Maike’s Marvels

Maike van Wijk creates one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry and home adornments as Maike’s Marvels. Her Wax and Wire Jewelry has been featured in various art fairs around Chicagoland, and her angels tend to photobomb Evanston Made and Main-Dempster Mile events.

Steel wire is hand-bent into organic and abstract shapes, and embellished with waxed paper, beads or other meaningful items. Her art is an expression of the joy and gratitude she finds in everyday living, with an aim to share that tranquility with others.

After a wax and wire workshop, Maike’s encaustic collage work was incorporated into wearable art. The pendants, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, keychains and ornaments can be customized as special gifts for loved ones.

During the holiday season Maike’s Marvels’ wax and wire snowman and angel ornaments are quite popular. Her ornament collection has expanded to ladybugs, dragonflies, butterflies and other whimsical creatures primarily used as plant stakes.

With roots in The Netherlands and Germany, Maike is trilingual and enjoys incorporating cultural memories and linguistic quirks into her work. Creating greeting cards for friends and family since 2003, Maike created larger collages in late 2009 with the discovery of encaustics. The 2012 wire workshop with Crystal Neubauer changed her focus to smaller wax and wire works.

She is the past President of FUSEDChicago, a midwest encaustic artist group. Since May 2018, Maike serves as a JigUFacturer Design Team member for Brenda Schweder’s Now That’s a Jig! The Now That’s a Jig! tool keeps Maike’s wrists healthy, though she also enjoys freewheeling her wirebending with pliers and her bare hands. More information is available at her website: MaikesMarvels.com.

Maike enjoys consigning her work in locally owned businesses and is always looking for indoor pop-up opportunities. She lives near Main Street and Chicago in Evanston.