Happy Halloween!

Though I don't make special items for Halloween, I'll tell you a tale today, one of the legends of my city. Yeketerinburg was founded as an industrial town, with steel mills and lots of mines - ore, granite, semi and precious stones. Many merchants and factory owners lived here, and one of the most notable ones was Rastorguev, who's mansion still stands on top of a hill not far from the city center.

The mansion was build in 1814, but no one knows for sure, who was the architect - the most comon story is that it was a french prisoner, who was bribed out of jail by the merchant, who promised to set him free when the house was finished. But he didn't go through with his word and the architect committed suicide on the way back to prison, cursing his creation and all those who lived there. Maybe this, or the fact, that the hill was a place of an ancient pagan temple - an old cemetery was recovered beneath the park pond much later -  lead to a series of deaths.

All the children of his eldest daughter died before they reached 5 months, except for 3 who where born after Rastorguev died in strange obstacles, well out a window - some say it was an accident, some say suicide, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that he found his second wife cheating on him and ordered to kill the lovers that same night.

His son-in-law, Haritonov, also contributed to the grim history of the mansion - a violent man, it's said he had chambers beneath the mansion, where all those factory workers, who went against his will were tortured. The legend says, that the spirits since then roam the mansion and the underground tunnels, that spread from it. These tunnels where After Haritonov was being exiled by the emperor for cruel treatment of the workers, no one of the family wished to live in that bloody mansion, leaving it abandoned for many years.

Though today it's restored and used, night guards and garden keepers still say they hear a lot of strange noises, as well as dog owners, who walk in the park, see strange and disturbed behavior of their pets. As if they sense something...

Happy Halloween, everybody!

 

Roses and Cozy Teddies

Since school started, it's been quite a handful to manage - though it's really interesting, I'll get back to that in another post. But, of course, neither learning, nor work don't cancel seasons changing, so I've got some brand new items - last glimpses of autumn and a warm welcome for winter. I, unlike many crafters, don't bother making specifically Halloween designs, though I really love this holiday. But, because of long shipping, I skip it - after all, it's rather strange to advertise pumpkins and ghouls in mid September. So, I spend time on more versatile ideas and making plans for Christmas inventory.

Roses are the most popular theme amongst my customers, so it's only logical I make more designs with them. This time I leaned to something rather simple in form, but that requires skill and patience, since each rose is really small. The chosen colors are dusty rose, ivory, peach (but, of course, I offer to make the design in other too), since autumn always brings out the romance in me and I start to seek warm and tender inspiration. Well, I like that all year long, but autumn is special for this.

 

Speaking of warm - "knitted" jewelry. Hearts and teddy bears, cozy and cute. Spent a lot of time matching the charms for the Vintage Treasures necklace, and there placement, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I've always liked to scavenge through closets in my grandmas house, finding some cool stuff. Too bad there never was an attic to explore, or neither do we have some nifty flea markets around here, but as a child I was satisfied with closet scavenging.

 

Likely the brown bear will stay in my personal jewelry bow, since he's so adorable. I like how he's a bit childish, but somewhat kidult eye-catching, but not hyper sweet. Dunno, he'll stay.

 

 

Among other ideas I had these teddies too, in classic and in sweet colors, but most likely, they won't be included in the inventory. Time showed that my sweet designs don't sell very well - I think it's because the market is overpopulated at this point and some sellers have location advantage, which reflects on the costs. I'm thinking of minimizing the impact and working more in the mori, classic and gothic fields, though I'll try to re-vamp some early sweet designs and give them a new life.