Size matters. Length matters. Everything matters. More hanging things in the works: case in point

I had a wonderful conversation yesterday over breakfast in London with a friend of mine who is an architect. A creative professional & above all a person who has a rare gift in our day & age: she knows how to listen and asks you very intelligent questions. When I confessed how tough (maddening & agonizing but in a good way) the design process is, she said that she understands me (and I know she does, indeed!) & said that it will become easier with time.

Hmm, let's wait & see. As for now, unless things magically fall in place, which happens, too, I have to try out many different things before settling on what looks the best & feels just right. The tough part is that you move one little thing 10 mm to the left and it seems like the whole thing have changed completely. So you go back and try it again and then you change it again - not big changes, mind you, just little itty bitty ones, but they seem big to you, so you keep on trying.

The best thing that could happen is when something looks totally wrong. That you (I) feel and see right away. Throwing away what's bad is easy, deciding between good and a bit better is tough. Even for me, who is an extremely opinionated person and an only child (what's the connection, you'd ask? well, as an only child I delight in asking myself questions & looking for answers, analyzing everything I see or rationalizing impressions I get based solely on my instincts and impressions).

Right now I am in the midst of working on a brooch (with lots of hanging things) for someone who is probably the first person (besides myself) to have very clear ideas. And that feels great!

Here are some test photos (there were others before these) that illustrate a bit better a big difference a small change makes.

In the works: shadows, reflections, windows & many naughty things (more on that later)...

The truth is: everything's in the works at the same time. It depends on how of feel at any certain moment, what inspires me the most. At times I try to stick to a plan, but I am not good at it and luckily I can allow myself not to push it too hard, for if I am less inspired it shows, so I prefer to improvise & create much better pieces. Less rigidity, more frivolity, stronger appeal.

Pleasure principle 100%.

I touched upon my 'shadow obssession' today, so let's continue with that - when I lived in Rome I loved dancing with my shadow that would be visible on the wall of the palazzo in front of mine.

Here are some modern images from my last morning in Chicago before moving to Brazil & my fieldwork on the beach in Rio de Janeiro. And some antique/vintage/recycled images, which fall into my 'Recycling backwards: back to the future' design principle.

Hanging in there... only happily so!

I love things with holes, for I can put things/images in there and make nice jewelry pieces out of it, and I feel the urge to do brooches with hanging things, similar to trees' branches.

Maybe it's all due to the fact that I love 'hanging in there': uncertainty is the only way to be for me, it seems, so I feel at ease with it.

I have also always loved the swings on the playground. Posts about my 'swinging nature' were among the very first ones on this blog, but I could add some extra images here. And, boy, don't I have more than enough: pretty much every time I am near a swing I go for a 'ride' and take a picture, so I have plenty of photos from all over the world.

Here are some - mine and other people's.

Invisible presence

If an image is supposedly worth a thousand words, how about showing what does the abused phrase 'I am always there for you' means?

This is another Christmas gift for my god-daughter: while she is still too young to wear it, it will wait for her hanging on a Christmas tree as an ornament. There's a little girl dressed as a ballerina on the photo, surrounded by 2 shadows. That immediately made me think of being someplace, close enough, without actually being seen. Caring, being protective but (unfortunately) from far away.

And so off I went, to do one of my favorite 'thematic' gifts.

As usual, after having been too sweet & romantic, I start feeling 'guilty', so let me inject a healthy dose of cynicism right away: I have always found it interesting how many proverbs on the same subject totally contradict one another. Take "Absence makes the heart grow fonder' vs. "Out of sight, out of mind" for example. The outcome of one's absence would depend on many factors, personality being one of the most important of them all.

Dear Camille, please know: I am always there for you (invisibly) and once I will reappear from the thin air, I will take you for your first ride on the swings!

Method to my madness: Revolutionary geniuses

The Futurists felt it was their obligation to have a say on every matter possible, from cuisine to female fashion.

The above photo - a Christmas present for my god-daughter Camille (whose mother Marina is the world-famous meat-eater & an incredible art curator, truth to be told...) is a proof of how widespread their ideas became in their lifetime. The inscription on the back of the photo is Christmas greetings as well, sent some 83 years earlier - in Rio de Janeiro in 1926. And the girl, Mariana, is being called 'Mademoiselle Futurista' by her mother.

In a book "Social history of fashion" that I read over the summer in Rio, I found the following delightful exerpt from the Futurism Female Fashion Manifesto published in 1920: "It is absolutely neccessary to proclaim the dictatorship of the Artistic Genius over the female fashion ...that will also act as a cure against the routine... A gifted poet or an artist should be put in charge of all the most important female fashion houses. Fashion is art, just like architecture and music. Superbly planned and well-used item of female clothing has the same value as that of a Michelangelo's fresco or Titian's Madona. The Futurist Woman should have the same courage in wearing clothes of this new style as we did when we first exposed our thoughts to the public. Female fashion will never be extravagant enough. We shall also start abolishing the symmetry. We will do zig-zag decolletes, sleeves different one from the other, shoes varying in shapes, colors and height. We shall create surprising, unexpected, transformable outfits, armed with springs, sharp objects, photographic lens, electric currents, fireworks. We will project the most fascinating contemporary achievements on to women. Therefore we shall have a woman-pistol, a woman-radio antenna, a submarine-woman...An elegant woman will turn into the living plastic arts ensemble".

Only one comment: reading this made me feel very very good, or as we say paraphrasing Shakespeare, another Revolutionary genius: "There's a method to my madness".

The less you do something, the more you talk about it

I am pretty sure that those who do something & do it often, tend to talk less about it. So since my Thanksgiving yesterday was unorthodox (meaning 'healthy'), I will carry on talking about food.

But with a twist.

First comes a fond memory of my hometown Chicago - pig tails we bought at the most famous German store. Too sweet - the tails, as well as the memories themselves.

The other image is something I picked up at a restaurant in Turin years ago. It says: "You shouldn't eat while others are smoking". It's a good example of turning the logic upside down and coming up with something fun.

After all, why not see it this way? Who says you can't?

Continuing with being very politically incorrect (but very honest as well), I can say that even though I don't smoke & never did, I love the smell of smoke (Freudian? my dad is a chain smoker) & when I started spending more time in Italy I would buy smoking compartments train tickets only, for in my mind people who smoke are more interesting than those who don't.

And the "We serve vegetarians..." is a clever ad campaign that would appeal to my carnivorous friends like Marina.

Meet more meat!

I have a fair amount of friends who are vegetarians, but those who are not, are 'not' big time. My dearest friend, Marina, loves meat so much that she actually consulted a doctor to see if she could eat it raw and she says that her husband won her over when he came on a first date carrying a huge honey Virginia ham (a whole leg, of course!)

So when I am far away and can't go out for some ribs with her, I at least try to send some copies her way.

I also have a WWF-upsetter necklace in the works now that combines images above and some fur coats (surprisingly painted by El Greco!)