Showing posts with label jewelry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jewelry. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Please join the poll and help me out!!

OK, this is a question I've been wondering about for a while, so I wanted to create a poll to hopefully see what most of you think!

As some of you know my butterfly earrings are listed in my etsy shop in a way that you can choose the color scheme, ear wire styles, butterflies etc. to create your own unique pair. Here is the listing if you like to take a peak; click click I'm aware this may not be the most convenient way for some of my customers as some people prefer to just click and buy without the hassle of thinking about which ones to choose, what colors etc.

So my questions is; what do you prefer? Take the time and create your own pair, or choose from the ready made ones listed as all you need to do is click to buy the one pictured and you are good to go! ?

I really appreciate everyone for participating, as I'm willing to do some changes in my shop depending on how this poll will end! :)


Love,
Derya


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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Great Reason to upgrade Your Flickr Account to PRO!


I LOVE Flickr and I've been using it for free until a few days ago I upgraded my account to Pro. The reasons I decided to pay an extra $20 something (the price is for 1 whole year) while I could keep using it for free are most importantly; the ability to submit each of my photos to as many as group pools I want, and also to be able to have a 'stats' page where I can track where my views are coming from, which photos are more popular, etc. Last but not least; limitless photo upload!

I know we all love FREE but sometimes even a tiny investment can bring you a lot more benefit that you'd think! Here is why; today I realized a sudden increase on the views to my photostream, favorited photos, all followed with many -super nice- comments. I was wondering where all those were coming from then I remembered to check my stats page and voila! My Fluttery Breath of Life necklace which I've added to the CRAFT group pool, was featured on Craftzine blog! (yayy) That feature also brought a lot of views to my Etsy shop, blog, as well as new members to my Facebook page. I don't know how else I could find out about it if I didn't have the stats page when I was using flickr for free.

I'm aware this post written promotion all over, but I don't really care because it is my own experience and I wanted to share this with you because; especially people like you and me who has a creative business loves a genuine input from an insider. I'm not saying you go and upgrade your flickr to Pro and all the happy pink clouds will come to your way, we never know that but they may and  I hope they do! ;)


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Please leave a comment if you have any questions about Flickr, how to upgrade to Pro etc., also if you have your own experience or input about this!



love,
Derya

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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


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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Moth to Jewels!

 
      Lately I've been seeing butterflies everywhere even
when I close my eyes! Though that is a little overwhelming from time
to time, I'm extremely happy and excited my butterfly designs are
receiving such wonderful interest & feedback from all over! 

  One of the best parts is that I've been getting a lot of bridal
orders lately on the bfly designs, especially the large bold single
earrings which  excites me even more because as I see there are a lot of
cool ladies who are willing to go bold and non-traditional
with their bridal accessories! Isn't that great? 

Kudos to all like minded ladies out there!!



I need to take more photos of this one, then it will be available in my shop! 


Update* I couldn't wait and listed it as it is to add more photos later! ;)
click here too see!

love,
Derya

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

How far are you willing to go?


I mean as far as the unusual-ness of the jewelry you wear? Would you wear this salt shaker ring?

I don't know about you but I just love creating this kind of unexpected jewelry pieces as well as wearing them. There are so much of the cookie cutter stuff in the market already, so why not go for something bold and surprising? ;)

Here are my latest designs, freshly added to my shop. I hope you enjoy what you see! Oh, there are also 2 new gorgeous cuffs I just finished (sneak peek on those are in my previous post) and I will share them with you here tomorrow, so come back to check them out, I know you won't regret! :) 

 Vintage sterling silver salt shaker ring- It is a keepsake piece which you can put a special note, or your favorite quote or whatever you want as long as it fits!

My newest addition to the cotton plants collection -double layered braided batik fabric with cotton boll charms and lucite flower on the side!


You may have seen these gorgeous earrings in one of the shots from my studio, well now they are available in my shop

love,
Derya


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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Marie Antoinette & my Messy Studio

Secret is revealed! (see my previous post) Marie Antoinette brooches.
They are nothing like I've done before, my creations never looked this delicious, 
more importantly I had a lot of fun making them! What do you think?? 
They fancy your sweet tooth?

