August Book Review: 'How to Make Jewellery with Tatty Devine' by Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden

A lot of similarities can be drawn between Tarina Tarantino and British jewelry line Tatty Devine. Both share the aestetic that jewelry should be fun, personal and sparkly. But while Tarina’s work has a nostalgia sense of fantasy, Tatty Devine has an air of British kitschiness, edgy and quirky. You’ve probably seen their signature dogtag like pendants or signature name necklaces, in colors from jet black to neon yellow.

Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden, the partners who started the business as a stall in Camden Market to the mass selling name it is today, released this book with some adorable funky accessories. I love their ‘Sausage Dog brooch’, made from the same line of animal figurines I used to collect. Their Keyboard Necklace, made using the keys from a toy piano with jump rings on a simple chain, also seems so tantalizingly simple to make, while creating a fun statement.

However, when I rediscovered this book in my room, I had to say it didn’t have the same promise of inspiration as it did when I first read it a few years ago. Somehow other titles I’ve read since have made the allure of jewelry making this title has seemed duller. Maybe I’ve experienced how fun and personal jewelry making can be, so flipping through pages I mentally think ‘made it’ or ‘seen it’. Some of the pieces may seem fun to make, but I do question their use in the future after completion. Take the the ‘Shrinky Necklace’, a simple chain with crinkled up crisp bags adorning it; unique, for sure, but not exactly flattering. 

Also the projects are so specific. Like the Fruity Dice necklace; great, if you HAVE a dice painted in funky fruit colors. 

If you’re more daring in your accessories than I am, maybe you’d go for the projects in this. For now, I’ll stick to the more subtle projects, like the Black Bow Tie necklace. A great title for a jewelry novice looking for some tips to get started, I’d suggest this book, but still believe you’d have more fun with Tarantino’s book.

Final Score: 2/5

Toy Hospital

I thought it was adorable last Christmas when I was working wardrobe for the Nutcracker when one of the kids came up and asked if I could mend her Eeyore stuffed animal. I laughed and told her to bring him into the Toy ER. Now recently when my sister’s home from college and going through her room, she’s asked me to help bring some life into her beloved kitty plushie. 

Toys like this aren’t scruffy-they were just loved a lot! All that hugging and tugging does do some damage after a while though. So I decided to breathe a little life back into Kitty, hopefully taking away the ‘run over by a truck’ look to his current state.

This ‘operation’ took more than 5 minutes and was a complete success! Using a seam cutter I simply cut a hole, to poke the toy stuffing through, being sure to evenly place the stuffing. Once satisfied, hand sew the hole closed again. The patient is then released, with a prescription of three or more hugs a day!

July Book Review: 'The Dream Dollhouse: Do-It-Yourself Book' by Julie Shelton

You know that quote from Forest Gump ‘‘sometimes there just ain’t enough rocks’’. For me it’s starting to feel like ‘‘sometimes there just ain’t enough craft books.’’ Desperate for new material to read on a flight, grasping at straws I searched on my kindle for ‘doll house craft books’...and struck absolute gold with this title! And bonus, it was up to borrow on Amazon Prime!!!

There are bloggers and youtube channels on doll crafts, but no published works! The fact that someone took the time to write their ideas down is wonderful.

You can tell Shelton is a true Barbie fan, most the projects done in fuchsia on 1:6 scale. She set out to write her book where the projects were ‘easy and adorable’, that honored the spirit of creating small worlds for ‘tiny people’. 

Shelton and blogger My Froggy Stuff have something in common; The gift of seeing in ordinary objects that can be transformed-for one, crayons being transformed into gorgeous candles! True, she did tend to lean towards picture frames in most of her projects (although her Beatrice Bedhead is stunning! I’m desperately seeking a wired picture frame for this project.) I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more reinvention in found objects.

I wouldn’t have minded if some of her work wasn’t so geared towards the Barbie collector with the pink themes in the layout. However, she had some amazing ideas for the basics that have given me ideas for things to look out for in the hardware store next time I’m there. So for the budding dollhouse maker, this is a definite must for your bookshelf.

Final Score: 4/5

'Drink Me' Necklace

Summer is upon us, the time of the year when in my heart I pay tribute to my muse of costume design, Alice in Wonderland. That story is so visually rich, filled with such characters and images-the Red Queen, playing cards, keys and bottles...

On pinterest I got some great ideas for accessories inspired by Lewis Carrol’s classic. My favorite part was always the bit after Alice falls down the rabbit hole and takes the various beverages and treats to fit through the doors.  Seeing this project were practically a crafty-calling! This necklace has a small glass bottle as a centre piece with some quirky touches-an acryclic bead, the white rabbit’s watch...

I’ve got some empty mini-perfume bottles that are perfect. There’s a little residue I couldn’t clean out so instead of slipping a paper with ‘Drink Me’ inside, using the sign to hide the contents of the bottle. For the shrinking potion itself I slipped in gold and aqua blue beads into the bottle. 

