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

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!

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.

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!

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 :)

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!

Dragon

Inspired by the stone itself this delicate necklace features a natural moss Green Jasper. I picked this unique hand cut cabochon for its rare deep green colour which. It somehow brought to my mind an image of a Chinese dragon. I set the stone in Goldfill wire and added some Tourmalines and one Grossular Garnet briolette - they glitter like tiny fire sparkes. There are two more Tourmalines at the handmade clasp and the bail is adorned with one small Peridot. The pendant is 4.5cm long in total and 1.7cm wide at the widest place. The chain is 41cm long. All metal is Goldfill.

Golden inspirations

Autumn is here on The Hill in Her full glory: the sycamore and beech tree leaves are turning burgundy red and our Mr Rowan in the garden is now golden yellow. This morning I looked at him and decided this is the time to start working with Amber! I want to capture and embrace that gold and warmth of the season in my jewellery so I'm creating a new line of little Amber pendants. Photos soon :)

Waiting for Godot

Some month ago we were impatiently waiting for our first baby to be born. We didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl, it was to ba a surprise. The due date had came... and it passed... and still nothing happened! To kill the time I sat one day in my studio and started creating a new necklace for myself. My hands would choose only delicate hues: soft pinks and roses, pearls and yellows and we started laughing that it must be a girl we were expecting and that it was her telling me the colours. Then a week later and... we welcomed our baby son! Well, one day I'll give him a very special necklace with a story to tell his fiancé ;)

Featured in Vogue!!!

I'm thrilled to announce that my jewellery is featured in the October issue of Vogue (the UK edition)! Look at my Midsummer Sky ring - at the first page of the jewellery section themed Beautifully Bespoke :)

Grand opening!

My beautiful re-vamped website www.blue-almonds.eu is now officially open and working :) It not only has new smarter design but most important: it has a cart so you can buy more than one item at a time! Tempting :)

One last commission...

...before I go on my maternity leave :) Inspiration behind the "Black Velvet" set is a rock song written by Canadian musicians and recorded by a Canadian singer Alannah Myles in 1989. According to Wikipedia the song refers to the soulful black sound of Elvis' voice and the many African American recording artists and singers he emulated to create his special brand of rock’n'roll.

I weaved and wrapped the ring and hoops using only Sterling Silver in a design with little hearts – sweet and gentle like so many of Elvis’s songs. I oxidised the set heavily and only delicately polished to keep the soft black patina, to give the jewellery the romantic aged look.

the hoops are 4cm in diameter, the ring is UK size O 1/2

Ice cream...

This time the inspiration came from... food! And to be precise from a certain, very special type of ice cream: Straciatella. This Italian "gelato" with a white base and chocolate shavings is similar to the American chocolate chip ice. I love the snow white and coffee black colour combination - it's the most elegant yet simple you can imagine (well, maybe except just pure black!). In the newest Straciatella Ice necklace a large briolette of Black Rutile Quartz combines these two colours: natural white translucent Quartz with black needles of Rutile. The pendant shape was inspired by the Art Nouveau, Art Deco and also a little bit by the mysterious Inca jewellery.

Sleepless nights

Sometimes I can't sleep. I like then to get up in the middle of the night and watch the world from our livingroom window. Sometimes I see magic, like the orange Moon rising over Cromarty Firth on a perfectly cobalt blue sky. Other nights I would stay long in my studio designing or creating new piece of jewellery, like the last earrings. The shape was inspired by the Art Nouveau and the colour palette by that rising Moon and that night sky... I call them Sleepless Night :)

The power of stones

I've been asked many times already whether I draw or sketch my designs. The answer is... no and yes. "No" - because usually it's the stone who is the leader: its shape and texture, its colour and warmth that I feel in my hands when I touch it. Sometimes I prepare colour combinations that I like and think they will work well and then when I start working all the set up disappears if the main stone doesn't agree.

It can be the wire that too leads my fingers - how it wants to serpent on the stone, how it curves to fit the shape. And nothing can be done by force. The stone breaks. The wire snatches. I get impatient.

Sometimes, however, the answer is "Yes" - I do sketch and I do it with more and more details. The designs that are first created on paper tend to be more elaborate in the very specific and unique Art Nouveau style which requires certain shapes of curves, certain proportions and balance. Sometimes I follow the drawing to a single line, like in the French Baroque pendant.
Sometimes, though, even the sketch won't work when the stones don't agree. That was the case when I started working on The Dream Comes True, having already chosen one of my favourite Crystal Quartz focals: a big, clear and pure freeform Quartz... which didn't cooperate with the wires and with the design at all!
Eventually I gave up and soon found a perfect replacement: the square Silver Rutile Quartz cabochon. And I love the outcome!

I try not to fight with the stones. Maybe they are my true Muse?

Little gift

A little gift for a friend: large Rhyolite flat drop adorned only with simple Art Nouveau style design and one tiny Freshwater Pearl. Heavily oxidised and delicately polished to keep the black and shiny patina.