Fine van Brooklyn

Studio peek

Fine van Brooklyn — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:35:57 +0000

Just a sneak peek quickie from the studio. Naturally Wiser earrings on the table there. Cheerio! And remember that you’re welcome for a visit.

Ice Chandelier and friends

Fine van Brooklyn — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:02:34 +0000

Well well, it’s winter now isn’t it. Heaps of new snow coming every day and the sky stays cloudy and grey… I haven’t seen the sun in somewhat two weeks. What does this mean to me every year? It means that photography is a nightmare and pictures turn out gloomy. If there’s no light there’s no light, it’s as simple as that. I photograph what I possibly can and some pieces just have to wait. But nevertheless, I’m extremely happy in my new atelier! I now have all my own furniture there and am really starting to feel at home. I hope that I’ll be able to spend more and more time there working in the near future…

Snowbell

Snowbell earrings feature the same vintage, second-hand glass pearls that I introduced in the Naturally Wiser necklace. I love these chunky, satiny white beads and will make a whole series of earrings with them.

Ice Chandelier

Ice Chandelier has followed in the footsteps of Snowflake Chandelier from days gone by. The brass filigree is adorned with glass beads except for the one, pale aquamarine gemstone. A very delicate piece.

Muse

A new pair of Muse earrings is exactly as the one before, but these aquamarine drops have a yellowish colour tone with hints of brown and just a tiny shade of green. Natural and bohemian, no two gems are alike.

Shimmy

Fine van Brooklyn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:34:54 +0000

“Of the 1,060 arrests by police officers in Peabody in 1918, a staggering 1,009 of them were women arrested for public demonstrations of the shimmy dance.” Quote from here.

Shimmy necklace

The focal point of this necklace is a glimmering vintage rhinestone pendant found from Stockholm. The picture really doesn’t do it justice as the clear rhinestones shine and sparkle a lot more in real life. Added are some black czech glass beads and a little surprise at the back. It really is quite sassy. But it won’t get you arrested.

Made to last

Fine van Brooklyn — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:00:55 +0000

I hope everyone had a fun, relaxing Christmas weekend! I know I did and after a few extremely stressful weeks preceding the holidays, a break in the country was more than welcome. Now that we’re approaching the end of the year I’d like to wish all my readers, friends and supporters all the very best for the New Year 2012! Be happy!

For this last post of 2011 I’d like to introduce one of my newest pieces. The style is familiar but once again with a new/old eyecatcher. The little silver leaf adorned with some clear rhinestones used to be a single, screw-back earring that I’ve had in my treasure box for quite some time. I’ve now removed the screw, filed the rough edges, polished the tarnish off the leaf and turned it into a delicate pendant. Paired up with some simple and always elegant black czech glass beads, this necklace was Made to last.

Made to last necklace.

Making an entrance

Fine van Brooklyn — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:43:51 +0000

I’m blushing. A pair of earrings I made over four years ago made it to the President’s Independence Day ball on December 6th. And while watching the event on tv, I actually managed to spot the young lady in a blue gown, wearing my Glittering Darkness earrings! Wow. Who would have thought? Cheers!!

Glittering Darkness earrings, from way back in 2007.

Now I’m puzzled. Should I bring back this style? Perhaps I should, at least in a mildly updated version. To be continued…

True Romance

Fine van Brooklyn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:45:08 +0000

…is what’s between me and my jewellery.

True Romance bracelet featuring a vintage brass ornament alongside amazonite gems and czech glass. The clasp and findings are gold-fill and gold vermeil for a change.

Light and airy

Fine van Brooklyn — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:35:55 +0000

Earrings here, bracelets on the way as soon as I get some clasps, a rather relevant detail there…

Atelier earrings

Eye of the Storm earrings. The dark indigo swarovski drops look almost black but they’re not. They’re amazing indigo blue and an absolute pain to photograph in this lack of light. It’s as if the clouds were hanging at street level!!

