Shoegazer Loves: PIGEONS!

Do you know what's underrated? Pigeons! Flying rodents they are not. They are birds through and through. They can't help it that there are a lot of them (well, they could help it if there were sex-ed classes for birds). They can't help it that the city-dwelling ones get grubby... if anything that's our fault for polluting. They can't even help it that occasionally they need to poo... from a great height... into your hair/sandwich/best dress. Shit happens (see what I did there??). So lay off them!

I hate it when I see one limping around on a stumpy, broken foot, and when I see a kid running screaming at a poor pigeon I feel like giving the brat a taste of his or her own medicine and running screaming at them... with an axe. (Ok, maybe not with an axe.)

Fellow pigeon lover Debbie Hill (who I blogged about here) maintains the lovely Pigeons Aren't Perfect (see image below)... which instantly melted my heart because, as you now know, I have long championed the cause of the pigeons.

Last summer a pigeon-baby was born on my window sill and I watched it grow from egg to fledgeling bird (man, they look freaky as babies). Anyway, that prompted me to make a pigeon plushie . . . Now, this pigeon certainly isn't perfect, but it took an age to make and was a great learning experience at the time as I was new to 3D plushies. See whut choo fink ...

I also recently came across a pigeon-related doodle I did a couple of years ago. Meet Pigeon Winehouse... she's a dirty bird:

Well, they were are my offerings to the plight of the pigoen in creative culture. Here are some other pigeony-picks in an attempt to convert you to the cause . . .

^^^ Pigeons by Zoe Austin^^^

^^^Hey Pigeon, I Like You - print by Jackie Lehmann^^^

^^^Urban Birdwatching - dish by MayLuk^^^

^^^What a Poop - Pigeon Poo Mug by HelloLucky^^^

^^^Silver Pigeon Necklace by BallandChain^^^

^^^Pigeon Socks by AlbertosFamily^^^

GIVE PIGEONS A CHANCE

peace out

disclaimer: I am not some crazy pigeon lady. I promise. 

Do you have an under rated animal you'd like to champion? Let me know in the comments :)

Shoegazer Creative: Fairy cakes!

One of my New Years Resolutions for 2010 was to learn to cook more, so where better to begin than with some good old fashioned fairy cakes? :) I had made them in the past but only as a child with a lot of help, so it was really good to make a batch last night and discover how simple they are to bake! Don't worry, this won't turn into a food blog (I don't 'get' food writing), I just thought I'd share these here because, well, who doesn't like a nice bit of cake?!

If you know of any tasty cake recipes please let me know in the comments as I'd love to make more!

Shoegazer Creative: Update

Just a quick update... I'm currently beavering away making treasure for the soon-to-open shop. At the moment I'm working on some bib necklaces featuring some gorgeous ceramic buttons sourced from the V&A museum. I'm so excited about the shop opening - hopefully in time for people to be able to buy Christmas gifts from it :)
As well as embellished jewellery and decorations I'm also working on metal jewellery, including this leaf necklace and earring set. This one is a prototype and I'm still playing around with designs for more....

x

Shoegazer Creative: Coming soon...

I've been busy this weekend making more stock for my soon-to-open Etsy shop. I've been making heavilly embelished discs that can be worn as a coursage/brooch or strung with ribbon and hung as an all-year-round hanging decoartion. These take hours to make and incorporate vintage watch faces, new and old sequins, beads, acrylic flowers, silver flowers and filigrees, and buttons sourced from the finest flea markets, antique fairs and even my grandma's old button tin. Here's a sneak peak at one:

As you can see, there is both a brooch fixture and a loop of vintage velvet ribbon on the back of the piece making it versatile. As well as these, which will come in a range of colour schemes, I'm also working on some jewellery including some miniture bib necklaces (in a similar style to the above decorations) for those of you who want to make a statement rather than a STATEMENT. 

Hopefully the shop will be open within the next few weeks so please do check back here for updates and let me know in the comments box what you think of the pictures. I really do appreciate all feedback :)

Shoegazer Creative: Memory frames

Back in June I made these framed images as gifts for my mum's birthday after coming across some old family photographs. Originally I was going to decorate a few pages in the "Altered Journal" by Jessie Chorley that I'd bought her, but in the end I couldn't bare to glue anything in it in case it went wrong and ruined that present... So I left the altered journal as it was and decided to instead make two framed images as gifts in a similar vein to the journal.

The first you can see here features pictures of my mum as a little girl on holiday with my grandparents, having a donkey ride and playing on the beach. I love these photos of her on a proper, old-fashioned British seaside holiday.
The second image is of my parents, me (the baby!) and my brother. It's not the best family photo of us, but I liked the muted colours in it and just the fact that it's probably one of the first snaps of the four of us - and it must bring back happy memories to my mum. (Also the backdrop colour tied in with my idea to emroider some cherry blossom branches. Perfect!) The little bee charm ties in with our family name.

I know they aren't the best collages or images in the world and maybe it's a bit "twee", but it's the sort of thing I knew my mum would like and appreciate - and she did, when she opened them she cried.

Materials used:

Handmade paper

Vintage sequins

Pearly-disc sequins

Ribbon

Embroidery thread

Buttons

Re-prints of old family photos

Silver bee charm

Paper butterflies

Lace

Hi-Tack glue

Shoegazer Creative: Ele the elephant

Shoegazer Creative:
I made this vintage-inspired elephant decorative toy for a friend's recent birthday. I made the pattern from scratch by looking at how other felt toys were constructed and working to similar shapes and principles, altering the shapes as needed. The most difficult part was the trunk, which came out a little bit wonky but hopefully that just adds to the character and charm of the little elephant!
I hope you like her:

Materials used include:

Wool felt

Embroidery thread

Plastic toy eyes

Stuffing

Little Fluffy Clouds

Shoegazer Creative:

I finally broke the creative-block and made a new brooch last night. It's a sad little cloud...

Made of felt with raindrop-shaped glass beads. I plan to make more and stock them in the up-and-coming webshop :)

(OvO) - Owls!

Shoegazer Creative:

I made these owls a while ago and intend to make more in the future. They are made of embossed felt, vintage fabric and wooden buttons and hang by a ribbon. Each owl measures approx 14cm from base to ear tip. Two of these three have been given as gifts to friends... the other one, I kept :D (OvO) Hoot!

If you would like an owl, please comment or email for prices etc. Thanks x