Marika's handcrafted jewellery

Got Some Semiprecious Gems To Play With

2011-10-21T19:36:00.001+03:00

I've participated in a Halloween Tarot exchange with a surprise partner, and I've just received my package yesterday. I guess my partner saw that I am making jewelry because along with tarot decks, a Zen music CD and some other goodies, she also put me a few gemstones to play with.

They're so beautiful, I can't wait to start wrapping them!

I've been a bit busy over summer with other things, but I should be back on track again soon. My fingers are itching to do some more wire wrapping with gemstones.

Here are three pictures of the goodies. The first is everything in the package, the second one shows only the gems and the last one the cab enlarged.

They are: garnet, amethyst, moon stone, quartz and the the cab is a beautiful jasper. I love the jasper cab!

Being Aware and Safe When Buying Jewelry Online

2011-10-20T17:37:00.000+03:00

Jewelry – especially when you select real and expensive pieces for your collection – is a major investment. As with any great investment, you want to know where your money is going and what you will be getting in return.

Since buying jewelry online is becoming increasingly popular, this post will detail the important aspects online shoppers should keep in mind before making any final purchase decisions.

Vetting Jewelry Sites

While there are multitudes of online jewelry shops, it is important to give your business to one that you can trust. Look around for independent reviews of the shop’s behavior and jewelry quality – reviews that are not on the site itself. If you can find a friend who has had experience with the particular site you are considering buying through, you can be sure of getting an honest opinion. Also check with the Better Business Bureau.

Finding Pieces That You Can Love

After you find a site that you can trust and a piece that you can’t live without, take a moment. Don’t whip out your credit card right away. Print out a picture of the piece or pieces of jewelry and visit local jewelry stores.

Chances are you’ll find better prices online, but that doesn’t matter if you discover that you don’t like the piece after you have it in your hands. Even an online store that has a great return policy won’t refund shipping and handling or insurance costs.

Trying on a similar piece of jewelry in person can help you to know whether it is worth your money.

Get What You Pay For

When shopping online, make sure that you are getting real precious metals and gems. Make sure that you will receive certification or some other form of official guarantee for any pieces purchased that are supposed to be real, such as diamonds and expensive precious metals.

Look out for creative gemstone names, as these are a big warning sign in regards to gems that are not exactly what they claim to be.

For example, blue tourmaline is often labeled as Brazilian sapphire and gems called Manchurian jade are really soapstone. This is true for many gems.

Emeraldine, while it might be a beautiful green, is really chalcedony that has been dyed, and an Alaska black diamond is simply a piece of hematite. If the price seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Return Policies and Warranties

Always be sure that the jewelry site you shop with – whether a US or a Canada jewelry store or a site based in another area of the world – has a good return policy. The most common length of time for returns is 30 days, but make sure before you make your purchase.

Some of the best, most well-known online jewelry stores also have lifetime warranties on the pieces that they sell. Not every shop has this feature, though, so look before you leap.

If the shop you are considering purchasing from has no provisions for item warranties, no return policy, or simply doesn’t feel right, reconsider making that buy. It might be wise to work with another online jewelry store.

Just a little research and careful thought can help you to buy jewelry online safely, meaning you won’t have to hesitate when buying in the future.

NanoStyle Cubic Zirconia Jewelry - Gold With Crystal - Real Craftsmanship And Style

2011-08-27T12:57:00.007+03:00

Being an artisan silver jewelry designer, I don't usually go out of my own comfort zone to look at anything else but wire wrapping or chain mail pieces. However this time I had to make an exception, and I think you will agree with me when you see what I have to show you below.

I'm talking about a cubic zirconia piece that I recently got in the mail, which really caught my attention earlier on. The reason why I instantly loved this piece was twofold:

First, from the pictures alone I saw that it was an exquisite piece to wear on your neck, and second, well, Taurus is my astrological sign and I have a weakness for everything that has to do with my star sign.

I got the package in the mail just the day before going off for holidays (went to Peloponnisos in Greece, will post a few holiday pictures soon), so I only opened the package for a quick peek before heading off.

Fastforward 2 weeks. I'm back and eagerly opening the package and I start pulling out the things from it.

First the beautiful box with the amazing cubic zirconia taurus pendant. Next I have an adorable tiny magnifying glass, a very useful keychain and the only thing missing was a small sample of local sweets that I could not resist taking with me when I went off on my holidays (I'm a sucker for sweets, can you blame me?)

Upon examining and trying on the Taurus pendant, I realized how truly exquisite and unique it is. It is made using a new technique of engraving 24kt gold onto semi-precious stones, such as cubic zirconia and onyx. The engraving is tiny and when you use the magnifying glass to enlarge it, you see the wonderful craftsmanship that went into seamlessly merging gold with crystal into a final piece.

So without further ado, here are the pictures I took from everything that came into the mail.

Knowing my poor skills at taking great pictures and possibly not giving this piece justice, here is a link to the Taurus zirconia pendant that I received. The one I have is made of clear crystal, but look at the other mesmerizing colors available in blue topaz, opalite and light amethyst as well.

I had a tough time deciding between clear crystal and amethyst, but finally I went with crystal, figuring that this is the color that matches pretty much every top or dress that I will wear no matter the occasion.

Oh btw, don't forget to check out their Facebook fanpage and Twitter page and sign up to their newsletter which will keep you updated with any new collection that they bring out. It's worth keeping an eye on their new stuff.

Chainmail Bracelet For Men - Sold

2011-08-04T10:39:00.000+03:00

The latest jewelry piece I've sold was one that really took me a lot of time and silver. Not sure if I'll ever attempt another one so detailed, intricate ... and heavy.

Made of pure sterling silver, the chainmail weave for the bracelet is called Turkish round, and I've saved some of the pictures of the piece before selling it off in my Dawanda shop.

The size is 20 cm (8.5 inches) and it's really one of the heaviest bracelets I've ever created. Each silver ring was hand-sawn by me and interlaced with each other to create this long bracelet chain.

15% Sale Discount On Selected Jewelry In My Shop

2011-07-24T16:34:00.000+03:00

Now until end of July you can get 15% off from selected pieces in my shop.

It is extremely hot here in Cyprus this summer, we have our electricity cut off every day a couple of hours due to the explosion that happened here just a few weeks earlier (where several people also lost their lives), so the situation is rather grim.

In this extreme heat I simply can't keep working on making new pieces, it drains me physically and emotionally (try to do anything in 41C indoors and you'll see what I'm talking about).

So instead I've decided to let you have some of the custom jewelry I have crafted earlier at a super sales price. This way I still get to fondly touch the necklaces, earrings and other pieces, at least, as I pack them for you in a gift box before sending them to you with free shipping... all over the world.

Here is the direct link to the sales items in the shop for easy access: http://en.dawanda.com/shop/MarikaJewelry?in_sale=1

P.S. See you there and don't forget, in August the prices will go back up, so why not take advantage of the great prices while the sales lasts?

P.P.S. Somebody please send me over a bit of rain, some wind and a few degrees less...

Freya Earrings - YOJ 2011 - Week 8

2011-03-12T14:00:00.000+03:00

Ok catching up. Just 2 weeks behind...

Following Week 7, here is the new entry for week 8. This time the theme was about the Goddess Freya. Having looked online at some pictures of her, I've noticed that in many cases she is depicted with flaming red hair. Red earrings go well with read heads, hence the new pair of earrings. I've bought a while ago two gorgeous ruby red jade briolettes which just begged to be used somehow.

I based this pair on one of my previous earrings that I have listed in my shop, except I borrowed from KSJewellery's tutorial the idea of curling up the wire ends as they look neater this way, and added a cross-cross wire wrapping to fill up the inner side.

Measurements are 5.5 cm length including the earwires. I love this pair of brios, they're truly beautiful with their flaming red color.

Honey Candy Earrings - YOJ 2011 - Week 7

2011-03-12T13:28:00.000+03:00

I'm a bit behind with this project due to lack of time, so I'm trying to play catch-up with this
This week's project is 'something to talk about'. Not quite sure how this pair of silver earrings fit the theme, but I definitely like to talk about the tutorial by Kristin Smith based on which I made this pair. It's a great tutorial and it's easy too. What I like about it is that it lends itself to many different possibilities. I think I'm going to use this more often in my pieces.

The earrings are made of sterling silver and honey colored glass briolettes. Hence the name, honey candy earrings. They are rather tiny at only 4.5 cm long including the earwires, so perfect for the most petites among us. Quite delicate, even though my picture taking skills don't show it fully.

Recently Sold Jewelry

2011-03-02T21:06:00.000+03:00

Here are a few jewelry pieces that I have sold recently. I haven't really worked on my shop recently, so I am really glad for Dawanda that it exposed my jewelry pieces to people to see. Once I'll get some extra free time, I will spend more time and effort in promotions.

Week 6 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Amore

2011-03-01T13:54:00.001+03:00

I'm not quite sure of this pendant, to be honest. It started from an old pendant tutorial by Magda B. however I chose to wrap it differently in the end to match the theme of week 6, which is amore, or love. I call this piece Love Bound Heart. It features a green pillow prehnite bead (I think anyway) and a red Swarovski crystal which has a really deep red color. Finally it has a few different sizes of silver beads as adornment. I think I'll keep this piece for myself as I am not quite happy with the final result.

Week 5 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Down and Dirty

2011-02-28T13:43:00.000+03:00

This is for week 5 at the YOJP 2011. I initially thought that the bead is a carnelian but it turns out it's a fire agate. Regardless, I quite like this stone. It's a rather big one with some gorgeous patterns on it. I chose to give it a rather simple border wrap and just a tad of eccentricity with an extra side pony tail :) I will add this piece to my shop soon.

Week 4 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Wild And Wicked

2011-02-27T13:41:00.000+03:00

For week 4 I made an experiment with a new tutorial that I bought recently made by Telia Formosa . However I'm not too happy about the border wrap as it's not very secure, so finally I've dismantled this wrap entirely and will try it again with something that keeps this heavy stone stronger.

The stone was cabbed by me with my Ameritool cabbing machine about 2 years ago. The stone is quite heavy and it comes from a slab that I got a while back from a friend. It's really a great stone but quite tough to cab nicely. Will present later on something else once I figure one how to keep it sturdy with a secure wrap.

Week 3 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2011 - Mixed Media

2011-02-12T14:41:00.000+03:00

Here is my week 3 entry for this jewelry project. Silver wire wrapped frame surrounded by bone beads purchased a while ago from Australia and with a nice yellow jade briolette.

Not quite sure now I feel about it, it's a bit too funky for my taste.I was thinking of sunshine and of the spring that will come real soon. I do miss spring a lot :)

Week 2 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Eclipse

2011-01-28T12:56:00.000+03:00

Here is the belated upload for week two of Year of Jewelry Project 2011. A bit delayed due to some onion chopping (say finger tip chopping) accident the other day...Anyway here it is, using a beautiful handmade lampwork bead and silver wire and beads.

Joined The Year Of Jewelry Project 2011 - New Beginnings

2011-01-09T17:44:00.002+03:00

After watching from the sidelines for the last couple of years, I've decided to actually join in the fun at the Year of Jewelry Project 2011. My goal is to improve greatly my wire wrapping skills once I've finished the year. I just hope I can keep up with a project a week until then :)

The first week's theme is called New Beginnings, and I created this pendant with 2 new beginnings in mind. For one, I've actually used for the first time balled up wire for the pendant frame. Until now I only used it for silver headpins. Click here if you want to learn how to create your headpins using a simple gas stove technique.