I’m really into adding these acrylic crystals for some color in necklaces at the moment, not just to zip up the lobster clasp but also details for the centre pieces, so on a jump ring I added some of linked beaded detail.

Project Budget: ￡5...I think...this was a gradual process, I used left overs from precious projects so can’t give an exact figure.

June Book Review: 'Mixed Media Dollhouses' by Tally Oliveau and Julie Molina

When I started thinking about of branching out my doll art, doll dioramas seemed daunting and expensive. But after downloading this book, this art form seems a lot less intimidating.

Here Oliveau and Molina bring together a variety of artists to create dollhouses from altered art assemblage (art thats a combo of 2D and 3D works). The featured dollhouses have insane themes, like the Wonderland House, the Under the Sea and my favorite the Treehouse. Through assembling different shaped boxes, collage pasting and a little tool work, what’s amazing is that the houses have no real pattern, yet the different rooms mesh together beautifully! Of all the dollhouses in existence, you’ll never find one equal to these.

The book covers wide ground, from design concept to construction. For example, the chapter on box structure shows how to widen a box room, and how to manipulate the box frame just to add a little depth and twist. But the authors really emphasize the amazing collision of 2D to 3D features throughout the dollhouses, from using wire to make features spring and stick out to using different wallpapers for contrasting background to make even the most bland room wall seem alive! 

Just flipping through this book again and again gives me new ideas for dollhouse making. I wish the kindle edition had made the pictures bigger so the reader can see all the amazing detail that was put into each room! There are up to seven rooms in each house, so why do the work suggest and show them! There’s always some new technique or design that would be a delight to create a beautiful home for my growing doll collection. 

Final Score: 3/5 (for layout)

Lyric Bracelet

OK, first of all, one thing I’ve gotta say-I was LOVING ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen way before it was cool! When the promo of Idina performing it came out in October, I cried the first time I heard it. This song never fails to hit an emotional chord. Though I gotta admit, for the project, I mashed up both Idina and Demi’s versions of the song. Seriously, that line about being ‘up here in the cold thin air, I finally can breathe, I know I left a life behind, but I’m too relieved to grieve’ is brilliant!

So when I came across this ‘Love Letter’ bangle idea from Mark Montano’s Big Ass Book of Bling, but instead of using a hand written letter, modified the project to feature song lyrics. I was really drawn to how personal this bracelet could be. Tons of people would adore receiving a bracelet with their favorite tune embellished on it! 

So taking a stroll down memory lane to my kindergarten art class, it was fun to revisit paper mache techniques, covering the bangle first in a layer before covering it in the strips of printed paper.

However, the project at the moment remains incomplete as I haven’t been able to source the final touch, Polycrylic Winwax, a water based sealer to smooth over the surface of the paper exterior. I even wrote to Mr. Montano asking if he could recommend a substitute product, but any art supplies or hardware store owner just gives me weird looks when I’ve asked. So for now, the bracelet remains raw and unfinished. 

Makes a really sentimental and fun gift!

Exhibition Review: Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 at the V&A

With the massive atrium, and with all the wedding fever running high in my house in preparation for my older sister Marika’s wedding, I planned a visit to see this collection of wedding dresses, showing from May 3rd until 15th March next year at the V&A.

The fashion wing at the V&A is an amazing space for an exhibition, with the atrium and upper deck open. But it still gets me how, despite how the museum should take pride in providing so much inspiration for designers, they STILL won’t allow sketching or photographs!Artist peeves aside, I was struck by one thing in particular about the exhibition. The display showed the evolution of wedding attire traditions. For example, the shift from morning church wedding requiring brides to wear gloves and cover their shoulders, to performing the services in private family parlors calling for a less formal dress code. Personally I was curious to learn a little more about the origins of wedding dresses (why a veil, why white etc?) On screens they showed video footage of several royal weddings in recent history, including Princess Diana’s. 

The upper deck though had the real show stoppers! Larger than dress wedding dresses worn by celebrities like Kate Moss were displayed, stating the message of how celebrity driven weddings have become with all the publicity of the net boosts today. People are becoming more and more edgy and personal in their wedding gowns, wanting to make a red carpet worthy statement on their special day. I love this idea, how it breaks away from the historical icon of a bride being offered as some kind of gift to a man! And not all the dresses were camera-conscious but practical. For example, one gown showed the trend of dancing at reception and therefor needing to more flexible (no trains, simple silhouette etc). 

My favorite gown had to be Ian Stewart’s Flower Bomb, a gorgeous explosion of soft netting and taffeta!

A great visit and one I’d wish to repeat with the mother of the bride. However, I didn’t stay long, getting a little teary eyed at the idea of Marika dawning one of these bad boys herself shortly...