Nine days

When I was in London for the first time, together with a friend and her five year old daughter, we also went to the National Gallery. We wandered around only to suddenly find the little one sitting on one of the benches staring at a huge painting. She couldn't tell us what exactly she liked about it as she certainly didn't understand what it was about, and neither can I tell you what I like about it. Fact is we came back more than once while we were at the gallery, and sat on this bench, staring in silence.

Lady Jane Grey was executed for high treason after being on England's throne for nine days.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche (1833)

This month's challenge of the Handmade in Europe guild had the subject "Famous execution, murders, murderers etc." From time to time you just have to do something different.

Lady Jane was the first one to come to my mind. My wire lace choker is inspired by her execution or should I say, the moment after her execution.

Of course that is an association you need not have. It can remind you of vampires again (sorry, the dark red crystals just do that to me) or just be a feminine piece of jewelry, that's totally up to you.

It's in my shop with more pictures now for you to decide yourself.

From Lemmi to Ignis Fatuus

Lemmi (whose full name was Herr Balduin Percy Hannibal Lehmann) was a bookworm living in a library. I loved him and the stories he presented in the TV series "Lemmi und die Schmöker", translated "Lemmi and the old books". Characters came out of their books to tell part of their story, this was supposed to make children read the whole book. For me it worked although I probably didn't need the encouragement, but I know it worked for others, too. And maybe it would still work today, but Lemmi and his human companions only did their jobs from 1973 to 1983. What a pity.


Now I'm a librarian, at a very different one from the one Lemmi lived in. To be honest, most of our books don't do much for me as it's the technical branch and my technical side - let's say, it's a little under-developed ;-)
And still I love the feel of books even if I don't want to read them. To hold a book, to smell it, to feel the paper - maybe if I were not as technically challenged, I would have tried bookbinding myself. Ok, I did it twice during my training, but I decided to leave it to people who know what they are doing.

One of them is my HIE guild mom Liesan from Ignis Fatuus.
I have to admit it, I'm addicted to her books and so I wanted to show you my treasures. Where they come from there are more, you really should have a look before I can get back there! ;-)

Velvet. I can't help myself, velvet is so, so beautiful!
This was the book I started with. It's looked away safely from cat hair, though.


Seeing this book you know why the other one is locked away at the moment. This velvet-like book is always on my desk and often enough under my cats' butts. It holds my secret ideas ....


Do you remember the Polymer Clay Smoosher Masquerade Ball? This was a fan entry made by Liesan. Isn't it gorgeous? I had to have it!


My latest love are these miniature books, though. Black and blue and so cute!


Then it came to me that they were the perfect gift for librarians ... I'm lucky, the people these little beauties are meant for don't read my blog. When I opened the parcel however my first thought was to keep them *sigh*


And this is not all you can find at Ignis Fatuus! Have a look yourself.

It's the cat's meow

Believe me, these cats are the cat's meow. Click the picture for more and have fun!

Its the cats meow

Curated By: CatsWire

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Not going as planned

I'm still on vacation and the plan was to be productive, have fun, make little trips into the area, sleep in.
The plan was NOT to catch a cold and lie in bed for a few days, coughing and sneezing, complaining and moaning about a headache. At least I boosted sales for the tissue industry, I wonder if they'll give me a medal.


The sad fact is that I'm behind now on everything I had planned. I do feel better, even if I'm not my sunny old self yet, and I've got things to do!

Have you already heard that ArtFire has a new tool, the Collections?
I made my first one now, have a look!

Comfort

Curated By: CatsWire

ArtFire.com

Handmade Jewelry

Now isn't that really cool?

Where's Flappy Flambé?

You know I'm member of the ArtFire Guild "Handmade in Europe" together with some very talented artisans.
You know that our logo is the phoenix (if you looked at the right column on this blog).
What you don't know is that we had job interviews for logo models. It was a tough choice.

Flappy Flambé didn't get chosen because he is a little wild, so he stormed off to take over our studios. Scary stuff regarding the fact that he is a fiery little dude.
Where is he? Help us find him!


You'll find all the information you need to join our posse right here.
Did I mention there is an award, not to say a bunch of awards?? :-D