Season of Ice and Fire

Blue Rhinestone Earrings by Arx Rosarum (Jyväskylä); Sapphire Engagement Ring and Diamond Snowflake Pendant by CaiSanni (Rauma); Blue Kanzashi Flower Crown by Norda Brilo (Helsinki); Blue Fabric Christmas Ornaments by hennihennidesign (Turku). For the other elements, see the original collage in Polyvore.

Snow... It actually started to snow just when I began writing this post, if you can believe it. Finally! So beautiful. Clearly, the above tribute to Snow Queen must have played a part on it. I have assembled here some some seasonal items from the artisans of our team. Approaching December, we are stepping into winter. It is a time of intertwining extremes. It is going to be dark, silent and freezing, yet warm, social and cheerful. Enjoy the season!

Reindeer Leather Shoes by Reindeer Arts (Kuusankoski); Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament by My Needle's Song (Eura); Felted Wine Cozy by EKODEKOFI; Red Chunky Cowl by Sofia Sobeide (Turku). For the other elements, see the original collage in Polyvore.

DIY from Pinkkis World: Someone's been a very good girl! + a tutorial!

Pinkkis World: Someone's been a very good girl! + a tutorial!: 

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 I was asked (on my Finnish blog) for a tutorial on how to make jewelry. But since I do it as a business, I don't want to reveal my secrets, even though it's not really that difficult to figure it out how Pinkkis jewelry is made. Anyways, I wanted to make a tutorial of the process anyway! And I wanted to make it my way ;). Here it is.

Pinkkis Jewelry Tutorial
  
Materials:
One doll house,  well equipped 
One mischievous doll, preferably Blythe BL, Kozy Kape would be perfect
well lit area
desk

Step 1. Let the doll loose in the well-equipped doll house. Let her do whatever she wants. She's going to make a mess, that's for sure. But don't worry about that right now. You'll have time to clean up afterwards.

Step 2. Don't interrupt the doll! She knows what she's doing. It might look like she's ruining other dolls' tea party, but don't worry about that. You can comfort the other dolls later on. Buy them some clothes or something. They will be okay.














Step 3. DO NOT INTERRUPT HER. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING! It know it may not look like it, but just trust her this one time.

Step 4. Arrange her desk in a well-lit area. Make sure she's got everything she needs: glue, tools, beads and so on. 












Step 5. Admire her little hands as she does her magic

 Step 6. Ta-daa! Jewelry is done! Good job Polly!!


































Have a beautiful and creative Wednesday!

xoxo,

Raisa

Yarn Creations from Sofia Sobeide

This is NOT your grandmother's crochet! Sofia from Sofia Sobeide has a fresh approach to her yarn creations. This young designer from Turku breathes fresh air into every piece she works on through her choice of yarns, colors, and patterns. She works hard to make wearable, fun products of a high quality that still have a cute twist to them.

She can keep you warm and cozy with soft, cuddly snoods, cowls, gloves and scarves. Yes, it is spring but the days are still cool here in Finland and scarves are worn pretty much year round. This lovely lacy scarf can be worn in different ways, and will definitely chase out the chill in the air and your heart.

Lacy Purple Scarf from Sofia Sobeide

Maybe you want something more whimsical or spring like? This lovely skinny scarf with its bright crocheted flowers just might do the trick and it will take you well into summer.

Skinny Scarflette with Flowers from Sofia Sobeide

How about something fun and bright? Sofia has this delightful big red bow on a soft cowl. She has thoughtfully attached vintage buttons to it so that you can adjust the length and wear it as a cowl or a headband.

Sofia Sobeide's Bright Red Bow Headband/Cowl

Sofia also has a knack for those fun amigurumi (think small animals in crocheted yarn) creatures. She has a growing collection of bears, birds, dragons and more. Some have been made into soft baby toys or rattles. Others are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. What baby would not enjoy this colorful snake? She also has patterns for sale.

Amigurumi Snake by Sofia Sobeide

She will help you decorate your home with pretty garlands, practical items for your kitchen, and a whole separate store of jewelry. All in all, this is one busy, talented artisan that you will want to visit again and again. We do hope you will enjoy her works.

Shop: Sofia Sobeide
Jewelry Shop: Sofia Sobeide Jewelry
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Buttoned jewelry: Featured seller InkaFinland

Nappikorvakoru is a Finnish term for a stud earring. However, the terms straightforward translation would be “a button earring”. This little sidenote comes to mind when looking at Inka’s cute creations. Her lovely Etsy shop InkaFinland is filled with sweet jewelry made out of buttons as well as resin and glass beads.

