MariRu Design Studio - Artisan Made Jewelry

I am very grateful for many things as I already celebrated a year as a certified artisan after four long years of waiting for the certification.  I have been a busy bee designing and making jewelry pieces that make my heart go pitter patter. After a few instances of trial and error I was able to secure a few venues to participate at the end of the year 2015 and have been actively participating in these events. Finally, this week I was able to get registered as an artisan with the PR Tourism Company! Since I've been busy working for the last few months, I'm sharing a few photos of my pretties! I never tire of taking photos of these rings! They always look great! Aluminum cuffs hand stamped with PR frases and sayings. A little video to show how amazing the flash in labradorite stones really is. My Hearts Galore collection! My latest design in my flower collection: Amapola. Life is good... in Sunny Puerto Rico!

I have been struggling for the last couple of years on how best to represent my brand.  Yep, I said brand.  I think that making jewelry is  something I love to do and having people like what I make with my own hands is such an amazing feeling; however, I want to be able to have a look that when people look at my creations and designs, they say: "Yep, that is a MariRu piece." Even though my vision was not completed I had the forethought to have uniformity in everything that I used to identify my little handmade jewelry business.  While I did not accomplish a cohesive presentation, I did have a bit of uniformity in my Etsy store as well as social media by using a photo of one of my favorite pieces of jewelry (made by me.) The actual photo the pendant looked like this: However, I just did not plain wanted to use the photo, so I decided to "deconstruct" the look of the pendant and this is the final result used for my e-store banner: While I liked the look...

I am very excited to have finally gained my certification status as a Puerto Rican Artisan!  I have been trying since 2011 to achieve this and now I am so happy, excited and marveled by how easy, yet so painful the process was. There is actually a Law that governs the artisans in the island.  Known as Law Number 166 from August 11, 1995, this law defines what is an artisan, the categories of artisanal products, how the artisans are regulated and what agencies are in charge of doing so. More specifically, Puerto Rican artisanal pieces must be made in Puerto Rico, by a resident of Puerto Rico, made with materials found in Puerto Rico, hand made with original designs that represent Puerto Rican culture. There are over 30 categories of artisanal pieces. The certification lasts for five years, although artisans must go annually to receive a letter to be exempt from collecting IVU (local sales tax). The interested candidates must go to the Compania de Fomento Industrial (known l...