Pinwheels

My fella is in Austin right now where apparently it's even grey, cold, and sucky there. The groundhog gave us a big "F U" for waking him up and pointing him at early risers buy saddling us with 6 more weeks of winter, so I'm not expecting the sun to swoop out any time soon. But I need Spring already gad dammit!

Trying to shake off the dark moods that have been haunting me lately as well as the weather by making fun little useless things. like pin wheels!

I get a stupid grim on my face every time I check in on my Animal Crossing town and my hubbies mayor hands me a pinwheel, so I figure the other day when I woke up maybe it would be fun to give making one a go? I'm told most kids make these in school or at parties, but apparently I was a deprived child and never did. It looked pretty much to be a square of paper cut most of the way diagonally into triangles, then literally pinned to a stick. I had paper, pins, and sticks, so now I have pinwheels!


It started with just the one (red, green and gold one of the left), then had such a blast making it and watching it twirl,  I used up the rest of my ancient origami paper and wooden dowel stash on the other two. They now sit in a mason jar with some rice on top of my tea cabinet. To me at least they honestly look pretty sunny up there (I also occasionally pull one out and take a few turns round the living room with it for fun) I kinda think with a bit of matching bunting over the tea nook they would be perfect. Maybe if I throw a Spring tea party later...

Added a couple of tutorials on how I made these for fellow deprived kids of yore who never learned to the Quaintrelle Life website. there are some paper patterns to print out too for anyone who hasn't been hoarding a half empty packet of origami paper for 5 years.

 Might not be a picnic under the sun but might be just the colorful distraction we all need right now! (I'd love to see any pinwheels you guys make too if you give it a go)

Drawing of an Old Era

 Rolling up my sleeves and using a few personal obsessions to start chipping my through a personal fear.

The obsessions: a love of early 20'th century illustration. More specifically the racy kind of tricolor proto pin ups that would appear in magazines like "La Vie Parisienne" or "Le Sourire" during the late 1910's-early 1920's, and of course all things rococo, (something those illustrators were pretty obsessed with as well, vive la panniers! ).

The fear: Drawing again after not having drawn anything of any scope in a good few years.

See I have a background in fine art. Got my degree in it, been studying it most of my life. But as drawing became a smaller part of my job, I fell into a lapse. Then after few years, became almost deathly afraid of what I would see on the page when I finally put a pencil to it again.

This past week though like I say, I finally plucked up the nerve and the pencils to see just how much rust was sticking up my drawing gears, and I started drawing up some stylized pin ups to get back into figure drawing, and something I love.

(Nerd note:) The backgrounds were loosely based on 18th century pleasure gardens  like Vauxhall and Ranelagh, and the names from breeds of roses.

So obviously the rust is showing, but it wasn't quite the cack handed scrawl II was expecting. things are already starting to free up within just these three. The lines flowing better and becoming more elastic, and things started to become more comfortable. There is hope after all!

Next demon to hopefully be banished by frothy frolicking figures I guess will be painting. The biggest "sucking at stuff I used to rock at" specter of all...

Cute as a Garter Button

Frippery du jour over here at quaintrelle towers (ok duplex) is garter buttons! You probably know the things I mean... Little silk covered buttons printed or painted with sultry eyed flapper faces from  the 1920's.

New styles and new hosiery had lead to girls rolling their stockings and holding them tightly in place with either rubber like bands or adventurous garters. Above the knee if you wanted to play it safe or bellow the knee if you were feeling sexy and wanted to let your knees do the taking! Fashionable girls could display their modern and irreverent attitudes with these flirty faces peeking out from under
rising hemlines.

Created by the ribbon companies at the time, they seem to have been printed on long ribbons, then cut and shaped into various whimsical buttons. Some were left simply as printed faces, some adorned with further ribbons and frills, and others went further with cheeky sayings like "You'd be surprised" or my personal favorite, a police man proclaiming "Stop go no further!"

