I will be traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland
in July. Aside from the obvious Hermitage Museum, are there any
significant (or little-known) jewelry attractions to visit? Are
there any Orchid members, jewelry schools or tool suppliers in either
city?
Alan Revere
It has been a few years from the last time I was in Russia, so I
cannot give any timely info, but as a general advice is to ask to be
introduced to individuals who have designation of “artist-jeweler”.
As far as schools, there may be some in Ekaterininburg ( Ural
Mountain region), most of education was accomplished via shop
apprenticeship or graduating from Applied Arts program in college.
Things can be different now.
Leonid Surpin.
My husband and I went on a cruise of the Baltic last summer and
visited both places. In St. Petersburg, if you are there as a
passenger on a cruise ship, you need a seperate Visa to travel around
the city on your own. Otherwise you have to stay with the tour group.
The Hermitage is so incredible that I would go back again and again.
There is a Gold Room there that has many amazing pieces of
granulation and jewels that belonged to Peter the Great. Catherine’s
Summer Palace is worth visiting just to see the Amber Room. The amber
panels were looted by the Nazi’s during their seige of the city, and
were never seen again. The Russians have restored the room to it’s
original splendor and it is really beyond words.
In Helsinki we chose to explore on our own and discovered an outdoor
market in the heart of the city by the ferry docks. There were
vendors that sold spectrolite cabochons and others that had
spectrolite rough. Still others that had piles of reindeer skins and
fox and mink pelts. (You can get reindeer bratwurst there too!) Of
course I have kicked myself a thousand times since we got back that I
did not buy more cabochons (only bought one, but boy is it a beauty!)
Although not a jewelry attraction, taking the ferry to Summolina
Island is worth the time. It is 17th century (I think) defense
fortress.
If you are going to Stockholm by any chance, the Swedish Museum of
National Antiquities (Historiska museet) has a wonderful display of
Viking jewelry, both silver and gold.
By the way, I’m excited to be taking the Keum Boo class at the
Revere Academy in a couple of weeks.
Priscilla Fritsch
Atlanta, GA
Hello Alan,
About St.Petersburg, it’s not a “jewelry attraction” as such, but if
you get a chance go visit Yuri Feodorov’s shop, he makes religious
items such as crosses and more for the Russian Orthodox Church. His
craftsmanship is simply breathtaking, I’ve been collecting his items
for some time now. The best way to buy them is directly at the
source as there are many fakes around. The physical address is :
Masterskye Yurya Fedorova (Yuri Feodorov’s Workshop)
199178, Sankt-Peterburg, 7 Linia VO n. 84 “A”
Tel: (812) 3209751
Another church jeweler is Vladimir Michailov, reading through his
website I cannot tell you only one shop address in St.Petersburg as
there appears to be several outlets of his products. I would call
head office at these numbers, although I’m not sure they speak
English: +7 (812) 325-10-50, +7 (812) 567-56-32
Head office address is:
192019, Sankt-Peterburg
Ulitsa Sedova, number 11, kor.2
A third one would be Akimov, like for Michailov, there are several
places that have his products. Head office:
199106, Sank-Peterburg
Shkiperskyi Protok, number 19 (entrance from Malogo Prospekt V.O.,
88)
Tel: 812 356-94-53
http://www.akimov.com
I hope these infos will be helpful.
Isabella
Arlisa Bijoux - Swiss Handcrafted Jewellery