Our Story - Lucie & Petr
Hi there! My name is Lucie. I am a Mom of two beautiful daughters. I am the heart of PARADA. I am truly grateful that what I love doing brings joy to people all around the world. I love it when a new creation comes to being through me.
We run a small family jewelry studio with my husband Petr. We think of it as our third child. I feel blessed that I can be an independent jewelry maker, which has always been my dream.
When I don´t make jewelry I mostly spend time with my family, or I do gardening in our cottage. I also love exploring new places.
Thank you very much for your interest in my designs! I love sharing my work with others and hope that it will bring you as much joy as it brings to me.
Hi there! I´m Petr. I am Lucie´s husband. I used to be an English teacher. I have always loved supporting my wife in her creativity. I was happy when at first she asked me to solve some small technical problems. Later I found out that there are more and more things to do and projects to work on. What at first was just helping my wife out became a full time job :) Now I am responsible for our eshop, product photography and customer service.
Lucie has always been very good at painting, and when she was fourteen she started to make wired jewelry. She combined beads, stones and semi-precious stones for her friends, whilst also making some extra "pocket money" at her friend´s Mom´s shop by making and selling hand-made products.
The idea to start a business came in 2004, when we were students here in the Czech Republic and wanted to go to Greece during the summer break. We were poor, and could certainly not afford an expensive "holiday". However, we could afford the journey itself, so we bought the tickets, packed our bags with a lot of wires, beads and two pairs of pliers and, after a forty-hour coach journey from the geographical "Heart of Europe", we made it to the original "Heart" of European philosophy and culture. We ended up on the beautiful island of Paros, slept on the beach and sold our jewelry to other tourists. On good days, we were able to leave our bags in a bush and go to a restaurant for a lovely Greek meal. Sometimes we even travelled to surrounding islands. It was a great summer, and, when we came back, we were full of enthusiasm for more "good days" - something we knew now was possible. Here in the Czech Republic, we found more shops to ally ourselves with, and things started to "roll up".
Then Lucie came up with very funny hand-painted copper birds with wired legs. They were a great success and, because they were very much of a "novelty", they sold so well that we could never make enough of them. At that time we started to go to summer music festivals and craft shows, meeting our customers face-to-face. This was a great joy, especially because some of them had already become familiar with our designs and became our "regulars".
Then we changed from copper to stainless steel, a material which enchanted us with its amazing qualities and characteristics.
We started to sell jewelry because we wanted to enjoy our summer holiday. However, soon it became more than that - making jewelry, and everything associated with it, became a passion we could not live without.
We still bring our designs to customers at craft shows and music festivals and cooperate with local handmade shops. Now, thanks to Shopify, we feel blessed to be able to bring the fruit of our work to people all around the world.