New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage Style Settings For Rhinestones and Cabochons

The second shipment of settings to match our vintage rhinestones has arrived!

There are are prong and glue in settings, and both types are are now listed and available at Bumbershoot Supplies.

We had these settings made to order and professionally antiqued for us by a long time family owned business located here in the United States.  The pieces are plated to a warm golden honey brass ox color and sealed so they will stay this color for years to come.

We also have more glue in bezel settings to fit our vintage cabochons.  I'll be getting those listed and available in the next day or so. You can see a few of the new bezels for flat back cabochons in the photo above.

Our  second order of settings in this lovely antiqued brass finish is currently in production and they will arrive some time in November.

Ultimately, it is our goal to offer settings to fit all of our vintage rhinestones and vintage cabochons, so we will continue to expand in this area for some time.

Wishing you all a great Halloween weekend!

Featured Artist. Stephanie Wright of September Mornings on Etsy

Funny thing how I find artists to feature on this blog.  The way I found Stephanie Wright of September Mornings on Etsy was through her shop name, "September Mornings".  She purchased some vintage glass cabochons and vintage beads from Bumbershoot Supplies and that phrase, September Mornings, rolled around in my thoughts for a while. I found it so evocative, calling up that quiet sweetness, the soft promise that is present in early fall mornings... Well, you have to follow your instincts, so I clicked on over to her shop and checked it out. 

I am so glad I did! The way in which Stephanie uses vintage materials in her designs is truly inspiring. 

Her designs use a collaged, layered approach, and each piece is full of tiny vintage treasures, carefully selected and composed.  When I look at Stephanie's designs, I long to touch and handle each piece, to get a close up view of the tiny bits and baubles she has presented in such pleasing and creative arrangements. 

This is jewelry that tells a story, in a quiet sweet way, like September mornings.

Stephanie recently added some new designs using vintage glass pearl twisted leaves from Bumbershoot Supplies. I love how these old glass pearls work in these pieces, they integrate so well with the other vintage components.

If anyone is listening (you know who you are) anything you see in this blog post is now officially added to my Christmas wish list...

I hope you will visit Stephanie at September Mornings. You will certainly be inspired and treated to gorgeous pieces, beautifully photographed. Many of Stephanie's designs are one of a kind, so who knows, you may even find one with a story meant just for you. 



Vintage Design Inspiration Board #5 with Creativity Quote

When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.

~Linda Naiman

Inspiration Board #5 features:

vintage occupied Germany mirror bubble heart buttons (US Zone)

antique silk ribbon (Japan)

vintage hook and eye card (USA)

vintage occupied Germany mirror bubble flower butons (US zone)

vintage ruby cabochons rhinestones (West Germany)

vintage ruby navette rose montees (Czech)

vintage brass scroll heart stampings (USA)

vintage glass pearl strand (Japan)

vintage lipstick red lampwork flower bead (Japan)

vintage maple leaf millinery leaves (Japan)

vintage "made in Japan" paper tags and paper bag (Japan)

vintage rhinestone and pearl earring

vintage tatted lace

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 6x6 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Perfect Pumpkin Pie

perfect pumpkin pie

(raspberry cinnamon pie below)

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

~Jim Davis

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. 10 New and 6 Restocked. Vintage Beads, Cabochons, Rhinestones and More

Jim and I are very hard at work converting our web site, www.bumbershootsupplies.com, into a retail shopping site for our vintage supplies.  We expect to launch in November, and we will continue to offer our supplies on our Etsy site, Bumbershoot Supplies on Etsy, as well. If you have ever built a retail website, offering hundreds of products, you will know that our days are very long currently:) I have found a bit of time, however, to continue to expand our offerings at Bumbershoot Supplies on Etsy, and since Oct 15, I have added 10 new items and restocked 6 favorites.

In addition to these fascinating vintage mother of pearl beads, I've also located some gorgeous vintage mother of pearl pendants, very large, in a lovely shimmering rose. You'll find them in the vintage mother of pearl section of Bumbershoot Supplies.

We've added more vintage rhinestones, including several navettes, such as these green turmaline beauties by Swarovski.

There are some new glass cabochons, such as these pretty blues, so interesting with their crystal garden-like surface and the blue sapphire givre glass over foiled backs.

