Our next interview is with Szarka. She has been designing and creating jewelry for several years. And she is extremely talented and inspires her fellow jewelry artists.

I hope that you will enjoy this three part interview with Szarka.

What are your business name, website and location?

I am the Sole Proprietor of Turquoise Magpie. Under that business name I run Magpie Gemstones and Szarkas

http://www.magpiegemstones.com/home.html

http://www.szarkas.com/Szarka.html

How did you first become interested in wire sculpture and creating
jewelry?

I became ill while working as a counselor for teens. I was laid up in bed for a year. I started playing with (what was then called) Fimo and it was great therapy. I felt so useless and it was wonderful to see something that I would accomplish each day. I made my own seed beads and larger beads. I also created sculpted broaches.

I had been looking into crystal healing for years and wanted to attach them to necklaces to wear and then the drive to wire things came along.

I moved to Vancouver Island to finish off one of my degrees and met this wonderful lady who wintered in Quartzsite and sold at the flea market. She sold me an entire crate full of crystals. I should have known that was a foreshadowing of my life to come. I couldn't just pick out the ones I wanted, I wanted the best deal so "how much for all of them".

I met a Mayan artist who sold wire wrapped jewelry at the farmers market and just hung out by him for a year. I picked up many ideas in what I wanted to do with my crystals.

Soon I was setting them in bowls and giving them away with a wire wrap. I drank coffee once a week while wrapping peoples crystals for them.

The local health food store started carrying my work and off I went into the addiction that is jewelry making.

How important is it for you to create?

If I don’t create I feel as if I am letting someone down. Slowly I learnt that it is a part of me deep inside that I am letting down. If I feed her by being creative she then fills me up with a sense of purpose and peace. So I guess it's pretty important!

Why do you make jewelry?

The rocks make me do it. They bounce into my vision and I can't help but think how I can make them look even better than they do now. I want to show them off and make something someone will put on and then they will feel like they are showing off who they really are inside.

What motivates you to design and create?

It gives me a rush when I put things together and they jump off the table when done and look amazing. When everything goes right it is like a piece increases in beauty exponentially. One of this and one of that and the synergistic manipulation of the mediums results in something that sums up to a 10. It is powerful when that happens. I never know when it will and when it does the ride is so much fun.

5-11-10