Also for the first time I actually designed this pendant from scratch. I did a few designs on paper, then I created something in brass wire, measured it, created it again for about 2 times, and when I was satisfied that it was a workable idea, I've created it in sterling silver. So this is definitely something new for me. It's fun to go through the creative process and come up with something other than simply following some tutorials and apply your own twist to them.

The pendant is using chrysoprase as the focal briolette gem, silver stardust and some tiny green crystals which I'm not quite sure what they are. The are translucent when hold against the light. The entire silver pendant length is about 2 inches, around 4.5 cm long including the bail.

Holidays work - 2 silver pendants

2011-01-02T18:29:00.000+03:00

During the last few days I've worked on two new pendants, as I wanted to learn a few new techniques. Lots of places for improvement, I can see that, but as a first attempt, I could have done worse. The first pendant is using goldstone as focal bead and the second one has dyed purple freshwater pearls. Both pieces have been oxidized.

From tomorrow is regular work again, however I do intend to work more on wire wrapping this year. I'll try to do one new jewelry piece every weekend if I can get the time. I see that every time I leave jewelry making for a while, I always have to start from the basics as I get rusty.

White Snow Bangle

2010-12-31T12:43:00.006+03:00

I used a tutorial from Jewelry Lessons to create this sterling silver bangle. While it took me a lot of time to do it, I found it quite easy and fun. Due to the very repetitive nature of the project, I found myself soon in a calm and relaxed mood. Before I knew it (a few hours later), the bangle was done. I think I will do another one, wider this time and with thicker wire. This was done with 18ga as base and 26 gauge as wrapping. Not sure I like the clasp, the jury is still out on that part... I'm thinking if I do one much thicker, I might not need a clasp at all...

Happy New Year everyone!

Black and white bracelet

2010-12-29T12:34:00.000+03:00

While looking over my jewelry I realized that I don't have many pieces with classic colors, like black and white, so I made this quick, easy and fun bracelet. Goldstone beads - not exactly black, but very dark blue, and milk opal white beads. The fun elephant clasp is there to break a bit the classic style of the design.

Healing Pendant

2010-12-29T12:26:00.006+03:00

I mentioned in my previous post about the Yellow Amphora that I worked on two similar pendants both in the shape of an amphora. Here is the second one. The picture is not high quality, unfortunately just as I didn't have time these days to be busy with jewelry, I also didn't have time to learn photography and editing (one of the things I will include in my New Year's resolution), but the pendant is really great.

I used a quartz crystal in the middle - also called a healing point, or a crystal point. I love these crystal points as they promote healing and channel the positive energy to the wearer. I have actually a large crystal on my work desk in my office.

The Yellow Amphora

2010-12-06T17:27:00.000+03:00

I'm back after a few months of absense from wire wrapping. Sadly this is how is going to be for the next year or so. First of December I've celebrated one year since I stopped working for a boss, and started a venture on my own. Here is a blog where I'm keeping track of what I am up to since I fired my boss if you care to read :)
Until I have my earnings on auto-pilot, I need to focus most of my time on building up my business, so I don't really have much time just yet for making jewelry. But as time passes and my income increases, I will be devoting again more and more time to wrapping wire.

I've spent this weekend creating two pendant, both similar in structure however a bit different in execution. In this post I present the first one. It takes its inspiration from the Greek amphora.

The materials used are yellow jade and sterling silver. As usual the pictures are not so great...

Roxanne earrings

2010-07-10T13:44:00.009+03:00

These earrings are huge! And the name Roxanne is simply because it was all the time humming in my head while crafting this unique pair of silver earrings. I know for some people the name needs to have a deep meaning, even spiritual in nature, but for me, this was it. And I think it fits nicely. A cheerful Roxanne, dancing in the disco with her huge flashy earrings...

Large Swarovski gorgeous red crystals surrounding a herringbone weave dangling from the center of the sterling silver frame.

New photos taken of the Eyes of Horus

2010-06-26T13:44:00.007+03:00

I've decided to play some more with my new Canon digital camera and took a couple of new shots of the Eyes of Horus earrings that I made a few weeks ago. I also changed the earwires as the previous ones didn't seem too stable for me. These are just perfect, however.

To see more information, click on my Dawanda listing.

Two new pair of silver earrings this week

2010-05-15T12:54:00.019+03:00

I was quite busy this week with my business, however I managed to squeeze in two quick pairs of sterling silver earrings. The green stone is jade and the red is agate done in herringbone weave with a clear quartz briolette hanging from a sterling silver chain at the bottom. I guess silver chain was the motif this week for both pairs :) I had a few shorter chain ends which I wanted to use somehow. And this is one tip for people who have lots of lose ends of wire or chain or even 1-2 beads. You can very easily incorporate them in your new jewelry pieces like I did with the chain links for both earrings.

3 Work Tips For Jewelry Beginners

2010-05-02T16:08:00.014+03:00

I wish I had these tips when I first started out in jewelry making. While for some people these are simply common sense by now, for those who are just starting out in jewelry making these should help you make your life easier and more comfortable when working with wire or any other kind of jewelry material.

Work directly from the spool. There are times when this is just not possible, however for the most regular things such as coiling wire, avoid pre-cutting it since you might end up with a smaller piece than you original wanted and have to cut some more. And particularly with wire the less 'lose end' wire sticks you have, the better for the piece and the wearer. Also you might be cutting a bigger piece than you need, so the remaining one will be wasted. Copper might not matter much, but silver and gold is not cheap.

Use a magnifying lamp, such as the Magnilamp (which is extremely cheap at Amazon). Trust me the difference is amazing particularly when it comes to helping your eyes through the strain of the very small work, and making more beautiful work.

Check out the difference in the wire:

- without a magnifying lamp

- with a magnifier lamp

- with the extra magnifier setting

Use two monitors. I know this does not apply directly to jewelry making or wire wrapping but trust me when you're many hours at your computer (especially when your craft desk or table also happens to be your pc table, just like in my case), having two monitors makes your life much, much easier. I use one monitor for browsing the internet using various tabs, and the second one for local harddrive, or working from the pdf tutorial - like in my case, I have one monitor open on Eni's older site looking at the various tutorials picture deciding on which one to do, and on the left side monitor I have the actual pdf open, ready to work.

I will post more beginner tips as I get a chance to take some more shots of various things around my craft table. I hope these tips are helpful to newcomers to wire wrapping and jewelry making in general. Comment away if you have other tips or you have other experiences with the above.

The Eyes Of Horus - Herringbone Weave Silver Earrings

2010-04-26T20:42:00.006+03:00

Rather crappy shots but I like this pair of earrings. Reminds me strongly of the eyes of Horus. Mixed in a couple of techniques, of course my favorite herringbone weave and used one of Eni's chandelier tutorials for attaching the smoke quartz briolettes. Sterling silver corrugated beads surround the goldstone eyes in the middle.
I might have to retake the pictures in a better lighting.

Drops Of Sunshine - Yellow jade agate sterling silver necklace

2010-04-24T18:50:00.007+03:00

I've been working on this necklace the whole week, a bit every evening after work. Today I finished the chain, clasp, tumbled it for about 2 hours for extra spark and durability and took pictures of it.

The stone is a gorgeous yellow jade briolette that matches beautifully the small yellow agate beads. Wrapped in several gauges of sterling silver wire, the chain is approximately 45 cm.
It wears perfectly with a summer dress on a tanned decollete.
To purchase, visit this link at my Dawanda shop.

Quick Silver Earrings

2010-04-15T21:50:00.009+03:00

I made these two pairs of silver earrings during the last few evenings after work. They were fun and easy to make. The orange pair uses two lampwork beads that I bought from a UK lampworker two years ago and never got to do anything with them. The second pair uses two crystal quartz briolettes and two pink jade beads that have truly a beautiful color. Hope you like them :)

Sweet candy

Princess Charlotte

Amethyst Delights Pendant

2010-04-11T12:55:00.011+03:00

Here is my first wire wrapping since I've started making jewelry again. The pictures are taken with my new camera (mentioned in my previous post) and while I still find darn difficult to capture sterling silver, I hope these do show the wrapping details.

The piece is inspired by Nancy Wickman's free earrings tutorial.

The stone is a gorgeous quality amethyst which really sparkles under the light. The entire pendant with bail is just a bit over 4cm (close to 2") and I've used 1mm, 0.4mm and 0.25 mm silver wire for wrapping. I hope you all like it.

A few more pictures below, including a close-up of the wire work. Loving my new camera and my new Magnilamp that allowed me to do the wrapping without serious flaws :)
Click on the images for more details.

Got myself a new camera

2010-04-10T18:27:00.006+03:00

Today was a big money spending day. End of the month is my birthday so I told hubby I wanted a new Canon Powershot SX20IS. We bought it today and let me tell you, it is an absolute beauty and truly powerful. My previous camera was a Canon Powershot G5, but this one is like a Mercedes next to a Volkswagen. It was quite expensive as around here the prices are at least twice as much as in the US, but finally I have it in my hands. And I had to try it out right away, of course. Still loads of settings I have to explore, but the macro feature - which is the most important feature in a camera for jewelry photography - is amazing. Did I mention I'm in love with this camera?

The first guinea pig for this camera was a pendant I made the other day - which is for the scrap pile as there are loads of mistakes in it - but was perfect to see how well the macro works (and how visible the mistakes are....).
I added a second tiny pic at the top to see just how small the pendant really is and how well I could zoom it with the Canon. The whole piece with the bail is around 1.2" (~3cm) so it's really tiny in my hands. And now off to the scrap pile it goes...

Also got myself a Magnilamp from Amazon and as luck would have it, it arrived today. I'll work on a second pendant under this magnifier, which also has a small lamp, just perfect to get a good focused light under my work. I know there are many other more expensive ones out there, but for now this will do. My eyes are no longer what they used to be when it comes to wire wrapping and I really need something to see what I'm doing.
Seriously, if you don't have one of these or some other magnifier which also has a lamp, you don't know how much you could improve your work by truly seeing every single detail of your wrapping. I'm working on a new version of the same pendant but now I clearly see the wire and where it goes over the base and I can see the difference.

Gorgeous free wire wrapping earrings tutorial

2010-04-07T20:25:00.004+03:00

Even though it's an older tutorial, I only saw this today and I couldn't believe it's FREE! It's absolutely gorgeous and my fingers are simply itching to try it out.

If you want to check it out, it's a very long jpg picture that you can enlarge onscreen. Click here to visit Aniolek's Deviant art page where the tutorial is waiting for more visitors!

Mihaflower - Pearl Flower Pendant

2010-04-05T15:31:00.004+03:00

I made this piece during the Easter holidays. It' s a practice piece based on a tutorial by Gailavira that I purchased the other day. It's my first attempt at this particular weave and while I'm not especially impressed with my work (lots of flaws that I see), I'll give myself a bit of leeway as I haven't really attempted anything serious in over a year.

However I really enjoyed doing this pendant and I'll make it again which will be much more improved. I've ordered a magnifier lamp from Ebay as my eyes are definitely not what they've used to be when it comes to fine work, so I'll be able to see those little mistakes and correct them right away before the actual piece takes form and shape.