We've restocked 2 beads, these from 1940's occupied Germany, and the sky blue vintage glass beads from Japan shown at the very top of this blog post.

Plus, we've located more of these charming vintage plastic flower basket charms from 1940's to 1950's Japan.

You will find all our new items at Bumbershoot Supplies, I welcome you over for a bit of browsing to see what is new.  Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

Look What I Found. Vintage Handpainted Japanese Kiddy Jewelry Set

If you have visited Bumbershoot Supplies, you know we carry a lot of vintage Japanese handpainted flower cabochons and embellishments, ranging in age from the 1940's to the 1960's.  I have never met a handpainted vintage flower cabochon that I didn't like :) and I'm convinced you can never have too many flowers of any kind in your life.  Imagine my delight when I discovered this handpainted "kiddy set" in a Seattle antique store I visited for the first time last week.

This charming set consists of a bracelet, ring and flower basket pin, all painted in soft colors that have faded perfectly with time.  The bracelet is exquisite, with roses, daisies and lily of valley curving around the sides. These pieces are tiny - this set was designed for a very little girl. Remember playing dress up way back when?  Perhaps you still do sometimes :)  How wonderful it was to have a matched set of jewelry - these 3 pieces would make it a "demi parure" in costume jewelry jargon. Very special.

Emma and I still enjoy playing dress up sometimes. Indeed, we were at the antique store looking at some vintage dresses for Emma.  She found a wonderful 1950's - 1960's navy with white polka dot dress with matching jacket.  It came home with us and looks fabulous with her vintage white gloves and the navy hat in this blog post.

Featured Artist Update. Sarah Elder of My So Called Junky Life on Etsy Published in Jewelry Affaire

Have you seen the latest issue of Jewelry Affaire by Stampington?

Sarah Elder of My So Called Junky Life, featured artist on this blog in May, has a gorgeous bracelet published on page 80 of this issue! Sarah's bracelet is on the left. Whose bracelet is on the right? Scroll down to find out...

In the article Sarah is quoted discussing how she is inspired by the 1920's era, a time of many changes for women. Sarah often uses vintage rhinestone pieces in her designs, and this bracelet features a beautiful deco style rhinestone clip.

It was absolutely thrilling to see one of Sarah's beautiful designs featured in a prominent magazine. I returned to Sarah's design shop, My So Called Junky Life, to see what she had been up to.  And here is what I found...

Piece after piece...

...of beautiful, vintage inspired designs.

If you haven't yet visited, I hope you will take a trip to My So Called Junky Life to see Sarah's beautiful and inspired designs. And don't forget her supplies shop by the same name, for a fine selection of vintage items for your art.  Plus I enjoy keeping in touch with Sarah via the RSS feed for Sarah's blog, so I can recommend a trip to visit her there, too.

Now, the bracelet on the right is a design by the uber talented Kristen Robinson, who will be familiar to many of you if you read the Stampington magazines. Kristen is teaching an online class, Ethereal Bangles. It begins November 1, and I am very excited to be one of the students.  I'll post more about the class as we get into it.

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #4 with Creativity Quote

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

~Henry Ward Beecher

Inspiration Board #4 features:

vintage yellow glass lampwork flowers (Japan)

antique silk ribbon (Japan)

vintage mother of pearl button card (USA)

vintage occupied Germany millinery flower (USSR zone)

vintage crystal rhinestones (West Germany)

vintage glass ring (Czech)

vintage mother of pearl loose buttons (USA)

vintage Swarovski jade glass cabochons (Austria)

vintage Miriam Haskell beaded flowers (Japan)

vintage beaded letter A (French)

vintage nail head beads (Czech)

vintage tatted and hand sewn doily

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

vintage wallpaper circles

mounted on 6x9 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week. Yellow Leaves, Greenlake, Seattle

yellow maple leaves, Greenlake, Seattle

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

~William Shakespeare

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. 38 New Vintage Beads, Cabochons, Rhinestones, and More Since October 15

Since October 1, we have added 38 new items and restocked 5 at Bumbershoot Supplies. Here are some of our new items...

