A 6 month photographic challenge

6ish months ago when we were catching up with some friends in Twizel, New Zealand conversation drifted to how irregularly we take photos and a challenge was set; ‘Let’s take a photo a day for the next 6 months’.  That’s a lot of photos!

I started off with such good intentions, this is the photo that I took that February day;

It has been an interesting and fun challenge, making me look at my days a little differently.  Of course I have missed a lot of days, or taken a lot of photos on some of the days, and it is really nice to have some photos to look back on.  Time goes so fast, it is nice to stop and capture a wee moment of it, I have added 1 photo from each of the months below. Hope you enjoy them,

Berlin Street Art - March 2011
Two birds on a Boat, Korcula - April 2011
Korcula in Bloom - May 2011

 The majority of the photos that I took in June, July & August were ‘work’ photos, the challenge with these has been learning how to catch our jewellery in the right light and setting.  I discovered the neighbours window makes a good prop for taking photos of earrrings.

Earrings - June 2011
Fergus the Rescue Moggy - July 2011

 

Action at Seba Dizajn - August 2011
A Korcula evening - September 2011

 

Dubrovnik - October 2011

What do you like taking photos of and when was the last time you used your camera?

 

 

 

Creating a pair of Birthday Earrings

Last week we received an email asking for a pair of earrings from our facebook page for a 40th birthday present…… The original pair were purchased as a birthday present by a customer here in our Korcula store, Seba DizajnWith pleasure we set to making a new pair, here are some of the photos we took to illustrate the making of the birthday earrings.

We started by creating six small flowers
Here you can see the stems being connected to the flowers
Working on the filigree detail for the leaves that will appear at the top of the earrings
Soldering the pieces together
Work on shaping the coral used as floral centrepiece
Flower detail on the finished earrings
The finished Earrings - Happy Birthday Amanda!

We are happy to offer a photographic journey of your jewellery being made when you place a bespoke order with us, please email us at sebacroatia@yahoo.com if you would like to enquire about a bespoke piece for yourself or as an extra special gift.

You can read one of our customer reviews about our bespoke service here.

We look forward to hearing from you, regards, Ruth & Doka.

An introduction to Adriatic Jewellery history

The content of this post comes courtesy of the Ethnographic Museum in Split; a second post on jewellery on the Dalmatian Hinterland will follow next week.

The area this post relates to is the coastal southern part of Croatia, which offers a Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean cultural influences.  The area being refers to stretches from Istria to the southern borders of Dubrovnik.

The colourful political history of this area, and its’ variety of cultural influences can be seen reflected in the jewellery of the region.  The closest and most direct influences coming
via the sea from Venice and a Venetian style can also be seen in architectural influences
in the region.

The people of this region tended to wear less jewellery than people from other regions but that was worn was made from expensive materials and was made with skills and artistic components unlike that of other areas.

Beside the use of, often gilt, bronze and silver the most common jewellery was made from gold. Golden artefacts made using a filigree or granulation technique were often decorated with coral or pearls. While artefacts made using casting method were decorated with inserted pearls, precious and semi-precious gemstones.

Photo taken at Museum in Split - no history of ring

There appears to be no jewellery that is directly related to traditional dress, and any trace of home manufactured jewellery is very rare.  An Adriatic traditional jewellery inventory consists of independent pieces made in the workshops in the urban centres of Rijeka, Zadar, Sibenik, Trogir, Split and Dubrovnik.  The jewellers or goldsmiths initials are found on the backside of any such pieces of jewellery.  The initials show a responsibility for the quality in the manufacturers work and enable pieces to be traced to the area and workshop they would have been made in.

Whilst I am sure there is more to this story this is all I have found to date, I would love to hear from you if you know more about the jewellery of this region or can direct me to additional research.

When the Craft calls you

Today I am delighted to introduce Rev. Jamie L. Saloff as a guest blogger on our site.  Jamie is an author, speaker, intuitive, from Edinboro, PA, USA.  I hope you enjoy her post, remember you can leave your comments and feedback in the box below.