Not wholly found on garters, they could also be seen on other flirty items such as powder puffs, and mirrors, all the various ribbon covered items in a true coquette's  arsenal!

You can often find them for sale on places like easy or ebay, but as a girl who likes ribbons it seemed like a fun thing to make from scratch. 

Currently still just buttons here are a few of the faces to come off my work bench this week....

Their destinies will be another post later on, but for now, anyone else wanting to say it with buttons might want to check out the quick tutorial over on the Quaintrelle Life website and make some too! 

What do you think your knees might want to say?

Tiny Tree Take Out

Every year right after the cherry blossoms fall, the apple blossom tree in our back garden bursts into life! Spreading a white canopy over my outdoor tea spot, it's one of my favorite couple of weeks during Spring. I'll admit it, I've hugged that tree, and the thought of leaving it behind when we move is one of the things that makes the idea of picking up sticks that little bit harder.

I might not be able to take the whole tree with me, but maybe, just maybe I can take the son of apple blossom with me?

Out and about town this past week with my sister and her awesome fella, we stopped by the national arboretum to take in the spring blossoms and national bonsai museum. Tucked in one of the twists and turns of their bonsai collection (which is breathtaking by the way!), was this incredible little apple blossom  bonsai! Perhaps fate? I've always wanted to grow a bonsai tree, and what better way to take my favorite tree with me? Right now I have a few cuttings lined up around the house, and going to also try growing from seed once the big tree produces fruit, as well as some late summer cuttings further down the line.basically I;m trying everything for the best chance of there being at least one that will make it to become a tree.

A great site my sister's fella, out pal and bonsai enthusiast Martin put me onto is this one bonsai4me.com, it has some great information of just about every stage. Beyond that crossing my fingers for tiny tree success, just think of the decorative and DIY possibilities in this amazing living art form?

Boudoir Darlings

A few months ago I discovered, and became really interested in 1920s boudoir dolls. I love them because they had such a short run, just though the 20's and 30's, and are so perfectly frivolous!

For any one as late to the pary as me, boudoir dolls came about as part of the many crafts coming into Paris from Russia at that time. Relativly simple cloth bodies, painted faces, and at the time more Russian style costume. They became more and more popular and soon they were being made in fantastic18th century inspired costumes, as fashionable flappers and seedy undesirables. Women would drape them around their bedrooms and personal spaces. They represented the style of the times, and also the fantasies and daydreams of the young women holled up in these rooms. The dolls weren't only restricted to the house, some daring flappers would carry their dolls out for a night on the town. More than just a fashion doll, they were dolls as fashion accessories!

 You can spot them quite often in old movies, and they show up fairly regularly in photos of film stars and flappers through out the 20's and 30's.

I design clothing and accessories for a living, but also make and customize dolls pleasure, so these have so much appeal to me as dolls and as accessories.
 from cute but beat up to "I can't believe it stayed so clean for so long!" Trawling through listings and photos I found myself more and more wanting to make my own so that it could be just as personal as some of the dolls that appeared to be to their owners in the old photos like the one above.

It took a while, but after getting my hands covered in clay, and clothes whited out with dust, I finally managed to steal some time the other day to finish off my first boudoir doll! She looks like a Constance so that's what she's called.

She went from a creepy head on a stick to a (apparently still creepy) well dressed girl, swimming in ruffles, ribbons and art deco styling!

She has a little floss wig, picture dress, and lots of little ribbon trimmings, right down to mini knee level garters!

There's whole line of projects to work on using this doll, and it's got me started making old style dolls which is something I've been wanting to do for a while.

A few things I might do differently next time around, but over all she makes me smile, and a great starting point for bringing yet another new old thing into my life :) More photos over on Dolly Daydream (including the dolly garters!!!) along with a lot of the other dolls I've made and customized over the years.

 

Japanese Retro

中原淳一 Junichi Nakahara

I started digging out an old favorite of mine from my closet this week. Tsumami kanzashi. These are pretty widely known these days, but back when I first got started with them there used to be only around 3 pages of google images if you searched in English. In fact, after I taught myself how to make them back in 2002, they were actually the first things I sold, and how my entire clothing label got it's start!

