J &T Design

Anastasia at the Home Plus Play Area

Today we took Anastasia to the Home Plus play area for the first time. Here are a couple videos of her response. Watching her was so much fun I had to figure out how to record video on my cell phone!

Necklace “At Lukomorie”

This necklace is one from my “fairy-tail collection”, it is amusing, funny and light, though the work on this necklace was quite hard because of the micro-bead framing (I used beads size 18- 24 for the stone mounting decoration).

The name of the necklace speaks for itself; it was taken from the verses of A.S.Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”:

“On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound,
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round.
To right he walks, and sings a ditty;
To left he walks, and tells a tale….”

Materials, used in this piece of art: Jasper cabochon, antique Italian micro beads (# 18-24), Japanese glass beads size 11; acorns; metal golden chains.

Necklace “Autumn Ball”

A gold nugget and glass beads – are you surprised with such a combination? The nobility of antique micro beads and the luxury of gold go together perfectly, neither denying each other nor distracting from each other, but adding new nuances and new perceptions.

This necklace I created as a transformer: you could wear it differently, changing the pendant (I made additional pendant to this necklace in a shape of a leaf, using my own technique “Micro bead netting in embroidery”) or you could wear all parts separately – the necklace also looks great without any pendant, and pendant looks very attractive by itself.

Many people are wondering about the size of the beads which I’m using. This picture will give you exact image of differences in sizes between contemporary beads size 11 and antique little ones.

Materials, used in this necklace: glass ruby cabochons, antique Italian glass micro beads (sizes 18-22), Czech glass micro cuts, black pearls, haematite beads, Swarovski crystals, gold-filled clasp.

Brooch – necklace “The pearly Rose”

This brooch is a distillation of finesse, elegance and luxury. Very rare and astonishing materials and the finest workmanship make this piece of art absolutely unique and unbelievably beautiful. To create this brooch, I used the smallest natural pearls which you could imagine – less than 1 mm in diameter, larger pearls, antique glass beads sizes 18-24, very small silver beads and Czech glass micro cuts. The flower was netted on the silver base, which allows to turn this brooch into the pendant for a necklace by sliding the necklace through a special slot made from silver, a very easy and fast procedure.

Necklace “The Stone Flower”

This necklace was made by motif of P.Bajov’s fairy-tale “The Stone Flower.” I wanted to express the attraction and intangibility of the mythical stone flower, whose living beauty was impossible for Danila, the rock-carving master, to make out of malachite. In my necklace you can see the Malachite flower, turning into the difficult to catch butterfly…

This necklace was created using my own techniques “Micro-bead netting in embroidery”. Work on this project of beading art took over 100 hours.

Materials, used in this necklace: malachite cabochons and beads, Japanese beads size 11, 15, antique Italian micro beads sizes 18, 20, 24; gold-plated charlottes, black-greenish pearls, Czech micro cuts, Swarovski crystal beads, Onyx beads, gold -filled findings.

Necklace-scarf “Claudia”

This necklace was made especially for a wonderful, kind and charming woman – Claudia; the smooth and soft lines and folds of this necklace were called to underline Claudia’s gentle beauty and the colour of it goes so well with her skin and hair. In my strong opinion, every piece of jewelry which any woman wears must be in a harmony with her inner beauty and outward appearance. It must underline all the best things in a person and shouldn’t be just a thing, catching anybody’s eye by itself, covering it’s owner.

Materials, used in this necklace: Japanese glass beads sizes 10 and 11, Swarovski glass pearls, Czech glass drop beads, Crystal beads, “cat’s eye” glass beads, sterling silver clasp.

A Korean Reaction to Anastasia

One of the most interesting things about living in Korea with a little girl is how the people here go crazy here. Everyone who goes anywhere with us in the country is amazed at how it’s practically like the paparazi surrounding Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt when we go anywhere. Sometimes it gets a little annoying but we’ve gotten used to it and enjoy how a wave of smiles follow us where ever we go.

This last weekend we spent some time on a beach and she was the star. Everyone had to come by and watch her playing in the sand. It was really funny one time when I was concentrating on flying my new kite and she knocked a chair she was sitting on over. I heard about 20 Koreans all inhale sharply all at one time and could hear them start running. I turned and saw her looking up at me startled but then she laughed and there was a collective sigh of relief that she wasn’t hurt.

I’m attaching a video here of what a typical reaction to foreign kids is like here in Korea.

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Busan Fireworks Festival 2009

View of the Gwangali Bridge in Busan during the 2009 Fireworks Festival

View of the 2009 Fireworks Festival in Busan.

John and Tanya with a little Korean girl on the beach at the 2009 Busan Fireworks Festival

Today tanya and I headed over to busa to see the 2009 Fireworks Festival. We went the the festival last year and both of us thought it was the most Amazing show we’ve ever seen.

This years show was just as good and we got to experience some wonderful Korean hospitality on the gwangali beach. When we got to the beach at about 6:40pm it was already very cowded and we were trying to find a seat. A Korean lady with a bunch of little kids near her waved to us and gave us some seats on their blankets. The little girls gave us some cookies and had fun trying to talk with us. It was also really fun to listen to their excitement throughout the show.

After the 45 minute long show (felt like 10 minutes) we then headed back to the subway station. It was a scene reminiscent of the Japanese train stuffers and the streets were like rivers of humanity.

Pendant “Ocean Symphony”

Do you know how to listen to the ocean? It lives its own, special, life. The deep water pose so surprising, but – alas! – We look unreachable. But the ocean is able to talk and loves those who know how to listen. Listen as the waves foam roll over pebbles, one year to the smoothing of irregularities, making them humble servants of the water element, listen to the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom and to imagine unimaginable variety of fish, shellfish, corals, jellyfish and other, other – all these sea creatures each of whom do not even suspect that you are trying to let the ocean to hear their stories, hear the whisper of the waves in the echoes of distant worlds, discoveries, victories and defeats, and the collapse of hopes … And coming home after a long retreat, to bring to your ear to the selected bank of shell and, referring to the abandoned thoughts of nature, listen to the ocean, buschuyuschy inside you …

Materials used in coulombs: kaplevidnye Czech glass beads, beads Shvarovski, glass cabochon, Japanese beads number 11, 15, an antique Italian mikrobiser № 18,20, as well as mikrorubka; leather, waxed thread silamid, leather cord.

Tanya’s News Story

Last year while visiting her home in Magadan, a local news station did a story about Tanya’s beadwork and her mother’s green thumb. I was going through some files and found this and now it’s posted for your viewing enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the video is Russian but I hope to be able to add in some subtitles soon.

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