#jewelleryfacts365 67/365 Platinum fact

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".

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:

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#naturesgems

Gartrellite on Carminite Tsumeb Mine, Namibia

#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??

A-ah!

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:
.

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!

Beautiful nature

An Australian flower

#jewellerymasterpieces Belle Epoque

A BELLE ÉPOQUE DIAMOND AND ENAMEL NECKLACE WITH WATCH, probably HENRI BERTOUD, ca. 1910. The fine openwork floral design part set with numerous diamonds, the centre set with one engine-turned and blue enamelled watch with appliquéd laurel leaf motifs and diamonds.

#jewelleryfacts365 65/365

In the early days of cinema, many movie stars wore their own jewels in their movies. Some of the stars were Merle Oberon, Marlene Dietrich, and Gloria Swanson.

Marlene Dietrich

DIY by Olga Ogorodnik. Learn about "Nerikomi" pottery technique

When I saw Olga's pottery I wasted no time sending her an invitation to become my guest blogger and asking her to show my readers how she made her unique pottery. To my delight she accepted my invitation! She has even created a DIY project for those who would like to try and make a ceramic bowl themselves. You need to do this in a pottery studio as you need a kiln. Otherwise, I think, this DIY project is suitable for beginners. It is fascinating to watch the birth of this unique bowl even if you are not going to do any pottery any time soon. Enjoy!

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Hello all! I am Olga and I will show you how I work in "Nerikomi" technique today. I've made a square porcelain bowl to show you this Japanese technique in working with colored porcelain clay.

I had white porcelain clay to start with. Then I mixed it with the color pigments that I had in powder form. I prepared a few pieces of clay in different colors: magenta, cadmium red, ocher, dark cadmium yellow, white, olive and turquoise. 

Clay is ready, let's start!

I made two varieties of cakes. The cakes on the left side have the purple lower layer. The cakes on the right start have the ocher lower layer. All the cakes are just about to become multi-layered.

The second cake layers: ocher is on the left side and white is on the right side.

The third layers: yellow and olive.

The forth layers: cadmium red and turquoise.

The fifth layers: purple and yellow.

I roll the cakes flat with a rolling pin until they are 3 - 4 mm thick.

Then I roll them up:

I keep rolling them on the table chasing the air bubbles out:

The red rolls are done:

The ocher rolls are done too:

Then I cut the rolls into pieces 1 - 1,5 cm (0,5'') wide:

Then I placed them on a wet rag:

I do the same with the ocher rolls. The process reminds me of cooking. These pieces look like the sushi rolls for small people!

I need to put all the puzzle pieces in a picture:

Here I am starting to put my puzzle together:

I use both kinds of rolls for my puzzle picture:

At this point I decide if it is going to be a circle or a square:

It is a circle for now:

I put my circle picture on a piece of plastic wrapper and roll it flat:

It is 3 mm thick after I've rolled it down:

I have a square glass bowl that I am going to use as a mold:

The cake is being placed into the glass bowl carefully:

I am making sure that the porcelain bowl is going to follow that shape of the glass bowl nicely:

All the extra edges are being cut off:

The porcelain bowl is ready for drying:

It has been left to dry for three days. I used a wet sponge to smooth out the edges:

Then I glazed the bowl on both sides:

...and left it to dry for one day:

Then I wiped the bottom. The bowl was ready for firing in a kiln right after that (at 2200 F)

It is ready!

I've given it a name - "Dance"!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY project!

Olga Ogorodnik.

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