In the meantime this is dedicated to my friend Mihaela who was here recently in Cyprus, and gave me 4 pearls, of which I used one in this piece . Hence the mihaflower :)

Tiger Eye Earrings

2010-04-01T16:00:00.007+03:00

Well I lied in my previous post and I made this pair of tiger eye earrings yesterday. Very basic pair, little wrapping, just to get me started again since I haven't wrapped in almost a year at all!. I might not do as much as I used to before right off the bat, but I want to get back in the swing of wire wrapping things, as this is my main passion. Internet marketing is my business. There is no reason I can't do both :)

I bought the tiger eye stones at Etsy about two years ago and just now I got a chance to use them. They are absolutely gorgeous and flawless and they have a nice size at 18x13 mm.

Jewelry pieces sold recently

2010-03-31T10:12:00.009+03:00

While I haven't been doing jewelry recently, I have been selling from my existing stock. I will start again making when my stock is a bit lower. Last 3 years I've been working like crazy without stopping and now I could open a real shop with what jewelry I have around :)
So here is what I've sold during the last couple of months or so. Enjoy.

Hematite silver cross

Moebius silver earrings

White onyx herringbone bracelet

Turquoise nuggets silver earrings

Jellow jade silver necklace

Greek mocca earrings

Victorian Heart Necklace

Purple Tulip Necklace

Wire wrapping a Cabochon - Free Tutorials

2010-03-08T19:00:00.001+03:00

Cabochon wire wrapping seems to be somewhat difficult for many. I know I struggled a lot with it when I first started out. Although at the time I bought several books on cabochon wire wrapping, there are also many free tutorials that you can get your hands on to jumpstart your cabochon wire wrapping learning. So here are a few listed below, enjoy.

Tumbleweed Glass - This is a video tutorial (just what I like) that will guide you step by step through making your first wrap for a cabochon. I love this one! Also here is embedded if you want to watch it without leaving the site:
Another great tutorial with step by step screenshots and explanations is at Rock&Gem. Give this a try if you feel you can tackle it.
Also not to forget About.com with Tammy Powley's tutorial. Personally though I don't like to go much to About.com as I have to click on Next after every few paragraphs and that annoys the heck out of me :)

There are many more online and another good listing of the best is Pearl's page at The Beading Gem. Site worth going through post by post, as it's very informative all around.

Privacy Policy on Blogger Blogs

2009-09-21T09:55:00.003+03:00

If you have Adsense on your blog (like I have right at the top of this blog), you need to have a Privacy Policy in place. Google is getting tough on people who display Adsense ads and they have no privacy policy. In some cases, accounts have been banned. At first I didn't even realise we need to have it in place until I read a few horror stories about it.

I know that for us, hobbyists and jewelers, Adsense is there, but we don't even remember it at times, we certainly don't really make money from our Adsense, but what the heck, it's up there, so why not. But if you've earned even one cent from Adsense, Google won't care a bit about the fact that we are not real Adsense earners, we get banned. So if you have ads on your Blogspot blog, add a privacy policy and make it visible on your blog. This is how you do it:

Create a new blog post and while writing your post, click on Post options.
Now change the date of your post to a few months older, so it goes off from your first page
Publish your post
Find your post and copy the hyperlink to your clipboard
Edit your Sidebar widget (or top widget the way I have it), up to you, and add it as a new link. Name it Privacy Policy
Save your widget

That's it really. Let it not be on a small thing that you lose your Adsense account, when all it takes is 2 minutes of your time to fix it.

Purple Tulip, aka started wire wrapping again - SOLD

2009-06-07T12:26:00.006+03:00

After a few months of abstinence from wire wrapping, here my next piece. My fingers were itching to do something, so I came up with this pendant. It's really beautiful, I couldn't capture it with the camera properly. I guess it's time to get myself a new camera as well...

Gorgeous amethyst briolette hanging from a sterling silver pendant. Size is ~ 3.5x3.5cm (~1.5 inch). Comes with the silver chain in the picture, and of course, free shipping all around.

10% discount for Twitter followers

2009-05-17T11:03:00.003+03:00

If you are one of my Twitter followers, as a thank you, you get a 10% discount from my jewelry at Dawanda. All you need to do is enter 'Twitter - your username' in the check-out message to me. (your username is your Twitter username).
Of course, FREE shipping all over the world also applies.

Finally caught up with Twitter

2009-05-16T20:09:00.007+03:00

I have setup a Twitter page ages ago but haven't really bothered with it so far - I must have been one of the many who just couldn't get the hang of it. Recently though, I've decided to catch up with everyone else, and give it another go. And whadya think, I actually enjoy twitting. It's really a nice and quick way to keep in touch with friends, and just update the 'followers' with what you've been up to since the last twit.

As you know, one of my side 'hobbies' is internet marketing, and as a specialty, I focus on setting up blogs and selling them at webmaster forums. I was looking for some great headers for the blogs, as content is not everything, the blog also needs to look the part, and I found FionasDesigns (Virginia) who is really good at making headers, ebook covers, etc. Being happy with her, I've sent her way more and more work. And to my surprise she sent me this weekend as a thank you gift my new Twitter background. I didn't even realize she is also doing Twitter backgrounds, but I guess she's a multi-talented lady!

So just to boast a bit, I'm a proud owner of my new Twitter design, made by FionasDesigns. What do you think of it, please let me know in your comments!

If you want a header, or a Twitter design, send her a message, she's incredibly fast to reply!
Now if only Twitter allowed a generic (or dynamic) design size, which doesn't have to look different depending on your monitor resolution!

Jewelry I sold recently

2009-04-28T22:10:00.009+03:00

I did promise that I will not make any more jewelry until I sell at least a large part of the my previous creations. The last 2 years I've been on a race to make jewelry without to stop, and not only I burned out a bit, but I also ended up with a serious amount of silver jewelry. So far so good, I've only made a few pairs of earrings on commission, so I've been a good girl. My fingers are itching to work again, but not just yet.

In the meantime, Dawanda seems to be keeping me busy as I've started selling there more, even without any additional advertising. People seem to just somehow find my jewelry, which is great! Thank you everybody for that!

I've been asked what all I've sold this year, so here are a few pictures of jewelry sold through Dawanda and my blog (no direct and custom orders shown here). Hope you like them.

Got myself a new car

2009-04-16T18:46:00.005+03:00

I'm so excited, I just picked up my new car from the dealership this afternoon. It's a small Ford Fiesta, 2008 model, and I love it! It fits me like a glove. I don't like big cars (at least to drive anyway), so this is just perfect for me. And what more, this is the first car that I buy as NEW. All my previous cars - although some very good - were used cars. However, in keeping with the tradition of buying a European car (instead of the very common Japanese ones that are all over the place in Cyprus), I bought the Fiesta.

I know I shouldn't be excited about material things with all thing spiritual going around me, but I just can't help it, love this little car and I'm all exited about it :)

Easter in Cyprus is this weekend (Orthodox Easter) so I'll have a few days to enjoy my new car and take it for a drive before I go back to work next week Wednesday.

Selling off some of my Russian beading books at Ebay

2009-04-05T14:59:00.005+03:00

I bought a bunch of Russian beading books in 2007, books that I never used, since I'm working wire wrapping at the moment. No idea why I bought them, so don't ask me! From the time I was doing beadwork, Russian beading books had a hold over me. They're just so different from what we have around here or in the US, and they're all full packed with clear diagrams (I wish ours were like that!). I don't speak Russian at all, but I never had troubles following directions from these types of books. I have in my personal collection the big White Russian Book, you know the famous one that I guess everyone has who is into beading, and it's one book that I used ad nausea to make my beading necklaces and bracelets.

The books I'm selling are all new, hardly flipped through them once. I've listed them at Ebay, so if you're interested, you can get them here.

Is recession really affecting the sales of jewelry?

2009-02-27T20:57:00.007+03:00

I've just been musing...back in December I ran a 10% off offer on all my jewelry on my blog and Dawanda shop. I had really hardly any sales, whereby I truly wanted to help people save some money by buying it cheaper.

Interestingly enough, sales started to pick up soon after the prices went up to normal. And what's more interesting, the mid-higher end pieces are going better than the cheaper ones. For example, I've just sold today this Queen's necklace, one of my chainmail pieces, which seems to go nowadays much easier than the Euro 15-18 earrings. I know people like my jewelry, they are buying them, I mean look at the feedback that I'm getting, so it's definitely not that.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to offer cheaper - yet still quality - jewelry so more people can afford it, but it seems that things are turned upside-down. I guess it shows that no woman can say 'no' to a beautiful piece of jewelry, or something to pamper oneself with, and recession has no saying in that at all! Speaking of which, I just got hubby to buy me Dior's J'adore *gulp*. Don't I have a sweet hubby? And boy that perfume smells like heaven...

Bit of personal boasting

2009-02-26T16:31:00.003+03:00

I guess artistry runs in the family. While I am good at creating handmade silver jewelry, my brother's passion is playing classical guitar.
I got this very short video of him playing classical guitar in a known Berlin cafehaus. I really love the relaxed atmosphere of that place. Nothing like the coffeeshops here in Cyprus.

So may I present, my brother :)

My jewelry at Dawanda

2009-02-19T12:36:00.003+03:00

Well after some discussions with friends and some deep thinking, I've decided to keep my jewelry at Dawanda. Any new jewelry I make, I will post directly on my blog, however while existing stock lasts, I leave them at Dawanda. Once I sold out, I will close shop. This will give me the time to open the shop under my own domain, which will feature only jewelry created in 2009.

Now that I came to the decision, I feel relieved :) Sometimes it's not which decision you take, but you take a decision is the important part.

On another note, I've been asked what type of jewelry was my best seller in 2008. On the quick, I'd say herringbone jewelry and border wrapped cabs. But I will check my stats from the database and post back here the results, with some pictures of what has sold.
It's funny because I thought that chainmail jewelry would be the best seller, and border wrapping is a thing of the past. I guess the truth proved me wrong :)

Dawanda is finally introducing listing and sold items fees

2009-02-09T21:16:00.004+03:00

I've just received today a pre-invoice from Dawanda. This is two fold:
1. We are to pay for all sold items starting from June 08 a 5% fee
3. Dawanda is introducing new listing fees (it was free until now), which is depending on the price of the item.

This is the new scheme for the listing fees (separately of the 5% commision on each sold item).

Items up to value 10.00 EUR cost 0.10 EUR per item listed
Items of value 10.01 EUR - 20.00 EUR cost 0.20 EUR per item listed
Items of value 20.01 EUR and above cost 0.30 EUR per item listed
Listings are now running on a limited time of 120 days, starting on the day of listing.

Now I don't mind paying, we all knew it was coming, however I find that being less known than Etsy, and having much less traffic and sales, Dawanda is introducing a very steep pricing structure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Etsy has 3.5% commision and a flat fee of $0.2 for each listed item.

Dawanda, has a 5% commision, and depending on the item listed, it can cost you up to 0.3 Euros (which is approximately $0.4 - double than the Etsy listing).

Also I think most of us were under the impression that the fees will be introduced from 'now on', not going back to mid last year. A couple of us have been just hit with a major fee that we have to pay by Feb. 23, which we didn't count on.

I guess what I've always preached but never really put into place, I will have to actually do: start my own shop under my own name and domain, so I can control exactly what I'm paying and when.

