MARIA

Welcome to Mariya's Beaded Jewellery web site!

Mariya Zhalnina is a beaded jewelry artist who has been designing and making jewelry for more than 15 years. She grew up in Ukraine and her beading techniques are based on Russian and Ukrainian traditions of jewelry making: from simple stringing to weaving, netting and embroidery.

Traditions of beading and bead decorations go far back in time in Russia and Ukraine. Many nations within the former Russian Empire have a long tradition of decorating native costumes with seed beads. Some parts of women's dresses were abundantly decorated by freshwater pearls, golden embroidery, and framed glass. Pearl embroidery was widely used due to readily available raw materials from the local river mollusks. This type of embroidery was known of as early as 1000 A.D. Since then, pearls have been used to decorate church vestments, footwear, clothing, headwear, and for other decorations. From the 1700s, when Venetian glass and seed beads became available, they were used along with pearls to decorate native costumes.

Having a creative artist soul, Mariya practices the art of beading both as a self-expression tool and a relaxation remedy. Mariya finds her inspiration ideas in costume history, old paintings, and vintage photos. She also likes traveling and gardening. Being a biologist she looks for patterns and colors for beaded jewelry within beautiful creations of Mother Nature. On her travels to different parts of the world she likes to collect local natural materials to be used later in her decorations. She enjoys making one-of-a-kind wearable pieces of jewelry filled with her love for beads and fresh colors. She did not receive any formal training and self-taught herself from books, paintings, photos, and magazines. She also wants to thank all internet beaders’ community for sharing beading traditions and their love for this beautiful Art.

The possibilities of beading and materials to use are endless, almost anything can be beaded: jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pendants, lariats, barrettes, chains, chokers, amulet bags), home decorations (frames, candle holders, vases, needle cases, peel boxes, aroma bottles, ornaments, sun catchers, pictures), just to name a few. For the purpose of decoration people always collected all possible materials: shells, stones, bones, clay, glass, wood, seeds, feathers… everything they could find around. There is no limit for your creativity and imagination!

Please browse through the catalog and enjoy the beautiful art of beading. If you find a piece of jewelery that you like to have for yourself or as a gift for your loved ones, please go to the "Order" page for more details.

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