Have you ever met a bare protein in person?

No?!

So let me introduce you to my protein, well not really mine, I’m just studying it!



The yellow solution in the tube contains the protein, leaving out too many technical details, my protein is dissolved in that liquid.
I’m trying to study this protein by NMR.
NMR is a powerful technique used to “look” at some protein atoms (hydrogens, carbons and nitrogens) in order to understand how the protein 3D structure looks like.



In few words it is like doing a tomography or an MRI, but instead of a person's body I analyze a protein!

ALMOST MISSED SAN FRANCISCO WEEKEND

This morning, ops it's already Friday...so I should say yesterday morning, I got an e-mail which reminded me of today early morning flight to San Francisco.
I have to say 98% of the time I hate those remainders, but today I was so grateful to read it!
Why?
Because I had totally forgotten about it!
So in few hours I'll be in San Francisco and I'll attend a three days metalsmith class at the REVERE ACADEMY.


In the mean time, I wish you HAPPY EASTER!

Open Studio Tours: Fru Snoops on

I have recently started to write this Open Studio Tour series for the Storque, where I'll be snooping around artists' creative spaces, how they set them up, when, why...even how often they clean them!

The first tour was into my space

This time I visited Michelle aka mcaplan wonderful working space

If you would like to show and share your working space, please leave o comment here.

TUTORIAL

FLICKR SCREENSHOTS/ILLUSTRATIONS
How to properly post a screenshot or an illustration on Flickr.

Recently Flickr has changed its policy on safe contents, while before that some people used to be NIPSAed.
What does NIPSA mean?
It stands for Not In Public Site Areas, and the NIPASed accounts do not show up in public search (if you want to know more about NIPSA see here)

Now that the new filters are in use, you can avoid any flagging of your screenshot or illustration by labeling them properly.

Here are two methods for setting the content type while uploading the photos:

1 UPLOADING FROM THE WEB
-in your flickr home page click Upload Photos

-click “show more upload settings”



-a large menu will come out, where you can set your file content (photo/screenshot/illustration) or safety level.



2 UPLOADR UPLOADING
-look for the “content type” menu on the right

Here are two methods for changing the content type on uploaded photos:

1 ON THE PHOTO PAGE

-on the bottom right of your photo page find the link Flag your photo



-set the content type




2 ORGANIZE MODE

-click on “Organize” button on the tool bar

-once in the organize window, you can drag in the center as many photo as you like (in my example I just used one) and click the Permission button


-chose from the menu “Set content type”


-set the content type


-go back to your home page by clicking the Your Photo link on top right of the page


TIP for Etsians: use one of these methods to set the content of your treasury screenshots...and happy flickring!

LA SUNSET

Yesterday I was driving to the airport and the sky was absolutely incredible, I couldn’t help myself I had to take this picture, which may not be crispy but definitively depicts the color of last night!

Ieri sera stavo guidando verso l'aeroporto, e il cielo era incredibile, non ho potuto fare a meno di scattargli una foto.

WORDY GIRASOLE RING

WORDY is the newest ring of the GIRASOLE line.
GIRASOLE means sunflower in Italian, and this origami shape reminds me of those funny dynamic flowers!

This ring is a mix of old techniques reinterpreted with the eco friendly modern language:

RECYCLED PAPER :is there anything that make you feel better than make what you like knowing that is good for our planet?
ORIGAMI: folding paper have always fascinate me, and recently I have revisited this technique by adding an other of my obsession: BEADS!
EMBROIDERY is one of the first thing I can remember doing as a “little child soon crafter to be”. Apparently this runs in my genes, my grandmother was a very good and known embroider.
PEYOTE STITCH is one of the basic stitch for beaders and yet one of the most widely used, because it can be very easy or very intricate and versatile.
I’ll soon post a tutorial on peyote stitch, I think everybody has to try it once!



WORDY e’ il nuovo anello della collezione GIRASOLE.

Quest’anello reinterpreta tecniche antiche con il linguaggio moderno del design ecologico:
LA CARTA RECICLATA: mi fa sentire cosi bene poter creare sapendo che lo faccio in modo “verde”
GLI ORIGAMI: piegare e ripiegare la carta mi ha sempre affascinato, recentemente ho rivisitato questa tecnica aggiungendole un’altra delle mie ossessioni: le PERLINE!
IL RICAMO: e’ una delle prime cose che ricordo facevo da bambina. Decisamente una caratteristica genetica, visto che mia nonna era una vera esperta nel campo!
IL PUNTO PEYOTE: uno dei punti base dei lavori di perline, e’ uno punto versatile che puo’ essere molto semplice ma anche molto complesso.
Al piu’ presto pubblicherò un tutoria su questo punto, perche’ credo che tutti devono provarlo almeno una volta!

