From the heart

Small pierced hearts, domed copper discs and red enamel. Cherry red, oxblood red? Making these I was happy I bought a set of high quality Swiss made needle files instead of a new bag. I love my files.

The earrings are already listed in my shop.

Black Friday / Cyber Monday

It's that time of the year again! I'm participating in Black Friday to Cyber Monday sales on Etsy and offering 10% off all my items through November 26th. Happy shopping!

Blue

Pierced and slightly domed copper discs with aqua blue enamel. Modern and lightweight. Finished with handcrafted sterling silver earwires.

I loved making these earrings. Cutting through copper, sifting enamel, watching the enamel flow, hammering the earwires, putting it all together. Being my studio immersed in creation.

Ready for more blue? Here comes the cloud necklace.

I tried to look at my cloud necklace like it was a completely new project. Not just colourwise. Chose sterling silver instead of copper for a chain. Picked glass beads in different colors from clear to light and medium aqua blue. And for contrast to shiny and glossy elements I grinded the enamel to a matte smooth finish. Looks and feels a little different. Almost not like enamel.

Both the earrings and the necklace are already listed in my Etsy shop.

Something purple

I love mixing different purples. Warmer and cooler shades in one jewelry piece or one outfit. For these earrings I played with grape and raspberry powders to create glossy, a little speckled layer of enamel on copper discs. Finished with handcrafted copper earwires and small purple glass drops.

One pair for me and one pair for my Etsy shop. Already listed.

New earrings

Usually my designs begin with colours of enamel or shapes in my sketchbook. This time it begun with beads. Irregular, a little rustic handmade beads. I loved the idea about putting together matte beads and glossy enamel. There had to be two enamels. Mocca brown and tallow pink that looks like neutral beige in this combo.

Spruce green and yellow that looks like lime green for another pair. Zigzag line between the both enamels inspired by rikrak trim. Handcrafted copper earwires. Glossy balls of enameled headpins.

Already listed in my shop - here and here.

P.S. The colours of the beads are not so bold as they appear in these pictures.

Geometric flutter

One day I was thinking about butterflies. Wanted to make them. Wanted to combine the natural shape of a butterfly with the regular geometric pattern. To put two impossible things together. To construct my own butterflies. And so these necklaces were born.

I love chevron regardless whether it's in our out on Etsy. The rhythm of those little zig zags. Almost like heartbeat. Almost like flutter of wings.

Spruce green and bitter green enamels for one. Tallow, mauve and orchid pink enamels for the other. Completed with gunmetal chains.

Already listed in my shop. Here and here.

Lazy summer

I'm still there. Enjoying the summer. Blooming lavender. Taste of cherries. Sun. The family of bumblebees that live in the attic just above my bedroom.

Raspberry sorbet

I wanted to create something simple. Speckled raspberry pink enamel on copper. Faceted teal green and milky pink glass beads. Sterling silver. Inspired by raspberry sorbet. Already listed.

Funny thing is that I'm so used to photograph my jewelry in the overcast and dark Latvian winter that I suddenly feel helpless when the light conditions are so much better. There's too much light! You don't hear that often on and around Etsy, don't you :)

Crocuses

I took these photos in my garden today. It feels truly springy at last.

Happy Easter!

This year I decided to be very traditional and dyed eggs in onion skins (here are a couple of older posts from my blog about dying of Easter eggs - in coffee and in onion skins).

Wishing you nice holidays if you celebrate them!

Turquoise and frosted glass

The spring has just begun over here. And I'm into all things pastel and flowers. Warm turquoise blue enamel on copper discs, frosted clear glass flowers and shiny sterling silver findings.

Listed in my shop today.

Happy Sunday!

Matching earrings

The necklace from the last week has matching earrings now. I love their simple minimalistic shape. Like yellow grains of wheat ready to sprout. Just copper and glass enamel. Uncomplicated.

Already listed in my shop.

Wishing you a sunny Saturday!

