Featured Craft artist of the Week: Tamara-Cyprus

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TamaraCyprus

This week I would like you to welcome Tamara-Cyprus from Tamara-Cyprus Shop. She loves making jewelry, and with every piece, she intends to create a personal exchange between the object and its wearer

1. What do you like us to know about you?
Thank you so much for choosing me to be on this blog. I am happy and grateful being given this chance and this platform to present my work and myself.
Let me introduce myself:
I am a self-taught jewelry maker. Several decades ago, as a student of Archaeology and Ancient History in Jerusalem, I financed my studies and my daily life partly with jewelry making which I used to sell on the campus. I continued ma studies in Anthropology and Folklore in Germany, got my PhD in 1980 and worked for many years with my cinematographer husband producing and writing dozens of high quality documentary films.
After retiring we moved to Cyprus (Eastern Med) and I restarted my jewelry making, adding new techniques, new materials and new ideas.

2. When did you discover Etsy?
I discovered Etsy accidentally in 2010 while I was looking for some handmade gifts for my friends and my family.

3. What prompted you to open an Etsy Shop?
About 2-3 years ago I started to participate in Cyprus in single and group exhibitions as well as in Craft Fairs. Coming to Etsy and to establish a shop there turned to be an additional and a logical step to me. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TamaraCyprus 

4. What do you sell?
I am selling my own handmade jewelry: necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. By combining stainless steel and brass nuts and washers with beads of ceramics, metal ornaments, glass, resin and semiprecious stones, I create an enticing collection of jewelry. By using the different materials I give the jewelry a modern look of both freshness and simplicity.
In the recent last months I created two main designer lines, namely “ICE and FIRE” and “DARE to WEAR”.
“ICE A and FIRE” refers to the jewelry combined of the cool “ICE” of stainless steel with the hot sparkling “FIRE” of Swarovski crystals.
The idea of “DARE to WEAR“ is that you have to look carefully and at least twice at the jewelry in order to discover the unusual elements which usually are not used in jewelry. And when you discovered them, just “DARE to WEAR!”

5. How did you come up with your shop name?
My real Name is Tamar, but people call me Tamara. My homepage is www.tamaras-jewelry.com and my Facebook Fan Page is named “Tamaras Jewelry Design”. So it came naturally to name my Etsy Shop Tamara too. I just added Cyprus to the name because I live now in Cyprus. And voilá, here is the Etsy Shop name “Tamara-Cyprus”.

6. How would you describe your shop?
Hand-made jewelry is one of the most enjoyable things a person can wear. Each piece of the hand-made jewelry is an expression of the taste and the personality of the person wearing it.
Each single piece of the jewelry designed by me is unique, is an original creation and in non mass-produced. The pieces are all one-of-a-kind and individual. The design of each piece is a contemplative creation. Each of them – their color, the arrangement of the single parts and their position in the complete design is inspired by my personal taste and artistry as well as the result of patient handiwork. 

7. What inspires / motivates you?
Having studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Folklore and having traveled in many countries in so called “Third-“ and “Fourth World” due to my job in documentary films, I have been inspired by many different cultures. But I love also the Scandinavian design with its straight and clear lines.
I like to put a small “industrial” accent in my jewelry by using parts that were originally made for construction. I really like this “moments of surprise”.
I am also inspired by nature, having a big garden, where I grow my own organic herbs, vegetables and fruits.

8. How has Etsy changed your life?
Etsy had changed a bit in my life. Although all my designs are original and not copied from anybody, it is important to me to see how people react and comment my jewelry. It is also important to see what other people create and what inspires them. I also enjoy seeing nice things – it is a special aesthetic pleasure I have.

9. Where else can we find you? (Do you have a website or blog outside of Etsy?)
You can find me at:
www.tamaras-jewelry.com
www.facebook.com/tamarasjewelrydesign

10. Is there anything else you would like us to share?
I enjoy doing what I do and I am grateful that I am able to do so. I like to see amazed and satisfied faces when people discover my designer ideas.
I am thankful for the chance I am getting here to express myself.

11. When you get a new idea, how long does it take to you to execute and list it?
Developing an idea is a rather short process as it is like a puzzle game for me. I see the different pieces and parts and I combine them quickly in my head to a single piece, a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings or a ring. It takes me then 1-2 hours to put all parts together in a technically perfect manner (either metal gluing or working with stringing or rings connecting materials).

What really takes time is the listing at Etsy, as English is not my mother tongue and there is always a struggle to find the correct expression and the correct syntax.

12. How much time do you spend on your shop take each week?
I spend about 2-3 hours daily on my shop. It is not only the listing at Etsy, it is also bookkeeping and keeping my website updated.

13. How do you promote your shop?
I promote my shop through my own Facebook Fan Page and by listing each item that has been listed at Etsy on some other Facebook pages. I refer there to my Etsy shop with a link, so people can easily find the item in my Etsy shop.
I also have my own leaflet and business card where these details are printed too.
I created a large number of circles at Etsy and I also communicate with some fascinating people in many countries.

14. How important is social media for your shop?
The world of Facebook is after 1 year still full with question marks for me. I use it for my jewelry but I am not a person to expose my private life in public. This attitude might be a matter of life experience and of age…