We are still awaiting our pronged and glue in settings and bezels for our vintage cabochons and rhinestones. They are at the plater now, being antiqued and sealed, so it won't be long. In anticipation, we've added some more lovely vintage glass rhinestones to go into the pronged settings. The crystal ones in the center are from 1940's occupied Germany, and I was so taken with these stones that I immediately made a pair of earrings using our antiqued brass settings. I've included a photo of my earrings in the listing... We have some new vintage glass cabochons in all shapes and sizes.  If you like the beauty and usefulness of the tiny glass cabochons (they are so wonderful for jewelry and mixed media layering and collage), the green baguettes are very petite and are also available in ruby red.  Plus we've found some of the loveliest tiny white glass pearl cabochons (not shown), these gorgeous aqua leaves, and the incredible salmon matrix cabs shown to the right.  Even if matrix glass is not your thing, these glass cabs came with an incredible history and story that you may find interesting.  We are able to date these to between 1936 to 1941.  Intrigued? The history of these cabochons is written into the listing, I invite you to visit Bumbershoot Supplies to learn more about these cabochons... More really lovely vintage glass beads have been added to our collection, including these wonderful large garnet ruby nailheads, very old Czech.  I think these could be used as cabochons too.  The light coming through these beads is incredible.  We have been able to restock the wonderful vintage Japanese coral swirl beads, but only in a limited amount.  And I find there is just something so vintage about the color montana sapphire.  It's really pretty in the beads on the right, mixed with crystal glass, giving the beads a sense of movement, kind of like the stormy fall skies we are starting to see... Finally, a few more items that I hope you find interesting and inspiring.  I was sold these vintage ivory piano keys as "woodwind reeds".  When I opened the package I knew exactly what they were since we are fortunate enough to own Jim's mom's vintage Steinway.  These antique piano keys would make wonderful pendants and found objects for incorporating into jewelry and mixed media designs.  I have both heads and tails, just the heads are shown below.  These can only be shipped within the US, due to customs laws. The buttons, however, can be shipped anywhere :) These were a surprise I didn't know I had.  I was looking for more of our vintage glass mirrored heart buttons, opened up a box and found these beauties from 1940's occupied Germany.  They had been sent by mistake several months ago.  I usually don't open all the button boxes right away when we receive them. I like to prolong the thrill of being the first person to open boxes that were last sealed in the 1940's. What a wonderful surprise! These are available loose in lots of 2, or as full cards.

I invite you to come on over to Bumbershoot Supplies and have a look at all these new vintage treasures. 

Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

Look What I Found. Miriam Haskell Beaded Flower Filigrees

I just have to share a picture of these vintage beaded flower filigrees. You can see these used in Miriam Haskell pieces, there are a number of pictures in Cathy Gordon's book Miriam Haskell Jewelry. Wonderful! I was very excited to be able to purchase a few to add to my personal collection.  Now I just have to bring myself to use them :)  Perhaps in a vintage design inspiration board...

Featured Artist. Cathy Sizer of Rings of Desire on Etsy.

It is my pleasure to share with you the work of Cathy Sizer of Rings of Desire on Etsy.

Cathy's enthusiam for creating jewelry designs with comtemporary and vintage components is palpable.  You can feel it right through the Internet.  I learned of her enthusiasm because of photos she shared with me of designs she has created using supplies from Bumbershoot Supplies.  If you visit her shop and read her enthusiastic descriptions of her designs, you'll see just what I mean.

Just 1 month ago, Cathy retired as a pediatric nurse practitioner and she is now using the time she used to spend nurturing others in nurturing herself via beading and designing.

I find it so inspiring to see how others use the vintage supplies we stock at Bumbershoot Supplies.  Usually I have ideas in mind for the supplies we bring in, if I were to work with them myself (which is seems there is never enough time to do!).  But those are only my ideas, and I am so enriched by seeing how others use our supplies.  Truly, I am in awe of the depths of human creativity and imagination. 

I enjoy how Cathy takes the best of contemporary and the best of vintage and combines the two into new and interesting patterns and forms. You will often find matched sets at Rings of Desire, for example earrings and necklaces made with the same components, very much in keeping with the vintage costume jewelry esthetic.

And one other aspect of Cathy's work that is very special is that she often uses vintage costume jewelry components that she inherited from her mother-in-law, Shirley, who passed on last year at the age of 90.  Including such special pieces embues Cathy's designs with an extra dose of love. 

I hope you will consider a trip to visit Rings of Desire. Enjoy the inspiration and be sure to say hi to Cathy while you are there!