Little bit about myself....

   My name is Vera Metcalfe. I was raised in Ukraine by my humble and creative parents. They instilled into me, self-reliance as well as supporting my natural creative ability beginning as a young child. My mother was a seamstress and throughout my whole life nurtured my creative abilities. An example of this was how my mother taught me to design and make beautiful dresses. Typically, my mother and I would walk through dress shops to get ideas. We would use parts of different dresses that we liked, resulting in a beautiful, perfected dress design. I remember while I was still a teenager that my mother and I were becoming popular because of our dress designs. All around our city, my friends and strangers we would met on the street would comment on our beautiful designs. My creative talents were further cultivated by the Ukrainian schools because we studied many different arts and crafts courses, as this is a big pride in Ukraine to have well-rounded, creative students.


                                                   * Me & my mother

                                          * Lace embroidered tunic

   

                             * Coral embroidered dress                                          * Bead & rose embroidered belt

                                                              * Lace embroidered dress

My real creative juices began flowing in early 2009, when I first began designing and making jewelry.

Similar to my early days designing dresses with my mother, while shopping one day, I noticed a gorgeous necklaces on display that I realized I could make myself. 

After working diligently for a few weeks, I had designed and made almost 10 necklaces. During those first few weeks, I had so many ideas flowing through my head, and I have been working 24 hours a day 7 days a week since that time and cannot stop creating. I have been designing and making necklaces, earrings,bracelets, and pendants ever since.

 I have added another passion to my creative talents. In addition to my jewelry, I began creating mixed media art on canvas.

I am just as excited about pursuing this art as well as my jewelry. Canvas art is bringing my creativeness to a whole other dimension.

A typical day in my studio begins with a cup of coffee and I begin by selecting semi precious stones, pearls and shells (found on the beach where we live) based upon colors and textures that catch my eye that day, and then mix and match the selections into a pattern or design that I like.

Once I am happy with my design, I begin physically making the jewelry. When I can and feel an uncontrollable urge, I pursue my canvas art. It is very easy for me to be lost in my creative artwork. I can spend days on end just creating jewelry or painting.

My Daughter's Birthday

Today, I would like to describe how I prepared for my daughter Karina's birthday.  Although this event happened a few days ago (May 1st to be exact), I decided to paint a painting for her new house.  Since she had just moved into this new house, It was almost empty... :)

A few weeks prior to her birthday, Karina had told me that she dreamed of having a painting of poppies.   

                      So, I decided to begin painting poppies. 

Painting absorbed all my spare time for several days. However, once I finished the painting, I was staring at an abstraction of poppies, in 3D. To paint this painting, I used mixed media, acrylic, on canvas.

In addition to the painting that I painted for Karina, I made a brooch for her with a personalized letter "K" (for "Karina").

The brooch was vintage, and I used citrine and pink opal to make it.

Just a day or so prior to Karina’s birthday, I decided to also paint for her a greeting card -  poppies again :)

My birthday girl, along with all the guests, were pleasantly surprised by my gifts and gave me many compliments.



                               Birthday girl with her "baby"...

Birthday girl with lovely flowers...