FRUCCI DESIGN

Compass necklace

2009-10-03T20:22:00.003-04:00

Making this piece was like solving a puzzle game where the words given to me were: movement, compass, circle and way.

Can you see how I connected the dots?

PS By the way, for this piece I have used the map of Philly

ACC Award of excellence 2009

2009-08-26T00:11:00.004-04:00

Last week at the American Craft Council show
in San Francisco I was awarded with
the Award of Excellence 2009.

This is is for me such an honor that I still don't find the right words to describe my gratitude and satisfaction.
And now I must thank all the dear friends that strongly advised me to do the show and support me when I really needed it!!

SALLY

2009-08-07T13:37:00.003-04:00

Right now I'm working with the colorful pages of the RISKO book.
The princess earrings are the the first of my very new line SALLY, inspirited by Risko drawings and his use the solids colors to which I wanted to add a certain 70's flavor.

By the way character in the page I used for these earrings is princess Diana.

Seeting up my facebook fan page

2009-08-04T11:02:00.004-04:00

I've finally took a leap in the FACEBOOK world BUT (well with me nothing is as simple as it looks!!) I did a little mistake...because maybe not everybody knows that behind Frucci deSIGn there is a dyslexic person, who once more has proven that no matter how hard she tries she'll never learn how to spell DeSiGn!
So what happen was that I set up the FAN PAGE with a huge misspelled title, now I have moved it to a new FAN page...where the title was check by non-dyslexic fresh eyes!

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

2009-06-01T00:44:00.003-04:00

The SNAG crowd migrated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a special night where we had the pleasure to attend the Jewelry in Motion 2009 (show curated by Gail Brown) in combination with the wonderful Cezanne and beyond exhibition.
The first was a delightful catwalk performance of worn pieces of jewelry by 34 artists.

It was rare opportunity to see the pieces displayed on the body, some of the pieces were worn by the artists and all the models performance was absolutely fantastic!
For the complete list of artists and their links see here.

The second is an exhibition that features Cézanne work, displayed alongside works by several artists for whom Cézanne has been a central inspiration and whose work reflects, both visually and poetically, Cézanne’s extraordinary legacy.

I must say, I really enjoyed the evening and the Jewelry in Motion show, but some of the criticisms I've heard was that the show did not have enough metal work per se, instead fiber was the main protagonist of the evening. I personally love the cross contamination of fields, but I can see the point of these voices. Any comment on this topic is more than welcome!

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

2009-06-01T00:38:00.012-04:00

the complete list of exhibiting artists

Harriette Estel Berman,
Christine Bossler,
Raissa Bump,
Sunyounbg Cheong,
Jennifer Crupi,
Steven Ford/David Forlano/Maryanne Petrus,
Rebekah Frank,
Gayle Friedman,
Aliyah Gold,
Jill Gower,
Eun Yeong Jeong,
Satomi Kawai,
Lonna Keller,
Jocelyn Kolb,
Monika Krol/ Danielle Rizzolo,
Sharon Massey,
Karen Misher,
Jillan Moore,
Masako Onodera,
Emiko Oye,
Michelle Pajak-Reynolds,
Jimin Park,
Anya Pinchuk,
Stephen Saracino,
Brittany Sondberg ,
Rebecca Strzelec,
Anthony Tammaro,
Billie Jean Theide,
James Thurman,
Erin Williams
and Renee Zettle-Streling.

May 21st: First day of REVOLUTION

2009-05-31T11:34:00.006-04:00

Doug Bucci officially opened the conference introducing the theme of the conference: REVOLUTION.
As also reported on his blog “Revolution can be defined in many ways: a sudden change; a movement against a current situation; the actions of individuals or groups of individuals "revolutionaries." On SNAG's 40th anniversary, this conference will provide the critical context to consider the future of our profession, provide us the opportunity to reflect upon our history, and ultimately celebrate the independent thinkers and decisive movements that ensure change, growth and evolution in our discipline”.

I know I should probably write an objective summary of the conference and leave my personal opinion for the final comments...but I won’t! I can't help saying something on this first!
I think the conference gave a lot of attention to the past revolutionary but missed the opportunity of discussing the future!
Let me explain a bit more what I mean, I personally am a fond of history and I truly believe that knowing the past is the key to a complete understanding and appreciation of present and future, BUT the conference was all about the history (exception made for few brilliant talks). I would have loved to see all the talks exploring more the future aspect of jewelry, of craft and of the artist profession. I would have loved listening to how the big minds who took the stage are foreseeing the future.
I feel we have missed a good opportunity to discuss revolutions going on now. Some examples?

3D modeling and CAD/CAM
new metals
alternative materials
interdisciplinary

I’ll discuss these themes a bit more in details later, now let’s get back to the first day of REVOLUTION!

