Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival

Drummers at the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, Seattle Center

Live in simple faith...

Just as this simple cherry

Flower, fades and falls.

~Issa

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage Lockets, Glass Rings and Vintage Cabochons, Oh My!

It has been a long week.  And all day today in Seattle it has been grey and POURING down rain. Non stop.  But the good thing about a rainy day is that it is a great time to pull out the supplies and make something beautiful.  I've been cruising the Vintaj idea gallery and already I can feel the wheels turning.  So let me share a few of the new items at Bumbershoot Supplies this week and then I'll settle down at my work table and see what I come up with.

By the way, the best way to learn about new supplies is to sign up for our newsletter.  And this month, since we are celebrating the launch of our new website, newsletter subscribers are receiving free shipping all month long at the new Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies site - any size of purchase, any location world wide and as many times in April as they want!
No fooling!

We have 3 new vintage lockets at Bumbershoot Supplies this week, here is one of them...

There are also some really beautiful vintage glass cabochons, one of them above...

And some vintage plastic cabochons...

And I was very excited to locate these delicate translucent peridot spring green glass rings. Uncommon, unusual, wouldn't these make interesting earrings? Or frames for mixed media?

Are your wheels turning? There are many more new items at Bumbershoot Supplies and Designs and at Bumbershoot Supplies on Etsy.

Until next time, have a great weekend!

Look What I Found. Wired Flowers from Vintage Japan

Aren't these beautiful?

These are hand wired vintage Japanese flowers, complete with crystal leaf beads.

I just love being in the business of searching out vintage components for Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies. I'm not much of a shopper in general, but oh, the pleasure of discovering yet another vintage treasure, each one so delightful and unique, and never to be made again...it's a fabulous treasure hunt that I get to go on every day. 

These flowers have sat on my work table for several days now, as I enjoy their presence and contemplate what their future looks like.

I recently received some vintage-style scent lockets, designed to look like vintage lockets with pierced fronts, to hold a piece of cotton or cloth daubed with perfume.  Ala Miriam Haskell, perhaps it is possible to wire these flowers onto such a locket.  Looks rather like a winged heart to me. What do you think?



Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, At the Edge of a Petal

Al's plum blossoms, across the street from our house at Greenlake, Seattle

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
~William Carlos Williams

Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies' New Website is Live!!!

BIG BIG news at Bumbershoot Designs and Bumbershoot Supplies this week!!!

You can now purchase our vintage supplies on our own website, http://www.bumbershootsupplies.com/!

I think it was in a newsletter last November that I said I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and that we would be providing our vintage supplies on our own website soon. Well, we finally made it. We went live on Tuesday, Mar 29, and everything is working very well.
We will continue to make our vintage supplies available at Bumbershoot Supplies on Etsy, of course. But I think there are numerous advantages to customers with the new website. Here are the top 10 benefits to you of our new website, in no particular order (with photos of some of the new products that have been added to Bumbershoot Supplies and Bumbershoot Designs this week):

1. You can purchase multiple lots of items without having to talk to me :)

2. Information about each item is organized to provide the age, country of origin, material, size, pieces per lot, so you can quickly see the pertinent statistics for each product.

3. There is a zoom feature so you can get really close to the products.

4. There is considerably more freedom in categorizing items, allowing us to place products into more than one category, if they reasonably fit in more than one category. I hope this will spark your creativity in terms of how to use our products and will help you more readily find the products you are interested in.

5. You can make a wish list.

6. There is a “new arrivals” section, where you can see all the products that have been added to the website in the previous 2 weeks. (Right now, everything is new since we just went live on Tuesday…)

7. The website collects together in one place all of our extra resources: the featured artist blog posts, the inspiration boards, the tutorials, our newsletter sign up and all of the past issues.

8. We can provide both designs and supplies in the same location, which I hope will provide inspiration in terms of how the supplies can be used. If you are interested in purchasing designs, maybe you will be tempted to try out a few of the supplies too. We will be adding my designs over the coming month or so.

9. We have more flexibility when it comes to coupon codes, which is good news for our newsletter subscribers.

10. We continue to be as easy to reach through this website as ever, you will be able to directly contact me using my email address.
I hope you will click on over to Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies and check it out! If you have any questions at any time, just let me know.

Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

Look What I Found. Vintage Japanese Handpainted Glass Bird Cabochon

This arrived in the mail today.  It is breathtaking. It is a vintage Japanese glass cabochon, with 2 tiny birds perched on flowering branches, all handpainted with incredible detail. It is quite dirty. I used a cotton swab dampened with water to clean around the paint, but after working with it, my guess is that the paint is pretty robust, so I'll clean a bit more agressively in the next pass. 

The backs of these cabochons were originally foiled in red, green and yellow, so the colors would have shown behind the birds like a glowing rainbow.  You can catch glimpses of that in this cabochon, but the foil is seriously damaged and is easily removed. The glass is frosted, so I think that if the foil is removed, the cabochon will still be quite beautiful, just a bit different from how it was originally intended to look.

One of the features of this cabochon that leaves me awestruck is the size. This cab is about 17mm or 5/8 inch long. The only word I seem to be able to come up with to describe the degree of detail, artistry and craftsmanship is "breathtaking".

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Pink Camellias

pink camellias, our garden at Greenlake, Seattle

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

~Hans Christian Andersen

Heal. A Talisman Charm Necklace from Bumbershoot Designs

The story behind this necklace is that everyone in our family has been felled by the flu, first Emma, then Jim, then Eric. This is one nasty, nasty bug. I was the last hold out and went several days healthy while all around  me bodies were dropping like flies. I thought I was going to make it, and just to be sure, made this lovely necklace filled with healing thoughts and intentions, sort of a talisman.

Did my talisman prevent me from getting the flu?  Alas, I have fallen victim too, although I do seem to have a milder version than anyone else, and I am getting better faster.

Did my talisman help me to feel better? Yes, without a doubt!

Necklace features a lovely antiqued pewter charm from Green Girls Studio (front and back shown), a vintage rhinestone button, a pure white 1950's Japanese lampwork flower, all on a delicate gunmetal chain. 

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Spring Tulips

tulips at the Pike Place Market, Seattle

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #14 with Creativity Quote

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.

~Charles Horton Cooley

Inspiration Board #14 features:

vintage millinery leaf spray (Soviet Occupied Germany)

vintage glass mirror flower buttons (US Zone Occupied Germany)

vintage paper tag (West Germany)
vintage hand stamped brass charms (USA)
vintage lilac moonstone glass cabochons (West Germany)
vintage brass heart pendant (USA)
vintage cluny lace (USA)
vintage mother of pearl buttons (USA)
vintage peridot glass heart cabochons
vintage brooch with rhinestones
vintage ledger paper
vintage button card
hand dyed fabric
artist trading card (ATC)

antique embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 9x6 inch gallery wrapped canvas base