Another Day - another banner

This is a new attempt of mine to match my style of photography, artwork, colors of the gemstones I use, and the spirit/atmosphere of the shop in one image.
The new banner was born from 10 new vector brushes, couple of hours of the color confusion and positive inspiration given by two nice guys who bought presents for girls in my shop :)
Here it is:

Oooooh....

I don't wonna wooooooooork!... Ah if anybody knew how much I want just to drink yummy herbal tea, skim through pages of fashion magazines and snuggle in a comfy chair!..
I need a motivation drink!

Ask high-end designers a question!

I just found this GREAT opportunity on the Vogue site!

I dared to ask John Galliano, Miuccia Prada and Thakoon Panichgul if they believe in "handmade":
"Now, when self-creativity is so popular among all women in the world, would it affect the fashion branding as well?
Can you imagine high-end brands producing "assemble yourself" kits with accessories or selling "transformer" clothes for successful women who strive for being a part of the creation process? "

Let's unify our efforts! Let's attract the high-end fashion designers' attention to the handmade movement!

There is little time left (till December 9), so hurry if you have something to ask! Full announcement is here:
http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/12/you-ask-they-answer-dolce-gabbana-john-galliano-of-dior-christopher-kane-donna-karan-prada-thakoon/

I discovered i terrific online graphics tool!
Check out Image Spark: http://www.imgspark.com/
Creating an account is free, plus you get 2Gbt of space to upload and drag pictures from your own library and the libraries of others.
Also, you can save up to 2 mood boards for free.
I’m just getting familiar with the site, and it already feels definitely fun!
Look at my first mood board:))

Birds!

Once upon a time, One Charming Man told me that people can be very different, but they are all agree in one thing: everybody loves birds! Unfortunately, it coincided with the time when I was being awfully awakened every single morning by the unbearable sounds of birds twittering right near my window.

I had only one desire to get a big gun... and to shoot ALL these bastards, so I could have some sleep finally!

Nevertheless, I love birds, especially in the jewels’ themes!

Here are the birds I made to wear for the Thanksgivings dinner!

Have wonderful holidays, everybody!

A compelling observation: Getting sick can clear up the skies a little bit

Being sick as a dog gives me a privilege to have a little time to think some things over and make some long laying aside calls, though.

Life is not so cruel, and that’s good. It can be busy, it can be resistant to follow my wishes, but it could be worse.

I’m glad I’m here, sick, calm and sunbathing in the afternoon sun filling all my bedroom.

Banners making is not for neurotics

Holidays are coming, I hope there is no doubt about that now... People (including me) are getting anxiety attacks drowning in the surrounding chaos of ordering gifts, making lists “for Santa”, obsessively checking all “Sale” tags all over the malls, internet shops and etc.

This is my second “proper” Christmas, and I already regret the idea. Somehow all my life I could get by with a one-cute-little-thing for family and friends. Now it’s getting serious, it’s getting Big. And that’s not necessarily a good thing, you know.. What is the problem with a single nice gift anyway?! Why does it have to be a whole sack of sometimes useless stuff added just to fill it up?

I don’t know about cosmic reasons for that, at least there are no physical laws which require this epidemic to happen. Lately, trying to relieve some Christmas overload stress, I decided to make a Christmas banner for my Two’s Ruse Etsy shop. Something cheerful, funny and smile encouraging.

The start was easy: I copied a bunch of Christmas pictures and created a Photoshop document. After I chose the best one for a background and filled the canvas, it was time to make my creation more sophisticated in style, more “holiday sparkly”.

Hehe, first painting moves were shy. Then I messed up, and that’s where the show started. Trying to make up for the wrong choice of color, I kept adding stars, blimps, other shapes... Then I thought it looked kinda monochromatic and boring, so I tossed in more colors, then more, more and more! Finally, I realized that I actually forgot to place the name of the shop on the banner! There was a little chance to do it in a way that you can distinguish the name from the background, since all the banner already looked insanely bright. But I’ve started, right? I couldn’t give up and just quit! So.... The result you can see here:

I guess all mistakes a dilettante in design can possibly make you can find in this “art piece”!

But I’ve made it, and the worse part is - I’m gonna do it again! :)))

My Treasure

I drew this snake when I was about 16 years old. My best friend made a slip for my very first cell phone and added this shape to the front. Many years have gone since then, the slip has been lost somewhere along the way, but I remembered the snake and decided to give the idea the second life.

Easy to say, hehe... Surprisingly, it was very hard to make it actually! So I took 4 long pieces of gold color wire, and made two strands, each consisting of 2 twisted ones. Then those two were also thoroughly twisted and hammered. After that I curved the desired shape and wire wrapped it with swarovsky crystals.

