Lac La Croix First Nation

Ayala Bar Jewelry – About the Artist and Collections

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:20:48 +0000

About the Artist:

Ayala Bar was born in Israel and resides there today, creating unique jewelry designs from her studio in Givatayim, a Tel Aviv suburb. After graduating from art school in the 1980′s and pursuing an eclectic career in theater and interior design, she started her design company in 1990 and has emerged as one of Israel’s leading handcrafted jewelry designers. Today, Ayala Bar jewelry can be found in boutiques, department stores and art galleries around the world and across almost all continents. Museum stores such as the Jewish Museum of New York City and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London proudly feature this unique jewelry, which has become a household name for jewelry designs that are bold yet feminine, innovative yet timeless.

The Unique Designs:

Ayala’s creations stem from her unique understanding of the trends in the fashion world while being true to her own distinct style and vision, which clearly have an international appeal. Ayala works magic from a unique variety of non precious metals and materials including Swarovski crystals, pearls, leather, velvet, glass beads, assorted metals, mineral stones, fabrics, beads, crystal rhinestones, antique brass and other natural elements. Each jewelry item from the artist’s collections is intricately handcrafted from a subset of these materials. The result is a unique symphony of colors which resemble the Art Deco jewelry style of the 1920s. This unique and stunning style has frequently been referred to as “Art Deco Meets Middle East”.

Ayala Bar Collections – Ayala Bar Spring 2011:

Ayala releases two collections every year – one in the spring and one in the fall. Each collection includes several hundred pieces of jewelry, including earrings, brooches, necklaces and bracelets. As quantities are limited to a short production period, the artist’s collections have become more and more collectible items. Her most recent collection is the Spring 2011 collection, a unique and exciting collection with a palette of colors ranging from bright and colorful to more muted tones. This collections features jewelry in three styles: Hip, Radiant and Classic. More on the various styles integrated in the collections in section below.

Ayala Bar Jewelry Styles:

Each Ayala Bar collection includes jewelry items in various unique styles integrating different themes and materials. These styles include the following:

Classic Style: inspired by mosaic designs, this style and features more traditional neutral tones with the occasional pop of color. Each jewelry piece integrates decorative beading, often mosaics placed into well-defined areas, resulting in a very Byzantine era style.

Hip Style: a more daring jewelry style for women looking for a more bold look which stands out from the crowd. Inspired from everything from tropical flowers to Incan art, this style works unusual fabric compositions with metal, stones, crystal and glass.

Signature Style: This style combines large multi color beads worked into slick and trendy necklaces and earrings.

Radiant Style: This new style was introduced in the Ayala Bar Spring 2011 collection and feature fabrics under glass, enabling the combination of pattern, color and simple shapes.

Limited Edition: this limited edition jewelry line is limited in quantity and appeal to the die-hard collector.

Religious Jewelry:

The artist’s collections often feature religious jewelry pieces. Her gorgeous Jewish jewelry items include Star of David necklaces and pendants. The Star of David is believed to be a sign of protection in Jewish tradition. Christian jewelry pieces include unique crosses made in the holy land.

Allergy Information:

Ayala Bar jewelry is handcrafted from tarnish resistant hypo-allergic metal and can be an excellent fit for women with nickel related allergies.

The Enneagram Series – Personality Type 4 – The Artist

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:14:04 +0000

This article is the 5th in this series of articles on the Enneagram.

Triad: Type 4 is a variant of the core type of the Heart Triad, with Type 3 being the core type.

Core Belief: Others in the world have something that I do not. What is wrong with me?

With this core belief, the Four’s focus of attention is on whether they are accepted or rejected. This operates below the level of conscious awareness and underlies everything that they do.

Whilst Twos learned to get love by giving and Threes learned to earn respect by their achievements, Fours learned to feel accepted by being unique and authentic. With this focus, Fours become creative people who need to express their uniqueness. They are drawn to the arts, drama and other forms of self expression. You can also find them in jobs which require new or unique solutions.
Fours are warm and compassionate people, very in touch with their own feelings and able to feel what others are feeling too. Fours are refined people with an interest in aesthetics and quality.

Threes will seek to fit into a crowd and will dress accordingly. Fours will do anything to stand out from the crowd and will dress to do this. You can often spot a Four in a crowd by their unique dress sense.

This drive to be unique can become the Fours blind spot in that they develop a great fear of being ordinary. Fours can become depressed, self conscious and withdrawn from the world as they feel the pain of being ordinary. The drive for uniqueness can be exhausting, and however much they succeed, Fours can still feel there is something still wrong with them. This self absorption can make them stubborn and moody, where their concerns are over dramatised and they can attain a reputation of being a ‘drama queen’. Fours feel everything very deeply and are often saddened by life.

Fours, in their search for the meaning of life, to understand their feelings and to be understood, have been inspired to create some of the greatest works of art, music, poetry and literature. They have poured their hearts into the creation of these unique masterpieces, sometimes to the extent that there was nothing left for them at the end, having expended all their deepest feelings in the act of creation.

Examples of Fours (real and/or fictional)
Singers Elton John and Kate Bush
Salvador Dali
Meryl Streep in the film The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Please remember this is a general introduction to the Personality Types and is help you get a basic level understanding of the Enneagram. For a fuller understanding, I recommend further reading, and ideally an experience of an Enneagram course.

R&B New Artist Review – There’s a New R&B Artist on the Scene

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:13:02 +0000

There’s a new R&B artist on the scene, and he is shaking up preconceived notions of what R&B, Pop, or radio friendly music should be like. Traditionally, pop music has been thought of as fun fluff – meaning, it’s like cotton candy. Pleasant and fun for the moment but never what would be described as substantial or meaningful.

It generally focuses on one or two ubiquitous topics, like falling in love or out of it, and it relies on about fifty rhyming words that appear throughout the thousands of songs put out by the hundreds of artists that all sound exactly the same (think “love” and “above” – you get the idea).

On the flipside, you have what one would think of as serious music. This would encompass genres like classical or jazz, or even lyrically clever and more grown up style groups like Dave Matthews band. This music is great, but is rarely thought of as fun, or the kind of music that would make you want to get up and dance.

There’s serious music and then there’s fun music – and never the twain shall meet.

Until now.

With his new single Big for Me, Jd Webb is turning those ideas and labels upside down. When I was first given Webb’s single to review, I must admit, I was expecting your typical R&B dance tune. “I give it a 10, it’s got a good beat, you can dance to it,” kind of music. And Big for Me definitely is danceable fun for your iPod or for the club, to be sure. But it also explores a deeper idea. It’s not just about that heady feeling of initial attraction – it’s about a character that is surprised at seeing himself making changes in his life to accommodate his love interest and better serve their life together. It’s not his usual behavior, which is why he says, “That’s Big for Me.”

The song takes the concept of falling in love and explores it on a level that is deeper and more interesting than the surface. And anyone that’s been in love can tell you that the feelings on that level of love are just as strong and just as wonderful as initial infatuation – in fact, more so!

In the same way, Webb’s music has taken the Pop genre and explored it on a level that’s deeper and more interesting. And, just like love itself, that’s made it so much fuller and richer – and infinitely better.