FRIZZIFRIZZI

Yesterday the nice guys at FrizziFrizzi made a shoot out on my work!
It is so exciting to be in feature in blogs that I love!
What is cool about this blog?
They are always super updated with all the new trends!
The blog is in Italian, but this is only a plus…you can learn Italian while reading at the latest fashion and design news!



The stunning part of the article is this:
"Trovare tracce del suo lavoro diurno (la chimica) nelle sue creazioni notturne (i bijoux) non è poi così difficile: Francesca costruisce i suoi orecchini, le sue collane e i suoi bracciali come fossero molecole, disponendole secondo modelli che ricordano molto le strutture organiche viste al microscopio"
Which means that you can find hints of my daily job (biologist) in my creations, because my pieces resemble of molecules observed in the microscope.
This is so true and I’ve realized it just now that they made me notice that!
Thank you FrizziFrizzi!

CRAFTZINE BLOG

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that my MATTONELLA was featured in the CRAFT blog !

BTW, if you’re into creating with your hands (I guess I could more easily use the term handmade, but I’ve always been intrigued by the association of CREATING and HANDS) you should check Craft blog out , this blog is full of new and interesting ideas!

Grazie CratfZine!

Immaginate la mia sorpresa quando ho visto il mio pendente MATTONELLA in mostra sul blog del giornale CRAFTzine !
A proposito di blog, se vi piace creare con le mani (suppongo possa dire piu’ semplicemente fai-da-te, ma mi e’ sempre piaciuto il concetto di CREARE CON LE MANI, dovete assolutamente dare un’occhiata a questo , e’ pieno di idee e istruzioni per progetti fai-da-te.

BLOGLOVE

Yesterday I started a new Flickr group all about blogged photo.

Why I did it?
I started this group because I've always found such great photos in all the blogs I visited, and I thought it would be cool to have all of them grouped in a single place.
And this is also a new way to meet new blogs and to keep in touch with each other!

The following stream of photos is a little sample of the photos from the group.



Why you should join?
I’ll just give you few among the reasons
First, because you’re invited
Second, because if you blog, this is a way to connect with other bloggers
Third ,because if you love reading blog, this is new queak and fun way to look through blogs.

P.S.
Once you have joined, add this code to your blog, help spread the word!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/blog-love/"><img width="48" alt="bloglove icon" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/2330034254_505b89fe2f_t.jpg" height="48" /> </a>

WORK IN PROGRESS

Today I was at the studio working on this piece

The design is based on the SPICULUM concept, but once it will be done I’ll add a flair of paper.

If you want to know more about the SPICULUM and the ANTICLASTIC RAISING basics, please visit the ganoksin project site

MATTONELLA

MATTONELLA is the newest pendant in my shop.
The name means tile in Italian, and of course it is inspired by the shape of this pendant, but also by all the little squares/tiles that form the pendant...so I guess it is a double tile, or a tile of tiles!

The material I’ve used for this pendant is recycled paper, to be more precise I used few pages of a magazine called DRUG DISCOVERY news, a magazine dedicated to drugs research business.

The technique I’ve used is a mix of weave and embroider.
That’s a theme very common to all my work: old techniques applied to an unconventional material.

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MATTONELLA e’ il nuovo pendente nel mio negozio .
Il nome e’ ispirato dal dalla sua forma e dal fatto che in fondo e’ formato da piccole mattonelle, si potrebbe dire che e’ un mosaico di mattonelle!
Per farlo ho usato carta riciclata, per dirla tutta ho usato delle pagine di un giornale specializzato in ricerca di nuovi farmaci (DRUG DISCOVERY news).
La tecnica usata e’ un misto di tessitura e ricamo.
Vecchie tecniche riadattate a materiali non convenzionali: questo e’ un tema ricorrente nel mio lavoro!

First post

Starting a blog may seem easy, but it is not!
I’m holding on this for few days after I picked the name.
And before that, it took me for ever to decide to start on.
I guess I’ll start with a tiny little START post and we shall see!

Cominciare un blog puo’ sembrare facile, ma non lo e’ affatto!
Da qualche giorno ho scelto, ma ho aspettato ancora.
e prima del nome, ci sono voluti mesi prima di decimi a cominciare.
Allora non faro’ altro che cominciare con un piccolo post d’inizio!