Lithuania is an Amber country, we call amber Lithuanian gold, wear it on all occasions, consider it our national stone. There are historical facts about Amber trade road starting in this region.
So I wanted to start from the very beginning -- the legends, folklore.

The most known one is a legend about Jūratė and Kastytis:

A sculpture of Jūratė and Kastytis in Palanga, Lithuania

"There was a queen of the sea Jūratė and she lived in an opulent amber palace on the bottom of the sea. She was the most beautiful of all the goddesses and didn't know mortal love.
One day a brave fisherman Kastytis cast his nets where river Šventoji meets the sea. Jūrate sent her mermaids to warn Kastytis to not disturb the waters of hte Baltic sea and catch fish there. Kastytis diregarded the goddess's warning and the charms of the mermaids and continued fishing. Jūratė decided to see for herself the impudent fisherman and rose to the surface of the see and saw Kastytis.
Saw him and fell in love with him for his courage and beauty. The charms of love touched Kastytis and he succumbed to the goddess and went with her to her amber palace.
A god of Thunder found out about Jūratė's love and was not pleased by her attention to a mere mortal. He sent a thundering storm and a lightning strike shattered the amber palace killing Kastytis and shackling Jūratė to the wall of the crumbling amber palace.
To this day Jūratė is imprisoned on the bottom of the sea and crying for her undying love to Kastytis. Her sorrow is so deep and heart-wrenching that even the ever calm sea deeps are moved and become tumultuous and disturbed, the water lifts up the remains of the amber castle and throw them out on the shore. They are Jūratė's tears -- as pure and innocent as the love of Jūratė and Kastytis."

This  legend has given many fruits -- there are poems, fairy tales and much more based on it. A few examples:
An opera
Also a very nice rock opera.

One of my favourite parts of this opera:





All the pictures are taken by me unless mentioned otherwise. If you fancy a piece of soutache jewellery with any of the stones on my website or a piece of soutache jewellery in general -- send me a message or convo me on etsy.