If you have a shop at Dawanda right now, what do you think of these new listing fees? You might just convice me to keep my items there for a bit longer if you have the best argument...or to open my own shop :-)

A quick detour to another hobby of mine

2009-02-05T11:40:00.008+03:00

This post is really not for everybody, but if you are at all interested in what is called Internet Marketing, I've set up a an online diary for my journey in the world of online marketing. It's a quite interesting world out there, and I'm learning lots as we speak. And many of the things I'm learning there I can apply to promoting my jewelry as well. If you're curious, head over to my Internet Marketing Blog and let me know what you think. Beware, it has nothing to do with jewelry, so if jewelry is your only passion, you might get bored there. But if you're interested in the new possibilities of earning money out there (think of stay at home moms, or people who lost their jobs or folks want to start out on their own instead of being stuck at their 9-5 jobs), it's something you can pick up very easily anytime.

My latest read

2009-01-25T23:41:00.008+03:00

I haven't posted in a while about what I've been reading, but as I've just finished my latest read, before choosing a new one (which is a HARD task, I'm telling you!), I thought to post my thoughts on it.

I've been reading a lot of paranormal romances, and I got hungry of my usual 'sick shit' type of books (so labeled in the old bookrelay forums, for those who still remember). Sick shit in our 'language' means gory, scary details, serial killers, FBI agents hunting them down, you get the idea.

So I found at the bottom of one of my many piles of books a hardcover from James Patterson, Double Cross, and decided to read it. It's the 13th in the Alex Cross series.
I found it quite a fast read and actually quite fun. Just checked now the Amazon ratings for the book, and based on the ratings, it seem like it's not one of James Patterson's best book. Not sure why it's rated so low, I really enjoyed reading it.

A while ago I took a decision to not let these user feedbacks, ratings and comments get to me before I read a book, so I stopped searching for them until after I finished the book. I found that this serves me quite well all the time, because I really enjoy books more when I'm not influenced by others. But back to the book.

Alex Cross is retired from his practice, but a series of killings, where he is personally mentioned by the killer, pulls him right back into the game. And the one who pulls him back is no other than his former FBI partner and friend, Kyle Craig, who turned out to be a vicious serial killer and was put in prison (that happened in the book Violets are blue, if you haven't read that one yet).

Without revealing anything else about the book, I will say that if you haven't read it yet, give it a chance. It's really good, and if you like the Alex Cross books, this one doesn't disappoint. Don't let the Amazon ratings turn you off from having a good read. And this point is valid not only for this book. Always make a habit of reading the book first, and google-ing or searching Amazon for the reviews after. You'll enjoy the book that much more.

Simplicity

2009-01-24T16:27:00.013+03:00

Let's face it, we are in the middle of recession, no matter how much we want to ignore it. And although it has started in the US, it can be felt all around the world, including in Europe.

Why do I mention this? Because we all know when the money is tight(er), the two things that go first are perfume and jewelry. Many women stop buying jewelry until the situation is better. I mean jewelry and perfumes are still considered luxury items. And they are the first to go.
And if you have been following wire wrapping lately, it has become very complex, complicated and expensive. And no doubt about it, gorgeous as well.

This is why for the next few months I will be focusing on creating very affordable, yet sweet, elegant and beautiful jewelry. Focus will be on those of us who - no matter what situation the economy is in - we do not want to deny ourselves those little secret pleasures, like eating a few dark chocolate pralines, or wearing a cute pair of earrings.

Having this in mind, I am starting the very affordable collection of simplicity and beauty.

The first in this collection is actually an interchangeable pair of earrings - i.e. you buy two pairs for the price of one! Changing the beads on the earwires is extremely easy, just slide them off and put the new on in place. Voila, you have a new pair of earrings for that other outfit.

The stones are orange agate beads and chunky amethyst briolettes on sterling silver fancy earwires.
Everything has been tumbled in my Lortone tumbler for added shine and durability.
Shipping as usual is free. Price is shown both in EUR and USD, use whichever is more appropriate for you, depending on your geo location.

Herringbone is the theme of today - SOLD!

2009-01-18T12:10:00.016+03:00

As I mentioned in my previous post about herringbone weave, this is the first jewelry piece I made this year, a bracelet for a colleague at work. Green cats-eye in herringbone weave with 0.6 and 1 mm sterling silver wire.

I also made this cute pair of herringbone earrings after watching a free video on youtube, created by Cynthia. It really inspired me to try them and I will do more of these.
Beads are dark blue goldstone (so dark that they could easily pass as black in the proper light), they are really beautiful, and so dainty. If you like shorter earrings, which sit just right in your ear, these are for you :)

I will add the pair to my Dawanda shop, but you can also buy them directly from here via Paypal (with free shipping).

Best 4 free herringbone weave tutorials for wire wrapping

2009-01-17T16:38:00.014+03:00

How did this post come about?
I'm working on a simple herringbone weave bracelet for a colleague at work, who placed the order for sending it to her mom as a gift. So this weekend I'm working on my very first piece in 2009. I will post a picture of it as soon as it's ready and my camera is charged.

So in honour of my first piece, which is based on the herringbone technique, I went searching online for the best 5 free herringbone tutorials for wire wrapping. I got loads of question on how to make herringbone pieces whenever I showed some of my jewelry based on this technique on jewelry forums, and I know that this post will fill that void, since each of these tutorials is FREE, and one can learn to make a nice piece of jewelry based on it. Well, I found only 4 free tutorials on the net in the end, not 5, everything else was for a fee, but these 4 more than make up for the missing 5th :)

So here we go.

Hands down, the best tutorial is Eni's Herringbone weave, this one is a classic already :)
Irulan's herringbone tutorial takes place 3. Nice and clear pictures, easy to understand.
Adelin's herringbone weave is a nice new tutorial, put up late last year - interesting weaving of a bead which usually doesn't lend itself to herringbone.

Originally there were 4 free tutorials, but in the meantime one has been removed by the owner and it will become paid. Since this post is about free ones, shared with the world by generous people, the link is removed as well.

If you have a free herringbone tutorial that you'd like to share, just leave a comment with a link to your tutorial, and I will add it to the list (rearranging the list if needed, depending on the tutorial quality).

2009 sticky mental resolutions

2009-01-05T00:41:00.004+03:00

Now that 2008 is over, I've been musing on how I approached the year and what I want to change in 2009 to make the year even better. I've read recently an uplifting report called 'Sticky resolutions', which really stroke a chord with me. Why sticky? Because 'we can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough' (Helen Keller).

So here are 7 sticky mental resolutions to implement this year:

Whenever you feel down, think of something that you can honestly be grateful for. Just take a minute of your time and appreciate the good things in your life.
Take the decision. If you're thinking for a long time to do something, don't put it off any longer. Just Do it (like Nike says). You never know until you made the decision whether it was right or wrong, but if you never do it, you'll always wonder 'what if'.
Make a habit to say 'thank you', don't take people for granted. Thank your waiter for bringing your meal. Thank your kids for anything trivial that they did for you, thank your taxi driver for bringing you home. Thank your postman for bringing your letter.
Never assume things. Never assume that you know what the next person is thinking about you, as you don't. If you see that your friend, or your boss is in a bad mood, don't automatically assume it is about you. Most of the times, it isn't. And if it is, let it go. You can't make everyone happy, it would be foolish to even try.
When you notice you have negative thoughts, change them immediately. Think of a song you like, look out the window and see the trees with the branches swinging with the wind, smile at your colleague at work, and your attitude will change.
Don't worry needlessly about tomorrow. Don't try to make several negative outcomes of the upcoming job interview, meeting or presentation. You don't know in advance how it will be, so don't assume it will be bad. And never say 'it will never work out', because usually things have a way of working out for the best for you. Even if at the time it doesn't seem so.
Don't worry about the last choice you made. It was the right one. How do I know that? It's because you took it, you are here. You are always on the right path for you. It took me a while to absorb this particular one, but if I leave out the 'what if's' it's quite easy actually. We are always where we are supposed to be at the time. This doesn't mean that we cannot change where we will go tomorrow. But for today, we are here, exactly where we should be.

10% offer also good from direct blog purchase

2009-01-03T12:58:00.005+03:00

Thanks for the purchases from my shop, your items have been all sent out.
I have received emails whether the offer is also good for buying directly from the blog, as not everybody wants to register to Dawanda just to buy. Yes, you can buy from here as well.

So until January 11 (Sunday) you can buy 2 or more items from Dawanda, or directly here from my blog, and you get the 10% and free shipping, plus a silver cleaning propolish pad as a gift.
How does this work? Very easy:
Buy each item separately from this thread on my blog, and as I will see at Paypal your email address, I will count the total purchase and refund you 10%. As soon as the items are purchased, I will remove them from the thread right away.

After January 11, prices go back to normal, but you will still get the free shipping, and the gift cleaning pad.

Jewelry making in the 50s

2008-12-30T16:22:00.003+03:00

Did you know that as early as in the 1950s jewelry making was already a highly lucrative hobby niche?

Here is the story of a policeman who found himself a new hobby and finally gave up police work in favour of becoming a full time costume jeweler. You can read here the full story. Now that's what I call a change in gears.

Children jewelry sold in Hawaii recalled

2008-12-29T00:16:00.005+03:00

The Hawaii based company called Aloha 808 Trading, has just recalled around 12,800 pieces of jewelry due to them containing high levels of lead. All this jewelry was for children and they were made in China. Ouch.
It seems that the jewelry was sold in Honolulu from April to November this year for between $2 and $5 US.

It seriously makes you re-think buying other than artisan, handcrafted jewelry, since there is no such danger of lead and other 'strange' materials entering the piece, except what we manually work with. But of course, there are always people who are prepared to buy pieces worth $2 from their local Wallmart and face the risk of their child getting cancer or whatever else these products might contain.

Just for curiosity's sake, here are some of the pieces recalled in Honolulu...

Christmas Sales - 10% off and free shipping

2008-12-20T19:39:00.005+03:00

I need to make space for new stuff, as my drawers are full of jewelry. I promissed myself I won't do more until the old is gone.

So here is my offer, which I have also posted on the Dawanda forum.

Buy 2 items or more from my Dawanda inventory, and qualify for 10% off your total and free shipping all over the world.

How this works? Login to Dawanda if you have an account, or register (it's quick and free!), go to my shop and buy 2 items (or more, if you want). As soon as you paid with Paypal (currently it's my only accepted payment method), I will refund you 10% of your total, and should any of the items be displayed with a shipping price, the shipping for you will be free (shipping will be automatically 0 when I send you the invoice. The 10% refund will happen after the sale, because Dawanda doesn't allow me to alter the listed amount.

This offer is good through Christmas and New Year. Then I will get cracking on new Valentine and Spring Collection.

A bit MIA and something more about cleaning your jewelry

2008-12-11T21:29:00.006+03:00

Long time no post, as it seems. I've been busy lately with my marketing studies, and I had to neglect for a while jewelry. I have plenty of stock as there were some months when I worked like a madman (or woman), so at least I don't have to worry that I will run out of jewelry to sell for Christmas.
It is always good to make more jewelry than just the next piece that you are selling, particularly if you do this for more than just a passing hobby. Jewelry can sit nicely in their ziplock bags, they are usually small pieces and do not take too much space.

Which brings me, though, to my next point: cleaning jewelry.
I got a request from my online friend Mary for two bracelets, Stairway to Heaven and Lattice bright aluminium, and tonight when I took them out from the drawer where I usually keep jewelry for storage, I've noticed that in one of the ziplock bags there were two silver chainmail pieces together. I guess I didn't have enough bags at the time and I tried to save space by adding more than one in a bag. BIG mistake! Those two pieces are darkened and dull from oxidization.

