Paris in the Springtime....

…is rainy.  And it can be chilly.  But it’s PARIS so who cares.  It’s been on my “to visit” list forever and I finally got there.  I went with my daughter; the one who studied French in school as I did.  We only have elementary French but it was great to be able to use it once in awhile.  Fortunately in the tourist areas of Paris just about everyone speaks some English.

We stayed at what used to be referred to as pensions but now are called boutique hotels-- a little place with only 45 rooms on the Rue d’Ecole in the Latin Quarter.  From our hotel we could see Notre Dame on one side and the Pantheon on the other.We were one block from Blvd St. Germaine which has lots of shops. a.  This was, at least partly, a shopping trip.  And walking distance from St. Germaine des Pres and the famous Les Deux Magots (the two maggots), a restaurant and meeting place for writers such as Hemingway and Jean-Paul Satre.

What I liked about Paris is that no matter where you are, there is always a flower shop, a bakery, a chocolate shop, several clothing stores and tons of restaurants.  And while you might find the same brand with several branches all over the city, each brand is unique.  Unlike here where you find the same style clothes in JCPenny's as you do in Macys, clothing boutiques have different styles of clothing, some edgy some more conservative, some imported.  But each is unique.

Paris is old and the buildings weren’t meant to house huge department stores.  Though there are a few, I really preferred the smaller boutiques.  One tiny shop had street level space that was about 12’ x 14’ and open stairways to the 2^nd and 3^rd floors of the same size.  They even managed to fit in 1 changing booth. I can’t imagine how many building codes would be violated if that were done here.  Some stores like Au Vieux Campeur (the old camper) had 3 shops we could see from our hotel and 2 more a block away on St. Germaine.  Because the shops are small each one specialized—men’s wear, women’s wear, children’s, and equipment. 

Open air markets pop up on different days in different areas of Paris.  The locals know when there’ll be one in their district.  On Thursday morning we were pleasantly surprised to see one on St. Germaine just down the hill from our hotel.  Tents included several with scarves, a fish monger, jewelry, fresh flowers, and a women selling several flavors of foie gras.

We also came across a small fair set up next to the Eiffel Tower.  Craft Fair! I thought.  Well not exactly.  Just another version of the street markets and flea markets of Paris with skarves, baked goods, imported watches, imported jewelry.  But this time, in this mass of resellers, we found what could possibly be some truly handmade jewelry.  This man sells in Paris jewelry made in Italy by his sister, Lisa Bano.  I looked her up on the internet and found her listed as a vendor in a craft show in Italy.  Maybe it’s really handmade.

Paris women are predominantly small so while you can easily find size xs or 0 it’s a bit more difficult to find a large.  I did buy a couple of knitted tops but I was very excited about the shoes.  Since I don’t often have reason to dress up, I’ve taken to wearing comfortable shoes.  But I really don’t want them to look like orthopedic shoes or sneakers.  We were advised before leaving for Paris that we should not wear sneakers in the city.  Seems they are dead giveaway that you’re a tourist. Parisian women don’t wear sneakers but they do wear a variety of comfortable tie shoes, loafers, or strappy shoes that most shoe stores carry among their 6” platforms and edgy United Nude types.
So several of the Paris shoe stores have stylish yet comfortable shoes and I bought them.  Actually I bought 3 pair and a pair of sandals.  Prices are generally under $100 unless you’re buying designer shoes.

On the right bank and across the Seine from Notre Dame is the Marais District. This is one of Paris’ oldest quarters.  Once favored by royalty it eventually fell into ruin.   Comprising a rich ethnic mix, this unique area houses the remains of the old Jewish quarter.  Jews first settled here in the 1300s, with a large influx coming from eastern and central Europe around the turn of the 20th century.  


 Since its revival in the 1960's, it has become as a center of Parisian artistic and cultural life and is one of the only areas that preserves the narrow streets and architectural styles of Medieval and Renaissance-era Paris.  Now kosher butchers mix with falafel shops and Italian designer shoes.

