Folksy Friday. Fashion Magpie Jewellery shop

Christmas is fast approaching and if you want to find beautiful hand made gifts, then nowhere better than "Folksy". Folksy is an online shop for UK based crafters to sell their work. I sell lots of my jewellery through "Folksy" and you can view my shop here and also look for other items. "Buy something Unique this year!"
http://folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

My folksy shop as you know is my main selling shop and I work hard to promote it and keep it up to date, I have lots of plans for it over the coming weeks and months including adding more countries to my selling lists so I can sell to outside Europe and updating old pictures. So watch this space.
Fashion Magpie Jewellery is also going out on the road again soon with various Christmas stalls being organised for 2014, until then these items are my most viewed items at the moment in my shop today, take a look and see what you think.

These are my Green Sitting Cat earrings. Unfortunately these little kitties have been in my shop for a while now and have sold twice but the buyers both changed their minds at the last minute. Can you give them a home?

Green Sitting Cat Earrings

 

This is my newest piece I have put up for sale, made just a few weeks ago. It has a jewel enamel cabochon with purple and jet and then from the swirling setting it hangs by crackle glass beads.

Deep Purple Jewel enamel and Crackle Glass Bracelet

 

Next is one of my favourites, the swallow necklace. I like the mixture of the yellow beads and the flying swallows in this one.

Swallow Necklace

 

Another one of my new pieces now, the flower and heart necklace. This necklace was the result of experimenting with glitter on jewel enamel something I think that works really quite well. What do you think?

Flower and Green Heart Necklace With Chain

 

And the last one of my most viewed pieces is one of my beaded brooches made with copper wire and beads. There always fun to make and this one especially. I made it as a Christmas inspired brooch and used cold colours as my colour theme. To make this one a little different I wound charms into it, making it look like it was snowing and becoming frosty.

Christmas Snowflake Beaded Brooch

 

Thursday Throwback Elizabeth Taylor part 1

This week and for the next two weeks I'm going to be writing about the jewellery of screen legend. Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor, more then any other Hollywood glittering star, loved her jewellery and had brilliant taste.

 

In December 2011, new world records were born when her collections went up for sale in Christie's, New York sales room.

At the end of the week long auction $156,756,576 had been sold and every item sold sometimes more then 50 times the estimate!

In these 3 posts I'll be telling you about 3 of the 1778 lots of jewellery that were sold.

This week is la Peregrine pearl, which was the highest seller making $11.8million, surpassing the original estimate and making nearly $9million more.

 

Who can blame the bidders? This pearl has a fantastic pedigree and an even more amazing story.

The La Peregrina pearl is a pear shaped pearl and at the time of its discovery was the biggest pearl ever found. It was discovered by an African slave almost 500 years ago at pearl island in the gulf of Panama. The African slave was given his freedom in return for giving over the pearl.

The was given to Spain and the future king of Spain. It was then used as the engagement present of Mary Tudor and Phillip II in 1554, after her death it returned to Spain and belonged to a succession of eight kings until 1808.

 

Next came Joseph Bonaparte the big brother of Napoleon. It was now that the pearl got the name La Peregrina meaning the wanderer. It was left to napoleon III of France who sold it.

James Hamilton, Marquess and later Duke of Abercorn brought it for his wife Louisa. It was while it belonged to Louisa it was lost at least 2 times, once during a visit to Windsor Castle when it fell out it's setting was lost down the back of a sofa, then again during a ball at Buckingham Palace. Thankfully it was recovered both times. the family owned it until 1969 when they sold it and it came into Elizabeth Taylor's procession.
Richard Burton brought it from Sotherby's auction house for Elizabeth Taylor  for $37,000 and gave it to her as a Valentine's Day gift during their first marriage.
Unfortunately she also lost the La Peregrina one day while wearing it (I think im beginning to understand why it's called the wanderer!!) Taylor searched her apartment for the pearl but couldn't find it until she noticed her dog chewing on something. The dogs weren't allowed bones so she went to investigate and found the pearl in the dogs mouth! Luckily it was still in perfect condition without even a scratch from it's ordeal!
The La Peregrina was next re commissioned into necklace setting by the jewellers Cartier. It was in this mounting that it was lent to the Smithsonian Institution for their 'The Allure Of Pearls' exhibition.
Of course next came December 2011 when it went up for auction and sold with Elizabeth Taylor's other fascinating jewellery and haute couture.
Next week I will be writing more about the auction and another piece that sold that day, the Krupp Diamond.

Guest post: Bough to Beauty

Today I am excited to bring you a guest post by the brilliantly talented and lovely Bough to Beauty. I've been looking for guest bloggers for a few weeks now and mentioned I do blogs on twitter, Bough to Beauty got in contact and as they say the rest is history.
Here are some pictures of the creative ladies who came up with Bough to Beauty and below I interviewed them about their company and inspirations.

This is Vix under the tree in Portugal gathering goat food

 

And under this beautiful blossom tree is Lou at Chelsea Flower Show

 

How did you decide on your company name?

Like many 'light bulb' moments the name came to us over a glass of wine. It was a sunny evening when we were volunteering on an organic farm in Portugal. Our jewellery is all upcycled from wood, so we wanted to include a wood reference in our name, so 'Bough' of a tree seemed appropriate and we think our jewellery is beautiful, so two glasses of wine in, the name 'Bough to Beauty' felt inspired and we still really like the name. When we do stalls it's fun to see people look at our pieces, read our name and make the connection! 'Ah, I get it, Bough to Beauty!

 

How long have you been open and why did you start?

We arrived back in the UK in May, after several months living off grid in Portugal and did our first 'pop up' shop in a lovely boutique, Rhoda in Crouch End, London in June and launched our website www.boughtobeauty.co.uk in August.

Our time living simply, surrounded by nature, gave us the head space and courage to take the leap of faith and start making plans for Bough to Beauty. We had both made big lifestyle changes, by giving up our jobs in London and heading to the wilderness to learn to live more sustainably.

Setting up a business with eco and ethical credentials is a dream come true for us. We're sisters who love great, fun and unique design. Our designs are inspired by our passion for nature, travel and music, so bringing everything together into a business has been a wonderful, exciting and exhilarating experience.

 

Red Bicycle Earrings

 

What's your favourite piece?

Our favourite pieces are our new sheep brooches and earrings. We are now based in Lancashire, where we grew up, and we're loving the beautiful countryside. We've had so many requests for sheep that we decided to create some, who knew sheep were so popular? We're really pleased with them, they are such fun little characters. The sheep are yet to be named but are coming soon to our website and our Etsy and Folksy shops.

 

Sheep, Coming Soon!

 

Where does your inspiration come from?

 

As we mentioned our designs are inspired by our passions for nature, music and travel. We have so many ideas in the pipeline, including a range of cufflinks, that we are really excited about. The difficult thing is finding the time to turn our ideas into products, we need more hours in the day.

 

What do you love the most and least about having your own company?

Bough to Beauty is only four months old and we're super excited about it. So much so, it's hard not to love everything about it, from creating new designs, to travelling around to craft events, to meeting other creatives who are passionate about doing what they love!

We wanted to set up a creative, environmentally conscious business and we have, so we're thrilled. We're working hard and enjoying pretty much all of it, although our least favourite thing at the moment is the lack of sleep, due to excitement. We've switched from tea to coffee, which keeps us wide awake when we're up early on stalls!

 

Red Camera Earrings

 

What other things do you like doing?

We're keen gardeners, we had an allotment, next to Alexandra Palace in North London for years. We loved our time there so much that we were inspired to go wwoofing, which is volunteering on organic farms.

We also love food, from growing it to pickling, baking, cooking it and brewing our own fruit wines and spirits.

We're also huge music lovers, Lou used to run music events in London with our friend Amy. Frenz is still going strong, check out Frenz on Facebook www.facebook.com/frenzexperiment. We still go to lots of music festivals, it's the only time we take a break from our work. Hopefully next summer we'll be able to combine our passions and take Bough to Beauty on tour around music festivals.

 

And finally what advice would you give to others?

Don't be afraid to do what you're passionate about, it can be challenging at times but its so rewarding and the pros totally outweigh the cons, so it's worth taking the plunge.

There's a saying 'Life begins when you step outside your comfort Zone', there's certainly an element of truth to that. We've made some huge life changes this year but it's been great fun, we've met some fabulous new people and followed our dreams, long may it continue!

