Silver brooch "Alder" from the collection "Herbarium of Tatyana Polyakova"

Since those distant years, vigorously traveling and living in different parts of the world, spinning the globe in the hope of finding, like Nabokov, my daisies and Rachmaninov, my lilacs, I have been looking for jewelers who could bring my dreams and childhood discoveries to life in precious metal. And so in the fall of 2019, at an etiquette brunch in my favorite St. Petersburg Astoria, which I arranged for clients, an elegant lady, the mother of two brothers, regulars of my course, presented me with a silver spoon of "Russian gems" with lilac flowers. My eyes flashed!

And in my life, my full namesake Tatyana Polyakova, the artist of "Russian Gems", who painted my herbarium from memory, also appeared. I also checked the slope of the stems, and the shades, and the proportions according to those Tver happy childhood memories. And, as it turned out, the best, free, beautiful, fragrant and precious memories of a lifetime.

In the summer of 2020, my mother left, who accustomed me to potted non-wilting flowers that were transplanted into gardens and lawns. Shortly before her death, symbolically, my first jewelry herbarium of 25 plants saw the light.

Black alder is the elder foreign sister of the white birch. I see these curly crowns around the world much more often and always unexpectedly. The name "alder" reminds me of a Varangian or Scandinavian female name. For me, alder was and remains a symbol of the beginning of spring.

The thawed areas of the spring school holidays in March were decorated with the first blooming chocolate branches of alder, dropping pollen on the tablecloth. I remember branches clutched in wet mittens. And I'm happy to go home. Into the warmth. The first installations and experiments darkened from white, through orange and then into a brown-chocolate color of wood.
These modest bouquets of my childhood consisted of spreading twigs with heavy earrings and cones supporting delicate primroses, anemones or fragrant daffodils of brazen beauty.

Snow-covered with ice, wintry at first glance, a symbol-a wish and a sign of the coming spring. We wear brooches in a bouquet. We decorate the silver alder with willow, primroses, white and yellow daffodils from my herbarium. We attach it to the left shoulder or lapel. According to the season. And at the call of my heart.

For more than a hundred years, Russian Gems has been preserving the technologies of the famous St. Petersburg jewelry school and developing innovative methods for making precious masterpieces. Craftsmen create luxurious jewelry, silverware, enamel-filigree products and interior items that distinguish the originality of the author's ideas and an unsurpassed level of performance.
The Imperial Jewelry House has repeatedly won prestigious awards from leading industry experts, which confirms the quality and high artistic value of the products.