So big tip here: never put two pieces of jewelry together. I am lucky because my trusted tumbler cleans up all pieces in a jiffy, but if you don't have a tumbler, you'll have to reverse to more conventional methods, and might not give you the very same results, unless you really spend some time cleaning...
As I'm about to put Mary's silver piece in the tumbler, I'll add the two 'tainted' ones as well, to be cleaned nicely, and then put each separately in its own bag.

Also another tip. One of the two pieces Mary bought is a bright aluminium chainmail bracelet. It is very easy to clean bright aluminium, simply wash the piece in soapy water to bring back the shine.

I don't recommend putting your bright aluminium with your silver jewelry in the tumbler. Actually based on my personal experience, I don't rcommend putting any two different metals together in the tumbler, to avoid weird (to say the least) results. Some people say they had no problems with them. I did. I used once silver with copper, and don't ask me the color of my 'cleaned' silver piece when it came out from teh tumbler. It took twice cleaning just the stainless steelshot with dishwashing liquid, and then adding the jewelry back in, just to get all cleaned up. What a mess!

Marcasite used in jewelry

2008-11-13T20:03:00.009+03:00

I've been talking with somebody about marcasite jewelry, and I had to admit that I didn't know what that is. It seems I've never heard of marcasite before. So I looked it up on Google (I have to say, Google search is one of my best friends, it doesn't hide anything from me and it gives me everything I want!) and here are some interesting tidbits on marcasite.

So what is marcasite?
Marcasite, as a mineral is called irons sulfide, however most of the called marcasite used in jewelry is actually iron pyrite, as real marcasite often crumbles into dust and is thus too delicate and soft to be used in jewelry.
Marcasite was especially fashionable in Victorian times (one of my favourite period times). Jewelers usually describe marcasite as a bronze color, and you can usually see marcasite jewelry shining with a vintage estate look.
In jewellery, marcasite combines very well with sterling silver and other white metals, however it's not used with gold, as marcasite and gold do not blend well together.

It seems that when used in jewelry, it tends to be mostly cut in triangle or oval shape. One of the other stones that combines well with marcasite is the black onyx. Also mother of pearl, pearl and opal are stones that go well with marcasite.

As to what type of jewelry one can make with marcasite? Well, you can make the most common types, like earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, rings and even broches. The example in the picture is a gorgeous oval shaped pendant used as a locket, with a man-made amethyst in the middle.

Marcasite is one type of mineral that is glued mostly with jeweler's cement (I have hypocement at home, that should work well), rather than being prong set. Because of this, water should not really touch the jewelry as the stones will fall out quite fast from their setting. So make sure that you never go swimming, or take a bath or go sauna with your marcasite pendant. Or wash dishes (yes, some of us still wash the dishes by hand) with your marcasite ring on.

Now although I've mentioned sonic cleaner for cleaning sterling silver jewelry, for marcasite this is a no-no. To remove the tarnish, all you need to do with your marcasite jewelry is wipe it gently with a soft cloth, which can be dry or slightly damp. The silver polishing pads that I give for free with my jewelry (sadly no marcasite jewelry in sight yet) should do the job.

Which brings me to one other tip for cleaning your jewelry that I forgot to mention in my previous post. Wear your silver jewelry regularly. Yep, that will keep the tarnish away from your silver jewelry for a much longer time than if it's simply put in a safe place.

As a final note, for those interested in the healing properties of marcasite, here they are:
Marcasite is believed to fend of negative energies, improve one’s communications abilities, and protect those working in dangerous occupations.

Rena Klingenberg's newest book reviewed

2008-11-11T23:32:00.004+03:00

I got myself a copy of Rena's latest jewelry online selling and marketing book, and I have to admit, it's a hoot! If you want to read the review, head over there.
If you already have the book, make sure you leave me a comment, I want to know what you thought of it.

Cleaning siler jewelry

2008-11-07T10:33:00.014+03:00

If you are like me, you like to wear your silver jewelry pretty much all the time. Eventually after a lot of wear, you will find that the silver jewelry has tarnished. What does this mean? Silver reacts with sulfur or hydrogen sulfide in the air and acquires a dull build up. It turns to a slight yellowish patina, and this robs the silver jewelry and articles of their natural sheen as well.
Cleaning silver jewelry is not difficult at all.

Pretty much all jewelry designers, jewelry artists have a tumbler (Lortone, or Chicago) which helps keep the silver jewelry shiny all the time. Just put your piece in the tumbler for an hour or so, and when you take it out, it's like new.

What about our customers, those folks that purchase our silver jewelry? They won't have a tumbler available, well, unless they make rock tumbling, in which case they still need another barrel for the stainless steel shot. But that's another story for another day.

So here are a few important tips on how to care for your silver jewelry, whether you buy it from me or any other place.

When you are not wearing that gorgeous piece, store it in individual small plastic bags (ziploc bags), as well as separate compartments in your jewelry box. Consider investing in a jewelry box that is lined with a 'tarnish-free' material to keep your silver bright and sparkling. Makes sure that you store it in a cool and dry place to avoid oxidation.
You can also find anti-tarnish paper strips that you can place inside your jewelry box. Just cut the strips into small pieces and place one in each small plastic bag with your jewelry. You'll find these strips at at a craft or hardware store.
Use a non-abrasive polishing cloth to polish your piece regularly.
When you purchase your silver jewelry from me, I always include a polishing pad that you can use over and over again to wipe your jewelry clean with it. Actually you can use it right until the whole cloth is pitch black :)
Btw, silver polishing cloths are available at major supermarkets, at hardware stores and at
jewelry stores if you run out of stock.
You can also use soap and water to clean your jewelry. But do not dry silver off with paper towels or tissues, always use a soft cloth. Paper towels might scratch your piece.
Never dip your silver jewelry in 'dip' solutions or commercial cleaning solutions even
though it may say that it is for silver jewelry. If you have Bali Silver beads as elements in your jewelry (those beads with some nice dark groves in them), dip cleaners will remove the black accents on them, as well as discolor the silver over time. Gemstones may also be damaged from the dip solution.
Do not use toothpaste to brush your silver jewelry with . Toothpaste and toothbrush will pretty much scratch your jewelry over time.
Another alternative that I've seen recently in action is this ultrasonic cleaner, which can be used not only for jewellery, but also CDs, DVDs, glasses and dentures. A pretty neat gadget if you ask me, and it's not all that expensive either. About one lunch in a medium style restaurant.

I hope these tips on cleaning silver jewelry will help you keep your silver jewelry shine for a long time to come.
And do not forget, I always include for free a silver polishing pad with every piece (one pad per package sent to you) you are buying silver jewelry from my jewelry shop.

New blog on ebook reviewing

2008-11-05T15:04:00.006+03:00

I love reading how to ebooks on making it online as a jewelry artist, or just making it online, period. I've learned a lot by reading such ebooks, be it for free, or paid for. I did post the other day a small review on one of the free ebooks I've got on online marketing, but then while digesting what I took with me from that ebook, I realised that having a blog that deals online with ebooks for jewelry artists, and for anybody who wants to sell something online, be it a product, or a service, is what I want to do. It will be geared towards another audience than my jewelry blog, which is for customers of my jewelry. While I might not be as proficient in giving the tips out myself, by having read a bunch of books on the subject, and having talked about them with friends on various online forums, I can pretty much offer a good insight of what the book is all about, whether it's worth your time (and money if it's not free), or it will save you some by ignoring it safely.
Thus my new blog, How-to ebook reviews was born. I will add regularly reviews, so keep checking back, as it will be worthwhile.

Reiki and making jewelry

2008-11-03T12:46:00.006+03:00

I've been asked the other day how can I have so very different type of hobbies, spirituality and jewelry making. One is 'otherworldy' as people put it, and the other is something that you make with your hands, materialistic.
Well, I've never really thought about it until now, as for me these two major parts of my life go well hand in hand.
For one, when I create jewelry, I enter a sort of - well trance is really a strong word for it - meditative state, which allows my creative 'juices' to flow. I'm simply somewhere else at that time.
While making jewelry of any kind, I like to have meditative music on, starting from Llewellyin's reiki music (have tons of their CDs at home), to Aeoliah, and other artists and groups.
When the jewelry piece is done, sometimes I'm looking surprised at the result, it's as if I see it for the first time and discover all sorts of small things on it that I don't remember having decided to use or add to my piece :)
Also some of my friends here locally who know that I am working with reiki constantly ask me when buying my jewellery to charge their piece with healing Reiki. I have level 2 Usui Reiki attunment, and as I've benefited myself from the healing properties of this technique, I like to give this for free to everybody else around me or who gets in touch with my jewellery as well. So when you buy my jewelry, you can let me know if you'd like me to charge it with reiki, I'll do it gladly and for free.
I have held a few Reiki sessions with my mom, and with friends, and everybody felt the difference between before and after. Reiki really works. So it's a natural extension for me to use reiki in my creative arts as well, it's like breathing without focusing your thoughts on it :)

Turkish Lace Pendant

2008-11-01T20:27:00.007+03:00

I made last week this pendant, however as I've just changed my computer, I didn't have the camera software installed on the new one, so I could not transfer the pictures to my pc.

As I like to support the wire wrapping community by purchasing the tutorials of those who can make them well, I bought this tutorial from Abby and losely following it, I made this pendant.
A grand flashy pendant , for those who like to really show of their jewelry.
4 gorgeous iolite briolettes woven into intricate lace motifs surrounding a lapis bead and yellow agate cubes make up this round Turkish Lace. Measurements are 4.5 cm x 7 cm, including the bail. It comes, as usual, on a silver chain and free shipping is also included along with a silver cleaning pad.

MarikaJewelry.com coming shortly

2008-11-01T00:27:00.003+03:00

That's right, I've just started working on my very first website. Selling through Dawanda, and through my blog is great, but after reading a bunch of books on online marketing (see my previous post, for example), and talking with several knowledgeable people on the subject, we all agreed that I do need a real website, with a real shopping cart where I can not only display, but also focus more seriously on selling my jewelry, as they all say, it's worth selling.
But boy what did I get into?? I've decided to use osCommerce, a free open source shopping cart software, and I've signed up with HostGator as my website host. The last two days all I've done is learn about domain DNS, how to transfer it to Hostgator, how to work with a website host, how to set up a mySQL database, then installed osCommerce and started configuring it. And that is two day's work (two evenings really as I can only do this from home, after work). I'll be happy if I can get the website up and running, at least the basics of it, by Christmas. But at least, it's a start.

