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#jewellerymasterpieces Gem carving by Alfred Zimmerman
Friday, April 8, 2016
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| Very Fine Amethyst Carving of a Baby Snow Owl By Alfred Zimmerman Idar-Oberstein, Germany utilizing a pure gem-quality large crystal of Uruguayan amethyst having a high degree of transparency. Mounted with 18K yellow gold feet and beak, with monogram signature AZ for Alfred Zimmerman. Weighing approximately 1360.5 carats and measuring 3 x 2 1/2 x 2in |
#jewelleryfacts 68/365 Platinum fact
Platinum's rarity as a metal has caused advertisers to associate it with exclusivity and wealth. "Platinum" debit and credit cards have greater privileges than "gold" cards. "Platinum awards" are the second highest possible, ranking above "gold", "silver" and "bronze", but below diamond. For example, in the United States, a musical album that has sold more than 1 million copies, will be credited as "platinum", whereas an album that sold more than 10 million copies will be certified as "diamond".
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| In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylor's single, "Disco Lady", and to the Iron Butterfly album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. As music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. |
#jewelleryfacts365 67/365 Platinum fact
Thursday, April 7, 2016
The first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger as a description of an unknown noble metal found between Darién and Mexico, "which no fire nor any Spanish artifice has yet been able to liquefy".
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| Caesar Scaliger |
DIY by VZBRELO girls. Painting techniques for the wooden eggs
It took me a a few days to decide if I should publish this guest post by the VZBRELO girls after Easter. Well, Easter is over, right? Not everywhere, mind you. Russia is going to have it in almost three weeks from now (this is where my guest bloggers live). Then I had a second thought... You know, this is a DIY project for the wooden eggs. It's not like they are going to go bad or anything :) It is a fun project and you can make them... well... if you start now, you could be coming up with a whole lot of wooden eggs for next Easter! (or next after next one!) So, here it is!
(By the way, you can find all their guest posts here)
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Hi, Maria and Tatiana is here again! You know, not everybody had Easter this year yet. If you've not had it yet, there is still time for you to make wooden souvenir eggs for this year's Easter. Otherwise, you have a whole year in front of you to make lots of wooden eggs! (there will be one more DIY project next week, so stay tuned!)
We had photographed this project two years ago, but got around this year only to make it into a blog post. An Easter egg DIY is never going to be too old to be published, right? )
You will need:
- Wooden eggs;
- Thick brushes for staining;
- Fine brushes for painting (squirrel hair works the best);
- Acrylic paints: white, black, metallic (or any colors that you prefer);
- A sponge;
- Soft sandpaper (I have one that is set on the foam and I love it for this project);
- Water-based stains or the color ink as another option;
- Very fine scissors;
- Self-adhesive paper;
- Lacquer. I had the gloss acrylic lacquer that I used for my wooden eggs.
Cut some pretty grasses and herbs from the self-adhesive paper. You can pre-draw them with a pencil or just unleash your imagination and start cutting! )
Glue all the prepared beauties onto the wooden eggs. Then take a sponge, dip it in the white acrylic paint and start applying the paint by lightly tapping the sponge over the grasses. The goal here is not to paint the whole egg's surface, but to create a kind of "haze" that isdenser at some spots and almost transparent at the others.
After the paint has dried (and acrylics usually dry fast), remove the stencils, then stain the eggs. I use water-based stains. Usually the eggs need two layers of stain. I am willing to experiment and sometimes add a little bit of drafting ink or writing ink. You can also experiment by adding some watercolors.
You can stop right here, if you like. The eggs are pretty already! ) but I am not going to stop now )
I used soft sandpaper trying to remove small defects without touching the paint too much. Then I took a thin brush and painted more grasses right over the background herbs' silhouettes. Just like this:
Finally, I used the metallic paints to go over the leaves and the seeds. I try to choose the paints that go together, so I used silver color for the blue eggs and gold color for the yellow eggs.
Well, not much left now! We need to varnish the eggs, using, possibly, more than just one layer of the lacquer. When it is all finished we can start being proud of our work) Enjoy it yourself and make your family members and friends happy with the unique handmade souvenirs :)
We hope that you find this DIY project rather simple and approachable. We are happy to answer any questions!
Tatiana and Maria, the VZBRELO duet :)
We are always happy to new guests and friends:
Our VZBRELO community (Russian)
Online shop (Russian), another online shop (Russian)
#jewelleryfacts 66/365
Archaeologists have discovered traces of platinum in the gold used in ancient Egyptian tombs and hieroglyphics as early as 1200 BC. However, the extent of early Egyptians' knowledge of the metal is unclear. It is quite possible they did not recognize there was platinum in their gold. (source)
Old MacDonald had a farm!
We were looking for a nice day to go to this petting zoo for some time. Monday right after Easter was just the day we needed. I won't tell you whose fault it was that we got lost because I looked at the wrong street number in the GPS. (Oops! Have I just said "I"? ;)
When we arrived, Esther looked around and asked: "What are we supposed to do here?" I thought that sounded like "why did you bring us here?" Well... I was wrong! What kind of kid wouldn't enjoy a petting zoo? Of course, they did!
See how she is holding this baby goat? I was running around taking pictures of the goats and the white goose (you will see them below), my husband was running behind the kiddo, who was running with no goal whatsoever... Esther was holding this baby goat all that time! She hoped we would buy it )) After about thirty minutes we got bored with the goats and had to go and disappoint her...
I kept this picture of the goats that I photographed:
...and one video of two play fighting baby goats. So cute!
I have never seen a goat feeding its baby before. It's a big baby!
Too bad, we have nobody to take care of a goat. I would like to keep this fluffy one:
Did you know that the baby sheep liked playing with a soccer ball??
This brave goose scared a few people and goats before it returned to its pond!
They had a hay ride there!
The kiddo was allowed to drive this tractor!
(Just kidding!)
My dream magnolia trees!
We found these bunnies after lunch and the hay ride. Do you know how long these two were sitting for there with the bunnies? At least an hour!
More photo fun:
I am keeping this baby goat!
...and this horsey ))
That dream farm had a dream creek behind it:
The oldest farmhouse in Langley was just across from the farm's magnolias:
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It was an awesome day! I do not think I have ever seen baby sheep and baby goats before... and I do not remember when last time I got to hold a bunny :) I would go there again!
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