I sometimes forget..

That this is supposed to be a jewelry blog.

I have reached the conclusion that this year has decided to fly past me, and while it might not be my most productive year, it might just be the most furtive.

Over the last few months, this just happen to go in the right direction and I am quite pleased with everything right now, I know! every time I actually write in this blog, I often comment on what I am trying to do to have some order in life and work

It has been an everyday process since last year.. remember the breakfasts ? Those still happen and have worked wonders, it is quite difficult to decide to do something, to change something and actually do it, how hard can it sometimes be to realize that knowing yourself and working in your well being is pretty much the answer to many problems, only now I am seeing the result.

Now although I have like 12 hours a week of true work, I am not stressing as much about anything really and I feel calm, so so calm,  this is because I finally dived into creative escapes, there is more drawing,more reading, more paint and experiments and all is so personal without that constant pressure of it all ending in a solid jewelry piece in my hand.

I will talk about this later with more detail.

For now, I am preparing for a couple of summer craft fairs so more groups like these will be more common around this place.

Some of these pieces will make it to the shop, before the end of the week.

I have to go work now, but one more thing!

Listen to her..

Sunday.

       I started Sunday with a big breakfast, then the jewelry started lining up to have their photo taken and get into the shop..

They usually behave very well..

I had to take a lot of photos and was trying new things, over in the beach..

Using pebbles and a grey background..

I ended up taking 555 photos and then sitting down to go one by one, edit some erase like 400 (( I know))  and finally announce it on Facebook which was a bit unexpected thank you for all the likes and sweet comments.

 

 

I worked on it all day yesterday and well still have a lot to do, today is about sketching I have 3 custom orders waiting for drawings,photos of stones and ideas and later going to the post office  to deliver two pieces, hopefully I will also list some of the items I still have pending.

 

Feels good to  have the shop open , to have a Monday filled with work.

To be honest with you this is what I missed to be excited about the next time I sit in the bench.  

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.

Mehndi:

 

 

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:

 

 

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..

 

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.

 

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

 

 

 

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.

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:

 

 

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.

 

 

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

 

 

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

That look like this when worn..

 

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.

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!

 

 

 

 

 

Vday!

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:

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!

At the fair..

This last week, I was sooo busy! I was preparing stock for a little fair we had on Wednesday..

Went with my friend Gabi which makes it waaaaaaaay more fun than going by myself, our styles are very different and this time just like others we can go ahead and sell side by side.

This is some of the stuff I had for sale..

 

It rained in the afternoon which didn’t help very much but then at night things got better, a little sangria and all..

I promise you I am not awfully serious, but this would be me doing my hypnotize attempt “ Yeeee want to buy pearls I tell yaaaaaa”

Wahaha ! well  more like the only photo I am not making faces and was awfully tired, the fair was from noon to 9 pm this is close to the end..

We both  did pretty well, had sales and 4 custom orders.. most importantly it was a lot of fun..

I’ve started listing some of the stock I had left from the fair in the shop and will be doing a Free Shipping Sunday, starting today at midnight!

Good night!

Nat.

Month of April

Been working so much this month, which really makes me happy but at the same time I miss  my online time…..

I have all my focus on one single thing, move to Spain and that will require a big effort on my side , which means now days I am waking up ar 6;30 am every day, believe me there is always something to do whether you sell or not, sketching ideas, making new items, listing,packing,taking,photos, writing emails, uploading photos to Flickr,keeping up with the  facebook page, etc

I think I’m slowly becoming into the person I want to be work wise, I am keeping an order for everything, I have a savings plan, and I am absolutely decided to charge what my work is worth and hopefully make my little business grow some more..

May promises learning a new technique and the making of a whole jewelry line which I hope to share with you here..

April has been a wonderful month and I am so happy to feel that things are back to normal after the first stormy months of the year after the surgery..

Now I am here on May first writing this extremely excited to see what this new month has to offer..

Color

 

 

Color…

 

and

More…

More..

colors…

Everywhere

on everything…

Also in my bench this afternoon, still making rings for the Ring a day Challenge, I wonder If Ill make 200 by Dec 31st

Hope all of you enjoyed your weekend and feel ready for a new week, I basically watched movies,drank too much coffee and made 18  tiny rings

The odyssey – Days with no silver and 100 pieces to make…

I’ve been pretty lost these last couple of days…

No blogging, no twitter, no shop updates.. nothing nothing.. the plan was to make a ton of jewelry for the 10 day fair.. so I got started I don’t have much silver we call the provider and guess what?

NO SILVER until new notice!!! Here in Costa Rica we can’t call Rio Grande for silver

So I grab what I have and try my best to do something with it because the clock is ticking.. we are talking like 100 grams of silver and  I start with the rings because is what I like to do best..and just go for it making random designs.. I decided I  have to make 100+ pieces I don’t want to feel like a slave mass producing the exact same thing and besides I’ve always loved that about jewelry having something even if tiny there is only one and you are the only one in the entire world to have it.

This way I’m having fun with it and its closer to what I usually do .. (just 100 times more ) haa.. so the first days I thought all pearls…here are some samples

I have a lot of turquoise big and small cabs so I’m taking my time and the next day I said all turquoises .. some of the result..

Then the other day was literally out of silver. I wanted to make this jade ring for a while besides I’m still in the ring a day challenge.. 2 of those days are here:

Then no silver at all! It’s so awful when you have all this work to do , all these ideas but you depend on another person to give you the material to work with arghhh!! so a tiny rose pendant was born using a little wire:

And then I finally got some more silver and now I can use up all my 23 days I have left! I am not freaking out anymore working little by little I find myself with over 30 pieces already.. small ones but hey! I like each and every one of them..

Then yesterday this one was born haa you can see the difference when I have metal and when I don’t… have 5 more turquoises waiting to be set.

And now I run! have to keep going!!!! Sorry for not blogging as much my life has been pretty much, plan,work,eat,work.. so not much to blog about!!

I’ll be back with more pictures as they come!

The absent,

-Nat