and I found myself thinking that I didn't really know any except for Halloween movies and therefore probably wouldn't be able to participate.

Of course I know movies with fall scenes, but I never thought of them specifically as fall movies. To be honest, I had never thought about that topic at all until now.
Here Erin explains what a fall movie is for her. Check it out and if you have your own favorites, let her know and maybe tag along for the "Sweater Weather Cinema" with her and Lisa?

Now I let people know a lot - whether they want to hear it or not - that fall is my favorite season. I love the colors, the rain, the air, and of course saying goodbye to summer (and the fan).
However, I was surprised myself to find that many fall inspired items I made over the years, this is not even everything!

And of course I can't forget my Autumn Dawn and my Fairy Queen Jessica!

I guess I express my feelings in beads and wire?

Schwibbogen - Moritzburg Castle - Three Wishes for Cinderella

Today's post has more than one topic.
Let's start with the Schwibbogen or Lichterbogen (candle arch/light arch) which I have wrote about before.
First a little history taken from that old blog post.

Johann Teller, a blacksmith who made equipment for mines in the Ore Mountains, made the first candle arch in the 18th century (info on the exact year varies). His inspiration was the pit hole entry and he made it for the "Mettenschicht", an old miners' tradition in the Protestant region. It was the last shift before Christmas which ended early with a simple meal and a celebration.
While early arches were made from wrought iron, wood became more and more popular from the beginning of the 20th century.
A famous design created by Paula Jordan in 1937 showed the main sources of income for the people of the Ore Mountains and traditional symbols.
Designs changed over the years to cities or forest scenes and you find all sizes, small ones for windows, but also huge ones put up by cities, like this one in Johanngeorgenstadt.

Picture by Hejkal on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

When I got my own light arch, that was such a surprise for me. My friend had the idea and her talented husband made it. Isn't it gorgeous and just perfect for me?

It also presented me with the opportunity for one of my favorite pictures of dem Dekan who loves the arch (meaning he likes to gnaw on the tips of the trees, I'm very glad they are sturdy).

I love this so much that I had one of my favorite
cartoonists - Lingvistov - turn it into a cartoon version.

Let's get to another Christmas tradition now. The following movie is as much a part of Christmas here as "Little Lord Fauntleroy". A list of broadcast dates comes out early and while there are people who think it has been shown often enough, there are more people for whom it is a must watch at least once a year - and I'm one of those.

I'm talking about "Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel" (Czech title "Tři oříšky pro Popelku") from 1973, "Three Wishes for Cinderella" in English (there's only a version with English subtitles).
The film was a co-production between Czechoslovakia and East Germany which were both known for their beautiful fairy tale productions at the time.
Originally this was supposed to be a summer movie, but that was changed to winter due to production issues, and although Christmas isn't mentioned once, it being broadcast around the holidays turned it into a Christmas classic in Czechoslovakia (later Czechia), Germany, Norway (which made its own version in 2021), but also other countries.
The history of the film - from script over the actors and actresses to stunts, set or costumes - is just as interesting, by the way.

Now what is different about this Cinderella? I'll take this from one of my old "quote of the week" posts.
Well, this Cinderella is a bit of a tomboy. She loves to ride her horse Nikolaus if she can get away from her mean stepmother and stepsister, she climbs trees, she's an excellent archer. 
Every winter the King, Queen, and their son travel to their castle and make a stop at the stepmother's farm, a chance she uses to get an invitation to the ball for her daughter and herself.
The Prince and his friends do their best to avoid any responsibility which makes the King decide that the Prince will have to choose a bride, much to his dismay.
On their escapes to nature, the young men meet Cinderella, once as the young girl covered in ashes, once at a hunt she wins by shooting a cone off a tree, wearing an outfit the first of three magic hazelnuts has given her. She's not intimidated by the Prince, but stands her ground which impresses him (not realizing it's her both times, though).
The second hazelnut gives her a beautiful gown in which she attends the ball hidden behind a veil. The Prince is blown away, but she won't agree to his proposal until he solves her riddle.

