Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, the Fremont Troll

Car crushing Fremont Troll, who lives under the highway in

Fremont, Center of the Universe, Seattle

You will hear more about this troll, later...

To travelers! Enter if you dare!

Through these windows you may peer

This realm exists for all to share

A gift to hold so dear!

~from The Library Troll, by Theo van Joolen

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Copper Pearl All Vintage Cufflinks

I offer several cufflink designs at Bumbershoot Designs, all featuring vintage mother of pearl cabochons, and this is the newest design, just listed today.

These cufflinks are particularly pleasing to me since they are made from all vintage components. The posts are vintage, as are the mother of pearl pieces.  These vintage posts have a natural age related patina that softens the color of the copper plating.  The antiqued copper color works well with this particular mother of pearl, which has a lot of pink flash to it.  These posts work like a charm, nice and smooth, but secure.

I love offering a jewelry item for men. Although I have sold cufflinks to women for their personal use, most frequently my cufflinks are purchased by and/or for men.  I offer 5 additional types of mother of pearl cufflinks, in white and grey pearls, some smooth and some carved.  My Classic Pearl cufflinks were recently featured on the Front Page of Etsy as part of a lovely Father's Day treasury, you can see the treasury here.

All of my cufflinks are available in the cufflinks section of Bumbershoot Designs.  If you need any assistance, just let me know and I'll be glad to help. 

Wishing you a great weekend, and a great Memorial Day Holiday if you are in the US!

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. New Glass, New Plastic, New Metals, Oh My!

Several new items have made their way onto the shelves of Bumbershoot Supplies this week. All vintage, of course :) Here's just a few:

New and restocked vintage cabochons and vintage beads, see the vintage beads and vintage glass cabochons sections of Bumbershoot Supplies, including 1940's beaded pink and white millinery flowers or leaves from Italy (see above), Japanese millefiore and mirrored West German cabochons...

...and these 1940's vintage Czech wintergreen or spearmint beads, to complement the candy cane beads we already stock...

New in plastics are below, see the vintage beads section for the golden donuts and love knots.

These new scrumptious leaves are in the vintage plastic cabochons section.....

New metals, all found in vintage findings, charms, except the brass corrugated beads, which are in with the vintage beads...

If there is something you are wondering about, just contact me, I'm happy to help you find it and answer any questions.

Featured Artist. Sarah Elder of MySoCalledJunkyLife on Etsy

I'm happy to share with you the work of Sarah Elder of MySoCalledJunkyLife on Etsy (also called seraart, don't get confused, you are in the right place!). 

Sarah asked me for some of the vintage glass pearl shell pendants available at Bumbershoot Supplies, and I asked if she would please share what she did with them. And she did! I love it when that happens!

I feel drawn to Sarah's work since she repurposes truly beautiful vintage components in interesting ways, either alone or in combination with the highest quality contemporary beads, pearls, and findings. If you visit her design shop, you will see exactly what I mean. Especially as we head into June, the month of pearls, you will find lots of pearly items to inspire you.

Sarah also has a supplies shop on Etsy, you can find it here.  Her shop offers unique vintage items beautifully presented, with wonderful photographs. I have often visited her shop to look at her unique tag kits, and I encourage you to visit for a dose of vintage inspiration.

Studio Snapshot. Vintage Rhinestone Pin Inspiration

A vintage rhinestone pin from my small collection, pinned on an antique dress form...

A beautiful piece with antiqued gold filigree, glass stones in various blues and turquoise, plus those remarkable opalescent rhinestones.  Unsigned.

Cards. Three Muses. Vintage Button Card Tag

This is my entry for this week's challenge of "cards" at the Three Muses.

"Cards" drew me to the vintage button cards that I have posted on the walls of my studio. I scanned some into the computer and used a copy of one of them to make this tag.

Vintage button card facsimile, vintage mother of pearl buttons, stamped, stitched, embellished.

See the back, looks just like a vintage button card :)

 The original card.
Also, if you scroll down, or go to this link, you will see another tag that I created using the same approach for Mixed Media Monday's challenge of Marie Antoinette.

Cufflinks With Vintage Mother of Pearl Cabochons Featured on the Front Page of Etsy

Classic Pearl Cufflinks from Bumbershoot Designs, featured on the Front Page of Etsy about an hour ago, as part of a beautiful Father's Day treasury.  These cufflinks are made from gorgeous vintage new old stock (NOS) mother of pearl cabochons. These mother of pearl pieces were manufactured in the US between the 1920’s and 1940’s. The tops are smooth, lovely to the touch. This mother of pearl is very luminous, with almost a moonstone-like quality. It's such a pleasure to work with, I really love making these cufflinks.

For other cufflink designs featuring vintage mother of pearl,

 see the "cufflinks" section of Bumbershoot Designs.
These are regular items for Bumbershoot Designs, so if the pair you are looking for is sold, just contact me.

Many thanks to Toni at BucktoothedBunny, for including my cufflinks in this lovely treasury!

Marie Antoinette. Mixed Media Monday.

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Marie Antoinette, at Mixed Media Monday.

Tea stained tag, stamped, rub ons, vintage button card facscimile, stitched, with vintage French ribbon, old mother of pearl buttons and vintage paper flower as embellishments.