Stanley Lechtzin was first awarded with SNAG Lifetime Achievement Award and he was also the first speaker with a talk titled “Seizing the Opportunity”.

He presented a collection of original old video/audio of revolutionary artists and teacher of the past. My take home message from him is all in title of his talk, recognize and seize the opportunities when they come up!

Second speaker of the day was Dr. Sandra Alfoldy, her presentation was titled “Imagining Ourselves: Looking into the Future of Craft”.

I didn’t really hear any future direction of the craft in her talk, but for a more in depth description/analysis of her talk I have to link to Gabriel Craig’s blog post.
Gabriel is definitively very passionate about this topic and you can follow the on-going discussion on crafthaus started by him.

The spot lights in the afternoon were for Leo Caballero, the co-founder of Klimt02 and his talk titled “Global Networking in a Global Community”.

Leo’s talked about the creation of K02 as an answer to the need of a reference space for contemporary jewellery artists and galleries. His presentation was divided into 5 sections:

Why not? Or how K02 was born
Creation, art selection, quality
Principles and objectives
The net, new technologies and K02
What about the future

At the end a video was played with a sequence of artists’ images/videos alternated by inspiring quotes.
Leo suggestion for the future was: “interaction is the key for the future”.

The afternoon section was concluded by the Juried Student Presentation, that you can see in the presentation below

byarthur hash

SNAG conference: The Professional Development Seminars

2009-05-21T18:39:00.004-04:00

The first afternoon was dedicated to the pre conference Professional Development Seminars.
Marla Johnson Norris from Aristotle marketing company gave two talks.
The first one was about improving website performance and design and a second one focused on social network.
As a self-taught internet enthusiast, I really enjoy both her presentations, which I found were very informative.
In particular in the first one she explained with practical examples what to do to draw more traffic to artists’ website. Some were new information for me, as for example she pointed out this very useful website to find the best keyword phrases for your website. Some other things she talked about weren’t new to me, but they were pretty much obscure!
An example? Title tags!
I knew they were somehow important, but why? No clue..until tonight!
What I also liked about her presentation was that she used as examples websites from people in the audience to make those concepts really pertinent and actual.
I’ll be posting more details about her presentation in the following weeks...so stay tune!
In the mean time check out her profile page, it is filled with tons of good info!

The second part of the seminar focused on The Evolving Role of the Gallery in a Virtual World of Commerce. Five galleries owners (Karen Lorene of Facére, Patti Bleicher of Gallery Loupe, Whitney Couch of ObjectFetish, Sienna Patti of Sienna Gallery, Beth Ann Gerstein of Society of Arts and Crafts and Ruth Synderman of Works Gallery) talked about how their role in these days of difficult economy is changing and what they are doing to “brew” new jewelry collectors. And I like what Karen Lorene said about this last point “every single person that buys a piece of jewelry is a collector, he/she may not know it yet” and her suggestion was to work in order to make those “unconscious” collectors aware.
The other hot topic of the first evening brought up by the PDS organizers (Andy Cooperman, Harriete Estel Berman and Don Friedlich and Ken Bova) was of course the relationship between the galleries and internet.
The virtual world can be an excellent marketing tool for galleries and all five galleries are very active in this sense, but on the other hand it is also a source of completion. And at this point of the discussion Etsy of course was mentioned, because it represents a very good alternative for artists who wants to sell their art without paying the 50% commission to the galleries. Since I'm an Etsy seller, who is also looking into galleries representation I was really interested in hearing what was their opinion about this. Both Sienna Patti and Whitney Couch respond came as a surprise (good surprise) to me, they affirmed that they would represent artists who are also selling their art on Etsy (provided of course they are a good fit for their galleries). They also said that they don’t see Etsy as the bad guy but rather as good and stimulating competition.
My last remark of this meeting is that after attending the conference I’m even more convinced that I want to find gallery representation.

And last but not least, at 7 pm the famous pin swap took place!

I was a little intimidated at first, but after braking the ice swapping my first pin with Eliana Arenas the only regret of the night was that 30 pins are way too few, next year I’ll have a big supply!
(more photos of my pins plunder are coming soon!)

First day balance: very positive!

SNAG Conference: Day 1

2009-05-21T16:45:00.002-04:00

Here we are...the conference has started!
This is the first glimpse of it, the registration desk looking pretty busy

By the way, being my very first attending a SNAG conference, and I’ll try to post a new comer prospective of this experience.

Getting ready for the SNAG conference

2009-05-19T00:07:00.014-04:00

For the first time in my life I’ll be attending a conference which has nothing to do with science:
the SNAG's 38th Conference "REVOLUTION" in Philadelphia.

This is very exciting but it is also scaring since I’m not really sure what to expect...I guess I feel like the night before a blind date!

For the moment I can just tell why I signed up
Networking: I want to finally meet some of the people that I regularly meet on line (especially on Crafthuas) and more.
Education: I’d like to learn as much as I can, since this is for me a relatively new field.
Sharing: I would like to exchange experiences and hear from other artists about their work and life.
Curiosity: I heard many different things about the conference and I really wanted to see it for myself.
Fun: I wanted to treat myself with a four days of nothing else than jewelry, is there anything more fun?!

There are already a couple of things that put me in the conference mood, I have booked my portfolio review and I have designed new pins (work in progress below) for the PIN SWAP, apparently one of the funniest activity of the first day of conference.

The adventure will start on Wednesday May20th with the Professional Development Seminar organized by Andy Cooperman, Harriete Estel Berman and Don Friedlich.
Main focus of this first day will be four lectures and discussion designed to offer information to establishing and maintaining a career in the arts with a special emphasis on the fast growing virtual world.
Speaking of which, I’ve been asked to blog about my first SNAG time, along with Emiko Oye and Gabriel Craig.
I’ll also try to twitter as much as I can while I’m there, so if you like to get quick updates on this event follow me on twitter.

March in the Press

2009-04-13T23:40:00.004-04:00

Last March I was honored to be featured in VOGUE ITALIA

Needless to say, seeing my name on the article is beyond the imagination of a girl who grew up reading about fashion on the pages of Vogue!

What is also very important to me is that the ECO-FRIENDLY JEWELRY is getting the attention that deserves.

And here is a closer look to COUPY cufflinks , made of recycled paper coming pages of a chemistry equipment catalog.

CUT/ FOLD/STITCH:

2009-03-12T14:28:00.008-04:00

Paper/ Metal

Finally the day of the exhibition has arrived!
I have been invited to participate to this show at the Aaron Faber gallery in New York.
These are my 12 pieces:

The show explores the relationship between two studio jewelry materials - metal and paper - and the techniques artists share in manipulating these materials to create contemporary jewelry.

There are 95 works in the exhibition, created by 23 studio jewelry artists, most from Europe and the United Kingdom, as well as Israel, the United States and Canada.

The exhibition continues through April 19, and is a highlight of the SOFA NYC 2009 exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory, this year taking place April 16 through April 19.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Ingrid Adriaenssens
Noa Goren-Amir
Ursula Bonderer
Shimara Carlow
Jocelyn Chateauvert
Roland Dubuc
Francesca Vitali
Simone Haag
Gerlinde Huth
Pawel Kaczynski
Anna S. King
Esther Knobel
Natalia Krasnodebska
Soledad Kussrow
Chihiro Makio
Ayesha Mayadas
Biba Schutz
Catriona Stevenson
Dorothee Striffler
Silvia Uhlenbruch
Myung Urso
Els Vansteelandt
Arek Wolski

If you happen to be in the Big Apple between today and April 19th, don't miss the chance to visit the show:

Aaron Faber Gallery
666 5th Av/W 53rd St
New York, NY 10103

CAST YOUR VOTE

2009-03-10T17:58:00.005-04:00

About three years ago I design the logo for Frucci Design.
The idea came combining some of the things I like:
Drawing, Multifunctionality, Photoshop/Illustrator, Matisse, My Hair Style (here I must spend few more words, I have had the same hair style since a was a little girl, surely I did change it especially during my 20s, I once was suicide blond, but I always go back to my black bob).
One day I started drawing a very simply self-portrait and I decided to do it using Illustrator (this is my way to learn new tricks with this kind of software), and I don’t even know why I started fitting letters into what it was suppose to be my hair…and all of the sudden they really made sense and FRUCCI DESIGN’s logo was born. And to this day, I find very interesting to see people reactions to it, some only sees the name placed in a funky way other only the shape of the bob but no letters.

During these three years Frucci Design has grown and I now feel it’s time for me to start using a maker’s mark on my metal work and most importantly my real name initials FV. The other day I found myself once again opening a new Illustrator file. After few sketches I decided to adapt the old logo (which is not really suitable for a tiny mark) to my name initial.

Now I have to decide and I need your help! Which of these six options do you prefer?

To cast your vote please write your favorite design number in the comment section. Keep in mind that the final design will be made in to a tiny stamp probably 1/16" x 1/16" (1.5mm x 1.5mm).

Sarurday morning bench mess

2009-03-07T12:16:00.002-05:00

I really enjoy keeping track of my creative process, so here it is my Saturday morning working table snap shot

At the moment I'm working on several projects.
I have just finished four new Petali Bracelets.
And I have also cured almost 150 paper elements, some will be used to make more Rosarios and other are going to be in a very new necklace.