"The cheeks are smudged with ashes, but it's not the chimney sweep. A hat with feathers, the crossbow over the shoulder, but it's not a hunter. ... Thirdly, a silver brocaded gown with train for the ball, but it's not a princess, my noble sir."

The Prince is clueless and Cinderella runs off. She loses her shoe on the stairs, well, I think you know how that tale ends.

That part of the movie was shot at Moritzburg Castle in the state of Saxony.

Now let me connect the stories of the Schwibbogen and Aschenbrödel.
My friend said she would like to visit to drop my Christmas gift early and in person because it was too awkward to send it by mail.
After making sure it wasn't a kitten, I generously granted access to my flat.
Out of the bag came - Moritzburg Castle as a light arch! It's smaller than my cat arch and so very cute, but of course the best about it is that it doesn't just have the balcony and the stairs that Cinderella ran down, but also the shoe!

Der Dekan was shocked when I told him that his
feet were too big for the shoe - rude! - but he was
even more shocked when I told him the measures
the stepsisters in the original fairy tale took hoping
for marriage with the Prince. One cut her heel off,
the other her toe ... he didn't want to be a Princess
anymore after hearing that.

And while I was surprised that der Dekan broke one of his rules and came down off the wardrobe although my friend isn't direct family (he let her pet him before she could even bribe him which seriously made me doubt everything I know about him), I wasn't surprised that he had to do a very thorough check of the arch as the resident safety officer.

Getting ready for Christmas - Part 3

I'll make this short.
In part 2 I showed you my decorations in the house hallway. Then I noticed that one of the Steiff mice was missing. A few days later I noticed that one of the teddies had been hiding in the same cabinet.
If someone has seen my brain, please tell it to come back. I'm not doing that well without it, it seems ...

Also I still wasn't happy with my improvised hooks, so I got some garlands which would hide them.
Basically that works well, but now I have the problem that the railings are quite smooth and the ornaments quite heavy which means the garlands keep sliding. I could stop one of them with the hooks on the railing which don't run that smoothly and therefore keep the ends in place, but the other railing doesn't have those hooks, so I will have to come up with an idea. Not this year, though. Maybe my brain will be back again next year ;-)

Getting ready for Christmas - Part 2

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn't get myself to decorate the house hallway in time which meant I was very behind on my advent calendar tree.
There was really no excuse anymore now, so I gave myself a good kick yesterday and went to it.

This year I had to make a few hard decisions. Thanks to my crafty advent calender last year and thanks to not being able to put any of those new ornaments up inside my flat *stern look at somecat who's not interested in stern looks at all*, some of the regulars couldn't find a spot in my hallway decoration this time. Not one spiky bauble! I only have a window sill to hold my Discworld advent calenders and a wardrobe with a small surface, some hooks, and rails which weirdly was not made for decorations originally.
I'll have to think of something next year, maybe some kind of garland for my beaded ornaments to hang on the wardrobe, so I can put the baubles on the rails.
I'll also have to come up with some better hooks. Ordinary Christmas hooks are too small for the rails and I had forgotten to get a better wire to make bigger ones of my own. It really comes out worse in the picture because of the flash, though (it was already darkish when I decorated, so I needed the flash, as if it isn't hard enough to get a good angle for a picture, anyway). I picked stainless steel, thin so it wouldn't show too much, but strong enough to hold even the heavier ornaments, but those makeshift hooks are by no means uniform. Will someone please remind me in time next year?

To give you a better idea if you haven't followed last year's advent calendar, I made a collage of the ornaments I put up (in the picture above the felt ball is missing because I had forgotten it).

Of course, a Christmas decoration without my beloved Steiff is absolutely unthinkable. This year, there is not one but two Christmas trees one of which I topped with my Christ Child Dawn, and an adorable Christmas bunny joined Santa Claus and his teddy and mouse crew (plus one missing in the picture because I had left him behind in the cabinet, what's wrong with me?), also a sweet mouse who's not in festive garb, but fits in so perfectly.

