Another teaser

Wanna know what's on my working table right now? Oups, I cannot really show it to you - it is an exhibition piece ;)

But I can tease you with couple of small previews!

Have a nice & productive week!

Winter Enchantment

While working on my Song of Songs collection for December, I managed to make couple of new pieces. This is the story of the Artbeads.com-sponsored Winter Enchantment challenge for bloggers.

For me, winter means snow and ice. I spent couple of winters at grandma's in Russia (up to -40°C). This piece is inspired by those winters. And here is the link to visualize my inspiration.
At the same time, I was thinking of Hans Christian Andersen's saga about the Snow Queen. Guess, if ever got married, she'd wear something like this.


The idea of the necklace was simple: to make a choker with almost invisible netted strap, with an ice-flower in the middle and a cascade of frosty branches hanging from it.


Every long branch ends with a rod of natural ice-clear quartz, and every branchlet ends with Swarovski - crystal or pearl. The focal is Swarovski fancy oval 4127. I think I start to develop addiction to this particular type of bead. It is very easy to bezel and it gives amazing effect to the finished piece. The cut of the crystal is perfect. After working just with these large Swarovski elements, I've learned to easily tell them apart from "Chinarovski" and other imitations of Austrian crystal.


I blended severl types of seed beads in it, both Japanese and Czech. Miyuki Delica and Toho as well as most of the Swarovski beads have been supplied by the Artbeads.com.


Thank You goes not just to Artbeads.com, but also to my sister in law, Karin, who has generously allowed to use her as a model ;)

You know, perhaps, how much pain in the back it is to take pictures of completely white beaded jewelry. With another words, it is close to the mission impossible. However, at daylight and under strong sun it turnes out quite Ok.

Disclamer: part of the materials used in this project have been supplied by Artbeads.com free of charge.

Long time no see :)

First of all, MANY THANKS FOR ALL THE DONATIONS to Elena Markovski and her daughter! Now they have got enough money for the trip, surgery and aftertreatment. You are fantastic, thank you for your contribution! It will happen in mid-May, I will keep you updated!

What's up here in Uppsala? Quite a lot. I'm preparing a large collection of jewelry for a exhibition in Stockholm. Cannot show you anything yet, ufortunately... But will come up with a small preview-spoiler a bit later in season.

Finished a large piece, will try my luck in Bead Dreams this year. It is featuring some really gorgeous labradorites and spectrolites and called Laplandia. Making that piece inspired me into making a mini-collection, "The Land of Midnight Sun" (Midnattssolens land in Swedish). This is, basically, how you call the North of Europe. Here is a teaser of Laplandia:


And here is its little sister, Karelia. First, I thought to enter a local competition with it, but misread the rules. Oah well, I like it anyway ;)

Materials: labradorites, Swarovski, leather, wire lace, seed beads, traditional tin clasp.

Karelia is the land of blue lakes, it is a beautiful region shared by Finland and Russia (one can long argue who was there first, but it is BEAUTIFUL despite political issues).


It is -18°C and sunny outside. I just could not resist making the last shot in the show!

So long!

Happy New Year!

Here it is - all brand new year 2011. May it bring you love, happiness, health and wealth!

THANK YOU EVERYONE who has responded to my last post about Elena Markovski and her daughter. They have booked time for treatment, it will most likely happen in May.

Now I'd just like to share some pictures. This necklace was a commission order, a birthday present to mother of my customer. It was supposed to be rather simple and wearable, and incorporate 7 turquoise stones, symbolysing 7 grandchildren. The gorgeous natural turguoise cab in the middle is the Matriarch of the family herself.

I've embroidered it with vintage 17/0 Czech beads, and 13/0 and 15/0 Charlottes. The largest seed beads in this necklace are Miyuki 11/0 that look like elephants in comparison to their Czech cousins. Thanks to those tiny beads it turned out to be a very petite and elegant necklace. Length is adjustable.

Turquoise in the middle is from Hubei mines in China, the larger stones and drops are Nacozari and Kingman turquoise from the U.S.

I called this one Nike, since the pattern reminds me wings of the goddess of Victory.


This necklace was a tremendous fun to make. The only problem I had was posting it. The deadline was exactly one week after my surgery and I was quite stressed. First, I could not find a good box to put it in, and then the Post Office did not have any paper to wrap the box... Finally, it ended up wrapped in a hideous gift wrap with deers and stuff. But it has arrived safely!

New Year resolution - always make sure to have appropriate wrapping at home when taking in a large custom order!

Holydays are coming!

Hi guys!

Long time no see :)
Couple of commission orders, a fair, making competition/exibition pieces that I cannot show yet, getting a gall-bladder surgery - those are couple of excuses for my scilence. I loooooove excuses and usually am pretty good in finding those ;)

However that is not why I am writing this post.
Holydays are coming. Traditionally, Christmas and New Year are the magical times when all our dreams and wishes are supposed to fulfill. Let's help to make a miracle!

I personally know this family, and assure that this is not a scam.

Elena Markovski is a Russia-borne beader who resides in Germany. Her youngest daughter, Ksenia, was born with many health problems. One of them is epilepsia. Ksenia needs a brain surgery that would dramatically improve the quality of her life. We need to help her to collect just 4000 Euro (about 5300 USD) for the surgery.

Every dollar, or euro, or ANYTHING makes a difference.

Here is the PayPal account you can donate to -- elenakryiov@yandex.ru

And this is the bank account:
Landsberg-Ammersee Bank eG
IBAN DE67 7009 1600 0005 1393 84
BIK GENODEF1DSS

Please mark your donations: Spende für Ksenia (German for "Donations for Ksenia").

Here you can see some of Elena's beadwork, and these two are my favorite pieces:

All together we can make it happen!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

First photosession

Never thought my jewelry would get that far, ever...

Couple of days ago, two of my pieces that are exibited at Bröllopssmycken.se got to participate in a photoshoot.

Photograph - Åsa Delau, model - Anna Malmgren


Anna, Åsa, Lina - thanks! :)

PUSS

Swedish beaders are getting together twice a year. There is FACETT in Spring, and PUSS in Autumn. Puss is a Swedish for a kiss, in this case it is the abbreviation for Beads, Challenges, Stimulating and Creativity.

So, I spent last wekend locked in a hotel outside Stockholm with another 119 bead-nerds. It was FUN! Gave four workshops (soutache and freeform brickstitch), learned viking knit with silver wire, laughed & talked so much that my face became painful, etc.
Now I am tired :) But happy.

I made this necklace for one of PUSS challenges, where were supposed to create a posh piece for a dinner at Nobel hall or something like that. We had almost two months to figure it out. I thought, people would make big embroidered pieces with Swarovski and stuff. Thus, I wanted to make something simple this time.

Here's my Anastasiya - pearl necklace with chrysoprase pendant.

Delica beads and Toho 15/0 are 24K plated.

We did not win anything, but one cannot win all the time ;)
I'd still wear it for Nobel dinner!