Marisa Girardi Presents

I love going to the little beach across the road from where I live in Kalk Bay and scouring for bits of driftwood, little spiral trapdoors (operculums), the odd bit of ceramic fragment and smooth pebbles of sea glass. I  imagine from what corners of the world they have come, for how long they have rolled in the waves so that their sharp edges become so softened. Most likely a lot of them are from booze consumed on the very same beach, but it’s nice to wonder… You know, I hate littering with a passion, but isn’t it wonderful how ugly and dangerous pieces of smashed bottles can be transformed into these little jewels.

If you’re in Kalk Bay, you can find my brooches and lots of other beautifully handcrafted items at Blossom in Colyn Rd.

Here they are in the shop.

I felt these gorgeous scarf rings - they’re sooo soft and I’m sure they would feel wonderful against the skin on the neck  - unlike many awful scratchy fabrics and labels in winter.

I’ve been wanting to do an embroidery using a hoop as a frame for a while now. I’ve also had a little design I’ve thought about putting on a t-shirt or painting, but when I realized how perfectly it would go as an embroidered piece, I had to sew it up immediately. I’m so pleased with the result and it was such fun that I’ll definitely do more.

Head over to Emmarie Designs where you can win this lovely clutch purse by The Wren made from recycled fair-trade coffee bags.

One of my favourite Etsy artists is the featured seller at the moment. Her name is Danna Ray, her Etsy shop is Groundwork and she paints the most heart-achingly beautiful fragments of nature. There is such a delicate air of silence and solitude in her paintings of those magical moments that you may be lucky enough to stumble upon when you visit nature.

Stingko Trubbleton the Couchie has been featured on Super Punch, a cool blog about toys, comics, robots, design and such.

My sister and her boyfriend’s workshop in the countreee.

And the shed - love the shed.

My sister lives near Wilderness in the Garden Route on the South coast of South Africa, just under 500km from Cape Town. My mom also stays near by and I try to visit 3-4 times a year because I need to see my family at least that often and also because I looove the area and fantasize about living there again (I also lived there for a couple of years) one day.

My sister is super artistically talented and has her own business making leather goods. She uses epoxy clay to decorate many of her items and carves incredibly fine detail into it. I also used to work with the same clay and have no idea how she does what she does.

As I have confessed before, I’m still new to blogging and sharing and having a presence on the web so it is very exciting for me when I am featured in someone’s Etsy treasury or their blog and I can’t very well keep it to myself, so I will be sure to be using my blog as a boasting platform, if you don’t mind. Hey, you have to take your fame where you can get it!

So here are the 2 most recent:

On Little Pink Pebble’s Etsy Finds

Littlepinkpebble is an illustrator and I just love this painting from her Etsy shop:

I’m sure I must’ve had this dream / fantasy. It reminds me of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I just couldn’t wait for them to find that library. Imagine what’s in those books… ancient stories, accounts of faeries, lists of names, amazing inventions, secret societies… I feel kindof funny looking at this painting and thinking about it.

And then my heart brooches were featured on Wren’s blog too - hooray!

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