6ish months ago when we were catching up with some friends in Twizel, New Zealand conversation drifted to how irregularly we take photos and a challenge was set; ‘Let’s take a photo a day for the next 6 months’. That’s a lot of photos!
I started off with such good intentions, this is the photo that I took that February day;
It has been an interesting and fun challenge, making me look at my days a little differently. Of course I have missed a lot of days, or taken a lot of photos on some of the days, and it is really nice to have some photos to look back on. Time goes so fast, it is nice to stop and capture a wee moment of it, I have added 1 photo from each of the months below. Hope you enjoy them,
Berlin Street Art - March 2011Two birds on a Boat, Korcula - April 2011Korcula in Bloom - May 2011
The majority of the photos that I took in June, July & August were ‘work’ photos, the challenge with these has been learning how to catch our jewellery in the right light and setting. I discovered the neighbours window makes a good prop for taking photos of earrrings.
Earrings - June 2011Fergus the Rescue Moggy - July 2011
Action at Seba Dizajn - August 2011A Korcula evening - September 2011
Dubrovnik - October 2011
What do you like taking photos of and when was the last time you used your camera?
The content of this post comes courtesy of the Ethnographic Museum in Split; a second post on jewellery on the Dalmatian Hinterland will follow next week.
The area this post relates to is the coastal southern part of Croatia, which offers a Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean cultural influences. The area being refers to stretches from Istria to the southern borders of Dubrovnik.
The colourful political history of this area, and its’ variety of cultural influences can be seen reflected in the jewellery of the region. The closest and most direct influences coming
via the sea from Venice and a Venetian style can also be seen in architectural influences
in the region.
The people of this region tended to wear less jewellery than people from other regions but that was worn was made from expensive materials and was made with skills and artistic components unlike that of other areas.
Beside the use of, often gilt, bronze and silver the most common jewellery was made from gold. Golden artefacts made using a filigree or granulation technique were often decorated with coral or pearls. While artefacts made using casting method were decorated with inserted pearls, precious and semi-precious gemstones.
Photo taken at Museum in Split - no history of ring
There appears to be no jewellery that is directly related to traditional dress, and any trace of home manufactured jewellery is very rare. An Adriatic traditional jewellery inventory consists of independent pieces made in the workshops in the urban centres of Rijeka, Zadar, Sibenik, Trogir, Split and Dubrovnik. The jewellers or goldsmiths initials are found on the backside of any such pieces of jewellery. The initials show a responsibility for the quality in the manufacturers work and enable pieces to be traced to the area and workshop they would have been made in.
Whilst I am sure there is more to this story this is all I have found to date, I would love to hear from you if you know more about the jewellery of this region or can direct me to additional research.
Seemed appropriate (posted on a Friday) and it is one that I feel confident enough to pronounce, yah for Friday!
A Friday fishing expedition
While I can now recognise most of the days of the week when I see them written down – (this is no mean feat, see below) Friday and Saturday are the two that I am the most confident with. Petak, (pronounced pay-tak) and Subota two great week days!
Have a look at the rest of the week here and you will see what I mean about Petak and Subota being the easiest to deal with; Ponedjeljak, Utorak, Srijeda, cetvrtak, Petak, Subota & Nedjela (aka Monday – Sunday).
There are so many new words and new ways to pronounce the letters that I have grown up speaking and mumbling for all these years. I feel like I have been making some progress but think my major stumbling block is lack of confidence in my pronunciation skills. I know this is a big mistake on my part and that people here will not mind my fumbling with their language so I must persevere/try harder!!
Now that our business is closed for the season I can no longer use the ‘I’m too busy’ excuse. It has been true, Doka and I have worked really hard since arriving back in Korcula in March. Now we are enjoying some lazy starts to the days and visit our shop to use the internet and Doka is still creating beautiful filigree jewellery.
My new language comes with it’s own new alphabet and a new way of pronouncing most things, and I have no idea what to do with the grammar – the grammar aspect can wait for a later date/month/year.
I am finding it quite touching how some of our friends here are impressed with my minimal language skills – really I only have a few greetings, some random words (kisha = rain, zima = cold etc), and some numbers, that I am confident with.
For the most part I feel pretty embarrassed about my lack of language skills. I have been living in Korcula for 7 months now and feel like I have made such a small amount of progress, it is just as well that everyone’s favourite word here is Polako – slowly! See My Struggle with the Croatian Language, part 1, for more on that.
Growing up in New Zealand I didn’t envisage spending so many years living in Europe or marrying someone from Croatia! We had the choice of learning either French or German when I was in high school and I ignored both of these choices. I hope that after a quiet winter here in Korcula I will be able to report in with some more positive updates on my language skills for you in the new year!
If you want to keep track of my progress sign up for updates on the top right of this page.
When we talked about opening a small store in Korcula, Doka and I talked about the range of products we might offer alongside of his beautiful traditional filigree jewellery.
We wanted to offer a range of product different to the other stores in town and products that highlighted a wide range of Croatian artisans skills. We also wished to add a selection of Fair Trade products from Nepal – the chance to continue supporting Nepali producers and community development in Nepal is important to both of us.
Today I am going to share a little history of the traditional wooden Croatian toys that we sell at Seba Dizajn;
Hrvatsko Zagorje in the northwest of Croatia is recognised as the home of Croatia’s wooden toy heritage. The distinctive style of wooden toy making and painting originated in this area in the 19th Century and is preserved today in a number of villages.
As with other traditional arts and crafts the toy makers craft was passed on from generation to generation, while the number of families that carry on the tradition today those that do are proud of their skills and produce a fantastic selection of colourful toys.
Interestingly the wooden toys are generally handmade by men, while the hand painting of the toys is mainly done by Croatian women.
Natural, child friendly paints are used in the toy production with red, yellow and blue being the dominant background colours, floral and geometric shapes make up the distinctive patterns on the toys.
Wooden horse - konjic
The current range of toys includes about 50 different items including flutes, various animals, trucks and dolls house furniture. The ready availability and popularity of cheap plastic toys and dolls has seen a
stagnation in the production of the traditional wooden toys.
We have been delighted to share the tradition, place some small orders and help share these toys with visitors to Korcula and Seba Dizajn, and further afield – we have just posted a horse and cart, truck and aeroplane to some customers in Canada!
Wooden truck - kamion
What was your favourite childhood toy? Or favourite toy of the moment? Would love to hear from you.
The area this post relates to is the coastal southern part of Croatia, which offers a Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean cultural influences. The area being refers to stretches from Istria to the southern borders of Dubrovnik.
