Featured Artist: Maud Traon

It's not very often that we have a customer invite us to view her work on exhibition in Paris. However, that is exactly what happened with our newest featured artist, Maud Traon. 

Maud creates pieces of wearable art, abundant with color and texture. 

 

Her jewelry combines many different materials into fantastical creations.  Look closely and you will see our vintage rhinestones in some of these fabulous pieces. 

Maud's work is currently being shown at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, just across the street from the Louvre.

 

Maud's designs are being exhibited as part of a larger jewelry event called Circuits Bijoux, featuring the work of many contemporary artists housed all around Paris. Completing the tour would be an unusual and exciting way to experience Paris. 

 

If you're in Paris between now and March 2, 2014, go and check out Maud's amazing creations! And if you can't go to Paris, head on over to Maud's website.

 

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage Glass Pearl Bead Drops and French Metal Sequins



It is very late.

There are many new items at Bumbershoot Supplies this week, but this post will be short.

I'm behind because I played hooky for a few hours today
to make some necklaces and earrings.
You know, sometimes you've just got to get away from everything and create.

So for today, I'm going to share 3 splendid items that are newly listed at Bumbershoot Supplies.

These champagne bead drops, beautifully aged teardrops....

These absolutely incredibly rainbow golden ivory drops, out of the original packaging from Japan...

And oh happy day, restocked vintage French metal sequins, shown above also. Haven't had these in stock since April of 2010!

Going to knock off for the day now, wishing you all a great weekend!



Featured Artist. Beatriz Alegría of Le Boudoir Vintage

It is with pleasure I share with you the work of Bea Alegria of Le Boudoir Vintage blog and store. Bea is a journalist from Spain.  She is also an artist.

I enjoy featuring artists from outside of North America, and we love shipping supplies from Bumbershoot Supplies to countries all over the world.  Art is a connecting thread, a common language. Regardless of what I hear or think I understand about another place or country, I now know for sure that there are crafts people, artisans, artists everywhere, doing exactly the same thing as me, working to make art and have art as a presence in their lives. 

It doesn't matter what language is on the blog or the online store, I can still enjoy the story an artist's work tells.

In addition to being an artist and a journalist, Bea is also clearly a romantic.  Many of her designs explore the romance that is Paris.  If you visit her blog and her store, you will see exactly what I mean. 

But the larger overarching theme of her work is to reflect the concept of the vintage boudoir.  Here is what she says:

A boudoir is usually defined as a "little room exquisitely and elegantly decorated for the exclusive use of women, who would retire to this apartment when they desired to be alone or to share a bit of their time with people with whom they shared a certain intimacy".

Can someone tell me when women stopped having boudoirs?  Does anyone out there have a boudoir? What a FABULOUS concept! Even the word itself is fabulous! I want one! We must bring it back! 

I'm going to see if I can turn my studio into a boudoir...

This theme of intimacy with a vintage flair is reflected in how Bea presents her art in her blog and her online store, each piece a little vignette and digital collage.

I hope you will enjoy a trip to Le Boudoir Vintage blog and Le Boudoir Vintage store to see Bea's work. There is a contact page on Bea's store, don't hesitate to use it to ask any questions you may have.  Bea is a delightful person, and although located in Spain, her English is perfect, as I know from the many communications we've exchanged.  Enjoy your visit, and tell her Sharon from Bumbershoot Supplies sent you!

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Fleur. Earring Design Featuring Vintage Copper Fleur de Lis from Bumbershoot Supplies

This is Fleur.

There isn't much cross over between Bumbershoot Supplies and Bumbershoot Designs. By that I mean that you don't see too many of the supplies I purchase for Bumbershoot Supplies ending up in the designs I offer at Bumbershoot Designs.

I'm not exactly sure why it has worked out that way, but when I purchased these vintage copper fleur de lis for Bumbershoot Supplies, I knew I wanted to design with them.

I threaded the prongs through a Vintaj brass filigree, and pressed them down. They easily fold securely onto the filigree and it is nice and neat at the back. I had some lovely bronze-ish vintage baroque glass pearls, which I adorned with more Vintaj - the brass floral bead caps.  Then I wire wrapped using antiqued copper ball head pin to the filigree and finished with antiqued copper leverbacks.

Warm, rich earrings, with a lovely and subtle mix of metals, naturally aged patina, lustrous pearls. Works for me! Fleur is in the vintage pearls section of Bumbershoot Designs, or just contact me.

Wishing you a great weekend!

Vintage French Ribbon Featured on the Front Page of Etsy

Just featured on the Front Page of Etsy, about an hour ago, as part of a beautiful treasury.

This gorgeous vintage French ribbon dates from the 1940's - 1943 is written on the spool.

Vintage 1940s French Ribbon, Antique Ivory, 5/8 inch

Many thanks to Jennifer at FriendlyFairies, for including my ribbon in this lovely treasury!

Vintage Children. Art Creations Friday

This is the first time I've participated in Art Creations Friday.  I could not resist these two beautiful children, especially as the image is French and I have been working with some recently purchased antique French seed package labels. 

This is a tea stained tag, with stamps and rubons, over which are laid a copy of one of my French seed packet labels, trimmed around the flowers.  Also stitched, and embellished with vintage French ribbon (from 1943) and vintage flower cabochons.

Women. Wednesday Stamper

This is a creation for the Wednesday Stamper challenge blog, where the theme this week is "women" in honor of Women's History Month in the United States.  This is an artist trading card (ATC) created in memory of my maternal grandmother.  She is the one in the center, in the lovely flapper dress. You probably can't see it, but her outfit is complete with a long strand of pearls and rolled down stocking.  Her family was British and her father served in WWI.  His pet name for her was Poppy (after the Flanders Fields poem). I have a couple of beautiful fabric post cards of his correspondence to her during WWI (see below).  I am so inspired by women I see around me, creating inspiration and history every day, whether or not we hear of them.

The background of this card was a photo of poppies from our garden that I digitally altered.  The photo of her family is placed over the background and I've used stamps in 2 places: for the words and along the side, where I stamped into modeling paste with a swirling stamp, then inked over the top.  Embellished with vintage beads.

Below are two of my great grandfather's post cards to my grandmother from WWI. My mother had these framed some years ago, so there is reflection from the glass over the card, but their beauty can still be seen.

Amazing Buttons

Vintage buttons are simply amazing to me. So much history, craftsmanship, so many stories packed into a small and often little regarded item. I also love the old button cards themselves, the designs and the artistic way the buttons themselves were presented.

I love the one below because of the gorgeous graphics, the flower-like button presentation and the name. I did a bit of research and learned that Lady Washington Pearls were made by the American Pearl Button Company, located in Washington, Iowa. These buttons are beautifully carved around the rims. They were likely made in the 1930's.

I have been collecting vintage buttons to use in making jewelry for Bumbershoot Designs and also for our soon-to-open supply shop on Etsy, Bumbershoot Supplies. These are some lovely ivory china buttons I found at a wonderful local antique shop, Antika.

These were made in France, likely 1940's. They are a glorious rich ivory, in perfect condition on their cards. A great find. They pair beautifully with antiqued brass, vintage rhinestone buttons and 1940's Japanese glass pearls, as below: