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!

Farewell 2010!

2010 was a good year. But I have a feeling that 2011 will be even better!

Got any New Year’s resolutions? I can only think of two for myself:
I have to find the time to go to Denmark more often, or anywhere else for that matter. I don’t travel enough!

The other one is an idea I had a few days ago. A little project to keep myself occupied on dark, rainy afternoons (and to fill out the content of this blog!) You know how I have bragged about meeting all kinds of interesting people here in the store? Well, I want to introduce some of them to you by interviewing them, and (with their permission) put it all right here on the blog! Who are they, where are they from? Why are they in Cordoba and how do they like it? So stay tuned!

With that in mind, we wish everyone a Happy New Year. Also the happy, critical, sad, tired, energetic, hilarious, crazy, sane, positive, inspiring, stealing, sceptical, cranky, cheerful, arrogant, smart, shy people that passed through AGAVANZA in 2010. Except for the stealing ones, we hope to see many of you again in 2011!