I generally like to work at one project at the time, but lately i started feeling time is flying so fast that i have to do more things at once, which doesn't necessary means I'm producing more, but I feel more productive!

Vi presento Clizia

2009-02-19T12:30:00.009-05:00

the new eco-earrings collection

I have been looking for a new origami design for some time now and today I’m finally launching my last addition to the Girasoli family: Clizia.

As for the rest of the “family” Clizia earrings are based on eco-design. Colorful magazine pages are cut in little square, folded and beads are stitched on.

And if you are wondering about the name Clizia, here is the story:

In Roman mythology Clizia was in love with Apollo (god of light and the sun), who abandoned her for Leucothea. Clizia was so angered that she told Leucothoe's father about the affair and the rival was buried alive. Apollo in anger at Clizia left her sat naked, with neither food nor drink, for nine days on a rock staring at the sun, Apollo, and mourning his departure. After nine days, the suffering turned Clizia yellow and brown, and she was transformed into a sunflower (Girasole) which turns its head always to look longingly at Apollo's chariot of the sun.

Work in progress

2009-01-23T11:21:00.003-05:00

I'm working on some new pieces for an exhibition at the Aaron Faber Gallery next March (more details about the exhibition will come later)

Here is a snap shot of what's going on on my desk this morning:

I have just finished to embroider SCRIBBLE PETALI

Sunday afternoon desk mess

2009-01-15T12:49:00.003-05:00

This is a snap shot of my desk last Sunday afternoon

I'm trying to study new possible shapes for my origami paper jewelry line.

More origami paper jewelry

My treasury made the front page

2009-01-12T12:30:00.003-05:00

It has been a while since I tried to get a treasury list on Etsy. But last Friday, I was online for quite sometime I got lucky! I just had to wait for 5 minutes and I managed to grab a list.

The theme was Arm Ornament, and it made the Front Page of Esty!
Which is very rewarding for two main reason:
first, I love to be able to show off the great talent artists on Esty and second (a more narcissistic reason maybe) I like that my "list making" tastes are Front page worth ;-)

And if you're curious to see what my arm ornament, check them here

Last bit of Xmsas

2009-01-08T17:46:00.005-05:00

This morning setting Xsmas ornaments aside

last red ball hanging on my dinning room wall

Happy 2009!

Happy Holidays!!

2008-12-23T18:13:00.003-05:00

Our first US Xsmas
AUGURI!!!

“YOUR GIFT IS ON ITS WAY” card

2008-12-18T00:47:00.002-05:00

Last year I had some very last minute Christmas shopper who found my work few hours before gift opening night. I made for each of them one personalized “YOUR GIFT IS ON ITS WAY” card. Also this year I decided to offer my customers the same choice.

HOW IT WORKS:
1-You find the gift that you like, for example Chiara earrings

2-BUT it is already the 23rd and it is too late to receive it by next night, you can buy it any way and send me a message (convo in Etsy language) or an email (fruccidesign@gmail.com) and I’ll prepare a personalized card for your gift:

3-I’ll send you (at no extra charge) a pfd file of the card that you can be easily printed at home, you’ll just need to have Adobe Reader (free download here) and a printer

4-Place you card under your tree and enjoy your Merry Christmas night!!

Tetto sotto la neve

2008-11-24T14:29:00.004-05:00

My very first HDR(high dynamic range image).

To tell you the truth this is not a real one, because in order to make a HDR picture you need four basic elements:
-a photo
-the same image photographed at high exposure value (E=~+2)
-the same image photographed at low exposure value (E=~-2)
-photomatix

and I had one and half: my photo and Photoshop
So I produced the over and under exposed copies with Photoshop, and then I followed this tutorial.

Now I have joined my first HDR group on flickr hoping to learn more and more!

NORDSTROM GEMELLI

2008-11-20T13:23:00.003-05:00

Few weeks ago I've posted some shots of my new cufflinks,

Nordstrom Gemelli

A limited edition of elegant eco-friendly cufflinks.

old leaf and new snow

2008-11-18T21:05:00.005-05:00

In the past few weeks I haven't been around here much, the reason is that I have moved to my (well I should say ours) new house

And this morning we had a nice surprise outside: first snow in Rochester, first snow on the deck, first winter photo.

