London market haul

This weekend provided lots of crafting inspiration! Clare (of Candy Land) and I were in London and decided to check out Broadway Market near Bethnal Green. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with this place - it had a good vibe but since there were only two 'craft' stalls there of interest (one selling vintage buttons and the other the amazing work of Buddug and Jessie Chorley), we didn't really feel it justified us going so far out of our way - especially since we were pretty sure we could get Buddug and Jessie Chorley items at Sunday Up Market the next day. Anyway, after months of lusting over them on line, I finally bought a Buddug brooch. I love it to bits and am wearing it right now! From there we went to the flagship Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road and bought various materials (as well as some lovely owl tea towels!), although they didn't have the small or oval canvases that I'd been planning to buy since I last visited. Oh well, that just means I'll have to pay them another visit sometime soon (...any excuse!)

On Sunday, we met up with Ele (of

SeiSei) and headed to Brick Lane to visit Sunday Up Market - a much more successful trip! We came away with our purses lighter and our heads spinning with inspiration!
Purchases included a beautiful greeting card from Rosie Wonders

(a favourite stall of mine that I blogged about a little while ago) which I plan to frame and hang with a collection of other prints and canvases. Rosie told us her cards are available from the big Paperchase - so if you're in there, be sure to look for her stuff!

A close-up of the card I bought

Clare and Ele both bought brooches from Rosie too. Clare’s has a Robot on and Ele’s had a Russian Doll on it.
I also bought this acrylic brooch of a ringed planet with a little rocket hanging from it, I didn’t catch the name of the stall but they had some really nice acrylic-based jewellery. I suspect this brooch will end up being a gift for my boyfriend... infact I know it will :)

After wondering up and down Brick Lane a bit, and stopping to scribble down some ideas, we found another section of market in a similar vein to Up Market. Here we found the Twinklebug stall and after cooing over some of the products got chatting to Bianca Nepgen, the genius behind them. If you like slightly gruesome things made to look beautiful, then you’ll like her stuff! She makes fascinators and head wear as well as brooches and rings which include centre-pieces like bugs dipped in glitter and nestled in a bed of lace and ribbons.

My last purchase of the day (simply because I ran out of cash and there wasn't a working cash machine for miles!) was this fox silhouette brooch - after my fox-lust blog I could hardly walk off and leave it could I!

So, for anyone who wants to get their hands on some beautiful and unsual items, I would definately suggest you check out Brick Lane on a sunday. I know we plan to go back... with more cash in our hands!

Brooches

As promised in my last post, here are the Rosie Wonders brooches I got for Christmas:
And here is another brooch I got as a gift. It's engraved wood and a really nice font, though unfortunately I don't know who made it . . .

Discoveries

Firstly, Happy 2009 to anyone who stumbles across this humble little creative blog of mine! I plan to make 2009 a much more creatively productive year which involves actually doing something with the things I make!

Over the Christmas break I finally managed to visit two places I'd been longing to visit all year - Sunday Up Market on Brick Lane, and the massive Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road.

Unfortunately, due to the pressures of last minute Christmas shopping, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to browse Sunday Up Market but it was really nice to see stalls and products from websites I like to visit such as Custom Made, Bobby Dazzler, I Like Birds and Buddug (who create really nice bird-based jewellery amongst other stuff).

A new discovery for me was Rosie Wonders. I can't tell you how much I've fallen in love with Rosie's creations, she makes beautiful brooches, necklaces and greeting cards amongst other things (I feel very lucky because my boyfriend bought me two brooches as Christmas presents - I'll post some pics later)


Some of Rosie's work:
As for the Tottenham Court Road's Paperchase... wow... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! The top floor was full of art materials and unusual papers and supplies. I bought some canvases and a basket full of other bits and pieces including some really nice paper that is so delicate it's almost fabric.

On another note, I hope to update this journal a lot more this year so please do stick with me if you've seen anything at all here you like. I may also set up an Etsy to sell some of the things I make but I've just got to work out how it all works! Watch this space!