Home :: About TH Jewels
My name is Tanya Ivanova and I am personally responsible for creating all this noise.
I belong to the generation of the so-called IT people – those strange individuals who don’t need a driver’s license because they use public transport, who work better at night and who have a special sense of humor. Before I decided to leave «the field», I spent nearly 13 years in it, performing as a developer and designer for the Internet.
Over time, I realized that I had gradually started to look at the clock more and more in anticipation of the time to leave the desk. Somehow imperceptibly the passion for programming had gone. The time had come for me to look for another occupation in which I could fulfill my potential.
I truly believe that we owe it to ourselves and to the world the honesty to do things from the heart. If we don’t enjoy what we do, the results of our work are almost always mediocre. With that in mind, I set out in search of that new activity that would make me do hours of research, study with passion, and become productive again.
In 2011, I enrolled in a professional photography course. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I wasn’t particularly inspired at the time either. As soon as I felt the boredom and fatigue of the exercises, it was clear that it was not what I was looking for. It was only later, in the light of my subsequent discoveries, that I had the opportunity to appreciate and the motivation to improve the skills I acquired then.
The great discoveries almost always occur by accident.
For me, it happened during an organized bracelet making class that I participated in completely unplanned later that year. It was a one-off event, attendees made bracelets from tree seeds, beads and various natural materials. Following the directions, I then made three pieces…and fell in love with the whole process. A very unusual find, considering that I rarely wear jewelry in my daily life. One of these three first bracelets is visible in the photo to the right. Its workmanship, style, materials have nothing to do with what I do today, but it will forever remain in a place of honor, as the first inspiration received.
From that day on, a new era began for me. Months of research and study, visits to museums and libraries, viewing thousands of photographs… I had to determine what I was going to do, with what materials, through what techniques… and blend it all into one.
In the course of my research, I came across an extremely malleable and not so commonly used material: beads. They have been present in human history since our inception as a species and have been worn as pieces of stunning jewelry by pharaohs and emperors. Today we can see some of these unique works in some museums. The materials I defined as «mine» in 2012 and with which I still work today are high-end beads, semi-precious stones, pearls and jewel crystals.
The great discoveries almost always occur by accident.
For me, it happened during an organized bracelet making class that I participated in completely unplanned later that year. It was a one-off event, attendees made bracelets from tree seeds, beads and various natural materials. Following the directions, I then made three pieces…and fell in love with the whole process. A very unusual find, considering that I rarely wear jewelry in my daily life. One of these three first bracelets is visible in the photo to the right. Its workmanship, style, materials have nothing to do with what I do today, but it will forever remain in a place of honor, as the first inspiration received.
From that day on, a new era began for me. Months of research and study, visits to museums and libraries, viewing thousands of photographs… I had to determine what I was going to do, with what materials, through what techniques… and blend it all into one.
In the course of my research, I came across an extremely malleable and not so commonly used material: beads. They have been present in human history since our inception as a species and have been worn as pieces of stunning jewelry by pharaohs and emperors. Today we can see some of these unique works in some museums. The materials I defined as «mine» in 2012 and with which I still work today are high-end beads, semi-precious stones, pearls and jewel crystals.