Why I hate Halloween

2008-10-31T11:38:00.006-04:00

Sorry, today my post has nothing to do with my jewelry, it is about why I hate Halloween!
I’m Italian, and when I left Italy in 2000 there was no sign of Halloween celebration there, the 1th of November is the real holiday for us. Halloween was something that I’ve seen only in the movies.
So you can imagine how thrilled I was for my very first Halloween.
I had studied “Halloween how-to” quite well, I had asked around what kind of treats I should have, and how should I greet the kids…so I was ready! The house was full of chocolates and candies, the lights were all on and in addition I came home earlier than usual (which implies I had to spend an extra hour stuck on the L.A. freeways traffic).
I waited and waited and waited….not even one kid showed up and the worst part was that next day I called my parents in Italy and they told me that some kids had rung at their door asking “Dolcetto o scherzetto” (trick or treats)!

In conclusion, this year I’m not yet ready to forgive Halloween but at least I put on a costume!

Frucci Design jewelry at OCMA

2008-10-24T09:18:00.008-04:00

This weekend the 2008 California Biennial (CB08) will open at the Orange County Museum of Art.

Recently the exhibition has emerged as an important indicator of emerging art and artists working in California. This year’s biennial is guest-curated by Lauri Firstenberg and it includes works by more than 50 artists and, for the first time, incorporates off-site projects with collaborating venues from Tijuana to Northern California.

I was much honored to be asked to send a selection of my paper jewelry for the museum retail shop. These piece and more are at the store for the grand opening!

By the way if you haven’t visit the online museum collection check it out here

Does blog banner matter?

2008-10-22T23:21:00.004-04:00

Few days ago, I decided to design a new banner for the blog, and I found myself wondering if blog banner matters at all.
This is the kind of question that never finds a single good answer. It is like asking if appearance matters more than substance. What do you think?
My personal answer to this dilemma is yes it matters!
Don’t take me wrong I’m not a superficial person, but it matters if you’re trying to introduce yourself through a visual media like the web.

And this is why I had put a lot of thoughts in what my banner should look like, and my last version is a fingerspelling of FRUCCI DESIGN.
Why fingerspelling?
Because it is made with hands or handmade, and my blog is about what I do and my hands are my most important tool!

By the way, while researching for this article I found out that the word BANNER comes from late Latin bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made (Latin banderia, Italian bandiera).

I'm a member of crafthaus

2008-10-20T15:27:00.008-04:00

I've been invited by Brigitte Martin to join a new contemporary art, design and fine craft network crafthaus.

It is a true honor for me to be part of this community, especially because most of the artists that I admire are members!

This is my page where I've added a little detail for most people, but a big change for me:
for the first time I'm using my name.

CUFFLINKS in PROGRESS

2008-10-16T14:34:00.002-04:00

I'm working on a limited edition of cufflinks.
Last summer NORDSTROM advertising campaign saw artist Ruben Toledo and photographer Ruven Afanador teaming up to produce these fantastic pages

Of course, I couldn't help my longing for wonderful paper, I had to collect it.
Now I'm giving these pages new life, transforming them into man jewelry!
Here are few shots of my work in progress

UNLEASHED IDEA

2008-10-09T17:29:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had impression of a concept buried in your mind and it seems it cannot make it out of there, like if it is not quite ready to come out?
I have...all the time!
And I’m so luck, I always find the trigger to pull it out of there!

This time it was a customer who asked for a pair of earring to match INSERTO R pendant

her request has unleashed this idea for new earrings that was floating in one of my brain drawers for quite some time

Thank you Jolene!

Discarded to Distinctive

2008-10-01T23:58:00.001-04:00

Ross Art Museum Features Eco-Friendly Exhibit

My work was selected to be part of the eco-friendly exhibition, "Discarded to Distinctive", that is opening today and on display through Nov. 16 at the Ross Art Museum .

Twelve pieces are on displaytogether with the work of Chakaia Booker, Lyne Kearns, Hayley Muse Rupersburg and Aurora Robson:

"We have five artists who are all doing wonderful things with items that are easily overlooked," said Tammy Wallace, first assistant for the museum and curator of the new exhibit. "These women have truly elevated their raw materials into unique, beautiful, sometimes amusing, and sometimes inspiring expressions of creativity. Ultimately, the goal is for everyone to re-think the items they toss into the trash and ask themselves: 'Can this be recycled? Can this be reused? What could I turn this into?'"

And the icing on the cake was that my RB Shlelly was chosen to be on the exhibition flier!

Aber TERRA necklace

2008-09-28T20:11:00.001-04:00

I love colors and I generally try to incorporate them as much as I can in my work

...but sometime it just doesn't happen!

Second day of school

2008-05-07T01:35:00.000-04:00

I’m doing some more casting, this time the wax model was prepared by injecting hot wax into a rubber mold and her e you can nice the nice part of this project: you can get as many copies of an obect as you like and they all be the same…

…but of course the other side of the story is that not all of them come out at all!

Moving

2008-05-03T17:01:00.000-04:00

Ready for my next adventure!!

