Summer jewelry by Alery

When I first saw colorful earring and pendants by Alery I instantly fell in love! Bright summer colors of Alery earrings radiate positive energy and make me think about ocean vacation, exotic flowers and refreshing cocktails at a beach.
I was curious about the technique and materials these bright pieces are made from. Thus, I simply had to talk to Avery and share what I’ve learned.

Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Valery and I was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine. It’s a beautiful city with rich history and beautiful ancient churches. A few years ago my husband, our two children and I moved to California where we now live in a small city not far from San Francisco. I work in IT but in my spare time I turn into a jeweler.



How did you start?
I’ve always been into crafting and art. Over years I’ve tried different crafts, techniques and fibers. Finally jewelry making became my main passion. I started about six years ago with incorporating precious stones and beads into my jewelry. Later I moved to wire wrapping techniques and metal. Nowadays I mostly work with hot enamel. I love to experiment and to incorporate completely different techniques into my creative process.



What are your main sources of inspiration?
On one hand I’m inspired by the diversity and sophistication of nature. One can indefinitely contemplate intricate creations of nature finding something new and surprising every time.

On the other hand man made objects can be as beautiful. Apart from nature architecture and art serve as great sources of inspiration. The simplicity and elegance of minimalism where every shape and every line have a well defined meaning and purpose prompt me to create simple yet bright and colorful jewelry items.



Could you tell us about the technique you use in jewelry making?
The technique I use is called enameling. A metal surface is covered with a finely grounded glass powder. The surface is then heated to about 1450F so that the powder melts and fuses together. One can use either kiln of hand torch to heat the powder.

It usually takes a few melting iterations for a jewelry piece to be ready. With each iteration a jeweler can change the color of the glass powder, its quantity and transparency. As a result most of the pieces turn out to be one of a kind and completely unique as it’s simply impossible to replicate them.

The process of enameling offers a jeweler a lot of freedom for creativity and experimentation. The results are sometimes very surprising and unpredictable. I totally love it!

Sponge Cake with custard and fruits on top

I would like to share a recipe for a very easy, yummy and beautiful sponge cake with custard and fruits.

For the sponge cake you will need:
- a few kiwis
- a pack of strawberries
- a pack of Dr. Oetker's organic custard
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of flower

I start with mixing eggs, sugar and flour together. Since my recipe is an easy one I don't complicate the process by mixing eggs with sugar first and later carefully adding flour. I mix everything right away. You won't get a pie 5 inches tall but you'll still get a nice cake! It takes good 15 minutes to mix everything up well. The goal is to double or triple the original volume of the mixture.

I bake the mix for around 30 minutes at 365F and when the pie is ready I let it cool and cut it horizontally in half. While my mix is in the oven I cut fruits and prepare Dr. Oetker's custard.

After the pie is cool and cut I pour warm custard on one half, cover it with the second half, pour the rest of the custard on top and nicely arrange pieces of fruits on the very top. After 30 minutes our cake is ready! Bon Appetite!



For those who like baking I would like to share a link to a recipe of a pizza with anchovies and blue cheese . I recently came across the recipe on a blog of Lana living in Argentina. I've never bakes anything like that before. It sounded super yummy and will be my next baking project!