I have neglected my blog a little bit but there is a very good reason for that -- we have started a new business -- me and my husband have helped one of our friends with her felting shop for a while and now it is fully ours!
Some of the beautiful things that you can find in it, also very much related to amber :)
Don't worry, I'm not dropping my amber jewelry shop -- in fact, pretty soon there are going to be some very cute new things coming up.

So, as I said felt and related to amber:

WoolenClogs

I have mentioned previously in my blog, that my grandfather was a national artist working with Baltic amber.
I used to spend long evenings inhaling the smell of amber dust and watch him work on amazing pieces of jewelry or home decor.
Some of those pieces I managed to save from being sold or handed away and can share with you here.
Unfortunately he did not manage to finish one thing he was talking about for a long time -- an amber chess set. He kept looking for the best white (or bone as it is sometimes called) amber, but large pieces are rare and expensive and so this dream remained only that -- a dream.
He made a lot of different things during his craftsman career --

Summer is reflecting on my posting frequency to my blog -- so much sun and lovely things outside it is hard to stay in and sit by the computer.

I do however  work on new things from time to time, when I have a free minute in the evening from cat grooming, making and packaging orders (yay! :) ) and eating delicious fresh food from our garden.

So here we go -- summer blues is actually called Blue lagoon and is repurposed from my grandmother's bead necklace:

I have taken several strands of blue beads, plated them together and added a chain with a ship steering wheel charm.

This week has been a bit of a run :) but as I have settled down for the weekend I received great news -- one of my Baltic amber teething necklaces has received a review! Thank you Monica!

http://www.mommyandlove.com/product-review-drop-of-amber-teething-necklace/

DropOfAmber Baltic amber teething necklace

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).

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.

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.

Last weekend I had a great opportunity to visit European team captains' summit.

I hope most of my readers realise that amber is not really "made" as such. It has been around for hundreds of millions of years and is a product of a long process.
Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap). Hundreds of millions of years ago huge coniferous forests covered big parts of what is today Baltic sea and its environs. Resin from these trees (in our region its Pinus succinifera and similar trees) seeped down sometimes trapping insects or other organic matter (this way forming so called inclusions) and then solidified. Geological changes caused parts of the forest to be buried under the ground or later even water and the process began.

Small raw amber nuggets

Ok, I'm cheating a bit :) it was new 2 months ago.
A great designer Lisssa has been super fast and made me anew logo in a week! And not just any week -- Christmas and New Year week. She is brilliant!
I have seen a new logo on my friends shop and asked her for some pointers. She gave me Lisssa's contact and off we went.
After several emails where I described what I want and some tweaking of her ideas she came up with this:

My shop logo