Happy New Year !!!

When I thought about wishing you a happy new year,
I wanted to do this in a very special way.
So I decided to use some of my Swarovksi crystals and arranged them on my tray.
As a jewellery artist I should use materials,
that I use for making jewellery,
so the crystals speak for themselves.
My jewellery was my way to communicate with you.
And my crystals say: Thank you!
Thank you so much for visiting me,
for leaving all those lovely comments and for your support.
I am glad to have met some of you in person,
and I am smitten by all those kind e-mails,
this really means very much to me!

I wish all of you a brilliant 2009 full of luck,
health, spirit, success and much love.

Happy New Year !!!

Time for coffee

It´s sunday... no work...
just having time to relax while drinking a turkish coffee
and eating turkish delight.
I wish you all a wonderful sunday !

Oriental Cookies, Anyone ?

During the last weeks I had no time for baking,

but today I made some delicious cookies ,

that I shaped like the oriental slippers (Babouches).

Although they aren´t perfect,

I think they look very cute and pretty.
It was easy to prepare these cookies,
and as you can see,
you get many slippers to eat :-)

Cookies and Colour

It´s cookie-time,

so I want to share a very special issue of Martha Stewart Living,

that is full of yummy goodies.

I totally love to cook and to bake,

and this picture makes me want to go into the kitchen

and make tons of cookies...

Oh, this is such a lovely combination, isn´t it?

A soft shade of grey mixed with that smashing pink is eyecatching.

It makes me want to decorate anything,

just because of the colours.

(Images courtesy of marthastewart and impressionen)

Happy Holidays

As I mentioned a few days ago,

one of the things I like the most in December

is definetely the decoration.

There are millions of ways you can decorate your home, office or shop.

I prefer to decorate my home by using a strand of lights

with my objects I already have at home.

So here we have no typical christmas decoration,

it is an oriental style of using those lights.
Happy Holidays to all of you !

Istanbul Nights

Oh, I just received an incredibly delicious tea, that I would love to share.

Even the teabox is so lovely I fell in love the moment I saw it.

Look at the cute ornament, this is definetely an oriental spiced tea...

When you open the box, you discover a tiny button,

and imagine a mixture of black tea, mint, cinnamon, ginger,

coriander, pepper and other spices,

that invites you to have a cup of this divine tea immediately.

This tea is titled "Istanbul Nights", because of its mixture and oriental flavor.
You can order it from Samova, where you also can discover more goodies of that series.

Thank you so much for this special tea, that you chose for me,

dear Holly !

Here comes the gold...

One of the things I like the most in December is the glittering decoration you see everywhere. I´m not talking about that "kitschy" stuff around, I like to look at an inviting decoration, that captures you by its beauty. Here in Germany people use especially red and green, but I prefer gold or silver to add that extra sparkle. So the earrings I made kind of fit in this season, because they consist of beautiful material like Swarovski crystal and handmade silver beads that look like brass.
As the theme is gold and glitter, let me show a piece of a common project Petra and I have. This is a cosmetic bag, made of silk has an oriental embroidery I made after Petra sewed the bag. I like the contrast of the shimmering silk and the matte sequins, that look fabulous with those little glassbeads on them.
The embroidery has an Ottoman influence,
and we also use this theme on silk skirts that we titled
"Turkish Delight".
By the way, our common projects have their own label :
Ranipink feat. Sultanissima

Sevan Bicakci

Sevan Bicakci is a real master of jewellery.

His rings are pieces of perfection, that seem to tell stories.

This multi-award winner is an Armenian who was born in Istanbul

and started working at the Grand Bazaar when he was 13.

He loves to show his love to this unique city by using symbols like mosques,

so the rings are miniatures of that impressive buildings.

Above you can see a small collection of his unique jewellery that I´ve found.

Look at those precious stones, their shapes and architectural perfection.

Sevan Bicakci works with materials like gold, silver, diamonds,

gemstones, enamel work and gemstones.

When I am in Istanbul, I try to go and see his showroom,

and I am very impressed of this excellent work.

I really hope that one day I will have the chance to meet this designer,

who is also a visionaire when it comes to jewellery.

Those rings look stunning, but in reality they capture you...

Sultan´s Frosted Blue

The bracelet "Sultan´s Frosted Blue"

is a perfect way to accessorize in this season
, because it reminds me of ice and snow.

I knitted blue coated copper wire with aquamarine nuggets.

Before I left to Morocco I shared my gemstone strands

and I wanted to work with aquamarine first.

After working with really eyecatching colours,

I guess I needed to create jewellery in pastel shades.

These earrings match perfectly to the bracelet,

because the Swarovski crystal has nearly the same colour

than the aquamarine gemstone.

The copper elements add a nice contrast to the soft colours

and gives a touch of sophistication.

Back from Morocco II

This is me, covered as a woman from the Sahara.

***
Here you can see Petra and me as a real attraction
on the Jema el Fnaa Place in Marrakesh where we had a really funny dinner.
It was so funny to see that people looked to us in a fascinated way and asked
"Sahraoui?"

Back from Morocco I

Here are some impressions of Morocco, that I want to share.
This was my first trip to Morocco ever and I liked it very much.
I travelled with my best friend Petra and her husband.
We had so much fun...

I loved the typical ornaments on the doors and all the way of decorating.

This is a lovely part of my mini suite at the first organic hotel of Morocco.
The hotel is called Lallamira and is in Essaouira,
where we have been the first night.
Essaouira is a very charming city located at the atlantic coast of Morocco.

The airport of Marrakesh looks phantastic, doesn´t it?

On the way to Morocco

In a few hours I will travel to Morocco...
There I am going to meet Maryam,
spend hours in the souks of Marrakesh,
and I am sure I will find lots of inspiration...
In a few days you can read about my first journey to Morocco...
Wish you all a sunny weekend :-)

More colour, now...

This necklace looks different than my other ones,
because it looks very dynamic.
I used genuine coral teardrop beads,
handmade czech beads
and added sparkle with Swarovski crystals.
The big silver bead is a handmade vintage bead from Turkmenistan.
I have a vey kind vendor in the Grand Bazaar,
who is from Turkmenistan,

and together with his brothers he brings very rare and beautiful beads to Istanbul.
The necklace finally gets the oriental touch by the vintage silver tassel.

Against rainy weather...

Since I am back from Istanbul there has been rain almost every day.
It is cold and grey outside...
In times like these I like to look at pictures like this one.
This could be a picture of a book, but I took this picture a few weeks ago.
I love the old wooden houses in the forest and the mighty palace, of course.
The sea makes me relax and captures me.
Hope you like it as much as I do...

Oriental gemstones

These lovely gemstone strands will be combined with coloured copper wire in matching colours and Swarovski crystals to get really dazzling and unique wirework bracelets. The silver tea tray and the cute tajine are gifts from my friend Eva, who brought them with her from Morocco. I love the harmony in this picture, this could have been a picture from an oriental bazaar.

Back from Istanbul

I am back from Turkey and want to share some impressions. Above you can see a Turkish Airlines plane, which really offers a delicious meal on board. On my flight back from Istanbul I could choose between filled eggplants and chicken, yummy...

These shots are from the Grand Bazaar, where I always go to find new inspiration.

I love the old pieces of jewellery because of their natural elegance.

These modern necklaces are very shiny and you can see them in various colours.

Some key pendants with cute details and with the typical blue stones
that shall protect you from the evil eye.

On the way to more inspiration

Tonight I will be on the way to Turkey

to find new inspiration and get some fresh ideas
which I will share with you when I am back.

Wedding dress

After working so hard for two weddings the last weeks
I would like to show you a very special wedding dress.
It is Petra´s own wedding dress
and I wore this smashing dress on her first fashionshow last year.
While realizing the photoshooting on the bridge
some people thought that I was a real bride :-)
What I respect the most concerning this beautiful dress is the fact that Petra sew her own wedding dress ! I love the story she uses to tell, how she saw a special dress in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and she told the vendor to give her the dress that hung above in several meters. So she used the unique embroidery and some parts of that dress and created a perfect wedding dress.

Special thanks to Holly

Dear Holly, thank you so much for making such a big surprise
and writing about me on decor8!!
This is a big honour for me and I appreciate this so much I can´t tell.
I am glad I shared the pictures with you,
because people from all over the world saw them.
Thank you, thank you, thank you !!!
You deserve extra turkish delight for this, oh sure ;-)

Sultan´s Sparkling Gold

Here you can see my new bracelet "Sultan´s Sparkling Gold".
The wire is coloured antique gold and is in percet harmony with the Swarovski crystals
in three different shades. This reminded me of the treasury inside the wonderful palaces in Istanbul like the Topkapi Palace.
I love the special sparkle,
because it looks majestic and elegant.
The cute babouches on the picture are for the one-year-old daughter of my cousin,
aren´t they adorable ?

Living in Istanbul

"Living in Istanbul" is one of my favourite books. I wanted to share it with you, because these pictures are so excellent.

First have a seat and relax while drinking your turkish coffee...

I love these impressions...

There are lots of old palaces that are overwhelming...

Pictures of charming wooden houses along the Bosporus are eyecatching, imagine having your tea or coffee while sitting here and looking from Europe to Asia...

The curtains are so lovely and the view to the sea is awesome...

Above you can see a little detail of the interior of a palace...

This book also shows carpets, fabrics and you can read about traditions. I can look at these pictures for hours, because Istanbul is my hometown and looking at these stunning pictures is so relaxing. "Living is Istanbul" captures by showing interiors of old wooden houses, the ones we call "Yali" in turkish. These are details you normally would not see, but with these pictures you can imagine living there.
So do I :-)