Inspired by Nature

This weekend I have had the chance to leave the big bad city and head to the country. Not gonna eat a lott of peaches (That's a song, son, a song, I say).
Anyway, this time and the last time I was here in the Piney Woods, I got obsessed with all the different types of fungi that grow in the swampy creek bottom. There are such a variety of colors, it just amazes me. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera last time, and this time I didn't find so many. But here a a few:

Old tree, covered in fungi? Mushrooms?
Not sure what to call them. 

Underneath the mushroom. Isn't that fantastic?

Looking up the trunk.
Jack and the Beanstalk-esque.

Turquoise and copper

Gorgeous purple, rust, and brown

Fall orange, different form

Soft green moss

These gorgeous textures, colors, and designs....hmmm....I could wear these in silver.....yes. That could work. Inspired by nature.

Leslie in Texas

The Melting Pot... Hecho en Mexico

Mexico is one of the new Melting Pots of the world.

A Melting Pot of Cultures.  Think of taking different colors and blending them.  Each can be very distinctive in its own right but when blended everything comes out a new and beautiful color that you might not have expected.

Maybe not what most think of as a Melting Pot, but it gives you the idea.

Go to the local "Happy Wok" here in Mexico and ask them if they speak Chinese, and they usually do.  At the same time, much like my family, they have a basic understanding of Spanish.

On the upside they usually know more English, than Spanish.

But there are also other cultures.

Notice how many Japanese companies are moving their people here.  Honda and Nissan for example have moved Japanese personnel here for 6 months to 5 year stints.  This adds to the tourist industry.  Here in Guanajuato, I met a Japanese couple who know more about Mexico than most Mexicans.

And still other cultures.

  

Germans are a small but growing population.  Russians, Koreans, Americans, Canadians, all mixed up in this big Mexican Pot.

Found Objects and Artists

SilverNina is plotting to put jewelry artists and intriguing objects together in our studio here in Guanajuato for some high powered creativity and seriously enchanting jewelry making.  We've collected a little colony of designing women and have set out to make a fabulous cache of mixed media and found object jewelry.

It has come down to a scavenger hunt across Mexico and it's fun, but it's not easy.  Found objects have to be found and that takes time.  The list reads like this.  Bits and pieces of precious and semi-precious metals, semi-precious stone and  just plain rocks, and fiber. 

Skin of cow, feather of  bird, teeth, horn, tusk, hair,  pits, pearls, tortoise. 

Polymers, glass, sea shells, porcelain, ceramics, wood,  resin. 

Found things can be machine parts, camera parts, chandelier parts, typewriter parts, piano parts, zipper parts.  Antique coins, antique door keys, antique buttons, antique medals, antique skate keys, antique jacks. 

Anything our imagination asks for, we drag to the studio.

There it is run through a series of rigid quirkiness tests and if it's weird enough, it's in.

 ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Traditions

We don't have many traditions in our family. Neither does my husband's family. We start stories with words like, "We used to..", not "We started doing this when..."

Some people attribute the things they do each year, or continue with their children, as "traditions". They are not. It's more along the lines of, "Every year we watched The Sound of Music." Ahhh. Sweet. Well, it was because that was the only thing on tv and it was too cold to go out! Some tradition. Maybe that it was tradition is.


I have been heavy into Jane Austen as of late, and reading about their traditions. One in particular always intrigued me: passing down jewelry. Not just mother to daughter, but (grand)mother to son to bride. I know people still do this, but it isn't as common as it used to be.

It's kind of nice.

I don't know that I'd like to wear my mother-in-law's jewelry. Even my grandmother-in-law. And I am not sure I'd feel comfortable wearing my mother's or grandmother's jewelry. Some of that is quite delicate. And I live in a world wear women get their hands dirty, just like a man does. I doubt it would last to pass to my daughter or daughter-in-law.

But still.

I wouldn't mind starting a tradition.

I wear silver - .925 silver, hecho en Mexico is my favorite, but I take what I can get. Beautiful and intricate, but solid and classic. Rarely I may wear copper, and rarer still gold. Silver is so versatile - elegant, simple, and understated, or big, chic, and relaxed. The same piece can go from brunch at the corner cafe to dinner at an upscale, urban restaurant.

My daughter already loves my jewelry. And her favorite pieces are my favorite pieces.

As she grows, so do her tastes...and my jewelry box grows empty.

Does she just have good (expensive) taste? Does she just want to be like me? Does she associate happy times with them? I don't know and I don't think it matters. But I do know that she will get at least some of those pieces. As will my daughters-in-law.  And I hope that they continue to pass them down, telling stories to their children and grandchildren of the adventures that happened while wearing that piece.