Destination: Frisco!!!!!

I made it!!!!

2008-05-02T12:18:00.000-04:00

I'm featured seller at Etsy

here are the 10 questions they asked:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location, affiliations, personal stuff).
2. Apart from creating things, what do you do?
3. What first made you want to become an artist?
4. Please describe your creative process (how, when, materials, etc).
5. What handmade possession do you most cherish?
6. Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and websites (besides Etsy).
7. What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
8. What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?
9. How do you promote your work?
10. In ten years I'd like to be...

now if you want to know the asnwer check out the all interview

Maker Fair

2008-05-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

This week end come and visit me at the Maker Fair.
I'll be there on Saturday demoing my PETALI kit.

Please stop by just to say hi or if you feel more crafty bring by some shopping bags and get ready to step in my recycled paper world!
See you there!!

P.S. here is the map of the fair...have fun!!

Casting my name

2008-04-25T15:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had my first casting experience, and I started with a ring: “MY NAME IS” ring.
These are few sketched ideas

The wax model was sprunged it and invested

The ring was casted and here is how it looked once the silver was quenched

The sawed out ring is ready for the cleaning process

But I couldn’t resist trying it on!

GIRASOLE BROOCH

2008-04-22T14:58:00.000-04:00

From today, GIRASOLE is also synonym of brooch!

It is the new eco friendly brooch in my shop, made of old magazine page and embroidered with tiny blue seed beads.

On a black jacket it really pops out!

BROOKE EARRINGS

2008-04-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

"What is your favorite color?
If you had to choose among 36 colors, which one would you pick?"
This was what Brooke was wondering about few days ago…when she had a fabulous idea: “why pick just one? why not more and all together?”
So everything started combining colors

…paper was cut…

…transformed into tridimensional elements…

…few of the tiniest seed beads were included and sterling silver wire was hammered…

BROOKE earrings are now part of my paper jewelry collection.

Grazie Brooke

Qual’e’ il vostro colore preferito?
Se aveste 36 colori fra cui scegliere per quale optereste?
Questo era cio’ che si chiedeva Brooke qualche giorno fa…quando le e’ venuta una fantastica idea: “Perche’ limitarsi ad uno, perche’ non di piu’”
Cosi’ tutto e’ cominciato con la scelta dei colori…
… la carta e’ stata tagliata…
…trasformata in elementi tridimensionali…
…alcune perline aggiunte, l’argento e’ stato battuto..
..ora gli orecchini BROOKE fanno parte della mia collezione di gioielli!

Bond's dad

2008-04-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

The 2008 is the centenary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond,and to celebrate a series of events have been organized, you can check them on this website .

As a little girl I use to love James Bond movies...the music, the humor, the locations, and if you want to know my personal preference on the usual question who is the best James...I must reply Sean Connery of course!!

Sean Connery
Originally uploaded by twm1340

Visit to LACMA

2008-04-11T15:12:00.000-04:00

I’m a museum person, I can’t help it...if I’m in a new city I have to visit as many museum as I can, and everytime I’m back home, in Rome, I have to go visit at least one art exhibition!
But I have been postponing the visit to LACMA for so long, and why? Simple! it was just too close, too handy!

I tend to procrastinate when something it’s so easy to do that could be done it anytime!
Well, now I have no time left, I’m leaving LA in 20 days so I had to go!

The new opened building of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum is a travertine box surrounded by red steel beams by Renzo Piano:

BCAM
Originally uploaded by Dan Hontz

I was very happy to find the first floor of the BCAM dedicated to one of my favorite metal sculptor: Richard Serra.

I'm posting videos for both the two Serra's sculptures, Band and Sequence, which, in my modest opinion, describe better than a single photo the dynamicity of these two masterpieces and give the flavor of what an incredible experience is walking in these giants

BAND

SEQUENCE

While we were strolling about the second floor, I entered a room and..SURPRICE a gigantic table immediately made me feel tiny (which is generally not easy to do being almost 5.10”!)

Therrien's "Under the table", an almost 10 ft tall sculpture, brought me back when I was a little child and I could crawl under the table, while adults had their supper...down there it was a world made just for little ones!

Now I'm really ready to leave LA!

March Madness

2008-04-08T03:28:00.001-04:00

So far March has been the craziest month of the last few years for me!
The mosaic below kind of summarizes few of the events, but now I should be able to get back on track and blog regularly again!

The biggest news of all…well there few I can’t reveal yet, but one I certainly can:
I’m leaving sunny California in direction of up state NY…more precisely to Rochester!

Have you ever met a bare protein in person?

2008-03-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

No?!

So let me introduce you to my protein, well not really mine, I’m just studying it!

