Saturday 29 September 2007

Evil eye



Our seventeen years old car died on us five weeks ago. It has costs us all this time to find an other car that suited our needs and our budget, but finally, today, we got a ‘new’ car, only ten years old. The color, dark green, would not have been our choice, but beggars are not choosers, and we are sure green will ‘grow on us’. Pfuff, live is hard without wheels.



Following good Turkish usage, the first thing to do with a new car, is to hang a ‘nazarlık’ or evil eye charm from the rear view mirror, to protect us, and the car, from all kind of evil.


When we first came to Turkey, I thought that this evil eye business was some kind of curse or spell that somebody cast upon you. Now that we have lived ten years here, we know that is a much more subtle and complex affair. Also it is surprising that almost everybody here is very serious about this evil eye, also people that we considered above any form of superstition.
Evil eye is something that ‘happens’ almost outside the will of the beholder, for instance when somebody praises you, or something that you have on, without meaning it, or with envy in their heart or jealousy, causing you to loose the item or the quality you are being praised for. You also can bring the evil eye upon yourself, by bragging or simply being overconfident, for instance, saying ‘I’m never ill’, defying the odds.

New born babies are especially susceptible for the evil eye, so that they are kept in traditional house holdings with a fine cloth loosely draped over their faces for their first forty days. After that they seem to develop some sort of immunity. Evil eye is brought upon a baby not only by malicious looks, but by any look from an unclean woman, that being a woman having her period or not having washed herself properly after having intercourse!
So, no visits to new borns when having your ‘curse’, and when you want to praise your friends baby, you say: ‘Thank God, what an ugly, ugly baby’, that to demonstrate that your intentions are good and you wish no harm.


Books can be written about this subject, and it makes interesting folklore. Once in a while we use this evil eye beads and charms in our designs. They are quite nice and bright and where our intentions are concerned, well, we wish all the best to our dear ugly friends!

Wednesday 26 September 2007

WE HAVE BEEN TAGGED!!!

It seems that we have been tagged by Morrgan to explain ourselves in seven points, especially any oddities we may have. Well, oddities enough…

1. Estella can not watch any vaguely emotionally film without crying buckets. Bambi is good for a deluge.
2. Esther can not watch any horror film, alone or in company. Dot.
3. We both hate, very thoroughly, any housekeeping chores.
4. We are both internetcoholics and we fight for PC time.
5. We use terms like ‘fat worm’ or ‘green disgusting being’ as terms of endearment for each other.
6. We can complete each others projects effortlessly or understand where a project is leading too without any explanation.
7. And last, but not least…we have fifteen dogs…yes,15. There over more in the next post.

Sunday 23 September 2007

Our workplace :)

Some pictures of our workplace;As you know, we started making jewelry three years ago, from our home. After a while we had so much materials and stuff that we were bursting out our home. The fact that our house is a bit remote and that we have dogs caused that potential customers were not easily persuaded to come and have a look.
So, last February, we decided to rent a studio to work from there although in fact we can not afford it. But rent is not that high, and what a luxury, all that space.
Half of it, (the short leg of the L) is our showroom, you see:

This is the ‘men’s corner’ (!?). When the local ladies come to shop they usually bring their husbands along. They are, of course, the wallet carriers. So, we sit them here and run with coffee and other refreshments to keep them happy while their wives shop. Even then, they are quickly bored. If we had the money, we would acquire one of those massage armchairs to keep the husbands quiescent a longer while. Funny how easily you get sucked to servitude just to make a few bucks! Happy not to be the wives, though, you can imagine;

Here I am, typing this text and this is Estella, fighting tong in cheek with a necklace that refuses to hang just the way she want it.
When Estella was a very small baby, all kind of soft purring sounds came out her, so we give her the nickname Prutteltje, from the Dutch verb pruttelen, meaning simmering, purring.
Nothing has changed in twenty four years. All kind of soft (and less soft) sounds keep coming out of her at any time. Purring, singing, an occasional curse when things go bad or a blood curling laugh when things go specially well. No need for a radio or such, thus.


And here we are, once more, Estella’s reflection in the mirror, and I, still typing this blog, he,he.


Saturday 22 September 2007

Friday 21 September 2007

Press

Books:

Mastering the Art of Embroidery


Embellish Me



The Handbook to Handmade



Magazines and Newspapers:

Haute Handbags





Art 278



Step by Step Wire Jewelry



Nisha Magazine


Little Thing Magazine



Reverie Fair Magazine



Turkish Newspaper clipping and Vivamode



Paulette Magazine 

Celebrities and Television:

Courtney Love Cobain



Erin Morgenstern (bestseller author of The Night Circus)



Bella Beserk (drag queen)



Dawanda Lookbooks: