Vintage Design Inspiration Board #3 with Creativity Quote

Creativity takes courage.

~Henri Matisse

Inspiration Board #3 features:

vintage Japanese glass pearl shells

vintage Japanese glass pearl drops

vintage French silk/rayon ribbon

vintage scalloped lace

vintage Swiss ribbon tag

vintage mother of pearl cabochons

vintage Czech glass fan cabochons 

vintage West Germany millinery stamens

vintage Austrian rhinestone flower button

vintage glass tiny cabochons

vintage French celluloid sequins

vintage French tiny rhinestones

vintage pearl prong set chain

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

my handpainted, dyed, stamped, stitched paper

 mounted on 6x6 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

A very happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all!

May you find your true north, your native land, your glorious glowing hearts!



New at Bumbershoot Supplies. 24 New Items Since October 1, and a Surprise!

I invite you to come on over to Bumbershoot Supplies and check out our new items.  We're over 750 vintage treasures at this time, it's really exciting.  This vintage button card is something that I didn't even know we had! I opened a box that was supposed to contain heart buttons, and found these instead. A gorgeous surprise and a lovely addition to our vintage buttons!

We've also restocked a limited number of the popular coral swirl beads from Japan, with the bead caps on the bottom, cradling the bead. These remind me of pumpkin pie and spice, perhaps since it is Canadian Thanksgiving this coming Monday and I have pie on my mind :)

We've also added two old amazing Bohemian glass items.  First, these vintage glass cabochons.  These are really interesting in terms of their history.  To see the original packaging, visit the listing at Bumbershoot Supplies.  These cabochons were "Released by the Joint Boycott Council". After the Nazis took power in 1933, there was a wave of boycotts across Europe, eventually reaching the United States. In the United States in 1936, the Jewish Labor Committee and the American Jewish Congress, both bodies already engaged in the boycott process, joined forces and instituted a "Joint Boycott Council". This Committee was one of two major organizations in the US spearheading a boycott of Nazi Germany between 1936 and Pearl Harbor in 1941. So, we know we can date these cabochons to that time frame. Pretty cool!

And these old, old Bohemian garnet or ruby glass nailheads look magnificent in the light.  They are large, 10mm in diameter and 8mm up to the point. I think they would make wonderful cabochons, as well as beads.

That's just a taste of what is newly available at Bumbershoot Supplies.  Our next newsletter on Oct 15 will provide more details. You can sign up for it here and view past issues of our newsletter on our website.  Until next time, wishing you a great weekend, and if you are Canadian or you live in Canada, a very happy Thanksgiving to you!

One of My Favorite Jewelry Designs from One of My Very Favorite Artists

This is one of my favorite designs from one of my very favorite artists.  I love this necklace because of its clean simplicity and use of natural materials.  Mostly I love it because of the love that is in it.  My daughter Emma made this for me when she was 4. 

She's now 16, a freshman college student, a very talented actor, an artist with a fabulous design sense and a natural flair, and oh-so-lucky for me, someone who shares my love of all that is vintage.   She asked why I had this necklace out, wondered if I was going to "take it apart".  I guess I do that a lot :)  No, my darling girl, this one is all about love, giving love, receiving love, sharing love. This one stays together always.

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #2 with Creativity Quote

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

~Mary Lou Cook

Inspiration Board #2 features:

vintage Japanese glass flower cabochons

vintage Japanese plastic rose cabochons

antique Japanese silk floral ribbon

vintage millinery net ribbon

vintage ledger paper (dated 1927)
vintage Japanese mother of pearl buttons

vintage paper tag from Japanese bead hank

vintage millinery flowers

vintage West German rhinestones
vintage quilt fabric

antique silk embroidery floss

vintage French sequins

vintage earring

vintage linen tea towel

mounted on 5x5 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week. Autumn Leaves

...reading amidst the autumn leaves, Japanese Garden, Seattle...

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~George Eliot

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. 55 Gorgeous Vintage Beads, Vintage Rhinestones, Vintage Cabochons, Settings, and More!

Since September 15, we have added 55 new items and restocked 3 at Bumbershoot Supplies! So much vintage goodness! 

I hope you will find an item or two that inspire you.

We are supplementing our vintage settings with a special selection of antiqued brass glue in and prong settings for vintage rhinestones and vintage cabochons, I've shown just a few below, see the settings, bezels, chain section of Bumbershoot Supplies for more.  We are awaiting additional settings, both glue in and prong, which are being manufactured and antiqued for us.  These are in production currently and I look forward to adding them to Bumbershoot Supplies later in October.  In addition, we will continue to stock as many quality vintage settings as we can find... Of course, we have some glorious vintage rhinestones to go into the pronged settings... And some new vintage glass cabochons also... Some really lovely vintage glass beads have made their way onto the virtual shelves of Bumbershoot Supplies recently, including these big glorious vintage glass teardrops, and two lovely selections from vintage Japan, tiny silver mercury beads, and these gorgeous vintage hand beaded balls... There are many more delightful vintage additions at Bumbershoot Supplies, including ribbons, charms, vintage silvery lucite beads, and some lovely Swarovski crystal cabochons, here's just a few more of our new additions.  The pearl buttons are vintage Japan, available in 2 sizes, the sequins are 1930's vintage French, and the flower resin cabs are really delicate and lovely (settings to fit these wee cabochons are being made for us as I write this)...

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. Vintage Beaded Trim, Turquoise Glass Leaves and Rhinestones

I just have to share a picture of this piece of vintage trim, recently acquired for my personal collection. It is turquoise glass leaves, individually wired to rhinestone chain and dates to occupied Germany (1945-1949).

Exquisite. 

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!

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