Gilt Menagerie

Here are some of my Mexican jewelry purchases!

This ring was my birthday present. I bought it in the Cuernavaca artisan street market. It’s really cool because it looks like it has both Native American and Aztec influences. It’s made of silver and turquoise.

This was my 2 year wedding anniversary present! The guy that made this ring was really nice.  He was a musician/street artisan that had stopped by Zipolite for a few days to sell his jewelry, which is where I bought this. He makes these rings from pure silver coins that he buys from the bank. All of his designs are very free form and organic, with lots of beautiful gemstones. My ring has a peridot in the center.

This is a pouch necklace made of tiny seed beads. I saw these for sale all across Mexico, but I bought this one in a market in Puebla. I feel very Pocahontas-y when I’m wearing it.

There are a LOT of fossils in Mexico, what with all of the volcanic action there and people looking for anything they can sell that comes from the earth! This ammonite necklace was bought from a guy that made his own jewelry in Oaxaca city, Oaxaca.

This is a little bell and turquoise anklet that I bought in San Cristobal de las Casas on our last day in Mexico. The little brass bells make a beautiful sound.

This is a necklace made from pearls and black coral, with little garnets at the clasp. I bought it in Puerto Escondido from a guy that gave me some free opals and a pice of this black coral! I’ll make something cool with it soon.

And this is what my wrist looks like right now! The leather strap bracelet has diamonds of what we think is iguana skin (those little guys are everywhere in Mexico!). The red coral beads were bought from a lady on the beach in Veracruz.

No Comments | In: Pretties | tags: jewelry, mexico. | #

We have been in Oaxaca for about 5 days now. We spent the first three sleeping. This is a small exaggeration; we seemed to consistantly make it into the (fading) sunlight around three o’clock or so. Finally, we either managed to catch up on our sleep or we just got sick of spooning, and managed to explore the markets and plazas to some extent.

For some reason - probably the amount of places to spend your money - Oaxaca is a major attraction for travelers, and so we have seen more white people in the last few days than in the entire 5 weeks we’ve been in Mexico. That part has been a little weird. But like I said, there is a LOT of shopping here, including several major art and textile markets, and an art district with shops like you would find in say, Santa Fe. Seriously good art and amazing jewelry. FYI, in Mexico, most of the jewelry is import quality; it’s not really artesian work and you quickly realize that you’ve seen the same stuff everywhere else you’ve been, So it was fun to browse the art district and see some really original stuff.

Today we went to Monte Alban, which is this flipping HUGE ruin complex, complete with temples and sacrificial alters.

I got seriously burnt, but I think I managed to escape blister level. I therefore am not too worried. Here are some pictures of me and some of my new purchases in front of ancient stone temples and a sweet vista of Oaxaca City.

Here we have:

• Drop crotch blue pants from Guatemala. I AM IN LOVE. Behold the different ways one can wear these pants.
• Silver and bejeweled belt salvaged from trashcan at Monte Alban
  
• Leather sandals from the market
• Crazy rainbow patchwork bag from the market (there is an amazing selection of these type of bags; most of them have beautiful embroidery and they come in every color imaginable)
• Assorted jewelry: coral bracelet from Veracruz, pearls from Catemaco, ring from Morelia, bottlecap earrings from Oaxaca.

I have been meaning to take some closeups of the jewelry, especially of these adorable wooden bracelets I got in Veracruz, but our camera has pretty much crapped out. Meaning the only button that works is the on button, and we can’t use the macro setting or even view the pictures we just took. Maybe we will get a new camera one of these days.

Hasta Luego!

Comments Off | In: Uncategorized | tags: Daily Outfit, mexico, monte alban, oaxaca. | #

So we are currently in Veracruz.

It isn’t my favorite city I’ve been to so far, but it’s not like I’m really complaining here. We did run into these gorgeous ladies yesterday. They were out doing impromptu photoshoots and were so cute and friendly.

I have, over the last week, fallen in love with a Canadian, a small town called Catemaco, and a lagoon front hammock.  I have also celebrated my birthday, been to a witch festival, and been deathly ill. This has all been rather time consuming.

Let’s start with the hammock thing. Although if we do, there is a really good chance we won’t get any further than that. People, I HAD NO IDEA. If I had a hammock at home, I would simply never go anywhere or do anything. Pair a hammock with the faint sound of the ocean, and you have a really effective way to limit a person’s movement. So suffice it to say, I REALLY LOVE HAMMOCKS. And when we finally get a home, we may not have any other type of furniture.

On to Catemaco. I have no words or pictures that I feel could convey the extreme awesomeness of this place, but I will refer you to my hammock partner’s photos here and hope that you can see them.  She did a much better job documenting. I’ll post some of them on Flickr if she gives me permission so I can try to show just how lush and chill this place was. I stole this hammock one for you to lust after:

The witch festival was a bit of a letdown, just because we thought we were going to see all sorts of shamans and feather headdresss and smell a lot of cedar. It was really just a big party,  with dancing and music and public drunkeness, but with only local people present. Oh, and the Mexican hippies rolled into town and competed with the local ladies in selling their wares. But we had a grand time camping with our new friends, bringing a much needed levity to the crowd of sober people (we got our drink on pretty early).

There was construction of bottle towers:

And blowing bubbles for the amusement of the niños:

And I haven’t even mentioned the monarch butterflies in Morelia or the photoshoot on the sacrificial alter in Puebla. We are now the paranoid owners of a netbook (complete with Spanish keyboard, yo), so I will yak about those things shortly.

Comments Off | In: Travel | tags: catemaco, hammocks, mexico, veracruz, witch festival. | #

Hello!

No, I have not disappeared into the wilds yet. We have been staying with our brother & sister in law, taking care of things that somehow still have not gotten done. BUT. Tomorrow we leave for Victoria, where we will depart Sunday evening for the 30 hour bus ride to DF, or as the gringos say, Mexico City!

Stay posted for updates from the Festival of Witches/Noches de Brujas, taking place the first week of March up in the ancient volcanic crater that is now Lake Catemaco. I will see if I can document some of the magical shit that will be going down.

Here is one of my outfits that I will be wearing. I have decided that I will singlehandedly make hot pink the official color of Mexico.

This bag has tiny mirrors sewn into it! So cool!

Comments Off | In: Travel | tags: bus, Daily Outfit, departure, mexico, Travel. | #