The yellow solution in the tube contains the protein, leaving out too many technical details, my protein is dissolved in that liquid.
I’m trying to study this protein by NMR.
NMR is a powerful technique used to “look” at some protein atoms (hydrogens, carbons and nitrogens) in order to understand how the protein 3D structure looks like.

In few words it is like doing a tomography or an MRI, but instead of a person's body I analyze a protein!

ALMOST MISSED SAN FRANCISCO WEEKEND

2008-03-21T05:08:00.000-04:00

This morning, ops it's already Friday...so I should say yesterday morning, I got an e-mail which reminded me of today early morning flight to San Francisco.
I have to say 98% of the time I hate those remainders, but today I was so grateful to read it!
Why?
Because I had totally forgotten about it!
So in few hours I'll be in San Francisco and I'll attend a three days metalsmith class at the REVERE ACADEMY.

In the mean time, I wish you HAPPY EASTER!

Open Studio Tours: Fru Snoops on

2008-03-20T03:07:00.000-04:00

I have recently started to write this Open Studio Tour series for the Storque, where I'll be snooping around artists' creative spaces, how they set them up, when, why...even how often they clean them!

The first tour was into my space

This time I visited Michelle aka mcaplan wonderful working space

If you would like to show and share your working space, please leave o comment here.

TUTORIAL

2008-03-19T18:55:00.000-04:00

FLICKR SCREENSHOTS/ILLUSTRATIONS
How to properly post a screenshot or an illustration on Flickr.

Recently Flickr has changed its policy on safe contents, while before that some people used to be NIPSAed.
What does NIPSA mean?
It stands for Not In Public Site Areas, and the NIPASed accounts do not show up in public search (if you want to know more about NIPSA see here)

Now that the new filters are in use, you can avoid any flagging of your screenshot or illustration by labeling them properly.

Here are two methods for setting the content type while uploading the photos:

1 UPLOADING FROM THE WEB
-in your flickr home page click Upload Photos

-click “show more upload settings”

-a large menu will come out, where you can set your file content (photo/screenshot/illustration) or safety level.

2 UPLOADR UPLOADING
-look for the “content type” menu on the right

Here are two methods for changing the content type on uploaded photos:

1 ON THE PHOTO PAGE

-on the bottom right of your photo page find the link Flag your photo

-set the content type

2 ORGANIZE MODE

-click on “Organize” button on the tool bar

-once in the organize window, you can drag in the center as many photo as you like (in my example I just used one) and click the Permission button

-chose from the menu “Set content type”

-set the content type

-go back to your home page by clicking the Your Photo link on top right of the page

TIP for Etsians: use one of these methods to set the content of your treasury screenshots...and happy flickring!

LA SUNSET

2008-03-17T15:14:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I was driving to the airport and the sky was absolutely incredible, I couldn’t help myself I had to take this picture, which may not be crispy but definitively depicts the color of last night!

Ieri sera stavo guidando verso l'aeroporto, e il cielo era incredibile, non ho potuto fare a meno di scattargli una foto.

WORDY GIRASOLE RING

2008-03-14T18:17:00.000-04:00

WORDY is the newest ring of the GIRASOLE line.
GIRASOLE means sunflower in Italian, and this origami shape reminds me of those funny dynamic flowers!

This ring is a mix of old techniques reinterpreted with the eco friendly modern language:

RECYCLED PAPER :is there anything that make you feel better than make what you like knowing that is good for our planet?
ORIGAMI: folding paper have always fascinate me, and recently I have revisited this technique by adding an other of my obsession: BEADS!
EMBROIDERY is one of the first thing I can remember doing as a “little child soon crafter to be”. Apparently this runs in my genes, my grandmother was a very good and known embroider.
PEYOTE STITCH is one of the basic stitch for beaders and yet one of the most widely used, because it can be very easy or very intricate and versatile.
I’ll soon post a tutorial on peyote stitch, I think everybody has to try it once!

WORDY e’ il nuovo anello della collezione GIRASOLE.

Quest’anello reinterpreta tecniche antiche con il linguaggio moderno del design ecologico:
LA CARTA RECICLATA: mi fa sentire cosi bene poter creare sapendo che lo faccio in modo “verde”
GLI ORIGAMI: piegare e ripiegare la carta mi ha sempre affascinato, recentemente ho rivisitato questa tecnica aggiungendole un’altra delle mie ossessioni: le PERLINE!
IL RICAMO: e’ una delle prime cose che ricordo facevo da bambina. Decisamente una caratteristica genetica, visto che mia nonna era una vera esperta nel campo!
IL PUNTO PEYOTE: uno dei punti base dei lavori di perline, e’ uno punto versatile che puo’ essere molto semplice ma anche molto complesso.
Al piu’ presto pubblicherò un tutoria su questo punto, perche’ credo che tutti devono provarlo almeno una volta!

