It has been a really long time since I updated my blog, but I have been sooo busy. In september I was mostly working on the new workshop programm for 2011. That will be my third year of workshops and the programm is getting really long. Note to self: next year, plan more time to do this!!

I am gonna try and catch up with all the blog-writing as soon as I can.I have a lot of things to share! But let me start with the first one: At the end of august I travelled to Munchen to participate in a workshop by Stefano Marchetti. Stefano is an Italian designer who normally teaches at Le Arti Orafe in Firenze. This workshop took place at the "Akademie für Gestaltung und Design".

At the morning of the first day, Stefano all gave us an Italian coffeepot. The assignment was to make a jewel by only using the material of this coffeepot. This was a very interesting exercise, I never worked with aluminium before... and you can't solder it!! I ended up with these two brooches. The next two days I worked on the new assignment: an ugly and a pretty ring. Believe me, it is really hard to make an ugly ring! Everyone at the workshop was so used to desinging, that all our brains automaticly presents pretty images when you try to create someting. And off course this led to a lot of discussions about "ugly and pretty". A lot of them went like this: 'I finished my ugly ring, what do you think?' 'I actually don't think it's ugly...I kinda like it.' 'No, no, nooo, it's my ugly ring!!' :) Finally someone said that we should enter the ugly rings to famous jewelry contest and they would probably be chosen... I finished my ugly one as quickly as I could, so I could spent a day and a half coming up with a pretty one. It's a ring made out of silver and some raw pieces of coral and I was very happy with the result. On the last day Stefano teached us how to make mosaics in metal. This is the subject that he is specialised in. It was very interesting. I never did anything like this before. But it was also a lot of work! The whole class worked together to come up with one sheet of metal in silver and copper. Here you can see a beautiful brooch that Stefano made using this technique: The workshop was a very good experience. I learned a lot of new things and I met some great designers from all over the world. Someone even came all the way from Argentina to follow this workshop!

I am one of the happy designers who were chosen to participate in the projects organised by Quartier Bricolé. During august and september you can take a look at my work in de Langestraat 25 in Bruges.

A while ago, I was in Paris and I visited the best museum ever: Musée du Quai Branly, the ethnological museum of Paris. It's already worth a visit, just to take a look at the building. The walls of the museum and the inner court are a magnificent garden. The presentation in the museum was great. It was quite dark inside and every mask was illuminated seperatly. It made me feel like sitting at a campfire. But ofcourse I liked the etnological jewelry most of all! I never saw such a big and diverse collection gathered under one roof. When you go to Paris, take your time to visit this amazing museum!

For the second year, my brother has been fundraising a lot of money (25.000€ this year!) and travelled to Nepal together with 7 other volunteers. They are sponsering several projects:

In a monastery in kathmandu, neglected boys are sheltered and given an education. These children study from 5 o'clock in the morning till late at night (English, boeddhism, math...). Last year my brother introduced sport lessons and they just love it! Some pictures of this year's lessons: The next two weeks the group is traveling to Rathankot, a very poor mountain village. All the young people leave the village because they want to make a future in the big cities, but all that awaits them there is poverty. In this village they try to start development programms so that the youngsters have a future in their own village. And the third project is helping out with building a new school in Daman. When the parents go to work, all the little children between 2 and 7 are left on their own at home because there is no school available for them.

You can read the groups diary on their blog. The next two weeks they will spend in Rathankot and have no internet acces, but there are already a lot of stories to read, like the hostile opposition of the Nepali government to the celebration of the birthday of the Dalai Lama!

A school year has passed again and the student of jewelry design are presenting their master projects! A selection of the best works of the Academy and Sint-Lucas in Antwerp and PHL-Arts in Hasselt are exhibited during the show Zilvertalenten, in the museum "Sterckshof".

I already went to take a look beforehand at the Academy and I have to say that I saw some great work! I would like to present you some new designers:

Zhao Li Tatiana Warenichova (left) en Karen Vanmol (right) The exhibition is shown together with the Wim Ibens awards and can be visited untill the 18th of july.

This month I participated in Eunique, my first fair abroad. Eunique is an arts and crafts fair in Germany. This year Belgium was guest country at the fair.

I had a lot of fun! It was great to finally meet some of the other designers of Design Flanders and also the Walloon designers. What the professional impact of the fair will be, that's too soon to tell. I made some interessting contacts with new shops and galleries in Germany and Luxembourg. But it usually takes half a year to see the impact of participating in a big fair like that. Here's a look at my booth and one of my gold and onyx flower rings. I made a selection for you of the favourite designs I saw. You will find more great designs on the artist's websites. Enjoy! Porceline by Françoise Joris (Belgium), she won the Eunique WCC Award. Beautiful textile in enchanting coulours by Margo Selby (London). Jewelry by Nevin Arig(Belgium), one of my favourite jewerly designers. It was great to finally meet her. And what's more...she is interested in teaching a workshop in my studio!!! Bowl by Henriette Tomasi (Germany). The structure was so delicate, really amazing! Jewelry by Alison Macleod (Scotland). I especially liked her brooches with wood and little stones combined. Some cute, I think rubber, vases by Christiane Pagel (Germany). She is a student at Pforzheim and has no website yet. Impressive laced steel nacklaces by Ines Schwotzer (Germany). And finally some more porceline by Thérèse Lebrun (Belgium).

