Ballerina

Time for some new jewellery! Slightly different from the 1920s cameos, I loved the pose and dress of this ballerina from the Graphics Fairy but there were some bits I wasn't sure about! So I had a think and a chat with L. Stead and she drew the ballerina into a beautiful form!  Now she's all lovely.

 She looks pretty as a picture swinging in her frame. Lets have a closer look at her pretty face.

So there we are! This is one of the earliest images I wanted to use and it's great to finally see it made! I have another design coming and some silver charm jewllery also.

Find her on Etsy

Black and white miniature

Well as promised here is the next piece of jewellery:

Can be bought here: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2159187
And here: http://www.zibbet.com/rosesandhello/artwork?artworkId=138189

Drawing by Lisa Stead, taken from a vintage fashion postcard from The Graphics Fairy. the Graphics Fairy is a brilliant free resource and hopefully I'll soon be creating a post about some of the things you can find on the blog.

This is the final product after a fairly long process of putting it together. I always knew I wanted to do something like this, based on the tiny portraits in renaissance miniatures, but in the manner of film star glamour photographs and I think that effect was achieved.
It's photographed on a background of a vintage shirt that my lovely sister bought for me. The ruffles seemed to suit the Victoriana feel.

I would just like to put a word in for my sister and my two cousins who were endlessly helpful (and amusing) when trying to pick a name for all this and thinking up ideas. You lot are super cool and wonderful!

The next piece will be based on 1920s fashion illustrations from magazines. I found some brilliant pieces which are going to look amazing in the antique brass version of this frame.

Jewellery

Finally I am going to post a photograph of my jewellery. I made this piece for my sister hence the initials 'KS' at the base of the bird cage. The artwork was drawn by Lisa Stead (copyright remains with the artist).



It's on a black ribbon instead of a chain because it creates a more striking piece, matches the artwork and adds to the paste-broach Victoriana style. This was my first foray into this kind of customised cameo/miniatures style jewellery.

The next piece I will post contains a beautiful drawing, again by my collaborator - artist Lisa Stead, taken from a vintage fashion postcard. The inspiration for moving in this direction was partly influenced by the tradition of renaissance miniatures - exquisite tiny little portraits in frames. They have many amazing examples in the National Portrait Gallery in London which I visited this weekend. But I wanted to combine this very old tradition with the black and white portraits of iconic film stars from the films I love so much. So! That's how the next piece came about which I will photograph and post soon.

R&H