Aleyna Jewelry is a young company based out of Bismarck, North Dakota. Although we are young in the Midwest area, we are not new to the jewelry business. We have been dealing with and designing jewelry for the past 6 years in different parts of the world including Australia, Italy, Turkey, India and the UK. With each country we lived in and visited, we learned more about their art and jewelry design. Now we use this in our designs and the jewelry we make. All our jewelry is hand made out of 100% real Murano Glass imported from the island of Murano, Italy. Murano is a small island just north of Venice famous for its Venetian glass. In 1291, all the glassmakers in Venice were forced to move to Murano due to the risk of fires. In the following century exports began, and the island became famous initially for glass beads and mirrors. Today Murano is Europe’s largest high quality glass producer. The difference between Murano glass and normal glass is that Murano glass is made out of coral and quartz and Murano Glass tiles. It is specifically made to be used in high quality glass work. The coral gives it the shininess and the quartz makes the colors you see possible on our items. A normal glass pendant which you buy at a department store has none of the above. Basically it is recycled bottles and jars. So next time you look at a glass pendant, you might just be looking at the beer bottles you had a few weeks ago!! The above explanation is why we are very serious about calling our jewelry “Murano glass jewelry” and not just glass jewelry. Our main purpose here at Aleyna Jewelry is to provide unique jewelry for unique individuals. We believe each person is unique and hence their jewelry should also be just as unique. We hope you enjoy our collection. Please feel free to contact us at sales@aleynajewelry.com for any feedback or questions you might have. We love to hear back from people that wear our jewelry. You can even send us your picture of how you wear/use our items and we will publish it on our website for everyone to see and you will also get a %10 discount to use towards your next purchase. We look forward to providing you with a unique Murano glass experience today as well as in the future. We are always in the process of making new jewelry so check back frequently. Also you can sign up for our newsletter from the home page to hear about our new product releases and discounts.

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Aleyna Jewelry was featured in the Bismarck Tribune newspaper on 20 Feb 2007:

It's elegant, unique art ... that you wear.

Elegant glass jewelry, shop owners describe it, with fiery colors floating through the solid, Italian glass. Each piece a pattern different from the next.

They're describing Aleyna Jewelry, a line of jewelry intertwined with international pieces and owned by Bismarck resident Shawtee Kellar.

Kellar first fell in love with the glass when Matthew Durmaz, also a Bismarck resident, brought a piece back from his family's kiln in Istanbul, Turkey. It was Murano glass, a black circle in white, or an evil eye charm, swimming in blue glass.

Murano glass, made on the island just off of Italy, comes from a long tradition of committed glassmakers, Kellar said. In 1291, the Venetian government, concerned about the fire hazards of kilns around the wood structures of the city, banished glassmakers to Murano, Kellar said.

And the evil eye, Durmaz said, is a Mediterranean charm, supposed to keep away the bad luck that comes with envious gazes or high praise.

Kellar immediately saw the potential reflecting in that cool colored glass. The material, the Murano glass, is brought from Italy to the Durmaz kilns in Turkey. From there, Kellar said, she buys it and sells it around the state.

She began in May 2006 and opened a kiosk at Gateway Mall around Thanksgiving. It will stay open through March. Now, the jewelry also is in One World Imports and Lee's Hallmark stores in Bismarck and Fargo.

The biggest sellers:The evil eye charms and Mille Fiori, or 1,000 flower, pendants. Mille Fiori are made from small glass flowers, melted together into a pendant.

"We've only had it since the end of January,"said Susan Hendershott, manager and buyer of the Lee's in Fargo. "But we really, really like it. The prices are excellent; the designs are good."

Hendershott said that she bought about 80 pieces, splitting them up between the Bismarck and Fargo stores. And they're selling well.

"Very affordable, very elegant. It's elegant, but yet can be very casual, too. (Customers are) always surprised at how affordable it is,"Hendershott said. "They really like it, because you don't see jewelry like this at those prices."

And the fact that it's from a seller based in Bismarck was appealing, too.

"I can find jewelry in other places, too, but the fact that it was people from Bismarck appealed to me,"Hendershott said.

Mary Schmidt, manager of One World Imports in Bismarck, said the glass is appealing to their customers, too.

The store sells evil eye charms, and the Murano glass pendants fit their customers' tastes, she said.

"We sold quite a few pieces at Christmas. They're really cool, pretty,"Schmidt said. And the price is worth it, she said.

Which, incidentally, falls right in line with the meaning of the Aleyna, Kellar said.

"Aleyna means 'something worth loving,'"she said. "It's unique art in the form of jewelry. A lot of people like the concept of really unique jewelry."

link to the article on the paper