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!