Since I was little I loved sequins, beads,  crystals, and sparkly things. Luckily, my mother often had a lot of those kinds  of things around. She not only made all her own clothes (and most of mine), but  she had a home-based business of creating felt Christmas tree ornament dolls that included buyers such as Marshall Fields in Chicago and Frederick Nelson in Seattle. (See http://www.iaulandas.com) From the age of three I was “helping” by glueing mouse ears and other small parts.

I grew up, my mother retired.  Although I played around with craft, writing was more my calling. Nevertheless, I never lost my desire for “sparkly” things and continued collecting special beads, gemstones, and crystals, which I would wear or give away.

I decided to go back to school.  Not for writing this time, but for healing. I learned a lot in the two-year program. There was an unexpected side effect. It started with the teachings of Sig Longren, who taught about sacred space, which he created with a small bag he carried always, containing symbols of the four directions (wind, earth, fire, water).

I thought about this little bundle and wanted to create something like that, but thinking of my already stuffed purse, I decided to create it in the form of some jewelry that could be worn instead of carried.

The result was a gemstone donut with a flurry of fiber and dangles representing–now six–directions (heaven above, the earth’s molten core, fire, water, air, earth). I hung Tibetan tekkite as a center piece, a stone said to be meteorite fallen into Tibet. (One never knows when creating the piece if that is really true.) Entwined among the ribbon and fluffy threads are balls of lava (core of the earth), gemstones, and charms of fish and birds, bells and feathers, inspiring words, and other trinkets.

The amazing thing about these sacred space necklaces is that I have never sold them and never make them just for fun. Instead, a kind of inner knowing will come over me, compelling me, even nagging me, “create a piece for so-and-so,” and so I do. I usually end up making three or four a year.

 

I feel that when I honor this calling I am honoring the creative muse in my heart, in turn, honoring my mother who instilled that in me, and my father, who also worked with his hands. It honors the person who receives the special gift, and honors spirit with its bits of Mother Earth and Father Sky.

In addition, when I work in this mode, I find my life sparkles in other ways. The creative muses open my mind to finding previously unseen solutions for life problems and situations. I love how my mind becomes quiet and focused on the task at hand, how time seems to stand still,
and how from nothing but bits of earth and sky, water and fire, a gift of love emerges.

We hope you have enjoyed this piece you can find more from Rev. Jamie L. Saloff on www.iAMaSwan.com and www.PolaDotBanner.com

Remember we would both love to hear your feedback, leave your comments below.

 

The Ultimate Challenge – Day 1

I feel a little deceptive with the title, like maybe I should be off to summit Everest without oxygen or porters – not this week! I have instead signed up for a new blog challenge, I enjoyed participating in the last one (via Nikki Pilkington) so much that I thought I should try another… why not?

The Ultimate Challenge requires that I write something for our blog EVERY day this month, I haven’t seen our introductory email yet and as we are about to close the shop for the day I thought I would make a start anyway.

Interestingly I have noticed that my most popular posts to date have generally not been related to our filigree jewellery business. I hope that will change when I start to capture some of the family history of filigree making – approximately 500 years to capture, can’t wait to start on that.  My father in law will hopefully be back here in Korcula with us in December and I hope to make a start on the historical stuff then.

To date my most popular post has been ‘My Mum’s’ – maybe I sound like I am from some dysfunctional up bringing and jumped round a lot of homes/Mums… Hopefully no-one was too disappointed to find am just a regular girl with a fantastic Mum in New Zealand and now a newish mother-in-law here in Croatia.

Please let me know what YOU would like me to blog about, I would love to hear from you.  30 new topics? Re-visit some old favourites? There are so many options and I look forward to sharing my progress in this new Challenge with you.

On summit of Kalar Pattar (5,500m) November 2009