Crafting and craftsmanship comes naturally to Inka, who is an educated clothing artisan. The crafting bug bit the jewelry maker early on as she used to sew Barbie’s clothes with her granny’s sewing machine. Through the years she’s come to love jewelry making the most.  “I started my Etsy shop five years ago encouraged by my friends. At first I made and sold little pouches and bags. Since then, I’ve got busier and now it’s more convenient to craft only jewelry; it’s quick to make and in a flash I’ll get new items in my shop. But who knows, someday I may go back to bag-making.”

The talented artisan get’s inspired by 80’s and 90’music, bright colors, stripes and polka dots and obviously by buttons. “I even have three buttons tattooed on my arm!” In addition, friend’s interest in her creations gives Inka a major inspiration.

Inka feels that the best thing about Etsy is meeting your peers. “I also love to take photos of products and list new items. And of course, constantly create new jewelry. It was also quite cool to end up on the front page of Etsy! “

InkaFinland Etsy shop

More about Inka

Story by Kaisa / Beanie on Helina

Pics by Inka / InkaFinland

Jewelry inspired by history: Featured seller Arx Rosarum

Arx Rosarum is a Latin phrase meaning Castle of Roses. This beautiful name coincides perfectly with the history inspired and highly thoughtful jewelry work of Ruusu, a young jewelry artist and an Etsy seller. She got into handcrafts at the age of 5, insisting her mum to sign her up for a ceramic school. Mum yielded and Ruusu got to learn ceramics for the next 5 years. That’s when she made her first pieces of jewelry; geometrical earrings for her mum.

Today Ruusu designs and makes costume jewelry. In her pieces she uses lots of vintage components like glass jewels, cabochons and cameos. “These products were made for jewelry industry decades ago – now I’m giving them a chance to be finally a part of a wearable piece.” The talented jewelry artist combines old materials with new glass and crystal beads and high quality brass stampings made with vintage dies.

The amazing earrings channel the glowing glamour of Art Deco.

Here you can feel the presence of Art Noveau’s mythic tales.

Inspiration for the necklace wells from dark shades of Victorian splendor.

It’s quite natural that Ruusu, who is writing her master thesis in Art History, finds her inspiration in the elaborate aesthetics of bygone centuries. “Museums, antique shops, historical films and stories – they all feed my imagination. Sometimes I draw sketches, but very often I just start playing around with different components and let the motifs, shapes and colors lead me.”

When Ruusu joined Etsy few years back as a customer, she had no idea that someday she’d be running her own shop. First the jewelry maker sold pieces to her friends and later participated her first fair on the fall of 2011. After trying to sell her products on a Finnish site she turned her eyes to Etsy again and finally opened Arx Rosarum Etsy shop in January 2012. Later this year Ruusu is planning to widen her website to include an online shop of her own.

Despite her plans to branch out, there’s no fear of Ruusu leaving Etsy: “I’m going to keep my Etsy boutique nevertheless. In Etsy, I love the community the most. I’ve got lots of support from my fellow artists. I enjoy the international atmosphere and the possibility to sell my jewelry all over the world. It is so exciting that my creations can travel to places where I have never been and probably never will!”

Arx Rosarum:

Etsy

Website

Story by Kaisa / Beanie on Helina

Pics by Ruusu / Arx Rosarum

Jewelry with personality: Featured seller Kaisa and Sanni

Silver Suomi -pendant. Finland Map Pendant. I love Suomi. I love Finland.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/117040903/silver-suomi-pendant-finland-map-pendant?

Kaisa and Sanni are two very talented goldsmiths that give to their pieces a handcrafted personal look. Kaisa is a goldsmith and hand engraver the ideas for their jewelry are sketched in Kaisa's sketch book. Her style is feminine, rich and colorful. Kaisa loves to combine ornamental engraving to jewelry. 


Sanni on the other hand is i is a stonesetter, which is the art of securely setting or attaching gemstones into jewelry.

Soldering earrings

Kaisa and Sanni studied together in the University and after some years and big effort and dedication they opened their shop. "Our dream has come true. It took several years of studying, hard working, planning, trying and error. But now we are here. We love what we do and we hope it shows in our products".

Some of their amazing creations:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/106918872/custom-made-dog-pendant-a-silver-pendant?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/108248628/amazonite-silver-ring-silver-ring-with?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/107397322/white-mountain-jade-bar-necklace-white?

