nepal

Trekking in Nepal and a big piece of cake!

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The post I was just trying to write has been saved as a draft, I am tired and need to go home, but don’t want to skip Day 4 of The Ultimate Challenge… so I here is a short post about cake, or more specifically the cake in this photo;

Kalar Pattar Summit Cake

In 2006 I went trekking in Nepal for the second time, in this trek we headed to the Khumbu region with an aim of getting ourselves up Kala Pattar (5,500m), although I had a job that kept me relatively active at that time I did not undertake any trek training and wondered whether or not the summit was an attainable goal.

It was a magical trip, made all the more enjoyable by this man, a good friend, Sherpa and trekking guide, Chuldim Dorjee Sherpa –

There were 5 of us in our trekking party, and we had chosen a camping trek, it was freezing at night when we reached higher altitudes, our water bottles froze alongside of us in our sleeping bags!  It was a fantastic and memorable trek, we summited Kala Pattar, we had stunning views of Mt Everest, we ate a lot of dahl and rice, and then… on the evening after we had summited the cake above appeared after our dinner.  Cooked by our delightful trekking support crew on the camp fire, fabulous!

I would like to add a link here to http://www.portersprogress.org/PPUK/Home.html if you are intending to go trekking in Nepal (or any other country) PLEASE make sure that your porters and guides are well looked after.  If you are trekking with a company find out how much they are paying their porters BEFORE you sign up and please make sure your porters have decent footwear and enough warm clothes when you are at altitude.

 

Who is sewing your sequins?

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At Seba Dizajn we know who sewed on our sequins and knitted our hats, we are proud to be supporting Fair Trade producers in Nepal.  We have had quite a lot of customers commenting on our scarves and bags not being made in Croatia. It is hard to keep everyone happy! We are yet to find Croatian made textiles to stock in our shop, but we only opened our store in June and our search for fabulous Croatian made products continues.

My previous job was based in the highlands of Scotland where I managed a small Fair Trade company that sourced, and continues to source, all of its products in Nepal.  Doka and I had talked about stocking only Croatian made goods alongside of the stunning filigree jewellery that he is producing in the store, it was a joint decision to support Nepal and Fair Trade and stock products from Nepal.

Nanu, Pemela & Mango Shobu, Kathmandu November 2009

We stand by our decision and hope that in time there will be growth in awareness of Fair Trade here in Croatia.  I have seen Fair Trade candles in the Kozmo store here but no other ‘Fair Trade’ recognised products – yet…

 

What is your favourite Fair Trade product?

Learning some basic Jewellery techniques

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Today at Seba Dizajn I learnt some basic jewellery making techniques and it was so much fun.  No longer just the jewellers wife….

There a piece of jewellery that is currently being created in our store with a story that keeps growing; from selecting the pieces of turquoise that are being used when we were in Nepal in November to todays chain making. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I offered to make the chain for this piece as I could tell that Doka (Adolf) was really not very interested in the chain making.  Doka cut the rings and oval links for the chain and I learnt how to close them together and then use borax and the heat from the flames to solder them permanently together. 

It was a fantastic experience for me to have this very small insight into the precision that is required to create the very delicate filigree work .  I had so little control over the flame & accidentally soldered several pieces together and this was working on a relatively ‘chunky’ chain. 

 

The chain is finished and polished now and looks fantastic. The necklace it will be used in is almost complete and looks stunning, I am really looking forward to sharing the finished work with you tomorrow.

Remember if you would like to keep updated on our jewellery making here in Croatia and other events here at Seba Dizajn you can subscribe to the Seba Silver blog on the top right of this page.   Hvala! (Thank you)

Hello world!

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3, 2, 1 – LAUNCH

Brand new blogger reporting in, brand new business to promote and lots of dreams and goals to share.

Our business SEBA Dizajn is located on the island of Korcula, in the south of Croatia.  We are excited to be sharing traditional filigree jewellery skills with customers here and everywhere.   At the same time we are happy to be showcasing the work of other Croatian Artisans and supporting commmunity development in NEPAL through our small Fair Trade range of products.

I have recently joined Nikki Pilkington’s 30 Day Blog Challenge and hope to that blogging skills will improve with her help.  I look forward to sharing our journey with you and would love to hear any feedback on our story.