What is cooking in the studio..

It started with that beautiful vintage lace fabric, I have a vision 

but usually things end up a lot different than I imagined first, 

so let's see what's gonna come out of it!

What is cooking in the studio..

Fluttery Breath of Life

My new butterfly necklace I recently finished, it will go to a photo shoot for a magazine very soon but I couldn't resist doing a photo shoot myself before I send it over! I'm so much in love with it, the photos were not enough so I did a tiny video too where you can see how butterflies are becoming alive with the soft breath of the wind

-click here to check it out-

Fluttery Breath of Life

I'm working in Frida's presence

 Diane -  Mexisoul.Etsy.com

   Yesterday I stopped by at Cantera in Santa Ana, the store my friend Diane has her art works besides little things she loves and hand selects for re-sale. Luckily she was there herself!! Diane is one of the biggest fans of Frida Kahlo (can you tell?) I love her style, but I love her soul more than anything about her.We like having long deep conversations about life and relationships, though we also crack up by our silly jokes a lot (ok 'my' silly jokes mostly). She calls me 'my gem friend Derya' I really like that, because she says it so genuinely from the heart. 

This small print of Frida Kahlo caught my eye on Diane's display and I couldn't resist . I didn't hang it on my studio wall yet, so for now she is leaning towards my little blue sewing machine and watching me create, also inspiring me.

Frida also watched me making these new cuffs last night..

Is this just gorgeous or not? Purple enamel large flower is re-purposed from a vintage brooch,

I've added the rhinestones around the pearl at the center of the flower. The bigger rhinestone chain is going to drape towards the hand when worn on the wrist. This bracelet is not finished yet though, I will add leather inside of the leaf cuff part.

     This cuff has a different base than the other ones I've designed.This time I curved a large intricately cut brass dragonfly wing, and did a white faux enamel on it. There is beige color recycled leather piece inside, so the cuff is also gentle on the skin. The large butterfly brooch is another vintage find, I've changed the rhinestones and added freshwater pearls on it. This cuff bracelet is almost finished, I will only add chain and clasp to the back side.I'm excited for both of these new cuffs! 

¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨

My friend Diane has a fresh new Etsy shop Mexisoul 

She just started adding some of her jewelry designs, and some vintage finds, I'm hoping she adds some of her amazing embroidered wall art works too, so you can see those as well. Go and take a look at her shop, heart her, add her items in your favorites etc. I'm sure she will enjoy all your interest!!

love,

Derya

I'm working in Frida's presence

what's cooking in the studio? I won't tell you but here are some clues..

I'm in a little secrety mood today. :)

-Very much connected to this photo
-nothing like I've created before
-each of them has different ingredients
-contain some architectural details
-mouth watering qualities
-they are wearable (duh!)

OK I can't say no more but I'm just having a lot fun creating them. The secret will be revealed here in this blog very soon! Any guesses??


Oh by the way, here are my latest designs listed in my shop ( click on the photos to go to the listings)

 

what's cooking in the studio? I won't tell you but here are some clues..

Mystery mail from a stranger..

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. 

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” 

Kahlil Gibran  

What is so good about 'sharing' anyway?  First of all; it makes you feel good, right? Then it is free, yet you always get a good return for it (aka karma). The power of sharing just overwhelms me when
I think about it because most importantly 'sharing' gets bigger as you keep doing it.

I feel like there are a lot of sharing going on in my life nowadays. The one that made me extremely happy is the surprise gift of 2 books (of a Turkish Writer) mailed to me the other day (signed by the author and with a sweet note from the sender). All the way from my home city Istanbul/Turkey from someone who I never met before in person, but became friends through the internet. When I learned about what she does, it didn't surprise me why she likes my nature inspired jewelry that much,because she is a nature watcher! 

               My 'stranger' & 'Nature Watcher' friend...

She purchased three of my designs from my shop and I sent those to her with the addition of a pair of butterfly earrings as a gift thinking she'd love them as well. Right after she received them letting me know how much she is enjoying wearing them all (though she had to gift one of the earrings to her friend) and bragging about her goodies at every chance, I received the books! Whenever I see this kind of 'random act of kindness' from people, I feel like my heart is full of hope and that it is refreshed (as in Gibran quote). That is what keeps me going in this life like a refuel to my soul, motivates me to keep doing what I do, and also do the same to others what that has done for me. Because I know how it feels, how GOOD it feels.. 

Never be afraid of sharing!

Speaking of sharing I also like to send my thanks to 2 wonderful bloggers who has featured my designs in their lovely blogs Letha from Pursuit of Happiness (check out her amazing art here) and Magalie from Weddings & Pretty Things.

Belated 'thank you' to unofficial etsy featured sellers for doing a great inteview with me! I really enjoyed it! 


