I don’t usually photograph my beads but this time I’ll make an exception. My friend recently came home after a six month stay in Buenos Aires. She had kindly agreed to be my “bead agent” there so I ended up buying a huge pile of silver beads, enough to last me a long time!

Large silver beads of this kind are quite pricey and the selection in Finnish bead stores is not very impressive. If I buy from overseas I have to pay so much extra in shipping and handling fees, even customs fees, that buying silver turns out painfully expensive. With the help of my friend I was for once able to avoid all these extra charges so I really splurged on these wonderful beads and filigree bead caps… These beads had been imported from the Filippines so they weren’t exactly cheap in BA either, but all other charges aside, it was a bargain. Thanks, Anu!!

I also received ten looong strands of chip beads in lovely, light shades of green, blue and yellow. I haven’t worked with chip beads before so it will be kind of a challenge for me to be able to make them work in an interesting way.

These lovely wooden plates were a great find at Moko, one of my favourite shops in town. They are lightweight and pretty and everything looks nice on them. I even like the rattling sound of beads or tools touching the wood.

Our home is quite small and for the moment I don’t really have a proper studio space. (I watch in awe and envy all the beautiful studio photos people have sent to the new Flickr group Studio Works that Jes has put up. Thanks for inviting me, Jes!) Fortunately the materials in jewellery making don’t necessarily require a huge space and even fit in one bag when I go to the country for a longer period of time. I usually work at my desk but for example today the light was so good in front of the window that I laid my bits and bobs out on the window sill and sat on a stool in front of it to play with my new beads…

About a week before Christmas I came across this necklace at Vanha’s xmas fair (huge fair held every year in Helsinki with loads of handmade goods). Another customer was trying to decide between this one and another similar necklace and I listened to the woman who had made them explain the pictures. Both neclaces featured pictures from Leonardo Da Vinci paintings, the other one being a detail from “Virgin of the Rocks”, which was also lovely. But the woman on this necklace is Leda, a character of Greek Mythology and the picture a detail from this drawing. I was already hoping that the other customer would choose the one with the Virgin on it and after I heard this name “Leda” I almost had to hold my breath, waiting for her to decide…

This beautiful vintage creme jar was a Chritmas gift from my Pasi. I love, love, love it! A perfect addition to my little vintage boxes in which I like to keep my jewellery. I tried to find information about A. Raphael Paris and his Créme Metamorphosa but had no luck whatsoever. I haven’t seen a jar like this before. If you happen to come across anything similar online, please let me know, I would really appreciate it!

Good fortune was on my side and I was eventually able to buy this gorgeous necklace. I knew the minute I saw it that it would become my new good luck charm. There was something so extremely captivating about the way it looked…

I knew nothing about this Leda character other than that her name was close enough to mine! Later I dug out the information that Leda was a Spartan queen who was seduced by Zeus disguised as a swan… Ok, right, well, among her children were the brothers Castor and Pollux and this was another coincidence beside the name Leda. Castor and Pollux are the twins who have given the name to the constellation of Gemini, my star sign! Castor is also one of the brighest stars in the nighttime sky, which suits me perfectly as I’m a complete night owl. With that said, it’s almost three a.m., I’m still up and about and I have to go to work in just a few hours… So, enough about the lovely coincidences. Good Night!

I was tagged a loooong time ago by Romina so now I’ll finally take the time to do it. This one is probably familiar to most of you.

Four Things

4 jobs I’ve had: Haven’t had four jobs. Was a student for too long. Liked to have my summer holidays as summer holidays. Studied speech communcation and languages. Now working with jewellery and visual mercandising in a couple of different ways and just finished that translation job. Oh and I have been a speaker a couple of times to some ads on the radio, a long time ago. Just tiny ads.

4 movies I could watch over and over: This is very hard because there are so many more than four! These are just the first ones that come to mind. I find I watch them over again every once in a while.

Elizabeth. This is one of my favourite films ever. I quite simply adore everything about it. The costumes, the scenery, the colours, the actors, the history, everything.

Picture found here.

Amadeus. Same reasons as above. Plus, it was filmed in darling Prague!

Lord of the Rings trilogy. No point in explaining why, it’s that good. And the dvd extras are fantastic! In my part time day job in a big department store I’m in constant contact with customers. People are usually quite lovely but sometimes I wish I could become and speak like Gandalf in that one scene at Bilbo’s house in The Fellowship of the Ring. You know the one where Bilbo doesn’t want to give up the ring and Gandalf gets a little impatient. The lights go dark, he grows taller and speaks with a low, echoing voice: “Bilbo Baggins! I’m not trying to rob you, I’m trying to help you!”

Planes, Trains & Automobiles. I don’t know, there’s just something about this comedy. I laugh so hard every time I watch it. When Neal Page loses his temper at the airport parking lot and throws away his ticket… There’s someting Donald Duck -like about him.

4 places I’ve lived in:

Joensuu, Finland (my childhood home)

Poitiers, France (one year)

Helsinki, Finland (since 1994, in three different addresses)

4 tv-shows I love or loved:

Brideshead Revisited. Saw it on tv in the early 1980’s and loved it although was too young to understand it. Watched the reruns a few years ago and was mesmerized. Just got it for Christmas on dvd, wonderful!

Dempsey & Makepeace. I had my hair cut the Harriet Makepeace way in 1986. At the age of 12. I still think she was quite cool! Oh, how I loved that show!

Jeeves & Wooster: I watch an episode whenever I’m feeling under the weather. For me this is the best humour in the world!

Bertie: You can’t be a successfull dictator and design women’s underclothing.

Jeeves: No, sir.

Bertie: One or the other. Not both.

Jeeves: Precisely, sir.

Poirot. The british tv-adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels are always delightful to watch. This is just one example.

4 places I’ve vacationed:

Only four? Paris, New York, London, Prague

Picture originally taken by my man.

4 websites I visit daily:

Helsingin Sanomat (newspaper), Flickr, friends’ blogs, Gmail.

4 of my favourite dishes:

Fruit salad with fresh pineapple and strawberries, goat’s cheese salad in my favourite café, that certain veggie dish in that nice Nepalese restaurant in Ullanlinna, that wonderful soup with green apple, green peppers, blue cheese and croutons that my boyfriend makes sometimes.

4 places I would rather be:

Right now? Well, first of all, the sauna. I’m feeling chilly. Or at home in Joensuu. Or in New York. Or someplace really warm, preferrably with a beach close by.

Picture found at Agence Eureca. As just about always.