I'm also in the middle of redesigning my logo, so if you go to my new jewelry site (there's just a static page for the moment), during various times of the day and night, you'll most probably see it changing until I like what I have :)

In the meantime, I'll keep you posted. I might have to slow down just a bit on jewelry, to focus on setting up the site, as I do not have the money to pay for a website developer, so I'm learning as I go along, html, php, how to configure the shopping cart, etc, but luckily I have plenty of jewellery stock at the moment to keep all my trusted friends and customers busy browsing through :)

Online Marketing - Free book

2008-10-29T19:47:00.006+03:00

I've been researching for ways to enhance my blog and generally learn about websites and online marketing. These are useful tools to have, if one is to focus on e-commerce, by selling jewelry, for example, like I do. Just making that gorgeous piece of jewelry and hoping for it to sale on the net is not enough. I've realised that I have to educate myself, and boy I've got tons to learn. Also tons of resources, some free, many for a fee. Of course, no such thing as a free lunch now is there, - or there is?
Well, it is seems that there are some great free resources around if you're like me, and want to learn the ins and outs of e-commerce, online marketing and promoting your product.
One of those I came across just recently is a wonderful free ebook called The Ultimate Supertip on Online Marketing. It talks about stuff like:

- Getting traffic to your site
- Preselling with free ebooks
- Preselling with articles
- Autoresponders and follow up campaigns
- Ad tracking
- Affiliate marketing
- ClickBank
- Viral marketing
- PDF book creation
- Ebook rebranding
- Creating niche sites
- Resale rights
and some others.
I was really interested in Getting traffic to your site, PDF book creation and Creating niche sites, great info which I didn't know.
Btw, if you click on the link, don't be put off by the flashy 'I'm all here to sell' font type on his site. He has really lots of good info there, and well, it's free. I was particularly pleased by the fact that when I downloaded the book, I was not asked for my email address. Less chance for spamming, which is an additional plus in my books.

As I come across more goodies, and more freebies for us online sellers of our own products, I'll post a review here.

Difference between learning jewelry making and perfume making

2008-10-28T11:03:00.004+03:00

I've been wire wrapping for close to two years now, and although I still feel I'm a newbie, I think I've learned quite a lot during this time. I can tackle some of the more advanced tutorials out there, without always making a mess out of things.
Very recently I've stumbled upon what proves to be another new hobby of mine, making perfumes using natural, essential oils.
I've purchased several oils from the UK so far, and started combining them to make perfumes. Which doesn't seem to be so easy as I first thought. Most of the concoctions smell horrible, at best as a bad medicine.
I've searched a lot the internet for recipes on the subject, but it's hardly anything out there. There are a couple of real life workshops that one should attend, at over $1000 a piece, and very few books on the subject, mostly touching the history of perfumery and the ingredients, but less the actual blends, mixes. So I broke down and purchased from Mandy Aftel the Level 1 Workbook, at a price of $375 (yep, you've read it right!) and shipping to Europe $80 (right again!), as this seems pretty much the only feasible avenue for somebody to really learn perfumery without spending a large amount of essential oils on trial and error, by not knowing what is one really doing in the process.
As the shipping was so very expensive for this one book, I let it be sent to Mary, a dear friend of mine who always helps me out when I buy something with high shipping to Europe, and now I'm patiently waiting for the workbook to arrive.
And in the meantime I'm musing...
Most probably since the time I started with wire wrapping, I did spend about this amount or even more on books and tutorials, however the difference between this workbook and the tutorials for wire wrapping, is that I've bought MANY tutorials, on all aspects of wire wrapping and jewelry making. I've learned a lot of skills in the process. I have now a new level of appreciation for all the wire wrappers who so freely share their knowledge in allowing the rest of us to learn their secrets, and to make their jewelry pieces. Without all these tutorials, and book out there, it would have been much more challenging to learn wire wrapping, even to the level I am right now (which is not that far). It is a completely different world between the two. Perfumers guard their secrets as if with their lives, they won't share but the very basic of blends, which doesn't bring one very far, and wire wrappers, or jewelers in general are very generous, and share. Yes, for a price, but the prices are very reasonable, anything between $5 and $15 for learning how to make one pendant, a pair of earrings, a ring, any items from start up to completion. Plus there are also many free tutorials out there, which allow you to build on your existing knowledge and widen it too. Best example out there is Eni Oken, who has many tutorials for a veeeery reasonable price, but also many freebies to get you started.
I know I'll have a hard and bumping road ahead of me with perfumery with the lack of resources available, but I'll take the challenge anyway. Should be fun.

Echt Kolnisch Wasser

2008-10-25T14:02:00.004+03:00

I got today a second shipment of some essential oils I bought from the UK, and as I don't have yet Mandy Aftel's workbook which is perfect for learning natural perfumery, I googled for some perfume recipes. I found one for which I had pretty much all ingredients, mixed it up with vodka (no distilled water included, as the vodka is only 40%, so pretty weak for the purpose), shaked it well and smelled it. And it reminded me of a perfume I used while living years ago in Germany, 4711 Echt Kolnisch Wasser. I had a small set of several little bottles, and I loved the smell. While bookmarking the site from where I got the recipe, I've read further down the page. And whadya know, the (inexact) recipe WAS for this perfume. Of course, only the main ingredients were listed, as the actual recipe is safely guarded, however I was very pleased that my own little newbie concoction actually reminded me of that lovely perfume.

Blogger banned in Turkey

2008-10-25T08:25:00.005+03:00

I'm really shocked! Blogger type blogs are banned as of very recently in Turkey. I've just been told by a dear friend of mine, Fabienne, from the jewelry community, who is living in Turkey, that she no longer has access to her blog. She was quite sad about it, as you can imagine.
It seems that Wordpress is already banned for a while now, along with Youtube, and Google Groups. And now Blogspot.
Turkey is trying very hard to get into European Union, but part of their 'entrance fee' is making sure that human rights are top priority, and that they give back the Northern part of Cyprus, which has been occupied by them back in 1974, and which they call The Northern Republic of Cyprus, illegitimately, of course, as there is only one Republic of Cyprus on the island, not two. Most of the countries governments don't recognise that 'republic' though as legit at all.
I'm very saddened to see that the human rights law are still non-existent in that country. I though so far only China has this problem of blocking ISPs and various online sites, but Turkey too?

The Witcher - and Bewitched

2008-10-23T11:55:00.010+03:00

One of my 'secret' hobbies is playing RPG (role playing) games. Ever since I got started playing Diablo years ago, I got hooked on this style of games. After Diablo came Diablo 2, then I played Neverwinter Nights, Guild Wars and a few others, however for the latest games, like Neverwinter Nights 2 and The Witcher, my computer was too old to be able to play them. So after having the same computer and upgrading it bit by bit for the last 5 years, I broke down and got myself a new pc. Which I went to pick up from the store last night. In the meantime, I also bought Neverwinter Nights 2 and The Witcher and these two games were taunting me for days ever since they arrived to my doorstep.
So last night after getting all my stuff from the old to the new pc, I went ahead and installed The Witcher, as curiosity was killing me! And then I played until almost 12 am.
The game is great, but it's a bit different from the other RPG style games I'm used to. Diablo was more like a hack & slash game, Neverwinter Nights had also a great storyline and was more modern than Diablo, but this one takes RPG to a new lever. The interaction is different, you need to decide between two courses of actions, and the game play will change accordingly.
One thing I got disappointed with at the beginning was that I could not create my own character. You play Geralt, the main character in the game, and that's it. But besides that, I'm still very early in the game and I'm already looking forward to the weekend to play a bit more.

While waiting for the computer to arrive, I also made a new pendant. Sort of looked at the Witcher box picture and well...this is the result. I called it Bewitched.
It has that gothic feeling, dark, mysterious but not too 'goth', which I quite like.

Created using Red Jasper briolette focal bead with carnelian and tiny garnets wrapped on a heavy gauge sterling silver frame. Pendant is 5 cm long including the bail, and it comes on a sterling silver chain.

If you want to own it, you can buy it here directly, or through my Dawanda shop.

Green Quartz Dangly Silver Earrings

2008-10-19T12:00:00.006+03:00

I went back to one of Eni Oken's older tutorials, and created this pair of earrings. Really like the outcome, they are lightweigh and fun to wear.

Sterling silver wire are wrapped around to create two rings, adorned with tiny silver beads.

The briolettes are green glass quartz. Glass quartz is a laboratory made quartz, to enhance the charity of the bead and to give gorgeous colors not available in the natural stones. They are very fashionable in the jewelry industry.

This pair is ~ 6 cm including the ear wires. All metal is sterling silver.

Natural Perfumery

2008-10-18T21:16:00.006+03:00

One of my latest hobbies is blending essential oils to create natural perfumes. I always had a very sensitive nose for smells, so I know I can put my strong sense of smell to good use.

A very recent niche to perfumery is about using only natural components, no synthetic material, like they use in the commercial perfumes. I am very interested in this, and decided to pursue it a bit further, see where it takes me. I think it complements making artisan jewelry quite nicely.

So far I have the following essential oils (real essential oils, not fragrances) that I can play around with (more on the way from the UK):

Cedarwood

Rosewood

Ylang Ylang

Lavender

Patchouli

Bergamot

Frankincense

Sandalwood

Lemon

Neroli

Clary Sage

Grapefruit

Black Pepper

Rose

Apricot

Mandarin

Lemongrass

and Jojoba and Apricot as carrier oils

I've already played around today with three little recipes, the first two I snagged from the web, and the third I put together myself. Very basic stuff, but I remember when I started with wire wrapping, I was so proud of my first little wrap around a bead. I guess that's what these little perfume concoctions are for me *grins*. Bottles need to be dark color, and to be shaken a few times a day for the mix to blend nicely in. The earliest you can have an idea of what it will really be about is after 48 hours, but just like with a good wine, the longer it stays, the better it will be. One week, two weeks, or even more...

Lapis Lazuli Herringbone Silver Necklace

2008-10-11T18:17:00.005+03:00

Using some of the lapis lazuli beads I bought the other day, I made this sterling silver necklace, incorporating also matching dyed agate beads, which I used for the larger wrapped herringbone weave links. It's a looker piece!
Approximately 44 cm long (except for the hanging part).

Lapis lazuli is said to enhance one's awareness, insight and intellect. It is also said to impart ancient knowledge and wisdom, bringing peacefulness and self-acceptance. Helps cure depression, insomnia, recurring fevers, vision and hearing problems, and disorders of the throat, lungs and immune system.
And best, it has a gorgeous deep blue color :)

Hawaii turquoise silver earrings

2008-10-01T10:46:00.005+03:00

I finished this pair during the weekend, and only now, that we have a day off (public holiday) from work, I got a chance to capture them with the camera.

Hubby doesn't like them, he said they're too exotic for his taste, so I called them in his honour Hawaii :-)

Two gorgeous turquoise drops I bought from a seller in Etsy, and tiny yellow agate beads, which I bought the other day, showed them here.

Total length is about 6 cm, and they're average weight. Nice and flashy, indeed exotic :)

Making sterling silver headpins without a torch

2008-09-28T16:00:00.018+03:00

The other day I was making headpins and I ran out of gas for my little torch. Since I'm making headpins on the kitchen counter, next to the counter is the cooking appliance. I thought to myself, let's try it, why not. And it worked beautifully! Below are a few steps with pictures on how to do it with your regular cooking appliance.
Note: this is only applicable if you want to make headpins. It DOES not work if you want to solder :) But for a quick fix, if you ran out of gas and you're in the middle of the gorgeous pair of earrings and don't have any headpins left, it works :)

1. Cut your wire to size and put them in the flux (mine is some yellow borax liquid from the local jewelry supply shop). I prefer the flux to touch the whole pin, not only the part to be in the fire

2. Take the wire and hold it similarly to how I hold it in the picture, relatively vertical if possible, so the wire blobs up nicely in the middle. You see the bottom becomes after 1-2 seconds strongly yellow. Right after this it curls up into a nice round blob.

