Baltic Amber Jewelry Pieces

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Autumn is approaching, and so is the opportunity for fun fall accessories. Baltic amber, which comes in a variety of yellow and orange hues, is a severely underrated way to adorn yourself for the season.

Though it does appear to be a gemstone, all real amber is actually fossilized trees. Baltic amber is amber that has been mined from near the Baltic Sea.  

Baltic amber was formed over the course of 45 million years, from fossilized pine tree resin that grew in Northern Europe to Scandinavia. When the climate in that region began to get warmer, the pine trees produced resin or sap. this eventually fossilized and became hard and stable through oxidation. 

Authentic Baltic amber contains succinic acid, which works like ibuprofen when worn against the skin, and produces a soothing smell when in burned or in contact with human skin oils. 

Baltic Amber has also been said to help with pain relief, inflammation reduction, and energy restoration. In Europe, Baltic amber is commonly known as "teething jewelry," due to its pain-relieving properties. It also is said to help with joint pain when worn near the site of pain. 

There is a legend, according to Lithuanian mythology, about where Baltic amber comes from: The goddess Jurate, daughter of Perkunas, the god of thunder, lived in an amber palace in the Baltic Sea. 

A fisherman named Kastytis chose to cast his nets near Jurate's amber palace, so Jurate set her servants to tell Kastytis that fishing there was forbidden. Kastytis kept fishing anyway, so Jurate went to confront him herself.

Of course, upon meeting him in person, Jurate fell madly in love with Kastytis and brought him to live with her in her amber palace, even though she was already betrothed to another god.   

When he heard that his daughter was living with a mortal, Perkunas was furious. In his anger, he destroyed the amber palace by sending a lightning bolt into it, which killed Kastytis. Jurate remained chained to the palace's ruins for all eternity. 

It is said now that when there is a storm in the Baltic Sea, pieces of Jurate's amber palace wash up on shore. Some pieces are teardrop shaped -they are said to be Jurate's tears from crying for her lost love. 

Whether you choose to wear Baltic amber for its healing properties, or for its tragic place in Lithuanian mythology, Baltic amber makes a wonderful timeless accessory, 45 million years in the making. 

To shop for some of our amber pieces, click here.  

Friday Focus: Margaret Bourke-White

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Because we have recently acquired some of her very cool original prints and because it is Friday, we're making the first ever female war photojournalist, Margaret Bourke-White our first ever Friday focus.

Margaret White was born in New York City in 1904. She was educated at a variety of universities from 1922-1927 including Columbia University, the University of Michigan, Western Reserve University, and Cornell.
During that time she picked up photography as a hobby. By the time she left Cornell University in 1927, she was returning to New York city to pursue freelance opportunities.

Also during this time she picked up her mother's maiden name (Bourke) to create the professional hyphenated name we recognize today.

After a brief stint as an architectural photographer and becoming one of the pioneers of industrial photographers,  Bourke-White began working for Fortune Magazine in 1929.

In 1930, while she was on assignment in Europe to photograph the Krupp Iron works in Germany, Bourke-White became the first foreign photographer to have complete access to the Soviet Union when she independently documented the progress of Joseph Stalin's First Five Year Plan.

While this achievement led to her being named one of the 20 most notable women in 1935, Bourke-White became so distraught by the lives of the Soviet people that she vowed that she "would undertake only those photographic assignments which I felt could be done in a creative and constructive way."

Bourke-White became one of the first four staff photographers for the fledgling Life magazine when it began its circulation in 1936. Throughout the 1930s she traveled for Life, taking photos of the areas affected the most by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Both of the pictures in our small collection of Bourke-White's photos are from this part of her career.

In 1941 Bourke-White went back to the Soviet Union with hundreds of pounds of camera equipment to be the first photographer in Moscow during the German raid on the Kremlin.
She was also hired to fly with and photograph American WWII B-17 bombers during an actual air raid. One of the pictures from the shoot included Bourke-White dressed in her flying gear, and it inexplicably became one of the most popular American Army pinup posters of the war.
Bourke-White is also famous for taking portrait photos influential figures like Winston Churchill, Gandhi, Franklin D Roosevelt, Pope Pius XII.

Her final assignment was to cover the Korean War. During this time she began to have symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and by the mid 1950s she could no longer continue to work. She retired and published her autobiography Portrait of Myself in 1963 as well as several other books. She retired from Life Magazine in 1969 and passed away in Stamford, Connecticut in 1971.

The two original prints we have from Bourke-White's early career are special to us because they represent a grim period in American history presented by a talented photographer in a way that makes them seem creative and even hopeful. She photographed not just major events like wars and ecological disasters, but the way these events affected the lives of the people living through them.

You can check out our original prints from Margaret Bourke-White in our Ebay store here.