Filigree for Dummies

One of the most famous souvenirs from Cordoba is the traditional silver filigree jewellery. You can see an example of it in the first photo, a butterfly brooch sold at our store. However, filigree doesn’t have to be that delicate. Let me show you a simple technique on how to make filigree-looking jewellery with endless possibilities.

Meet a Customer!

The young woman in the picture is Zhang Yang from Beijing, China.
She was visiting Cordoba, stopped by AGAVANZA, and immediately fell in love with our Honey necklace.
I think the necklace looks great on Zhang Yang, so I took her picture and asked if I could put it on the blog to show you.

You can see more about the Honey necklace here

It’s Harvest Time!

What you see here are some of my little sunflowers. I started out making a prototype in silver. I then had the mould made and ended up with 60! In this photo they are fresh out of the oven, literally! Some will be earrings, some will be necklaces and some will be charms. But they will all be part of the Seasons Collection, which will soon be available online. Before that, I have to clean and polish each sunflower individually and give them a few drops of black and yellow enamel, to give them the colour they need to become true flowers!

Introducing SAVIAVIVA

Organic skin care? Yes, please! Having been a loyal customer of SAVIAVIVA for years, I’m excited to tell you that their skin care products are now available at our store on Deanes!

SAVIAVIVA is located just outside Cordoba city, and the ladies behind the name are experts on the beneficial effects of olive oil (on the outside as well as on the inside!), and use organic extra virgin olive oil from Cordoba in practically all their products. And let me tell you, the Nutritive body oil is the best skin care product I have ever tried! Its fragrance is out of this world and long-lasting without being overpowering.
But why go on and on, when you can check out the products yourselves here: www.saviaviva.net

Meet Ambrosio!

I love amber! It is easy to work with and the colours are spectacular!
When polishing this piece of amber, I suddenly noticed a dark spot. It turned out to be some kind of insect, which was unfortunate enough to get stuck in a sticky spot some years back…
I bought this piece of amber from my regular dealer on the Danish west coast. He checks all the amber before selling it, as he collects the pieces with insects in them. Well, he sure missed this one!
I googled this sci-fi looking creature and I’m fairly sure that what we have here is a cicada larvae. But it doesn’t matter what kind of species Ambrosio is. He’s ours and we’re not selling (in case you were wondering!)

Alcázar by Night...

We’re under Construction!

Our website has been very quiet for a while, and I promised some of you that a change was coming and that this year, more jewellery would be made available to those of you not able to come all the way (back) to Córdoba.
We are currently working on improving our website, to make it easier for you to navigate on the AGAVANZA site, and to offer you a much larger selection to choose from! In the future, our jewellery will be presented in 3 different lines:
AGAVANZA Collections
This line contains collections with different themes. Original pieces at affordable prices, designed and handmade by yours truly.
AGAVANZA One of a Kind
Within this line, every single piece is unique and usually manufactured using more expensive and/or rare vintage materials. You will recognize these signature pieces by a small oxidized silver A, which is your guarantee that your piece of jewellery is unique (see photo below).
AGAVANZA Proudly presents…
This line includes the silver pieces that I have not made, but that we sell in the store on Deanes in Córdoba. Some of them are amongst our bestsellers, so we wanted to give those of you who can’t make it all the way to Córdoba a chance to see them as well.
I will keep you updated on our progress here on the blog, and I hope you will be able to explore the new AGAVANZA website in a near future!

Get Ready for Valentine’s Day!

According to Wikipedia, Valentine’s Day is traditionally “a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines")”. Some jewellery might be nice as well! But whether you have someone special in your life or not, I say we use 14th of February to celebrate past, present and future loves! So go get a gift for yourself and/or others and get in the Valentine mood! Below you have some suggestions by AGAVANZA, straight off the workbench.

Home Cinema (well, almost!)

Spanish people love going to the movies. But somehow, the movies shown in their original language (with Spanish subtitles) instead of being dubbed, are not great crowd-pleasers.
At the Alkázar Cinema, they show a new movie in English every week. So far, Marcos and I have actually had the entire place completely to ourselves! And that for only 4,50 € each! No turning off our phones, being careful with the noisy snack bags or whispering in the dark. We just feel right at home!

P.S. Was not impressed with movie of the week, Takers…

The Heart of Cordoba

The Jewish Quarter – The Heart of Cordoba. This slogan is part of a new campaign to promote the treasures and charm of the historic quarter. If the Mezquita (mosque) is the soul of Cordoba, then the Jewish Quarter surrounding it is the heart. It makes sense.

All establishments were given new bags to give to customers, and 3.000 pointessias were distributed for us to put in the balconies. And then there was the (somewhat annoying) Christmas music from the giant speakers placed all over Deanes (forcing me to turn off Nat King Cole during most of December!). Tomorrow, Christmas will be over, and I’ll start removing all the decorations we so carefully put up more than a month ago. Below you have a few images from the decorations around our neighbourhood. At least we don’t have to take that down!