It turns out that the challenge at Three Muses for this week is "cards", and that got me looking at my vintage button cards and I found this gorgeous, pristine button card with a Marie Antoinette-style graphic. I scanned the button card to use as the image for the tag. I sewed through all the button holes and added 3 real buttons to the image.

I also have a couple of jewelry designs available at Bumbershoot Designs inspired by and named after Marie, using very old vintage glass pearls.

One light...

And one dark...

These earrings are regular items at Bumbershoot Designs, available here. If you can't find them, just contact me and I'll help you out.

Tulip Necklace from Bumbershoot Designs Featured on 6th Street Design School

Many thanks to Kirsten of 6th Street Design School for featuring my

Vintage Tulip Necklace in her Etsy Floral Necklace Roundup. 
Check it out!

It's wonderful to be in such beautiful company! 

This necklace features a gorgeous antiqued brass tulip, adorned with a beautiful rustic figure 8 chain and very, very old and special stamen-shaped antique glass pearls.

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Foster Kitten Baby

New and temporary addition to our family... what to name her? She has white socks and pink paws and the cutest little white tummy. Weighs 1 pound, all of her fits in my hand. There are 3 more who did not cooperate when I decided they needed to have their photos taken :)

They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription.

I say, 'Can he name a kitten?'

~Samuel Butler

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Black Rose. Vintage Flower Necklace

New at Bumbershoot Designs this week, this vintage rose necklace features a glossy black vintage rose cabochon pendant from Bumbershoot Supplies as a focal point. It is paired with the most lovely vintage glass beaded chain, with faceted black beads that sparkle just enough to enhance the gloss of the rose. A second strand of antiqued brass chain and a fancy front hook clasp finish this piece.

Of all flowers, Methinks a rose is best. ~William Shakespeare

This very limited edition necklace is currently available at Bumbershoot Designs in the necklaces section. If you need assistance locating it, just contact me.

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage Boot Buttons, Glass Cabochons, Glass Pearls

Yesterday our newsletter subscribers received an email product update, showing several of the new items at Bumbershoot Supplies.  Some of the exciting items that did not make it into yesterday's newsletter due to space limitations include...

Boot buttons! Yes! Spectacular vintage mother of pearl boot buttons, new old stock, never used, are back in 2 colors, royal blue and jet black.  Small lots, get 'em while we have them.  In the vintage buttons section.

Also, there are a few new and tempting glass cabochons, including these lovely, highly articulated jade green flower cabs. Look for them in the vintage glass cabochons section of the shop. Just added moments ago.

And a new 1940's glass pearl drop, a beautiful assortment of light grey and off white glass pearls complete with tiny beadcaps and headpins, in wonderful condition, just slightly and perfectly patina'd . It's really a treat to be able to offer these, they are found with the vintage beads.   Plus below, some vintage brass double heart pearl chain, try wiring through the hearts, or gluing this as trim, you'll find it in the vintage findings, charms section. 

Coming soon, watch for the return of 1950's mirror cameos and 1960's pink love knots, as well as some baby blue pearl love knots, various seed beads including some from 1920's Czechoslovakia, swarovski rhinestone charms, and more. I'll see you again next Friday with another weekly update on new vintage goodies at Bumbershoot Supplies.

Three Muses. Relationships. Love the One You're With

This is my entry for this week's challenges at the Three Muses, "relationships", called "Love the One You're With".

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt made with more of my stash of hand dyed fabric, which I sun printed, then wrote on with white pen, stamped, stitched with metallic thread and finally foiled.

The one you are always with is yourself.  I've always found that my relationships with others, be they humans, animals, and even the plants in my garden, are so much better when I am in good relationship to myself.  This art quilt is my reminder of this personal reality.

Studio Snapshot. Vintage Postcard Inspiration

Early 1900's antique post card...

Although I regularly sell vintage and antique post cards at Bumbershoot Supplies, there are a few that I keep for myself because they inspire or touch me in some way. This card sits on a shelf in my studio, by the ribbons I use to wrap up jewelry purchases, so I see it all the time. I love this card because it reminds us that amidst winter, the memory and the reality of spring is still present. It also reminds me of my snowy Canadian childhood - we don't get much snow here in Seattle. Plus the back of the card is very sweet, it was written by a mother on behalf of her young daughter, clearly too young to write herself: "Here is a card Miss Olga McMillan sends to Marie. I would like to ask you what do you want Santa Claus to bring you for Xmas. I remain your friend." The address is merely a name, city and state.  Imagine that... 

Fish. Think Monday Think ATC

This is my entry for "fish", this week's challenge at Think Monday Think ATC. This ATC, called Piscean Dreams, has an image of a fish overlaid with a transparency covered with words created by me via computer, embellished with gold metal tape (same iridescent shade as the fish's eyes) and a bubble-like cabochon disc (find these in the vintage glass cabochons section of Bumbershoot Supplies).

I got thinking about fish and what they might dream or think about, and then I remembered Dory in Finding Nemo - "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, that's what we do, we swim, swim, swim".  What a great thing to remember during the continuing difficult economic times, just keep swimming, what else is there to do...  I added in "clean water" and "food" since I thought fish might think about those things too.

 

Fish are pretty big in the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, great places to see fish are the Seattle Aquarium, and the Ballard Locks, where there is a fish ladder for salmon to migrate from the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington and beyond.