For those who don't know much about them, tsumami kanzashi are a traditional Japanese style of hair ornament made from folded silk. Some big, some small, all lovely! I actually have a pretty big collection of these pins, and found that vintage hair styles work really well with the them (especially 1940's hair)  these silk flowers are also a wonderful alternative to the regular flower clip we all love so much!


Even if you're faithful in your love of regular pin up flowers clips, you can bring in a little of that tsumami magic by matching your hair flowers to the ones you see blooming in the current season. Apprentice geisha pick theirs based on a calender of appropriate motifs for each month. Coordinating with the environment like this makes you look as fresh and precious as the flowers themselves.

Although I haven't sold kanzashi in a good few years, it's still possible to hunt them down, I especially love the ones made with fine silks and rice starch over the sewn ones a lot of crafters make these days. They are labor intensive to make, and certainly not cheap to buy, but certainly another option for true hair flower enthusiasts!

My kanzashi collection site Kanzashi❤core (in need of updating) has a ton of photos of this type of hair ornament, as well as a tutorial on how to make your own! I'm looking to get back into making them again and finishing off my seasonal kanzashi collection/calender. Dusting off these pretty old pins is giving me just the inspiration to do that!

Brooch Bouffant

If you collect vintage jewelry, you probably have more than a few vintage brooches constantly on hand> Now sure, the obvious place to put them is on a nice  frock, jacket or cardigan, but why not get a little more exciting and use them to decorate your vintage hairstyle too! A popular early 60's look, just perch it front of your bouffant or up do to add a little extra glitter a la Betty Draper in Rome.

The sparkle of a tiara and keeping retro without having to go all out princess!

You can just pin the brooch to the ponytail elastic, or you can follow this basic tutorial and turn your brooch into a hair ornament in it's own right!

(If you lack brooches there are some in the Vivcore shop)

Fashion and Dolls

Théâtre de la Mode doll

As you know from a recent post I'm something of a doll fan. I'm not a serious floor to ceiling doll collector, but they are something which has been a particular soft spot of mine lately. I love them as a girl who used to play with dolls, but I also love them as a fashion designer!

Dolls have played a huge roll in fashion for centuries. During the 18th century french merchants de mode used to send out little poupees dressed in their latest creations to entice potential patrons with exquisitely made miniature replicas of their designs. In the 1940's dolls like Virginia Lachasse  from London and those created for the Théâtre de la Mode from Paris showcased the talents and workmanship of couturiers in the mid 20th century.

I've had a lot of fun recently playing out designing in miniature for Monster High dolls, after customizing a Slow Moe for Ghoulia (that letter jacket!) I turned my hands to designing a Sweet 1600 outfit for my favorite Zombie girl, and a Loch Less monster doll as a way to let lose with some UK monster and fashion pride!

Sweet 1600 Ghoulia

Lochturna Ness

As a designer working on a small scale is a great way to try out new things with little expense, and a fun alternative outlet to showcase work in a different way.

Dolls can also be a fun way of finding new styles to try for yourself! For the vintage fashion lover vintage and retro Barbie fashions can be a fun source of inspiration for your full scale fashion! As can some of the amazing Gene dolls out there.


 Make Your Own Doll!

I've had a tutorial on my site for a few years with tips on making your own ball jointed dolls, and this past weekend before jetting off to England to stay with my family over the holidays, I also added a tutorial for customizing fashion dolls! You can use the tips for customizing the freak fab Monster High dolls, but the same techniques can also be used to create your own unique Barbie dolls or which ever fashion doll speaks to you most! When it's all about expressing your style, it's always fun to find a doll that reflects it the best!

 There are some tips on how to wipe, re-root and paint your doll, ready for your miniature fashion adventures! Give it a shot and let your inner designer run wild!