 "LET THEM EAT CAKE!"
(I made the sliced cakes with felt and leather mix, and teeny beads on top. The doily pieces are hand crocheted delicate lace pieces, and vintage brass stampings)

...and my messy studio corner! That is how I usually work; just messy. You can see some ideas I'm working on currently and also new upcoming pieces *wink wink!*

Love those metal mesh fabrics!

Hair comb with organza butterflies

Peacock Earrings, transfer on organza

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

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

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

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

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Sneak Peek at the Studio



Wanted to share what's coming to shop soon. I'm seriously in love with these vintage
jeweled cuffs, I kinda have an evil desire to keep them
all to myself.. ;)

There is more cooking in the studio, two new necklaces with vintage jewels and
more additions to the Cotton Plants Collection,
cant wait to show you..soon..




love
Derya

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Friday, April 9, 2010

'Set' is done, it is your turn to tell the story


When I was studying Theater Set and Costume Design back in college; my favorite play or opera projects were the ones that are from the Ancient Greek mythology.. I was always amazed by the places, creatures, gods, goddesses and stories.. I think I loved the freedom of 'flying as much as I could' part as far as the design & creativity.. It was a lot more fun than working on a let's say Chekhov play where you have all the resource under your hands about the time period, opposite to the Greek Mythology which is only limited by your imagination..

This earring I've made last night, made me think of all the above which I see skies with stars, flying birds, turquoise waters, beautiful sand, climbing vines, and butterflies in it! Oh yeah, and the column of course, everything started with that piece at the first place. When I finished the piece it just looked like a little set design where you can play your own story in it, what to tell is up to you.

Lately I've been really into large statement single earrings, yes usually 2 is better than 1 they say, but sometimes not.. I enjoy creating pieces like that which can stand on their own as a focal accessory, and tells a lot already by itself, it feels like there is no need for another one..

I took a few photos during the process of creating, which you can see above.. They are not very good looking photos because it was night and the lighting wasn't good but anyway I hope you enjoy what you see!


Derya
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Only Limited by Your Imagination


Drooling over this amazingly creative display idea; bling bling on men shirts! It is prooved once again how sometimes extreme contrasts can result in a powerful eye-catching look!


Again.. Love this shot as well! (Well.. This is also here as more of an eye-candy for myself even though he is not the real Johnny! :P)

(Images taken from Vogue Gioiello)

Love,
Derya
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Thursday, February 11, 2010

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
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

My Cotton Plants are in Paper n Stitch!



Brittni is the sweetest, and I love her blog. This morning I woke up to her nice feature on my Cotton Plants Collection in her Paper n Stitch blog, and I was a HAPPY girl!


Love,
derya
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Designing with a special client at my studio!


C found me through Etsy, asking about my butterfly earrings. When we found out that we were almost neighbors (she lives in Long Beach, I'm in Orange), we set up a meeting at my studio. C is getting married next year, so she was looking for unique pieces to accessorize. We created a large size butterfly single earring for her, collaborating together. We both loved the results, and enjoyed the process. I'm so excited to design coordinating pieces for her wedding, like hair pieces and shoe clips in all butterfly theme. I can't wait!

Love,
Derya
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cotton Plants Collection is about to Launch


I'm very excited about this, can't wait to start listing the pieces to my online shop! They'll all be available soon!

If you are on Facebook, please join my jewelry page to be alerted with the newest items, news and special discounts only inclusive to the members of my group! Click here to go to my page (after signing into your account)


Love,
Derya
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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Kahlil Gibran Quote Collage Necklace


My friend introduced me to Gibran by birthday gifting me a book of his 'the prophet' , which she said she always keep it on her night stand. Now I do too.

