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!

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.