Showing posts with label favorite artists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favorite artists. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Inspired by the Aegean: IOANNA'S VERY CHIC


The blue Aegean, with its magical sun-kissed islands, is an endless source of inspiration to many artists... And I love seeing my beloved Aegean Sea and the Islands through their eyes and their inspiration. Today I have the pleasure to make you meet one of them... Ioanna lives on the beautiful island of Skyros, in the Sporades. Ioanna's joyful and colorful ceramic work is deeply inspired by the colors and light of the Aegean Sea and Islands. When asked about her inspiration, she replies: "My inspiration? Nothing else but the sun, the blue of the Aegean, the flowers of my garden and the white, almost minimal, houses of Greek islands!"
Ioanna is a graduate from the School of Fine Arts of Athens, and she runs her own ceramic workshop. She says: "Creation for me is freedom and with my colors I express the beauty of life!" Love-Light-Joy are this lovely artist's motto! And you can really see her passion and love for life and color in her gorgeous ceramic and terracotta work. Ioanna tells us that "Since the day I was born, I knew I was going to deal with colors and shapes! My character's feature? Being so optimistic. And this can be seen in my work. I love to create little masterpieces, each one as unique as the person who will choose it. It's my life's philosophy to use beautiful colours, bringing out all the harmony that my soul can hide. Each piece has a story to tell. Every step I take, I do it with passion and love for my creations. From the moment I will touch the clay to the final moment I will take them out of the kiln and feel the joy of seeing something 'alive' in my hands!"
Ioanna's artist statement is: "Light, joy, love and passion are what I create and what I mostly want to give to you through my work". You can find her wonderful Aegean inspired ceramic and terracotta functional pottery, home decor and jewelry, as well as a selection of earrings from gemstones, ceramic beads and sterling silver, in her Etsy shop IoannasVeryChic. Or, in Ioanna's own words, "Chic creations blessed by the Aegean sea and sun!".












Waiting for the glazing




Monday, June 17, 2013

Experimental Jewelry: SOFIATRINKER

I love experimental and unconventional jewelry! In this series I'm featuring jewelry artists who work with unconventional materials and techniques, and who see a ring or a pendant as a canvas to express their art and creativity.
As I wrote in my About page, I love the idea that virtually anything can be turned into jewelry! Give me a stone, a piece of driftwood or a bottle cap and I'll turn it into a ring! I love the challenge! I always think that if I were "stranded" on a tiny island or on the peak of a mountain, with no supplies shops around and the closest to a supply store being the village hardware store, I'd just start using stones, corks, finds from nature, you name it! I know nothing will ever stop me from creating, it's a lovely feeling! So it was only natural that when I came across Sofia's work on Etsy, I was fascinated not only by her gorgeous colors (you KNOW I'm addicted to COLOR, don't you? ;)), but also by the amazing way she recycles and upcycles the most unusual materials. Sofia turns... well... "garbage" into stunning pieces of jewelry!!!
This is how Sofia introduces herself: "I am basically an ecologic artist from Mexico. I live with loves, a playful dog and a really cute cat. I enjoy reusing materials. As for new projects, I often create them in my mind and try to improve my technique with each item. Ideas sometimes come from looking at other people's trash - my mother for example owns 2 dogs and a cat, and disposes a lot of pet-related garbage. I sit down trying to figure out what I might do to help the planet and myself!!!". Would you ever tell that her gorgeous rings and earrings are made using orange peel??? Yes, real orange peels! Eco-friendly jewelry at its best! Her other materials include soda cans, wood and real flowers, but since she is always experimenting with new recycled materials, we can never know what she might surprise us with! Bravo Sofia for helping the environment while making art!
You can find Sofia's unique handmade jewelry in her Etsy shop Sofiatrinker.












Thursday, June 6, 2013

Inspired by the Aegean: ATELIER LIVING DREAMS


The Greek blue sea, with its magical sun-kissed islands, is an endless source of inspiration to many artists... And I love seeing my beloved Aegean Sea and the Islands through their eyes and their inspiration.
Today I have the pleasure to make you meet one of them... Sabine lives on the beautiful island of Crete. Her work and inspiration could well fall into two other categories and belong into my other two columns, 'Experimental Jewelry' and 'She Traveled...'... Born and raised in Germany, Sabine has found her true home and endless source of inspiration in the wonderful island of Crete. She considers the island of Crete as "the home of my soul", and this "place full of history, amazing landscapes, passionate people, light, color, smells of wild herbs and this certain incredible wind, which is whispering ancient tales within the leaves of weather-twisted olive trees" is the endless source of inspiration for her art. Her shop Atelier Living Dreams is a tribute to all the things she loves, and to her dream come true. Make sure you also visit Sabine's beautiful website.