Last but not least many thanks to Sweet Jenn (my new etsy friend) for meeting me last week, I'm looking forward to hanging out with her more! Jenn's husband James also has a shop on Etsy and was recently featured in Etsy Storque article!

♥

Derya

Mystery mail from a stranger..

Trip to the Golden Hills

Out little getaway this weekend was so beautiful and refreshing!  I've been wanting to see California poppy fields for a long time! Antelope Valley is about 2 hours away from where we live, even though it wasn't going to be a long trip we decided to leave on Friday, spend the night at a hotel on our way to the fields and start our fun Saturday all fresh and as early as possible!

Although extremely noisy elevator right next to our hotel room didn't let me sleep all night, I was too excited about the next day at the poppy fields, so I didn't let that ruin my day! It was all worth it for the poppies at the end of the day, seeing the hills covered with orange poppies as far as my eyes can see; took my soul to a place where I felt all worry free and calm.

I was a little stressed out about the warning we got when we were first entering to the fields 'Watch for the rattle snakes!', so whenever I'd see a whole on the ground while walking through the fields, I'd walk faster and try to keep in mind that snakes would be more scared from us humans then we are from them for sure. So they won't jump on me for no reason. ;) 

The poppies in my country (Turkey) are very different than California poppies. Then ones grow in Turkey are red and have black seeds at the center like these click here, I personally like those more than the golden ones.:) The word for poppy flower in Turkish is 'gelincik', the word is coming from 'bride' in Turkish.

Now my next dream to hopefully come true soon is to have a trip to cotton fields! As someone who dedicated a collection of jewelry designs to cotton plants, I think I deserve that don't you think?

♥

Derya

Trip to the Golden Hills

from past, from nature, from my culture...

I'm super excited for the new additions to my all 3 collections!
This one you see above is a single earring I shared the process photos with you here previously..It is a statement piece! Can you see the flying birds on the butterfly, and trees and the blue sky on the lower background? I've created those on photoshop, transferred onto organza fabric and combined with brass components. I think it turned out dreamy!
Very soon to be listed in my store.

Another single earring, and statement piece.
This one is going to be latest addition to my cotton plants collection. I love the color tones, the feel and the texture! Hand died to golden color sari silk ribbon is braided, at the center I've placed an antique brass branch with leaves and cotton boll dangle.

Two of these gorgeous reconstructed vintage
cuff bracelets are listed in my shop already and the other one is coming soon!

Last but not least Take me to Istanbul Earrings are now in silver tone & oval shape available in the shop! You can still find the original round &antique brass version here..


Love,
Derya

from past, from nature, from my culture...

Fluttery Breath of Life this is!

As I work more on my organza butterflies/wings collection, even more unique designs are coming up right after another. I fall in love with each one of them.

Especially this new amazing necklace makes me wanna get married again and wear it with a simple off white gown at a spring wedding in a whimsical theme. *sigh*

For the long single earrings I have used more insect wings this time, as I'm always fascinated with the amazing beauty on the details of those wings. Each earring features wings from 7-8 different insects from the mother earth...

Click here to see the rest of my butterflies/wings collection.


love,
Derya

Fluttery Breath of Life this is!

She said YES wearing my wallpaper necklace!

It was August 2008, a sale from my etsy shop seemed pretty random to find out later that it was going to be one of my best stories to brag on my jewelry designing. Having etsy convos with the buyer lady I found out she was buying the necklace to wear at her wedding. I was thrilled of course, not just because one of my designs was going to be a part of someones very special day,but also the fact that the necklace was made out of re-cycled wallpaper! The wallpaper came from an old wallpaper samples catalog that was about to trashed by the interior design department of a college.

Since then I have been telling this nice little story to everyone with an excitement and proud, and yes bragging too! Then a few days ago (after about 1.5 years) I got a message from the very bride asking me if I was interested in seeing the wedding photos and her wearing the necklace with her gown! What can I say? I had to say 'of course!' (meaning 'hell YEAH!! and you are asking?) :P

Today, she sent me the photos and I almost fell out of my chair! After getting the permission from her, I couldn't wait to share the photos and the story here!



THANK YOU Stacey, this was one of the best gifts I've ever received! I wish you all the beautiful things from life..

Love,
Derya

She said YES wearing my wallpaper necklace!

I need your Votes!!

Here is lovely reason to break the ice and update my neglected blog! ;)

My beautiful and unique 'Wings of Iris' necklace is chosen to compete at Handmade Olympics, out of hundreds of items submitted!! Who is going to decide which lovely item wins? YOU! So, please check out this page and vote for my necklace if you believe that 'Wings of Iris' should be the winner!

It is at the second place now, will you take it to the first place?

Love,
Derya

I need your Votes!!

