I'm the Featured STAT TEAM Shop on Etsy!

This wonderful team of artists on Etsy works together to promote each others' shops, through the creation of curated Treasuries, collections of pieces from our shops.  The STAT TEAM is for Self-Taught Artists.  I'm excited to be a part of the team and to bring attention to their works of art.  And I'm doubly excited to be spotlighted right now in the treasuries and on the Blog.  Here's what was posted on the team Blog today, and I've been "liking" on Facebook all the member treasuries as they're brought to my attention.

You can find those treasuries by going to Etsy.com, scroll down the left side to click on Treasury.  Go to the search window at the top and enter my shop name, NatureAngels, to search the Treasury section.  That will give you a list of all treasuries in which my items are featured, as well as all treasuries I've created.

Thank you!

STATTEAM SPOTLIGHT

STATTEAM Spotlight - 4/25/12

Dreamy, vintage, ornate, and downright pretty describes the pieces in today's spotlight shop, Nature Angels. This shop includes amazing assemblage collages, steampunk jewelry, and don't forget to check out the clearance section!

Becky Helmer coordinates the new Spotlight three times each week. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday a shop that participated by promoting the previous spotlight is randomly selected for the next feature! See the team discussions for full details.

Posted by Di Dial (SassySpark and BackGlasswards)
http://statteamonetsy.blogspot.com/p/statteam-spotlight.html

How We Remember the Dead

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/noted-how-we-remember-the-dead/?ref=fp_blog_post

Noted: How We Remember the Dead

Story by  chaps676

Published on Oct 26, 2011 in Read

Photo by Smere Tactics

Two common factors that unite us all — birth and death — are moments lived beyond our realm, too overpowering for mere mortals to consciously experience. Yet the latter remains the greatest mystery; without any understanding of life after death, all we can do is memorialize those who have left us, creating shrines that comfort the living more than the dead. “We rely on [memorial objects] to safeguard fugitive memories that would otherwise inexorably fade, then vanish,” explains design critic and art director Angela Reichers. “Even when there is no access to the narrative — when no one is available to tell the tale — memorial objects possess a persistent quality at once spooky and evocative.” Over the years, our tributes to the deceased have taken many forms: gravestones, pyramids, urns, jewelry and locks of hair. Recently, these memorials have evolved to meet the changing trends of a modern society.

The most recent trends in postmortem memorials involve repurposing ashes into a useful object. My Holy Smoke is a company that fills bullets with cremated ashes, allowing loved ones to use at their own discretion to honor the “outdoors person in your life.” For the deceased music lover, And Vinyly presses ashes into a 12-inch LP for your listening pleasure. You must supply the audio, as the site states, “This can be music, a vocal recording or complete silence to let loved ones hear your pops and crackles.”

Jody Poesy

Victorian mourning jewelry: A common practice of the era involved making necklaces out of the hair of the deceased.

As a growing percentage of our daily lives exists digitally, expect to see more memorials that reflect our online lives. Designer Michele Gauler offers another solution called Digital Remains — a small, silver external hard drive that downloads and preserves the digital life of someone who has passed on. Of course the web reminds us that not all memorials have to be tangible; advertised as “The World’s Virtual Cemetery,” iTomb offers a space for a digital memorial to a loved one.

Do these contemporary memorial objects trivialize death, or are they a modern coping mechanism, lifting weight in the wake of tragedy? Angela Reichers, whose upcoming Sites of Memory project highlights the forgotten memorial sites of our cities, reminds us that perhaps we shouldn’t make broad assumptions about others’ tributes: “Since memorials themselves are mute despite the wealth of information they possess, it is up to the mourner to recount the tale in whatever way is most palatable to him or her.” In the end, the memory of our loved ones is what counts, whether they be buried, cremated or pressed into vinyl for one final dance party send-off.

How do you want to be remembered?