Story

 “I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.”

― Mary Oliver

Hello…

My name is Khrystyna and I’m the designer behind the Irish botanical jewellery brand Ruby Robin. I specialize in creating miniature naturescapes and plant talismans using real dried flowers encapsulated in Sterling silver and eco-resin.

Since I was little I’ve found myself intoxicated by the natural world. Perhaps thanks to a sometimes lonely childhood, I've walked in love with plants, mountains and streams for as long as I can remember. This love affair has inspired me to explore everything from science, wild food & plant medicine, restorative gardening, folkore and mythology but it's fair to say that crafting little botanical ornaments from fire and metal has been the one to really steal my heart.

Since founding Ruby Robin in 2012 I’ve had many studios and even some employees, but these days you’ll find me quietly working the land and creating my work from my home here on the Mizen peninsula, here in West Cork. My little studio is in a spare room overlooking a salt marsh rippling with the song of curlews. I spend my days in my studio and garden with a host of cats, ducks and our miniature dachshund Heidi for company. In this beautiful space I’m free to grow and gather flowers for my work. I tend my gardens, make medicine and teach myself the old ways with the slow turning of the seasons. I gather my plants with intention and care, mostly from my garden where the wildflowers are prized as highly as any rose.

I take such pride in my craftsmanship, especially in the attention to detail I pour into each step of my process; from the selection of individual flowers to the hand-wrapping of each and every order. I hope that this care and the spirit of the plants will be felt by whoever treasures one of my pieces.

My pledge…

Each of the pieces here at Ruby Robin are crafted in small, seasonal batches with a strong sense of responsibility to the land and plants instilled in every step of the process. I am fully committed to creating a sustainable business with a minimal earth impact and am always looking for ways to minimise my footprint.

In this spirit, I work only with plants from my own organic garden or local eco-systems with which I am very familiar. I pick plants only in small quantities and only those which I know to be common and abundant.

The resin I use is known as bio or eco-resin which is derived from recycled plant material. This is a non-toxic, renewable and sustainable alternative to more traditional and toxic petroleum based epoxy resins which create significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

My gift boxes are plastic-free, fully recyclable and made from a minimum of 40% recycled materials. The mailers I use are designed to be easily separated into individual parts for recycling.

I am an advocate for organic and restorative gardening, much of my garden is returned to nature where the weeds and wildflowers are free to flourish. I also cultivate many native wildflower species from seed to grow in any nook or cranny I can find among the raucous abundancy of wild things that I share my garden with.

Ruby Robin has been featured in…

 Skona Hem, Cloth, Lost at E minor, The Dainty Squid, Catraca Livre, El Republica, Bored Panda, the Irish Examiner among others.