Lots of time

From midday Saturday till the Sunday afternoon the Internet was down in our area. Suddenly I found myself with loads of time and I wondered what can I do - no Polish online radio, no Facebook chats and stories... I even couldn't check the latest news or ask Wikipedia to answet my questionsthat I have so many times a day! Suddenly I realised how often I turn to my laptop everyday for help and to meet friends, to Skype family, to listen to favourite music, and laso, I have to admit... to waste time. But that day and the following day I just turned to my unfinished project and, to my big surprise, almost managed to finish it!
This is what I've been working on: a base crocheted in Fine Silver, frame in Sterling Silver wrapped with GoldFill and the heart of the pendant: a gorgeous Labradorite with amazing yellow flashes set in a hand made frame. This will make a very special and uniqe adornment.

Fresh from the studio

It's been quiet here for a while - it's because I've been very busy with new orders and new designs and still there are a few waiting in line on my desk!Yesterday I finished a pendant with a stone I just adore: an amazing Moonstone, flashing with strong blues.

Touch of Frost necklace

Before that it was a custom made bracelet, an old design but refreshed with some new details, featuring the unique Polish Banded Flint.

 Pearls and Greys 2 bracelet

And the earring of course! I finished them some time ago but then they got lost in the middle of other stones in my studio. Finally they are listed on my Blue Almonds website too.

Whisper of The Ancient Rome earrings

Calla Lily - the hand weaved flower

This was the craziest project I've done so far - it took 11 hours of work and meters and meters of the thinnest Fine Silver wire. This pendant is an incarnation of my love to flowers and was created with a company of a little Calla Lily plant sitting on my work table. The wire was weaved on a hand shaped sterling silver frame to form light and airy petal embracing softly its heart - the amazing sparkling Lemon Quartz briolette.

Still refreshing

The next necklace I was working with is the Tiger Eye. I also oxidised it black and then just delicately hand buffed to keep the patina. This way it looks much more romantic and elegant. Also this beeing a small pendant it is now much better visible when worn directly on the skin.

The new pendant is on the right photo.

Refreshing

I've been working on some of my old designs changing them a little (or a lot) and first one I've just finished is the Unfurl The Sail necklace - oxidised black and then only delicately hand buffed to keep the patina.

On the right is the new incarnation of the necklace whicj I'm very pleased with. I think the patina really reveals the weaving pattern at the bottom of the stone and gives a better contrast with the white pearls and the very delicate crystal quartz.

 

The process

I wrote about my designing and creating process looks like: that sometimes I let my fingers play with wire to  follow the flow of a certain stone and other times I put my design on paper first. Since that post I had people asking me for photos of the sketched designs so today I present you my latest work, this afternoon drawing. From the top there are: Kyanite, Turquoise and natural Lemon Jaspe. All three of them are pretty big stones, with the Turquoise being the largest: almost 6cm long. The first two are cabochons, they have no holes drilled and need carefull thought how to set them securely with wire only. That is why I need to put my idea on the paper first, it's almost ingeneering work. Also, I don't want to waste any milimeter of the Silver (considering its high price recently!) so before I begin playing with wire I will measure what I need and cut the desired lengths. After that it's only fun: hours of wire wrapping, oxydising, polishing and buffing - all in my quiet attic studio :)

Baltic Tears

This was the biggest natural Baltic Amber chunk and the longest necklace I'd worked so far. The freeform wavy design brings to mind calm ocean waters and floating seagrass. The Amber is almost 6cm long but it's very light and sits very comfortably on the light long chain. Like always I oxidised it but this time I polished it and buffed back to white silver taking almost all te black patina off. This is a statement necklace, for a true Amber lover and it's currently available at HUNG Gallery in Inverness.

Back from holiday

I just came back from short holidays and realised I hadn't written here for long time! So, to make up for all that peace and quiet, I present you my newest ring, fresh from the workshop, just finished. A big, organic coctail ring, something for a confident woman :)

Thunder In a Jar of Honey with rough natural Amber nugget and two Blue Sapphires. All metal is Sterling Silver. It will be listed soon.

I have some more pieces I haven't mentioned them here yet and I will write about them soon. I promiss!

Organic...

Coming soon: very organic, rough, natural Baltic Amber piece accompanied by a large Tiger Eye round and adorned with more little Tiger Eye spheres. This time the pendant hangs on a black leather cord.

