One rainy day.

I was faced with a weekend  full of rain, all custom orders have been filled, I spent almost two weeks making pieces to sell locally and to send to Costa Rica for Christmas.

I then had some time off, and found myself without knowing what to do, since one of my goals is not to pressure myself so much, I decided to apply the one advice I always gave some of my friends, I think that when you don’t know what to make, is good to think of something simple, once you find yourself working, you get the ball rolling and more ideas will come, the next thing you know the whole afternoon has passed.

So I started with cleaning my workshop, because sitting down in a workspace that looks like a tornado passed by it, is not very encouraging.

IMG_0432(usually there is no room for a needle on top of that bench, but that’s between you and I)

Anyways..

Thinking of something I like.

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Its no secret I am in love with this book, and back in the day on my second jewelry class I remember telling my teacher I wanted to make something with the original illustrations, years passed me by and I guess I always wanted something so unique, so complex…that I never made it.

But sometimes we should just start, even with something simple like I said before, so it had to be the boa.

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So it was time to work:

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“I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

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The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them”

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Then, I couldn’t let go of the last page, because I remember so clearly when I was little and I read this for the first time:

“This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world. It is the same as that on the preceding page, but I have drawn it again to impress it on your memory. It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared

 

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Look at it carefully so that you will be sure to recognize it in case you travel some day to the African desert. And, if you should come upon this spot, please do not hurry on. Wait for a time, exactly under the star. Then, if a little man appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions, you will know who he is. If this should happen, please comfort me. Send me word that he has come back.”

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I probably was 9 and I remember telling my mom how he had gone back home, but that it was ok he was alive and he could return , later on in life after  reading it  over and over again it is probably my favorite ending of a book, it just brings me back to when I was a little girl and my first innocent impression of the Little Prince.

Memories of tiny feet.

I got a request this last week of making a pair of cufflinks for a dad’s birthday gift, inspired in their 1 month old baby.

After several sketches, going through initials, silhouettes, shapes, some designs I had already made etc…

I suggested we could use his little foot, ..

And so it began:

First she sent me a photo and with the help of photoshop I did some arrangements to get it to a proper size to fit one of the cufflinks:

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I printed a couple, and my bench was filled with adorable chubby little feet

Time to cut away with a jeweler’s saw.

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She decided on a triangular shape and to have his initials engraved, I didn’t take photos of the rest of the process, because I was too busy finishing  them :)

Here is the result!

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They are sober enough to be worn to work, but works as the sweetest reminder.

These are exactly the kind of custom orders I like to make, something to hold a memory, this time of how sweet and miraculous a new life is.

The end of May.

May was such a busy month, and  hopefully June will be just as packed.

Here is some of the work I have been doing these last 2 weeks:

A couple more of wave rings.

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Mehndi:

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This was a complete set but I didn’t have time to take photos of the earrings just the ring and bracelet.. still I like them very much  because I tend to make curvy rounded lines all the time but  I think these look very modern and elegant, hope to find the time to make some for the shop:

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The minute I finish this post  I have to finish a bridal set, and I will make a couple more of these rings to list in the shop later in the week.

Enjoy Juneeeee!

As of late..

I think this last month has been so productive, what means productive? means I fill the orders from the shop, custom orders and make new work, which to me it’s the perfect balance, covering everything so there is a good flow of orders and new listings and I realized there is no updates of the work I’ve been doing over here

Let me see..

First I played a little bit with the idea of the yogis, I’ve been meaning to find the time to maybe make one of these but with several different poses instead of other charms.

Then came what it feel like a lifetime of sawing, for a bracelet needed for a wedding..

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This was made with a jeweler’s saw, and a lot of patience, usually you can’t rush it because if you do just a slip of the blade can ruin the pattern you are trying to cut.and well you have to start again. and noooo, we don’t want that.

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This is the final result,  I had to make 2 of them in a row (someone on FB saw it and ordered one just like it), so It was time to make some more coffee and put the same playlist back on..and saw away

 

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I think it would look pretty nice in silver as well..

Then as I was on a bracelet roll I made these two..using lapiz lazuli and larimar.

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One night in April just before falling asleep (because between all the things I think before falling asleep jewelry is included) I thought of a ring that had a stone that kind of sat partially on top of your hand.. ermm I know it doesn’t make much sense, and when I jumped out of bed at like 1am like a zombie to find the stone and put it on my hand it didn’t either, but the next day, the wave rings were born:

 

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Then the latest work I’ve done are pretty big rings, letting the stone do most the work and the detail focused in the band.

 

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Then came the ammonite addiction , ammonites are the mineral form of a fossil shell of the Cretaceous period
that existed 70 to 135 million years ago

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Still using the details in the bands, this one with little 14k gold pebbles..

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That look like this when worn..

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This morning I made the sketch for the matching pendant, I now want ammonite everything, to me to be able to handle something so old is wonderful.. sometimes we get used to the pretty materials included in jewelry making but if you think twice, it is really unique.

And so this is what I made in the last month, this plus several other smaller pieces..

I have also been struggling with photography a little bit,I think is important to have a constant image but I just can’t decide..been using black backgrounds, I ended up thinking I should go back to grey. What do you think?

