Behind the scenes...

We hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend, filled with leftovers, stretchy pants, and a good start to some holiday shopping! This time of year has us feeling awful thankful for a lot of things around these parts, but none so much than the wonderful people who make our jobs at Wendy Mink Jewelry run efficiently and smoothly, and who make the beautiful jewelry you and I get to enjoy! Forget Santa's workshop, let's take a little behind the scenes look into our TriBeCa studio to see whose hands are making the gorgeous WMJ handmade jewels...

Each piece of jewelry is handmade by one of our nine Tibetan jewelry artisans, your piece may have been made by Lobsang, Sang-Mo, Tomo, Tenzin, Renzin, Yeshi, Tsering, Tsering or Tsering (yes there are 3!) My favorite part about stopping by the studio is hearing the ladies chat and laugh all the while their hands are moving quickly and efficiently! Now these are some truly talented multitaskers...
Most of the ladies have worked with Wendy Mink Jewelry for 7-15 years minimum.
They were taught to make jewelry by Wendy, as well as a jeweler named Silvia Rossi that worked at WMJ but moved back to Italy, and another jeweler that now lives in Canada.

Take a look around at our studio. See all of those boxes? Stones. Stones. Stones! When we say we can customize a piece for you in the stone color of your choice- I think you can see we mean it!

Once the stones are all picked out for a piece, the ladies get to work!
Such intricate handwork is used in making each piece, these are some truly talented women!
The gold filled wire and gold plated earring wires below are just some of the many materials you will find around our studio.

If you ask the ladies what their favorite piece is, they would say it is hard to pick since they make jewelry all day long! However if you asked them what their favorite work of Tibetan art is, they would all agree it is the mandala.

Once materials are pulled, everything gets put into place so they can get to work !

And voila! The finishing touches to your beautiful WMJ piece are added on, and it is ready for you to wear!

It is no doubt these ladies are incredibly talented at making jewelry, but when asked what else they might be doing if not busy in our studio, they have said they would be a nurse, chef, singer, a worker in elderly home, or a doctor!

Since the ladies are all from Tibet, they feel it is OK being so far away from home, but they like going back to visit as much as they can. Now living in NY, their favorite thing about being here is the different cultures that are all together in one place.

Below is a picture of Wendy with head jeweler Lobsang's parents. Renzin, Lobsang's mother, is one of the wonderful ladies who work at our studio.

These proud Tibetan ladies have a favorite Tibetan tradition- it is celebrating His Holiness' Birthday and preparing for New Years. If they could wish for anything in the whole world, they would want to FREE TIBET!

We feel inspired by these wonderful woman and so happy to work alongside them!