Sabine says "My world is creativity, colors, shapes, balance and harmony. After kind of an odyssea finding where you really belong, after years of study and travel, I am living my dream, and also my aim and purpose, doing art and design at my atelier, here on my beloved island, my place of home.


As one will surely see and feel, my works are inspired by this certain spirit of life, at the same time simple but although quite oriental, underlined by the bright colors of the sky with its amazing light, the deep blue shades of the ocean, and the rough and bizarre impressions of the Cretan landscape. My jewelry, artwork and fashion designs are a multicultural symbiosis, a statement and an ode to the beauty of culture, variety and difference".




Sabine is often inspired by the ancient symbol of the "Evil Eye" (or Lucky Eye), common to many oriental and Middle-Eastern cultures, as well as to the Greek culture. To the traditional protective symbol of the evil eye talisman, Sabine adds her own very personal interpretation: "I add the fact that when I was little, I refused painting the sun just as a yellow corner or ball, and against all odds, I used to paint it as a bundle of multicolor rays. During the years I learned about various cultures, folklore and the sacred geometry. All these facts together lead me to the creation of the 'Eye of Panthea'."


Her 'Oro di Mare' collection, created with natural elements she gathers from the sea, and mainly beautiful sea-shaped driftwood, "expresses the feeling that the rough and nature-shaped surface and the preciousness of gold and silver go very well together, as at a certain point they meet at the same origin. Nature and life are precious through themselves. Sometimes rough but shaping and refining, and then shining as silver or gold. Each piece of jewely is shaped by its travels through the nature, leaf-gilded or –silvered, and decorated with noble materials to line out its uniquity. Wearing nature's refinement and preciousness, is the philosophy in each unique piece of my 'Oro di Mare' artwork jewelry".







- Sabine's booth at a craft exhibition on Crete -


Thursday, May 23, 2013

FASHION AND ANNUK CREATIONS: A GORGEOUS BLOG FEATURE!


My dear friends, today I want to share with you my joy for a wonderful, amazing feature on a lovely blog by a dear friend of mine, fellow jewelry designer Dori from Hunkii Dorii. You may remember her from my Experimental Jewelry feature. Well, this lovely lady not only is a super talented jewelry artist, she has an amazing eye for color and for fashion! Look at this and you'll know why I'm... swooning! :) I feel like I've had my pieces worn by gorgeous models at a fashion show... Oh... dreaming... :)

The feature is SO beautiful that I HAD to copy it here, but please remember that the original post is by Dori, and it would be so nice if you could visit her original post and leave a comment there too! THANK YOU DORI, you made my day! :)



Annuk Creations

Welcome to my new experimental series: Fashion Feature, in which I introduce artists and crafters and their works through fashion.

My fourth guest is Anna from AnnukCreations, who is a mixed media jewelry designer and who creates Mediterranean wearable art in her home in the Alps. She is greatly inspired by her travels, especially to Greece and the Aegean sea, the gold, blue and white colors of the which dominate in her designs. Looking at her creations you will undoubtedly smell the summer, the sea and the sun, feel the warmth of the white rocks on the beach and the sand between your toes. Anna's most beloved materials are wood, metal, wire, clay, glass and paint.

Click on the images of rings to visit Anna's creations.

For an AnnukCreations-sundae...

...first take a lot of sun:





Then add a pinch of sea:




And finally, decorate with those famous white houses:





To take a respite from all that sweet summer heat and intensity, here's a little breezy shabby chic romantic collection on the side:





I hope you enjoyed our little sojourn to the Mediterranean. You can also see what Anna's up to on her blog or by visiting her website.

Credits:
dresses: rainbow dress, blue high-low hem dress, gold-blue dress, long embroidered peasant dress, short embroidered peasant dress, baggy modeled peasant dress
images: "Mykonos" painting by Lesuisse Viviane, Santorini photo

copyright©HunkiiDorii

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Experimental Jewelry : MARIAELA

I love experimental and unconventional jewelry! In this series I'm featuring jewelry artists who work with unconventional materials and techniques, and who see a ring or a pendant as a canvas to express their art and creativity.

As soon as I ran across Ela's colorful and unique work on Etsy, I fell in love! It was love at first sight! Can you tell why? Well, it's easy! I love colorful and unique jewelry which stands out from the crowd, I love unique rings (and Ela makes amazing ones!), and I love photographing my work in natural settings and bright sunshine (and Ela does that so beautifully!). Ela is a jewelry artist from Poland, and all of her work is lovingly created by her from scratch, including the ring settings. She has an astonishing ability in working with ceramic, fused glass and copper -- and I have a deep admiration for that. She also incorporates semi-precious stones and minerals in her work (such as jade, amethyst, lava, agate and more), setting them in her handmade metal settings. 
Ela is a very successful jewelry designer on Etsy, where she sells her wonderful work in her shop Mariaela. Please look for yourself, it's really worth it!



















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