The streets are still cobbled here and the area is swamped with boutiques, lively bars, bistros and galleries.  I was told I’d find some great boutiques here but on Monday morning most places were closed.  It seems people don’t rise early in Marais as it wasn’t until about 2pm that we noticed some open shops and an increase in activity.

                                                       Chocolate Hippopotomi

My daughter decided that she wanted to try samples from as many chocolate shops as we could find.  She came with a list and we tried to find as many as possible so she could buy a bar of chocolate from each to compare them.  We didn’t find all those chocolate shops though we found a few she didn’t have listed.  There’s chocolate on every block in Paris.  Personally, I know the difference between European chocolate and Hershey/Nestle.  It’s creamier, not as sweet, and melts in your mouth.  But among the shops in Paris, they all taste the same to me—wonderful.  Not being a chocolate connoisseur, my personal favorite was Larnicol.  You can scoop truffles, caramels and various chocolates with nuts from bins and it all sells for the same price by weight. 

 So compared to a lovely, fancy box of 6 decorated ¾" x ¾" chocolates for 28 euros, I bought 3 bags of truffles, jellies, and caramels for 35 euros.  They’re also open much later than a lot of the other chocolate shops.

We didn’t go to Paris to eat, though we did, of course.  We had the names of some restaurants recommended by Americans living in Paris but we never found them.  We pretty much ate when we were hungry at restaurants nearby.  About every 3^rd shop is a restaurant, bistro, or café.  The menus are posted outside.  So we just went to the one with good choices that had the most customers.  We never had a bad or expensive meal. 

Getting Around in Paris

After doing some research I decided to purchase a combo Paris Pass, museum pass, and Metro Pass.   The drawback about this is that they are all only good for 2 days—in a row. Paris Pass allows you to hop on and hop off a tour bus and the museum pass gets you into 55 museums in Paris.  We used these 2 passes simultaneously to get to all the tourist “must visits”.  The bus worked out very well.  It makes 9 stops and comes by each every 15 minutes or so.  We picked it up at Notre Dame and took it up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower but bypassed the Palais Royal and L’Opera.  On the second day we took it to the Musee d’Orsay, L’Orangerie, & The Louvre.

While the Louvre is the world’s largest art museum and certainly houses some wonderful works of art, I have to say that I like the Musee D’Orsay much better.  If you go to Paris for the first time, of course you’ll have to see the Louvre, Mona Lisa, and Venus de Milo.  And you can take pictures there though you can’t use a flash.  But if I go back again, I’ll definitely return to the Musee d’Orsay.  It’s a converted train station that features Cezanne, Degas, Delacroix, Denis, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Toulouse-Lautrec, and my favorite, Van Gogh.  There are sculptures as well and in the main hall we found 3 busts done in bronze and marble by Charles Cordier.  While taking photos wasn’t allowed, I managed to sneak a shot of one of these busts.  Doesn’t he look familiar?

While the bus pass was a great time saver, the museum pass is a big waste of money.  There’s no way you’ll visit 55 museums in 2 days, or even half that.  As it's not a museum, it doesn’t get you into the Eiffel Tower. And while it advertises that it will allow you to bypass the long lines, that only happened at the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe.  There are security issues at some museums like D’Orsay so though you don’t have to buy a ticket, you do still have to wait in line and have your bags searched.  

We used the Metro Pass on Saturday to get to the Flea Market in northern Paris.  Once we figured out how easy it was to get around, we bought more tickets on Monday and took it to Marais.  The system is easier than the NYC subway. The stations are clean and, like NY, you sometimes run into musicians—only here there was an accordion player with a repertoire of traditional French tangos and waltzes.  It was so French!

Speaking of the Flea, it isn't like Brimfield at all.  The permanent installations there sell serious antiques with serious price tags.  Oh, there are some vintage jewelry dealers and vintage postcard shops but their prices are high as well.  The temporary tents that line the route to the Flea are just filled with more of those resellers of imported jewelry, t-shirts, scarves, jeans, leather coats, fake leather shoes, and... hookahs.   