Lost In Waves

Do you remember that project I got lost in its swirls and waves? (If you don't you can click and read about it HERE )Well, I've finished it and I can finally reveal the image as it's  no longer a surprise - it was a special gift for my Mom's 60th birthday so I had to keep it secret till she got it :)
Lost In Waves - a large piece of natural Baltic Amber embraced with Sterling Silver and adorned with white AAA Freshwater Pearls. The stone has no hole drilled and it was an inginiering challenge to set it securely with the wire wrapping technique only.

Coffee addict...

I must confess: I LOVE coffee. Not only to drink it but I particularly love its aroma, especially first thing in the morning. And I love it the Italian way and it must be espresso with a heaped teaspoon of sugar. Only sometimes I have coffee with cream. When I was little I wanted to have my own coffee plant and to grow it at home in a pot but... couldn't find a coffee plant in any flower shops in the city. I also like the colour of cofffee - that earthy black or sometimes deep chocolatey brown....
I'm not a huge fan of black clothes, though. I don't like and don't have in my wardrobe the traditional "must have" little black dress so working with black stones was not really my dream... but one of my lovely customers wanted a big black ring. I searched for a while for the right stone and when I found it, when it arrived and I saw the amazing clear black-and-white of Sardonyx I fall in love with it! It was like the spirit of coffee was magically turned in to a stone. Only the aroma is lacking ;) Hence the names of my recent pieces are coffee-themed. I created that ring with joy and after I finished it I picked Sardonyx again to make earrings. I'm presenting Espresso Macchiato (ring) and Espresso Doppio (earrings):

Sometimes I get lost...

...in the whirls, waves and threads of Silver. I'm working on an ambitious project, a pendant with unusual big stone, it's a surprise so I won't reveal any details here until it's ready...

Sunshine!

It's this time of year again when I find myself working with Amber. I guess it's the long wait for Spring and longer sunny days that makes me choose those warm, vibrant, juicy and almost sweet yellows and oranges. You can almost feel the tase of honey when you look at Amber, or think of a sunny beach, holidays, lazyness and relax My newest projects: The Bond necklace and Dragon's Eye ring. And there is more to come!

The Day

It was a very good day: I spent this afternoon with my boys at the Merkinch Community Centre. It was 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day and I had a stall with my jewellery amongst other local artists. There were women of over 15 nationalities: Scottish, Polish of course :) , Russian, Slovak, Indian, Romanian, Tahitian, Jordanian... to name but a few. We could enjoy dance shows, cooking demonstrations, the traditional "tweed waulking songs" and beautiful foods from all over the world! It's amazing how many talented women are over there, it's good to get together once in a while to feel and share the passion, love and joy of creativity :)

Women's Day

This Saturday I'll at the International Women's Day in the Merkinch Community Centre in Inverness. It's the 100 anniversary so let's have fun! I'm bringing samples of my jewellery and there will be other artists with their creations too: clothes, felt jewellery and much more. Oh, and there will be some yummy food too :)

More blues

Introducing my newest ring: Ice In the Sky 2. Created for the customer who commissioned the original Ice In The Sky but had ordered wrong size by mistake. I don't make copies so this ring is ALMOST identical :) The centrepiece is a stunning 7.6 carat Sky Blue Topaz.

Love Is Everywhere

This was the most romantic and unusual commission I've worked so far on: a very special gift for a man. I made this lovely little keepsake some time ago in December but as it was a surprise I didn't want to spoil it by writing about it too soon :) It's a green Jade heart with a Shamrock on one side and an R&R monogram weaved on the other side. Adorned with Sterling Silver, Cherry Quartz and Peridot.

New Year's changes and SALES!

This year I want to spend as much of my time with my baby son as possible and I just realised that having to manage THREE online jewellery outlets is way too time consuming! It's because I need to edit the photos into three different sizes, write descriptions, then convert prices from Pound Sterling to US Dollars, convert measurements from metric to that imperial one... and then it's the uploading all of that to three websites... My New Year's resolution then is to minimise the time I have to spend with computer and to concentrate on my own website only. That is why for some unspecified time I'm closing my Artfire and Etsy shops.

But before I will do so I will have a BIG SALE in each one of them :) The first one to go is the Artfire Studio with 30% OFF on all jewellery. It's till the end of January only. Happy shopping and Happy New Year!