And now I am off to get something sweet, summer is here and I keep finding excuses to go for some frozen yogurt!

I leave you with this beautiful,beautiful song.

Going back in time.

I was invited to so some hiking, where I live there are several mountains to go check out.

But this one in particular we had to drive about 1h and a half and get to a tiny little town called “Cortes de Arenoso”, the town was extremely small when I asked how many people lived there they told me only 60 do, there is one bakery,one grocery shop,one bar.

By the end of the day I realized how small it was since  I saw the people from the bar, in the bakery then in the park, running into the same people over and over again and greeting them each time.

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Up the mountain we went, while listening to stories, about back in the day waking up very early to go to school, then taking care of the sheep and having lunch with their friends under a tree, telling stories, playing games to pass the time.

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We were heading to a house, a house that had been abandoned for 40 years, on our way the scenery was beautiful and there where abandoned houses everywhere, up here there is no light or water, back then it was candlelit, and the water taken from a well, people started leaving this place to find better opportunities in other places.

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The first thing I did when I saw the house was run to see inside, the windows where open, that’s when they asked me if I wanted to go in, and we did, there where still old tools for picking up wheat, old mirrors, wine bottles.

It was so interesting to see how they lived, specially while narrated like this, by someone who lived this way, telling me about how they made their own wine, how in the afternoons in that window up there, the same room where they were born, they would braid their hair, do their homework at candle light.

I could imagine every single thing, it was like going back in time and imagining this place as they told me it once was.

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I took bunches of photos, then sadly the card of my camera decided to die, the poor thing has been with me 4 years. And puff! all gone.

Here I am paying attention, with my 2 sweaters and pale as ever.

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After getting back, we went past a truffle farm, oh myyyyyyyy!! I just loved this, they told me how the dogs go sniffing around and they tell you where the truffles are, then also learned a little bit about how snails are raised for selling and it is just so interesting, to see the products of each place.

Back in the little town (I wish my camera didn’t died) a great lunch in the bar, and some more conversations with people who have lived there their entire life.

Right before leaving, when saying the goodbyes, I mentioned how I love tiny bitty towns and told Mr.Primitivo about Antigua and how it was also very small and smiled as he told me he wouldn’t change that place for the world.

I can see why.

While some people would just go mad in such a small place, surrounded by mountains, seeing the same people every day, for some reason I think it must be an interesting experience to rent a little room for a month and be in one of these small towns working with nothing to bother you at all, just peace and quiet and fresh air.

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Thank you.

 

 

Today I woke up to find out that there are 1500 sales in my shop.

After making and photographing this pendant, I got to listing as much as I could, easter is full on here and we are baking up a storm.

So I stopped by to say thank you, for your support, for linking my work, for the emails I get that make me smile and feel like I should keep going even during times when I am down and  to celebrate there will be a 10% off in the shop using the code EASTER2012 until Monday.

Happy Easter!

 

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Oh man, oh my, oh me

Looking back I realize I have a tendency of disappearing from cyberspace from time to time.

March flew by and it is almost over, and what I can tell you about this month is I experienced my first holidays here in Spain, my teacher had warn me but I didn’t believe him and well mainly wine, lots of food, lots of walking to see the different activities, wine, fireworks and more fire works, and did I mentioned wine? starting at noon until the next day..

Then it was the first day of summer, and instead of sun there was the rainiest day since I have been here, so dark and grey..

The following day I woke up with a sore throat and well the rest is history, a week in bed, trembling and watching way too many movies, coughing and coughing which it was kind of odd since now the sunshine was out there, for an entire winter I didn’t get sick and all this time waiting for some warmer weather to go for long walks and here it was but I could hardly do anything uff!

When I started reviving, I melted some silver and made a big spool of wire and wire wrapped some bracelets and necklaces..

    

then made 3 pairs of earrings like these, that swing side to side..

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And yesterday when I felt finally healed and stopped coughing  made some yogis..

 

All of them can be found in the shop now, while I am off to make some more things! so this month is not the most unproductive ever!

Also the title of this post comes from this lovely song which I cant stop listening to.

Vday!

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Well Valentine’s day is always an interesting day, so many opinions, we all at some point of our life have either loved it or hated it..or basically could care less about it..

But then I think it depends on how you see it, for me it is a positive holiday ( I am not much of a fan of Halloween and Christmas gets me extremely sensitive and I cry all through December) but hey! this one is about telling your friends,family, the person you are with you love them, yes!… I know, you should tell them every day, but guess what? We don’t, so a holiday that reminds you that you should, it can’t be that bad.

There is a lot of negativity surrounding this day, but is just like any other day, and making someone smile is always a good thing to do..so why not?

Since I can’t give each of you a hug, a little ring, or cookies ( this my friends is how Natalia shows appreciation, actually I think that’s the exact order too.. ask anyone that knows me)

I am offering a 20% off in the shop just for today, all you have to do is add the item you like in the cart and write : VGift in the coupon space and it will immediately give you the discount in anything you have in your cart.

Oh.. and just before writting this post, I was sipping some coffee and getting ready to make this post, when I had someone knocking on the door…I had a little package with this inside:

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From Jime if you haven’t check it out yet, I really recommend you do see her blog, where she writes about her work and life.

I am off to keep working..

Adios!