What I Made In Madrid

After coming back from morocco I had all these new designs that I was ready to make. I had not made any jewelry for over 4 months and I and I was itching to get started and slice and dice my way through some leather. I had a little routine. I would make a pair of earings, do some yoga for 10 min chill clear my mind back to another pair of earings. Maybe go eat a cookie as well in between every now and then, ha ha. Paint my toe nails, back to earings my ADD was on full switch mode. So here are just a few of the earings that I made. I forgot to take pictures of some of them and a lot of them are all ready sold so you wont be able to see them but I’ll make some new ones.

                  

                 

                     

So besides making earings I was doing a lot of cooking and baking because when I was living in morocco I had no access to an oven or refrigerator. The only thing I could cook on was a one burner stove. So when I got here I was cooking all these things that I was craving. One thing that I really wanted to make was a banana curry, I was inspired by all the bananas from living in banana village. I would have made it there for my friends but I knew that they wouldn’t like it because most Moroccans don’t like any  food that is not Moroccan, besides fast food. So I didn’t make it, sad face! But I did make it as soon as I could, and it was delicious the only sad thing about it was that I didn’t have anyone to share it with me because I didn’t know anyone in Madrid yet.                                                                                     

While I was there I went to this couch surfing meeting to see if I could meet any cool people to hang out with, ehhhhhhhhhh, totally lame. But I did meet this girl who was going to photography school and I had mentioned that I was a belly dancer and she asked me if she could photograph me. I thought about it for a sec because I always feel uncomfortable in front of the camera and always feel stupid posing, im not so photogenic but every now and then I’ll get a good one. So I said why not, the first shot that I posted I took myself. I had asked to use her camera because I wasnt really felling any of the photos she was taking, but I didn’t tell her that or maybe im just a bad model! But I did use her camera and her tri pod, the other ones she took, but I edited and photoshoped it a bit. Oh oh oh and the purpley velvet costume I had made when i was living in Turkey.

My Turkish Delight Designs

So after leaving Lebanon I flew my bootie over to the Lovely cosmopolitan city of Istanbul.  After  traveling around the country, finding a job and a place to live I thought it was time to plop down and make some more earings.  These are some of the designs delights  that I came up with in Turkey. More leather feathers and some other goodies. Not so bright and colorful as my last designs because during this time it was winter.

                                                                   

Just a quick quote!

Your eyes are the windows to your soul.

Besides taking photos of still life’s I love snapping away at objects through windows,  its something about the reflection and the contrast between the actual subjects  and what reflects in the back ground. I also have a thing for sticking my big head out the window and seeing what I can find. All these photos are either being taking through a window, at a window or out the window.

Here are some songs and videos that I was listening to a lot at that time, enjoy! xo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxJu-X0zVo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF2620oAXYs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPLNK3mn7zE

A Little Bit of Spray Paint!

Here are some other little designs that I had made in Lebanon . I decided to spray paint on Black leather with pink spray paint and cut out some designs.

Here are also some photos that I took in New York before I left the country.

Here are some graffiti and street art from Jordan and Lebanon and Turkey, I have posted these a while back in my other blog but thought I might post some of them again.

But if you want to check out a lot more graffiti from all over you can check out my friends blog from Cali and he always features a different writers everyday and skateboarding.  Here is his blog, check it!

http://www.skateallcities.com/wordpress/

New Inspiration!

Sometime after living in Egypt I found myself living I Beirut Lebanon. I was bartending at this lil bar called, “name this bar”. During that time I was also looking for places to sell my earings. I still had a little earings left from egypt and I wanted to make more. After walking the streets of Beirut I found a place, called “Luanatic” it was this funk lil boutique that had a bunch of local artists. Selling anything from jewelry, clothing, soaps, vintage things. Anyways they said that they would sell my earings. Everything is pretty much on consignment there and they just add a small percentage to whatever you want  your price to be.

Since I had my earings in the boutique I wanted to start and some new stuff. So I was walking around Boujr Hammoud which is little Armenia, to look for new inspiration. They have lots of little shops to make jewelery out of and crafting stuff, but nothing was getting my attention. I was walking past a lot of leather shops and finally I walked into one and checked out the leather. There was some really amazing leather in this shop. There was a pile of scrap leather on the swept up on the floor and I asked the leather dude what he was going to do with it and he said it was garbage and that he was just going to throw it away. I had asked him if I could take it and he said yeah take as much as I wanted, so I did. I got some new supplies like a couple of box cutters, jump rings and other lil things. Went home and started making new stuff. Since I love feathers and that’s what I was making before I decided to make some leather feathers anddo some layering. I’m obsessed with layering and colors. So here are some of the designs  I came up with.

      

          

                              

So after I have done a bunch of them I was looking for another boutique to sell my jewelry at. I found another place called the union, they did the same thing as the other boutique which was putting  stuff on consignment. Another thing that I was doing while taking my walks on inspiration around Little Armenia was I was looking for a jeweler to make a mold of my ring that I had made right before I left traveling.  I made the ring though the lost wax process where. I had wanted to make a mold myself and make a bunch of them but I didn’t have the time. So I found someone who would do it for me here. I got a couple made here and sold one to a friend and one at the union.

