My new ring!

A few weeks ago I won a beautiful ring from jewelry designer Yifat Bareket from Israel. I was really surprised about it, because I had forgotten that the ring you could win by subscribing to her newsletter. I received a letter from the post office that it had arrived at customs, and last friday I was able to collect.

And I´m soooo happy with my new ring! I think it´s gorgeous! It fits well with my wedding ring (last picture below). I have to say that I fell in love with her jewelry the minute I saw it. Her jewelry is like I have never seen before, it's influenced by India, fairytales, and old Europe. I like it because it's elegant, colorful and creative.

Please take a look at her website; http://www.yifat-bareket.com/store/home/ to see more of her work.

To thank her for the beautiful gift I have decided to send some of my own lampwork goodies. I hope she likes it! I'll post a picture later, but for now it's a little secret and I would not spoil the surprise.... :))


Een paar weken geleden heb ik een prachtige ring gewonnen van sieradenontwerpster Yifat Bareket uit Israel. Ik was hier erg verrast over omdat ik was vergeten dat ik een ring kon winnen door mij in te schrijven voor haar nieuwsbrief. Ik kreeg een brief van het postkantoor dat het was gearriveerd bij de douane en afgelopen vrijdag kon ik het ophalen.

En ik ben zoooo blij met mijn nieuwe ring! Ik vind hem echt prachtig! Hij past goed bij mijn trouwring (zie laatste foto). Ik moet zeggen dat ik verliefd werd op haar sieraden op het eerste moment dat ik ze zag. Zulke sieraden had ik nog nooit gezien. Ze is beinvloed door India, sprookjes, en het oude Europa. Ik vind haar werk mooi omdat het elegant, kleurrijk en creatief is.

Neem een kijkje op haar site; http://www.yifat-bareket.com/store/home/ om meer van haar sieraden te zien.

Om haar te bedanken voor het prachtige cadeau dat ik gekregen heb, heb ik besloten om haar ook wat van mijn werk toe te sturen. Ik hoop dat ze het mooi vindt! Een foto zal ik later plaatsen, maar voor nu hou ik het geheim omdat het nog even een verrassing moet blijven.... :))

The little stone (a garnet) dangles on the ring, it's nice to play with!
Het kleine steentje (een granaat) bungelt aan de ring, wat leuk is om mee te spelen!

New Bead Sets

Here are some new sets and a necklace in my Etsy shop!

Wire Wrap Bracelet

Dit is de armband waar ik het over had. De kralen die eruit zien als kleine stenen (degene met het draad erom heen) zijn gemaakt met glas dat Gunmetal heet. Dit glas heeft een industriele look. Ik hou van het contrast tussen de felle kleuren en de grijze kralen. Ik heb nog niet besloten of ik deze armband voor mezelf ga houden, of dat ik het in mijn Etsy shop zal plaatsen....

This is the bracelet I have been talking about. The beads that look like little rocks (the ones with wire around it) are made with the glass called Gunmetal. This glass has an industrial look, in my opinion. I love the contrast between the bright colors and the grey ones. I haven´t decided yet, if I will keep this one for myself or place it in my Etsy shop.....

Winter wonderland

De afgelopen dagen is er veel sneeuw gevallen. Dat levert mooie plaatjes op!
The last few days there is much snow. This gives nice pictures!

Foto van de achterkant van ons huis.

Picture of the backside of our home.

Luka is dol op sneeuw.

Luka loves the snow.

Mijn atelier.
My studio.

Je kunt aan het raam zien, hoe koud het er was......totaal bevroren

You can see at the window, how cold it was.....totally frozen

Officieel is de sale op mijn etsy shop beeindigd. Maar ik heb besloten om de korting voorlopig aan te houden. Dat is goed nieuws voor jullie!

De blauw-gele set waarover ik eerder vertelde, is bijna klaar. Ik ben niet tevreden hoe 2 kralen uit de set geworden zijn, dus ik ga nog even aan de slag om 2 nieuwe te maken. Ook heb ik een armband gemaakt, die ik nog op de foto wil zetten. Volgende week meer hierover!

Officially the sale on my etsy shop ended. But I've decided to keep the discount on my beads for the time being. That's good news for you!

The blue and yellow set which I mentioned before, is almost finished. I am not satisfied with how 2 beads have become, so I have some work to make 2 new ones. I also made ​​a bracelet, I still have to take an few pictures of them. More on this next week!

Inspiration

There are an few things I really cannot live without, beside the basics which every human body on earth needs. Those are my beloved ones, animals, flowers, lots of candles and colors! They make me happy, make my eyes shine, and my heart sing. I always had an strong fascination for colors. I love colors in all shades, except the pastel tones. They just don't speak to me, like other colors do. Purple and green are by far my 2 most favorite colors. I love to wear clothing in these colors. On some days I'm dressed totally black, but most of the times I combine this with an bright lipstick red color in my accessories, jewelry, belt, or what the heck maybe even red shoes (wish I had them!). But it can be purple also. I'm an person who love strong colors. I dyed my hair with red henna, because my natural hair was an dull brown color. And I started lampworking because I was so excited of all the beautiful colors that are available in glass rods. I just knew from the start that lampworking and glass beads will be with me for an long time. It's like painting with colors, but only on a small canvas.

I choose my colors mostly intuitive, I can have an strong feeling for pink on one day, and the other day it may be grey. It's the (my) trick to combine the color of the day with other colors to make it really 'pop'. Sometimes I'm working on a bead set and then start all over with an other bead set, just because I was bored by the colors I used (but never by the patterns, lol). Some beads will never make it into an whole bead set.

But if you are an lampworker to, there are some of those days that you have an color dip and nothing comes out your hands.....and on those days you may need some extra help.
Well, I have some great links and tips for you to visit and overcome those black days!

First of all: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
This site shows the color wheel. It allows you to select a colour and then select different options to search on like complimentary colours. It is a basic colour wheel that gives you warm and cool colour and it is very helpful for anyone working with colour.

http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes
You can browse true palettes made by other people, and you will definitely find something you will like. There are more then 1,951,712 user-created color palettes to inspire your ideas.You can hit the search button and select colours by hue or keyword.

http://www.colourlovers.com/patterns
It's the same site as above, but only to find colorful patterns to inspire you and your work.

I' am an loyal follower of the blog, Kabs Creative Concepts, I love her daily journals of life and her beads. She's very creative and makes out of the box jewelry. She also has an great tip for you. Search with google for Pantone Color of the Day(http://www.pantone.com/pages/colorstrology/colorstrology.aspx), and you will see the color of that day. Let this color inspire you! For more check her site at http://kabsconcepts.blogspot.com/, and scroll to her post of january 19, 2012.

When you love colors, you may have heard of Sarah Horniks e-books; http://www.glassbysarah.com/?page_id=476. She offers all kind of e-books you can buy to get color inspired! Go check it out!

An other site which is really upcoming is Pinterest ( http://pinterest.com/) It's an online pinboard, where you can organize and share beautiful pictures from all around the world. I haven't used it for my own so far, but maybe I will give it an try soon or later. What do you think for example of this link? http://pinterest.com/tamarschechner/color/ I really love it!!!!

If you have some more tips for me to share, please let me know! I would be more than happy to place them on my blog! I hope you like the links I have shared, I hope it will bring you lots of inspiration to be creative. Enjoy!

For now I'm working on an bead set with blue, grey, yellow, and Kermit green. But more about that later!