Howling wolves and feathers

Lately I have been in the mood to make nothing but rustic botanical items. Feathers have been incredibly popular this season, accented with different tube set gemstones.

Hand sawn feather and howling wolf pendant necklace with tube set red garnet.

Shadowbox pendant with hand sawn dahlia and blue chalcedony

Feather pendant necklace in rusticated silver and tube set red garnet

Organic hand cast solid silver pendant necklace with tube set Swiss blue topaz

All these are now listed in my shop!

I am offering free international shipping until the 20th of December!

Happy Shopping ya'll!

-Sabine

Christmas Gift Ideas

Today I am going to feature some of my current favorite things, which would make great gift ideas.

First off we have Anna Wiscombe's shop on Etsy.
I love her unique style and amazing wood work. She definitively has carved herself out a niche in her market:

Wooden Christmas Wreath 

You can find it here.

Wooden Wall Birds 

You can find them here.

Wooden Flowers

You can find them here.

The painted stones from Sehnaz Bac on Etsy make me happy! I just love the use of her colors. So bright and cheerful:

This pretty bird can be found right here:

You can find this beautiful owl here:

I am also a huge admirer of artist Mary Elizabeth Arts, also on Etsy. Her beautiful art infectious, and so is her photography. I could spend hours perusing her shop.

Mom and Dad cups. Great gift idea!

Retro painted wine glasses

I love the jewelry of Michael Tatom. One of his bronze fox rings has been on my wish list for a long time.

You can find this beautiful fox ring here

This cute labrador puppy ring is just too cute for words!

These are today's finds. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Have a great day!

Thanks for reading!

SBx

New Work

This past week I decided to take a tiny break from working on my bench. It's been quite therapeutic and well needed. You see, I usually work every day in my studio. I hardly ever take a day off. This is my baby, and given the ridiculous work ethic I have, I realized that I need to take a breather now and then to remain healthy. When I decided to be self employed I knew that I needed to work as hard as I could to maintain staying afloat financially. I don't have the luxury of hiring a PR firm yet to represent my work.
It's been quite a journey. I often wonder, in order to "make" it in the jewelry industry, if it's more essential and fruitful to have a collection, instead of one-of-a-kind items. I am torn. I love making unique items, but realize that in order to get into more shops I need to have a collection. As a full time artist I can not allow myself to spread myself too thin. The other option is to perhaps get a part time job, which means to have less time building up my business. I remember how hard it used to be to come home from a physically demanding job and to continue working on my dream to be a full time jewelry artist. What I have learned from quitting my day job is that it requires a steady determined and passioned work ethic. I get up at the same time every morning (6:30), go for a power walk or run, eat breakfast, answer e-mails, package orders and then work in my studio. You can usually find me there until 6pm, sometimes I work a bit longer if I have a great flow going.
I'm lucky as I get a lot of support from J. He knows how much this business means to me. I still could  not tell you the great secret to a successful business. I guess everyone encapsulates success differently. For me it is setting a goal and achieving it, aim and purpose, so to speak. There is a happy medium where success lies for me. I still have a long ways to go.

With this said, here are some of my new items I created this past week:

Sterling silver and ocean jasper 

 Sterling silver and green chalcedony

Labradorite and sterling  silver with partial handmade chain

Quartz crystal pendulum with sterling silver

Aqua chalcedony in sterling silver

Agua Nueva Agate in Sterling Silver

Sleeping beauty turquoise in sterling silver

Happy sunday everybody!! I will be enjoying a bit of sun in the back yard!

xx Sabine

A little trip

I feel lucky to be able to take a trip once in a while across the boarder to France, to Strasbourg, to be more precise. It's just a mere 20 minute drive from where we live.
When we go, we usually park close to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, which allows us to get easily to all the little boutiques and pastry shops. This place is buzzing with people from all over the world.

At 142 metres (466 feet), it was the worlds tallest building from 1647 to 1874 (227 years). Today it is the sixth-tallest church in the world and the highest still-standing structure built entirely in the Middle Ages. It was completed in 1439 ( according to Wikipedia ).

It almost takes your breath away when you first get a glance of it. It's so massive! 

The detail is unbelievable! Hard to imagine how this treasure came about!

The church is surrounded by tons of small little shops, mainly aimed at tourists. France is quite a bit more expensive than Germany.

I could indulge for hours at all the pastry shops that are located nearby:

I took home one these massive almond meringues. I am still nibbling on them!

Having been a pastry chef myself I really do appreciate the art of a beautiful piece of pastry. I have been to many places, but the French take the lead in bread and pastries in my point of view.

 Hard to choose what to have when everything looks so delicious!

On this thought, I will have to end this posting. Dinner is calling! I guess it doesn't help to look at food pictures and not get hungry! 

Wishing all you wonderful mothers out there a Happy Mothers Day!!

xx 

This and That

Here are some of my favorite sites and items this week:

Cute chicken purse from Krukrustudio

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The best times to be active on social networking sites: Entrepreneur 

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Probably a product no one needs, but it's cool: Ombre drink dispenser

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Loving the products from this cool shop on Etsy

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I love the products from this pottery artist. So charming and cute.

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These pillows rock: 

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My daily dose of inspiration: Daily advice for a creative life

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My latest piece. Etched sterling silver pendant with blue flash labradorite.

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My absolute favorite jeweler: German Kabirski. His work is so out of the box. It leaves me in awe.

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I made this yummy chicken pot pie the other day using Joy the Baker's recipe

Happy sunday!!

xx Sabine

Between Gardening

I have been going back and forth between gardening to work on a couple of nature inspired items. I'm so glad my bench is nearby, so that I can occasionally sneak a little bit of bench work in while out in the yard. Nature inspires me so much these days. Being surrounded by such beauty in terms of nature is very inspiring. I do miss the Norwegian coast though, especially down south. There is still a lot of influence there, and always will be.

I love how this one came out! It's one of my all time favorites. Labradorite and peridot in 925 silver.

Available in the shop later today!

xx Sabine

Strawberries and Cream

I can honestly not remember every before devouring so many strawberries as I have this week.
Strawberry season is here and I knew that I will have to run an extra mile every day to make up for the amount of cream I'll be eating along with the berries...ha ha ha
Yesterday I made a strawberry short cake, and boy howdy, it was delicious.

with a "little" dollop of vanilla flavored whipped cream...

I feel a batch of strawberry jam coming on...

There is nothing better than eating local fruit! I'm enjoying living so close to such a rich agricultural environment. Definitively a thumps up!

I finished this piece today, which I had started last week. I'm so happy how it turned out. Sometimes it's nice to step away from the bench for a couple of days and let a design rest before completing it. 

Turquoise blue-green druzy with emerald gemstone.

Available in the shop tomorrow! I need to re-take these pictures. The druzy is much more vivid in color than the pictures depict. It was already 8pm when I took the pictures which made the piece appear quite dark.

Happy friday everyone!

xx Sabine