Maria Rozmanic
I would like to inspire you, wherever you are in the world, to notice little parts of our planet, and possibly send a piece to me.
Let’s build an Earthling together!
I would like to inspire you, wherever you are in the world, to notice little parts of our planet, and possibly send a piece to me.
Let’s build an Earthling together!
Sea urchin from Portugal, cork driftwood, dry passion fruit skin, snail fossils, a glass sphere I found at a flea market in Switzerland, clay.
I found this piece of tree bark on a beach in Portugal. Straight away, I thought that adding the hands and feet would make a perfect little sculpture. I wanted to make them black, but a gentle friend suggested this gentle grey colour. I believe she was right :-) The base is a piece of black locust fence post from Serbia.
Barbed Wire from Serbia. Wood and rock from Portugal. The wood is from a beach campfire.
“... hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Hope allows us to push forward even when the truth is distorted by the people in power. It allows us to stand up when they tell us to sit down, and to speak when they say be quiet.” Brian Stevenson
I found the two burned and washed wood pieces on a beach in Portugal on the same day. Maybe they were part of the same tree, maybe part of the same fire, so they had to stay together.
The wing is just as I found it on a walking path in a forest nearby Basel, Switzerland. The head is a present from a friend; a rock from somewhere in the Swiss Alps. Arm and legs; rusty wire from Serbia. The base is a piece of slate from Sernftal, Swiss Alps, brought here by a kind friend. The body is a piece of wood I found in Valais, Switzerland. It lay in front of a house on a mountain slope. On the slope, there was a big trampoline, a swimming pool and a slide, with a ladder to climb onto. This piece of wood might be part of that construction. The children trampolining into the swimming pool on the slope of a mountain must feel like flying.
Snail shell, rock and a flower from Portugal. I love walking along the coast, waiting for the sunset. The grass is full of little snails and flowers, and they all look magical as the evening sunlight slowly settles on them.
All these wee bits are from Glarus, Switzerland. I collected them during a walk with my dear German teacher.
A black acorn found during a walk in the countryside near Basel. I read that acorns turn black if they are exposed to a lot of stress. A piece of Bog Oak from the depths of the bog from the UK, Peterborough. Bog Oak is estimated to be between 3000 and 8000 years old. Dried papaya seeds.
Thistle seeds and a sea urchin shell from Portugal. The base is a piece of cork driftwood I found on a flea market in Switzerland, and the little branch is a piece of driftwood I found in Scotland.
Driftwood found on a little beach in Portugal. The feather is from Germany; North Sea coast. A friend brought it to me many, many years ago. I believe it belonged to a seagull. The snail shells are from
Portugal, the rock from the Swiss Alps and the paper from a few centuries old book printed in Paris.
“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” William Shakespeare
Two snail shells, the same size, the same colour, found laying next to each other on a walking path in a little forest near Basel. The hole for the neck was already there. They were just a perfect match. A piece of wood that floated in the Rhine.
Tree bark, flower, and a limpet shell from Portugal, rock from Jura, Switzerland.
Balancing might be one of the most difficult things to master :-)
The flowers are the paper wrappings of small Snaps firecrackers. I popped them with some friends after midnight on 1st January 2019 in Germany. The pavement looked like it was covered with little flowers afterwards. The tree bark and the rocks are from Portugal.
Volunteering for Trees for Life in the Scottish Highlands. We were planting trees at Allt Ruadh. The rock is from a hole for a new tree, and the stem is a dry heather branch. The moss is from a big rock that lays at Dundreggan Estate. This estate contains one of the remnants of the Caledonian Forest, the native forest of the Highlands.
Two sea hearts and an old oboe mouth piece box found at a flea market a long time ago. Rusty nails from Serbia. A piece of disintegrating tree bark from a forest in Switzerland.
“Sea hearts spread around the world in water. They are so resilient they can float and survive for years. They can journey on the tides and winds and when they find the right conditions to grow they can put down roots and grow and flourish, and adapt to new places, naturalise.” Catherine Potter
Two rusty beer bottle caps, two rusty screws, a eucalyptus seed and a rock from Portugal. Two rusty nails from Serbia.
