Monthly Archives: May 2015

Brigitte Huet, Kandart Sterling Silver Jewelry Sale

This is a show and sale for 10 pieces of Kandart sterling silver jewelry made in Oaxaca, Mexico, by French silversmith Brigitte Huet and her husband Ivan Campant.

Bracelet, slide clasp, 7" long x 2" wide. $665 USD plus shipping + insurance

Bracelet, slide clasp, 7″ long x 2″ wide. $665 USD plus shipping + insurance

The one-of-a-kind pieces are the last remaining for sale from the Oaxaca collection.

26" pendant, $595 USD plus shipping + insurance

26″ pendant, $595 USD plus shipping + insurance

Many of them were made 15 and 20 years ago and put away as keepsakes that Brigitte and Ivan have now decided to sell. This may be your last opportunity to buy these unique collector pieces.

If you want something, please choose quickly, then contact me by email and include your mailing address with ZIP Code. I will send you a PayPal invoice for the piece plus shipping and insurance at the sale value.

Brigitte and Ivan thank you and send best wishes.

They left Oaxaca in early 2014 to return to southern France. They are living in a small village near Toulouse, creating new wax carved designs that will be made in limited editions with silver casting as soon as they are able to move to a house that will accommodate a working studio. Meanwhile, Brigitte continues to develop new ideas, most recently implemented in wood sculpture, too.

Eagle bracelet, small is 6-1/2" x 2", $550. Longer is 7-5/8" x 2", $600.

Eagle bracelet, small is 6-1/2″ x 2″, $550. Longer is 7-5/8″ x 2″, $600.

Bracelet, 6-7/8" long x 1" wide, $445.

Bracelet, 6-7/8″ long x 1″ wide, $445.

17" long necklace, 1/4-1/2" wide, $295 USD

17″ long necklace, 1/4-1/2″ wide, $295 USD16" necklace, $335  necklace, $335, 16″ long

Eagle pendant, 3-1/2"long x 1-5/8" wide, $245.

Eagle pendant, 3-1/2″long x 1-5/8″ wide, $245.

Pendant, 2-3/4" long x 1-5/8" wide, $250.

Pendant, 2-3/4″ long x 1-5/8″ wide, $275.

Lady Pendant, 3-1/4" long x 2-1/4" wide, $275.

Lady Pendant, 3-1/4″ long x 2-1/4″ wide, $300.

How to order: First send me an email.

  1. Tell me which piece you want.
  2. Tell me your mailing address with ZIP Code
  3. Tell me if you want insurance for the full value of your purchase.
  4. Order and pay by Monday, June 2: I will ship from California.
  5. Order and pay after June 2: I will ship from California after July 9.
  6. I will send you a PayPal invoice for the amount of the piece(s) and add shipping and insurance to the total.
  7. Upon payment, I will ship within one day if order received by June 2, 2015.

P.S. I have no earrings or rings from Brigitte to offer for sale at this time.

Bilbao Reunion with Brigitte Huet, Silversmith and Jeweler

Our reunion with artist, jeweler, silversmith and dear friend Brigitte S. Huet has been in the making for over a year when Barbara and I first planned to visit Spain. Brigitte and her husband Ivan returned to France in early 2014 after making Oaxaca their home and creative inspiration for over 20 years. We miss them.

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So, we made a meet-up plan for Bilbao, which is about four hours by car from the Toulouse area where they now live, to visit the Guggenheim Museum together.

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Barbara asked Brigitte to bring a trunk show of collector pieces she had created in the early years. We spent time looking at designs we had never seen before that had been tucked away in Brigitte’s treasure chest in France. They included belt buckles, deeply carved silver beads, pendents, rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

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Some of these, mostly necklaces and bracelets, are now available for sale. I have them with me and I will be posting photos and prices soon.

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We reminisced, drank good red wine, ate stinky unpasteurized cheese, walked and giggled. It was wonderful to be with Brigitte again. They have not produced jewelry since returning to France.

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There is no place where they live now to set up a casting studio. But, Brigitte has carved wax designs in preparation for what comes next and she has been carving wood, too. The creative life continues.

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Enviando besos y abrazos de Brigitte y Ivan de Francia.  Sending kisses and hugs from Brigitte and Ivan from France.

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Names, Identity and Change: Why Norma Schafer

Perhaps you have noticed, or not, that my name on the masthead of this blog has changed to Schafer. I thought I might offer an explanation. If you don’t care, just stop reading, delete this post and Move On. This is not about Oaxaca or Mexico or my recent trip to Spain. This is personal. In my creative writing and the work I have published on Minerva Rising, I have learned to write from the depths.

When I married in 2002, I took my husband’s surname. This is something neither of his first two wives had done. In doing so, I believed it would honor him and signal a strong commitment to this union.

Many years earlier, I had taken another man’s name when it was conventional custom and after the dissolving of this first marriage, I kept that name for a very long time because it also belonged to my son.

The man I married in 2002 became my recent ex-husband.  He was Husband Number Two. I was Wife Number Three. Soon, friends told me, there will be a Wife Number Four. I realized it is time for me to put that identity completely behind. Some said, it’s a nice name, you can keep it. But names are symbolic of something else.

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As a woman, I have always carried a man’s name, starting with the name of my father. I never liked my father’s name although I loved him very much. It is awkward to say, lengthy, unusual and must be spelled at each introduction. For me, it never fit.