3. Take it away from the fire and inspect it briefly. If the blob is not in the middle, or is too small, or not to your liking, put it brieflyback in the fire and repeat the procedure. IF all is good, go to step 4.

4. In the meantime have hot (but not boiling) water in a jar of some sort, but make sure that the dish is not metal. I use a bowl that I bought yoghurt in a while ago. Then put a teaspoon full of pickle. The brand I use is in this picture.

5. As you finish with each pin, put it in the jar with the pickle. You see as the pins are in the container, they are all dark, ugly, oxidized. If you hadn't used flux before, it would be much much worse! Make sure that if you are using anything metal

to put the pins in the container, the metal does not touch the pickle. On the other hand, do not throw the pins in the pickle carelessly either, as the pickel is acid, and although it's not a strong one (yeah I tested it with my finger once, just coz...), it's still acid and not very healthy for your skin (or god forbid your eyes).

6. Leave the pins in the container for anything btw. 5-10 minutes (at least in my experience), until the headpins are nice and white. They are all coated with the film that will be removed during polishing stage.

7. Take out the pins from the pot using anything but metal. I have a copper thong just for this particular task.

My way of polishing the pins is with a Lortone tumbler. Use stainless steel shot of different forms, add a few drops of dishwashing liquid. The US folks recommend Dawn, but as the rest of the world might not be equiped with Dawn, you can use any regular liquid. I'm using in general Palmolive, as this is the one I have in my household. Before that I used a no-name liquid that you buy in the supermarket in larger quantities, as it's cheaper. It worked just the same.

Leave the pins for about an hour or so in the tumbler, and when ready, take them out, rinse well and enjoy using your new home-made pins :)

Briolette Yellow Jade necklace and earrings

2008-09-28T13:07:00.012+03:00

The battery of my digital camera is on dying, so I've bought a new one from Ebay. It's not here yet and in the meantime I'm suffering (the camera powers down every few minutes), so it's a toughie right now to take pictures. However I managed to take some shots of the latest jewelry I made during the last week. For some of the pieces I used beads purchased last weekend.

Yellow Jade Necklace and earrings

I made this set last weekend using some gorgeous yellow jade beads and a wonderful

briolette I bought from

an Etsy supplier. Gotta love that briolette!

You can purchase the necklace and earrings separately, or as a set. If you buy them as a set, you will get an additional 10% discount from the whole. Offer valid only when purchasing through the blog. Free shipping goes either way.

Gemstones shopping

2008-09-21T20:19:00.006+03:00

Ok so yesterday I decided to indulge myself, so I went to the local gemshop and bought all these goodies, plus 5 meters of sterling silver chain. It was all quite expensive, but I came out with some nice things from there. Rose quartz, all sorts of agates, a couple of glass briolettes, moonstone, jade, two sizes of amethyst and lapis (the most expensive of all the batch except the silver chain). I guess I won't be visiting that shop at least until Christmas anymore. I need to get going and make some stuff out of all this, and sell, so the hole in my credit card is smaller :)

Privacy Policy

2008-09-21T09:45:00.001+03:00

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Bracelets, pendants

2008-09-15T19:37:00.042+03:00

I've been busy over the last few days and the weekend making all sorts of jewelry. I took a few of Eni Oken's older tutorials to brushen up some of my techniques, also purchased the wrapping tutorial by Earringsbyerin (available on Etsy) and finally on Saturday I made two bracelets in Sharlyn Miller style with a heavily oxidized look.

Tooth of the Wild

When I purchased this tooth style carnelian bead, I had no idea what I will do with it. However once I went over some older Eni Oken tutorials, I found my inspiration, and this is the result.

Length is about 6 cm, and it comes on a sterling silver chain, with free shipping, as usual, for all my pieces.

Pink Jade Pendant

This is a gorgeous pink jade briolette focal bead that I purchased on Etsy a while ago. I again used one of Eni's tutorials to wrap it around, embellishing it with a round of sterling silver beads. Pendant is 3x4 cm long.

Carnelian Fish pendant

I love this gorgeous carnelian bead and I think I found a nice way to wrap it, in a net surrounded by sterling silver beads. I call it The Fish :)Dimensions are 6.5x3.5 cm and it's of an average weight.

Autumn Agate wrapped bracelet

My inspiration for this and the next bracelets is the work of Stacie Florer at Nomadic Creations. She is working in the style of Sharlyn Miller and Connie Fox, and she inspired me to dab in this work a bit as well. I especially enjoyed oxidizing the pieces :D

Wrapped in various techniques, the center is made in herringbone wrapping using heavier gauge silver wire. 29.5 cm long, it can be slightly extended upon request to up to 1 cm.

Blue wrapped bracelet

Yeah, very creative name, what can I say :p

It has a gorgeous lampwork bead by an Etsy artist, some pink quartz beads and I'm not sure about the turquoise color beads. Could be Czech Glass beads, not sure. Clasp handmade, coiled and hammered. Also 29.5 cm long, and it can be extended about up to a cm or so. Plenty of wrapping techniques embedded, among others the famous herringbone wrapping technique.

Herringbone wrapped silver pendant

2008-09-06T21:08:00.013+03:00

I've been told this gorgeous bead is white onyx. Now it's not that much white in it, but instead some really beautiful reddish-orange-white coloring, reminds me of the scales of an interesting sea creature. Anyway I like it. I got inspired by a recent herringbone pendant that Eni Oken showed on her new website, and I've decided to make a herringbone pendant as well. Then I oxidized it for added depth. Funny how the silver oxidization brings out the beautiful colors in the stone.
The pendant is 7x1.5 cm, it's a really nice big one, which allows you to show it off on your neck. And of course, it comes on a sterling silver chain. When purchasing, I need to know in advance if you want the chain also oxidized to match the pendant, else it will come not oxidized.

Cyprus silver pendant - SOLD

2008-09-02T18:29:00.008+03:00

A few weeks ago while on holidays, I went with hubby to the beach (in Paphos area, if anyone has been in Cyprus, will know where it is), for the particular reason of collecting rocks and pebbles for tumbling and cabbing. We came home with over 5 kg of rocks. It was really a fun day.
Among all those many rocks, I found this small stone which I'm not yet sure what it is. It's either goldstone, or reddish serpentine (I've only seen yellow, brown and green serpentine until now). I've asked around, if I find out what it is, I'll post here. It was such a sweet stone, and just the right type, sort of oval, that I decided to cab it. So this is not only cabbed and wrapped by myself, but also collected by me (or by hubby, lol). Talk about 100% handmade and 100% Cyprus item!
Free shipping and silver chain included!

Mushroom Jasper pendant

2008-08-29T17:55:00.004+03:00

I'm quite proud of this piece as it's one that I actually cabbed from a small slab a friend in the US sent me, and then wrapped it as well. It's looking quite cool if you ask me (yeah yeah blowing my own horn here :p )
It's a mushroom jasper (or so I've been told, but from the looks of it, the name really fits) which got quite a nice shine to it while cabbing.
As usual it comes on a sterling silver chain and with free shipping all over the world.

When NOT to oxidize your silver jewelry

2008-08-22T14:43:00.002+03:00

I had an epiphany today. While oxidizing two pieces I finished this morning, I was musing on why I suddenly like the oxidized look, while I couldn't stand the sight of it (only on my pieces, of course) before.
And then it hit me. The patina brings out all the details in the jewelry, so if your piece is flawlessly executed, beautifully done, it brings out all that and more, making your jewelry sparkle and truly shine. However, if your piece has mistakes, even relatively tiny ones, the dark shadow shows it as well, much more so than if the piece is shiny and bright. If your oval frame is not even on both sides, or if your coiling is not well done, meaning it has spaces between the frame and coils, if you have all sorts of gaps in various places, which shouldn't be there, if your loops are not yet well executed, stay away from oxidizing your piece! In other words, if you're a wire wrapping newbie, leave your pieces shiny and bright, mistakes are less visible this way.

I've checked out a few older pieces which at the time I thought were great - right until I put them in liver of sulphur, which ruined the pieces and the experience. Looking back at these, I can see why I no longer liked them oxidized :)
And also I can see how far I came since the wire wrapping beginnings. I am more confident in my work, I truly like what I do, the journey as well as the result, and when I oxidize the new jewelry, it's finally something pleasing to the eyes :)

Olive Jasper Silver Pendant

2008-08-21T14:35:00.008+03:00

This cute little silver pendant has a gorgeous olive jasper briolette that came yesterday in the post and I couldn't wait to use it in my next piece.
All sterling silver, oxidized for the antique effect, the pendant is 2x4 cm, and it comes on a sterling silver chain. If you need the chain also oxidized, you need to send me an email about it.
As usual, shipping on all my items is free all over the world.
It seems that I've really got the oxidizing bug, even hubby seems to like these new darkened up pieces. The liver of sulphur really brings out the greatness in the silver. No wonder those Victorian, antique pieces are so sought after.

Greek Coffee Earrings

2008-08-20T12:50:00.005+03:00

This pair of earrings is special to me for a couple of reasons. It's the first pair that I've oxidized and hear hear, oxidizing suits them as well. Also for this pair I've made the headpins on my own using a torch, and finally wrapping briolettes is no longer an enigma to me and something to be afraid of :)

All sterling silver wrapped with two beautiful milk opal briolettes formed in a Greek style geometrical pattern. 6 cm long including the earwires. Very lightweight and fun the wear.
The color combo reminds me of the Greek coffee, hence the name of the pair.

New experiments - new beginnings

2008-08-18T21:05:00.003+03:00

I'm still on holidays until end of this week, so after having spent a LOT of money buying silver wire today, I've decided to try out a few new things which I long wanted but never got a chance to.
I can now tick off the not-yet-done list the following:
- making round headpins
- soldering
- oxidizing

Ok, oxidizing I've done before but today is the first time I've actually liked the result. Will post tomorrow pictures of the earrings I've made today and oxidized as there's no longer day light to take good pics.

Making round headpins - yes, finally I took out my little handtorch, the flux and pickle and made a few headpins. Made only about 8 or so, and the results are not yet perfect, but I see from piece to piece that the blobs at the ends are getting round and centered. Now this openes a bunch of new possibilities for me in wrapping tiny beads, as I hate making loops at the end of the beads, it looks so unprofessional.

Soldering - my first stand-alone attempt (I went to a few silversmithing classes a while ago, but I didn't get much out of it, so I've left the course in the middle of it). As I had the soldering stuff out already to make the headpins, I've decided to try my hands at soldering. Cut a tiny piece of solder (which I still have from the above mentioned class) and went ahead and made this little triangle. Well ok, it's not the best piece ever, but hey, it stays in place *grins*, and I know I'll get better and better at it, now that my fear (?) of soldering is gone. I have plenty of silver wire scraps to practice on.

So all on all a good beginning of the week.

When there's no stress, there's wire wrapping

2008-08-17T17:51:00.020+03:00

I'm on holidays from work until end of next week, so I'm enjoying the hot summer days and making wire wrapped jewelry, my first big love :)

Without much ado, here are a few things I made during the last few days.

White Romance Pendant - hand formed, hammered and wrapped sterling silver pendant with a milk opal briolette, freshwater pearls and sterling silver beads.
3x5 cm and it comes on a sterling silver chain.

Dream Pink Necklace - Beautiful cherry quartz briolette pendant, rondelles and many Swarovski crystals make up this stunning necklace in sterling silver. The pendant is wire wrapped with little sterling silver beads accenting it. The pendant is 3x6 cm and the whole necklace is approximately 47 cm long.