 

 

If this has convinced you to take a look at Bough to Beauty why not explore the links below and get to know them a little better

 

Website www.boughtobeauty.co.uk
Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BoughtoBeauty
Folksy www.folksy.com/shops/boughtobeauty

Facebook www.facebook.com/boughtobeauty
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/boughtobeauty
Twitter @boughtobeauty.co.uk

Hope you have enjoyed this guest blog post and if your interested in doing a guest blog for me please leave a comment below and I'll get back you.

Folksy Friday. The best of Scottish crafts

This weeks Folksy Friday is some of the best Scottish themed items on folksy.
I live only a few miles from the Scottish border and have been loads of times, it's a beautiful place and I'd love to see more of it. The country side is stunning and the cities are so rich with culture and history.
Here is my list of the best items.
This little guy is a red squirrel carved from wood and by andeezartinwood. I choose him because I know that Kielder forest, which lays over the border with England and Scotland, is a haven for these beautiful creatures and protects them from the grey squirrel population. For information on the Red squirrels near you click here.

 

Something I'm very fond of from Scotland is Harris Tweed. My day job actually involves me selling this to people so I maybe a bit bias. The piece I picked from folksy is this A5 Harris Tweed journal. The colours of Harris Tweed are always inspired by the colours of Harris island, this piece shows the sky blue and the moss tones of the earth. On the back it has the official Harris Tweed label sewn on to leather which shows this is a real Harris product. It's made by Beauty Bound Books who also do this in other tweed colours.

 

 

My next piece is by a jewellery designer on folksy who is based in Scotland. There called ARC Jewellery and I picked this piece because I think everyone at some point hopes they have a guardian angel looking out for them and I love the simplicity of it with just the stirling silver and brass outline of the figure.

 

One thing you can go see in Scotland on the Isle of Mull is the deer's. Autumnwatch on BBC nearly always feature these deer's on their program and I bet it's an awesome sight when you see two of the stags facing off to fight during the yearly rut. My folksy item I picked is a slightly more sedate affair though. I picked this bag by Bees and Blossum called Oh Deer, I like the contrast between the two fabrics, this piece also comes in a brown tone as well.



There's a farm near to where I live called the Highland Cattle Centre I used to love to see these magnificent beasts out in the fields. There quite a sight to behold with their long ginger hair and horns they look like your typical drawing of a Viking but unlike the Vikings their very friendly!
This print is by Babs Pease Designs and is called Limited Edition Print of Highland Cows.

So there you have it some of the best of Scotland on Folksy, of course there's loads more pieces for you to discover on Folksy this is just what I've chosen.
All the pieces have a blue link if you'd like to go over to folksy and see them there.


All rights and copyrights are reversed to the individual crafts people.

Thursday Throwback. What comes around goes around

The ancient Egyptian style is very in style at the moment just look at Katy Perry in her video for Dark Horse.

The Ancient Egyptians have fascinated peopled for centuries and numerous revivals of their style have been invented and reinvented over the years and probably will continue to for centuries to come.
Ancient Egypt was a Civilisation from around 3100BC that was one of the first big civilisations to become powerful in the world.
Everyone wore jewellery from the very poor to the pharaohs, this was mainly because they believed in evil spirits that could harm them. The jewellery was a way of protecting them from the evil. Jewellers would need to know what the person needed protecting from, certain colours of gems or metal could mean different gods or goddesses and it was important he got it right or it may affect the spiritual value of the piece.
Amulets and charms where worked into pieces of jewellery to protect the wearer or infuse them with power. Some amulets were made to take with the person into the afterlife as well and where placed on the body and wrapped into there mummy's binding. One amulet that was a favourite for the afterlife was the heart scarab, placed on your heart. This amulet would help protect your heart from becoming separated from you in the underworld. The heart was believed to record your life on it and would be weighed against the weight of a feather by the goddess Ma'at. If the scales balanced you gained entry into the afterlife, the heart scarab stopped your heart betraying you when you got to the goddess.
The picture below is of a necklace recovered from the pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb. He was wrapped with 35 different objects arranged seventeen groups and between 13 different layers. This necklace was the last of four, and shows hawks heads with tubular beads between.

