Coeurs de fleur...

There's something I have been wanting to do for a while : a year and a half ago, at the Fab Fair, I had bought some pretty ceramic buttons handmade by a local artist, Eikcam, who became a good friend of mine soon afterwards...

At first, I thought I would use these flower buttons for necklaces but there was also the option of using them for brooches...

A year and a half later, I finally took my sewing kit out... and I am really happy to introduce my new "Coeurs de fleur" brooches : )



The idea here was to keep the design simple to emphasize the details of the buttons.

I chose to use two layers of felt of the same color to make a flower around the "flower heart" but, as I love to play with colors, I decided to introduce bright colored embroidery threads to sew the button to the felt flower... and then, I let the threads loose to give a poetic touch to the composition : )

Et voilà!

Bold and beautiful!

It's funny, lately, I am fascinated by bold colors like fuchsia and bright yellow and I am obsessed with mixing blue and black... really, obsessed!

So, this month, I came up with a few new pieces for the fall and I must say that they are quite striking like my "Marquise" necklace for which I combined hot pink Brazilian agate and black onyx spaced with fuchsia Swarovski crystals and some vintage (and authentic!) Venetian beads.


"Marquise" earrings - fuchsia Brazilian agate barrels, jet black Swarovski crystals, Venetian glass


And here's a little composition I am really proud of : instead of making pompon brooches with my beautiful Japanese silk, I had the vision of a mosaic of little silk squares that together would become a bouquet of flowers sewn on black felt... Of course, it takes me forever to sew (I'm so slow!) but it is so much fun to play with colors : )

A Sunday Afternoon in September...

Even if I'm still in denial, the holidays are officially over! The kids and I are back to school, we've put our beach towels and flip-flops away and we are slowly getting re-accustomed to the wet and chilly Vancouver weather : (

We actually just came back from our holidays last week and I must say that it was quite funny to unpack from my suitcase my pretty Oilily carry-on that I had stuffed with colorful silk ribbons and my sewing kit... untouched!
Yes, I had big plans of making silk pompons brooches while I was away but, of course, I never managed to find the time!


Hopefully, I will have something new to show you next week as I have to prepare for my next show : I will be at Portobello West, in Vancouver, on Sunday September 26th. This fashion and art market is very famous in Vancouver and I am pretty excited to be one of the exhibitors for the September and October shows : )

Now, let's get to work!

Early Spring?

Isn't it ironic? We are just 6 days away from the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the olympic torch is getting closer and closer to my house (coming by on Thursday at noon... the kids are excited!), the city center is buzzing with tourists, journalists and policemen (lots of them!), I am receiving emails from my friends in France telling me that they are stuck in the snow and I say : snow? what snow???

Yes, here in Vancouver, it's SPRING!


As you can see, the lilac tree in front of my house is already budding... The weather and temperature have been really mild lately and we haven't seen any snowflakes since December : ) What sucks for the Vancouver Olympic Committee is actually great for me as I hate snow and I am always much happier when I have flowers around me...

So here's a new version of my "Papillon" bracelets to celebrate an early Spring : this one features a purple felt butterfly with a pink and copper lampwork glass bead, purple crazy lace agate coin beads mounted on an elastic and finished with a burgundy picot satin ribbon.

And here's a nice bouquet of felt flower brooches that I bought from one of my favorite Etsy sellers : Vaivanat. I absolutely adore these flower brooches and I could have them in all the colors of the rainbow! I actually bought another two but I intend to give them as presents to some of my friends so I don't want to show them here ; )

Vaiva is from Lithuania and she is the sweetest Etsy seller I have "met" so far.... You can visit her shop at : www.vaivanat.etsy.com

(but be careful, these flower brooches are addictive!).

So...? How was the Fab Fair?... How did it go?...

I received a few emails from my friends last Monday : "So...? How was the Fab Fair?... How did it go?..."

Well...

Quite frankly, it wasn't as good as in November : it was probably due to the hot weather we had had all week, and certainly because we are all being very careful with our money lately but there were not a lot of people, and not too many sales...

There were a few moments when it was actually quite boring so I was really happy to chit-chat with my fellow vendors like Josee Glass Art who is from Montreal but lives in Maple Ridge, B.C...

I also had the time to sew three brooches that I'm very happy with : )

They are composed of 3 layers of felt leaves which all have different shapes and colors, and gorgeous poppy buttons that come from France... Aren't they amazing?

Of course, I had a few friends who came to support me, help me, and feed me (!) and I love them all because they are so nice and supportive (thanks guys!).

I had also two encounters which definitely made this weekend very special but wait, these two ladies deserve a full post each...