Ooooh new glass Czech buttons from Ebay. Now to make some brooches!
Bluebird xx
Bluebird Jewellery
studio tour with curious clare
Today i have a lovely peek into the studio of Curious Clare. I am lucky enough to have gone to art college with some very talented people and Clare is one of them. She has a Facebook page and a lovely blog.
How inspiring is this as a workspace!
What a talented artist Clare is! Drawing and visual studies was a huge part of our Crafts degree and you can see how much sketchbook work and drawing Clare is still doing.
All the pictures Clare took herself and were on Creative Boom recently which is how I got a glimpse of her studio but I thought I’d ask Clare if I could share them too! She was happy to spread the love with Dandelion and Olive so hope you enjoy her studio loveliness.
Clare’s blog Curious Clare is wonderful and full of images from artists she loves, workshops she has been on, see below for fab creatures she made on a Sally Faulkner workshop and a Samantha Bryan one too, as well as inspiring ideas for you to try and some DIY’s.
Lovely images from Samantha Bryan workshop below.
Clare’s next project is to open an Etsy shop but teaching is getting in the way at the mo so if you’d like a piece of Clare’s work then message her on Facebook.
Thanks Clare for sharing your studio with us all and hurry up with your Etsy shop so we can buy some of your lovely pieces we have been coveting at Dandelion & Olive towers!
Bluebird xx
weddings and how to do it in style
This coming weekend I will be taking part in A Most Curious Wedding Fair on Brick Lane in London. I am organising postcards, printing a banner, polishing wedding rings and choosing my outfit for meeting lots of couples planning their big day. Couples are really excited when they realise rather than tramping high street jewellers they can come and make their wedding rings in my jewellery teaching studio so I am spreading the word to the capital and hoping to inspire some creativity and get couples hammering and crafting and polishing until they have truly special and personal rings to exchange on the big day.
I thought I would share some of the other exhibitors who will be at the fair alongside me.
This image of a couple with huge love sign is from Scene Setters (website nearly live apparently). Scene Setters make large decorative card props and I adore their glitter stock artwork, how cool would this be at the reception!
Next I love Hattie & Flora event designers with amazing images of their event and promo styling on their website. I love the balloon pics and the intense colourful furniture they offer.
Next up check out the stationary from Candyflossie, I adore the pinwheels and retro style invites and the save the date invites. All so lovely and unique, especially the pencil save the dates!
For a touch of cool, unique elegance then don a hat from Joelle Reeves Millinery. For me its the pom pom headpieces and bird pieces.
I have been busy with promo material this last week and have some lovely crisp pics of some wedding rings my couples have made, how lovely are these rings, all made by complete novice jewellery makers. Why not come make your wedding rings too.
There are lots more exhibitors at the show including photographers, dress designers, caterers and more, more, more. If you are planning a big day then come say hi this weekend or if you can’t make it then check out all the exhibitors here.
Bluebird xx
crochet love
I have been shopping for lovely coloured wool with some vouchers and finally chose a nice selection of cream, greens and dusky pinks for a crochet blanket, but what pattern to make! I have decided on granny square style as it’s easier to cart about between home and the caravan when making but i still can’t pin down a pattern. I have of course been using Pinterest to aid my choice so thought I’d share my favourites.
Lovely blanket above from Wood and Wool blog.
Pretty geometric crochet throw found in One Kings Lane shop.
Vintage 70′s crochet from Etsy shop Drowsy Swords, all crocheted in one go but i love it!
Lovely pram blanket from Three Beans in Pod blog.
Lovely blanket at Dottie Angel blog and you can find pattern via Millie Makes blog, after trying this one out I realised it might be best for a smaller project than a bed cover!
I really love the dark background to the above blanket from Moonshine & Wool blog.
After trying out a few patterns I have realised that perhaps I should keep it simple, so something like the above pic from Dottie Angel I think! Those squares look simple enough for a novice like me.
Wish me luck and nimble fingers!
Bluebird xx
sitting at my bench this week
I made some necklaces to replace some I sold on Etsy so thought I’d take a few pics at the bench as I went along.
Once I’ve cut the shape out with a piercing saw I texture with a tiny hammer I bought in New York.
Stars all soldered on and waiting for its chain!
Bluebird xx
grandma’s buttons
Couldn’t resist ‘Department’ (Hove flea market) on my way to work this week and I managed to snap up a rather lovely old tin of buttons.
I am loving the scenes of holiday destinations on the side of the tin!
Think I had better get to making some brooches and necklaces now!
Bluebird xx
diy christmas baubles
I decided to have a break from button brooches today and finally got to play with some honeycomb paper. I bought mine from here on eBay for only a few pounds each piece and as I love clashing colours I went for the 2 tone ones!
