This rather unexpected inspiration came from those pictures I made some time ago:

The pendant is made of fine and sterling silver and is adorned with tiny garnets. It is oxidized on very unusual, sandy brown color, and partially polished.

Small openwork pendant showing two pleached mallorn trees. Made by hand of fine silver, sterling silver and golden labradorite.

Lothlórien - the Golden Wood - has always been my favourite elven realm and this is certainly not the last piece inspired by this wonderful, dreamy place :)

This piece was inspired by the beauty of nature as well as by J.R.R. Tolkien's prose. I wanted it to have an elven feel, and to show the atmosphere of the forest glad (or path?) lighted by moonlight.

The pendant was made totally by hand of fine silver, sterling silver and moonstone. It's oxidized and polished. And I'm quite proud I managed to make a small triquetra symbol out of the trees' roots ;)

Finally, I tried to do something more "advanced" :) This pendant was inspired by the stone- wonderful labradorite that flashes green, blue and lightly red colors. I saw the two opposite elements in it- water and fire- and I wanted to create a piece with simple, but not too literal symbols of both of them. I decided to make a tear-shape, two-layered and a bit open work base and to adorn it with three swirls on each side. Depends on the color which dominates at the moment, it can be seen as a water drop with waves/seaweed, or as the candle flame with smoke.

Well, I just love cats ;) I also wanted to try engraving bark texture on a small branch before I'll make my first tree, so I spontaneously drew this simple project and decided to make it real. The greatest challenge was this small stone setting :) The moon is made of little blue labradorite. The pendant is oxidized and has a matte finish.

And finally something new- my first attempt at making Celtic knotwork pendant :) This is a triquetra, which was known in Celtic as well as Germanic traditions and later- like many other pagan symbols- has been adapted into Christianity. Triquetra has many meanings, both religious (depends on beliefs- the Blessed Trinity, the three stages of the Triple Goddess- Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and many others) and non-religious ones. As a knot without beginning or end, it represents infinity, eternity and interconnectedness of all things. Triquetra can also be seen as a promise of love, honour and protection, and therefore it is commonly engraved on the engagement or wedding rings in Ireland.

My pendant is not perfectly symmetrical, but still I think this is technically the best piece of jewellery I made so far- the knot wasn't cracking while I was working on it and the leaves are more detailed and look much better than in my previous projects. I oxidized and polished it to better expose the symbol. And I can already see tons of possibilities of using knotwork designs in the future- so exciting! :)

Filonek Bezogonek is a Polish name for Pelle Svanslös (Peter-No-Tail). This cat was actually my second project, but he lost his tail during polishing and had to wait few months for recovering. I made this pendant when I was pretty sure I have no limitations with the materials I use and when I was no aware of how fragile fine silver is. Well, I quickly learnt this lesson ;)

Hand carved fine silver, oxidized (with a little difficulty- the moon covered with oxide immediately, but the cat didn't want to turn black at all ;)) and then partially polished to let the moon shine :)

Here are two of my old, quite simple in form projects. The flowery pendant is far from perfect- it's a bit crooked and irregular, but I know how I can improve next time. :)