 

The main materials used to craft jewellery would be gold and copper which were readily available to them, the gold was mined in the Nubian desert. Stones were inlaid into the pieces and they used pearls and emeralds the most although they also favoured lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet, obsidian, rock crystal and carnelian. I imagine their jewellery must have been really striking when they where first made as all their materials have very strong vivid colours.

The poor couldn't afford the gold and precious gems so opted for copper and painted clay, bone, shells, stones or animal teeth to look like the gems.
The most popular among the ancient Egyptians and quite possibly the most well known of the jewellery was the wide collar necklace. made with beads that were worn around and were as wide as the shoulders. It is this necklace that has made a resurgence back into the popular eye. Some dresses even come with it already sewn in around the neck.
Here are some modern examples of the ancient Egyptian style.

Selena Gomez

 

 

 



Folksy Friday. Top 5 Animal themed pieces on Folksy

Today is the top 5 animal themed pieces crafted by Folksy artists and chosen by me. I've tried to make sure I have a mix of crafts and have ended with number five as my favourite piece. Think I've found some shops I'll definitely be revisiting when I need some gifts.

(1) To kick off the count down I've chosen this little brooch. I like the sailor's tattoo kind of feel to this piece. It's called Swallow Bird resin Brooch literary vintage and is by EllyMental Jewellery. (A totally genius name by the way!)

 

(2) Number two has to be this beautiful lampshade, I love the colour. It's called Folky Animals - Lamp and Lightshade and it's by Busyblackbird.

(3) The third piece is a PUFFIN Watercolor Print - 8x10 inches portrait format by the artist Eastwitching. I love this type of drawing, I've always been drawn (no pun intended) toward it and it's a puffin. What's not to love about puffins!

(4) Piece number four made me smile when I found it. It's called Chilly Llama in Blue and is by FabFunky.

 

(5) With out a doubt this is my favourite photo print I've found when choosing what to include in this post. It's truly stunning. It's called Tranquility Giclee and is by FizzStudio. This shop is definitely one to keep an eye on.

That concludes my list of the top 5 animals, I've found some wonderful shops doing this count down. Let me know what you think.
 

Thursday Throwback. Congratulations Kate and WIlliam!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week you should know Kate Middleton is pregnant with baby royal number 2. It's lovely news so I decided the best Thursday throwback I could do this week is the Princess Diana/ Kate engagement ring.
The ring belonged to Diana, princess of Wales, Prince Williams mother.
It consists of  14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-karat white gold. It was made by Garrard and  unusually for a royal ring was part of the Garrard catalogue and not a one of a kind piece. Diana picked it because she liked it and she wanted a ring with a sapphire. This ring just appealed to her.

When Princess Diana divorced Prince Charles the ring came back to Charles and was put away. After her death in 1997 in a car accident in Paris, Prince William and Prince Harry where allowed to pick pieces from their mother's collections. William picked a  £18,000 yellow gold Cartier Tank Francaise watch and Harry picked his mother's engagement ring. They eventually swapped mementoes  and that is how William came to own the ring he proposed to Kate with.

It was in October 2010 that William proposed on a 24 hour stop over in a remote Cabin in Kenya. The cabin is one of Williams favourite places to stay and is as basic as it comes, it doesn't even have electricity. After proposing their said to have enjoyed a glass of champagne from a box outside acting as a fridge, then sat back to enjoy it beside a roaring fire.
William is quoted as saying ‘It’s very special to me. As Kate’s very special to me now, it was right to put the two together,’ he said. ‘It was my way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement, and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.’
The rings value just sky rocketed up to £300,000 from it's original value of £28,000 when it was brought for Princess Diana in 1981, the new value is as a result of the announcement of Kate's pregnancy.
This pregnancy will be the young couples second child and I'd like to say congratulation to them both.

What's Fashion Magpie Jewellery all about?

It's been a while since I've done a post saying just hi, so I thought seeing as I've got a few new followers it was time to say hi.
Hello! My name is Leah Wilkinson and I'm a jewellery maker.
I first got into jewellery making when I made some for Christmas one year for relatives and the rest as they say is history. They loved them and I began making to try and sell.
Fashion Magpie Jewellery is my company name, I make vintage inspired pieces like my newly listed Art Nouveau inspired ladies, made into a bracelet and earrings set.

