I found etsy...

... but I couldn't find this week's Found Art Tuesday theme. Rosa changed her website and confused the heck out of me...

But I was busy anyway with setting up my etsy store. A lot of people seem to like the necklaces so I made a whole bunch of them.

I also started a new project call "Drag and Drop - Interactive Art". You can find a few samples in my etsy as well. I explained it there and if you click on the thumbnails you can see different views. I'm not sure if people understand my explanations, so input, comments and critiques are welcome.

I also offer personalized, custom, interactive artwork. That is my Drag and Drop stuff with your pictures. Pix of your kids, your wedding, your pets, your favorite vacation...
You send me your pictures and I put everything together for you, including the backboard with your personal quotes, or dates or names. They make very unique and personal gifts - perfect for Christmas! The picture here is for a couple of our friends who had a baby boy named Kaveh a few months ago.



And I was so inspired by Found Art Tuesday, that I started my own project. It's called the Holonic Art Movement and you can read all about it here: www.HolonicArts.com. If you would like to participate, please send me a note or an email and I sign you up. It's a lot of fun and it's for a good cause!

As you can tell, I've been a busy bee. :o) It's been stressful, but fun. I feel like my creative juices are flowing at the moment...

On the road to yourself (favorite)

ooh, favorites... I have many. Chocolate, travel, art, prussian blue...

I bet one of everybody's favorites is the never-ending quest for your true self. You know, not that YOU that does the dishes and gets angry at people for not using their turn signals... the YOU that pours out of you when you paint, or sing in the car. The one that seems further away the closer you get.

Well, you get the picture...
I used some of my favorite papers: envelope linings and an arrival tag that somebody gave me along with some other scrapbooking stuff.

Let's hope we'll get there eventually....

Portable Ocean

I'm into necklaces lately... can you tell? :o)
I love the idea of combining collage and jewelry. And the format is just awesome. It's tiny (1.5x1.5") and it's SQUARE!
Somehow the frame with the blue paper reminded me of a fish tank, which reminded me of the ocean. And then I though how cool it would be if we could just take the ocean with us no matter where we go. Having the sound of breaking waves in the ears... anyway, that's how it happened I guess. When I woke up from my dream I had another necklace... hehehe...

I'm not sure yet where I'll leave it. Maybe at a surf shop. The people there might appreciate an ocean to carry around...

Chocolate (Candy)

I've changed my mind. This my entry for this week's found art tuesday theme "candy". It can be found around my neck at the opening reception of "Blue in the Face". I was invited by young artists Jessy Gaumann and Chris Love to be their special guest. And hey... who doesn't want to be a special guest. :o)

The past few weeks have been CRAZY! So I thought I deserve some candy. I'm not much of a candy girl though; I have a serious addiction to chocolate. And can you believe it, there is NO chocolate in the whole house...

I've been meaning to make a necklace for myself for a while now. So I took this chance and turned my gravings into a piece of jewelry. It didn't help though. :o) I guess I'll have to wait for my chocolate till tomorrow...

Tagged & Blue Cash

well, I've been tagged by Rosa. my first time.

I feel bad for not making any art to find lately, but I was really busy after quitting my job. you would think I have more time now... haha.

anyway, 8 random personal things about me:

1. I grew up in East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain. I consider this one of the most influential times of my life. I was pretty young still when the Wall came down, but it left a lasting impression. I remember my first hamburger (I didn't like it and wondered what all the fuss is about), my first time in West Germany, my first time in a super market. I remember a lot of firsts actually. but I also remember a lot of thing we didn't have or don't have anymore. we had to wait FOREVER for a car and a telephone for example. I remember being a pioneer and I still have my "Pionierhalstuch", a kind of bandana that you wear around your neck... a neckerchief I guess. :o)

2. growing up in East Germany, naturally Russian was my second language. I had it for 8 full years in school. but I can't remember anything! I would love to take a russian class again. I really like the language. I always liked it better than English in school. Russian language classes are a little hard to find around here, though. Before I met my husband my English was horrible! now I'm pretty much fluent but most people recognize my accent right away. I also know some basic Spanish and I had 2 years of French in school (memory of which is even worse than Russian)

3. I'm a Sagitarius and I love to travel! If I had the money I would be on the road for the most part of the year. I guess that's why I ended up marrying an American and living in a foreign country. I have visited about 20 different countries and I would love to move to south america and live there in an earth ship community with a bunch of awesome people and friends and finally learn how to speak proper Spanish. I think I used to live in South America in a former life.

4. I'm vegan. and I love dark chocolate, especially with almonds in it.

5. I have NO IDEA what I want to be when I grow up. :o)

6. I'm having a hard time making any kind of decision. shopping is a pain for me. I have three pairs of shoes, three pairs of pants and three bras. and I cross my fingers that they don't fall apart anytime soon. I'm fortunate that my husband owns a store (Bambu Batu) and I get some awesome bamboo clothing every once in a while.
if I really can't decide I read Tarot cards.

7. I love letters and typefaces and use them a lot in my art. the lowercase a is my most favorite letter, because it has that little belly that's just soooo cute in some fonts.

8. I need people around me. I miss my friends in Germany most. the conversations, just hanging out and talking about everything under the sky. I love making art with other people. I find it very inspiring. That was one reason why I started the Holonic Art Movement.

hmm... that was all rather random. I really wonder what impression people get of me from reading this. actually, I always wanted to meet myself on the street to see if I would like myself and what kind of first impression I would have. weird huh?I'm always afraid people think I'm arrogant or something because I'm pretty shy when I meet somebody for the first time.

I would tag the granola poet, but he got tagged already so I tag lena and sarah instead.

and here is the last found art project I did but never uploaded. the theme was "blue". the theme that threw me off balance though, was "father" I completely blanked on that, and I'm still trying to figure out the father issue in my life.



It's one of those fake credit cards that you get in the mail all the time. I left it in an ATM machine at the Wells Fargo bank in Grover Beach.

Starlight - for Maria

We went camping at Big Sur last weekend. What a magical place that is! Miles and miles of gorgeous coastline, redwood trees and oaks, and millions of stars at night. I got inspired. :o)
Since I'm short on art-time lately and more practically-minded, I made another gift. A birthday gift in this case. It is for my best friend Merry who's birthday is coming up next Monday. I know she reads this blog, although I'm not sure how regularly, so this is kind of a surprise spoiler. Maybe I get lucky and she's busy with life outside the computer and won't read this before she gets her necklace in the mail.

Anyway, I got the idea for this week's project from the starry night ar Big Sur and from Wandering Star . I bought a bracelet from them about 5 years ago along with a natal chart and interpretation. The bracelet broke after 2 years of wearing it almost every day. I kept the beads in a little plastic bag and I just came across it the other day. I'm in a rather transitional stage in my life right now, so I thought it would be nice to fix it and wear my universe again. I emailed them to ask how much it would cost if I send my beads back and have them make a necklace and it turned out to be around $90, which was a little bit more than I wanted to spend. And so I did it myself. I feel this way my necklace has even more meaning to me.

I had so much fun doing that, that I decided I wanted to make one for Merry also. So I went to all the bead stores around here trying to find appropriate beads for all the planets. This is an accurate necklace. There's one bead for each degree on the natal chart (360 all together). The Earth bead symbolizes the Ascendant which is the sign that was rising on the horizon at the minute of your birth (also called Rising Sign). So if you imagine the earth bead being the horizon line, you can see the position of all the planets at the time of Merry's birth. If you look at the sun for example, it is just above the horizon on the other side of the circle, the sun was about to set when Merry was born. I've marked all the other planets in the photo above to explain it a little better.

When you wear the necklace, you're literally at the center of your universe. It helps to ground yourself and focus on your true path in life.

Hey Puppe!
Ich hab Dich lieb! Und ich hoffe, die Kette kommt heil an...
Deine Fransi

Rebel

Sorry, if I seemingly abandoned the Found Art Tuesday community. You can find out why if you read a little further down, my last three posts... but now I'm back on track! :o)
I wouldn't really consider myself a rebel. But I have opinions and ideals and I stand up for them.
One thing strongly believe in is being the change you want to see. I hear a lot of people complaining about this and that, but they don't want to change their own patterns and conveniences. A lot of people also think that they don't make a difference, although there are soooo many single persons who DID make a difference. And when you bring them up they say "Oh Gandhi, well that was different..." Different how? He was willing to give up something of himself for a greater good. That different. But we're too obsessed with ourselves and our own problems. Every once in a while though something moves us... a movie, a song, or news reports. And we change something... we start buying locally, we buy organic, we change our lightbulbs. And you know what - it works! WE CAN change something. YOU can make a difference. There are 300 million people in the US for crying out loud. People just have to hear things over and over again to believe them (that's why advertising works...). Think milk is good for you? Have you ever thought about WHY you THINK that? Because you heard it over and over again - from the people who are trying to sell you milk. Got pus? Milk does! (haha, I just had to put that in there...:o) )

Anyway. I don't believe in the way we "produce" our food. Factory farming, genetically modified corn, soybeans, wheat..., processing till no nutrition and life is left in it and then microwave the heck out of it...

For me living vegan is not only about not eating animals. It's about treating others the way you want to be treated. It's a lifestyle of kindness and compassion. It's about awareness. Knowing what your consuming, where it comes from and how it was produced, not only food... but also everything else you buy, from your toothpaste to your shoes.

I don't want to take myself out of this. I'm not better. I too buy processed food out of convenience, or buy non-organic sometimes because it's cheaper... and plastic is just all over the place. It's not about giving up living and crawling back into the cage and live from love and sunshine - it's about being aware, wanting to change and changing - one step at the time.

It's very liberating, too. Just like making art and leaving it behind for somebody else. Once you give up something, you'll notice that you don't need or want it anymore. And once you give it all up, it is all yours.

My piece for this week is a refridgerator magnet and I'm not sure where I'm going to leave it behind... some restaurant maybe...

off to some vegan sushi now... :o)