i-love-handcrafts.com - creative meandering !

   Another variation on the Tree of Life using  green Malachite chips and a swarovski teardrop wrapped with gold fill wire. I love this ! Also see my previous blog  https://www.i-love-handcrafts.com/2018/07/the-tree-of-life.html Work in Progress !

A s I delved deeper into the craft of wire wrapping, I've noticed a recurring pattern - the variations are a diverse and complex metaphorical representation of the 'Tree of Life'. The lush, full and bountiful tree, is ubiquitous to many spiritual movements; for instance Eastern and Mediterranean myths and religions; in Christianity, appearing in the books of Genesis and Revelations; in Judaism in the Torah, and in the symbolism of Kabbalah. The Tree of Life is also represented in Hinduism, Islam; and Persian mythology, where I've found some of the most beautiful and colourful depictions in art and craft form - for example carpets and hand painted scrolls. As art gets its inspiration from...and imitates life, so the beautiful wire wrapped pendants and jewellery that I've seen by many modern wire crafters on my online travels. The sometimes bejeweled branches and leaves, at times embellished with an oval stone to represent the moon; rise from many wire roots, t...

A beautiful day, August 2017,  on a beautiful beach - Salamanca, looking out to the Atlantic ocean from the Sao Vicente/Mindelo shoreline;  picking up shells and granite type black pebbles;  spending time with friends - a young family with a gorgeous daughter , hope spread before them...this is their favorite place . I'm treated to  a spectacular sunset , and then head off in the direction of distant music in the air , and anticipate more congeniality ,that is the Baia das Gatas annual music festival,  at the neighboring beach. I came across my sea shells today, and after various iterations -  I've decided wrap it simply with cooper wire to convey the warm and colour of the sand and sunset...a coil for harmony and music, and straight lines for the shoreline. The black cord picks up the shadows. I decided to back the hot mess I'd created on the inner shell with felt - I may yet change my mine !

 Copyright I.Lisk 2015                                                        On the 26th May 2015, I took the first steps of a journey to the cultural melting pot which is Mindelo, Sao Vicente. Cape Verdeans are rightly very proud of their musical and arts & crafts heritage; and on that first visit I came across, serendipitously one might say, the beginnings of a revival or restoration of the status of arts and crafts, taking place on the island. The CNAD - Centro Nacional de Artesano e Design was at the forefront, and I was fortunate and privileged to meet with the then newly appointed Director and visionary Irlando Jorge Delgao Ferreira, and the Head of the Arts and Crafts school Joao Fortes, himself an artist and weaver among many other skills. As you might suspect, multi-disciplines is something common to most creat...

My favorite bloom,  2017 I love roses, my friends know this and must have hear d my story before, but I write it now for posterity. When I first moved into my home in late 1990s the garden had a path running down the middle, and a grass patch on one side and a mound of earth with a tired old rose bush in the middle of the other side. It was winter, so the branches were bare...but come summer it bloomed with a set of old-fashioned beautiful pale pink roses. The following summer brought the builders who were helping to upgrade the house and redesign the garden. We decided on a  new layout, and moving the rose bush. The message relayed must hav e gotten lost in translation, as one day on returning from work I found a lovely newly laid path running through where the rose bush used to stand, and no rose bush anywhere in the garden. I eventually found the mutilated pieces in the rubble skip, where the builders had tossed them after hacking it dow...

 with Nuno's (the fisherman) boat - which he named after his mother - on Sao Pedro beach, Sao Vicente.  On a lovely day like today, my mind goes back to the frenzy of excitement and preparation preceding my first visit to Cape Verde in May 2015. This post is in honor of the islands of Sao Vicente and Santo Antao - which stole my heart over and over and over again ! Since then I've been back in August 2016 and August 2017...to join the Baia das Gatas festival, and who knows what this year will bring ! In lieu of my next visit, let me reminisce by sharing with you my first ever story about Cabo Verde, written by me and published on 26th January 2016, via a fledgling e-zine. Below is a link to an archived version of my story  with my byline ,  (a precaution I've had to take as my byline was changed without explanation recently !). Should you come across such a discrepancy again - please notify me directly via a message. I dedicate this posting to the wonder...