April Miscellany

 

It's been a very busy month though I now have to look at my calendar to remember what kept me so busy.  I'm also a week away from my Paris vacation and have piles of clothes and things around my bedroom that I might take.  Final decisions will be made later this week.

My parents' house is now on the market.  Hubby and I went there 2 or 3 times to do some landscaping, vacuuming, and fix the back door.  It now has a sign in front and everything.  Our agent had an open house yesterday so I'm anxious to hear if she got any bites.  The house at the end of the street seems to have sold for about $16,000.00 less than they were originally asking. I think that's a good sign.  If our sells for the same amount, it will be good.

The Artisans of Western Mass. finally found a venue for a craft fair we've been trying to have for about 2 years.  We've signed a contract with the Pushkin Gallery in Greenfield.  We did have a smaller show a couple years back in Northampton, but this, we hope, will be the beginning of a yearly event.  Local ARTery will take place on Saturday,  May 19, from 10-5.  Check the website for a list of artisans who will be there.

In the meantime, my gardening skills have tanked.  I haven't grown any vegetables for 2 years because of soil issues.  This year I find that my tulips are only producing leaves.  Doing a little research online I find that there are a number of reasons why this is.  Mostly it's that the bulbs have been damaged by soil, temperature or some other conditions.  I pulled a couple of them out and found that they looked like someone took a bite out of them.  Could it be those nasty squirrels?




Anyway, I've decided to just pull them all out and plant some new ones in the fall.

Jansjems next craft event will be on April 21 on the Amherst town common. The Sustainability Festival is a yearly event that promotes clean energy and sustainable products.  We'll be there with our steampunk jewelry along with a few other AWM members.  We have lots of new designs to pick from so stop by our tent and look around.

As for the rest of the week,  I'll continue working on regaining some of my high school French for the trip.  

Au revoir jusqu'à ce que mon prochain poste lorsque je vous apporteraides photos de ma vacance Parisienne.  A bientot.

Jewelry Artist Storage -- The Satisfaction of Being Organized.

I'm not making jewelry at the moment, actually not for a couple of weeks now.  Even if I needed to I just haven't had time.  But last week I did spend some time organizing my work area.  Oh, those hoarder shows are soooo inspirational!

I'm usually pretty organized -- a place for everything and everything in its place so I can find it again.  Yes, that library mentality.  But when I'm working, my space is chaos.  And somehow I'm not bothered by it as I'm so "in the moment".  During this last round of creations, though, I bought a few new toys (there's always something new that you just need to try) and there was just no place to put them. And, as I didn't have time to clean up, the room was a mess.

Wandering into Pier One last month I came across a cabinet that was on sale as the right side door wouldn't stay closed all the way.  It looked spacious and the doors folded back against the sides exposing the whole interior.  It was almost 1/2 price and I had a vision.

Hubby is pretty handy. So I ordered some of those wooden roll out trays and we customized the cabinet.  It not only holds most of my tools and equipment, I can pull out the trays and have lots of stuff visible and within arm's reach.

Unfortunately I didn't take any "before" pictures.  But these pictures are what it looks like once I get everything hidden away.  Of course it won't stay that way once I start working again. But in between creative periods I can actually let our new cat into the room.

♫ I'm So Tired...♫

About 5 or 6 years ago I told my husband that if we didn't remodel our house then, we'd be too old to do it ourselves later.  So we gutted 2 bathrooms and the kitchen, opened up a wall, laid hardwood floors and tiled.  Mostly by ourselves.  We worked on 1 room at a time and it took us almost 2 years to finish it all.

Well, I was right that I'd never have the energy to do all that now.  We've spent 3 days at my parents' home, mostly painting.  Five hours on a ladder and I'm totally wiped.  Not to mention covered in paint.  And we didn't even paint all the rooms; just the 4 that looked particularly bad.



Once upon a time I thought that when I inherited the house I'd do all kinds of remodeling.  It's a big house, solidly built, and has lots of potential.  It's decor is just stuck in the 50s.  But the market in my hometown just keeps dropping.  No one is moving there.  The house lost $12000 in value in just the last year.  I fear we'll have to practically give it away.  It's really sad.

