Steampunk Accessories

Hey folks,

I spent the last 4 or 5 weeks in bed, one of them even in hospital with pneumonia. I am still recovering, getting lots of fresh air, inhaling, and getting my strength back, but I can tell you, I am bored as hell. Luckily, when I started being sick I spent a lot of time online and ordered crafting supplies.
On Saturday my last order finally arrived and I had a creativity flash. I grabbed my glue gun and all my jewelry supplies and made a whole set of Steampunk accessories. I love every single piece of them!!!

So, let me show off my creations:
Here you can see the whole set: two bracelets, one Alice band, a set of earrings, and an Alice in Wonderland themed pocket watch necklace.

I like the colour combination of this bracelet. The brass colour of the cuff goes well with the silver details of the ornament and the wings. I thought the little bead chain adds an elegant touch to it when you wear it.

The second bracelet I really love. There is only a little bit of silver included and the brass of the cuff goes perfectly with the watch and the wings. The perfect steampunk watch!

The Alice band is by far my favourite! It uses the same patterns as the watch, the elements are just all in silver. And instead of the watch a clockwork is added in the centre. Additionally, I used Swarowski crystals to add some colour and sparkle to it!

When I saw the Alice in Wonderland watch online, I just had to have it. If you look closely, you can see different elements from the story. I just added the chain and a few beads and charms to it.

I love the earrings! Simple, but very cute to wear and people look twice before they recognize the clockwork!

And finally, I spent Sunday afternoon sewing another tiny tophat, also Steampunk style! I added a litte bit of dry bronze powder colour to give it a little rusty look. And it makes it sparkle! :D

Hope you like them as much as I do!

~Sky

Back from the Cosday

This weekend the Cosday took place for the second time in Frankfurt and I went there with a friend and my hubby to look at all the great manga and anime stuff. They had this bring and buy area where people could sell their old costumes, books and other stuff they would like to offer. So I brought my tophats and flower hair pins as well as some jewelry I had sitting in my shelf for a while.
I've sold the red top hat, several angel jewelry sets, some cupcake bracelets, some candy cane earrings and the steampunk heart earrings. Even if it wasn't much (I spent all that money and more on Detective Conan books somebody else sold in the bring and buy area =^.^=), it still helped me to find out what items people were interested in as well as helping me finding the right prices for items. And I got a huge pile of Detective Conan to read during the holidays!! :D

Penny blossoms

Do you know The Big Bang Theory? I am a huge fan of that show and can relate to most of the characters one or the other way. I often feel like Penny, trying to achieve something great, or trying to realize your dreams. I wish I had been so popular with the guys as she is, though :D
Anyway, there is this one episode I've seen some time after the wedding where she wants to start her own business making flower hair pins. It shows how great your crafting idea is but how little you can actually earn with it.
But this episode reminded me of the flower hair pins I made for my wedding. I still had some leaves left over and I made myself another, less bridal, hair pin and a head band (and here I remember that I didn't take pictures of any of them!). I also ordered a package of coloured leaves, called "Bollywood package", in order to make hair pins in all sorts of colours. Luckily I remembered to take pictures of those. And here they are! I think they are pretty cute and can be worn with any outfit, no matter if summer of winter. I love them all!

Neko ears

Another creation during my time of being sick but feeling better are these cute fluffy neko ears! They are made of white teddy bear cloth and pink felt. I think the bow with the strawberry button and the earring are some cute additions to the look!

More Top Hats!

Being sick sucks, I think we all can agree on that. But when you start feeling better and not like a rotten apple any more, you're looking for something to occupy yourself with until you're completely recovered. After having finished the wedding top hats, I wanted to make more. Especially because I still needed one for myself for the upcoming Cosday in Frankfurt.
I got this beautiful Scottish tartan and I immediately knew I wanted to turn this cloth into an elegant top hat. And I am more than pleased with the result. I love how it all comes together: the tartan, the black satin, the feathers, the cameo, the chain. It's cute and adorable and I love how the feathers bounce up and down when walking.

