Inspired by the Ancients

I have always felt drawn to old things be it fossils, antiquities or antiques but Roman things in particular just seem to have some kind of spell over me. Ever since a trip to a Roman Museum in Primary school where I was completely in awe of everything. 

Djenne Beads, Roman Glass and Ancient Inspired Earrings

So you can only imagine my delight (which goes against all my hermit instincts) when my other half suggested that we spend a week in Rome! 

We did some of the many tourist attractions of course....

Trevi Fountain, Colosseum & The Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain, The Colosseum and Imperial Fora, The Pantheon, The Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and many more but by far my favorite was Ostia Antica!!!

Before Our trip I had not even heard of it, but a few guide books later and it sounded intriguing....

"OSTIA ANTICA

Some 2,000 years ago, ancient Rome's lively international port city was right on the beach and at the mouth of the Tiber (ostium means "river mouth"). In the ensuing millennia the sea has retreated several kilometers and the river has changed course dramatically. Ostia was founded in the 4th century BC, first as a simple fort, but as Rome grew, the town became ever more important, as the distribution point for imports from around the Mediterranean. 

Grain was the most vital commodity, to feed Rome's one million inhabitants, and so huge storage bins (horrea) were built here. Goods were sent up to Rome on river barges. 

Ostia's heyday ended in the 4th century AD, and it died completely as an inhabited area about 1,000 years ago." 

DK Top 10 Rome

I had also read that it was not as busy as Pompeii and you could walk in and around the ruins (and let the children run free), but I was not expecting what I found!!!

The View Three Floors Up

The sheer size of of Ostia is some what amazing, I was expecting a small fishing village not a HUGE City with buildings standing three stories high, a theater, many bath houses, temples, a christian basilica and a synagogue.

There was just so much so see, even with a whole day we did not manage to get around everything, at some points it felt like we were walking through a maze, there were rooms (including internal gardens), windows and doors everywhere.

Here is an aerial photo I found online to give you a better idea of how incredibly big Ostia really is....

Photo by Paolo Fusco

And it is still being excavated, we saw some work being carried out as we were wandering around and I read online that they believe there is still a large amount that has not yet been unearthed.

There are stairs cases leading down into tunnels and up into amazing views, and little hidden places to poke around in every direction and so many beautiful and inspiring things to see and wonder about.

Stairs and Tunnels

With buildings called The Baths of Neptune, The Temple of Hercules and The House of Cupid and Psyche, you can only imagine how excited I was roaming around and the suprising thing was that all the children thought it was by far the best day of the holiday too.

Domus of the Nymphaeum

One of the bigest surprises had to be the mosaic floors, for some reason I had not thought there would be many in a fishing village but they were every where! Some were quiet simple designs and only partially uncovered from the surounding dirt....

Small Section of Mosaic Tiles Peeping Through the Grass

While others such as the ones in the Baths of Porta Marina were just spectacular....

Floor Mosaic from the Baths of Porta Marina

I now have a strong disire to micro mosaic my bathroom floor.

According to the tour guide we over heard the following mosaic was part of the design on the bedroom floor of someone very wealthy.

Mosaic Bedroom Floor

This partially uncovered delight was hidden away in one of the many not so grand looking nooks and crannies and I almost did not see it!

Partially Uncovered Mosaic

There is also a Tavern with a sales counter and a painting showing the foods available and Tabernae (stalls) of the Fishmongers, with a selling table and beautiful mosaic tiled floor.

Top the Tavern and Bottom the Fishmongers

And so many stunning sculptures....

Top two from the grounds bottom two in the Museum

Including this rather impressive statue of emperor Trajan found in the Schola of Trajan - 2nd century AD (now found in the Museum of Ostia), I just love the detail on his armour!

Emperor Trajan

What I did not see any of at Ostia however was my favorite Roman things, jewellery and glass, it is mostly just the buildings, mosacics and sculptures. This did not how ever leave me any less inspired so I headed off to etsy to gather some Roman style inspiration for you....

Roman Style Treasures For Your Jewellery Making Pleasure 

Now I am off to make some jewellery inspired by my trip, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Seeking inspiration at the Louvre

Being part hermit I don't travel much but last week I made an exception to that rule and headed off with the family to Paris, France. The main reason I wanted to go Paris.... The Louvre!

The Louvre (photo from Wikipedia)

I have always loved Museums and The Louvre is the worlds most visited with many, many thousands of items on display (380, 000 objects and 35, 000 works of art) over what can only be described as a immense and stunningly opulent setting.

Inverted pyramid in the underground lobby

Some of the Many Treasures

There really is a vast and overwhelming amount of information I could type about the rich history of the Louvre, from it's original use as a fortress, it's many redesigns including that of the glass pyramid, the numerous famous residences including artists that lived there, The many famous works of art including "The Big Three," and a million and one subjects in between (check out Wikipedia if you really want to know any of this information, make sure you have a large cup of coffee and some chocolate), but the reason I wanted to visit the Louvre.... the ancient antiquities, beads and jewelry!!!

Ancient Lapis and Agate Beads

Now I would love to give you lots of wonderful information about the beautiful pieces that I managed to see, thier age, how they were created and there meanings but at this point my two year old had woken up from his nap and had decided that we should not stay in one place for too long (also all the information was in French and my French is VERY limited), so instead I shall show you some of the photos that I took and let you in on a little secret!

Louvre - Ancient Egypt

As you can probably tell I ADORE (a word included in my limited french skills) ancient jewellery and beads, as do many of the Art Jewelry Element team (AJE's talented Lindsay Starr co-hosted a wonderful Beading Back in Time blog hop with the fab Sherri Stokey)! How could you not love and be inspired by these beautiful hand crafted treasures...

Ancient Egyptian Gold Rings and Stone Amulets

I really do want to make some of these amazing seal rings and just look at that Eye of Horus, think of all the wonderful things you could do with that!

More Egyptian rings and beads, check out those seals and the scarabs

Now for the secret! Something that I did not know about until I stumbled on it, even tho I spent a whole week reading information about the Louvre!

Amongst the gift shops that sell your normal junk and the high end shops that sell all that expensive junk, in the underground shopping mall, Le Carrousel du Louvre there is this little gem....

Photo Taken From Les Mineraux Website

Les Mineraux, a shop filled with minerals from around the world, jewelery and objects made from natural stone! I LOVE this shop, they have every mineral and stone that I have ever heard of and many more....

A selection of the minerals in the shop

The walls are lined floor to celling with display cabinets, packed full of stunning fossils and sparkly minerals and amazing stones.

Celling to Floor Display Cabinets

Photo from champselysees-paris.com

I could have stayed here for the rest of our holiday but again I had to give in to the wishes of the two year old and head off to find dinner, but not before drooling over these pretties.

Selection of Opals

And managing to purchase a few little treasures to make something to remember the trip (unfortunatly not the gold nuggets I was designing with in my head or even the large chunks of tourmaline crystals that would have made beautiful necklaces, but lovely shinies never the less).

Treasures From Les Mineraux

Now I have No idea what any of these lovelies are and would love to find out if anyone knows? 

The coins and post cards however were brought in a wonderful flea market we found, there were even a few very well stocked bead sellers there too. Now I have a million and one idea's inspired by some of these ancient treasures and I can't wait to get making!