That’s about a half of the full time, because to make a chain of crystals, each accurately wire wrapped took even longer. That’s the best time for a light comedy, so I watched a dozen episodes of my favorite mystery show before I got done.

All in all, It took me a whole whi-i-i-ile to make this “Gem snake” Necklace, but it was 100% worth it, I love the result!

I’m being torn apart by conflicting ideas, mixing and each demanding a thorough consideration! I just started an very edgy modern collection. It is sharp, ultimate and very powerful in steal shades, screaming dominance of independent minder. It is not about flowers and ruffles, it is about simplicity and minimalism, it is androgenic yet very transformable. I’m searching for a perfect shade and form, something you never get tired of, something freeing you from any social obligations.

At the same time after visiting the Guggenheim museum and tracing Kandinsky’s art, I’ve got so inspired by the abstract expression! I am captivated by the idea, that you are free to use any forms and colors to express the irrational feeling you get by some object , and yet anybody can recognize the object you were impressed by. This refers to the transition period of Kandinsky’s art, when he started to form his “color” philosophy and empirically study, how the shape and color affect an observer. At the same time, his paintings still contained the recognizable objects, although their forms are smoothed, changed and color modified. This inspired me to make the “Pregnant dancer”, “Tree folks” and “Sitting Lady” pieces.

All these earrings are natural in colors, sophisticated and thought provoking. The more you look at these earrings the more possible shapes you recognize, more of object’s dynamics you observe. However, these earrings are the complete opposite of the urban collection.

Be everything and everywhere!

It’s amazing how long I can procrastinate when it comes to writing. Creative writing I mean.
All those boring and long essays I had to write in russian literature classes seem nothing comparing with my jewelry descriptions! I might love the piece, but the burden to express its beauty on paper is killing all my creativity.
Once I was one inch close to posting something like: “These are the earrings. They look exactly as at the picture. What you see, that’s what you get.” :)))
Sometimes writing is so easy when there is a bright story behind: how gems came to my hands, a moment of inspiration after visiting an art museum, a meeting with somebody, or an unforgettable weekend...
Ah, it is so not only about making jewelry these days... You have to an excellent photographer, you have to be an creative writer, you have to be a successful sales manager, and the making artistic jewelry is just a ti-i-i-i-iny bit of all that business.
I guess I have to give some positive contribution after dozen lines full of complains!
Here is my Halloween necklace!

Actually, It proved to be very versatile! I wore it at the Chemistry Department and it people said it made a lot of sense :))

Happy weekend, everybody!

Gold Diva Gorgeous Pendant just for 42$!?! How is it possible?

This is my (Maria) piece.

This absolutely gorgeous pendant is a classical version of “hoop-add-dangles“ jewelry. This is what 90% women love to wear for a special occasion (including me :)

If you look for a “gemstone pendant” you will see a dozen in a price around 100-200$. But what if you like the design, but feel pain looking at the price? And surely enough, you don’t want plastic for your special occasion jewelry, right?

So my goal was to make as miraculous piece as those for 200$, but to make it affordable.

The Ruse here is that I, first, looked for all possible gem briolletes and hand-picked those, who had charming appearance, but were not too expensive. This way, I didn’t look for diamonds, peridots or sapphires, but I found some absolutely adorable carnelian, quartz, aquamarine and cubic zirconia briolettes!

Second, I’m selling this pendant WITHOUT a gold-filled chain which would add at least 13$ to the price. This is an experiment, and I rely on the fact that almost every woman usually has a gold tone or gold-filled chain in her jewelry collection. Why to have dozens if you need just one you can wear with various pendants?

I’m actually thinking about silver version of it too, although in that case, I would go darker, something with antiqued filigree… but that’s for future, and now here is this stunning piece of jewelry in a surprisingly affordable price range!

I’ve made one in bold sunny orange (perfect for fall) palette for one customer (that one has garnets instead of Swarovski), and she says she loves it! I hope you’ll love this Gold Diva too.

Radiant ring size is 3 cm, and bottom dangles are about 2-3 cm long.

Tribute to P!nk

I became a Big fan of P!nk right when she started.
I adored her wildness, rock&roll and r&B mixing in music and a signature voice. Her sense of freedom and confidence to be herself even in worst times amazed me.
I guess my musical taste is evolving towards Tori Amos-like melodies, however, I still listen to P!nk every time I need energy and a swirl.










This Necklace is my tribute to Her sense of freedom in whatever she puts on!

Look at Tears of Beauty Necklace

Kisses, Maria.

