Kroatië-Turkije 1-1

Terwijl (vrijwel) iedereen de match Turkije-Kroatië volgde, nam een lieve blogvriendin mij mee naar een prachtige tentoonstelling in hte MIAT:

Quilt Art:
18 professionele textielkunstenaars, afkomstig uit diverse landen (o.a. Hongarije, Engeland, Ierland, België, Nederland, Duitsland, Denemarken en de VS) presenteren hun werk. Deze groep is in het midden van de jaren tachtig opgericht en neemt vandaag een vooraanstaande plaats in op de hedendaagse textielscène.

Ik toon op mijn blogje enkele foto's van de werken die me het meest aanspraken, maar ik ben er zeker van, dat, als ik terugga,(en dat doe ik zeker nog eens) andere werken me zullen opvallen!
Of je aangetrokken wordt door felle kleuren of zachte aardtinten hangt veel af van je gevoel op dat moment, zo kan je de ene keer juist meer door de kleur aangesproken worden en de andere keer heb je meer oog voor vormen en textuur. De boodschap is dus: neem een abonnement op een tentoonstelling!

While everyone was watching soccer on friday-eve

a lovely blogfriend took me to a gorgeous exposition in the MIAT museum in Ghent:
QUILT ART is a group of 20 professional quilt artists from Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and America.
The group holds regular touring exhibitions in Britain and Europe and has also exhibited in Japan, Canada and the United States.

I show here the quilt artworks I loved the most, but I am sure if I go back I will choose other ones, sometimes it depends on your mood of the moment if you're attracted to lively, vibrant colors or pale earthy shades, sometimes you're attracted to form and texture and other times the colors catch your eye!

Jette clover, red and blue color field
Her work is constructed like collage, and it is as much about touch as about vision.
She combines cotton, linen, silk, cheesecloth and paper, and applies a variety of surface design techniques including dyeing, painting, discharge, printing, screening, rusting and stitching.

Inge Huber
singing in the sun
squares and stripes

Ann Fahy
Clonrush (detail)

Brooches on the beach

hehe, deze week kreeg mijn shopje een vermelding op een aantal andere blogs:
eentje ervan is 'modish', een illustere onbekende blog voor mij , maar blijkbaar geen onbekende in het wereldje van de 'handmade goods' ;-))

Mijn 'mermaid brooch' komt volledig tot zijn recht in het bijzijn van andere beach-accessoires, laat de zomer nu maar komen!! (zou mijn broche staan op een bikini?) bij deze lanceer ik een nieuwe trend: brooches on the beach!!!

Een tweede vermelding op een blogje van een fan uit California : erikajurney, de foto van mijn pink summer eve earrings doet haar denken aan de bezoekjes aan de japanse tuinen in California, leuk compliment!

Erika heeft zo haar redenen om handgemaakte juwelen (en andere handgemaakte stuff) aan te prijzen: I find it wonderful and awe-inspiring that there really are people out there making so many things which we can choose instead of mass-produced dreck.
Leuk toch: bij deze een link naar etsy: where you can buy and sell handmade things, in deze tijden van een lage dollarkoers is shoppen op Etsy echt niet duur!

Hehe, a creation of mine has been featured insome blogs this week!

First af all: modish, i did not know this blog, but it is famous in the world of handmade goods!

my mermaid brooch finds itself accompanied by gorgeous beach accessories:Summer here we are! (would my brooch look nice on a bikini????) hereby I launch a new hype:brooches on the beach!!!!

The second feature was in the blog of erikajurney : the picture of my pink summer eve earrings reminds her of the visits at the japanese gardens in California.

Erika has her own reasons to support handmade creations:

I find it wonderful and awe-inspiring that there really are people out there making so many things which we can choose instead of mass-produced dreck.

so here is the link to etsy where you can sell and buy handmade things: go for it!

strawberry fields

Last Sunday we went to the Bekwame Boon.

This is an ecological farm in which teenagers (that need care or to be reintegrated) are learning how to manage a farm. They are specialised in strawberries and raising rabbits.

Every year we go there, it's such a nice place, we are having our romer and strawberries while the kids are running around to see the rabbits or make a horse ride. As a yearly tradition, Pierke Pierlala makes the children enjoy his funny puppetry-performance.

The weather was fantastic and of course we got home much too late. On Monday morning, we slept over !

The day after I made some creations with the strawberries still on my mind!

Yesterday we brought a visit to Veerles garden-exposition. Veerle is a textile-jewelry artist. She showed a lot of gorgeous necklaces, brooches, rings, an scarves in a cosy family-garden, where my kids immediately found a place to rest.

The kids allowed us to visit another art-garden where we could enjoy beautifull Flamenco-dance. In the last picture you can see Veerle's flamenco-ring.

This is how I got to know Veerle: searching for 'flamenco' on google brought me on her blogspot and website! This ring is on my wishlist!

And here all the earrings (in boxes) that have been shipped last week,

It seems people are shopping in the weekend, Friday and Saterday-night, I sold 6 pair of earrings and a brooch, so a lot of packaging to do!

My jewelry boxes are also handmade:

you just need some serviettes and a special kind of glue, Crea Coat, a sealer on Waterbase.

First apply the glue with a brush on the surface of the box, then position the paper and finish with applying again some glue.

beading - kralen rijgen

Some of my latest creations:
I found some gorgeous beads in Zahia (turquoise and chinese writing stone)
I combined with tiger ebony wooden beads and czech and japanese glass beads.
The hooks are handmade and hammered by myself.

Beading: it looks so easy, but it is not.
I spend hours with my 3th daughter to learn to bead,. When I was a child I liked that so much and I wanted to give that joy of beading to my little daughter.
(But the fact that she has Down syndrome didn't make it easy ) We began with beads with a hole of 1 cm and a thick electricy thread. Unbelievebale how easy it is for a child without retardation.
My son, who is younger than her, took a thread and beaded it/ I thought, how is that possible, I never learned or trained him? I spend hours training her, using different threads and beads, I was glad she succeed to have 3 beads on the thread. It is stil not easy for her, but she likes doing it, she sees the result (a bracelet or a necklace), she sees me making all these things and she admires it.I think one day she will be able to make the most gorgeous creations!

My daughter Mies is on the left side, Briek, the youngest is on the right, the kid in the middel is a friend: they're having a great time beading together!

and guess what: I am 'artist of the day at Ixelas blog, An Italian girl with Belgian roots who also has a gorgeous jewelry shop at Etsy. Thanks so much Ixela!

Birds and bees

These are some of my graphic work, collages

after drawing the images I cut it out (quite a work!) and combine it with (vintage) fabric, cardstock and other findings.