Posted in General, Impressions on 25/10/2010| Leave a Comment »
As the end of our around the world trip is getting closer we found the perfect place to relax the last few weeks and “digest” the adventures of the last 2,5 years and get ready to go back home to Germany :-)
Vilcabamba in the south of Ecuador is just perfect for that purpose, sun, beautiful landscape, a wonderful hostel to stay and just everything is sooo relaxed here. Thruly a little paradise of its own :-)
Posted in General, New developments on 01/10/2010| Leave a Comment »
My necklace „UpsideDown“ is going to be exhibited in the course of the following exhibtion:
„24 FH – Eine Retrospektive“ at Villa Bengel in Idar-Oberstein, Germany
More information can be found under this link:
http://www.fh-trier.de/index.php?id=566
Posted in General, Impressions, Thoughts, Travel stories on 21/09/2010| Leave a Comment »
At the 21 of September 2010 we visited our sponsor child Luvia and her family near Coban in Guatemala. We have been sponsors for 7 years now with „Plan international“ and already being in Guatemala it would have been just not possible not to visit her. We arrived one day earlier in Coban to meet with the people from the organization and to go shopping with them to buy gifts and food for the family. Then because of our visit they are not working that day and therefore they don’t earn money. The next day we drove together to the village where the family lives. With us were two translators, one for translating from their Maya language to Spanish and one for translating from Spanish to English. On the way to the village they told us that we have to be prepared to feel like super stars but even with this warning we weren’t prepared for what happened next. As we were the first sponsors ever to visit this village, everyone, and I really mean everyone was there to have a look on us. We never expected so much attention. First, we went to the local school where they decorated the school in the colours of the German flag and where the whole school prepared a show for us and speeches. We were more or less speechless. Now, we know not only the director of the school but also the mayor and the maize queen of the town.
It was also there were we first met Luvia and her father Sebastian. Both sides were a bit shy because of the event but it was nevertheless an emotional moment.
After the program we went to their family house where we got introduced to the whole family and a tasty lunch was prepared for us. As a gesture of honor we drank home harvested and made chocolate.
Because of the two translators a flowing talk wasn’t easy but it was so interesting to meet them all and to see how the family lives and how much help the organization is to the village and its people. We feel honored that we were invited into their house and to share a meal with them. What I think is good about Plan International that it supports the community and encourages the help for self help instead of just giving them money. So, hopefully one day, their help won’t be needed anymore.
What I found very interesting that most people in the village don’t believe that the sponsors exist and therefore don’t write letters to them because they think it is a waste of time. I found that interesting and quite funny as it is the same in the countries where the sponsors come from, as there is a big skepticism that the children exist. That was also why there were so many people there to greet us, because Plan International told them that that is the chance to actually see real existing sponsors.
After 2 hours we had to leave Luvia and her family as it started to rain, and you just don=t want to walk to much in the rain in rainy season Guatemala. So we went back to Coban after 9 hours filled with new impressions. What an exciting and interesting day J
More info about plan international can be found here:
http://plan-international.org/
Posted in General, Impressions, Thoughts, Travel stories on 25/07/2010| Leave a Comment »
How to describe the time at this magical place in the right words? How to explain what happened inside?
Maybe I just begin how it came that we spent there one month meditating, doing yoga and attending many interesting teachings and classes.
After such a long time travelling around the world Dennis and realised that we felt kind of exhursted and we probably had an overload of constantly new impressions and experiences.
I can´t completly explain how we chose this place to stay but from the first moment we visited the piramides it just felt right to be there. It was like it was calling for us. the center is located at the beautiful Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. And how right it was to stay there. Looking back it was a continue of our travel, but a inside one this time. I don´t want to go to deep in this post as because a lot of things that happened are of private nature and too personal to write here about it, but it was definitly a mind opening and changing time and the beginning of something very beautiful and new. It definitly changed how I see and perceive the world.
More information can be found on this homepage:
http://www.laspiramidesdelka.com/
Posted in General, new jewellery on 16/07/2010| Leave a Comment »
The following works will be part of the exhibition „SODAmore Summer 2010“ which takes place at Gallery SODA in Istanbul, Turkey. The exhibition takes place from the 16 until 28 of August 2010.
You can find more information here:
The following works can still be purchased from the gallery:
Posted in General, new jewellery, Thoughts, Travel stories on 12/07/2010| Leave a Comment »
The following works decided to get lost somewhere between Germany and Turkey.
They wanted to participate in the exhibition of the gallery Soda in Istanbul and started their journey with the German post but never arrived.
So, whereever you are, my beautiful ones, I hope you are treated well and give people joy.
Posted in General, Thoughts, Travel stories on 20/03/2010| Leave a Comment »
What happened? That is a very good question to ask… As being an art jeweller doesn’t make you outrageous rich it was about time to work for being able to travel on and live the dream.
Dennis and I were lucky enough to find a very well paid job in Halls Creek, Western Australia, in a hotel. We worked there as basically everything, from housekeeping, barwork, restaurant to even be the DJ on the Friday night disco, we covered it all.
It was a highly interesting and intense time, working in such an environment. The temperature were always around 40 degrees celsius, and, as it was wet season, the humidity was quite high, too. It was in the middle of nowhere, 1000 people livinge there with the next town a 350km drive away. A real outback and Australian experience. Beautiful and exotic landscape.
But not too good conditions to be creative. Working an average of 50 hours per week with only 1 day off doesn’t help. The heat is a big problem too. It takes away a lot of your energy. I managed to set up a work shop in one deserted room but without air-con the temperature reached fast the 50 degree mark which makes working hardly bearable. It was a beautiful room but just not good for working.
I managed to “find” a better room with an air-con but as it was a deserted room for staff someone moved into that room quite fast so no more work shop for me anymore :-(
During the time in the hotel I started to reminescence about the travel, the jewellery and everything. I realised that I hardly created jewellery while travelling. Why? I realised that I need a quite surrounding, like I had at Sturt in my time as Artist in Residence, to be able to empty my mind to fill it with new ideas. While travelling your head is filled already all the time with new impressions and experiences. It is like soaking up all the new for saving it for later. If that makes sense…
I also realised that working full time (or even more) doesn’t help my creativity either…
So, I made the decision to send my tools back home for the time of travelling. I feel good with it. A bit sad, too. But, also relived. Why is that? Having my tools with my always created that pressure in myself to be creative, or, having a bad conscience about not being it! That wasn’t good. That is not why I am here. There will be a time for jewellery again. But not right now. Now it’s pure travelling time. Time for new impressions. For open horizons (Now it’s getting a bit pathetic ;-)
This doesn’t mean I will close down this blog. I just found out that for me at this stage of the travel the concept isn’t working. And that’s why I changed it. There will be still thoughts and impressions from my travel, things, that touched me in a way or the other. And, one day back home, there will be new creations again :-)