Jewelera is OPEN now!!

Yep, I'm listing my newest creations one by one, so keep checking out my store to see many many gorgeous designs! :)

By the way, did I tell you I have a Facebookpage for my jewelry biz? YEP! Go ahead and join, so you can watch closely what I'm up to, the news with my business and all!

It is at; Derya Aksoy Jewelry

P.S. That's my new banner with my photography!


Love,
Derya

Jewelera is OPEN now!!

pssst! Coming soon at Jewelera!!

An amazing one of a kind piece, newly created, fresh out of the oven!! mmmmm delish!! I will list it in my online shop very soon.. :)

Name: Time Flies By..

Materials: Wallpaper, fake leather, hand sketching and embossed painting, vintage watch face finding, vintage button, and copper chain.


love,
Derya

pssst! Coming soon at Jewelera!!

HELLOOOo..oooo.. ooo..oo.o............

I can almost hear my voice echoing in my poor little corner of abandoned cyberspace! Can't believe how long I've been absent, but hey I'm human and believe me "not a perfect one" for sure! Long story short, I traveled and traveled (has been in Istanbul/ Turkey-my country- for 2 months!), needed some time off from everything (including my Etsy shop), had some up and down times, did a lot of thinking and a lot of more thinking, a little couch time with a sleepy face, some arguing with myself and then kissing-making up with myself again etc. Yep! Alll regular human stuff.. lol

Meanwhile I've been visiting my blog, thinking about what I should post about, realizing there are TONS so get overwhelmed and click back to another webpage. Well, now it is not one of those days so I clicked to the 'new post', yayy! I already feel like accomplish something.. ;)

OK enough of explaining myself I think.. :P I had a fabulous time in Turkey! My brother got married, so there was his wonderful lovely wedding. Although my hair looked pretty bad (whatever the hell they sprayed on it, it looked so unnatural rock like thing that I couldn't resist keep touching to surprise myself with the weird foreign feeling everytime!) my dress was pretty and I had a lot of fun. Annnnnd after the wedding, I and my mom with a group of lady friends of her, we went to Cyprus for a week long vacation, wohooo! That was relaxing, fun and the sea was beautiful.. Overall a very therapatic time we had there. When I got back to Istanbul, I was out everyday EVERYDAY either with my friends, family or relatives, I don't remember being that social for years! I even met with a group of my elemantary school friends which I haven't seen for almost 20 years! Also highschool friends as well.. I was so social I even lost weight! (that was one of the best parts)

There are ton of photographs from my travelings, I don't even know which ones to put here *sigh* it'll be hard! Ohhh before I forget, when I got back to U.S. I and my husband also had a trip to Seattle for 5 days. That was also sooooooo awesome, I always knew I'd love it there and I was right! I have tons of cool photos from there also!

Hmmmmm... Am I missing anything else?? YEP! I'll have a show next week, yupppiiii! It'll be in downtown Orange, International Festival one! There is gonna be food, artists, music too (I think) etc. Friday- Saturday- Sunday event! (kinda scary yes!) I found some really cool display items from my last salvation army trip, I have to take photos soon to show you.

What else, what else?... Well.. My etsy shop is looking pretty empty now, I haven't updated it for a while as you can imagine. :/ The floors need a good sweep, and I need to get rid of the spider webs too.. Once this show is over, I'll do a nice come-back I promise! I'm already making so many new and exciting pieces, so I'm planing to put them in my shop right after the show!

If you are close by, pleasestop by to see me there! I'll be sharing a booth with other 2 jewelry designers from Etsy! Elsiee and melissaloschy

Muah muah for now lovelies.. :) I'll be back soon..

Derya

1. P.S. The photos are from my Istanbul trip.

2. P.S. I decided to eat healthier, and especially after reading that book called 'Skinny Bitch'
I decided to challenge myself to be vegetarian for 30 days as trial period.. It's been going very well, and I'm not having a hard time so far.. I'll update you about that also in my upcoming posts.

HELLOOOo..oooo.. ooo..oo.o............

My lovely customer from Australia..

She is one gorgeous young lady who knows how to work her style and write about it in her blog http://frocksandfroufrou.blogspot.com/ . I was so happy and honored when I found out she had a review in her blog about my poppy earrings she has purchased from my Etsy shop short while ago! She is wearing them in the photo above, and looking all cute and sexy! ;)

I feel lucky to find out about her blog this way, because I always go back and enjoy reading about her shopping experiences and always wonder what kind of a new look she will create next!

You can read the whole post here in her blog!


Love,
Derya

My lovely customer from Australia..

Work in progress..