After that I was caught in the hat making fever! I had some felt left over. It wasn't enough to make another large version, so I made several tiny and super tiny versions. I think they are all cute and adorable and I want to keep and wear them all, but I am pretty sure my husband wouldn't approve of our apartment becoming a storage room for hats. So I will take them to the Cosday with me and see if anyone wants to buy them. And I still have the pictures, so I can always make myself one, too! :D

Tophat Mania!

As mentioned in my last post, I was asked to make some tiny tophats for my friend's wedding. It took a while to finish them, because the shipping of some of the items I needed took quite long. But now I am proud to present you the results of that work!

As basic material I chose satin. It looks expensive and just right for a wedding. The colour of the bridesmaids' dresses is teal, so I wanted to work that colour into the hats. I didn't want them to be all teal, that would have been an overkill, I guess. So I went for black with a teal ribbon. The bridal hat is in a very pretty ivory with a teal ribbon. That way the bride still stands out but has a connection to the other hats.

To play some more with the teal I definitely wanted to use peacock feathers. So, as you can see, the majority of feathers matches the basic colour of the hat and a big peackock feather gives the hat a nice "swush!". There is another tiny peacock feather at the front of the hat. I chose those because of the very pretty glimmer they have. Lots of tull frames a flower cameo in a silver setting. The silver can be found on the other side of the hat again in a very pretty chain. It's a Louisiana wedding, so I am glad that the bridesmaids chose to go with the fleur de lis charm. I think it completes the hat.
To pin the hat to your hair I've attached a thin comb to the bottom of the hat. I hope you like the result and I hope the bride and bridesmaids will love them!!!

While I was working on these hats, a friend told me that she likes teal. As we're going to a Cosplay event next month, I decided to make her a hat, too. It's smaller than the bridal ones, the feather choice as well as the cameo and the ribbon are different, too, nevertheless I think it turned out to be a pretty neat top hat that will be an eye catcher at the CosDay! Now I just need to make one for myself. I already have an idea in my mind, so expect another tophat post soon!

Jewelry with a Japanese Twist

Hi everyone!

It's been a few months since my last post. Life has been as busy as always, but I still found a bit of time in the evenings to create some more jewelry. First of all, I totally forgot about my flower necklace that I made while I was lying on the sofa being sick at Christmas.
What I like about this necklace is the dark, non-shiny metal and I am glad I found matching beads and a chain that compliment each other. It's been one of my favourite necklaces that I've worn during winter. It looked quite nice on my turtleneck pullover.

As I've told you in my last post, I became a huge fan of Japanese culture. Therefore, browsed Artfire and Etsy for Japanese beads and I found some really cute Maneki Neko kitty beads that I immediately ordered and turned into my favourite pair of earrings. But I wanted to have a matching necklace, too, so I kept looking and found these beautiful flower beads. When I saw them I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them.
This set is absolutely my favourite jewelry set. Especially now in spring I am wearing it all the time. I ordered so many flower beads that I had enough to make a second pair of earrings, too, so that I can swap between the cute and funny nekos and the more decent flowers. But I just had to use two more nekos at the end of the necklace chain and I think they turned out really nice.

Along with those beads I also ordered some other Japanese flower beads. I used the first ones for a pair of earrings. They are kinda nice and they suit me, but I am still thinking about changing them into something else again. I don't know yet. Maybe I'll keep them the way they are and start on a new pair.

Now that it is spring, flea markets can be found everywhere. So my friends and I started going to them regularly. On our last trip I bought a pile of beads and turned some of them immediately into another jewelry set. The earrings might look heavy and, hell, they are! But I love them! This set became my second favourite to wear at the moment!

And now, as final note and to create some excitement for my next post: I was asked to make some tiny top hats for a friend's wedding! So I get to make 3 bridesmaids top hats and one bridal version.
I already started on the felt forms for the inside and am awaiting feedback on the first one regarding colour choice and accessorizing. So, hopefully soon you'll be able to admire my bridal top hat collection!

Until then!

~Sky