Angel Comforter

Some days I just struggle with my designs. No stone looks right, no drawing seems to be good enough, the wire doesn't want to listen to my fingers. An artist block. A depressing day. The feeling of loneliness, hopelessness and desperation make the creative process impossoble. Well, it feels impossible. That day though, instead of just giving up and going to bed  I worked through all this. I didn't know what I wanted to make but I needed to DO something. My hands twisted the wire methodicly making little loops and weaves. Loop by loop, rhytmic movements, like when climbing a steep hill which you didn't think you can climb but you walked anyway. Step by step. Loop by loop, again and again. And after a few hours a little Angel was born :) I named Her Angel Comforter after my Friend said "May she watch over your sleep and keep you safe" when she firts saw the finished pendant.

the heart is made of wood, adorned with Sterling and Fine Silver and Poppy Jasper smooth rounds
the pendant hangs on a tangerine silk cord, hand stitched.

Minimalistic

Thanks to my dear Clients who ask for their dreams to come true I sometimes face very challenging designs. This time I needed to leave my comfort zone to use the smallest stones and the thinnest wire I have and create the smallest earrings ever. The first pair I made were 11mm in diameter and it was... too much, too big a size. So, the next pair I tried even smaller and that 9.5mm was just right. I'm now thinking I could probably make something as small as 8mm, maybe even 6mm that they could still have a stone and a little pattern in the centre. Maybe... :)

 

on the left: Elderflower with 3mm white Freshwater Pearl and 2mm Black Onyx

on the right: Poppyseed with 2mm Black Onyx only

Surprising

I like those moments of enlightement when you suddenly see something you didn't think of when creating a piece of jewellery :) 
These little silver earrings were commissioned to make a set with the Ancient Tree pendant. After taking photos I realised that they are not only in my Spahinsay style (as requested by my Customer) but they also have something in common with one of the Island's inhabitant: the Short Eared Owl :) So I named them Little Owls.

Good nights

Lately I've been working night shifts. During the day I'm a full time mom to a lively two year old boy and somehow I can't find the time for my jewellery ;) So, when he goes to bed I go upstairs and spend as much time as possible with the silver and gems...before I fall asleep usually between 1-2am. This is what I was working on the last couple of weeks when the sky was dark: rings!

Shapinsay again

These earrings are the second incarnation of Shapinsay, after the first pair was sold to Ania from Shapinsay (yes, from there!). I think I'll make a collection of earrings under this name inspired by the island colours :) Here I surrounded a juicy green Peridot (the colour of the grass) with yellow Jasper and orange Carnelian - like the little wild flowers on a meadow. Then I and added a purple Amethyst and burgundy Garnets - colours of the Sea Pink and  wild orchids.

 

Shapinsay

Last week I spent four days on Shapinsay - a little island in Orkney. From there I took home a few stones and shells with me to have some new photo backrounds for my jewellery. Last night I was making a pair of earrings thinking of the island unusual bleek landscape and then I remembered the flowers, the shells, the stones...and all the subtle colours one could see when only one would stop and look really close. Look at these little earrings - it's Shapinsay in a miniature.

 

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, Garnet, Yellow Sapphire, Aquamarine, Sterling and Fine Silver

Green Ice

Another commission I've finished recently - a pair of my rose earrings. This colour inspiration came from a variety of mini roses with naturally pale green flowers. A Green Ice rose made with green gems: Hessonite Garnet, Peridot and juicy orange Carnelians.

Morning Dew

Just finished editing photos of my latest earrings. They are a commissioned gift for a girl so I arranged bright colours in a simple little design :)

Summer SALE

I decided to mark down some of my old designs and have a sale :) It starts with these earrings that are now only £30 - just follow the link below the photos.

Green Feathers earrings

Rose Fuchsias earrings

More dreams

Here are the two other bracelets from the last Sweet Dreams line: one is with Amber and one with Rose Quartz. Both with Polish Banded Flint :)

and this is how they all look together.

Sweet Dreams

For some time before the Craft Fair in Cromarty (that I attended last weekend) I had been creating new pieces. I wanted to use Polish gemstones such as the unique Polish Banded Flint and, of course, Amber and arrange them with stones and colours they usually are not mixed in mainstream jewellery. Here is the first one I created with Banded Flint and Turquoise with a little embelishment shaped in Sterling Silver and adorned with the tiniest Hematites I've ever used (approx 1mm in diameter!).

The Fair and the value

Last weekend we had a heat wave, a proper hot Summer weather, something I was so longing for! Blue sky, sunshine and a WARM breeze. And I was at the fair. Indoors of course, in a lovely old building, but still - indors. Of course I hoped for crowds and big sales, my jewellery flying off the table but... to be honest if I was to choose what I would be doing I too would go on the beach. Or spent entire two days on a blanket in my garden. So I understand why it was SO quiet at the fair. It was a split secon, a moment of desperation on Saturday, after those long hours of waiting for somebody to turn up, for a customer to enter the room, that I though "it's no use! it's a waste of my time, waste of such a beautiful day!".

And then I remembered that it wasn't all waste, all for nothing. It all depends of what you think it's of real value.