Also I can't do without my advent tree and today I got to open several of the little parcels! What a reward for being so late.

I know it's not much compared to the decorating some people do, but it makes me happy and that's what counts.

Mini ring binders

"How about the miniature laptop, tablet, and cell phone, and maybe the books? Look at this desk, G. will make one like it." "Great idea! I could try to make a waste paper basket. And how about ring binders instead of books? I'll see if I can find something online."
This very shortened talk between my friend and me was about a gift that our department wants to give to a dear colleague who is leaving us. She works in IT and, inspired by a lantern with a fairy door and some accessories in it, my friend had the idea to put together a little office into a lantern.

So we all went to work, my friend went to get the lantern and some felt to match the carpeting at work, her husband made the desk, and I looked for ring binders.
The basket was first, though. I used brown wire, crocheted a disk for the bottom to make it sturdy and knitted the rest, so you can see what's in the basket, for example tiny paper balls and crumpled tissues, but that's for when it all gets put together.
I did find some ring binders online, but thought that I could probably make those myself. Spoiler alert, I could and only glued myself to one once!

My friend scanned a real ring binder and I printed the scan on labels. I stuck them on folded cardboard cut to a little less than one inch high, added handmade labels with keywords to the spines, and poked holes into them.
Unfortunately all of my jumprings were too big for the slits on the lids (that are hard to see on the lying binder), but after filling the binders with cardboard fanfolds - cardboard to give them some more weight, fanfolds because it was easier to glue those in - there wouldn't have been much space for rings, anyway. I think you get the idea.
The nice part was that I didn't even have to be too careful because the binders were supposed to have that look of having been used for a long time, just like some of our real binders at work.

Once everything is ready and put together, I will share a picture of that as well.
I hope our colleague will like it!

Jewelry with a story - Part 1 .... or 3? (A random Saturday post)

Today's post was inspired by this post on Nancy's Fashion Style which I found through my friend Michelle's blog My Bijou Life (which you should check out if you are interested in fashion, but also jewelry making, quilting, and more).

As a jewelry artisan, I sometimes wonder where my jewelry ends up. Is it worn, is it loved, does it have a story - like being a gift or purchase for a special occasion - will it continue to have a story and create memories, will it be passed on to someone else, will it end up in a goodwill bin or at a fleamarket and will it find someone new there?
I will never know and maybe that's a good thing.
Where do those thoughts come from, though?

In my life I have collected quite a bit of jewelry myself. I can't remember which was my first piece of jewelry, but one of the earliest ones must have been a red coral necklace that I lost quickly if I remember right. After that came two silver pendants, a heart and a filigree flower with a pearl in the center (that I stubbornly declared to be an edelweiss). I wore the heart 24/7 for a long time until an incident caused my taking it off for good.
After that my memories get a little fuzzy until I was about 12.

For this post, I picked some of my earliest silver rings because I had remembered already having written about my most precious piece - emotional value, not monetary - but then I had the strange feeling that I had told the story of my first friendship ring before as well. Guess what, I have. And some other stories as well.
Here. Doh. I'm getting old (but at least remembered just in time).
But hey, maybe this just IS a topic for more than one post. If I only drop those memories on you every, now and then, it should be fine, shouldn't it?
And if it means that my jewelry box gets organized once again and I maybe learn something, that's a nice side effect, right?

I put my silver rings back and instead I grabbed a piece that I got around the same time and which I knew nothing about yet. Let's try to find something out together.
It's a bangle that I can't remember having worn even once.
In 1977, I was invited to spend part of the vacation in the Bavarian Forest with my friend's family. They always had rooms with the same family in a small village and also spent evenings with them, playing cards or talking. When we didn't go hiking or visit other tourist spots like glass shops in the area, the lady of the house sent us on little errands into the village to keep us entertained. She was a talented dressmaker and I remember the bolero and skirt she sewed for my friend as a gift.
She didn't make me feel left out, though. When our vacation was over, she came up to me and said she had a gift for me, too - this bangle.

