Friday is my day: Lotta Losten

Hello everyone! This week we're going to Sweden to visit the lovely Lotta, who creates wonderful and unique jewelry. Enjoy Lotta's day and remember to take a look at her Etsy shop lottalosten.etsy.com for more of her work!

Four Dimensions Purple Sculptural Necklace Pendant
Lotta Losten

Hello there!
I'm Lotta and I live in Gothenburg, Sweden. It's a sunny and lovely day here so I'm happy you chose to visit me today.

I'm a jewelry artist and I work with copper wire in a technique I've made up myself through years of practising.

I also work as a fill in at group homes for people with different kinds of neurological disorders, but today I'm dedicated to my own business. I used to work full time before but it started to get really difficult to combine both that job and my own business so now I work more at home, which is really great! This is what I want to do every day!

08.30. I wake up before the alarm clock sets of. That never ever happens. I'm usually a great sleeper and going up before 09 is really unusual for me.

My boyfriend David is a filmmaker (http://www.dauid.com) and works from home as well so we have a nice calm morning together before we get to work.

08.45 Breakfast! We recently moved in together in a big apartment and we are not completely finished with all the rooms yet but our kitchen is lovely.

When I've made my breakfast I bring it with me in to our living room sofa. We usually watch Late Late show with Craig Ferguson as we eat in the mornings. He makes me laugh so hard and it's great to start your day that way.
So this pic was just to show off my bright and shiny kitchen... :-)

09.45 I make myself pretty. And today I get chased by the camera, as you can see.


10.00 Work begins. After checking my emails, blogs and Etsy I start making a pair of earrings to go in my shop later. I sit close to the computer so I can tweet (@lostenjewelry) and check the internet often. I'm totally addicted! I listen to lots of music and right now I'm rediscovering my childhood idol Vanessa Paradis. Singing along and making jewelry is really a great combo.

12.15. Time for coffee and a fruit. Behind the coffeepot you can see David working in front of his computer. It's nice to share work space because it almost feels like I have collegues. Collegues are the only thing I really miss with working with my own business.

Sometimes we sit quiet and work and sometimes we look up from behind our computers to talk to eachother or just throw an air kiss.

14:30 I update my blogs. I've got two of them. A swedish one (http://lottalosten.com) which I've had for almost four years now. It's a page for everything I like to do such as theatre, photography and jewelry making, and then I've got an English one as well (http://lottalosten.blogspot.com) that I started up just a couple of weeks ago where I focus mostly on my jewelry.

15.00 I pack the orders for the day. I like making the packages look like pretty gifts before I put them in a padded envelope. I'm hoping that the customers will get smiles on their faces when they open their envelopes and see the box with the ribbon.

15.20 We go and buy food for todays dinner and pop by the post office. We really love our new neighbourhood! It has all the shops you need and it's really charming.

16.00 We eat our dinner on the balcony which has a lovely view over the city. Today we have pasta sallad with tuna, goat cheese and pesto. Delicious!

16.30 Back to work! I take pictures of the earrings I just made and other pieces that I made yesterday. At Davids old apartment I found a really great spot in the kitchen window to take my pics. Here I'm trying different views to see where in the apartment it looks the best. Today I'm trying the window in our work room. It looks fine, but I really miss that old window, it was perfect! The only thing I miss from that old place.

After that I take pictures in my light box to compliment the ones taken in the window. I want my jewelry to look as crisp as possible and I find that a light box is the best way to do that. No shadows or other distracting things. Just my jewelry.

17.45 I rush to meet my friend Becka. We take the tram to a place nearby the water that's called Röda sten which means Red stone.

The sun sets and it's really nice to sit there and have a glass of wine or beer and just talk for a couple of hours. We've known eachother for about 15 years and it's always nice to meet up with her!

21.30 When we leave the restaurant Gothenburg shows itself from it's best side. I truly love my city!

I say goodbye to Becka who lives close by and go to take the tram. I get home about twenty minutes later.

22.00 I make myself a sandwich and a cup of tea and sit down by my computer again. Nights when I'm not out with friends I usually sit in the sofa at this time making jewelry and watching tv shows with David. It's really great to have a moveable job like this!
But because I was out tonight I have to do the editing of the pictures I took earlier of my jewelry now instead. After that is done I list them in my Etsy shop.


I work for a couple of hours until my eyes start to melt together.

Half an hour after midnight it's bed time. I lay awake for a while thinking of great new jewelry I want to make - tomorrow, now it's sleepy time!

Good night and thanks for the visit! I hope you have enjoyed it and that we see eachother on the web sometime soon.