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:
Story by Kaisa
/ Beanie on Helina
Pics by Ruusu /
Arx Rosarum