While I appreciated the gift as such, I think I may have been too young to appreciate the modernist design. Also the bangle felt too heavy on my wrist, and soon it went into my first jewelry box from where it moved to the next to the next to the next ...
Every, now and then I looked at it, but always decided against wearing it because it just wasn't my style. It's quite amazing how much wear it got although it wasn't worn. Being pewter - which I'm not sure I even realized despite the marking - it also bent rather easily out of shape.
A soap bath and a bit of polishing didn't make much difference. I couldn't try the other tip I found online, to use warmed up beer, as beer is not my beverage of choice and there wasn't any.

Of course we didn't have internet back then and later I didn't even bother with a closer look at the markings ... which I did for this post, though.
There are two. One says "Dansk handarbejde" = "Danish handicraft", the other one "Løgeskov tin Danmark".
I couldn't find anything about the history of Løgeskov pewter in German or English and my Danish consists of the incredibly useful sentence "The room is big", but a list told me that Løgeskov Tin was not the only pewter jewelry manufacturer in Denmark.




What I also found were several pictures of pieces that would have gone well with my bangle, either because the design was almost or completely the same or because the same bright red glass cabochons (always my favorite part of the bangle) were used, or both. Rings, pendants, earrings, they had it all, and some pieces are even for sale on German eBay at this moment.
Moreover, I discovered that my bangle came with glass cabochons in different colors, yellow, light green, or blue, for example.

Well, I've learned something new and the bangle will go back into the chest for now, it probably has got used to it in the last 45 years ;-)

Oldies but Goodies - Neutral colors

Before this Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge, I had never been wondering about neutral colors much. I wear a lot of black and I love grey which are two of them, but beige, taupe, cream, brown, ivory, even white are not on my personal list of colors at all. I even have a very difficult relationship with beige, for example, which is just putting it nicely that I avoid it at all costs.

The definition of neutral colors is that they are not on the color wheel. They are muted shades that look calming and complement the colors well that are on the color wheel, in fashion, but also in interior design.
What about jewelry, though? For me, it's much easier to use neutral colors in jewelry than bright colors because I always feel they can be worn with anything that way.
Let's see what the JAC members have come up with, and don't forget, this is just a small selection.

1 My Bijou Life
2 RioRita Jewelry
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 Cat's Wire

Oldies but Goodies - Geometric shapes

Wow, time is racing and another week has gone by already without me being creative, well, except for a custom pair of spike bauble earrings.
I'm just glad we have the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge to remind me not only of my own creativity, but more so of that of others.
Our theme was geometric shapes and we really got to see some amazing beauties!

How many basic geometric shapes are there? Obviously people don't necessarily agree on the number, some say there are four - circle, triangle, square, and rectangle - others say six and add rhombus and trapezoid. As the math genius that I am not, I'll stay out of that.

I do remember, though, that we once had to make a piece of jewelry in school. The plan had been for us to learn how to use a simple tin-lead based solder. I made a pendant consisting of a triangle, circle, and a square if I remember right. It came out pretty lousy, but had a definite mod vibe which worked well as we were still barely in the 70s.
Anyhow, I guess geometric shapes in jewelry had already fascinated me then.

These following examples are so much better than my pendant was. Enjoy!

1 Cat's Wire
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 My Bijou Life
4 RioRita Jewelry

Oldies but Goodies - More bracelets

Do you like to wear bracelets? In that case, you will love what I have brought along from this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge.
Once again there is such an amazing variety in techniques, materials, and style, and yet my selection isn't even showing everything that has been entered.
Which one is your favorite?
I am in love with the fantastic hand painted elephant bangle (whose design process and WIP pictures Dawn had shared with us while working on this years ago), but I would also gladly wear any of the other items!

1 and 2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 and 8 RioRita Jewelry
4 and 6 Cat's Wire
5 and 7 My Bijou Life

Oldies but Goodies - Breaking out

Although I had taken a timeout from blogging, the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge has been kept going over the last few months.
Now it's time for me to share my selections with you again.

