This is my blog where I write about music, jewelry, and myself. Vaudeville, burlesque, blues, jazz, songs about baltimore, novelties, and whatever else I feel like posting. Mostly from my own LPs and 78s. Subscribe via any of the methods in the right-hand column. Please do not link directly to the mp3 files.
jewelry interview: Anne-Miek Bibber
I came across the photos of Anne-Miek Bibber's jewelry on Flickr, and thought it'd be a good start to some profiles of people making interesting jewelry out there, particularly with plastics. Anne-Miek Bibber's Flickr has some nice photos of experimental jewelry made with a wide variety of materials.  How long have you been making jewelry and do you have any particular kind of training? I have been making jewelry since childhood, always collection broken pieces from old aunts and my mothers friends. I was always creating, drawing and painting. I finished art school, the "Rietveld Akademie for fine Art" in Amsterdam and later I took courses silversmithing and pottery. ( I made lots of ceramic beads too.)Do you ever sell jewelry or do you just make them as art-objects? I do sell some of my jewelry, sometimes as "art-objects" but some women are brave enough to wear big bald pieces, like my two meter button necklaces! And the "Rose-garden collection is even quite popular, beacause light and colourfull and easy to wear. Have you or anyone else ever worn some of your more experimental, large pieces out into public at an event, etc? I wear a big piece myself on an opening night, often with a hat and a long skirt. So lots of my friends do not recognize me, because I love to be comfortable in jeans and a teeshirt.How do you feel about jewelry in relation to fashion, for example are the pieces you create more like "sculpture" or could you envision creating jewelry for fashion shows and shoots? I love "sculptural" but I always make sure, a necklace really fitts a human body!
I feel my process of creating is too slow to keep up with fashion, and worse I do not have the "feel", the "touch", needed to be in the fashion-rat-race.
But than many Dutch fashion desingers make long-lasting-fashion. So I really do not know, it depends on your definition of "fashion"!! Do you have a particular favorite material? I love glass & ceramic beads and gems, alas for big bold pieces not very practical, a necklace made from these materials will be very heavy, and cause a bad back and pain in the neck....That is the beauty of cups, deodorant-roll-on-balls and other plastic stuff it is very light and so comfortable to wear. If your favorite material is not something traditional, are there any traditional materials (eg metal, wire, gemstones, beads, polymer clay, resin) that particularly appeal to you? I love amber, bone and coral very much too, great colours and structures and above all a very nice warm feeling while wearing, alas those materials are quite expensive when I want to make a real big piece. I know investments pay back, but I am a better artist than a business-woman :-( more of Anne-Miek Bibber on FlickrLabels: jewelry
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Autumn Serenade
Happy November Sunday. Next week I'll hole up in the kitchen baking pies and swaying around to mellow old big band songs like this one. With the mild air outside and the smell of leaves I can't stop myself from remembering this same time of every notable year before this one. I had a great weekend actually. I went to see the Jesus Lizard and Double Dagger on Friday, and enjoyed company of old friends before a good show. On Saturday I went to see Twilight : New Moon and laughed a lot. I took my dog on long walks. I could wistfully remember this weekend next year, perhaps.  Harry James and his Orchestra
Autumn Serenade
Columbia 36838 (1945)Labels: big band, jazz era
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500 Plastic Jewelry Designs: A Groundbreaking Survey of A Modern Material
Lark BooksI finally got this new book in the "500 Series" jewelry books. Just about every plastic material imaginable is in use somewhere in this book. Styrofoam, silicone, legos, rubber, acrylic sheet, repurposed materials, resin.. even the exhausted "resin with candy sprinkles" approach is artfully presented here. To put it cheesily, it's like having my dream gallery exhibition at hand. It makes me feel like all my hours each week of looking at jewelry online is in vain, that I have only ever come across a handful of these artists. A review without photos doesn't do the book justice. Unfortunately there aren't many online so I'll demonstrate some items by some of the jewelers in the book:  LianaKabel margauxlange Karen McCreary Liaung Chung Yen Mary DonaldLabels: books, jewelry
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Here's another (semi) displacement song by a bluegrassy brotherly duo. The Delmore Brothers were commercially successful and it's not hard to tell why. A lot of their songs are full of uplifting "pep." I just love this little number, and I wish I were listening to it in my car with this city at my back. The Delmore Brothers
Going Back to the Blue Ridge Mountains Labels: country, displacement
