If you like the warm autumn tones and wood colors and if you are looking for something really special, either for yourself or for a girl friend, make sure you look at Emil Hadjiiski’s wood work. His pieces are delicate, elegant and they will add a very feminine touch to your hair accessories.
Emil’s pieces are made of wood, polished into beautiful lines and curves, mixed with unique gemstones.
“I am Emil Hadjiiski and I am from Sofia, Bulgaria. This is a small, but very beautiful country in Europe. I work at home, I’ve turned the biggest room in the house into a workshop and I spend most if my time there, listening to some great music like Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull. I have to admit that I am addicted to music, I can’t work without it, I can’t sleep without it, well, I can’t breathe without it!”
I have studied here in Bulgaria to become a shoe designer, but apparently this was not my thing, I discovered that later when, one night, instead of drawing shoe designs, I drew a shoe-looking barrette.
I wanted to see what will come out of it, so I made it from brass and I liked it, I liked it a lot! Back then I worked with all kinds of metals. And from 1990 to 1993 that was all I’ve been doing - making bracelets, barrettes, earrings, and then I sold them to different shops (here in our capital Sofia and on our sea shore (The Black sea).
I remember thinking I was pretty good at this, until one jewelry maker saw my work and shamed me good. He saw the potential, but it was rough. He also saw my flaws and didn’t spare me of anything. When I think back at that time I think of it as a turning moment in my life, he challenged me, and I excepted the challenge. That was the first moment when I was introduced to woodworking, he taught me everything he knew, to look at every little detail, to follow the grain of the wood.
“Every piece of wood is unique, it would guide you through its grain, through its weakness or strength, follow it and you won’t make a mistake!” Those were his words (translated in English, but I think you got the meaning).
Anyway, I thank him for that, because working with wood is the best thing in my life, after my beautiful, smart and loving daughter, who is very supportive of me!
I spend a lot of time drawing, sometimes I see a piece of wood and draw right on it, because I use it’s patterns and I let it guide me to the shape it’s meant to be. But most if the time I spend drawing in my notebook. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night with a design in my head and grab a pencil. Now when I think of it, that happens very often and in my opinion that way were born the true beauties of my work.
So when I draw something that I like, I imprint it on wood of my choosing, I cut of the wood, and then the hard work begins. I spent many hours varnishing that same piece to make it flawless, and everything is done by hand. I use 3 different sandpapers to make it smooth. The next part is for embellishing and protecting the wood surface – wood finishing. sanding, polishing with many different high quality oils. I want my work to be shine but in a natural way, not in artificial way, so I use only natural products.
My source of inspiration is everything around me! The world is my inspiration! I find it in my family, my friends, in music, books, the beauty of our nature… Life is beautiful, and the thing that inspires and motivates me is that I can contribute to that beauty! But most importantly my 23 year old daughter Petya is my biggest contribution to the world, and my greatest inspiration!
We opened our Etsy shop (me and my daughter) December last year and it was the best decision ever, since then I’ve been full of inspiration. I’ve been creating new designs and evolving, and if I have to be honest I have so many new ideas, the only bad thing is that I don’t have the time to make all of them, because God gave me only two hands! And I want to do so much more…
I want my work to be unique
The feeling of making people happy and be appreciated is irreplaceable!
Emil Hadjiiski.
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