A rich brownish yellow-gold fossilised tree resin known in jewellery, which translates well into homes. By candle, soft light and sunlight, amber looks like liquid gold. Pieces sometimes come with insects embedded–which you will either like or not. We’ve bought pieces of random sizes from stone stalls in the market or cut down inexpensive necklaces to use for decoration – as beading and to button the fronts of cushions, or set into polished cement table tops.
* Amber coloured silk curtains alongside soft pinks, golds, warm beiges, chocolate browns or blacks just add a little je ne sais quoi to a smart room. Amber coloured walls built up with layers of translucent paint washes look amazing.
* The famous Amber Room of St Petersburg was built with over 100,000 pieces of pure carved amber. The story of its demise is too long to recount here but fascinating to read up on–dismantled and spirited away in World War 2, its whereabouts have never been discovered; conspiracy theories abound. From 1979 to 2003 it was painstakingly re-built at Tsarskoye Selo, St Catherine’s Palace, St Petersburg. That Russia was prepared to invest such time and money to re-create this room in a time of austerity speaks volumes about the importance of craftsmanship to national pride.
* Another wonder is the Amber fort outside Jaipur, Rajasthan–so called because the local pink stone it was built of glistens like amber in the evening sun. Set in a beautiful, uninhabited space, the elements are free to tell their story: in the most stunning of desert locations, light and shadows play with the architecture, the shapes, the stone and the craftsmanship.
* In furnishings, amber beads and rough tumbled stones bring touches of interest
pic- amber beads
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