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

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 :)

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!).

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 :)

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.

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 :)

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):

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!

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!

Special Promotion!

I decided to have a special sale for my Facebook Fans :) If you'd like to know more and if you'd like to get 20% discount on any of my jewellery pieces go to http://www.facebook.com/blue.almonds and "Like" the page :) Offer ends on 1st December 2010!

Five Sisters

Inspired by Autumn golden hues and one of my favourite places in the Highlands: "Five Sisters" is a limited edition of simple Amber pendants. They can be worn on both sides: one showing the swirls or the other one with little flower. Every pendant is adorned with a tiny gem hidden in the base of a bail. Perfect for everyday use :)

I will be listing them tomorrow - with a special price of £50 only till the end of October!