Our topic in the last week was "Breaking out".
Artisans and artists are only human. Many of us like their comfort zone, and it's always tempting to stay inside it, especially if the result is something you have already had success with. It can never hurt to take a little step outside the box, though.
The challenge was to show something that was unusual to make, because it was different in color, shape or style we are used to, for example. So we got shown some first attempts at new designs or techniques, and now I'll be sharing some of them with you.

1 RioRita Jewelry
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 beYOUteous
4 Cat's Wire
5 My Bijou Life

Oldies but Goodies - Celestial again

In August 2017, the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge's topic was "celestial". Back then, we shared stars, moons, and the sun. Some of these classic celestial bodies are also featured this time, but we also have colorful planets, clouds in the sky, and astrological signs.
You see, even if we repeat a topic, there is always the chance of something completely new turning up.
Some of these pieces even I had never seen before and I'm nosy as heck when it comes to my fellow JAC people's work! ;-)
I hope you will enjoy seeing them as much as I did.

1/5/9 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 and 6 Cat's Wire
3 and 7 My Bijou Life
4 and 8 RioRita

Oldies but Goodies - Fog and mist

I'm fascinated by fog, but it also makes me nervous.
It's one thing to look out over a landscape beautifully covered by mist or being stuck in your car in a big bowl of "pea soup" (as it happened to me once on New Year's Eve) or even worse, in smog like the deadly Great Smog of 1952 in London which people thought was just the ordinary fog Londoners have to deal with.

Today's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is only about the beautiful kind, though. To some of my bead loomed silhouette pieces I love to add wafts of mist to the scenery, for example, but it's also amazing how some stones or other materials seem to emulate mist or fog.
Here's my selection for this week, I think I picked a few real beauties.

1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 Cymberrain
3 Cat's Wire
4 RioRita
5 My Bijou Life

Oldies but Goodies - Play with me

A new week, a new Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge.
Do you play with your jewelry? Twist a necklace, play with a fringe or dangles, touch the stones, shake the head to let your earrings fly, play with a spinner ring or just spin a ring around your finger ...
If you answered this question with a no, I suggest you try it, it's fun. Sometimes it may help you to calm down if you are nervous or you just satisfy the playchild in you.
I have a necklace that is so long that I can do a lot with it, especially in meetings, and sometimes I wonder if it makes others nervous to watch me. Maybe we should hand out "play jewelry" for everyone before meetings?

From the many entries I chose five today. Which one would you choose for a meeting? ;-)

1 My Bijou Life
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 RioRita
4 Cymberrain
5 Cat's Wire

Oldies but Goodies - Beads

What is a bead? Wikipedia says that a bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing.
Beads can also be addictive. So many shapes, so many colors, so many ways to use them!

Just a few of these ways are represented by today's collage of items from the last Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge.
We have hand painted beads, big and small ones, handmade beads from silver, different colors, glass, wood, stone ... and still this is just a very small glimpse into the world of beads!

1 and 10 Cat's Wire
2 and 3 My Bijou Life
4 and 7 RioRita
5 and 6 Jewelry Art by Dawn
8 and 9 Silver Jewellery Girl

Oldies but Goodies - Fresh

I thought I didn't hear right when I was told last week that 30° C (86° F) had been predicted for Sunday.
Guess the choice for the new Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge topic hadn't been too bad - it was "fresh" as if it was meant fight off the heat lurking outside, just waiting to get me ;-)

Fresh has so many more meanings beside cool, though, that this wasn't a very difficult challenge. It can mean anything from new, pleasant, not salty, not artificial, relaxed, and more depending on the context.
The easiest thing to do was to show fresh colors, but in one entry the word has a different meaning ... cheeky. Can you guess which one that is? :-D

1 My Bijou Life
2 Cymberrain
3 RioRita
4 Jewelry Art by Dawn
5 Cat's Wire

Oldies but Goodies - Shapes

This post for the last Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is dedicated to my math teacher in 7th grade. You tried, Mr. Haasl, you really did, but no matter how much it is said that girls can do math just as well as boys, I just wasn't one of them. It wasn't just math, I also struggled with chemistry and physics - and to be honest, I wasn't interested in exploring science's depths myself - but I think geometry probably caused my only true breakdown in school. You comforted me, you encouraged me, and I'm sorry that it didn't work because you were really one of the good ones, and a nice person and neighbor as well until you passed away much too early.

