Never to be repeated...

I was hoping that whilst sorting through my button stash (yes I'm still doing it) that I would find something totally amazing to use in one of my jewellery pieces, and I have and I am so pleased.

This beautiful clear circle of faceted glass was sitting in the second box I opened yesterday, its gorgeous. A perfect vintage find, its in such good condition and the facets are lovely.

The necklace is in my shop now, hung on a long vintage brass chain. I will only ever have one of these glass circles so this is the only one of its kind, completely unique.

I've snaffled some buttons to use in necklaces so I shall be adding those to my shop soon too.

Progress

Since I've been back from my holiday I've been struggling to get inspiration for new stock (which is odd considering all the countryside and beautiful places we saw) but I managed to find a few hours today to make some new items for my shop - it was also a good way of getting out of the sweltering heat. I like a bit of sun but I'm not used to a week of it being boiling hot all day.

We are now having a thunderstorm so I am cooling off after a hard days work (the cat is hiding under the bed looking annoyed).

I'm glad that I have some new things to show you!

englishbuttonco

Just another little update to say that I have just registered my button shop, please mark me for later. I will be listing very very soon.

English Button Co.

buttons and bobs

I have two projects at the moment (well two main ones, I normally have about 10 different items I am working on at any time) - buttons and bobby pins.

I have recently acquired a lot of buttons from someone locally, all very old buttons and all so beautiful. I have 3 boxes, so maybe in the region of about 500 buttons? I am planning to start a little button supply shop on Etsy for these, although I am keeping some of them for my own fun and games. I'm quite excited about finding these because most of them are from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and even a few from the 1890s!

I am sorting through them this week, its quite time consuming as I'm cleaning them up and sorting them into batches, I am hoping to start listing things next week.

The other new project I have is bobby pins, or hair pins. This is something that will also feature some of the vintage buttons I have but I will also be using some lovely flower and rose beads. I have listed one pair so far, a pair of Flamenco red hairpins made with brass pins and a lovely aluminium red rose. I've made a pair for myself and they stand out really well on my black hair, they are perfect for evening wear.

handmade of the month

I've put a new little feature on my blog, my favourite handmade item of the month.

I have big favourites list on Etsy, as its impossible for a day to go by without finding something else that makes you want to forgo paying bills to buy. I hope you enjoy looking at my monthly picks, they are at the side of my blog, just below my Etsy Shop link.

I've squeezed in Angharad's beautiful blue clutch for the July pick, watch out for a new item in August.

Enjoy!

Bridal Necklace - featured!

I have recently made my first bridal item, this lovely Serene Pearl Necklace, so I am really pleased that it has been featured on The Crafty Bride blog along with other very gorgeous bridal necklaces.

It is written by paperandcloth, who has just set up a brand new shop on Etsy - fast filling up with gorgeous items.


I am really enjoying working with pearls, silver and delicate colours so I will be making more bridal items in the new few weeks.

Sweeties

Anyone who knows me knows that I love sweets and anything sweet, which is probably why I like beads and jewellery making, as so many beads look a lot like sweets!

These new cherry red beads were no exception, they are so glossy and such a striking shade of red, they look just like bubblegum. I couldn’t wait to use them and I found some lovely frosty green flat discs to make them into a lovely bracelet – not a classic colour to match with red but when I put them together with some sterling silver the combination was so summery, the green lifts the red so nicely.

I can see this bracelet looking just lovely with a floaty summer dress (or if all else fails weather wise, this would look lovely with a nice black jumper too!).

Spuds..

So we’ve had our first crop of potatoes! I love proper homegrown potatoes, apart from tasting about a hundred times better than anything you can buy in the shops, they are so very easy to grow, we’ve never failed at potatoes (same can’t be said for other things we have grown before). We got 4lbs from our plants this year, so that will last us quite a long time. Check back for more progress, our salads are coming along nicely as is the tomato plant –which seems to be yielding one very huge tomato rather than lots of them.