My mother’s family name has resonance. I experimented with spelling (just like they did at Ellis Island) first selecting Shafer. I tacked it on to the married name to ease into a public transition to change. How long does it take? Maybe a year? Do readers even notice? I wasn’t sure. Now, easing into another name is not an option.

What I also know is that I also want to reclaim my identity through my last name. The spelling Schafer makes sense. It means scribe, an ancient Jewish record-keeper, then later a theologian or jurist. I am a contemporary record-keeper of Oaxaca art, culture, history, etc. I document what I experience through photographs and words.

I researched various spellings of my  mother’s family name that has both German and Ashkenazi Jewish origins, and made a choice. Please join me in celebration of Norma Schafer and new beginnings.

Please let me know if you have any questions: norma.schafer@icloud.com

Today, I am leaving North Carolina, returning to Northern California to visit my 99-year old mother and sister, and then will get back to Mexico in early June. It’s been quite a journey.

Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat: Lifting Your Creative Voice 2016

 

 

 

Bilbao, Spain: The Guggenheim Museum and More

Jump to now, North Carolina, USA, where I am this weekend for Becky and Al’s wedding. She is a Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat friend. (Registrations for 2016 are coming in. If you want to attend, make your reservation soon.)

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And, now I’m going backward in time: To choose and edit more Spain photographs from the recent trip. My sister and I made it a point to go to Bilbao to see the spectacular Guggenheim Museum designed by architect Frank Gehry, opened in 1997. It was well worth the three-night stay on many levels.

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The New York Times thinks so, too. They just published 36 Hours in Bilbao, Spain. They have covered Bilbao and surrounding Basque country in several travel publications. Bilbao is in the fold of a river valley ringed by mountains.

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The Guggenheim Bilbao is a radical departure from its backdrop, a medieval city near the Atlantic, once a manufacturing powerhouse going through a reinvention of identity. The region is Basque. They speak Basque. Their soul is ancient, deep. Gernika (Guernica), where Franco and Hitler bombed the living daylights out of the town. Pablo Picasso captured the horror in his famously stark painting, which I saw last year in Madrid. The town is only 25 kilometers north of the Basque capital of Bilbao.

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In Bilbao, stay in the medieval old quarter along the picturesque Nervion River. You might choose, as we did, the wonderful, clean, comfortable airbnb apartment owned by charming Luisma aka Bidebarietasiete Bilbao. He provided coffee, French press, a bottle of wine and fantastic hospitality.

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This was a block away from the picturesque river, walking distance to the Guggenheim (or take a nearby tram) and just steps from incredible gourmet cheese and wine shops, and great tapas bars. Try the yogurt with sweetened carrot puree. I loved it.

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Our intention was to do a day trip up the north coast of the Bay of Biscay along the Atlantic to the coastal town of San Sebastian. But, there wasn’t enough time. So, we are saving this for another trip. Throughout the region are Michelin star restaurants worthy of attention, small villages tucked into mountain valleys unchanged by centuries, narrow, cobbled walking streets flanked by tall, colorful stucco buildings adorned with wrought iron curlicue balconies trimmed in flower baskets.

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At the Guggenheim we were mesmerized by the architecture, which many consider to be THE attraction.  We were permitted to take as many photographs as we wanted of the building. No photos of the art installations were allowed.

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The special treat was a temporary exhibit of Nikki de Saint Phalle‘s Nanas and other works, there until June 7, 2015. What do these images of women represent? Find out by clicking on her name.

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It’s not just about being black, white, fat or thin. It’s about how we think of self and our role in the world.

BilbaoGehry28-3 Out on the street (I walked 16,000 steps this day), you come across pastry shops like this one with lines out the door. I wanted to … indeed … indulge, but the line was too long.

 

 

 

Frida Kahlo Mania: See Her in the USA

Our iconic Frida Kahlo, her life, art, clothing, jewelry, pain, sorrow, tragedies, affairs and everything else worth examining about her is featured in 2015 exhibitions around the United States of America.

Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life is an exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden featuring the plants that Frida loved to wear and had in her Mexico City gardens.

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Several famous paintings shown include one of Luther Burbank who she and Rivera admired, and “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” (1940), a parting gift to Nicholas Muray, Hungarian photographer and lover.

The Burbank portrait, which I have seen many times as part of our Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico City: Art History Tour, is on loan from the Dolores Olmedo Museum.

The blockbuster Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition featuring Kahlo and Rivera will run until July 12, 2015. I know many who have bought plane tickets to go see it.

The New Yorker magazine says, “The exhibition is nothing if not an event, which is fitting, given how much of a moment Kahlo is having this year (see The Striking Absence in the Detroit Intitute of Arts’s Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Blockbuster and Frida Kahlo Love Letters Sell For $137,000—That’s Over $1,000 Per Page!).

For about the same price to travel to Detroit or New York, why not come to Mexico City for our art history tour that will take you to Frida’s paintings, Diego’s murals, Casa Azul and the Dolores Olmedo Museum where you can see it all (except those pieces out on loan!)

We have offered Looking for Frida Kahlo + Diego Rivera in Mexico City: Art History Tour multiple times a year since early 2014 to rave reviews.

Plus, you will see the amazing gardens and the endangered xoloitzcuintle, too.