You, my dear readers, don't have to explain anything or calculate or prove now, though, you can just sit back and look at the shapes we are bringing you with today's challenge. Aren't I a nice person, too? :-D

1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 My Bijou Life
3 Cat's Wire
4 RioRita
5 Silver Jewellery Girl

Oldies but Goodies - More wire

Wire has always been a big topic in JAC, but so far we have only used it as a topic for the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge once before. Let's change that today.

Wire is an incredibly versatile material and there are many techniques to work with it, not only in jewelry, but also for other purposes, from flower stands or filters (have you ever heard of the wire weaving loom?) to wire netted kitchen utensils and more from Kyoto (called Kanaami).
You will find wire wrapped, woven, crocheted and knitted (including spool and Viking knitting), done in macramé and other techniques in jewelry.
This goes way back, thousands of years. You don't necessarily need many tools for working with wire, just pliers and a wire cutter are enough, you don't need heat, you don't have to solder or cast, it can be done pretty much anywhere, and you can combine the wire with all kinds of materials, gemstones, beads, found objects, or leave it as is.

These are only a few of the pieces entered in this challenge. Enjoy.

1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 Silver Jewellery Girl
3 Cat's Wire
4 RioRita
5 My Bijou Life

Oldies but Goodies - More cabochons

Cabs, cabochons. I've talked about them before and we had a Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge with that topic a few years ago, too. I'm sure we could do several more with all the cabs that are in the drawers of our members, loose or already added to jewelry.
Cabochons were the earliest way to treat gemstones before people developed the cutting of stones. They usually have a flat back and a polished and rounded front, no facets. Opaque stones are made into cabochons because there's no sparkle which is enhanced by facets. Nevertheless, you will find faceted opaque stones as well, just as you find translucent stones that are not faceted, but made into cabs.

There's a family story about a ring given as a gift. The young recipient was not happy because the ring had an opaque cabochon. I guess most young girls prefer a bit of sparkle or at least did so when I was young, eons ago ;-) It took me very long to acknowledge the beauty of opaque cabs.

People use different techniques to incorporate cabs in their jewelry, bezel or prong settings, wire wrapping and weaving including netting, wire crochet or knit, PMC or polymer clay, even macramé with cord or wire.
Cabs can have all kinds of shapes, too. They come as ovals, rounds, square, rectangular, drops, but also freeform. Lapidary artists have endless fantasy!

The JAC members shared so many beauties that I had a hard time to pick for today's collage, therefore I have a bit more for you today ;-)

1/7/12 RioRita
2/9/11 Cat's Wire
3/8 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4/6/13 My Bijou Life
5/10 Silver Jewellery Girl

Oldies but Goodies - Soft

I know I have missed a few Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenges in my blog, mostly because I'm struggling with frustration about the whole Covid thing (I know I'm not alone with that), but I'm back now with this one.
The topic was "soft" which could be anything, soft material like fabric, cord, or felt, soft colors or even a soft look of the design itself.
We are happy to welcome a new member with her beautiful Sakura necklace, too. I think it works both for the soft colors and the soft look.
I hope you'll like the other designs as well.

1 Silver Jewellery Girl
2 My Bijou Life
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 Cat's Wire

Oldies but Goodies - Easter eggs and more

This week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge was about Easter ... white and colorful "eggs", pastels, flowers. I hope you'll like my little collection.
And can someone take those chocolate eggs away from me now, please? ;-)

1 and 2 Cat's Wire
3 My Bijou Life
4 RioRita
5 Jewelry Art by Dawn