A magnolia grandiflora seed pod from Portugal. The tree stands in front of the door to the yoga room at Omassim. Omassim is a guest house and yoga retreat run by Lia and Eduardo. I feel sheltered when I am there. Smelling the wonderful, big, white flowers before a yoga class with Lia is uplifting and grounding. Driftwood from a small beach close to Omassim, clay.
Thank you to the trees.
An agave flower stalk from Portugal. The flower of the plant looks like a tall, strong tree. A eucalyptus seed from Portugal. Black locust from Serbia.
Mysterious, possibly tropical seeds and seed pods, that I found in a second-hand shop in Basel. The branch is a contribution from a friend. It was found somewhere in Switzerland, a long time ago.
Agave leaves from Portugal. I imagine it took many years for them to turn the way they are now. Shaped by strong winds, hot sunshine, salty air, red soil, rain...refreshing rain...bugs, snails...
Driftwood from Portugal – once a tree, then a window frame, then a float. I so wish I could talk to it and hear it’s adventures. Eucalyptus seeds from Portugal. Wood chips from China. They were imported from China to Switzerland, and then used to cover the gardens around the school where I work. They came with mycelium of a stinky mushroom. The mushrooms grew. The stench made many of us run into the school, and this is not a usual sight :-)
A piece of rock from the Scottish Highlands. A piece of rotting and disintegrating wood from Basel, found near Dorfbach, a little stream nor far from where I live. A piece of wood from a forest in Jura, Switzerland. An alpine rose branch from Safiental, Switzerland. Anis stars. Two pili nuts – from somewhere in the world.
The base is a rock from Engelberg, Switzerland. Driftwood and pebbles from the coast of the North see. All pieces contributions from dear friends.
“Walkabout is a rite of passage in Australian Aboriginal society, during which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditional transition into manhood.” Wikipedia
Two pieces of baryte mineral rock found at a street flea market. A piece of driftwood from Engelberg. A hat needle from a passed era – origin unknown.
The body is a piece of wood from a forest in the Jura region, Switzerland. The head was a bend in a root system of a tree, that was sticking out, and broken, on a walking path in Reichenbach in Kandertal, Switzerland. A limpet shell from Donegal, Ireland.
A rose-acacia seed pod (this is what I believe it is). A piece of wood from near Dorfbach, Basel. A piece of slate rock from Landesplattenberg Engi, Switzerland.
A rock from a park in Livorno, Italy. An unknown seed from a second-hand shop in Basel, rusty nails from Serbia.
Pieces of metal and aluminium found on the streets of Ribamar, Portugal. Streets in Portugal are not cleaned as often as streets in Switzerland. Lost things have time to transform and change their shapes. A piece of Bog Oak from the depts of the bog from the UK, Peterborough.
The wings are an old rusty piece of iron that used to be part of the Old Mill in Oltingen, Switzerland. The body is a rusty spatula from Serbia, still covered with some lime. It was used for yearly reparations of our old house. Both pieces secured shelter. Together they will look over the Old Mill.
A rusty wire found on a road in Portugal. It is still the way I found it. I only bent one end, to make the hug stronger. A rock from Portugal.
Old watch parts from my father’s tool and spare parts supply and a piece of driftwood from Portugal.
The end of a fence post from our garden in Serbia and shells from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
Part of a gardening tool from Serbia, a piece of slate rock from Landesplattenberg Engi, Switzerland, and an old drawer knob.
A roof tile from my neighbour’s house in Serbia. The moss used to be scraped off the tiles. Nobody has lived in the house for many years, and it is slowly disintegrating. The back of the house has collapsed. Old watch parts from my father’s tools and spare parts supply.
A rusty sheet of tin from Serbia and old watch parts from my father’s tool and spare parts supply.
The cover of an old bee hive from Serbia, rust found on the streets of Portugal, old watch parts, dirt and sand from Portugal.
Driftwood from Tolsta beach, Isle of Lewis, Scotland and driftwood from Klöntalersee, Glarus, Switzerland.