I've been having fun with these..

I've been enjoying Photoshop Elements while practicing and discovering it's possibilities. If you are a hobbiest of photography like me, I really recommend that you try that program. I preferred elements because I didn't have any experience with photoshop before, and the price was a lot more affordable for me to just to test the waters first, instead of moving directly to the big thing!

I have a sony cyber shot camera that is fairly small and very light, which I always carry with me when I'm out.. That way, when I see something interests me, I just take advantage of it, and use them later to practice the program..

The photos above are all created that way! The first one is the gorgeous pink tree I ran into on my way to the studio. The watermelon girl is a shot I was lucky to catch in my trip to Seattle, and the last one is from Gypsy Den Cafe where I always go to get coffee while working in my studio at artist village. I'm just loving the results so far, and I ordered some prints of them from an online company, I can't wait them to arrive!!

I will update you on those later! ;)

love,
Derya

I've been having fun with these..

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!!

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

Man, life is good!

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 !

Sometimes you do something without realizing...

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!!

I'll be at the Orange Street Fair this weekend!

So I've been getting ready for the show, creating new babies.. I just wanted to do a quick post with a little sneak peek to my newly pretties! These will be in my online shop very soon!

If you are close by, and can't wait for me to list those to my shop; please come and visit me this weekend in Downtown Orange at the Street Fair!

I will be there from 5pm to 10pm on Friday, 10am to 10pm on Saturday, and same on Sunday!
I don't know where my booth is gonna be, but look for 3 fabulous jewelry designers under 1 tent, OK? ;) I guarantee you it'll be worth it!

Muah,
Derya

I'll be at the Orange Street Fair this weekend!

My friend's puppetry!

The street Fair in Orange is getting closer (this weekend!) and as always I'm not feeling ready at all.. My creative spark has been with me a lot lately and there are a lot of things in my mind but I'm having labor pains to push them out! I delivered some pretty cool things but I feel like I still have many babies inside of me struggling to come out to life! (OK, why am I comparing having babies with my creating process? am I evaluating or something?)

Anyhow.. Today I want to tell you about a very dear friend of mine, from my college in back home Turkey. Her name is Asuman Subay, and she is one of the most successful people graduated from our department of Set and costume Designs (also with the best hair). She opened a studio in one of the coolest places in Istanbul (Beyoglu/Taksim) where she creates her fab puppets of different kinds, and give drawing courses to the students who wants to pursue fine arts. She also excepts custom orders to make a very own puppet version of yourself! Isn't that cool?



In my recent trip to Istanbul, I stopped by her studio, intrupting her working for an upcoming exhibition (how rude ehh?). She was so happy to see me (duh!) , and even made me my latest favorite thing in the world: Mastic flavered Turkish coffee (yumm).


We talked about the economical and pilitical issues going on in the world, and what can we do about it. *snort* Not really.. We mostly had fun doing a photo shoot with her puppets and gossiping about out past classmates and what everyone is up to. It was one of those days that I know I will remember when I go back to U.S. and have a broken smile on my face, saying;
'I wish America was as close as Europe to Turkey, so I'd go to Istanbul at least once in a couple months!' for the 1000th time in my life.


Following week I was at her exhibition!


Here is her website; click here

She also has a facebook group 'Su Sanat Kukla Atolyesi' with more than 400 members, join in if you like to see more of her work and hear about the updates!


Love,
Derya

My friend's puppetry!