GIVEAWAY

I've been thinking about having a giveaway for quite some time now, but I just never got around to it. I think I found the perfect piece to give away this time. It's a beautiful landscape jasper heart, hand fabricated by me and set in sterling silver. It comes with an oxidized finish, for that modern rustic touch. A little bit bohemian with a contemporary style.

I'll keep it simple. The only thing you need to do is to go to my Etsy shop and pick out a piece of jewelry that you like most, and let me know about it in the comment field below. *Please include your e-mail address. You are, of course, free to share this giveaway with your friends! 

The contest closes on Friday, April 18th. I'll announce the winner here on my blog!

Good luck!!

xx- Sabine

*Post Edit: You do not need to include your e-mail address in your posting! The winners name will be announced here on my blog.

Bench News

Hi all,

It's been a very productive week here in my studio. It's odd how the muse sends me into overdrive one week and puts on the breaks in the next.
I think the change in weather has been very helpful in terms of creativity. I don't take many days off in between, but make sure that I nourish my other interests as well, so that I have a healthy balance of work and fun.
For the first time in my life I have a vegetable garden, which I am excited about! It will be nice to harvest the fruits of our own labor.
It's been great to experience such a warm spring in comparison with the cold in Norway. However, I really miss Scandinavia. It has it's own unique charm. The south of Norway is actually quite wonderful in terms of "milder" winters compared to north of the arctic circle. No one could ever get me to live there again. It's too isolated. I need to know that I can sit in the car and be able to drive to another city within at least an hour.
Now we live in a small suburb in the heart of the black forest, in the deep south of Germany. I grew up here, and funny enough, I always said that I would never ever move back here. Yet we did, well for a year or two, and then our adventure will lead us once again to another place. Not quite sure where, but somewhere where one can thrive easier being a self employed artist without the hassles of so much bureaucracy. I had forgotten how hard it actually is here, in that regard.
But in the meanwhile, while we are here, we will be traveling quite a bit. Strasbourg in France is just a  20 min. drive from here and Basel in Switzerland just a mere 45 min.! Would love to take a drive to Lake Como this summer. There are so many ridiculously beautiful places here in Europe, and because we live so central makes it easy to get around.

Now we are taking a little walk through our yard:

Room with a view.

John repurposed a old fiber glass oil tank into a spring bed. 

I think it's perfect, and serves the purpose,

                                    and in addition, it won't end up on the hills of a dumpster.

John mowing the lawn this afternoon.

Little spring blooms

Tulips in their full glory

I also made some jewelry:

Rustic Moonflower Necklace with Blue Chalcedony

Sunflower Necklace in Oxidized Silver and Yellow Agate

Tree of Life Necklace- Agua Nueva Agate in Etched Silver

Custom Order Pansy Necklace in Silver with a Gorgeous Blue Chalcedony

 

Botanical Necklace in Silver and Aqua Chalcedony

Prudent Man Agate Necklace in Silver with a partially handmade chain.

Pansy Necklace with beautiful pink druzy stone. 

This slice of Amazonite is the best quality there is. I could not capture the true intense color of this beauty. It's set in sterling silver. 

Most of these items are listed in my shop already! The other ones will be added to the shop this weekend!

Well, it's BBQ season and I need to finish my potato salad!

Have a super duper weekend ya'll and thanks so much for stopping by!

Psst... there will be a give-away posted tomorrow!! 

So, come on back to check out what's up for grabs!

xx Sabine

Turquoise Mania

Seems like every year when spring rolls around I get this intense need to use a lot of color in my designs. After having received quite a large number of turquoise heart cabochons, I set out to make some charming items.

Turquoise Heart Earrings

Turquoise Heart Ring with etched 11mm wide band.

I guess there will be a few more turquoise heart items in the coming weeks. I am waiting on more agua nueva cabochons. Hopefully customs won't stash them away again. Last december I had custom ordered some and it took 2 months for them to get here. Every single item here from outside the EU goes through customs. So, the wait can be quite long at times.

Turquoise Heart Necklace

I also made a couple of other items such as these:

*SOLD

Etched Silver Ring with beautiful ornate pattern

Constellation Earrings  in oxidized silver

More small etched lace necklaces with aqua chalcedony.

In between my bench sessions I often go and take a walk. Lately we've been having such fantastic weather with spring temperatures of up to 22 degrees celsius. It's quite a change from a Norwegian winter, which of course, also has it's charm.

Blooming nectarine tree in our yard.

Just planted some primroses in all sorts of beautiful colors.

Daffodils are in full bloom.

It's 3pm and I should get back to work. I have a couple of custom orders I'd like to finish up before dinner time. 

I'll be listing a couple more items for the Etsy shop sometime tomorrow!

