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My love affair with jewelryHello, You might have been wondering who is the person behind Design-Unique-Handcrafted-Jewelry.com. Well, lets begin... I´ll try to make a long story short.
Being completely honest with you, I cannot say, like many others, that “I knew I would be a jeweler all my life”. Life, in its own funny and sometimes unexpected ways, has put jewelry along the way and as soon as it came into my path, something inside me instantly clicked and felt right. The touch of the metal, the mysterious ways it obeys heat and force. The miracle of fusing and soldering. The changes in color, texture and shine that I could accomplish at my will. Oh! It was, and still is, fascinating!
It made me remember my joy during childhood: me painting easter eggs, making cards on mothers and fathers days, painting rocks found at rivers and making all sorts of handcrafts. It was natural… I am my true self again. And I understood that there was no going back, my creative self had risen to the surface, once and for all. Reflecting about creativityObviously, it has also been a time of deep reflection about who I am and what I’m doing with my life and implies, not only a conscious career change, but also a responsibility with myself about making jewelry my professional endeavor.I feel indebted with my family who have given me nothing but encouragement, love and motivation, thank you! After some years working in international development, returning to the art field is like returning home. Jewelry crystallizes an eagerness to get away from my desk job and focus on developing my craft and myself. I am an Architect, so I’ve always walked through the path of art, it’s just that, life led me to work in the field of development, social change, community building, etc. I also pursued an MSc in Urban Planning, graduating with a distinction, and all that. My professional experience in international development, and the conscience it has brought me about the affairs of our world, has led me to research a bit about conflict-free diamonds and other issues about making our trade more socially aware and sustainable. I will share some of my thoughts about the subject in later posts. The only certain thing in life is change, definitelyJewelry arrived at my life thanks to two simultaneous but different events.First, I hit a critical moment in my international development career because of circumstances out of my control. Something was happening with public commissions and there was a chance that our contracts would not be extended. I had no savings at the time and was supposedly going to be job-less in a few days, what a grim future! Second, my mother surpisingly sent me by mail a huge box full of beads that we had bought since I was a little girl from all the beaches that we traveled to. I was searching for something new to do and that would give me a second and quick stream of income. Unfortunately, I had no savings and it was not easy to find another job, I was heading to the frugal life... (luckily, our contracts were finally extended and I got on with my job). I hurriedly started doing some necklaces using the box full of beads and selling them to my work-mates (which worked out very well!). And then I came across Mohs Jewelry School in Bogotá; it just appeared on my way home one desperate day... if I only had known that it was so close to home before! It was the perfect chance to build upon my beading and hit the metal!
Life gives you tough lessons, but never insurmountable challenges!
It has been an incredible experience to learn from such outstanding teachers and work with a great bunch of colleagues. In the photo you will see my two great teachers: William, the School Dean, who has 25 years of experience as a jeweler and Magda, who has been teaching at the school for 10 years now.
I love it! The possibilities are infinite and the resources out there are vast! Below you see me some time ago learning away in class, great times! In those days my office job was a true blessing because they gave me the freedom and time to pursue my jewelry classes, my boss and dear friend was (and is) my number 1 fan!
Much like you, I continually dig-up new ideas for my jewelry making and look everywhere for alluring design ideas that sell. I’ve researched in libraries, magazines, books, auctions, competitions and designer’s jewelry for months. Browsing on the net I stumbled upon Site Sell a serious and honest company offering a state-of-the-art platform for anyone wanting to develop a web-site and make it grow to an E-business (like this one!) I’ve found fantastic material but it’s been extremely time consuming and the amount of information is overwhelming. And not everything is good enough, mind you... I longed for a website that contained all the information that I wanted, all in one place. But there was nothing to be found, so I decided to create that dream website myself... and ... This is it! And I am sharing it with you all. Design-Unique-Handcrafted-Jewelry.com is born!Writing articles for Design-Unique-Handcrafted-Jewelry.com and posting pages packed with information for fellow jewelers is an infinite pleasure.I do hope sometime soon my web-site shows up here
http://results.sitesell.com/
where the most successful web-sites using Site Sell are shown for the world to see!
My inner hope is that as much as I learn from doing it, you learn from reading it. I’m so happy you are walking with me through this journey of knowledge and passion as I slowly build this site. I am constantly pushing myself to develop a unique voice and way of expressing myself in this craft. In all this time of deep self reflection and discovery, I have decided that I want to spend my time doing personally meaningful work, discovering a life-long language.
Working on this web-site and pulling off all the contents that you read, resonates deeply with my wishes of continuing my own development in this wonderful craft and enjoying every single minute of it. I hope Design-Unique-Handcrafted-Jewelry.com also resonates deeply with your wants and needs about jewelry making. I´d love to hear from you,
please tell me about yourself.
CECILIA ECHEVERRI V.
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I’m learning so much as well! 