First CUSTOM order!

My first custom order!

I believe you can easily imagine how much excitement it brings!

I got obsessive compulsive trying to make this item PERFECT. Not just perfect, a paragon of beauty, so I always will try to repeat this and never will.

I know the road of perfection does not have an end.

And that’s awesome!

I love this pendant, and I’m really excited to show it to you!

This gorgeous pendant includes Cubic Zirconia briolette (center), three carnelian briolettes (bottom), the scattering of gold stones, swarovski crystals, and faceted garnets (top) around a radiant copper toned ring.
The gems used here are endless sources of all sort of sparkles and shimmering shades of bronze, sunny orange and gold. This all makes perfect sense - the magnificent piece of jewelery for the fabulous Lady ;)

Feel free

to comment on this work, I would love to answer any questions!

If you want to say smth, say it!

As I said before, hammering of precious metals gave me plenty of new ideas.
And surely, first thing came to head was to implement words and phrases into my designs.
So-called statement pendants are so fun to sketch and even more fun to wear!
You don't even have to wonder which phrase came to life at first :)))














This little ruse used here, to highlight the statement, I framed it in a antiqued twisted and hammered copper ring:





















Ok, and just one more "panoramic" picture :)))


So, what do you think about it?

Would you like one
with your own statement? ;)

This information era kills me!

Oh God!..
I'm so confused by all these Internet policies!
Just when I discovered a Google Base Service, just when I got to learn more about it in forums, just when I finally set up an account…
I discovered, that life is much easier than I thought.
First of all, Google Base is turned into Merchant Center with a bit different services.
All those huge sets of instructions I learnt to use….
http://reviews.ebay.com/Uploading-eBay-store-items-to-Google-Base-for-Mac-users_W0QQugidZ10000000007217287
http://www.squidoo.com/etsy-googlebase-rss

I apparently do not need anymore!
Google announced that all the marketplaces will be responsible for uploading shop feeds, and all I have to do is my beloved beading:
http://googlebase.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-policies-for-marketplaces.html

I can't believe I wasted all this time reading piles of useless instructions and Internet marketing strategies..

A Drop of a miracle in my earbuds

There is a Singer I got to like a lot recently.
Her name is Camille. She is French.
May be, for audience more educated in French female music it would not be a huge discovery.
But it was for me, it was.
I love…numerous songs, and "Pale Septembre", in particular.
You can listen to it for free here:

http://www.last.fm/music/Camille/_/P%C3%A2le+septembre?autostart

It got me musing about making a piece, which would convey that mood, those emotions, truly open and tender.

Let me know if you like it.

Cheers @>->->--

Oh my God, these hammering techniques are so cool! I guess my neighbor is going to hate me from now on, but the things you can do with a hammer and a sturdy metal base are amazing!
Today in a hardware Lowe's store, I got my 15 minutes of fame.
I was explaining, so passionately, to my very dear friend, how wonderful this life would become after a proper metal base purchase. I did not notice, though, that it was freaking out a couple of men shopping for their home or garden needs.
Only later, I realized that I was passionately waving by a hammer, being fully dressed up, with hair and nails done, and speaking with a bold Russian accent.
So… I feel a strong need to assure y’all that there is nothing to worry about. Not all Russians are like that. Some are MUCH worse :)
At the checkout, I got an even sweeter surprise. A woman who assisted me with the purchase complimented on my necklace. Instead of dropping the eyes down and mumbling “Oh, thanx… I made it…” with cheeks flaming, I suddenly felt brave enough to offer my business card. And everything would be as fine as it possibly could, if she did not read the phrase “Two’s Ruse”. Puzzling, I know.
“But that’s the THING!! This name has several meanings! It’s the play on words!” - I was about to blurt out.
But it was not the right time and place to go on about it…

Ahh.. tomorrow is Sunday. Isn't it marvellous? ;)

Green Jade Jealousy

I'm sleepy on Friday, and it's a good enough excuse not to write a welcome post, sorry))

The thing is, that green and more particular jade green is announced to be a color of this fall.
Who says? - Vogue does!
Yes, and this couldn't make me happier, because I knew it by myself.
Certainly, I could not possibly foresee it would be claimed in the leading fashion magazine, but something about this rare and elusive shade of green attracted my attention to it lately.
And that means that I can justify my love for green jade and aventurine and promote earth colors with more confidence and references ready in a pocket.

As for personal, I lost my voice for a couple of days and now sound like a 60 years old smoker. Hilarious, absolutely...It surely makes me blushing, but lightens the day of my colleagues :)))

You have a goooood Friday!