Friday is my day: Alibli

Hi, today we will fly to Italy, pretty Venice and meet Alice from alibli.etsy.com
She creates beautiful jewellery. Have a lovely Friday!

Pine Cone hoops - handmade sterling silver hoops with pinecone charms

alibli

Hello everyone,

I am Alice, you can find me on Etsy in my little shop, alibli.

I was born and raised near Milan, Italy, but I have been living in Venice for about one year now, since in September 2009 when I signed in for my master degree in History at Venice university.

Living in Venice is… kind of odd. Sometimes this town reminds me of Disneyland, but sure this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

People here don’t open up to strangers much and I come from 300km away: I am percieved as a srtange exotic creature!

Venice is a very silent place too: no cars and busses under your window at 6 in the morning. This can be a real problem if, like me, you didn’t set the alarm clock… you’ll end up getting up terribly late.

Today is firday and I don’t have any class at university, so I can devote my day to being creative and working on alibli.

10.30 am

I lazily wake up, have a shower and eat some breakfast: today I have vanilla yogurt with cereals, a few almonds and white tea. As every average Etsy seller I have breakfast in front of my laptop, answer convos, make a treasury. And just like most Etsy sellers I can’t resist macro shooting…


It’s mid october, but it’s a beautiful sunny day, here is the view from my kitchen window


I will spend the rest of the morning crafting and I’ll need a lot of tea to get through it (I am addicted)


11.30 am

Yesterday I sawed a few pieces of silver and I want to finish a pair of earrings I had in mind for a while: open hoops with a dangling silver leaves… I am personaly quite happy with the result!

1.00 pm

It’s past midday when I am finished crafting and I still need to prepare the orders I that came in last night: I print invoices, prepare boxes and packages.


The post office is two minutes from my house, but I won’t coming back home until this evening, so I get ready for the afternoon to come. I just have the time to eat a fruit before going out.

I live in an island called Giudecca, it is suoth of the main body of Venice (I mean the “fish shape” you see on the maps). Giudecca is a really calm neighborhood (a bit too much, maybe!), tourists don’t come here so often and houses are more recent than in the heart of Venice. Here you can see a little square (“campo”) and a alley (“calle”) just next to my house.


2.00 pm

From Giudecca island you can enjoy one of the most gorgeous views of Venice: this what you can see right from the post office!


I need to go to the university library this afternoon, so I take the boat ( line number 2) to cross the Giudecca channel that separates the island from the rest of Venice.


I can’t walk you with me inside the library, I need to look for some books about Byzantium influence in Italy… I know it can be soporifc to most people!

4.30 pm

After searching for knowledge and making tons of copies from books (most of them seemed to have been left untouched for decades) I am going to meet a fellow etsian. Her name is Davinia and she is an incredibly talented bead maker from Belgium now living in here.

Her shop is next so San Marco, so I enjoy a 40 minutes walk in this labiryinth called Venice (if you’ll ever come here remember: only comfortable shoes!)

I am wearing a sweatshirt and a jaket… while the gondolier is in his t-shirt only, that’s a hard job.


5 pm

Here is Davinia and a few of her gorgeous creations.


6 pm

After bead shopping I need to cross the town again.

You can find many vegetable sellers in the “campi” (squares), I’ll need something to cook dinner tonight, so I stop at this colorful stall. I buy artichauts, pumpkin, fennels, apples and bananas.

I’s another 20 minutes walk from this stand to the boat… I’ll better fasten my speed.


7 pm

There is still a bit of light and, as soon as I get home, I can’t resist experimenting with my brand new beads while listening to some music (as you can see I am a headphones fan). While I craft I turn on the computer again, I just can’t stay away from it for too long.


8 pm

I finally start cooking while I talk to my mum over Skype; she is always super sweet and she doesn’t mind talking to me while I am busy doing something else.

Tonight we’ll have pasta with artichauts (cleaning them is none of my favorite hobbies, still they are so good!) and lemon… yummy! do you want the recipe?

9.30 pm

After tiding and cleaning up the kitchen there is still some space for work: it’s time for glue, sissors and paper, I need to finish a bunch of handmade boxes for alibli. This is quite a relaxing job, I can do it while watching a film (I just downloaded “Leaves of Grass” with Edward Norton, let’s give it a try).

12 pm

I check my Etsy again, then I am finally off to bed. Honestly, the film wasn’t any good…

Good night!