Red Art Nouveau inspired Ladies Bracelet And Earrings Set

 

I mainly work with bronze but I do make the odd piece in silver, which is nickel free. I have an allergy to nickel in silver and I know from talking to others that it's a common thing so always look where possible to use silver without the nickel in.

Purple Dichroic Earrings and Necklace Set

 

My absolute favourite thing to use when I'm creating jewellery is Jewel Enamel. Jewel enamel is a UTEE resin which comes in powder form and you melt it down in a melting pot to make it turn to liquid. The liquid can then be poured into a mould or setting and goes solid within seconds. It glitters and resembles marble when its set and if you don't like what you made just throw in the melting pot and remake it. It's that versatile!

Blue Bird Brooch On Bronze

 

I'm always looking for new techniques and trying to learn to new things, my newest thing, as avid readers know, is glass globe jewellery. You can read my tutorial here.

Glass Glitter Globe Necklace

 

I love taking Fashion Magpie Jewellery out on the road to different craft fairs and I've started looking into Christmas fairs now (yes I know it's only September!)
I'm looking forward to meeting everyone this year and I'm looking into how Etsy works to (check out my shop here) it's a work in progress in but I'm getting there and so far I'm impressed. Etsy seems to cater more to what I'd like from my business which unfortunately Folksy, who I trade with now doesn't seem to grasp. Anyone who does look at my new Etsy shop should know I have a limited time offer on at the moment, if you buy something use the promo code NEWSHOP and you will get free postage. Again this is only a limited time offer.
Over the coming weeks I'll be listing lots more new items as I've just finished stocking up on supplies. Well I say finished but don't think I'll ever be satisfied I have enough!
I love this company and if I had my way I would do this full time unfortunately that's still at the dream for the future stage of my life. One day though I hope it comes true.

Folksy Friday. My Folksy Pinterest board

It's September and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees. I love autumn, it's my favourite time of year, so I've decided to try find as many Folksy finds as I can on Pinterest to make up a autumn themed board. I'm planning to send it to folksy when I'm finished to see if I can get it on the main page.

Here's a preview of the pieces I've found so far. What do you think?

Artful autumn

Autumn patchwork bear

'Woodland Walk' Autumnal charm bracelet with glass beads. Perfect for Autumn.

Anodised Aluminium earrings on stainless steel wires Autumn firefall

Woodland WalkAutumnal charm bracelet with glass beads Perfect for Autumn

Thursday throwback. a guide to Edwardian jewellery

Edwardian jewellery was the last big trend in jewellery named after the monarch of the time. 

To the Edwardians jewellery was status and was aimed toward the upper classes, it was in this period the jewellery changed drastically. Before this jewellery was large but with the Edwardians, it became delicate and intricate and lace like.

One of the major reasons it changed was because of a new invention called a oxyacetylene torch. This invention meant that platinum could be used in ways never before, the torch was the first time platinum could be heat to the high temperature it needs to be worked in. Before this platinum was backed with gold, the same as silver. 

The new way of working with platinum meant that more intricate designs that looked like lace could be made. The favourite designs of the Edwardians were, bowes, garlands, laurel wreaths, lace and tassels.

One of the biggest trends of this period was the 'dog collar' something that reminds me of the wicked step mother in Cinderella. What do you think? It started trending in France, then England adopted the trend and made it famous when the Princess of Wales started wearing them.

The lasting legacy of Edwardian jewellery has to be the earrings. Before this the earrings worn were studs of diamond or pearl, the new earrings being made where made to move when worn and sway with the lighter designs. I for one, am very grateful for this I love long dangling earrings.

Tiaras became popular and essential for the elite classes, the new platinum designs meant that tiaras where now lighter and easier to wear. From tiaras came bandeau, worn on the forehead and tied with ribbon at the back.

Rings became bigger and worn on more then one per a finger. Most where Bowes or garlands with a large centre stone.

After 1910 the fashion was to have monochrome jewellery. This black and white trend used platinum and black stones like onyx. The colours also meant that it did not violate mourning etiquette.

The Edwardian period ended with the death of the king and the start of the First World War.