My love for fashion jewellery dates from really long time ago. I think it all started when my uncle, who was a world traveller, always coming back with gifts for me and my little sister, and in one such occasion, surprised us with two pairs of fashion earrings for each one of us. Those were from Paris I remember, because they came with the lovely T-shirts which had colorful Eifel tower imprint on them. I was maybe only twelve or thirteen years old back then, but those earrings put a spell on me! I can vividly remember mine pair, which had three sky blue round beads, cascading down in three different sizes and connected with golden accents, while my sister`s pair of earrings was all golden with many rings made of thin wire gathered in one spot, further hooked onto a solid, button like piece, to be clipped on ear. True vibe of the 80-ies I`d say.

This is my attempt to recreate those earrings. Heartwarming to see them again after all these years…

Both were so magical to me, but mine were something special. Of course, I had to persuade my younger sister that hers were prettier, as she would have attempted to take mine otherwise. You have to understand; she did things like that on a regular basis, being the spoiled one, she`d always cry until she`d get something mine.

During my career in a corporate world, financial services industry that is, I always had an urge to turn strict attire requirement into something a little bit out there, but still very business and professional like, and I enjoyed it! Choosing bold colors, and definitely accessorizing are ways to go.

Well, during that time, I got for myself some good books for jewellery making as I was desperately hoping to find time to learn these skills and wear my designs. But, I was in love with my marketing job, I was so devoted, I was a hard core professional and I was just so good at it. Result; not much time for anything else, and a broken heart when a tough economic environment left me jobless in April 2011.

Since then, I have been surprisingly very busy, mainly because I have been working on my new house, a real fixer-upper. I designed room by room and then I built room by room, and you can read, see and hear all about it in this page on my website as well as YouTube channel. While learning to do all these jobs for the first time in my life, I also finally found time to learn how to make jewellery practising different techniques. One other thing; I learned how to knit as well, somehow by accident.

Here is what happened: I was chasing one marketing job in “niche in fashion” industry – yarn manufacturing. The more I was finding out about this industry the more I got excited. Unfortunately, even though my profile was perfectly matching the profile they were looking for, the hiring company preferred someone with the experience in consumer packaged goods and not the financial services. AAAND; also a candidate who knew how to knit.

I didn`t get the job, but I learned how to knit. I learned all this using internet and books, which is very funny considering that my mom, and my aunts, and my grandmas, they were and still are masters of knitting and crocheting. And I never got to learn that from them!
Knitting is strongly rooted in cultures I am coming from – ex Yugoslavia. As I was knitting more and more, it kept bringing my childhood memories. I even remembered the time when I was staying with my grandma high up in the Montenegro mountains, as a really small kid, she took me one afternoon to a neighborough’s house, just a few hills away, where we shorn the sheep to make the wool!

Just recently I brought with me to Canada, one hand-woven, super heavy, rough blanket, that she had made long time ago.

My other grandma from Croatia, where my sister and I were born and lived until the civil war in 1991, did a lot of knitting also. When she passed away, our mom, as her youngest child, inherited grandma`s old distaff, which was carved out of wood when grandma got married, with her name engraved on it, and the year of 1934. You can see knitting and crafting runs through my veins, I think it was in my DNA to do what I did next.