Yuma Studio & Gallery
Location:
Hours of Business:
Phone:
Web Address:
#8 - 532½ Fisgard Street (in Dragon Alley)
Tues - Sat 12pm to 5pm **effective May 15, open til 6pm
920-6979
www.yumadesigns.com
Chosen for:
Custom-designed Silver Jewellery
Unique and Intriguing Setting
Welcoming Personality of Owner
On Saturday, April 1st, 2006, the red metal gates opened and Grapevine participants paraded single-file through the narrow entrance into Dragon Alley's work-and-live complex in the heart of Chinatown on their short journey to Yuma Studio and Gallery.
If you see something you like in the wrong size, the artist
will make your heart's delight to fit you!
Soft music drifted from an open window of the 3-storey brick development and mouth-watering smells drifted from another as we walked past a small garden to #8. Owner and silversmith Julie Sperber had opened an hour early because Sarala had told her she was bringing “a few friends" from out of town. Imagine Julie's surprise as 19 people crowded into her tiny jewellery studio and announced Yuma Studio & Gallery had been chosen best of the bunch for April!
Yuma Studio & Gallery opened on December 1, 2005. It is a collective gallery and working studio for Julie's own designs and features independent limited-run handcrafted works from other local emerging artists.
All the jewellery is made of sterling silver. Embellishments run from gemstones of amber, jade, sunstone, pink quartz and aventurine, to handpicked sea-glass from Bahamian beaches. Whether you choose a ring, necklace, earrings or a bracelet, all pieces are surprisingly low-priced. - some dainty silver and aventurine earrings, for instance, were only $30.
There she began collecting sea glass and wire-wrapping it into pendants... a few of which sold on the beach. One fateful day, a Florida woman ordered 100 pendants and Julie thought, "wait a minute, maybe this is what I should be doing for a living!"
Julie's destiny shifted as she and Darren returned to British Columbia so she could attend the Kootenay School of Arts. One year later she opened Yuma Studio & Gallery in Victoria, a name inspired by the indigenous name for Long Island.
Julie loves custom work and is currently transforming three old-fashioned rings into three modern rings for a mother to present to her three daughters. She also does minor jewelry repairs.
The “graping” experience was just one of three exciting events in Julie’s week. She had turned 30 a few days before our visit, and the day following it, she and Darren flew to Yuma to be married.
A charming young woman originally from Winnipeg, Julie moved to Victoria 12 years ago. She met her partner Darren while they were both working in a local restaurant – but when Darren landed a job managing a Caribbean resort on Long Island in the Bahamas, they spent a few years exploring the Caribbean.
Got a hankering for a new piece of
silver jewelry?
Want something with a fresh innovative
styling from a local designer?
Pop into Yuma Studio & Gallery
and have a look.