Jewellery for gypsies!

Saturday, 18 May 2013 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Rashika Fazali

I am sure you’ve encountered dress versus jewellery problems when you have a nice dress but no jewellery with which to wear it. That alone means more shopping, more spending and it’s also a time-consuming task.

That is exactly why many small to big clothing and jewellery businesses are now going online to offer customers a new experience of shopping with a click.

Jewellery designer Mihirani Sourjah started her online shop ‘Gypzy Girl By Mickey’ with the help of her fiancé somewhere in February. It caters to customers who love beads and colours. Explaining her use of beads, she stated: “To start with, beads are easy to use and they come in colours.”

The idea to name her shop ‘Gypzy Girl By Mickey’ has also to do with colours. “Gypsy girls wear a lot of jewellery. They are not afraid of colours. They sport anything. They wear any kind of jewellery with any kind of outfit and I find it very fascinating,” explained Mihirani. She specialises in making unique jewellery with the use of unconventional items such as safety pins, buttons, coconut shells, straws, etc. Her jewellery pieces are quirky, eye-catching and sure to get your family, friends and colleagues talking. They start at a price of Rs. 175. What she wants to establish with her jewellery is something simple: “I want people to buy my jewellery and buy a matching dress for it.” With a huge passion for jewellery, Mihirani first started making them around four to five years back learning through online tutorials. She mentioned that she would go to various places to buy beads in order to make jewellery that suits her style which she strongly states is girly and safe.

Making jewellery for other people started when her colleagues at work started noticing her jewellery and soon she started making jewellery as orders. Currently, she has Sri Lankan customers as well as international customers from Italy, Dubai and Oman.

As she looks for quality, Mihirani stated that all her jewellery items like beads and strings are bought from abroad through eBay. Commenting on this, she stated: “Beads are expensive to buy in Sri Lanka compared to buying it from abroad. Plus you get a selection when you buy online and the quality is good.” Three months into her shop, she already has plans to have an outlet, although not anytime soon. She added, “I am planning to have a small outlet where people can come and look at my stuff. The problem that I have right now is that they can’t touch the jewellery and feel them as it’s all online.”

Amongst a new shop, she further has plans to move on to making body jewellery, footwear jewellery and scarf pins.

Pix by Upul Abaysekara