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on jewelry in photos
One thing that I like to imagine is fancy photoshoots with my jewelry. When I take classes, the creative process is driven by an art jewelry aestetic, encouraging creative design. But that doesn't work so well for me. Personally, I like fashion jewelry. I like a lot of jewelry from J Crew. I love contrived editorials in magazines. I collect inspiring photos in a scrapbook and from that I draw ideas for jewelry. I think about clothing and settings and I try to envision where my jewelry would be fitting. I sometimes think about jewelry, inspired by other ideas for complimentary clothing and styles that I won't make the effort to create. So I focus on the jewelry. In the course of my fashion magazine perusal, I've been drawn to photos that really showcase the jewelry. My favorite magazine for this is Zink. I don't know what I'd do without Zink. Almost every issue has an editorial that's heavy on the jewelry.  Now this one's on the corny side but I selected it because unlike the other photos I have here, it features a touch of color.      I love necklaces and boobs. Or jewelry on nudes, in general. As you can see, Zink is big on that.   In these ads, the jewelry is well displayed. Too bad it's not that cool.      I really like to see photos where jewelry is well integrated with clothing and yet entirely noticeable. Some of these are actually from Teen Vogue, which is my second-favorite american fashion magazine. Unfortunately I cropped some of them before the "whole picture" was of interest to me. The Zink photos are great, but too consistently they leave out color. Searching the internet for "jewelry editorial" turns up lots of results from this epic shoot from "Flair" magazine (Italy, I believe):     I love this kind of effort. Labels: jewelry
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A Bama
Lately, this has been my favorite song about a place. As I've listened to it repeatedly, I've found it more and more moving. At first I found the harmony pleasing. I realized the song is just the same thing.. over and over. A song like that has to be special. See also: Carter Family. Just the same pretty thing over and over. I thought "I could sing this as 'West Virginia' instead of 'Alabama." I was wrong. I'm not sure if West Virginia has all the same crops and the same scenes mentioned in this song, but even if it does, this song deserves to be kept intact. The Bailey brothers are actually from Tennessee. This song was recorded many times by Alabama natives the Louvin Brothers. Everything seems to point towards Charlie Louvin as the originator of this song.. but it seems like the Bailey Brothers recorded this in the early 50s at the latest, and the Louvin Brothers years later. Maybe not, I dunno. Anyway I like the Bailey Brothers more. Their music is more old timey. The lyrics amount to one the most passionate odes to a homeland that I can think of. Very descriptive and sentimental. Without the usual bitter lament of moving to a big city and wasting time. This song makes me want to go to the beautiful places that I love, up in the woods and all around the Appalacians. The leaves are turning colors right now. There's not enough trees in the city to appreciate them. The Bailey Brothers
AlabamaPS One last thing.. WHAT IS "CERISA"?? Labels: country, displacement
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 The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum
by Rebecca LoncraineThis book drove me nuts, but it was ultimately somewhat enjoyable. As the title states, this is a life and times book. My main gripe was the way the "times" were tied into the story. She's like: "[Baum] might have went to" this thing. Or: "might have" seen this story in the news. "Must have" thought ____. I hated the constant speculation about what he might have done. I'm no Barry Paris but I believe there has to be a better way to get that idea across without sounding so goofy. Regarding a road that Baum saw as a child, which was made out of hemlock: "However, the planks became worn.... and the old planks frequently had to be replaced. Fresh hemlock is a liight yellowish color... the famous Plank Road would have curved, like a yellow band, through the countryside." REALLY? OK WOW IT'S GREAT TO KNOW ONE TIME WHEN HE WAS A KID HE MIGHT HAVE SEEN A ROAD THAT WAS SORT OF YELLOW SHERLOCK LONCRAINE. Despite these glaring flaws, I was satisfied by my reading experience, because I had never read a book about Baum's personality and the chronology of his writing career. I didn't find this book a chore to read - in other words a child would enjoy it, or a normal person could read it in one sitting. I want to say something nice to balance out my criticism. The cover design is nice. Red metallic ink. The glimmer of ruby slippers on the big screen must have looked a lot like red metallic ink to the designer when the designer was young. PS - Baltimore: If you want to read this or any of the previous 3 books I "reviewed", I am giving them to Book Thing or to you personally, so you can enjoy them for free. Labels: books
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