FRIZZIFRIZZI

2008-03-14T03:56:00.001-04:00

Yesterday the nice guys at FrizziFrizzi made a shoot out on my work!
It is so exciting to be in feature in blogs that I love!
What is cool about this blog?
They are always super updated with all the new trends!
The blog is in Italian, but this is only a plus…you can learn Italian while reading at the latest fashion and design news!

The stunning part of the article is this:
"Trovare tracce del suo lavoro diurno (la chimica) nelle sue creazioni notturne (i bijoux) non è poi così difficile: Francesca costruisce i suoi orecchini, le sue collane e i suoi bracciali come fossero molecole, disponendole secondo modelli che ricordano molto le strutture organiche viste al microscopio"
Which means that you can find hints of my daily job (biologist) in my creations, because my pieces resemble of molecules observed in the microscope.
This is so true and I’ve realized it just now that they made me notice that!
Thank you FrizziFrizzi!

CRAFTZINE BLOG

2008-03-13T05:35:00.000-04:00

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that my MATTONELLA was featured in the CRAFT blog !

BTW, if you’re into creating with your hands (I guess I could more easily use the term handmade, but I’ve always been intrigued by the association of CREATING and HANDS) you should check Craft blog out , this blog is full of new and interesting ideas!

Grazie CratfZine!

Immaginate la mia sorpresa quando ho visto il mio pendente MATTONELLA in mostra sul blog del giornale CRAFTzine !
A proposito di blog, se vi piace creare con le mani (suppongo possa dire piu’ semplicemente fai-da-te, ma mi e’ sempre piaciuto il concetto di CREARE CON LE MANI, dovete assolutamente dare un’occhiata a questo , e’ pieno di idee e istruzioni per progetti fai-da-te.

BLOGLOVE

2008-03-13T03:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I started a new Flickr group all about blogged photo.

Why I did it?
I started this group because I've always found such great photos in all the blogs I visited, and I thought it would be cool to have all of them grouped in a single place.
And this is also a new way to meet new blogs and to keep in touch with each other!

The following stream of photos is a little sample of the photos from the group.

Why you should join?
I’ll just give you few among the reasons
First, because you’re invited
Second, because if you blog, this is a way to connect with other bloggers
Third ,because if you love reading blog, this is new queak and fun way to look through blogs.

P.S.
Once you have joined, add this code to your blog, help spread the word!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/blog-love/"><img width="48" alt="bloglove icon" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/2330034254_505b89fe2f_t.jpg" height="48" /> </a>

WORK IN PROGRESS

2008-03-12T00:41:00.000-04:00

Today I was at the studio working on this piece

The design is based on the SPICULUM concept, but once it will be done I’ll add a flair of paper.

If you want to know more about the SPICULUM and the ANTICLASTIC RAISING basics, please visit the ganoksin project site

MATTONELLA

2008-03-11T09:06:00.000-04:00

MATTONELLA is the newest pendant in my shop.
The name means tile in Italian, and of course it is inspired by the shape of this pendant, but also by all the little squares/tiles that form the pendant...so I guess it is a double tile, or a tile of tiles!

The material I’ve used for this pendant is recycled paper, to be more precise I used few pages of a magazine called DRUG DISCOVERY news, a magazine dedicated to drugs research business.

The technique I’ve used is a mix of weave and embroider.
That’s a theme very common to all my work: old techniques applied to an unconventional material.

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MATTONELLA e’ il nuovo pendente nel mio negozio .
Il nome e’ ispirato dal dalla sua forma e dal fatto che in fondo e’ formato da piccole mattonelle, si potrebbe dire che e’ un mosaico di mattonelle!
Per farlo ho usato carta riciclata, per dirla tutta ho usato delle pagine di un giornale specializzato in ricerca di nuovi farmaci (DRUG DISCOVERY news).
La tecnica usata e’ un misto di tessitura e ricamo.
Vecchie tecniche riadattate a materiali non convenzionali: questo e’ un tema ricorrente nel mio lavoro!

First post

2008-03-11T03:07:00.000-04:00

Starting a blog may seem easy, but it is not!
I’m holding on this for few days after I picked the name.
And before that, it took me for ever to decide to start on.
I guess I’ll start with a tiny little START post and we shall see!

Cominciare un blog puo’ sembrare facile, ma non lo e’ affatto!
Da qualche giorno ho scelto, ma ho aspettato ancora.
e prima del nome, ci sono voluti mesi prima di decimi a cominciare.
Allora non faro’ altro che cominciare con un piccolo post d’inizio!