There was not many customers so I had the time to make something new - I always bring some wire, pliers or a crochet hook to keep me busy IN CASE it's quiet (the irony!).

One of these will become a big flower brooch (once I add some gems to it).

The other thing important to methat happened was the feedback I received on the new boxes I only recently ordered (from my favourite Polish supplier Kasia of Skarby Natury). I really liked them and it was very reassuring to hear it was a right choice - so many nice words I've heard!

 

And the best experience was sharing similar experience and exchanging thoughts and ideas with the other exhibiting artists. I think I can also say that I made a new friend with a very talented and brave bookmaker: Lesley of Murray Books who not only makes books but also resques books that were destined for the skip. The sculptures were my favourite :)

Black Rutile Rose

After some time of my working with crochet and silver I wanted to try if I could make something bigger than a pendant. Much bigger. A jumper that is. I found a book with great contemporary crochet designs and decided to make that jumper I saw on the book cover. Then I searched for the right wool but I didn't want it to be from the other side of the world - I prefer buing as locally as possible, from small family businesses like my own :) After a while I found The Little Knitting Company and fall in love with the yarns they stock: such a choice of different styles, wools and not very expensive, some even much cheaper than I could find locally in the nearest town. I decided to go for the black wool&cashmere mix.

It took me over two weeks, some late nights, quite a few mistakes, re-shaping, re-making some rows and finally re-designing the collar but I'm SO happy with what I've made! I even designed and made a little ornament: a black rose with a plumpy Black Rutilated Quartzbriolette in the center. After all I couldn't resist and not to use any gem :D

And the jumper is so comfortable and so warm - perfect for our Scottish Spring ;)

Last minute pin

Remember that super soft and light vest I was working on in the last few days? I managed to finish it just in time to wear it today at the International Women's Day in Merkinch Community Centre. The vest was  ready only yesterday before midnight when I realised I needed a brooch or a pin to wear it with. So, I dug through my gem stash and found this beautifully leaf-shaped Carnelian bead, just right in size and colour! It was already late and I was in a bit of a hurry still packing my jewellery for the event so... 20cm of Sterling Silver wire and 10 minutes later the pin was ready, oxidised and buffed. And it looked great today :)

Two projects

This week I've been busy with two wearable crochet projects. One I'm making for myself: it will be a new vest made in the softest and lightest kid mohair you can imagine. The other one will be a bracelet and it's made in Fine Silver. I'm only not sure what gems I'll add to it. 

I like the difference in sizes between my two crochet hooks :)

Mare Tranquilitatis

Mare Tranquilitatis or Sea of Tranquility it's an area on the Moon, a lunar sea. When I first came across this name I fell uner its spell. I waited for the right stone and the right design to use it - such a charming name deserves a very special piece of jewellery.
And this is it: this large Labradorite, flashing with heavenly azure-blue shades brings to mind a place of calm, quiet and magical atmosphere: a lunar ocean, sea on the Moon. I know in reality it's not blue, I know there is no water in it but it doesn't matter. It is blue in my dreams.

Simple, almost ascetic design draws the attention to the stone. Set in Sterling and Fine Silver hand formed, hand wrapped and crocheted. Oxydised to black patina and then hand polished to shine.

Snowdrops

Today was such a beautiful sunny day we spent most of it outdoors. By "we" I mean myself and my 1.5year old son. First I chopped the wood for the wood burning stove while he was sweeping the lawn with our big broom - yes he did, and he does this almost every time we are in the garden :) Then we walked to say "hello" to his favourite neighbours - the sheep and then I wanted to see the Snowdrops I'd noticed the other day. Every year I see them I get excited, for me it's the first sign that Spring is coming!

On the way back home my son saw his first rainbow ever. Well, he's seen them in books and films but that was a real one - imagine the smile on his face :)

Now he's asleep and as it's the only time I get to work with jewellery I bid you goodnight and I'm off to work on a certain commissioned pendant.

New Year's decision

I've just closed my shop on Etsy. An inevitable decision. When I opened it almost three years ago my life was so much different than it is now. I started my own business as a jewellery designer and had my website with a shop up and running. Soon I was present on all possible internet social sites promoting my jewellery, myself, my new business. I was on Flickr, on Twitter, Etsy, then Artfire and Folksy when it started, Plurk, Facebook... gosh, so many of them! And I had my own website to manage, jewellery tcreate, photos to take and then edit in three or four different sizes, descriptions to write in two languages. Yep, I was one busy woman :)
Then, when my little boy was born and I was just in the middle of re-vamping my website I realised that it will not be possible to create and to promote myself at the same time in so many ways I used to do! It will not be possible for me to have a life. A real life, not one at the front of a computer. A life where I have the time to be with my family and then create and do all that stuff which is necessary when you run your own business. So I gradually started limiting my internet presence reclaiming my life and my time.

New Year is a good time to start a new life so, from today on, I have only one website to manage, one social site to blether (and if you are on FB you know that :) ), one blog where I write in English and two where I write in Polish. Oh, and there still is Flickr and Deviant Art wher sometimes I share my photos when I feel like doing so :)

So... I'm back at my desk happily wrapping! See you soon!