Because I have had quite a few adventures, and plan on having more. And I am hoping that my girls and their girls continue to have adventures....all while wearing this gorgeous silver.

Yeah. I'd like that tradition.

Leslie in Texas

Trend Hunter Alert

On-trend jewelry at bargain prices makes sense and it's fun to buy, fun to wear. For not too much money pick up something that's a bit out there.  Then move on to something still further out there before you start looking dated.

Got fabulously toned arms?  You'll need shoulder chains to go with those.  Seriously ahead of the pack.  Wear them with a tube top. 

Ear cuffs are practically mainstream now.  These are a bit conservative.  No spikes or skulls.

You still love your seriously chic necklaces.  Not a little string of pearls and a peter pan collar but those glorious pieces that work with everything and make you feel and look like you own the bank.

Man chains  have been in style forever and will be in style forever, so put some money in them.                                                                             

Mexico Goes To Extremes

Mexico is a land of extremes.

Here you see one extreme... this is the Popocatépetl volcano with snow:

now this is the same mountain:

Beautiful, but stunning... its only 35 miles from Mexico City.

Pico de Orizaba, last erupted 1846, and it too has snow:

 

 

 Laguna Salada, being the lowest, it doesn't snow in the Sonora Desert:

 

The common street market (in this case a covered area) on most days:

 

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT Friday comes along and we have this to greet us:

  

That happens week after week...

And last but not least... most here don't actually experience this but all the snow birds do... and thats why they LOVE Mexico.

What they leave behind:

And where they ALL desire to be:

This can be yours too!

It must be the night....

-David in Mexico

How to Clean Your Silver

There are as many ways to clean silver as there are blog posts, ehows, and user-uploaded videos.

They involve everything from boiling water to vinegar to buffing cloths.

I am sure those are all effective. But the easiest way is to simply prevent the tarnish in the first place.

"How?" you may ask.

That is an excellent question, and you are quite the eager young student! I shall tell you the secret, my dear.

Are you ready?

Simply wear your jewelry, darling! Your silver jewelry will always look gorgeous, because first of all it's on you. And secondly, it's not tarnishing!

A win-win! Don't you think?

Leslie in Texas

The Little Workshop in Taxco

Taxco is a beautiful secret city hiding in isolated hills far south of Mexico City.  There's no color here.  Building facades are uniform, white stucco walls with red/brown skirts that hide low-lying scuff marks.  It's a law.  Well, I don't know if it's a law, but if not, it's a gentlemen's agreement, because nobody uses color in this town.

Except for the tile roofs, those terracotta clay roofs.

Taxco is the center of the world.  Of silver.  The town makes it's living, directly or indirectly, from silver.

The world's best silversmiths work in Taxco, many out of their homes, designing and hand making  jewelry, piece by piece, to be sold locally or to fly off to hungry markets in Europe, Australia and the US.   It's a painstaking labor of love for them.

This is not mass production.  It is art.  When you slip on a bracelet from Taxco, think about the hands that held it before yours did.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

A Boy With Kaleidoscope Eyes

As I look around Mexico, now going into my 3rd year, I still have to pinch myself to see if I am dreaming.  Everything here is so different from, what I consider, my previous life, or life back in Texas.

Oh sure Texas has its own charm, but Mexico far outshines it all.

I am reminded of the opening lyrics of The Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds:

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Don't pretend you just read that... I KNOW you sang it!

ANYWAY, sometimes I wonder if I am on a boat floating down that river... looking around with "kaleidoscope eyes".

For one thing life here is so vibrant... nothing is dull.

 

Don't tell me that is DULL.

Course you don't actually see that everyday, but that's part of the culture.

Now something I do see every day is nature.  And we all know that nature can outweigh anything made by hand. 

Like....

This little beauty makes one of my favorite drinks Agua de Jamaica. Its a Hibiscus flower.

But even in Markets its quite Dazzling.

 

So even in the mundane things Mexico is quite a kaleidoscope of colors.

-David in Mexico

The Very Posh Miss Piggy

 

We could do worse than look like Miss Piggy.  Now there was glamour, an era of real elegance.  She isn't the beauty she was in her younger days, but who is?  Miss Piggy, if you're reading this, I hope you don't take offense and please know that I'm a fan.

The brassy broads of old Hollywood used to wear a pirate's cache, back when men were throwing fistfuls of diamonds at Elizabeth Taylor or heaven forbid Zsa Zsa Gabor.  No more.  Now actresses look like waifs when they should be accessorizing like royalty.

Gotta admit though, their clothes are dreamy.  They've got Jimmy Choo and Louboutin, got Balenciaga and YSL but where's the jewelry?  We want them in Harry Winston. We want them in Cartier.
 
Darlings, get your glamour on. 

~ Carolyn in Mexico