I love Novica!  Novica connects artisans all around the world with a broader customer base so people in areas where they might not otherwise be able to make a living off their handiwork now have enough customers to make a sufficient income.  There is such a wonderful variety of handmade items, many of which are made according to cultural traditions and/or with natural materials indigenous to the area.  (I love all the batik clothing!)

You can search the site in a variety of ways, including by item category and by world region.  When the folks at Novica sent me a gift code to check out an item or two for review, I first checked the West Africa portion of the site.  There are a few people groups in West Africa that our church has been particularly praying for, and which our girls will study in school this year, so I thought it would be interesting to obtain some handwork from that region.  They (the West African artists) didn’t have what I was looking for, though.

See, at the moment, I’m finally coming to grips with my personal style, and starting to purge the jewelry and clothing that aren’t “me” and replace them with pieces that are.  So I wanted some new jewelry. 🙂

Although they’re not from West Africa, I’m very happy with the pieces I got.

This first piece is the Malachite stretch bracelet made by Ritu in India.  (It’s greener/less blue than it looks in the photos, by the way, but not as green as in the photo on Novica’s site of a woman wearing it.)  I like that it’s textured and has some “bulk” but the diameter of the bracelet isn’t too large.  (I have small wrists.)

All of Novica’s items come packaged nicely.  My bracelet was in this sari-inspired pouch:

And each comes with a little note from the artisan.  (Consider hanging onto these for your geography/culture studies!  They’re written in the original languages before being translated into English.)

(The color in this last picture is probably pretty accurate.)

My second piece of jewelry is this pendant made by Komang Agus Saputra in “Bali and Java.”  (I’m not sure if Komang Agus Saputra is from Bali or Java.)  It’s carved coconut shell!

And again, it comes in a nice little pouch:

If you don’t need to store your jewelry in them, you could even use these pouches later for gift-giving purposes.

Get your own Novica Jewelry!

Do you want to get some Novica jewelry of your own?  Of course you do!  (If you don’t “do” jewelry, they have other things, too – household décor, clothing…even musical instruments!)  The folks at Novica have provided me with another gift code to give away to one of you.  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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