Bbel

2010-08-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Gabberdashery!

Bbel jewellery will be part of the amazing Gabberdashery shop at the Standon Calling Festival this weekend!

Gabberdashery is a beautiful new project - a collective of creatives- artists, designers, milliners and other talented people selling there wares at gigs and events curated by the amazing Gabby Young!

Look out for more Gabberdashery events - updates will be on the Gabby Young Style Blog - check it out here.

Bust Craftacular

2010-07-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

I'm all set for the Bust Craftacular tomorrow - lots of new designs including some cave girl hairclips and kiss rings- see them all on the Bbel stall!  

12 midday – 7:00pm

 York Hall, 5-15 Old Ford Road, 

Bethnal Green,

 London E2 9PJ

The Bust Craftacular is an indie shopping bonanza, which boasts 60 stalls of  the hippest in handmade. Entry is £2, and the first 100 people  through  the door get super-duper goodie bags!

More Hearts!

2010-05-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm gradually getting things uploaded to the Bbel shop - inbetween making and designing and settling back into the studio.  So far I've got these new heart pieces uploaded, they are all handcut and I'm loving the red and silver together.  

The earrings are around 1.4cm across and fill the earlobe, I made a pair for myself as well and have not taken them out since!

Back in the Studio

2010-05-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

I am days away from returning from my travels...I'll be back in the studio on 13th May and the shop will once again be fully stocked with fox stoles, feathers, hairclips and doves. The shop has been looking rather empty as designs have gradually been selling out whilst I've been away. I'm excited about getting back and launching some new necklaces and a new range of bracelets. Watch this space for pictures coming soon!!

Update

2010-04-20T03:19:00.000-07:00

I am away from my studio at the moment, infact out of the UK, and promised to put updates up about when I'll be back and making more FOX STOLES!!

I have been inundated with messages since the last feature of the fox stole on the etsy facebook page - they sold out straight away. I will be making some more as soon as I get back to the UK - hopefully in the next few weeks, maybe ash cloud dependant! I will put an update here as soon as I know when I'm flying back. In the meantime, all items in my etsy shop are available and ready to be sent out by my kind helper in the UK! If you would like your fox stole as soon as possible, please message me at info@bbel.co.uk and I'll put you on the reserved list for the first ones made!

The next update is the brand new collection from friend and fashion designer, Kylie Malcolm. Her pieces are so beautiful - she uses hand printed and vintage fabrics, cute, quirky with a bit of rock and roll and a touch of glamour - I love them!!
Check out all the designs at the rokit website.

Find her collection at Rokit.

Things I like

2010-04-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Art print by My Folk Lover, find the shop here.

Beautiful bag by Ninu, find the shop here.

Golden harness by Norwegian Wood, find the shop here.

Speakeasy Vanilla Perfume by Wiggle Perfume, find the shop here.

New Designs Coming Soon

2010-03-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been working hard on some new designs - and thought I'd give another sneek preview.

This is the new rose necklace so far, I've been working on the shape and pattern of the rose and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, it will then be listed in the shop soon! The necklace is another wrap style and the two rose buds thread through the rose and hang low on the chest.

The kiss kiss necklace that I wrote about a few weeks ago will be available soon. I'm making the kisses a little larger so they really stand out, they will rest high, on the side of the neck with the rest of the necklace wrapping around twice.

Guerilla Gardening

2010-02-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I was going to do a post on winter warmers and lovely knitwear, but I've decided that spring is (or should be) just around the corner so a post on how to brighten up our urban spaces would encourage that spring sun to shine on us!

GuerillaGardening.org was started as a blog around 6 years ago and provides tips and information on how to get involved in illicit cultivation around your cities.

This photo was found on the Aitoa Arkkitahtuuria, a Finnish blog (in English) with some great posts on 'Green Architecture'.

Photo from the Heavy Petal blog - a colourful US based blog about gardening, seeds and the great outdoors.

Seed Bombs are a brilliant way to get started and you can buy them ready made, or make your own at home, check out this video at the Guardian online for your DIY instructions. You just take a walk around the city and lob them into any spaces that look like they need a bit of greenery.