Here are some of my favorite photos that I took while I was living in Beirut, a mix a street art and things I saw walking down the street and junk !

      

                                

    

Fly Me Away

My first destination was egypt, I traveled around there for about a month Then went to Sinai and ended up living on the red sea for about 2 1/2 months in a small town called Dahab, bartending, diving and chillen to the max.  Before I left I thought it would be a good idea for me to bring some of my jewelry that I didn’t get a chance to sell in the states, to make some extra cash. Well im glad that I did because it helped out a lot. The jewelry that i brought was my  feather earings because 1 they were the lightest and 2 the most compact so it didn’t take too much room in my bag and they barely weighed anything.

So how I went about selling my earings is that since I was bartending, I would advertise on myself by wearing my own stuff, and tourist would always ask me where I bought my earings and I would say I make them myself.  I would ask if they wanted  to check them out and they yeah.  So I would just take a 10 min break and go get my earings it’s a good thing that I was living only a short walk away.  Once I busted them out other peeps were also curious as well because there so colorful and there was nothing like that being sold in egypt, specially in Dahab.  I always loved it when someone would buy a pair because they would be so stoked with huge smiles on their face and immediately put the earings on. It makes me feel good inside  because I feel like a little part of my soul is floating all around the world dangling from these girls ears whether it be, Russia, japan, france, where ever. It’s just cool to know that a lil part of me is somewhere where im not actually there in the flesh but in spirit.

While I was there I did a lot of diving and snorkeling. The Red Sea is one of the best places to dive in the world. The coral and the fish are so vibrant and colorful and the visibility is crystal clear. Heres one of my favorite photos that I took while I was diving. One day me and some friends went to this place where you either have to walk 2 hours in the desert and the coast or take a camel there’s no way of driving. Theres nothing there except for small huts and hammocks or mats to sleep on outside. All there is to do there is pretty much chill and snorkel. I think this particular day I snorkeld for about 3 hours straight, sometimes I would make it up to 4 hours. I’m a snorkeling machine! Anyway I saw these lil  red sea shells, they look like lil strawberries in the sea, there so cute.  There actually called Strawberry Top Sea Shells. When I first found them I made sure that there wasnt anything living in them, because I don’t want to take some lil creatures home. I ended up finding a lil family of them, a lil baby one and two bigger ones.  One is slightly bigger than the other.  I decided to make a pair of earings and a necklace out of them. Since I absolutely fell in love with the sea and couldn’t take it with me when I left. I decided to take these lil shells instead with me to always remember my times there. Sometimes when I was snorkeling I would sing songs in my head since I was spending so much time in sea. But also the was this lil tounge twister that I would alway say as well. I know this is absolutely weird but I thought it  was funny. For some reason I  was  always saying this in my  head.

Sally sells sea shells at the sea shore,

Sally sells sea shells at the sea shore,

Sally sells sea shells at the sea shore!

Another thing that I had made was a Sea Horse Stencil. When I was diving one time. I had seen this tiny lil Sea Horse sleeping with its lil tail wraped around a peice of seaweed swaying back and forth with the current. It was the cutest lil thing I hade ever seen. So I decided to make a stencil and spray i around the town. The dive center had liked it so they asked me to spary it ont the side of their jeep.  SEA HORSES FOREVEA!

Theres this ridiculous funny you tube  that I love that when i think of sea horses I cant help but think about this you tube video. At the end it talks about sea shells, sea shell things and sea horses, it’s too funny!

And here are some songs that will always and forever remind me of my time living in Dahab.

A Little of Me and Some Oldies but Goddies!

This blog is long over due! For like two years i’ve been wanting to write a blog about my jewelry designs and my photography but it kinda got put on hold because of my huge decision to pack up and travel the world. Realistically I thought i would only be traveling for 6 months max, but over time it’s been over a year and a half since i started my adventure.  So I thought that i would just make a blog when i got back, but to tell you the truth now, I really have no idea when i will go back to California. So i thought that finally now that it’s better late than never. So here I am making my first post on my jewelry and photography blog.   I have one on my travels here is the link gypsyagogo.wordpress.com

This blog is mostly going to be on the jewelry designs and photography that I’ve been making along the way through my travels and a little bit of things and music that i like and that have inspired me through my journey, I might also throw in a bit of old photography from time to time as well.

But for my first blog I will be showing a little bit of my old jewelry, photos, and vintage collection that I had sold  before I left that helped me make it possible to take this trip that I decided to take. I had a couple of photography shows , and a good amount  jewelry shows and some fun with my sister selling our vintage collection before I left. I don’t have much photos on my jewelry because all of my photos are left at home same with my photography. But to describe my jewelry I was pretty much working with a lot of metals and  stones and feathers, making anything from rings, pendants, earings and belt buckles.

        

             

                   

                                 

So during this time here is some music that i was listening a lot or that gave me inspiration!