Matariki is upon us! Arohanui!

Matariki ever since I read about it, it took a spot in my heart, being such a beautiful celebration making us remember the value of our land, encouriging us to have more appreciation for the awesomeness around us, and to be grateful for our families and friends. To me it represents a time of gatherings, sharing nice food and a time for new begginings, the restart of new cicles as well as letting go and closing cicles too, and a time for learning and reflecting. A New Year, a fresh start! And Beautiful starts in our sky!

All this made big resonance in me, probably for particular situations that affected my life this past year, so my way to embrace this Matariki wonderful aspects was to make a piece that could resemble all this and also show a powerful feminine imprint, given the asociation of the constellation with women.

I made a brooche, which is the representation of the skies (RANGINUI in Maori culture), and in that big Sky seven ladies representing each one a different aspect of what Matariki is about.

The Mother, or the eldest sister, is PAPATUANUKU (or Pachamama in our South american cultures) the Mother Earth, wife of Ranginui.
The six other ladies (sisters/daughters) represent in Maori words, things to think about and have present always, specially during Matariki times of changes.

WHENUA (land, providing us with food and shelter),
KAI (our feed, to share, to live)
WHANAU (our Family, our friends, remembering to be greateful for them and be there for them as well)
WANANGA (a time for learning, new beggining doesn't mean forgetting, it is learning from the mistakes of the past to not make them again)
MANAWA (heart, and hope, a new start is always a sign of hope, is the new beggining) and WHAKAPAPA (tradition, linage, from generation to next generation, knowledge)

It is displayed at the West Coast Gallery in Piha, and will be on exhibition until the 7th of July!
(It is sold already!!! yay!!!)

Here I will share some pictures of the process and the final piece! Hope you like it!

And like they say in the Game of Thrones...haha "Winter is coming..." which is what the constellation marks in the sky, yes,  the beginning of winter, brrrrrrrr.... so grab a cuppa, lite a fire, gather with good peeps and if you are going thru some harsh times, don't let winter bring you down...Kia Kaha my friends!
Beginning of winter means colder days, but also longer day light! Countdown for summer beggins!

the idea begins

in the process

getting there!

finished!

Mama Ring

OOooooOoooOoOoo goodness!! It's been a while......
Haven't had much time or energy to keep the blog up, but it's never been forgotten, and here I am to update with some of the latests.... and give 2013 some posts to its credits!!!

Soooooo, May was a month that not just introduced us to the colder evenings and the pleassures of nice cuppas, but was also a very special time of the year for all the gorgeous mamas out there, specially to my own mum and my beautiful mumma friends as on the 12th we celebrated Mother's Day!

My little contribution to show them apreciation, respect and be thankful for all they do, in partcular to my wonderful Mum, was this little postcard with some rings just for them!
Here it goes!

Love is in the air...

Not so long ago, Jimmy, a friend of my lovely pal Rosa- May, after seeing some of Rosie's pieces of jewellery that I made for her, asked me if I could design a little rose ring for his girlfriend, as he was planning on popping the question!!!

I sent him some pictures with designs I made in the past, for him to have a look and after agreeing in material, sizes and details I jumped on my desk trying to achieve what we both had in mind!

The result is this delicate tiny rose, sitting on a half round band, all 100% handmade in sterling Silver!

She is a film maker and he was planning to ask her at the end of her Film presentation! I would have payed to be there and see her face!! Of course she said YES!!! and I am glad to say she loved it!!

Here are some pics for you to have a peek!

 

 

 

Lisa & Olly's wedding Rings!

About six weeks before their wedding, Lisa contacted me saying something like "hey! I met my other half, we get married end of August and I was wondering if you could and wanted to make our rings? "

Of course I instantly said yes!!!! Surprised as I was, and equally honoured by them for choosing me to perform such a special task, I couldn't be happier with their news!!! It also brought back amazing memories of our own wedding and made me feel identified with their story: Impulsive, passioned, beautiful and magical, filled with love! How could someone say no to that??.... although I was a bit worried with the timming....but they were so relaxed about it, that it trasmitted me the peace necessary to get on a mission of this caliber!!! And there we went!!