This necklace I created is a special piece to me, which has a quote of his on it "Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Just listed in my shop, waiting for another fan, or a friend of a fan to be gifted. ;)


love,
Derya



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Friday, October 23, 2009

Lockets with Vintage Jewels, Who doesn't love that?


I do! Here are some pieces from my Lockets Collection, newly listed in my shop, all one of kinds, all looong necklaces, and more to come soon..

Love,
Derya
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

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
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Man, life is good!

From the Naturelle Collection

First of all; do I need to say it again? Yep, you got it! I'm the the worst blogger, I don't update my blog enough, blah blah blah.. This is done, let's talk about something else..

MAN! Am I happy? Oh YES! I don't know what happened, how my mood changed, what switch turned on (or off), but I became a fully motivated, excited, joyful, smiling (a lot) and looking better than ever person -again-. You know how you feel when you meet an oooold good friend you haven't seen for a long time, and when you run into her unexpectedly; you say 'wow, I've missed you!' realizing it just that exact moment? I feel like that for myself nowadays.. I had no idea real me was missing in my life for so long, and I'm so bubbly happy to meet myself again! As I said, I even look better from outside; because my positive energy is coming out with a big smile on my face, a spark in my eyes, I walk more straight, even my fashion sense got better, and my hair is nicer , and the list goes on.. To put the cherry on the top; since I've started feeling that way, I started making more friends, and really good ones too.

I don't wanna sound like I'm bragging about myself here, but I'm just trying to be open with how I feel, so somebody out there who is reading this can find a tiny little light or hope maybe, which can change their outlook in life into a more positive way. See, I was depressed for a while (a combination of reasons).. I think I've mentioned that before here in my blog. Anyway, I'll do it again, because I know there are so many people out there suffering. I had those days I didn't have the tiniest motivation or desire to leave home, or returning calls from my friends.. All I wanted to do was; just to go somewhere really far away that nobody knows me (even the existing family and friends), so I wouldn't have any responsibilities etc. Little things seemed so big, and I had a constant fight between how my soul feels and my logic.. One said 'hey you are better than this, get your butt up!', the other one said nothing but feeling sad for itself.. Sounds familiar? I hope not, because it really sucks big time. But even if it does, please know that it doesn't have to last forever.

Therapists, medications, talking with close friends or family members, etc. may help but none of them is the solution. It is you my friend. You need to make the decision to not to be 'not you' anymore, and get that oldy but goody yourself have the grand opening to the life again! Once you start implementing that into your life, I promise, everything will get better and the positive things will start happening right after another.

Everything is like a chain in this life, every move or step effects the next one. Once you feel better, you smile more, when you smile more people react to you the same, then you start communicating better, make more friends, be more outgoing, feel energetic, you wanna dress better too because you are out more now, so you get compliments, you feel better, you have more contacts now, so you may even find a better job, you feel better, you realize that life is actually worth living, you feel better...

I believe us humans are like mirrors, we do mirror each other in life really. Whatever the way you approach others is a similar one you will get in return. Also the way you see others is actually the way you see yourself. You know those people, who is cocky and sees everyone below than themselves, and belittle people around them? That actually means that person is seeing himself that way, he has confidence issues. Or, if someone is mad all the time and mean towards others, that means they are angry with themselves. I always try to keep this in mind, because I believe it gives me a good direction in life to be more understanding towards myself and others, as well as to have a more positive attitude. (The palm of my right hand is itching right now, and it is believed -in my culture- that I will earn money, yayy! lol)

Ahh I hope this post doesn't sound like a lecture, because I didn't mean it to be. One last thing I wanna say is about 'being a good friend' before I move on to some latest highlights about my little business. Trust is one of the most important things in a good relationship (I know you already know this!). If you realized we are becoming more and more reserved about our feelings by the time goes. This causes less sharing between people, while we are needing more of that actually nowadays, because the life is getting harder and more complicated with the 'modernizm' and its down sides it brings to our lives. As much as you need a person closer to you that you can fully trust, so do others. So please learn and practice, actually decide right now, to be good listener to others, and the best secret keeper on this earth! Nope, it is not OK to share even with your other best friend, or your mom or your husband/wife etc. This is done too, let's move on to the next section now;

What's up with my jewelry biz?

