Burlesque Photo Shoot

My manic week continued with a brilliant photoshoot, organised and styled by me, pictures by the very talented Julian Andrew Holtom and make up by Sali MsMoo...



It went really well, Rhona and Helen, were keen to add more unusual pictures to their modeling portfolios, and got into all the mad parts I asked them to play - from Cupcake Fairies to Pirate Queens...

Whilst Vicky and Lyssa got some great publicity pictures for their new act. They are soon to be performing as "The Double Entendres" with a high kicking, corset wearing, dance act! I can't wait!


They all loved my mini top hats and I think they are modeled perfectly, with apropriate poise and jauntyness....

Julian is available as photographer (and me as stylist) for photoshoots - both commercial and personal - just email for more details.

There are loads more pictures on his flikr site too - It was such a fun shoot to do, everyone was wonderful and had a really great time!

My First Cover Project!

I'm very excited as today sees my first magazine project to make a full cover! Making Jewellery Issue 7.

It's a very fabulous 5 strand victorian necklace with swarovski crystals and pearls. The article shows you how to make the gorgeous spacers from silver metal and polymer clays. Obviously there is a little steampunkiness in there - the pattern I emboss on the turquoise clay is teeny cogs and gears, subtle but steamy!

I've also got another article in that issue, a write up of the fabulous Helen Cox's Polymer Clay Play Days I wrote about earlier in the year. The dates for 2010 are already up on the website and places are selling fast!

As if that wasn't all enough! In a fabulous double whammy, the first article I've written for "Craft Stamper" is also out now.
You can just see the pendants on the top left hand corner of the front cover. Two front covers! As you can tell, I am inordinately excited about this...

There's more pretty steampunk in this project too, the polymer clay is stamped with cogs and overlaid with delicious rose millfiori (from the lovely Marcia) theres some on line content too for tags and cards made with corset stamps and stuff.... I'm going to do more articles for Craft St
amper too - the editor Katy is just so lovely!

These pendants are also going on sale soon in my Etsy shop soon, so do mark it as a favourite in your etsy list!

Historic costume tour of Great Britain

Had a lovely day today at Greenwich Fan Museum. I gave a brief talk about my work to the American ladies on the Historic Costumes tour, organised by the lovely Jennie of Sense and Sensibility Regency Patterns. My friend Cathy Hay of "Your Wardrobe Unlocked" had also met up with them a few days previously, (do have a look at her Oak Leaf dress in the Natuional Trust "treasures" competition.....)

The ladies were all exquisitely dressed in their Regency finest to partake of tea and cake in The Orangery.
lots of scones and cake were enjoyed by all while oohing and ahing over the pictures of my "Big Frocks". I was also pleased to make the acquaintance of Suzi Clarke, an excellent costumer I have long admired.

The museum really is one of Londons best kept secrets. Although very small, it has a wonderful collection, it restores fans too and there is even a fan making workshop on some Saturdays! Well worth a visit if you are in the big city!

The ladies were all off to bath for the start of the Jane Austen festival - so I have no doubt we'll be meeting at the Regency Ball!

Weekend at the Asylum _First UK Steampunk convention

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful weekend!

I attended the first British Steampunk Convention - held in an old Victorian asylum, now a lovely conference center - The Lawns - in Lincoln. On our arival in Lincoln we went straight to our fabulous accomodation which we were sharing with The Trolls, got dressed into "adventuring" clothes and hustled off to meet everyone else for the evenings entertainment.

It was great to meet up with lots of old friends - and I made loads of new ones too. We listened to a great band or two, laughed at the comedian who gave us a brilliant illustrated talk on the "History of British Industry" - (Brunel was cheered for a full minute...) and then ate pizza for tea ;)
On Saturday I was up very early to set up my stall - the absinthe lollipops were a great hit and I sold lots of lovely steampunk jewellery too.

During the day there were costume competitions, lectures readings and workshops on a variety of subjects - from "How to make a raygun from a fruitshoot bottle" to "The physics of time travel"!

Guest of honour was the wonderfully entertaining Mr Robert Rankin - who also awarded Mr Troll first prize in the costume competitionfor his "Mars Regiment Corporals Uniform" - which had a brass and leather pith helmet and gas mask (with bottles and pipes attached which glowed and bubbled - brilliant!)
My teddy won first prize for best steam bear and is very proud of his medal...

Then it was home again to dress for the Empire Ball. Everyone put on their finest outfits and danced the night away. Never have I seen so many beautiful and unusual outfits in one room - It was truly a spectacular evening. I was waltzed round the room by a charming young man (and I even got a dance with my lovely husband )

Exhausted but happy we retired for the evening - only to get up early again to run the sall on Sunday, this time in a lovely marquee in Charlotte house. We also had a picnic and the gentlemen showed off their steam croquet skills ...

Then Hubby and I went and bought delicious rose tea from Stokes Teashop and then it was back home again to cuddle the pets!

Steampunk Jewelry Article

Yes it's that time again! This is my latest offering in Making Jewellery Magazine. A very pretty pin, though I say so myself, It also made it onto the cover!! (Top right hand side) however I must admit it is not clockwork (I did not create the title - before any irate emails come my way...) although it uses assorted steampunk-style cogs and gears.

It also namechecks the adorable Clockwork Girls of Caledon, foremost of whom is of course dear Cornelia Rothschild who inspired the clockwork hearts collection of my steampunk jewellery.
I've been making like mad for the first UK steampunk convention, at which I am to have a stall. A ghastly cold has stopped me going to the studio for a few days so I've just had to sit on the sofa with pets and a whole pile of beads and wire. Hubby has been most tolerant of the house becoming my studio for a bit and has even suggested we get in a curry tonight to cheer me up! Hurrah!

from Polymer Clay to Fabric!

I've been experimenting with polymer clay for a while now in my Steampunk-style jewelry, creating beautiful textures and layers with stamps, millfiori etc.

One day I was showing my muse/friend Lyssa my latest piece, when she said "Oh that would make such a beautiful decal for my nails". Lyssa has lovely nails and regularly adorns them with spectacular patterns and motifs. It got me thinking though, as well as decals, why not fabric?

How beautiful would it be to have a corset or waistcoat from custom steampunk style fabric? So I set about finding somewhere to print it!
I just took a photo of my polymer clay slab, tweaked it and cropped it in photoshop and saved a 300dpi jpg. The polymer clay is on the left, the fabric on the right of the photo!

Spoonflower were by far the easiest (and cheapest) net based company - you can upload and play with designs online, automatically "tiling" your image in a number of ways. Then order cottons by the meter, all from their user friendly website. Despite coming from the US, my fabric arrived incredibly quickly, and looked stunning! It's so nice to be able to just get a meter or so rather than a whole roll of a custom fabric!

Then I made the polymer clay slab into pendants and pins to match the fabric ;0 watch this space for the custom corsets!

Mini Top Hats

These mini top hats are just so gorgeous! I was asked to make a few of my extra special hats for a local "alternative" shopping gallery and this is the result.

All beautifully made, with buckram and handstitching of course.

I make 3 different sizes. Dolly (the smallest), Teeny, and Mini (the largest). I also do three different crown shapes. A mad hatter style, a straight sided classic and a crown that starts straight then flares out, just like the one Satine wears in Moulin Rouge.

I just love making hats and these look so cute, I wish I could wear one all the time!

They do need big hair in an updo to look really good though.
They work okay with short hair so long as it's fairly full, but long straight hair just worn loose just doesn't seem to look quite right.

The Dolly size looks awesome with a bob...