The last show I did was pretty great! I had so many great responses from people about my jewelry. Especially my wallpaper necklaces got the most attention, everyone wanted to touch them to see what they were made of, then when I popped the news 'I made them with wallpaper!', they seemed pretty amazed! :)

One of the ladies who purchased one those necklaces didn't let me package it because she wanted to wear it right away. She came back 20 minutes later and told me that she already got so many compliments and wanted to share that with me! I was proud of course!

So having said that, I was inspired to make another piece, so I'm working on it right now. You can see the pieces together above in the photos, I'm liking the combo very much! I'll post the finished photos here soon..

love,
Derya

Work in progress..

Hello?

I feel like my 'hello' is echoing because I've been away from my little corner here for -let's see- about 3 weeks? Oh my this sounds worse than it feels like.. ;)

There is no particular reason for my absence , maybe a little mix of many things..Lately because of all the economic issues, politics, people wondering/worrying , and all the negativity might have led me to feel less inspired..?

I've still been working on many new exciting designs to list in my shop and I actually will have a show this weekend at Villa Park High School Craft Fair & Boutique. I'll attach the detailed info below at the end of this post. It'll be my first show that I actually set up a table. I had one before, but the host was a gallery and they did all the catering, advertising, set up etc. and it was really awesome! I felt like a very special artist! :)

Since then I never contributed to local shows, but finally I felt like I should be more out there and show what I do to more people! I honestly don't enjoy the whole preparing, getting every tiny little things you don't usually use for anything else etc, also the fact that you may end up selling nothing (I hope it won't happen) ..BUT, I enjoy very much of the opportunity to be face to face with people, and present my designs in person. It is the most fun pat of this whole thing for me! I really think it makes a big difference for people to get to know the artist in person and the fact they can touch and try my creations in non-cyber atmosphere! Anyway, I think it'll be refreshing for me to do that after a looong time of selling from behind the computer screen.. ;)

Meanwhile, I've also been going to my metalsmithing class on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm, 6 hours of hard work, a lot of learning and nice calming 'only me in therapy' time..Believe me, I'm not a morning person at all, so if something is making me wake up that early on a Saturday, it means I love it! I'm so happy with the class so far, and Jennifer our instructor is fabulous and funny -in a good way, making us giggle and laugh by her special way of teaching and demonstrating- especially her horror stories to warn us about safety stuff in the studio is cracking me up! ;)

Ahh, this must me one of my most lengthy posts in the text wise, but I think it is normal after a long absence. So bear with me! ;) I'm attaching some of my design photos that are new in the shop, if you click on them they'll take you to my shop, so you can read the details and see more photos and other new items.

If you happen to be in CA and want to come and see me and other artists/crafters at the show, please do so! If you mention my blog, I will be happy to give you a special discount. ;)

Villa Park High School Vocal Music

Craft Fair & Boutique

Saturday, October 18, 9 AM – 2 PM

18042 Taft Ave., Villa Park 92861

Proceeds of the boutique will benefit the Villa Park High School and Cerro Villa Middle School Vocal Music Programs. VPHS/ CVMS Vocal Music is an award-winning program that teaches lifelong skills in music and the pursuit of excellence.

Hello?

Inspiration- Orange County -Citrus Tree Necklace

One of my newest necklaces named 'Citrus Tree', inspired by my new location for the last 5 months, Orange County/CA. The funny thing is; I realized that I was inspired by that after I actually made the necklace! I surprised myself, I hope my creations surprises you too, in a good way of course! :)

You can check out the details about this beautiful piece at my shop here!


Derya

Inspiration- Orange County -Citrus Tree Necklace

News and news...

Me keeps creating, and making absurd stuff with some absurd materials! :P

First of all I like to give you some good news (for me), I'm starting to metal smithing jewelry classes! Yayyy, I'm psyched! After 4 years of designing beaded jewelry, it is finally my time to take it to the next level! You know how much I love experimenting with different materials with my endless search and curiosity, so I think this will open a whole new window to fun& new adventures.. I will be updating the things I made at the class every week here in my blog!

OK, I've been working on some necklaces with a new material for the last week; wallpaper! I had some really cool catalogs of wallpaper samples from my interior design school period, and have been thinking about what to do with them! Finally it came to me, and I decided to incorporate them into my jewelry.

First one I did was with cream color vinyl embossed wallpaper. Everyone seemed to love it on Etsy, and it was finally sold on last Thursday to a very nice lady who is thinking about wearing it on her wedding! :)

The other ones are with different illustrations like a bird, goat, and a laundry washing mom with her 2 kids in a boat, all cut out from wallpaper pages in the catalog, backed with felt for stability, and coated for protection. I loved them all, I think they are very different from what you see around in the market everyday, unique and all one of a kind!

If you click on the photos above, they'll take you to their listings in my shop, so you can read the descriptions and see more detailed photos..

News and news...