My last communication from behind the Internet Restricted Zone was last Sunday. At the end of that day I thought all was right with the world and we were all just one, large happy family. Then we discovered that the Albanian Internet Professional had instead of fixing the Internet serving #5 on Santa Croce Piazza had left sleeper Gigabyte bombs set to explode at random intervals.
It looks harmless but you have no idea of the potential digital mayhem behind these simple doors. As you may gather we have again been without internet service since Monday or Tuesday (it all runs together in a Chianti haze) but the service is now restored for the time being.
In spite of all of the mysterious international capers going on around me I am still a most happy camper as you can see. My good friend Carl caught me joking about the “Back Street Boys” rolling through the hood.
So let me think what has been going on for the last few days. For those who want the short version, there isn’t one.
We have spent our time eating, drinking Tuscan wine and enjoying this wonderful city.
The photos below are from the night we decided to have Bistecca. Kim had fried mozzarella with anchovy sauce to start.
Carl started with Crostini with chicken liver pate’.
I started with sautéed shrimp wrapped in Lardo and served in a Tuscan white bean broth.
The star of. The show was the Bistecca.
We had it supported by a side of steamed spinach and a bowl of Tuscan White beans.
I have also started work in the jewelry studio this week. The studio is in an industrial part of the old city center. This particular space started out as a convent in the 1500’s and has been modified over the centuries into a place where several crafts has been practiced. Below is the front gate into the craft spaces off of the street.
This is the pathway into studio courtyard. Along the way there are weavers, pottery wheels, a hat maker, batik producers and a few other crafts I have not seen yet.
On the left, the black door is the entrance to the silver studio. Outside the door is the central break area for the crafts during the day.
This is the interior of the space, standing in the middle looking to front or from the metal forming area to the soldering bench.
This is another view of the metal forming area.
And finally a view of the space that begins the bench area for individual work.
For my first project Naomi, my instructor for the next couple of weeks, wanted me to start with a crushed stone technique where you create a slurry of stone paste to fill the negative spaces in a design. Since Florence is the home of the Fleur de Lis I will use it as my design. Just about every where you look in Florence you will find the symbol somewhere in your vision.
I was sitting at a cafe table for lunch (hard to imagine, huh) and saw this symbol on a water fountain and sketched it for my project.
Next step was to crush some red coral.
And to then start the silver work. Here I was working on cutting out the negative space.
Next was to sweat solder the Fleur de Lis cutting out on to a solid backing of silver and cut it all into a pendant shape. You can see another project starting to come together on the green surface where I have picked some faceted stones for a ring project.
The project before the filing and stone work.
So let me leave you for today with something I can’t explain, some more found art on the streets and a shot of the October full moon over Santa Croce.
I think I count an even dozen beagles in the photo below. Why? Where from? Where to?
Some found art. No opinion being offered by me here.
I have no idea who Ricky Boy is but he looks like a fun time waiting to happen.
I am still working on the meaning in this one.
And finally the Moon Shot.
Ciao