Naturally Wiser

Fine van Brooklyn — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:02:32 +0000

Last week we had a chance to take some time off and spent a few days walking the streets of Stockholm, something that has rather become a November tradition. When in town, a visit to a certain vintage store in Vasastad is simply a must. Last year I picked up some wonderful crystal beads (and I haven’t had the heart to use most of them…), an amazing black suede coat by Loewe (40€!!!) and some fantastic old coathangers covered with moss green velvet (3€ a piece!!). This year I also walked away with some interesting vintage jewellery materials (rhinestones galore!) and I hope to present all of them very soon.

First thing off the batch however is a handful of chunky white pearls, approximately 12mm in diameter (I haven’t checked). It was just like last year. I saw a glass bowl at the back of a shelf, pulled it out and there they were. The beads are rather heavy so I believe them to be glass pearls with a very interesting, satiny white coating. These pearly whites go very well together with antique patinated brass and with a long string of smoky quartz and sodalite gems added, the outcome is the Naturally Wiser necklace.

Naturally Wiser necklace
The necklace is 85cm long so it can easily be worn either long or short.

The Naturally Wiser set started off from this bracelet and the porcelain owl that I got from London. Ok, I know owls are everywhere this year (I wonder what will be next year’s totem animal? I’m betting for the giraffe, or perhaps the wolf. One can hope.) but I admire owls so much and couldn’t resist these beads when I saw them.

I hope that whoever ends up wearing this bracelet doesn’t care about the trend either but will wear it even after such trends wither away. I know for a fact that at least in Finnish jewellery tradition animal motifs were worn in order to gain some the powers and abilities of that particular animal, like the bear or a snake. In some cultures birds are a symbol of bad luck, even death but in Finland it’s just the opposite as birds have been considered powerful charms of good fortune. I do believe some good luck and a dose of the owl’s silent wisdom is something all of us could find useful, even if their symbol in this case is merely a little Chinese porcelain owl.

Good night, Stockholm. Thanks for being so beautiful and so close.

Colour code of the season

Fine van Brooklyn — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:58:18 +0000

I took these photos with my phone a few weeks ago in Suomenlinna. It was a particularly beautiful, windy and sunny day that still had a dark, somehow melancholic and intriguing feel to it. Ever since London I’ve seen -or wanted to see- a misty Victorian twist in everything, and on that day especially I felt it everywhere for some reason. On top of it all, on that day I was in an extremely sulky mood. But after hours of walking around the beautiful island of Suomenlinna and having the salty sea wind beat my face, I was merry and mellow again. It just worked like a charm!

Colourful Autumn leaves had fallen into this little pond. The water was so clear that it just looked mesmerizing. I snapped some photos and altered the colours of some of them (not the one above) just for fun. I kept them in my phone for myself at first but now I’ve noticed that I keep coming back to these photos for colour inspiration, so I decided to post them as well. Thinking about the materials I’ve been fiddling with lately, this might well be the colour scheme I’ll be working on this Autumn/Winter season…

And last but not least. My heart is bursting with gratitude over the fact that I now have a new studio space, something I’ve been longing for ever since I had to let go the previous one that I had last year. During the last couple of weeks I’ve trollied my stuff over to this cozy atelier and will be spending my time there at least two whole days every week and a few more hours here and there every chance I get. The place is very nicely located in central Helsinki so I’m also glad to say I welcome visitors with open arms. First new pieces and a bunch of old favourites coming out in just a bit…

Ghostly me at my new studio

I know the days are getting shorter but…

Fine van Brooklyn — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:04:51 +0000

…I still made a new Freedom necklace out of these lovely, green prehnite stones, silver hummingbird and just one faceted labradorite to keep things interesting. It’s really not even that summery. And anyway, there’s always the next summer, right?

Freedom necklace in green, pendant closeup

Freedom necklace in green, detail view

Freedom necklace in green, length 82cm.