Textile Cuff Bracelets

These textile cuff bracelets were made whilst  working on new ribbon scarves (because there's nothing quite like being distracted to stop all work on the thing you were supposed to be doing....)

I am a complete and utter hoarder of lace and ribbon which has left me with a great pile of stuff; also my mother in law Simone gave me some fab French vintage lace a while back some of which she decided was over 80 years old (she is French and over 80 years old herself).  These cuffs are worked with vintage, antique and contemporary textiles and each one is a labour of love.

These are currently for sale in my Etsy shop, click on the Etsy link to side of this post to go there.

This is 'Giverny Textile Cuff' with vintage beaded trim, velvet, lace and collected threads and fibres from around the world and across time... 

La Vie En Rose Textile Cuff...I love the antique rose colours of this one - vintage lace, gold thread, antique lace, velvet, grosgrain, vintage beaded trim, organza, silk, satin and ombre ribbons with collected threads and fibres from around the world.

 St Tropez Textile Cuff Bracelet - With vintage organza rose trim, contemporary bead trim, silk, satin, organza, wool, velvet, antique lace collected both in England and France; this is a lovely rich chocolately-gold cuff with some pretty gold lace, organza ribbons and vintage beaded trim. 

Upcycled Necklace - Beau Belle

I finished this a few days ago.   Sometimes, when I go to an antique fair I get so excited I almost faint - finding this gorgeous marcasite-set enamelled brooch was one such occasion.   It doesn't seem like vandalism to me to take off the back of a brooch and make it into something else, especially as everyone is wearing bows at the moment - I went down to our local shopping mall (the huge Trafford Centre) to see everyone, the world, his wife and their sister wearing great huge drippy trails of outsize faux pearls and bows, I know, its been in for ages.  I don't really do outsize jewellery all that much - with all the fashion in right now, the colours, the shapes, its so reminiscent of the 1980's when I was a kid - and I've only just got over that.  

Anyway, I digress.  I've had this piece on my desk for ages, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it but just hadn't got round to it - mainly because I was having difficulties locating the right shade of green freshwater pearls for it - having said that, trawling through my bead boxes turned up these, and I thought I was going to use dark metallic Keishi pearls but ended up using this softer grey instead.   The piece is made to be worn asymmetrically - that is, with the bow to one side and with the clasp showing - why put on a great expensive sterling silver and marcasite clasp if you're going to hide it at the back.

Amazingly, the bow stays exactly where it was put - I know this because I couldn't resist test-driving the piece whilst down at the Trafford Centre and I near enough got mugged for it in Monsoon and Molton Brown, though its always nice to have pieces admired.    The lady in Monsoon was telling me she made clothes -- its a pity we don't all wear t-shirts saying what we like to do, because I'm sure we'd make some great friends....anyway, hope you like the pics.

Saskia Heirloom Comb

This is Saskia Heirloom comb - as soon as I saw the huge c.1980's vintage clip on earrings I knew they were too large for the ears of any human being, but I knew exactly what I would do with them - they were an unusual shaped piece of Mother of pearl overlaid with goldtone brass filigree and then some nice beadwork and crystal twinkles - I took the backs off and then sat with my head in my hands for a while regretting that - how, when I had taken the fixings off was I going to be able to wire them back into something?  
I sorted that one out in the end then had fun wiring Swarovski crystal pearls and beads, freshwater pearls and other tiny treasures into the comb - making the middle join up was a challenge because every time I put in new beads, the earrings parted company which meant going back to more wirework; to me, the important thing about using vintage items in a fresh new piece is that is that the entire finished piece should look as 'seamless' as possible; despite my telling you there are vintage items in there, the join between the new and the old should not be obvious. 
I've made the comb a bit flexible so that it can be inserted against the hair rather than perch on top...in the end, I was pleased with the piece and can't wait to see someone wearing it!

Talia Heirloom Tiara

This is Talia Helirloom Tiara; I started with a handmade flexible wire band then added a patinated mesh butterfly which I had in my stash - this dates to around the 1960's; over time it has developed a darkened patina which I decided to leave as is rather than clean up and make it shiny so it looked like new - mainly because I wanted to use the gorgeous Swarovski crystal pearl colour 'Platinum' in the piece.  I made a Swarovski crystal, wire and rocailles (seed bead) flower and added Czech glass leaves, Swarovski crystal pearl and bead wired 'sprays; the colour that naturally goes with the Platinum coloured Swarovski pearl is turquoise and this looked gorgeous with the butterfly.   I finished off the piece by wiring Swarovski pearls on the band; its an unconventional piece for a bride, but I thought it would look lovely for a 'Midsummer Night's Dream' type wedding or perhaps for a bridesmaid. 

Vivienne Heirloom Band Tiara

This is Vivienne Heirloom Tiara/Band which I made using an original 1980's crystal-and-faux-pearl-set goldtone brooch, wired into a handmade frame and embellished with Swarovski crystal and seed beads/rocailles.   A particular challenge was identifying the crystal pearl colour to match the original faux pearl, but as usual, I found a good match in one of the Swarovski pearl colours, and after identifying the matching Swarovski crystal colours, the challenge I had to come up with something a bit inventive for the side ornamentation which complemented the original brooch, so I made four-petal Swarovski-based flowers and also came up with Swarovski crystal pearl and bead 'rosettes', which you can see here to the side of the piece. It was only after I finished it that I realised that the gold-plated rocailles are what can only be termed 'delicate' - after quite a lot of gnashing of teeth, I found myself having to remake several of the flowers and rosettes because the gold was coming off inside the beads.  In the end, I used the same rocailles but used a painted on substance which is used to preserve and protect artwork and fragile papers - it cannot be seen by the naked eye, and gives a great deal of protection to these delicate beads and also the wirework and original piece of 1980's jewellery; I held my breath whilst I worked with the archival fluid but it worked out just fine.

I've been working on new and fresh items for the relaunch of my tiara site, 'Tiaraonline' and the relaunch has been in the works for months and months - this piece took me the best part of a week to make, so progress is slow but I think that's ok as I feel its important to have good work to display and offer for sale when it does launch.  I anticipate it will be up and running in about three to four weeks.

  

It's a fairly substantial piece of hair jewellery, which I imagine worn in alice-band fashion though I tried it out and it can be worn as a conventional tiara too - there are loops at the back of the frame so it can be pinned into place, but I find that my handmade flexible frames tend not to need securing in that way.  I can't wait to see photos of the bride who eventually wears this.

Emile Heirloom Tiara

This is my latest Heirloom Tiara, caled Emile. I used a 1950's cold painted enamel and diamante brooch and earrings, silvertone tiara base, Swarovski crystal, glass rocailles, freshwater pearls and silver plated wire to make this piece.

New Bracelets

Latest bracelets I've made for SLC Designs - these have yet to go on the site, so this is a bit of a preview - if you are interested in any of these, please just get in touch at stephanie@slcdesigns.co.uk

Above - first of a series of 'Upcycled' vintage pieces - 1950's brooch and mother of pearl bracelet link, acrylic silvertone flower, Swarovski crystal and Swarovski crystal pearls.