Bridal Commission Piece

Working from this original design I was commissioned to make one in a colour to match the brides dress and use her own colours and flowers in a 1940s/50s style.

After matching the silk to her vintage dress, I blocked and wired a base, then pleated the top layer, stitched it down, covered the back in plain silk and edged it in bias tape made from the same silk.

As she has very short hair she decided she wanted some kind of small clip to hold it on as a big barrette would slip out and a headband or elastic would show on her head.

To make sure it stayed in place I put 2 strong small clips, but going in opposite directions. The idea is to clip the back one in place first then swing the front one downwards slightly to catch more hair and stop it moving on the head as the hair wouldn’t be pulled back in an updo creating natural tension.

Then we worked on placing the pieces from her own bouquet she had sent to be added, green calla lilies, wired rhinestones and peacock swords, and finished it off wrapped in loops of teal ribbon.

Finally topping it off with a big poof of Ivory English veiling, and a secret rhinestoned initial letter A brooch hidden in the back as a secret love note to her new husband.

Haauuullll!!!

I had to run into town for a few bits yesterday and finally managed to get the 1” round labels for my Brother labelmaker. I had had them on order from a store in town who took SEVEN weeks to finally tell me they were on indefinite back order with the manufacturer, even after they told me several times they would be receiving them to send out to me within 5-7 days. Funny that the manufacturer has them for sale on their own website the whole time. From now on we’ll only buy from that store if the item is physically on the shelf ready to buy as this isn’t the first time they have kept us hanging on an exorbitant amount of time with a pre-order item.

But now I have the nice neat little labels needed for my small bridal button looping packaging as well as Thank You stickers and web address stickers for tissue wrapped items and neat business return address labels – Yay!

Now this ‘stuff’ has be niggling at me to buy for a month or so now, and I needed to go to the florist supply store to pick up a tall pillar candle anyway so I finally gave in and bought some. It’s weird! But great! It kind of looks like silly string made into mesh, the receipt lists it as Sisal, but its definitely a man made foamy concoction. It does have some stiffness to it, but I’m going to gently steam it at some point, I do want to keep some of the stiffness in parts to create a cage type feel to the finished hat.

Haaauuullll!!!!!

Finally got into the city yesterday to pick up some much needed supplies. Replenishing the basic bridal looping stock as well as adding a brand new colour, Gold, PERFECT for eveningwear and alternative bridal colours.

I needed some wide White lace for another future project, and this one pretty closely matches my Black and Pink ones so it will be perfect.

Then I hit up the millinery store and scored some beautiful Tiffany Blue Starbright straw, which is for a very special top secret project! And some more basic black millinery wire. I found another unusual braid I might have to go back for to use in the top secret project.

Customer Fabulousness!

Photo Credit:  L. Scabrat 2011

So I have been super busy all week with some big intense custom orders, literally working til 10pm each night, not even time to consider a blog post, but I was taking pictures to post this week.
So it was a nice break to receive an email from one of my clients at the button shop earlier on this week with pictures of the dress she had designed and made herself and finished with a ‘necklace’ of buttons.
She had seen some buttons in my store, but she wanted them to be bigger and asked my opinion on what fabric to use after she explained she was using satin with a chiffon overlay, so I suggested the black silk charmuese, a satin effect but with a warm gauzy glow rather than a harsh sheen like poly satin, with would replicate the gauziness of the chiffon.
And here’s then end result, it looks rather fabulous! I hope she has a great time wearing it to her sons wedding.

Sketchbook

Just doodling with a glass of (red) wine, practicing sketching on the drawing tablet.

Sketchbook

“The” Orange mini base which has been sitting there for months waiting the thing that’s going to finish it, well its going to be finished with stripped bright turquoise coque feathers. Complimentary colours and all that.

Brides Across America

Recently I was asked to re-create some missing buttons from a dress donated to a military bride by Brides Across America.

This is one of the original buttonsAnd here are my copies work in progress, worked over an Ivory Silk Charmuese Bridal Button, then beaded with dozens of tiny clear cupped sequins, silver lined clear seed beads and centred with a bigger seed bead.
Brides Across America donates free wedding dresses to brides either serving in the military or marrying a serving soldier, as a way of saying thank you for their services. www.bridesacrossamerica.com