I had lots of fun playing with this so thought you might like to see too, I even made a little ad for Pinterest to draw in my followers!
Gather your supplies and tools like above, I also used some really nice thick brown card stock which we had in a drawer, any colour would do, choose what you like or you already have.
1. Design ideas that can be cut out of card to surround your honeycomb bauble. 2. Draw outline onto your card. 3. Fill in your design, mine is simple lines but go crazy if you like! 4. Cut out your card shape.
1. Draw a semi circle on the honeycomb paper, making sure the flat side runs alongside the honeycomb edge. 2. cut out your semi circle and glue to centre of card. 3. Cut piece of thin card 1 mm smaller than honeycomb semi circle and glue onto semi circle top. 4. Your pretty honeycomb is now attached on one side and you have a flat pack decoration.
Now it opens like above. I use a glue dot to keep it open. Then make some more! Then add some ribbon or ric rac and hang ‘em up.
I also made some plain baubles to hang all year round.
My advice is buy some cool honeycomb paper now and have some fun!!!
Bluebird xx
Christmas at the boutique
With the festive season fast approaching, the studio has been full of Christmas inspired fabric, buttons, trims and a bit of sparkle, so as well as our Vintage Doily range which make fab Christmas decorations, we have started creating pieces for this years’ Christmas range. The fruits of our labour have started to appear on our Etsy site.
Back in September, I was on one of my regular trips around the fabric shops of Brighton (one of those where you don’t –need- to buy anything, but come home with bags full regardless), and I could not believe my luck when I stumbled upon this wonderful Scandinavian style printed fabric that was just full of Christmas spirit! I bought a batch of it there and then, already envisaging Christmas stockings and festive bunting, and it hasn’t disappointed. They’ve turned out so lovely that I’ve been tempted to put out my Christmas decorations early this year!
The one decoration that will definitely be going up soon is our Advent Calendar.
Last year I was going to make one for my little girl but time ran from with me and it never happened. Little girl in question is now 3 and knows all about Christmas, so this year I had no excuses!
The Calendar has been through quite a design process – the first one I made I do love, but the design proved to be impractical for larger scale manufacture. So after battling with a few designs, I finally came up with this one. Ready to fill with your favourite treats, be it chocolates, stickers or other treasures. Each pocket can hold something different to give your loved one 24 surprise-filled days leading up to the big day.
Please do check out all of the Boutique Christmas Bunting range, we hope they’ll give you years of enjoyment, and make a change from tinsel!
BB x
Vintage buttons
On Monday as I opened and entered my studio I could see a small parcel waiting for me so I rushed up to my desk to take a look. I knew exactly who it was from and what it contained in theory but I had no idea of the actual loveliness waiting inside the tissue paper parcel. It was my Donna Flower package and I knew lots of buttons lurked inside, just waiting to be chosen for a brooch or two or maybe even a pair of earrings.
Even once opened the buttons were hiding in pretty little envelopes tied with twine. I had emailed Donna about buttons and she very kindly agreed to do me a special order as usually the buttons just go to shows and fairs with her but I managed to snap up 2 packages. The trouble with using vintage and pre-loved buttons for my new brooches is that you can never have enough and of course since I have been designing and trialing them I haven’t seen a single button box in a charity shop or car boot!
Firstly I tipped them out onto a cake plate (of course) and admired the colours and materials.
Next was a sorting of the first lot that I will build bezels for, I love the yellow transparent ones near the front, see pic below.
Some of the buttons I really like are rather plain but when you pick 5 or 6 in different shades they make really lovely brooches.
Lovely colours above, like retro sweets or beautiful fabric.
Sometime soon (hopefully) they will become brooches like this:
or this
Once I have a few more finished I will be adding them to my shop and sharing all the pictures on Dandelion and Olive.
So thank you Donna Flower for sending me such wonderful buttons (and I’ve only opened 1 pack yet so lots more to discover and create with)
Bluebird xx
sunday treats
I escaped! For one weekend afternoon and evening I left the trappings of family life behind and boarded a train to happiness. Some people if asked what they would do if they won the lottery might suggest buying a mansion, maybe an exotic holiday and nice as those things sound not me, if I had unlimited money I would sign up for weekly workshops with interesting people and sit with like minded souls and make things, all sorts of things and that is just what i did the other day! I went to this. The very lovely Alexandra Smith of Lola Nova blog was in London giving a workshop to celebrate the release of her new book Simple Sewing with Lola Nova.
Here is lovely Alex helping and encouraging and generally giving us all lots of insight into how she works.
