In Prague: Art Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, things fell into place enough that I was able to travel to Prague this summer - the art and buildings there are so great, I really want to share more with you!

Alfons Mucha was an Art Noveau artist who was born in the Czech Republic (Moravia to be more specific).  Many of you may know him by his posters of Sarah Bernhardt.  (It is here that I will tell you that while at the Mucha Museum, one was not permitted to take photos. However, I cannot control my children any longer as they are both adults and these are their photos!)

He also designed many other things, such as postage stamps, posters, wallpaper, theater sets and cracker tins to name a few.  Mucha designed a stained glass window that can be found in St. Vitus Cathedral (Prague Castle).  Below is my photo of the window.

His biggest project, which took him years to complete, is The Slav Epic. It's a series of 20 very large paintings that celebrates the history of slavic people.  He considered this to be his life's work, and gifted it to Prague, which is housed in the Narodni Gallery in Prague where you can take photos.  Here are the photos I took.  They don't do it justice!

They are quite beautiful in a very somber way, and as you can see from the one photo, very large!  The last photo, Slavs in their Original Homeland, is my favorite.

While we were there, we also saw an Ai Wei Wei exhibit of his Chinese zodiac sculptures.  Ironically, he has an exhibit here in Pittsburgh which I did not see, but did see it in Prague!

You might have guessed that my birth year is the Year of the Snake, which is why I took a separate photo of it!

In the Jewish Section of Prague, called Josefov, one can find many beautiful synagogues.  One in particular is the Spanish Synagogue and oh my is it beautiful!  Here are a few photos I took there.

When we left the synagogue tour area, we came upon a market, and purchased a handmade clay Golem!  We were quite excited!

I hope you enjoyed my photos today - next post, I'll share my side trips to Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov, very interesting and beautiful places!  Thanks for reading!

In Prague::Art

I was lucky enough to travel to Prague this summer; my daughter was doing study abroad and the airfare came down enough and my parents gave us enough Holiday Inn points to make our rooms free, so we joined her at the end of her school session!  It was an amazingly beautiful and quick trip!  Today I'm going to share some art with you because it's so inspirational!  I think I'll have to break my trip into to posts, though, because there's so much!

The city of Prague is broken down into neighborhoods, and our hotel was in the Vysehrad section of the city.  Vysehrad is a historical fort city built in the 10th century on the Vltava River.  It's the home of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, and a cemetary that's the Czech version of  Pere LaChaise in Paris!

Many famous Czech artists are buried here, including Dvorak, Neruda, and Mucha. Franz Kafka, however, is buried in the New Jewish Cemetary, and we did not see his final resting place. 

Many of the roads in Prague are made of cobblestone, and the sidewalks are works of art themselves.

And of course, Kafka is everywhere! 

This apartment building on a street corner is apparently the birthplace of Franz Kafka, and the Café Kafka is on the bottom floor.

This statue is in the Josefov section of Prague, sculpted by Jaroslav Rona. 

This awesome piece of rotating art is by David Cerny - a kinetic sculpture by city hall in the Nove Mesto section of town.

An awesomely novel fact my daughter told me about - before the buildings had street numbers, the way to find what you were looking for was to look for little sculptures above the doorways!

We were also happy to explore enough to find the "Lennon Wall" located in Mala Strana - in brief, this wall was originally painted by Czech students unhappy with the communist regime.  The wall has undergone many changes during its' existence, and is still an active tourist attraction today! Please read the wiki link I provided, as it is quite interesting!

Well, I think that's enough for my first post on Prague.  In my next post, I'll take you to some amazingly beautiful buildings and show you more art!  Thanks for stopping by!

Susan Kennedy

My Next Adventure - Loom Beading

In my never-ending need to *make* something, but not necessarily glass beads, I have decided upon my next lesson - Loom Beading.  I purchased this Rick's Beading Loom from Melinda Orr a long time ago - I mean, a loooooooong time ago, like maybe a year ago? And never even opened it up because there aren't 86 hours in a day.

The idea was that when I had time, and didn't feel like making glass beads, I could string this thing up and get busy making cool bracelets.  I even purchased all the beads from Fusion Beads to make this Alegrado bracelet:

Here are all the beads from the kit - a treasure trove! And I probably have beads that could be substituted for all of these, but you know, buying a kit seems lot easier...

I was perusing the Fusion Beads web site one day, and came across this kit by Glass Garden Beads:

 These are the beads included in this kit, which is a beginner kit and uses Ladder Stitch.

While I'm pretty sure I could handle ladder stitch, to me this would also look good on a loom, and since the project I bought (Alegrado Bracelet) is actually an *Advanced* kit, I thought this might be a better place for me to start!

I also purchased this book from Amazon, Guide to Beading with a Loom by Jamie Cloud Eakin.

I had the idea I wanted to make some bracelets with fiber, and woo hoo, there's a project in the book that will allow me to do that as well!

So, have I started this new project yet?  No.  Because as I mentioned, there are not 86 hours in a day.  My son goes to college at the end of August, so I am thinking with an empty house I may have more time to start loom beading.  I will let you know when I finish my first project!

Susan Kennedy

Flower Headpin Earring Tutorial

I've been making these cute flower headpins for a while now, and while I love to make beads and components, I rarely make jewelry anymore.  I decided I wanted to write a tutorial for something you could make with these!

So of course it took me a while to come up with something, but I really like what I made!  Here is your supply list:

•  pliers
• chainnose pliers
• roundnose pliers
• cutters 

You'll also need the following components:
 

• glass flower headpin
• glass lampwork spacer bead
• czech picasso bead in blue
• copper round
• copper or brass filigree beadcap

First, add the filigree beadcap onto the headpin.  The beadcap is round and this headpin is not, so you'll need to manipulate the beadcap to fit onto the glass part of the headpin.  It's rather simple to do - just use your pliers to gently bend the beadcap onto the glass flower, and then when you've got it going, use your fingers to finish the job! Don't bend too hard with the pliers or you'll mar the beadcap.

Here's what it looks like bent over.  Then the rest is simple - string the beads onto the copper headpin with the lampwork spacer first, then the czech bead, and then the copper round.

Finally, make a wrapped look and add your ear wires and you're done!  I quite like these earrings, they are very summery and nice and solid without being too weighty.

You can find the flower headpins in my etsy store, SueBeads.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Susan Kennedy