Well well.. Now you all know I'm back on track with my life, and that includes my jewelry business. I've been on a creative roll, making stuff day and night, sleeping very little (which is OK for me, but yeah unhealthy I know mom!). I've already done a few shows, one of them was very successful for me. I will have at least 2 -maybe 3- shows coming up for holiday season. One of them is Patchwork/ Santa Ana, which I've done once before and LOVED it! The other ones is Unique Los Angeles in the beginning of December (heard good things about it), I'm hoping to book more shows, I'll let you know. There is also the art walk nights in Artist Village/ Santa Ana first Saturday of every the month. As some of you know I have a studio in Santora Building there (2nd floor, suite B).. So please stop by if you happen to be there! Oh, I will post later about the dates and all the info about the shows by the way!

I have a lot of plans to improve my little business, a photo shoot is one of them.. I wanna do something very artistic, it'll be my first experience, fingers crossed! I'm flirting with the ideas these days..

OK, I can write more, because there is more to share, but it is already a long post so here I will end it and attach some photos of my new pieces.. If you made it this far, good for me! ;)

Love,
Derya




Frida Necklace is a part of a new upcoming collection..

Bracelets from my new Turkish Tiles Collection
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Sometimes you do something without realizing...

The ring

...that you are taking the first step of creating a memory for yourself, something you will always remember...

That Sunday morning of the street fair (which I was a vendor of), I did that by deciding to wear my ring I got from my recent Istanbul trip. That ring wasn't something expensive, but had an unusual design which grabbed my attention when I first saw it. Of course I didn't know then, the ring was going to be a conversation starter for me to find out; one of the people who stopped by at my booth was half Turkish. It is not very common to meet people from my country in the OC area, so I was pretty happy to meet that young lady which also happened to be an artist. Apparently her mom was from Istanbul, but the young lady herself did not know any Turkish. Though, her name was Yagmur (which is a Turkish name) meaning Rain in English. She told me that she was going to go to Istanbul in the near future for a few months, and she also had a lot of relatives there.. She was very nice and it was pretty cool to have such an unexpected connection with someone.. We exchanged our contact information to meet and talk more later as she was leaving my booth..

Later that evening, I found myself thinking; if she didn't see my ring and compliment on it, I would probably not tell her where I was from and we would not have that whole conversation. No wait (!) if I did not choose to wear that specific ring that day, the whole thing would not happen.. I can even forward time back more to the day I purchased the ring! It is like that movie 'The Butterfly Effect', whatever route you take in life will take you somewhere different that it would be if you've taken another route, no?

I'm not a strictly believer of destiny, as no matter what you do in life, something is written for you and that's what you will get at the end. I don't agree with that. I think we each have different destinies in our lives, and what we will get as a result of our actions depends on our decisions we take at the time. Like those questionnaires you see on the paper; every question has two options 'yes' and 'no' and your route will change depends on your answer, so you keep following the little arrows that will take you to the results.. Does it make sense?

Anyhow, the street fair was fun, I can't say it was a big success business-wise but hey I got to meet many cool people, actually became friends with them afterward, and had a great time with my booth buddies! And ohh, I and my buddies also managed to do some awesome trades, so I have 2 new amazingly beautiful necklaces that I adore!

By the way, I'm aware my Etsy shop looks pretty sad right now with only one item, but I have been on 'oh boy!' creative roller coaster ride, preparing some very intersting pieces with my new unique tecnique which I believe you will love too! I'll be photographing them these days, and list them in my shop, so get ready to be amazed and not being able to stop yourself but shop shop shop! OK, enough of the bragging.. Bye now! ;)

Hugs,
Derya

Sweet Melissa, I'm looking forward to do many more shows with her! Check out her unique jewelry designs click here !

My other gorgeous booth buddy Elsie is wearing my design that I traded for.. Check out her etsy shop click here !
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