Summer Wedding Essentials contest results

Russian Artists team on Etsy just had its Summer Wedding Essentials contest. Fifty six team shops took part in the contest submitting their hand made wedding-themed items. All of the entries were fantastic! They can be checked out at Russian Artists Facebook Page.

Although all of the items submitted were amazingly beautiful, creative and unique, I picked up a few of my personal favorites. All of the wonderful items presented will make any wedding an unforgettable experience!

1. Dog Crochet Wedding Floral Collar by mailo


2. Event Decor for the Wine Glass by MamaTita


3. Tea Set, Original decorative painting by Yury Tarler


4. White earrings with pearls by HoneyCase2

Water lily felted flower brooch in purple violet

Flowers come in different shapes and colors. The diversity of nature always inspires me. This time I've decided to make a felted flower brooch that will look like a water lily.

First of all I hand felted a large number of purple colored wool pieces in shapes of flower petals. I tried to make my petals long and somewhat narrow. At first I planned on making two-colored flower brooch and hand felted pieces of white wool as well. Later I changed my mind and created a purple colored brooch adding a few white shiny beads instead.

After my wool petals dried up I started arranging them into different patterns to find the one I liked the most. It's easy to do it while they are not yet attached and turned into an actual brooch. It's always fun to lay out different designs with different pieces of felted wool.

After a while I figured out what exactly I wanted to do with my wool. I attached all my numerous purple colored felted wool pieces to a hand crocheted base. To accent the color I added tiny white beads that look like small flower stamen.
The brooch is ready to wear now!

Flower brooch hand dyed in burgundy

I keep experimenting with hand dyeing. It's such a rewarding and inspiring process. So many new ideas come to life when one starts mixing colors. The end result is always a surprise and the whole process is much fun!

I hand felted many many wool petals for my flower brooches and dyed them in my freshest color mix. The final dye color is more like a burgundy with hints of red and even yellow. It's such an interesting color that is not eye popping bright but rather stylish and elegant.

I've assembled my petals into a flower brooch with a hand crocheted jute base that I had made earlier. The brooch looks like a flower and will no doubt decorate any outfit. It will go well with any office neutral colors especially the ones with hues of light green, dusty pink and pale blue.

My Red Rose brooch featured on Etsy Front Page

It's so cool that my Red Rose brooch was featured on Etsy Front Page today in a beautiful red and white treasury curated by Baronyka. Thank you so much for creating such an amazing collection and featuring me in it!

Fresh Spring Flowers in Lavender and Violet

I saw those beautiful flowers on a bush near my house. The bush has just started to bloom and is covered with lavender violet colored tender and fragile flowers. It's such a short period when all those flowers are out to make us happy. I try to carry my camera with me all the time.

Flowers inspire me to create earrings, necklaces and bracelets. I like to work with silver plated wire as it enables me to make twisted designs reminiscent of beautiful vintage smith craft and metalwork that one still occasionally come by at an antique shows nowadays.

Bright red spring flowers and jewelry

On my way back home I picked up a few beautiful red flowers. They look a bit like roses but have no scent at all. I just finished creating my new red earrings and those flowers were a great match in terms of color and shape. Assembled next to each other both flowers and my earrings look bright and juicy.

The red clear beads I used for creating the earrings are made in Czech Republic. They are of a very interesting cut and look rather like huge rubies. I totally fell in love with them and will spend next few weeks thinking about other designs I could incorporate them in.

Spring tulips

As daffodils tulips are a spring staple. We are used to yellow and bright red spots of color in city parks and our yards. But as I found out tulips come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.

If we look back at the history of Europe tulips played quite a dramatic role being at some point in the center of Dutch tulip obsession. Although originally cultivated in Ottoman Empire tulips gained extraordinary popularity in Europe with a number of tulip festivals being help in many countries including England and Netherlands.

Nowadays tulips successfully compete with other beautiful spring flowers for prime spots in our gardens.

Red Berry summer bracelet

I love bright colors of the summer: red as a berry, blue as the sky or the ocean, yellow as a sunflower. They bring so much positive energy and create a happy attitude. Besides we usually wear bright and airy dresses in the summer and it's always nice to complement them with equally vivid accessories. Bracelets are wonderful additions to any outfit as they are non-distractive and easy to wear. One can put a few of them to experiment and mix of colors.

I usually make my bracelets of wire and Czech glass beads. I should admit the Czech beads are the best as they are of very good quality and come in huge selection of shapes and colors. This time I created bright red berry bracelet that looks fantastic on one's hand. It's not flashy but stylish, elegant and fits one's hand just perfectly. It could be a great wedding accessory or something a woman or a girl could wear every day.

