Woohoo! It seems we did it again. RRT (the government agency that supervises LitPost) has just published and official reply to their policy/price change request and it's NEGATIVE! They say, that LTPost's request at the moment does not have sufficient merit and will not be upheld.
Way to go!
The official text can be found here (in Lithuanian) http://www.rrt.lt/lt/pranesimai-spaudai/rrt-teikia-nuomone-hc2y.html

All the pictures are taken by me unless mentioned otherwise. If you fancy a piece of jewellery -- leave a comment or convo me on etsy.

Those, that have followed this blog remember, that we had a fight with Lithuanian Post office last year over some legal questions over pricing last year.
This year the Post office strikes again.
It seems that they have learned at least somewhat from their mistakes, as now they are trying to get the new prices and sorting rules approved by RRT (Regulatory authority that they are supervised by) and it also seems that someone has spoken to the minister of transportation prior to him giving an interview to the press (or maybe he is somewhat soft-brained in his own right).
You can find the minister's position and some words spoken by the Lithuanian Post director here:
http://tv.lrytas.lt/?id=14002483271399525609
(sorry, Lithuanian only)
The gist of it is that Lithuanian post is trying to remove small parcel category yet again, calling everything that is higher than 2 cm -- a package, that of course costs about 3 times or more than a small parcel would at the moment.

Again, we (and by we, I mean the crafting community) reiterate, that we would agree to a price change, but at the moment they are trying to push through the same system change as last year.

Please, dear minister Rimantas Sinkevičius, stop claiming, that Lithuanian Post is not a monopoly and people can choose other carriers. Yes it is a monopoly and people cannot choose other carriers for letters and small parcels going abroad.

All the pictures are taken by me unless mentioned otherwise. If you fancy a piece of jewellery -- leave a comment or convo me on etsy.

So by now we know what amber is, how to recognize it, what kind of amber modification exist etc.
Let's see what else is there of natural origin that quite often "pretends" to be amber.

I will talk about two things today -- Copal and Kauri gum.
They are both tree resins, that have solidified or partly solidified with age.

The term copal describes resinous substances in an intermediate stage of polymerization and hardening between "gummier" resins and amber. The word copal is derived from the Nahuatl language word copalli, meaning "incense"(from Wikipedia).

I missed to post last week -- was preparing for Easter and visiting my brother in Greece. Also, I was finishing this beauty:

Sterling silver cat pendant

Amber teething necklaces by Drop of Amber

Moms and babies love amber teething necklaces. However there is a lot of questions about the healing properties of amber. Which amber has the most healing power, whether that depends on the colour and so on.
Let me clear some of that up for you.

1st statement: Any amber works the same. FALSE
The main reason amber is considered to be a natural analgesic is the content of the succinic acid in it. The only amber that has succinic acid in its chemical constitution is Baltic amber, thus, if you want a working teething necklace it needs to be from Baltic amber.

White amber Picture taken from http://www.ambergallery.lt

I like to learn and advance my skills. For about a month I have been learning metal crafting and namely how to make more advanced jewelry using fire and tools like silversmiths hammer, metal saw and lots of others.
First thing I made was a textured silver ring, but that went back into scrap silver pile -- wanted to try out different textures and learn how to make silver smooth and shiny in a required form.
Here I present my second attempt at making something. A silver pendant with an amethyst stone set into it.