The new tutorial plus extra photos of my 2 newest Monster High customs can be found on the Dolly Daydream site here!

Slow Moe Zombie Star

Phew! I've barely been at home for that past couple of months, and working like a crazy person in between. I did take off last weekend though and dedicated it to to reconnecting with a fun old hobby... DOLLS!

After hanging out with some great friends in New York I a few weeks back I came away with a new crippling addiction to Monster High (which is helping me get over a bad Poupee Girl habit). The doll I most fell in love with is good old Ghoulia, the retro headband, the cat-eye glasses, the comic books, whats not to love right? Well everyone knows that in the doll world a boyfriend doll is a like a Louis Vuitton purse, it's the accessory all the superstars have right? Like Barbie and Ken, he's always kinda been the accessory that let everyone know Barbie was higher up the food chain than Skipper. So since Ghoulia is a doll superstar in my heart and I've never been one to leave well enough alone, it was time to turn my tools towards customizing her a Slow Moe character boyfriend doll!

 

As luck would have it everything I needed arrived in time for the weekend and after a few hours of demolishing a poor Jackson doll I was able to re-paint, re-root (the hair), re dress and even flock the guy into a zombie chess star beau! It was a blast sewing tiny clothes again and painting on doll heads.

Dolly Daydream Back in Action!
The whole thing really reignited my love of playing with dolls and even gave me the first update in a long time to my much loved Dolly Daydream site. I've got plans to finish off the rest of the ball joint doll tutorials over there, and for adding some fashion doll customizing tutorials too, so so anyone with any interest in dolls, that's the space to watch!

DIY Teacup

New craft tutorial added to the Quaintrelle Life website! Small project to decorate your own teacup at home!

Using a little Photoshop know how it's easy to make your own custom teacup!

This is one I made a few years back when I was writing the tutorial the first time around for the now defunct Shojo Beat magazine (RIP Shojo Beat, we all loved you)

Click here to see yourself how simple it is!

Photo Frame Tutorial

The last 2 months I wasn't able to keep up to the new article every month promise for the Quaintrelle Life site, but rest assure I'm back on track and have a long list of articles to write over the next few months! For April it's all about replacing the cell phone photo with something a little fancier. We've got a little tutorial on a DIY photo frame in the Victorian style that you can display, keep in your top drawer, or carry with you on the go! (Also with a saucier retro pin up style frame for those who like things a little lighter :p !)

Come visit the site to give it a whirl! www.quaintrellelife.com

Knotted Lavender

I love lavender! I love the grayish green leaves, and the tall purple flowers that wave about in the Summer breeze. I love the way it smells (and the way it tastes!) and as an avid crafter with long project commitment issues I love making tiny lavender bags!


After running into some knotted  tassels on the V&A website a little bit back, I decided to pick up and work on a new knotting project. I wasn't feeling quite up to a large set of cushions or chair covers etc just yet, but could just about handle a cute embroidered lavender bag.

For centuries ladies have kept pretty little lavender sachets in their dresser drawers to keep everything smelling fresh and delightful, so I figured what better quaintrelle project for a spot of knotting?

The design is a simple little bunch of lavender worked in 5 different types of knotted thread couched down onto an ivory aida fabric. The back is silk to add a touch of extra luxury and the first little fringe of tassels I had made were the exact right length to sew to the edges!


The knotting has been a nice way to keep my hands busy the past few weeks, and I was amazed how much I still have in my little work bag. I have another 3 balls of knotting and a yard long piece of rayon fly fringe from this latest knotting binge.(not sure what to do with all those pieces yet though)

With lavender season just around the corner I'm hoping our two lavender bushes will grow back as well as they did last year. For all you fellow gardeners and crafters out there I hope this might inspire you to make a few of these pretty little pouches of your own! I'd love to see what everyone else comes up with for lavender bag projects!

[For more knotting info I have a tutorial and brief explanation over on the main site here. I've been meaning to update the knotting tutorial for a while now and should hopefully have a more comprehensive piece up soon]