Tag Archives: icons

FATHERS’ DAY

FATHERS’ DAY 2015

Well, it looks as though I may be a little late for Fathers’ Day (except for those who live in the Montreal area), but it’s useful to get some ideas for gifts for those hard-to-buy-for men.

I have a number of boxes which make good gifts for men  (#302, #308 & #310), These boxes are all from Lombok.

box (10)box (14)box (16)

 

Icons might be another good idea.  Some men I know identify with St. George (and the Dragon) — #203 Bulgaria.  #200 is an old icon of a Romanian patriarch.  #204 is an attractive cloth icon of St. Nicolas from Bulgaria.

icon (10) icon (3) icon (1)

Small square carpets make good gifts for men.  They can be used for coffee table decorations or on a chair.  Both of the following carpets are from Uzbekistan:  #511 is made of silk and #512 (much less expensive) is made of wool.

2011-273 2011-274

Decorative wooden ikats holders can be used as tie hangers or as a decoration over door frames (#240, #240B).  Both hangers are from Lombok.

2011-181 1013-wood-ikat-holder-02

Coasters are useful gifts. #401 is lacquer from Vietnam & #536 & #535 are from Lombok and are made of wood and rattan.  All these coasters have boxes which can be useful in other ways.

laquer-bamboo (10) gift-290 gift-289

 

Sometimes men do like cushion covers with masculine designs.  #273, #274, #275 & #276 are from Vietnam.  They’re hand embroidered by hill tribes from the Sapa Valley.  #259 is from Turkey and is a representation of whirling dervishes.

cushion (10) cushion (11) cushion (3)

 

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Donna Davidson

Easter 2013

Easter will be here soon. It really annoys me that some calendars are so “politically correct” now that they don’t even mention religious holidays such as Easter.  This year Western Easter [Protestants and Roman Catholics] is on March 31, whereas Orthodox Easter is on May 5.

For Orthodox Christians Easter is the most important holiday of the year. I have visited Romania, Bulgaria, [Russia, Greece-many years ago]. Both the Romanians and the Bulgarians seem to be very religious and have highly decorated churches. Romanians have a tradition of making reverse painting on glass icons.  This was started in a monastery in Nicula, Transylvania during  the 17th century.  Traditionally, many icons were painted during the winter.

I bought a number of these icons in Romania and have two which would be particularly suitable for Easter. Item #196 below is a beautiful icon of the Virgin Mary with the crusifixion in the bottom right hand corner. The gold in the painting seems to be gold leaf rather than gold paint.

Item # 127 is an icon of the crucifixion. Again the gold seems to be gold leaf rather than gold paint.

Now for something a little more secular. #562,563,564 are lovely small cloisonne eggs from China which can make  fairly sophisticated Easter gifts or be used for Easter decorations.  Also, I have similar larger eggs which are not on the website.

A hand carved wooden rooster from Bali, #141 is an item that could be used as an Easter decoration, too.

One last suggestion this time around is  a delicate quite beautiful metal bird from Laos. #143

I am intending to put up pictures of some of my other Easter items soon. -Hopefully before our Easter, but definitely before Orthodox Easter