Inside the Studio Where Silver Becomes Color
Jewelry artist Julia Haya makes every piece by hand — from the first sketch to the last firing in the kiln.
Beersheba — In a small studio in the south of Israel, rows of jars hold hundreds of enamel powders, test plates glow with every shade of color, and a red kiln heats up to around 800°C. This is where Julia Haya, the artist behind Yulka, creates her jewelry.
Julia draws each design herself, shapes fine silver wire into the outlines of petals and lines, fills every tiny cell with enamel and fires the piece again and again until the colors come alive. The technique, known as cloisonné, is centuries old — and slow: a single piece takes many hours of careful work.
An engineer by training, Julia brings a technician’s precision to an artist’s work. Inspiration comes from painting, from nature and from the world around her — Klimt, Kandinsky, irises in bloom.
“I fell in love with cloisonné and went to study — and proved that an engineer and an artist can be the same person.”
No two Yulka pieces are alike. Every ring, pendant and pair of earrings is one of a kind, made in Sterling Silver 925 and shipped from Beersheba to customers all over the world.