They had very clear ideas that they wanted to materialized, so we exchanged a series of emails where I sketched a few designs, we talked about materialization possibilities, dimensions, designs, etc, they really liked a few ideas of how to make it and then they came back to me saying...we like this here, and that there, and this about this other one, what about... is it possible to put it all together??!! and they sent their sketch as well, and a few emails later, we came up with the vision of what was to be made!!! OOoooooOOooOoooo it was all so very exiting!!!

They knew exactly what they wanted!! It was amazing to make something so personalized!

The final design is a combination of symbols and shapes that represent their story and their love.

In their own words: The wave as a symbol of their love, as in a "sea of emotions"and the Pounamu in triangular shapes because "the upright pointing for him represents the masculine principle, the spiritual world, is solar, fire, trinity of love, truth&wisdom; while the inverted triangle for her stands for the feminine principle, lunar, waters, cool, body, great mother, natural world. They both put together create a STAR symbolising the union and balance of complimentary opposites."

And beacause they met in the Waipoua Forest, the brass patches come to represent the Kauri trees texture, and to give the rings an "earthly" background.

I must admit that I was a little bit scared hahahaha So much to put together, and it all needed to be represented as in their dream rings, it was all part of the design!!

I managed to make all the parts fit, and I showed them the samples, they loved it and that was really encouraging to keep going!!! In between I had a few situations that delyed the normal timming for my work, which made me struggle a little bit at the end...I was running short of time, I had a bit of a miscommunication with the stone maker, my car broke down and right at the end, a power cut when I was polishing the last bits, almost cut my breath, but the rings were finished, and noone can deny they have a story of their own!!! hahaha

And I have to say that all along the process, the tranquility and peacefulness that Lisa and Olly trasmitted me, enabled me to make these rings. They were encouraging me all the time, to not worry, saying that they knew the rings were going to be what they wanted and they even said that I should take them with me when going to the wedding! No postage because they trusted they were gona get there with me.... and I was hitch hiking to the wedding!!! These guys are amazing!

Here are some pictures of the process, the sketch, and more!
Thank you Csilla Janovski for the fantastic photos!!
My Little Eye Photography

 

Their sketch!! I was so clear to see exactly what they had in mind!!

 

 

The silver plates on which the designs were to be made!

Thank you Csilla for the great photos!!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Knox!!!

 

PEACE Exhibition

This is a brooche I designed and handfabricated for the PEACE Exhibition, openning this saturday 11th of August 2012,at 2pm at the Depot, on Mount Victoria, Kerr St, in Devonport, AKL.
The exhibition of the members of the Gallery, commemorating the 20 years of NZ being NUCLEAR FREE will be part of a bigger event, the Cultural Mapping Exhibition, held by the Depot Galleries.
The name of my piece is Feather, here are some pictures (Please forgive the bad quality, didn't have any good light that day and I was posting it to the gallerystreight after so I didn't have any chances to get better ones...)
If you like it, you can buy it at the exhibition.

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Este es un broche que diseNe y fabrique a mano para la exposicion PAZ que empieza eeste sabado 11 de Agosto 2012, a las 2pm en el Depot, en Mount Victoria, Kerr Street en Devonport, AKL.
La exposicion va a mostrar yrabajos de los miembros d ela Galeria, conmemorando los 20 aNos de Nueva Zelanda libre de energia/residuo nuclear; y sera parte de un evento aun mayor, El Mapa Cultural, llevado a cabo por el grupo de galerias Depot.
El nombre de mi pieza es PLUMA, aca les dejo unas fotos (perdonen la mala calidad, ese dia no tenia buena luz y tenia q mandarlo por correo a la galeria asique no tuve oportunidad de sacar mejores fotos...)
Si les gusta, lo pueden venir a ver, y se lo puede comprar en la exposicion.