Enjoy your day everyone!

I'll be heading here, to my dirty bench:

Cheers!

-Sabine

Starting my day

The benefits of living here in the south of Germany is that spring generally starts quite early. I love to go running at 7a.m. almost every morning. I find it extremely serene at that time. My run usually takes me through a wooden part and through the vineyards which are aplenty behind our place. It's quite charming hearing the birds chirp in the woods so early in the morning. This morning I even heard a woodpecker which I had not heard in years.

Running clears my head. It's almost some sort of therapy for me.

My days at the bench usually start around 9a.m. after having had my breakfast and a good dose of either green tea or coffee. I had never been a coffee drinker in the past, but since having moved here I  can't seem to stop. 

My week has been great! Been having a good few days behind the bench. I have been working on a cohesive line of simpler sterling silver jewelry which, if everything goes as planned will make it's debut sometime this spring. Those items will be in a separate shop though. It's been fun melting my silver scraps to try to use them in my new designs. All of my ring shanks are entirely handmade, from start to finish. I love my rolling mill. Well worth the investment!

Pansy Necklace

Spring Blossom Earrings

Kingman Mine Turquoise Ring

Lotus Pendant Necklace with Gorgeous Druzy Stone

These are just a few of the items I made this week. I'm taking a day off today. The weather is fantastic and I need to be outside. We are off to the Italian ice cream parlor. Can you believe that they actually have marzipan flavored ice cream? Delicious!!

Have a beautiful sunday and thanks for reading!!

-Sabine

I'm back!

Yes, you heard right, I am back blogging!

One of the major reasons I haven't blogged is because since having left Canada my english vocabulary has declined. To you it may sound silly to not blog because of this, but I am a perfectionist and always prided myself in how good I was writing and speaking English. I made it a mission that while living in Canada that I will learn the language properly, which I did. However, not interacting with english speaking people all the time, makes it difficult at times to uphold the vocabulary. John and I mainly speak English, but also Norwegian, which I don't want to forget either. And since living in Germany I also find it important to help John learn German.

For those of you who are new to this blog, I'll quickly summarize what I have been up to.
I am a German citizen. I had lived and worked in Canada for 15 years, and in 2005 I moved to Norway to be with my then boyfriend, John ( who is now my husband ).
We lived there for 8 years, and last year we moved back to Germany to be with family. My dad was very sick at the time and he was one of the major reasons for having made the move. Sadly he passed away on October 31st of last year.

The transition moving here from Norway has not been an easy one. I had almost completely forgotten how intricate and rigid bureaucracy seems to be here. It is not easy at all to be a self employed artist here. I, for the first time since being a artist, had to hire a tax advisor. I could have never figured out how to fill out all the tax forms and such. It is one of the most intricate and complicated systems in the world.
I have to smile sometimes when I see people's negative reaction when they find out what I do for a living here. At first it bothered me, but now I really don't care anymore. I stay true to myself and my work, and most of all I do what I love, which most people do not. It's been hard work to get to where I'm at now. I am super grateful for being able to do what I do for a living! It can be quite scary, especially when sales are slow for a period of time, but that just means one needs to evaluate the designs and perhaps make some changes.

I would like this blog to be somewhat personal and real, but also a fun and interactive place where I can share my thoughts about what uplifts me,what turns me off, and, of course, share my love of jewelry making and to showcase other artists work.


Below you can check out some of my recent work. Right now I am obsessed with statement pieces and bold colors.

Kingman Mine Turquoise and Carnelian

Sterling Silver and Prehnite

Druzy Titanium Agate, Labradorite and Sterling Silver

Lotus Bloom Necklace in Sterling Silver and Carnelian

Kingman Mine Turquoise and Sterling Silver

Birds Nest Necklace With Gorgeous Titanium Agate and Rutilated Quartz

They are all available in my Etsy shop! Hope to see you there!

Thanks so much for reading!

-Sabine

Ring Sale

New work

Hello,
How've you all been?
It's been a while since my last post. I love blogging, however, lately I have been so busy that it has made it difficult to blog on a regular basis. I've made some important personal changes which will allow me to spend more time making jewelry and to be do other things I thoroughly enjoy such as cooking, baking, taking nature walks and many other things I put on the wayside due to too many things going on in my life.
I've been super inspired lately with my work. There are some  new ideas brewing along the lines of enamel work and using mixed metals. I have to say that not any other time during my life I have felt so completed than when I'm behind the bench or spending time out in nature.
There are many exciting changes ahead, some big, some a bit smaller, all of which I will address sometime in the near future.

In the meanwhile I have been busy making new items such as these:

Here's to wishing you a fantastic monday! 

xx

Sabine