Shoegazer Visits: An Aquarium

Some shots I took on a recent trip to an aquarium...

The rest might not be great photos but I like them for various reasons:

Above: I call this the Ooh Fish... because it just popped into shot with an expresion like "Ooh, what are you doing?"

Above: This Long Spined Sea Urchin thing reminded me of Soot Bunnies from My Neighbour Totoro! WIN! I love how you can see it's little eyes.

Above: Nemo and his Dad! Aw. Cute.

Shoegazer Creative: My Photos - Brighton

Brighton, May 2010

Old signage, bunting and Union Jacks. Three things I love.

Shoegazer Creative: Supplies and storage

I don't know about you, but I love it when an artist or creative you follow gives a sneak peek into their studio. It's great to see how they store things, where they work and generally just have a good old nose! One day, I really hope to have a spare room to tranform into studio space, but for now I have to make do with storing my supplies in a cupboard and working either on the floor or from a tray on my lap!

I recently invested in some more storage and have now organised my embellishment supplies by colour, making it quicker and easier for me to get started with a project ...

Above: My crafting cupboard a few months ago... unfortunately it's not so tidy now as I have aquired far too much stuff!

Top shelf: Work space with fairy lights, art pencils, paint brushes, tapes and crafting books.

Middle shelf: Drawers full of various metal charms. Containers full of beads, sequins, ribbons, buttons, threads, vintage stamps and playing cards etc...

Bottom shelf: Tin full of chains and fixtures for jewellery making. Large box full of felt and fabric. Lots of japanese stickers! Collage materials. 

  

Above: The new colour-themed storage drawers, filling up nicely!

Above: Examples of embellishment supplies. The white collection. Buttons, beads, pearls, sequins, charms ...

Above: The pink collection.

Above: Vintage watch faces and parts.

Above: Works in progress. Brooches and unfinished hanging decorations.

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 :)

Two For Joy

Shoegazer Creative: This series of two canvases was made as a gift for my boyfriend to be put up in our flat when we eventually get it (...he is superstitious about magpies so I thought that constantly having two in our flat would be lucky for him!) In the bottom right hand corner of the lower canvas are the words "two for joy" very subtly. I am pleased with the outcome of the canvases but not of the photos! They don't do the colours justice and the flash has wiped out most of the detail, but you get the idea I hope. The leaf shapes are fabric-paper and are raised and feel like almost velvet.
Materials used: Acrylic paint, various handmade papers/fabric-papers, small black gems, art pens, transfer letters.

Gloomy Frogs

Shoegazer Creative:
I made this Gloomy Bear decoration a few months ago. It's made of felt with a ribbon to hang it up by. It was just an experiment project really but I am pleased with the outcome!
This Keroppi plushie was also made a few months ago, again just as an experiment . . .If you would like a Gloomy decoration or a Keroppi, I am in the process of developing a webshop with one of my close friends, so watch this space!

(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

One, ah-ha-ha, one Count!

Shoegazer creative:I made this hanging decoration of The Count from Sesame Street for a friend.
It hangs by a ribbon and is about 10cm wide.

Materials: Felt, card, ribbon, glue.