This is technically a Seed Ball, as pictured and described on the Heavy Petal Blog here, but a Seed Bomb is exactly the same thing, you just happen to throw it into spaces which are not your garden.

Another guerilla gardening tool is moss grafitti, you can see the Heavy Petal post on this here, including a recipe for making your moss starter. This is a photo of someone embellishing someone else's work!

If we're talking about graffiti then I have to post some photos of one of my favourite kinds.

Photo courtesy of cherryflava

Photos courtesy of craftism blog (this blog has some really interesting posts - the author is doing a thesis on the relationship between design and vernacular craft and posts about her research so far)

For more projects going on within visual resistance, check out the Just Seeds website, they are a US based Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, you can read about their projects here, including drawing resistance and the God Bless Graffiti Coalition.

Ofcourse, if this post is going to finish on a note of visual resistance, I should ofcourse provide a link to the greatest of them all, Banksy. I lived in Bristol for five years at the time when Banksy was getting well known but not quite the global recognition he has now, I LOVE his work and seeing it around my favourite city was always a joy. I have in my possession several of his books, and the dialogue that accompanies the artwork is inspiring, insightful and full of political humour and common sense, check them out from your local independent bookstore!

Circles and Squares

2010-02-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

Lovely designs, available as postcards or printed on T-shirts and Hoodies.

Check out their shop Circles and Squares here

Road Trip II

2010-02-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

I can't remember how I first came across all the mountains, it was a link from another blog, and since then I have regularly dropped by to see the lovely images that Amy collects. From here you can see some beautiful finds, including these books from whale heart

and the Dictionary Book by Sam Winston

'Like people, the alphabetically constrained words yearn to release their individual potential. They want to escape the dictionary’s regimentation and come together to tell a story. But when the words break free, so do their letters. They scatter and tumble across the page, reflecting meaning through visual representation. For a time it’s wild and exciting but when things look to be getting out of hand the Alphabet arrives to remind everyone of their responsibilities. Order returns… but the world and it’s words will never be quite the same again.'

Dictionary story book is available to buy here

From here, I was inspired to look up some handmade books on etsy and found these lovely bright bingo books from somavenus

And if, like me, you've been thinking about giving bookbinding a try - check out this website for loads of information, tips and supplies, edenworkshops

Creative Play

2010-02-07T02:38:00.000-08:00

I recently bought this lovely book by Keri Smith, which emphasises the need for creative play in our everyday lives. See it on her website here.

So, for your fix of creative play, here are links to one of my favourite sites for tutorials and ideas - www.craftgossip.com. This site collects tutorials, home made designs and lovely quirkiness from all over the web. I particularly like the recycled crafts section and the edible crafts section.

Heart cake, posted on craft gossip and originally found on i am baker where you can find the tutorial to make it.

Love letter cake, posted on craftgossip and originally found on giver's log. Made with food colouring and edible paper - brilliant alternative to a valentine's card!

Kiss Kiss

2010-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

I've been working on the spring/summer pieces and am designing some new wrap necklaces.

This is a sneak preview of the kiss kiss necklace, it wraps around twice with two solid silver kisses resting on the neck and hangs low on the chest.

I'm hoping to get the new designs in the shop for easter.

Thanks to all the blogs which have featured Bbel recently, the fox stole still seems to be a favourite amongst other bloggers and I was thrilled to be featured on Covet & Want.

Since then, I have been inundated with orders and requests for the fox stole - I am currently sold out and am catching up with orders. I am hoping to have it back in the shop in March - until then let me know if you would like to order one and I'll make sure you're top of the list!

Miss Haversham's Jewels

2010-01-30T04:37:00.000-08:00

I work in both silver and acrylic - I often play around with different materials to see which suits each piece and design. For example, the geese migration necklace, which I was keen to make since I found a beautiful photograph of canada geese, silhouetted against the sky, can only be made from white acrylic. I thought about producing a silver version, but it just wasn't the same. It's one of my favourite necklaces, and can't really be appreciated until it's on!

I then found some amazing sheets of recycled materials and really wanted to use them in my designs. And, yes, I tried it out with the geese, but I had to stick with the super whiteness of the acrylic. But when I started on my Miss Haversham's Jewels collection, I knew the yoghurt pot and refrigerator sheet was perfect.

