Summer.

Summer is here with all this heat, sweating all day, trying to stay like a lizard and cool down. Temperature is not that high but it's very humid and sticky.

On the 28th of December I went to Santiago, Chile with my father to spend New Year's there with my sister. It was hotter than here in Lima but the weather is more dry.
She lives in a quiet neighborhoud with restaurants and shopping markets some blocks away.

On the first of January we went to Bellavista, where you can see Pablo Neruda's house.

We also saw many grafitti on the walls and some artists doing some.

The next day we went to Valparaíso, a very pictoresque town, full of grafittis too and the houses painted in different colours. It is next to the sea. I can't find a picture now! First we took a tour to a vineyard, we tasted some wine mmmmm! And then back on the road to  the coast.
Finally we arrived to our desired destination: Viña del Mar. The beach! They say the water is very very cold but that day it was refreshing, not so cold, not too warm.

During the week I went to a local craft market. There is a lot of copper in Chile and the jewelry was cheap. I bought a pair of earrings made of copper with silver and lapislazuli, also a local stone.

Unfortunately, I dropped my camera in the vineyard (I didn't have too much wine!) and it broke.....I will try to take pictures with my phone to show you the earrings. Here are a couple of pics:

I also went to Joya Brava, a jewelry school and could talk with Pamela de la Fuente, a talented artist and great person : http://www.escuelajoyeria.cl/pamela-de-la-fuente/

I love her work!

Well, that was my adventure in Chile, I started 2012 there for a change, I hope this year will be different and prosperous in every way.

See you next time!

Vivi.

Cajamarca.

Hello everyone!
I was in Cajamarca from the 8th to the 13th of November in a "encuentro de plateros", Something like a silversmiths congress.
This was my third time in that city. I t was a good experience but I got sick the second day of workshops, so I missed the classes I wanted to go.
I had the chance to go to the Yanacocha mine, it's an open mine at 4120m high and it was a rainy day, but we spend more time in the bus that visiting the mine. I can't believe it's huge! And now the local people are protesting against mining because they say they contaminate the water. From what they told us, they were doing responsable mining, checking the pH of water for agriculture use.
In my first day I winess a pacific manifestation in the Plaza de Armas of Cajamarca. Now the things got worse.
I had a great time with my fellow jewelry friends. It was nice to meet people I saw two years ago....
The trip and the support of my friends made me feel better and my time of mourning is over now. Now I want to keep what I do best and what I love: working with silver. My muse is back and it feels darn good!

Done with classes.

No more classes, no more homework, no more waking up early to arrive on time and realize you're the first one to arrive before the institute opens the doors...Anyway, it has been a good experience, I made new friends, I learnt a lot, the teachers were/are good and now I don't know what to do!
For the last class we had to bring what our website would be like. Thanks to my sister Bea's help, this is the result of my future website, if I decide to have one.

In a couple of weeks I am going to Cajamarca, where big mining companies are. There's a silvermiths congress, it's international so it should be interesting. I'm going to meet some friends there, it's going to be fun.
The only bad thing about it it's that it's rainy season, but the climate it's very dry, I have to take my moisture cream.
I will keep you posted about Cajamarca. It's going to be a great experience!
Vivi.

And ta da! More homework...

Yes my dearest readers, homework from class never stops. When there's no homework (it only happened once I guess) it feels strange, like something is missing. You must be asking yourselves but why does she complain even when she doesn't have homwork? Well, homework has become an habit. This time we have to create the home page of our future website. I do not know how to do it, I don't know well power point so I asked help from my sister, she is a designer. Bea (I don't want to use her real name, she would kill me for that) can design from underwear to websites, she's very gifted, so creative and a perfectionist. We make a good team working together. I miss her very much, she and Vicki (my other sister) make me laugh like hell, I always end up crying with my make up all messed up because they make me laugh to tears and once I start, it's difficult to stop....hehe.
I hope Bea has time to help me because my homework is due this tuesday, if not, I am going to start playing with power point.
Thank you for taking your time to read about someone you don't know.
Vivi.

TFF

THe concert was good, I was very very close to the stage and could see the band with no problem. Roland still has a great voice and their back up singer was amazing!
The stage was simple but nice, with projections. I didn't bring my camera because then all you do is taking pictures and watching the concert through the screen of the camera....This time I wanted to enjoy the view of one of my favorite bands.

So this is the only proove I was there, at the concert!

Tears For Fears

Finally, after months of waiting, I'm going to TFF concert tonight. I'm supposed to meet some friends there in the line, but I dunno...

And finally, no more design class homeworks! There was an exhibition with our work, one piece per person, it was a success, it was crowded and people was interested reading the books we made with our designs and the theme we chosed.
Tomorrow we start another class, marketing and branding, a well known peruvian  jewellry designer, Gonzalo Palma (http://www.gonzalopalma.com/) , will teach us.

One of my sisters came this weekend with her friend. My sister came for a meeting on monday so I went with her friend to the centro de Lima. It was nice, sunny and warm. We saw the change of guards at the government palace, we went to the San Francisco church and visit the catacombs. It was hot and we went to T'anta for a refreshing fruit juice and some tamales, yum! It was a good day, I was a little sad I couldn't say goodbye to my sis because she left early and didn't come back home because she had another meeting, but we spent a good time together this weekend. She made cinnamon rolls, I made the topping (so easy to make!) and the rolls are easy to prepare too.

The concert is supposed to begin at 9pm but I'm gonna be there at 5:30 so it's gonna be a long time waiting by myself because my friends will be there at one or two hours laters....grrrrrr! Anyway, it's one of lifetime concert and it's one of my favorite bands so I will have to just wait. And the next day I have class with Gonzalo, I have to wake up at 7am, for those who don't know me, I am NOT a morning person, darn, I don't know what I will do!

This is the piece I made for the design exhibition, it's a brooch, a Hamsa brooch. My theme was the hamsa or fatma and from there I had to make a series of designs about the subject. We had little time to do it, I must confess I don't like much...

That's all for now people, I won't be taking my camera at the concert but I will tell you how it was.

Vivi.

Homework

I am so sorry I didn't write anything in my blog for these last weeks. As you may know, I'm taking jewelry design classes, I have to drow seven designs for Tuesday, so far I have four, I am squeezing my brain for the other three or more....Plus, I have a headache going to migraine, not a good weekend but not that bad.

These homeworks have been keeping me away from posting in the blog. For the final class we have to present a collection of eighteen designs about one theme and make one jewelry piece from that collection. Hopefully I have my design and it's not so diffficult to make, that way I hope I can finish early and help with the set up of the exposition of all my classmates and the people from the night class.
Two known peruvian jewelry designers will see our work, that is exciting!

That's all for today or this week, if  I have more interesting news I will post them.

Thank you for reading this.

Vivi.