For Fans Of Vintage

I hold my hands up - it's been a while, hasn't it?

My only defence is that if I'm quiet online, it's because I've been hatching new ideas, and that's really far more important.

So I have two things to talk about and I'm kicking off with these brand new hare brooches which are made with something slightly less modern.  Something from 1880 in fact.

Years ago, my Grandmother used to do a bit of light opera and had a couple of fans from a performance of The Mikado, which she gave to me.  One was black with a landscape painted on it and has since been lost in the mists of time, but the other was a lush embroidered silk and was recently discovered in my Mum's loft after she had exhorted me to 'clear your crap out' (or words to that effect).

The fan had torn, but it was still so beautiful with its carved and painted base and the lovely delicate embroidered silk. The tears in the fabric actually revealed the newspaper lining - yellowing and French - and I was amazed to discover that it was dated 1880.

I'm sure I should have done something more respectful with this - but I just wanted to give it new life and make it into something wearable and beautiful, so I decided to use it to decorate some hare brooches.  Both the fabric and the newspaper could be used, even though the newspaper was very flaky and only came off in strips, so it had to be collaged on in pieces. Fragments of the silk had stuck to it, so there are lovely red smudges on some parts.

The silk was slightly harder to work with. I tried unsuccessfully to cover it with resin as usual, but it just killed it.  It has worked in the past with cotton fabrics, but the silk was just too absorbent and all the subtleties were lost.  So the finished pieces are only resin coated on the back so that the lovely delicate nature of the silk on the front can be shown off to its very best advantage.

Two of these limited edition brooches have just gone into the shop - click here to see.

I'll blog about the other new creations very soon.