This design is part of the pearl necklace collection, which also features the pearl necklace brooch - both hand cut from recycled yoghurt pots and refrigerator seals sheet.

More recycled designs will be coming soon - look out for my recycled coffee cups!

Jo Askey

2010-01-30T04:14:00.000-08:00

I loved Jo's artwork as soon as I first spotted her shop on etsy. It wasn't long after that I approached her to design the banner for my shop - her work has an individual style which I really like.

Jo's work is 'inspired by the quirky and the poignant and by the beauty in every day objects and situations. She loves to focus on the little details that can sometimes go unnoticed'.

You can check out her website here.

Lindsey Mann

2010-01-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

I wanted to publish some of the beautiful work by amazing jeweller Lindsey Mann. I went on a course in silversmithing and anodised aluminium with Lindsey and found her work so inspiring - she mainly works in hand printed anodised aluminium, and mixes this with silver work, semi-precious beads and found objects. Her work is exquisite and is shown in galleries all around the country. The Tate Modern have recently purchased some of her designs - here are just some of the designs from her past collections.

Love her cut-out badge postcards too

You can check out her website here. Lindsey teaches silversmithing and anodised aluminium workshops at her studio in Hampshire all year round, you can get in touch with her through the website.

Road Trip

2010-01-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

So, I start with looking at someone's blog, usually an artist or designer's. Today it was nosideup, I had just purchased this print 'Jo' as a birthday present

Her shop is full of beautiful artwork, some of my other favourites are

'Katherina'

and 'Buns and Combs'

From the Nosideup blog I followed a link to Keri Smith's blog - which, by the way, is my current favourite blog - it is full of lovely inspiration, ideas and creativity. If you've got some winter afternoons by the fire, check out Keri's website and her 100 things to do - here are the first 5......

100 ideas - a work in progress.

1. Go for a walk. Draw or list things you find on the the sidewalk. 2. Write a letter to yourself in the future. 3. Buy something inexpensive as a symbol for your need to create, (new pen, a tea cup, journal). Use it everyday. 4. Draw your dinner. 5. Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it into your journal.........

Check out this page for the rest! And here for even more fun stuff. Keri has some great looking books out

I will certainly be spending a bit of christmas money on at least one of her collection....will post about it soon!

Back on the road......I took a detour from Keri's blog to the learning to love you more website

Learning to Love You More is a web site and a series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.

The website is no longer taking submissions of work - but has an amazing archive of projects and ideas to inspire you! They have produced the book above, which is available here

Assignment #62
Make an educational public plaque.

Assignment #66
Make a field guide to your yard

Check out all the assignments, and the public's response to them here

Brrrrrr - it's cold out there!

2009-12-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

So why not get some lovely handmade winter warmers.....I've just ordered a pair of these fab leggings from Norwegian Wood

Love the pom pom neck warmers from Silky Prudence 

A winter cowl/ cape will almost certainly be a new year purchase, from love and knit 

And if any of you have checked out the Eden Rose Lifestyle christmas giveaways (which by the way are open for another couple of days if you're quick!) you'll see that along with a pair of Bbel earrings, you can also win one of these lovely hats from Knitwillo 

She also makes the most adorable baby slippers, and although I don't have anyone small enough to buy these for right now, I've got my eye on them for forthcoming deliveries!  Love the 'grandpa slippers'

And these beautiful rose slippers

All available in her shop

Bust and a New Zine of the Week

2009-12-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

The Bust Craftacular was as fun as ever - I had a stall next to the brilliant Sugar Paper Zine. I had bought one of the Sugar Paper Zines a while ago so was excited to see there were new editions out!

They are packed full of great crafty things to make and do, recipes and a little project of your own to start straight away

Visit their myspace page at Sugar Paper Zine or visit their Shop to get your copy, with 20 things to make and do for the amazing price of 2 pounds!!

This is issue number 4 and it comes with so many great things to do, including - make your own velvet art, snow globe, recipes, quizzes, colouring in, vinyl bowls, craftivism, knitting, Rosie Riveter cross stitch pattern and much more - comes with a free pack of felt tips!

Great stocking filler, will keep your friend / sister / brother / parent happy for hours!

