Brassai's Paris

Some beautiful images of Paris to swoon over! I love the way he uses light in his photographs.

Brassaï (Gyula Halász) (9 September 1899–8 July 1984) was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the world wars.

Brassaï captured the essence of the city in his photographs, published as his first collection in 1933 book entitled Paris de nuit (Paris by Night). His book gained great success, resulting in his being called "the eye of Paris" in an essay by his friend Henry Miller. In addition to photos of the seedier side of Paris, Brassai portrayed scenes from the life of the city's high society, its intellectuals, its ballet, and the grand operas.

'Prostitute at angle of Rue de la Reynie and Rue Quincampoix' 1933

 He was also friends with Picasso, Matisse and Dali.

This following photograph, captures (in a slightly more sinister, less attractive manner) something similar to the protagonist of one of my favourite novels Good Morning, Midnight. Though the protagonist of that novel has none of this photograph's hard swagger - the idea of sitting alone in a cafe in finery drinking pernod, certainly does.

Bijou au Bar de la Lune, Montmartre, c. 1932, Brassaï

I would also direct you to this Brassai nude which is incredibly beautiful and soft. 

Hummingbirds (another Cuban post)

When I was in Cuba I saw two hummingbirds - one bright green/blue in flashes in front of a flower and one tiny black one sat in a tree. I've always loved hummingbirds, but since seeing them I love them even more!

For Christmas I was given some Cuban stamps with humming birds on and recently found a frame large enough to make them into a necklace:

I have one more of these frames... wonder what I'll do with it...
I also brought back a stamp myself, somewhat accidentally through buying too many at the postoffice for postcards home! it's much littler than the other stamps and I'm still hoping to find the right frame for it.




More hummingbird things, the ring I ordered before Christmas has finally arrived! Hooray!

And finally here is my very own little wooden hummingbird crafted in the mountains of Cuba, only found in that one little craft market. It hangs from my kitchen cabinet. The photo's don't really capture it properly. In fact there's a nice story that goes with it. We passed through  the craft market and thought the hummingbirds were beautiful, but as you know, you tend to get the same items as many markets and as we had to rush, we didn't stop. We then found out that you could only get them at that one particular market. We left our guide some money and asked her if she could get one and ask the next British family she took round to post them back in the UK (Cuban post is notoriously bad!). The hummingbirds are made to disassemble and have tiny pins to fit back together. Lo and behold, some months later a little package arrived!

Festival in Taunton

Yesterday I had a stall at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton during their Outset Festival along with my artist collaborator Lisa Rose Stead. The organiser was lovely and very helpful and all the passers by were incredibly friendly. I took a few quick photos on my phone.





The pendants on a quickly made stand, which was really useful!

 Lisa's cards (soon to be available on Roses and  Hello's Etsy)

Cards of the illustrations featured in the jewellery

And you can just about see one of the new bangles with the silver rocking horse charm on it.








Charm jewellery, currently available on Etsy






And new earrings, soon to be loaded!



I also had a wire wrapped slate pendant on the stall, which was made from slate I picked in on a tiny place in Wales called Corris. As it turned out the lady who bought the pendant knew Corris well! Just a nice reminder that sometimes it really is a small world.

Sea Glass from Dawlish

I went on a little jaunt to Dawlish beach on the south-west coast of England at the weekend and had a lovely day eating cream teas and walking along a VERY windy beach. Along the way I picked up some little pieces of sea glass to see if I could make something from them. You can buy manufactured 'sea glass' which has been artificially tumbled, but to me that completely destroys the concept of it being tossed around on the sea bed and slowly reaching that misty prettiness. Obviously natural sea glass isn't uniform, so it's more difficult to work with. But it's worth it. I found some tiny little pieces which I have made into studs:

Most of the glass pieces were tiny (I've photographed a pile of the biggest pieces), I have one other pair made and I'm hoping to make two more if possible.

A Cuban Tale

Hello. I just thought I'd share a little jewellery story with you. I posted off today 4 Cuban rings (the last of that size coin!) to a  girl called Elisa and she very kindly said I could pass on her story.

Turns out she had a particular wish for buying one of the rings (other than it being pretty!) because her grandparents are Cuban. She requested, and I made, 3 more rings: one for her mother, and one each for her two aunts in memory of her grandmother who recently passed away. She says she hopes to visit Cuba one day.

I polished each coin and set them on ring blanks using a hardening resin. Once dry I re-polished to remove any excess resin and made sure each piece was perfect.  I put them in their little organza bags and sent them off to America!

Previously I made one for a lady whose mother was Cuban and she said her mother would be so pleased to receive it as she hadn't been able to bring much with her to her new home.

I really love hearing about the new home my jewellery goes to.

And lastly I thought I'd just share with you soem pictures of a ring I bought from a market in Cuba. The ring is made from the handle of a spoon. I really like how it's chunky but also delicate and the idea of making something useful into an ornament - which sort of inspired me for the coin rings!

Also, this weekend Roses and Hello is going to its first festival. Wish us luck!