Making MossArtum V

There came a time when MossArtum had to pause.

Not because we had run out of ideas.

Quite the opposite.

Life simply asked us to build something else first.

When we bought our house in a small Bulgarian village, every spare hour went into turning it into a home.

Then we built something even more important.

Our workshop.

Not by hiring a contractor.

By building it ourselves.

Victoria and I poured the foundations, raised the structure, finished the walls and slowly turned an empty building into the place where every future MossArtum piece would be born.

Looking back, I think the structural engineer in me enjoyed that project almost as much as the artist.

For the first time we weren't working on a dining table.

We had our own workshop.

Our own machines.

Our own space.

And something inside us had changed as well.

We were no longer simply assembling ideas.

Now we could build them entirely ourselves.

Every design.

Every wooden element.

Every carving.

Every detail.

The first commission after reopening came from family friends.

Their daughter had just graduated from medical school.

They wanted a gift that celebrated years of dedication.

Instead of placing the Rod of Asclepius on a simple board, we suggested carving it into a shield — a symbol of protection as well as medicine.

Victoria carved every detail by hand.

Two genuine Swarovski crystals became the snakes' eyes.

A larger deep-red crystal crowned the staff.

It became one of the pieces that truly felt unmistakably ours.

Soon after came a butterfly created for a 60th birthday.

Transformation.

New beginnings.

A reminder that every stage of life can become something beautiful.

We loved it so much that it became the foundation for an entirely new series combining intarsia and carving.

The series still waits to be completed.

Then came one of the most enjoyable commissions we've ever received.

A birthday gift for someone who absolutely loved Dungeons & Dragons.

That one immediately felt personal.

When I was younger, I had spent countless hours exploring fantasy worlds myself.

Creating this piece felt less like work and more like returning to an old passion.

After several different concepts, one design finally stood out.

A dragon.

A sword.

Wood carving.

Intarsia.

No moss this time.

Only wood.

I became so absorbed in the project that I carved the sword as a completely separate removable piece.

I even sharpened the blade like a real sword.

And of course we couldn't resist setting a large red gemstone into the handle.

When the birthday arrived, we later heard the recipient's reaction.

Apparently he kept asking,

"Is this really for me?"

Several times.

Sometimes that is the best compliment an artist can receive.

Around the same time we reopened our Etsy shop.

But everything had changed.

The techniques that had once helped us become visible no longer worked.

Once again we found ourselves almost invisible.

We could have started learning the platform all over again.

Instead, we stopped and asked ourselves a different question.

Why were we spending so much energy helping someone else's platform tell our story...

when we could finally tell it ourselves?

That was the moment MossArtum quietly changed direction.

Instead of building an Etsy shop...

we began building a home.

A place where every artwork could be presented exactly as we imagined it.

Where every commission could carry its own story.

Where craftsmanship mattered more than algorithms.

And where the story behind the art became just as important as the art itself.

That place became MossArtum.com

Perhaps that is why you're reading these words today.

Because sometimes the greatest thing we build isn't a workshop.

Or a website.

It's the place where our work finally feels at home.

📷 End of the Beginning

Every piece you have seen in these chapters helped shape who we are today.

The journey continues.

Only now, you're walking it with us. :-)