Wish List

2009-12-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

You can't go wrong with anything from my favourite t-shirt designer, Model Citizen

This would keep me busy on christmas day - a ready to stitch eco-tote, before

and after

The bag is a collaboration between Model Citizen and Sublime Stitching - love it!

More Colours Coming Soon!

2009-12-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

My favourite mirror necklace is now available in beautiful shades of red, purple, pink and blue!

Here is a little taster of what's to come - will upload to the shop shortly!

And this is the new feather necklace, it sits on the side on a shorter length chain so will peep above any high necklines.

The original Feather Necklace - this one is also in the shop, a larger feather on a slightly longer chain, goes well with a lower neckline.

Treehomes

2009-12-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

As well as being at the fantastic Bust Craftacular this Saturday, Bbel will also have a stall at the Christmas Fair in the beautiful Hillier Gardens in Hampshire. The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens are just outside Romsey and the Christmas Fair is on from Saturday 12 December to Monday 21 December, 10am to 4pm each day.

'Plants of Current Interest' in the Gardens (they will give you a map showing all of these and more when you visit)

Maylus Crittenden - the good old British Crab Apple - good for jams, wines and pies, yum

Euonymus alatus or ‘Burning Bush’, when the leaves have fallen off, they reveal this beautiful winged bark.

I manage to visit the gardens several times each year, and it was this summer that I discovered their treehouse. From that moment, I have been designing in my head the home that I will be building in my perfect tree.

I quite fancy having the quick escape routes at the back - never know when you may need to abseil out of your house.

The company that designed and built it, Blue Forest have an amazing gallery of treehouses including this sweet thatched roof

And if I ever get really ambitious, or just want to house another 20 people I guess I could try one of these...the largest treehouse in the world at Alnwick Gardens

Goodbye Christmas Market...and daily dose of mulled wine, belgian waffles, devon fudge (damn, why was that sweet stall so close by)

2009-12-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

We've just finished our last day in our alpine chalet - we had a fantastic time, although we probably sampled too much of the refreshments on offer. Thankfully I found the hot, spiced apple juice so I didn't always have to warm up with mulled wine. If you're planning a visit to the Market over the next couple of weeks, I did manage to work out that the gluhwein was the best out of the three mulled wines on offer (we were sure there was a swig or two of brandy in that one) and that the belgian waffles with hot chocolate sauce were the breakfast food to start your 8 hour stint on. I liked to think that the cream I added to mine was kind of equivalent to the milk I would put on my cereal.

Our fabulous little chalet.

Note the warm glow in the top left of the photo - we purchased three of these lights on the first day, concerned that our chalet wasn't light enough. The lights were very strong wattage and not only lit our jewellery up rather nicely but also half of the cathedral behind us. A concerned neighbour noted 'I didn't realise you could use outdoor lights inside' hmmmm, neither did we -hadn't quite clocked that we had purchased football stadium lights, give quite a nice glow though don't you think.

Oh, so whilst I'm on the subject of the Christmas Market, I would like to mention some of the lovely stallholders we met - potters, knitters, glass fusers, people who sew really cute things - here are some of their wares....

Jug and bowl by Caroline Green

Pretty ceramic spoons by Penny Spooner (!) She does make other things apart from spoons too - although at the time of writing both their shops are looking a little bare - Caroline assured me she would be uploading some more of her lovely white ceramics shortly.

Well, actually I should have said here are some of the wares by the potters since no-one else seems to have a website at the moment- that's fine though, I'll take photos of some of the things I bought and show them off here soon....

New Bird Necklace

2009-12-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a new necklace - two black headed gulls (not sure if that's obvious when they're silhouetted in silver!) - I've put it on much longer chains than the usual and it really works - it's proven very popular at the christmas market so will be busy making some more over the weekend!

Check out the BBel Folksy Shop shortly!

Zine of the Week

2009-12-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

I like zines a lot. I like small, pocket sized ones and I like ones that are not really about much but still offer a few hours of contemplation or absent minded flicking through or make me smile a bit.

Statistical Analysis of the Things That Don't Matter and Everything Else

Like this zine. It's very small and not very long, but lots of graphs and pie charts to look at so totally worth it.