Clear glass beads summer bracelet

I went shopping the other day and bought a string of beautiful clear glass beads. Beads were so shiny and perfectly cut that I couldn't stop myself. Since I ended up buying these beads I had to create something out of them. It didn't take long to come up with a design of a summer bracelet.

Beads are of medium size. They are beautifully cut and sun light just shines through them. I wire wrapped glass beads adding some small dark gray ones to accent the color. The combination of clear glass and dark dots looks very stylish.

The bracelet I eventually created is simple yet elegant. It locks easily on one's hand and its size could be adjusted. The neutral color will go well with any summer dress or business casual outfit. The bracelet is of that clear color that will look perfect on a bride's hand. The combination of a beautiful white dress and transparent, pure beads should work very well!

Felted flower brooch in peach orange

I continue experimenting with coloring. My favorite coloring solution these days is KoolAid that comes in a few bright colors. I've created my flower brooch hand felting white wool and coloring it with orange KoolAid. The color is very intense and beautiful! Because I color every layer of the brooch separately I can control the process and apply as much color as I think is necessary for each layer. The idea is to apply maximum color to the center of each layer leaving the edges uncolored. It adds volume to the flower and makes every brooch look different and unique. On top of that the brooch smells of oranges and makes me think of spring and summer!

Spring Post Cards Exchange

One of our Russian Artists team members Albina Manning came up with a great idea of a spring post cards exchange. All participating team members exchanged mailing addresses and will now mail three spring post cards to three Russian Artists team members.

The idea of the post card exchange is to celebrate spring and to do something nice to a fellow team member. Everything is done anonymously and nobody knows where the post card will come from. As our team members are scattered all over the world I won't be surprised to see a post card arriving from Australia or Israel for example.

I decided to create my three post cards myself. I love flowers and there are always fresh flowers at my home. It's just a matter of spending some time taking pictures and turning them into postcards. I'm into hand made business myself and love items created by someone's hands rather than mass produced in hundreds of copies.

I'm super excited to get my three spring post cards from secret senders. I simply love that post card exchange idea! Thank you Albina!

Crocheted flower brooch in blue

I stopped by a supplies store last week and picked up some really cool yarn in blue and its different shades and hues. The yarn is very pleasant to touch, soft and stylish. As a result I crocheted a flower brooch in blue with white hand felted bead in the middle. It looks great of lightly colored outfits. The brooch can be worn on outdoor coats as it's rather durable.

Hand felted scarlet heart for Valentines

There are so many decoration and ornamental items one could create of wool. Hand felting is a very creative and rewarding process. I came up with an idea of hand felting a set of bright red and scarlet wool hearts that could be used as a home decoration or a Valentines Day gift to a friend, class mate, colleague or someone truly special. Each heart has a thread and you can hang it next to your computer at your office or next to a fireplace at home. Let's celebrate February and Valentine's Day!

Red Rose Brooch for Valentine's Day

I've recently came up with an idea of creating a rose brooch for Valentine's day. It's made of red felted wool and wire. The idea is to celebrate a wonderful day of love, passion and upcoming spring. Bright red and fuchsia hues will be seen everywhere as we approach Valentine's day! Let's celebrate!

Felted bead earrings in red

I've recently started experimenting with felted earrings. There are so many things one can do with felted beads of red, brown or any other color. One can create felted balls add a few bright Czech glass or wooden beads and get a vivid pair of earrings.

Those earrings are very light and elegant. They are durable and will never break unlike glass earrings. They are easy to make as well. If it happens so that you lose one of the earrings it's not a big deal. Just make a new felted ball and here you are beautiful and romantic with both earrings swinging in your ears. Everyone will notice! I promise!

My second Etsy Front Page treasury Chocolates

I just found out that one of my recent Etsy east treasuries Chocolates was featured on Etsy's front page. It's quite flattering to get such a huge exposure and to be picked by Etsy admins out of hundreds of other beautiful and stunning treasuries!

Shades of Amethyst east treasury

It's rainy and gray outside and I felt like looking at things that are not bold and bright but rather elegant, pale and exquisite. Apparently there are so many amazing items in shades of amethyst created by talented artists from all over the world!!!

I've included amazing items by the following artists: CityCrochet, herbolution, TwistedCrystals, Arctida, EdenInvitations, papermoth, MyWayToSay, JaneBoFelt, bumblestore, embellishedbytiffany, NeroliHandmade, BreezewayArts, galafilc, lightkeeping, OlgaAlmond, VitalTemptation