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Their Website

A timeless ring: Etsy finds featuring Pasi Torkkeli

Diamond eternity ring with engraving

by Passi Torkkeli 

This Diamond ring is one of my all-time favorite pieces I have designed. When it made it to the Etsy Finds email on August 14th my shop visits increased substantially. I got many views and inquiries about this ring as well as others designs.

This lucky ring is made from 18k White Gold and it has a total of 0,84ct of F-Vs Diamonds surrounding the ring. Special details such as the engraving and the square azures add a little more beauty and elegance to my creation.

This ring is a classic eternity ring, which means that the diamonds go around it.  Eternity rings are considered a symbol of eternal Love, and they are really popular for weddings and as elegant and great anniversary gifts. 

I wanted to add to this classic ring something unique and delicate, and that is why I started doing the engravings on to the side of the ring.

I have originally designed this ring many years ago, but it is a timeless piece, that many brides-to-be have chosen as their engagement ring or their wedding ring. I think that one of the main reasons of this piece success is the engraving on the side of the ring, because it gives a unique signature that makes it very personal and different. I can promise that this eternity ring is even more gorgeous when you see it in person. For my rings. I always choose exceptional quality diamonds that match each other perfectly.   I honestly think that you can see the quality of this ring with your own eyes, and the fact that this ring is completely handmade, really gives it a great, flawless and unique appearance that you can’t find anywhere else.
________________________
About the author: 
Pasi Torkkeli is a fine jeweler from Finland with more than 10 years of experience. He loves doing engagement rings, wedding bands and other design jewelries. From his shop you can find a quality selection of diamond jewelries, like earrings, brooches and rings. He also like to use different gemstones and materials, such as titanium, palladium, white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, platinum and sterling silver.

His store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TorkkeliJewellery?ref=pr_shop_more

Featuring Etsy shop ByVellamo

This weeks shop feature is ByVellamo. She makes sterling silver jewelry earrings, pendants, necklaces, jewelry sets, handmade exclusively with Swarovski crystals, gemstones, Venetian Murano glass, delicate porcelain and Swarovski crystal pearls: earrings, pendants, necklace and bracelets all handmade in Finland. Take a look at her gorgeus jewelry and read more about her work.

ByVellamo

I am living in Helsinki and Tallinn and I am an entrepreneur. Originally I am from Romania and I moved to Finland in 2007. My main occupation is commercial photography, which I have been doing since 2005, but in 2011 I have opened a jewelry web shop, called byVellamo. I am spending a lot of time in Estonia now, because my boyfriend has a job here, in Tallinn. 

My jewelry is handmade by me, with natural gemstones, Swarovski crystals, original Venetian Murano glass and lovely miniature porcelain. As a small child, I had a few tea sets made of miniature porcelain (I suspect they were quite valuable, since my parents had an antiques shop at the time, but I never thought of that while playing with them). I loved them so much and recently I came across a few tea sets and I decided to include them in my jewelry designs.

I opened my web shop in 2011 and I made my first earrings and pendants with sterling silver wire and small Swarovski crystals. I have slowly evolved to the designs you see in my shop now. I love romantic, shabby chic, pastel colors, as well as sparkly elements for evening and formal wear.

My favorite items are hard to pick, but I think they might be the earrings and necklace with miniature Venetian masks and a pendant I sold to someone in New Zealand, called Fire and Ice. It was a large round turquoise stone with fire opal Swarovski crystals.

Next I am working on a larger order, namely 11 bracelets and earrings, for a young American woman who is planning to give them as gifts for her bridesmaids to wear at her wedding. It is the largest order I have had so far and I am slightly nervous about having everything ready in time. I am still waiting for some components to arrive, the post service seems quite slow, so I have not made many of them so far. But at the same time, I am excited and I can't wait to have everything here so I can get to work.

Recently I have had a setback, because of a supplier on Etsy, who was selling sterling silver necklaces, stamped 925 and everything, but they proved to be only silver plated. I had purchased quite a few of them and some were already sold to clients. So I had to take all my products using those necklaces offline and contact my clients and refund them for the fake necklaces. It was quite annoying, because I want clients to keep coming back for more jewelry. All I can say is, be careful what you buy and where you buy from!

I sell some of my art photo prints in this shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/behindmyblueeyes

and some supplies for jewelry makers here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/byvellamosupplies

You can also find me on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/byvellamo?ref=hl

https://www.facebook.com/sandrarugina?ref=hl

blogspot:

http://byvellamo.blogspot.com/

http://the-i-inside.blogspot.com/