15% Sale Discount On Selected Jewelry In My Shop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.