Complementary Upgrade to USPS Priority Mail at Bumbershoot Designs

How's it going - are you knee deep in holiday preparations?

We can help!

As of today, Dec 14, 2011, all jewelry purchases made at Bumbershoot Designs on the web and Bumbershoot Designs on Etsy will receive complementary shipping upgrades to USPS Priority Mail.  This upgrade is for all US customers purchasing our designs - you pay the regular shipping and we'll pay the extra fees to upgrade your package to Priority Mail. No need to ask, no coupon code necessary, we'll provide Priority Mail shipping for all US shipments until Dec 21, 2011. 

The US Postal Service says that Dec 21, 2011 is the last shipping day to ship Priority Mail packages for Christmas delivery.  All of the jewelry designs at Bumbershoot Designs are ready to ship. Be sure to order by 10am on Dec 21, 2011 for Christmas delivery.

For the convenience of our local Seattle customers, we will support last minute purchases by shipping up to and including Dec 23, 2011, with our usual 10am shipping deadline.

And don't forget gift certificates! We send those electronically so they are a great last minute option.

Wishing you a happy holiday season!

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week. Cameo Memories

...my grandmother's locket cameo, rediscovered this past weekend...

I have only to take down this or that to flood my soul with memories.

~Dorothie Deluzy

New at Bumbershoot Designs. More Vintage Cameo Necklaces and a New Demi Parure

I have really been enjoying working with vintage resin cameos lately.  I really loved the long ivory cameo necklace I made a few weeks ago and have continued to add some beautiful vintage resin cameos to my collection and designs.

The narcissus above is a larger version of the vintage cameos I used in this bracelet...

...and these earrings.

These beautiful romantic blush pink and white cameos were perfectly complemented by some pink enamel metal flower bead caps that I made up into a layered flower and pearl charm.  I'm really excited by these bead caps since they were made for Coro, the famous vintage costume jewelry design house.  They are textured on the enameled side and reflective gold on the inside of the flower.

Perfect for flower charm earrings too, they make me think of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream "...and hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear...".

I was able to only find a few of the blush pink cameos, but there are a few of the same cameo in crystal matte still available at Bumbershoot Supplies, if you are interested.

Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage Cabochons Galore

Several new types and styles of vintage cabochons newly available at Bumbershoot Supplies this week.  See if anything here sparks your creativity...

All of these vintage cabochons and cameos are ready and waiting for your creating at Bumbershoot Supplies...

Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

Miriam Haskell Flower Cameo Cabochons at Bumbershoot Supplies

At Bumbershoot Supplies, we are very interested in the provenance and history of the vintage supplies we offer. For this reason, I am constantly researching our supplies to learn as much about them as I can. On the weekend, I was again reviewing one of my resources, this book...

And what did I find on page 353?

This signed Miriam Haskell pendant and earrings set. The pendant features a gorgeous vintage glass flower cameo cabochon. And guess what! We now carry these cabochons at Bumbershoot Supplies!

These are exquisite flower cabochons. They have a decal transfer expertly applied to white glass, and then white accents were hand painted on top of the decal. These truly beautiful pieces are in mint condition, and the delicate hand painting really elevates them to something special.

Many of the items we sell at Bumbershoot Supplies were sold to me as Miriam Haskell stock, especially our vintage glass pearls. But I hesitate to label them as Haskell unless I have further verification. So I'm really excited to be able to say that these flower cabochons are the same ones that the Miriam Haskell Company used in some of their designs.

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #12 with Creativity Quote

Which can say more than this rich praise that you alone are you?

~Shakespeare

Inspiration Board #12 features:

vintage millinery leaves (France)

vintage silver metal sequins (France)

vintage transparent sapphire glass cabochons (Czech)

vintage rhinestone flower button (Austria)

vintage light sapphire flower cabochon (Czech)

vintage angel wing paillette sequin (France)

vintage crystal deco cabochons (occupied Germany)

vintage cabochon paper wrapper (France)

vintage dusty teal ribbon (England)

vintage cobalt ribbon (France)

vintage fleur de lis stampings (USA)

vintage plastic cameo cabochons

vintage plastic rose cabochons

vintage cobalt crescent glass cabochons

antique embroidery floss
vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 6x6 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

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 #1 with Creativity Quote

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

~George Bernard Shaw

Inspiration Board #1 features:

vintage glass cabochons

vintage plastic cameo cabochons

antique Japanese silk floral ribbon

vintage Swiss millinery straw ribbon

vintage Japanese mother of pearl buttons

paper label from vintage button box

antique Czech millinery fabric flower

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 5x5 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

"Double, double toil and trouble..."

Here’s a collection for all your Halloween needs. You can find all of this at Bumbershoot Supplies.

Or check out one of our fantastic Halloween kits.

But hurry! Halloween is just around the corner!

Faye Fuller: mountains, bloomers and chocolate

This is Faye Fuller, the woman to climb Mount Rainier (14,441 feet). She made the climb in 1890 when she was 20 years old. This photo comes from a book called "More Than Petticoats. Remarkable Washington Women" by LE Bragg, a book with fascinating stories about women in Pacific Northwest history. The photo shows Faye modeling what she wore to summit "the mountain". At the time, there was quite a lot of discussion about her “immodest” climbing attire. Faye seemed to take it all in stride. Faye's description of the mechanics of climbing Rainier over 100 years ago is mesmerizing. At one point she mentions that she put chocolates in the pockets of her blouse for ready snacks. "I put a good supply of chocolate in those pockets. You can imagine what happened when the sun came out hot on my back." Faye left hairpins at the summit.

You probably can't see it, but in my copy of the photo, if I look very closely, I can almost see earrings in her ears. That got me thinking, what kind of earrings would a proper young lady of 1890 wear to summit Mount Rainier?

Perhaps these?