Victorian Heart Pendant - Completely handmade from forming the frame to a heart shape, to wrapping around it to give this beautiful Victorian style pendant. Made of sterling silver wire and beads, freshwater pearls and red jasper.
The pendant is 2x5 cm (including the bottom dangle beads) and it comes on a 45 cm long silver chain.

Botswana Agate Pendant

2008-08-12T21:51:00.006+03:00

I bought this gorgeous little Botswana agate cab from Ebay a few months ago, before I even knew that I'll eventually have my own cabbing machine.
While I'm learning to make nice cabs, I use the bought cabs to wrap them. This cab is gorgeous when held up against the light, and I tried to make the bail with the thin line to match the thin bands/lines on the cab.
The pendant is ~ 1.5 x 5 cm, all carefully wrapped in sterling silver. It comes on a sterling silver chain.

My loving heart

2008-08-08T18:18:00.006+03:00

It's so good to come back to freeform wire wrapping. I've been doing a lot of cabbing lately, and border wrapping, and I started to miss wire wrapping and wire sculpture.
I was browsing last night Google pictures for some ideas, and came across this art nouveau heart which became my inspiration for my new rubylite heart :)

The pendant is huge, at the widest points 5x5cm and it sits really nice on the neck. It is one of those pieces that really stand out and make a statement.

8mm rubylite semiprecious beads, small sterling silver beads and sterling silver handmade frame and wrapping make up this one of a kind piece. Because I enjoyed so much making this item, I called it My Loving Heart.

If you want a silver chain with the pendant as well, send me an email at marika.charalambous at google.com, or send me a note at the Paypal checkout. It costs only a couple of Euros more.

On Dawanda's front page

2008-08-01T13:45:00.005+03:00

Wow I've just spotted two of my items on Dawanda's front page: the dichroic pendant, and the new amethyst earrings. I'm excited because it's the first time I see more than one of my own pieces at the same time on the front page. Hope you like them :)

Wrapped morrisonite

2008-07-27T18:35:00.009+03:00

Here is the first cab I made, wrapped in sterling silver. I think I'll keep this one for myself, to look back at my ever first :)

Also made a new small cab, a variegated jasper, cute and small. Really neat colors in it, red with blue and some bits of silvery at the top. Wondering how I'm going to wrap this one...

First cab reworked and a new one, serpentine

2008-07-26T15:26:00.005+03:00

I reworked the first cab as there was a crack on it, so I had to grind away at the rock until the crack. Now it's a bit smaller and actually I like it better too.

Here is a second cab I made today. It's a brown serpentine from Cyprus, which is so abundantly found here on the island. It is quite a nice one, light brown with dark spots on it. Can't wait to wrap it and see the final result :)

My first cab

2008-07-25T23:09:00.004+03:00

Finally I got the Ameritool cabbing machine today, it was released from being hostage at the post office after I paid 80 Euros fees. Couldn't wait to come home from work and start playing with it. I've set it up, took a piece of morrisonite that Amy sent me a while ago in box with other rocks, and started grinding away at it.
First of all, I have to say that working on the machine is extremely relaxing, very quiet actually and really rewarding when you see the piece of rock starting to shape and smoothen up. So now the last doubt about buying the machine is gone as well, as I truly enjoyed polishing up this stone.
The result is not something spectacular, but it's special to me, as it's my first cab :)

Results of the second stage tumbling

2008-07-24T13:42:00.004+03:00

After over 2 months since I started tumbling rocks, they went through 6 weeks of stage 1 and 2-3 weeks of stage 2. Here are a few pictures. The rocks are not very clean, I'll clean them up well when I have enough for stage 3, the pre-polishing stage.

Some citrine, amethyst, red jasper, a few tiger eye,rose quartz and at the right top corner of the first pic there are some serpentine, with nice green and black dots on them. Cyprus apparently is relatively abundant in serpentine, and I had no troubles finding these pieces on the beaches here.

Reading a good thriller

2008-07-23T20:32:00.003+03:00

For me reading a good thriller, mystery is like immersing my soul into another dimension, losing myself and becoming totally captivated in another world.
This is what happened when I read No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay, a thriller which starts with...
You wake up, your house is empty, your family has disappeared...
And then the story builds up from this strong premise. The idea is pretty scary, if you think about it, and I thought about it quite a lot these days while I was reading the book. Couldn't wait to get home from work to get the book in my hands. The ending didn't disappoint, I even shed a single tear (call me sentimental). I don't want to give away the plot, so I'll only say that if you like thrillers by Nicci French, Harlan Coben and the like, I'm sure you will love this one as well.

Sunstone silver necklace

2008-07-13T12:31:00.006+03:00

Here is a new pendant I made during the week. The stone is a gorgeous sunstone. I didn't really know what that is, so I had to look it up. I knew of moonstone and goldstone, but sunstone? It seems it's a very nice stone favoured for jewelry making. When you hold it up against the light, it's really nice translucent and shiny. Really cool.
I have incorporated at least three different techniques: border wrapping for attaching the stone, basket weaving (used in rainbow wrapping), and wire sculpture (for the finishing effects).

A whole lot of 1mm and 0.4mm sterling silver went in the piece. The pendant measures at the widest points 6x3 cm.

It comes on a 45 cm silver chain, and as usual, free shipping for this piece, and included there is a piece of silver polish cloth for maintaining your jewelry at top shine.

So about buying rocks for tumbling online

2008-07-04T12:29:00.000+03:00

I got a paper yesterday from the post office that a box arrived, and I knew it's some rocks for tumbling from an Ebay seller. Based on the value given, I knew I should be paying taxes on it

So hubby goes today to the PO to pick up my parcel and then he calls me. I ask how much did he pay, and he said 'nothing'. I ask 'how come'. Well, he says, when they asked what's in the box, he said it's rocks. They like 'what?? '. To cut a long story short, they were going back and forth with hubby as they didn't believe him, as in 'say again, what's in the box'?? Then they said they will open the box to check, so hubby said to 'go ahead'. When they opened the box and saw that there WERE rocks in it (and some grit, ok), they were on the floor laughing. Hubby tried to maintain what dignity he could, and he left from there graciously after they told him he doesn't need to pay for the package...

Blog Award Received

2008-06-29T18:39:00.004+03:00

Thank you Glitter Glow Beading for the Arte y Pico (Peak of the art) award received today! What is this award, you ask? The first rule below will tell you :D

The rules for passing the award on are (you can copy&paste):

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winning has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the ward itself.

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico"blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Show these rules.

So I've decided to pass this award onto these following 5 blogs:

The Lone Beader
Mei at Wirebliss
Sculpted Windows Jewelry
Helmetti
Delia Stone's Studio

About cutting rocks

2008-06-28T14:48:00.003+03:00

So a few days ago I bought a new tile cutter to cut smaller rocks with it, for tumbling and for - later on - cabbing.
Yesterday hubby bought me a sort of drawer to put on the back balcony, to put rocks inside, and my machines on top, so I don't have to cut in the house.
Today I've plugged it in and as I had a quartz rock that wouldn't tumble nice as it's too big and it has too many small crevices which the tumbler will never smoothen out, I took that piece to cut it in two. Put on my apron, and my ear muffs and got working in the balcony. It only took a couple of minutes, and although I was a bit worried about neighbours, soon I got so into it, that I forgot pretty much about everything else but fixing up that rock. It's amazing how alive I feel when I'm working with this machine. I truly enjoy it. I cut the rock in two pieces, and then polished up a bit both sides to smoothen them. Next time I'll open my Chicago tumbler, I'll pop both pieces in. I bet they'll tumble nicely this time.

In the meantime I've also ordered the Ameritool cabbing machine from John at Johns Gems, and as I am on the rock tumbling forum as well, he gave me a tiny bit of discount as well. Even so with shipping included and the 17% taxes I'll have to pay when the machine arrives here (hopefully in a couple of weeks), it will have cost me around $700. Ouch...I'll eat bread and butter for the next few months, and no chocolate icecream for me anymore :(
But still, I can't wait for the cabbing machine to arrive! I've ordered the 8" once, plus two sticks of dop wax, so I can have everything I need to get started with cabbing. If I'll enjoy it as much as I enjoy cutting rocks, I see myself with a new great hobby in the future :D

Yellow drop agate freeform pendant

2008-06-28T12:34:00.008+03:00

I made this piece today for a pendant swap in a jewelry forum. I'm not saying who it is for, in case the person checks out my blog :p

Yellow drop agate with sterling silver basket wave freeform.
If interested in a similar piece, leave me a comment so I can contact you.

Amethyst earrings - simple and fun

2008-06-24T21:46:00.012+03:00

I felt like making something light and fun for summer, so I came up with this pair of amethyst earrings, wrapped in sterling silver.
Each amethyst bead is 1cm. The whole length, including the silver earwires ist ~4.5 cm.
I haven't done something easy in eons and I really had fun working on this pair. I'm working lately on more complex pieces which take a lot of time and material, and I simply forgot how fun I used to have creating light and cute pieces like this one.

Cutting rocks with a tile saw

2008-06-23T21:29:00.004+03:00

Ok so I finally tried out this too: cutting rocks with a tile saw. And it was fun. But boy so loud, I'm pretty sure the neighbours here (I'm living in a flat) were not amused.
I went today to the local Super Home Center (the local equivalent of the Home Depot for the Americans), and bought a wet tile saw, which is good for cutting rock into slabs (or smaller pieces from slabs). I set it up, filled up the tray with water and off I went. At first it took me 10 minutes to go just through 1 cm of petwood (of course afterwards I've read that petwood is a difficult one to cut anyway) after which I almost gave up. I posted a question at the EIS forum and somebody in the UK who has the same piece told me not to despair, the diamond saw needs to settle. Just to take a cheapo hard rock and try again. Also got a few pointers on how to press the rock against the blade and not downwards. And all this helped, because just in a few minutes, I managed to cut my first rock, 4cm in length and 2.5 in height. Cheapo rock it is, hard it is, and two pieces of it I have :D

I had really fun in the process, even though the machine with this water spitting like a llama, and with the loud noise put me off and scared me a bit at first.
Of course hubby is not yet at home so he is yet to hear the noise. He'll freak out, lol.
And of course, if my dad saw my newest machine, he'd be mighty proud of me, daughter just like the father :P I honestly have more tools and machinery at home than most of the male homeowners around, except those who are handworking by trade (and except my dad).
And I haven't even started cabbing yet. Wait till I buy the Hi-Tech Diamond All-U-Need and start making cabs out of the cut rock slabs...

Sailor's wheel

2008-06-22T11:02:00.010+03:00

I went through some older bought tutorials, and as I had this donut lying around, I decided to use Eni's donut wrap tutorial on it. I like the result, it has some nice possibilities and the stone shows quite nicely.
Wrapped in sterling silver, the stone is a beautiful rhodonite donut, 3cm in diameter.
It reminds me strongly of a ship's wheel, so it Sailor's Wheel it is :)
As usual, like with all my jewelry, the pendant comes with a 45 cm silver chain, wrapped in a nice giftbox. Additionally I have free shipping all over the world. So international purchases always welcome :)

To see all my jewelry for sale on one page, click here. Each item can be purchased immediately through Paypal. Following payment, shipping is within the next 24 hours, unless it is weekend or a public holiday, in which case I ship the next business day.