Sarah McNeil is the author. She states 'Silly and sincere graphs of different things that happen and are discovered and recorded from everyday life. It is important to break down the types of birds in the city into a pie chart (pigeons win by the way), or an x,y graph of the consistence of the apple juice stain on my shirt etc. Very important.'

Bust Craftacular!

2009-11-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

Bbel will be at the Bust Craftacular on 12th December - come and say hi! The last two have been so much fun, this one will be bigger than ever - really looking forward to it!

Heartbreaker

2009-11-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

New designs I have just been working on....coming soon to the Bbel shop,

The Heartbreaker Necklace

This is a lariat style necklace, there is no clasp and the arrow simply pierces the heart and hangs low on the chest.

Lightening Earrings

I will hopefully get this uploaded to the shop tomorrow!

Wishlist

2009-11-24T01:59:00.000-08:00

Is it too early for my christmas wish list? I think not - too many nice things out there, I need to start making a note!

First on the list, a new winter coat...or cape since I spotted this one from yystudio

All their clothes are custom made to order - love this one too...

Second on the list is a beautiful hat and one of these from Terry Graziano would definitely do

All hats are handcrafted and made with eco friendly mill-end surplus fabrics, visit her shop here

Thirdly, and perhaps these should be number one since am in dire need of some winter boots - especically ones made from recycled plastic bags.

Botas Dacca by Camila Labra, see her blog here.

Alpine Food and Ice Skating!

2009-11-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

Only one week to go until the Bbel alpine chalet is open and ready for business! This year, Bbel will be at the Christmas Market held in the inner close at Winchester Cathedral for ten days from 27 November to 6 December.

Come along and check out chalet 46 'British Designers' - I will be sharing the chalet with the fabulous Kylie Malcolm and Tribe Designs so there will be lots of beautiful handmade clothes, bags, jewellery and homewares -I'll post some photos up next week when we're up and running! There will be 90 chalets, lots of food and an ice skating rink! Open Sun - Wed 10 - 6 and Thurs - Sat 10 - 8.

And whilst you're shopping you can sip on mulled wine and sample the Alpine menu that Winchester favourite The Vine pub will be offering. I'm thinking it will definitely be necessary to eat quite a lot and stay warm with spiced wine and cider throughout the ten days - it's the only way to keep out the cold.

We're all booked in for a skating session on the last day - I'm hoping I'll look as upright as these people, although I think there is someone on the left of the shot that may have crashed.

Please come along and say hi!

Woodland Wonders

2009-11-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

One of the latest designs in the Bbel collection, the fox stole, brings a bit of animal friendly glamour to the other forest and woodland inspired necklaces. This one has been hand cut in sterling silver and hung on a 1 metre long sterling silver chain - currently the most popular piece in the shop!

More woodland inspired prettiness - these feather hairclips are now available in the Bbel shop - choose from black, white, silver mirror, red mirror and purple mirror!

So, here are some other woodland inspired designs that caught my eye on etsy. This purse is hand stitched by emedemarta - catch other designs in her shop.

I also love these solid silver designs from Anomaly Jewelry

....and this clutch bag from Tsurubride - what outfit is complete without a metallic navy squirrel clutch? And for veggies, she will do a custom order in pleather - perfect!

Couldn't resist the silver fox either - would go so well with the stole!

Just caught one of my necklaces in the Etsy Gift Guide: Woodland and Feathers - it's the double feather acrylic - strung on two sterling silver chains.....

First Day!

2009-11-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

First day, first post! Bbel blog is now up and running - here you'll find updates on new designs, offers, events and lots of info on great designers, artists and jewellers.

Since I started Bbel jewellery and visiting indie craft and design fairs, I have been amazed at all the talent there is out there.

I meet so many interesting people when I'm out and about at craft fairs and festivals and always marvel at their designs and talent. I'll be showcasing groups of designers each week - first up: Gemma Correll

You are my favourite

I met Gemma at the very first Bust Magazine Craftacular and since then have been in love with her illustrations.

The Unusual Child

I also love the collaborative postcard books. This is one of Gemma's illustrations in the book 'Misfits'

You can see Gemma's website or visit her blog here.