It was very difficult to remember not to call her Lola but it is so nice to meet in person someone you have followed online. She came with a lovely assistant, the wonderful Jane from Flaming Nora who helped out and brought lots of lovely fabrics for us to play with. They worked really well together and had a few tales of their London wanderings to tell us too!
We all got to rifle through a stash of fabric, ribbons, buttons, ric rac, bias binding and more, oh how I love another persons fabric stash.
She got us to work on her patches project from the book so we played with colour palettes, textures and generally made our own thing! Look at that pretty fabric spine notebook, Alex made us all one for the workshop.
It was so lovely to sit and sew and pin and chat and meet some lovely women. Here is the group, minus Nora who stood in for David Bailey at this point.
And here are some of the nearly completed pieces we made.
Such a lovely evening and I just have 1 button to sew on, I was slightly tempted to ‘borrow’ (ahem) the whole set of these buttons you see on my piece for one of my button brooches but I was restrained and proper! I also learnt how to sew bias binding onto a curve so I came home very happy indeed.
So check out the lovely Lola Nova blog if you haven’t already and put Simple Sewing on your Christmas list now. So when you next see a flyer for a workshop you fancy book it up and have some fun!
Bluebird xx
PS I promise I will show you some lovely pages from the book soon but it is evening and my pics will look horrid under artificial light so i will keep you waiting!
No longer a WIP
I am amazed to say that this blanket has been through a few incarnations. This has been a crazy, long W I P and i started it before my 3 year old was born. Its first life was as a small crochet blanket to go over a newborn in a buggy and was made up of rectangles of double and treble crochet, cute but tiny! A few years later I added striped borders to enlarge it but it started to take on a slightly nutty shape and looked a little (yes ok a lot) odd. After looking at it through rose tinted specs I just couldn’t throw out the first item I’d crocheted so I decided to add a scolloped border and you know what, it worked. It is now a wonky blanket but with a pretty edge and so it survives another day and will live in the caravan to keep us warm on windy days and rainy nights.
My youngest is a real blankie boy and loves nothing better than a bit of crochet to twine his fingers through while relaxing and getting to sleep.
As you may notice it is not the most beautiful blanket and it definitely suffers from being made of wool I already had, no artfully arranged colour palette here. I plan on making a blanket with bought (gasp) wool next. I just need to get a colour scheme together that will look as wonderful as these on Bunting Boutiques Pinterest board.
Bluebird xx
new baby sewing
Sewing, sewing, making, making! Is there anything more relaxing than making something!
Although my sewing machine at home is still in a box as the room I shall inhabit for crafty things is still full of boxes and 16 sash windows awaiting installation I needed (yes needed) to make something for the brand new baby of my best friend. So I used my workshop to cut and stitch and sneak a use on Sue’s sewing machine. The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter’s ‘Simple Sewing For Baby’.
I love Lotta Jansdotter books and fabrics and I have just found out that a local sewing shop has just started stocking her fabric, so far I have resisted the urge to run over and buy the whole lot but i can feel my will power diminishing and I expect to snap up some fat quarters before too long. Also how happy would I be to go to this, bliss!
By the way, how cute is that Miffy money box in the top pic? It was 20p in my local charity shop and is missing a base to hold those pennies safe, but I have plans to turn it into a night light one day soon.
How many projects do you have stored up for ‘one day soon’?
Bluebird xx
Kush kush
How cute are these lovely hand printed cushions from Kush Kush.
As each piece is hand made no two are the same.
I love the mix of the silkscreen print with the hand-stitched details and know my daughter would just love them.
BB x
what’s going on in the studio today?
After a few months away from the new button brooches I managed to sneak a full day on another button brooch. I am making all the settings for the individual buttons by hand which is more time consuming than I’d like but i do like the finished item. Thought I’d share a few pics of the piece as it progresses.
The buttons haven’t been set in place in this picture above, they will be bezel set in the same way as a cabouchon stone in a piece of stone set jewellery, time consuming but so much nicer and more polished than glueing in place.
I made the backing from square wire this time and i love the look of this rather than the round wire i used on the first one.
Rather than set with a steel bezel pusher it is better when using plastic, bone, ceramic and other delicate items in the setting to use a plastic pusher made from an old toothbrush! The brooches are not in the shop yet but I hope to get some in there soon.
Bluebird xx
Paper Town
What a treat discovering Paper Town, it’s fully recycled and inspired by Polish suburban life. There are 3 different sets and with in them can be found houses, playgrounds, gas stations, department stores and other elements of a small Polish town for you to create.
Its made out of sturdy cardboard and is easily put together, not even glue is required as you just need to fold and go, to create your own fabulous cardboard city – how much fun, i will have one of each please.
BB x