But I'm tired.  Tired of calling and scheduling various contractors to fix pieces of this 60 year old house.  We had the back porch rebuilt, wet wall in one of the showers replaced, the basement waterproofed, plumbing updated, the carpets removed, and hardwood floors refinished, and asbestos removed from the furnace.  And tired of painting.  One last trip in the next week or so for a thorough cleaning and I'll hand it off to a real estate agent.

Anyone looking for a house in the suburbs of Worcester with genuine 1950s decor?  On a quiet dead end street, town sewer,town water.  Replacement windows, new roof, newly rewired, full basement waterproofed & guaranteed not to get water, hardwood floors, 4+ bedrooms, 2 full baths, 1 car garage, small yard so little maintenance.  Contact me.

First Craft Show of the Season

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and my first show of the year, Handmade with Love, was successful though I only sold one piece with hearts all day.

Karen & Aviva had organized a craft show twice last year in the same space at Eastworks.  Both times I sold a lot of steampunk and a few fine silver pieces.  This time, with the exception of a pair of steampunk earrings, I sold all silver pieces.  I created a lot of new designs in January and felt pretty good about them.  It was so nice to see customers seemed to like them too.  But does that mean that steampunk has lost its steam?

The same craft show can be so different from year to year.  You get different customers, or the same customers whose tastes have changed.  One year half your customers pay with American Express and the next they use primarily cash.

In the pages on the left of this blog I write craft show reviews.  In trying to be helpful I try to cover traffic, type of traffic, and what people are buying.  But I'm never sure if that helps artisans find a good show for next year.  So much seems to change even in a stable economy.

My next event is the Sustainability Festival in Amherst in April.  In the past it's been a great venue for steampunk jewelry.   Maybe this year I should bring a few silver pieces as well.

Jansjems' table is just after the "girl with the curl, right in the middle of her forehead."

Handmade with Love--February Edition

If you enjoy shopping for handmade crafts and maybe even sometimes buying handmade, you'll love this small craft show that takes place at Eastworks in Easthampton, MA, on Feb.11.   In a small room on the right hand side of the building you'll find a group of 20-25 local artisans exhibiting their work which runs from the traditional to the unique.


 It's only a few days to Valentine's Day so Jansjems will be there with every heart in our jewelry collection--hearts with pearls, fine silver hearts, hearts with gemstones, steampunk hearts, and even a few red & pink ones.

Easthampton has an Artwalk the 2nd Saturday of each month.  It doesn't start until 5pm so Eastworks would be a great place to stop earlier to take a stroll through Handmade with Love and maybe have an early supper at Riff's Joint.

What kinds of things will you find at Handmade with Love?  Well, jewelry for sure.  And not just mine.  Heather Black and Amy Love have lovely gemstone jewelry.  Glimmerstone is a bead weaver and her work is truly unique. And there will be others.



The Little Birch Shop had body products.  You'll find sculptured paperworks, Lou's bags and wallets made from recycled plastics,quilted items, and purses from handwoven fabrics.



It's supposed to be sunny, so come on out to see us. There's no admission fee.

And the first 50 people through the door get free goodie bags.

New Steampunk Continued

Well the box finally arrived from Virginia.  The box with all the new steampunk style jewelry my younger daughter has been working on for a month or two.  Unlike my designs, hers have some color.  She used heat treated copper in a few to give them a warm glow.



She sent a few that include industrial hardware and watch parts on very feminine filligree findings.






She's experimented with something she calls ice resin.  She captures small watch parts and hardware or even a stamp in this clear resin that's set into a bezel cup or old watch frame.










She also sent some bracelets and several pair of earrings.
These watch faces I particularly like.

So Jansjems is now pretty well set for 2012, at least until summer.  We have a lot of new pieces in both silver and steampunk.  Our  first craft fair is this Saturday, Feb 11, at Eastworks in Easthampton.   Hope to see some of you there.