This workshop will be taught by Roos De Krom. She worked with this technique for the last couple of years. In 2008 her work was rewarded with the "Prijs design platform Limburg". In this workshop she will explain her own vision and method of working. You will find more pictures of her work on her website.

The workshop takes place on the 22th of august. To participate, you need to be able to solder with wire fluently. You can read the hole explanation about the workshop here. As always, there are now 4 places available. Be sure to subscribe in time!

Here are some of the works made during the spring workshops. Necklace soldered in silver wire by Chris Bachot Brooches in polymerclay made by Isabelle Van Eyck Ring made of silver, bone and horn by Sofie Vanhoutte Knotted pearls and a pendant of origami in silver containing handmade paper, made by Marina Van De Broek Ring made of vegetarian ivory and silver by Mariemoo

In this gallery you will find all the pictures.

TT:NT is a collaboration project between two designers, Tithi Kutchamuch and Nutre Arayavanish. I have been a big fan of their work for a while. Thanks to the jewelryblog Mar de color rosa , I found out about their 'Housemates' project. It is so good I just have to share it with you:



Here are some of their paper rings:

I am busy buying lots of things for the workshops I am teaching about natural materials. After days and even weeks of searching and bothering my collegues, I found out that it is very hard to get hold of some materials. Because of that (and also because I am addicted to them) I decided to open a hole new part of my webshop: Natural materials (from plants, animals and from the sea) and semi-precious stones;

The first deliveries have arrived this week from Ecuador, USA and Poland! Every time I receive a new package, I'm happy as a child with a new toy. The bad side of the story is that I have to stay in the house the hole day long, because I never know when the delivery service shows up. But if that's what it takes, that's what I'll do!!

Here's a little preview: Raw amber, raw jet and vegetarian ivory, ready to process yourself: The semi-precious stones, corals and mother of pearl:

Yesterday I went to a lecture by Bettina Speckner at the Academy of Antwerp. I really enjoyed it. She was my first favorite designer when I started my jewellery studies.

Her jewels have a timeless expression. And sometimes even funny too! Cows do appear a lot, as she finds them an important symbol for the everyday life. That is actually the main theme in her work: the everyday life versus the faraway life.
She includes a lot of pictures and natural materials in her work as well. And they always match perfectly, like they were just created to be there. When you are able to achieve that feeling, I believe you made the perfect jewel!

Just take a look for yourself:



Do you want to see more? Take a look at her website.

I am very busy with writing the new course for the workshop about natural materials from plants. This is the first workshop were I will be teaching a lot of theory next to the technical part. And I am really looking forward to it.
I had a lot of fun gathering all the information and the materials. Orders from around the world are coming in. Here is a little teaser: If you would like to participate, there are still 3 places available. The workshop starts on the 27th of march. You can find all the information here. (This is a level 2 workshop, you should be familiar with the basic techniques: soldering, sawing en filing.)

No I don't have a new haircut, it's one of the closets in my studio that got a makeover! I couldn't open it anymore without half of it falling out, so....

Before and After

Filigree

This workshop will be taught by Roos De Krom. She worked with this technique for the last couple of years. In 2008 her work was rewarded with the "Prijs design platform Limburg". In this workshop she will explain her own vision and method of working. You will find more pictures of her work on her website.

The workshop takes place on the 24th of april. To participate, you need to be able to solder with wire fluently. You can read the hole explanation about the workshop here. As always, there are only 6 places available. Be sure to subscribe in time!

Technical skills

This workshop is brand new as well. You will learn the basic techniques of a jewelry designer: transferring a drawing onto metal, drilling, sawing, filing and sanding! This workshop takes place on the 25th and 26th of september. Further explanations here. Would you like to participate in a level 2 workshop, but you have no foreknowledge yet? These workshops will teach you all the basic skills you need:

*soldering in silver: wire (level 1)
*technical skills (level 1)
*soldering in silver: combining sheet and wire(level 2)

After these workshops you will be able to create your own jewelry!

Workshops made to order

The hole explanation about the workshops has been written down here. From today on you can have your workshops custom-made! Do you have a group of minimum 4 people and maximum 6, then you can choose your own date. The workshops are all teached in the studio in Antwerp. If you would like some more information, just send me an email.

The invasion of Bruges was a big succes, even more then that! 4500 visitors were counted. I really enjoyed it :)
Soon there will also be a webshop of the invasion and new editions will be organized...if you missed it this time, you'll have a chance to make up for it!