Evidence

The spring is here! Two weeks ago these snowdrops looked like this.

Time to grow

Spring.
Sunshine.
Seeds and grains ready to sprout.
It's time to grow!

Small pierced copper oval.
My new buttercup yellow enamel.
It's time for a new necklace!

Happy Sunday evening!

Tulips everywhere

Tomorrow is International Women's Day. It was widely celebrated in the Soviet Union and one would think that after Latvia regained its independence this tradition as one of the symbols of the Soviet regime should fall into obscurity. For some time it did, but now you can see more and more men giving flowers mainly tulips to women on this day. I believe for some people it has to do with nostalgy about the time they were younger, but there are many young people who do this too. So maybe it's just about feeling a little festive and springy after the long winter.

And for me it's a great reason to roam Etsy and look for some tulip inspired jewelry. Here we go! Happy window shopping!

Tulip copper cuff by brokentreasures:

'Tulips between pink corals' necklace by eried:

Tulip brooch by mamaslittlebabies:

Fresh tulip earrings by evelynjewelry:

Not long now

New

I've lost the count of days. Is it already Saturday? There's still something I wanted to show you this week. While I'm currently working on several jewelry projects (and perhaps investing a bit too much time and attention) this was like a small sidekick again.

Wanted to make something with rectangles. But they can be bulky. They aren't as elegant as triangles or smoothly shaped as circles and ovals. Rounded corners? Not this time. How about some playful pierced dots? That's it!

The rest happened by itself. Robin's egg blue enamel which is one of my favourites lately. And a little of red just for fun. And handmade sterling silver earwires. The result is not as bold as might appear in the pictures. They are big enough to get noticed, yet small enough for everyday wear.

Just listed in my shop.

Moonday moodboard - flowers

Hello new week!

It just felt like I needed a bouquet of happy flowers from all over the Europe this morning. Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members - Mokkafiveoclock, GiftsandStars, felttess and etherealflowers.

To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to Star of the East.

Happy Monday!

Monday moodboard - arctic air

Hello new week! Feels like winter now.

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members - JKphotography, PAPAstore, afra and rodica.

To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to Star of the East.

Wishing you a warm and nice week!

My creative space

This is a sneak peek. I've been trying out new enameling technique this week. It's called champlevé.

At first the metal gets etched. This was a great opportunity to get down to electrolytic etching at last. I wanted to try it out for a while now and I can assure you it can be addictive. Looking forward to more etching soon!

Then after the metal has been prepared the enamel gets inlayed into recessed areas. This is when you can begin to see how the finished piece will look like. One of the last steps involved leveling the enamel with alundum stone and this was when I managed to level my fingerprints too. Ouch!

Instead of making just a sample I decided to turn it into something wearable. I'm going to keep this one for myself, but while working on it I literally saw how the necklace I'm going to make for my shop should look like. You know one of those moments when creative process sparks an idea. Can't wait to start working on it!

For more creative spaces hop over to Our Creative Spaces blog.

Monday moodboard - hearts, hearts, hearts

Hello Monday!

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members - cherrytime, magalerie, Vangloria and WoolenClogs.

To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to Star of the East.

Wishing you a lovely week!

Tiny white heart

Tiny pierced copper heart and white enamel are the best friends. They both are friends with black enamel which is a little shy and is hiding on the back side of the heart.

Simple, delicate and lightweight. Already listed in my shop.

Monday moodboard - peaceful

Hello new week! It's time to get back to regular blogging.

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members - EvgeniyaMaslakova, QueenAndEye, janeyclothing and cartonBois.

To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to Star of the East.

Have a great week!

Happy 2012!

The last day of the old year looked hopeless - the grass seemed getting greener and greener and the first spring flowers were impudently peaking from the ground. And then (it was already getting dark) it happened! The air was full with huge and lacy snowflakes. By midnight the ground was covered with fluffy white layer.

The first day of 2012 was perfect.