Eternal Lingon
Look! Can you see her? She, who is on a walk deep in the pine forest, with rubber boots on her feet, and a basket in her hand? Every now and then she bends down and picks up something green, and carefully puts it in her basket. It's completely obvious for everyone to see: her eyes are shining with happiness! She walks on through the forest, while in the sky, the pine tops are swaying with a slow and calming movement.
What you have witnessed is the very first step in a long process.
What you have witnessed is the beginning of Eternal Lingon jewellery.
“I love the process, walking in the woods, looking for perfect lingonberry leaves, it's just like walking on the beach looking for treasures and beautiful rocks. On a typical forest hike I pick almost a thousand leaves, but I only select a tiny portion for production. I specifically search for lingonberry leaves with the perfect shape and a beautiful bend.”
It's the lady from the forest talking. Her name is Lina Simons. She is a jewellery designer – and a lingonberry leaf picker. Because believe it or not, these two occupations are indeed connected.
Lina, how is the Eternal Lingon jewellery made?
"Every single Eternal Lingon jewellery piece is created from a real lingonberry leaf that I have hand-picked myself in my favorite forests here in Finland. This means that every single vein that can be seen on the individual jewellery pieces has its origins from unique lingonberry leaves."
After the harvest, Lina does high-level match-making. Every Eternal Lingon piece consists of two leaves, which is why she puts a lot of effort into finding leaves that fit together. The leaves should be reminiscent of each other, and feel like they are created for each other.
The carefully selected leaves are then taken to the foundry, where a small construction in the shape of a tree is created from wax and the leaves. Plaster is then poured on the wax tree and solidifies around it. The plaster is then heated causing the leaves to burn up and the wax to melt off. Recycled silver is then poured into the newly created cavities. The plaster is removed and the beautiful Lingonberry silver jewellery is revealed.
Lina says with a magical twinkle in her eye: "This is how I get exact silver copies of my handpicked leaves. They have become Eternal"
Of course, there is still a lot to be done before the jewellery is complete. Lina continues the process as a goldsmith:
She solders loops to the cast leaves, which are then sunk into an acidic solution for cleaning. The leaves are then plated with pure silver or pure gold depending on whether they will become silver Eternal Lingon or golden Eternal Lingon. Finally, they are polished to achieve a special luster.
Of course, Lina could use a standard mould made out of a single Lingonberry leaf, but, if that were the case, every piece of jewellery would be identical, and as we all know, mass production is not nature's way. Nature believes that no lingonberry leaf should be the same, therefore, every single Eternal Lingon jewellery is the singularity of nature, completely unique.
And to think it all started with Lina hiking in the pine forest. Do you remember? When she bent down with a smile as she found the perfect bright green lingonberry leaf, and put it in her basket