Celebrate creativity this Recycle Week

As this week is Recycle Week (running from 21 to 27 June) I decided to take a look at the wonderful and weird upcycled crafts on offer at www.etsy.com. Here are some of my favourite finds:

The wonderful
Vintage book cover notebook - Coverstories, $20
Broken china necklace, dishfunctunldesigns, $65
Noddy books butterfly art - aboundingtreasures, $15
Flattened bottle serving plate - prizmatic, $18
Vinyl storage container - retrograndma, $9.99
Upcycled vintage suitcase - funkyfindzonline, $85
Your little sock pony - goodergoods, $25

The weird
'Vernon' found-object woman - springcreekstudios, $165
Octobaby - chaosdoll,$35

What Misha Makes

Marvelling at the tiny trinkets on Misha Brigemohane’s stall at Brighton’s Upper Gardner Street Market a couple of Saturdays ago, I could feel that it was a love affair in the making. But Irish was becoming impatient – there’s only so much time he can spend riffling through dog-eared books whilst waiting for my magpie impulse to wear off – so I took down her e-mail address and voila, we has words on the topic (and a few pictures too):


How long have you been making and selling jewellery?
I started making charm jewellery two years ago just as a hobby to begin with, but by the following year I found I had so many pieces that the only thing for me to do was to see if anyone else out there would enjoy wearing them. Suggested by a friend who is also a crafter, I set up my etsy page, www.mishamakes.etsy.com, in January 2009 and did my first stall in May.

Where do you take inspiration from?
I take inspiration from everywhere - memories, eras, film, music, art and current fashion trends. I draw a lot of inspiration from trends on the high street - they help me notice more themed charms. I also love anything that looks vintage, even if it's not and love Victorian style.

Where do you source your materials?
I collect things from all over the place - buttons, beads, anything small enough to go onto a necklace or ring. I'm a bit of a hoarder! They could be from car-boot sales, antique shops, flea markets, haberdasheries to the deep realms of the internet. Most of my charms these days are from the internet as I don’t have as much to hunt around as I did.

What are proving to be your most popular items at the moment?
Every week is different from the week before. At the moment I've sold a lot of ‘Drink Me’ necklaces inspired by Alice in Wonderland which is incredibly popular now the film is out. I also always sell lots of tea themed items like tiny tea cup and saucers on rings and necklaces - everyone loves a cuppa!

What are the top trends in jewellery design at the moment?
Vintage styled jewellery and trinket charm jewellery have a really strong presence within design at the moment and have done for a while, but I honestly don't pay much attention to current trends in jewellery design, I tend to just go with what I want to do and what I like and hope for the best!

Do you find it difficult to create original designs when there are so many independent jewellery makers trading on etsy and similar sites now?
Not at all, I have so many designs that I want to create and will never have enough time to make them all! I make jewellery because it makes me happy to create: it's my hobby and so it doesn't matter how many other similar sites there are. Whatever I sell is just a great bonus and so far I've been pretty lucky to sell enough to continue with my hobby!

How often do you create new designs?
My weeks are pretty full but I love creating - making jewellery is my therapy. When I get home from work I make two or three pieces of jewellery in the evening while there's a television programme on in the background.

Do you make much money from selling your jewellery?
Well I still have a full time "day job" – working five days a week in a boutique in the North Laine - but I make enough money to pay for my stalls and for more stock and that's enough for the time being. I'm gradually building up my reputation and setting up my own website, so we'll see how it goes!
Do you sell your jewellery any where else?
I recently set up a new page on Folksy.com which is pretty much the British alternative to Etsy.com - it's less vast than Etsy which can be overwhelming. I'm also part of a collective of crafters called Handmade Cooperative, a group of crafters who make handmade items. They hold an indoor market every other month at the Komedia and are currently about to open a new shop on St James's Street, Kemp Town, with the same idea. All crafters get their own space to sell their wares. It should hopefully be open by mid April and I'll have my own little section in there which is so exciting, I can't wait!

Look at the prettiness…see the things that are smaller than they are in real life…you want these trinkets to make you happy? You will find them here:
www.mishamakes.etsy.com
www.mishamakes.folksy.com
www.mishamakes.bigcartel.com

My favourite decade for style: The Noughties

Lana Clements explains how Noughties style looked backwards to cherry-pick the best of decades past.

After a rather tomboyish moment in the nineties, the Noughties did a complete 180 and made way for a welcome return to lady-like chic. The decade-long celebration of femininity has been earmarked by twenties Flappers, Forties demure and Jackie O Fifties – even Eighties glamour had its place – all to provide a fashion feast that is a girly-girl's delight.

The Noughties saw personal style really come into its own and this was really all thanks to one over-riding fashion movement: vintage.

Vintage allowed the freedom to engineer a style that was truly unique. Rather than relying on the high-street to churn-out reinventions of eras gone by, stead-fast stylistas began raiding Oxfam, Sue Ryder, flea-markets, car-boot sales and anywhere else they could find a piece of authenticity. Never before had raiding your grandma’s wardrobe been so rewarding!

The result has been an almost anything-goes approach, juxtaposing one-off designer finds with throwaway high-street fads. The style of the Noughties has been a fascinating amalgamation of clothes and trends from all eras.

There has only been one true Noughties style icon for me - Kate Moss, who returned to the forefront of fashion to prove her style status. So desperate to emulate her look, the masses have lapped up the Kate Moss collection for Topshop – one of the most successful ventures the chain has ever produced. The model has perfected a style which incorporates vintage chic, rock 'n roll glamour and designer all to an effect that is timeless and effortless.

My favourite item of clothing from the Noughties has, of course, been an amazing vintage find. Born in the Seventies, my faux-fur coat was discovered in a small charity shop in the backwaters of Wales and was just £4! I love the glamour it creates - classic yet edgey.

My favourite decade for style: The Sixties

Why I think you can’t beat the Sixties for fabulous fashion.

Thanks to the birth of rock and roll in the Fifties, young adults felt for the first time that they owned a slice of life distinct to that of their parents; and the Sixties saw popular youth culture blossom, with a feeling that anything was possible and everything was there to be experienced. With the arrival of Mary Quant’s mini-skirt, female haircuts as short as boys’ – see Twiggy’s iconic Beatle-cut - and patterns and colours as bold and as bright as they could be; fashion challenged social boundaries, and it was exciting!

The style icon of the decade has to be the woman who has been both Mrs Harrison and Mrs Clapton: model Pattie Boyd. One of the most successful and prolific cover-girls of her time, Pattie defined a look which is still emulated to this day with her heavily-lined doe eyes, sleek hair and shifts as cute as the gap between her front teeth. Not only was Pattie absolutely gorgeous, she managed to pull off both girlish charm and stylish sophistication, all with a quiet dignity so distinct from today’s age of D-list WAG wannabes. It’s little wonder that she inspired the composition of both ‘Something’ and ‘Wonderful Tonight’.

I take it as the greatest compliment when people say that I “look like something out of the Sixties” and my favourite pieces inspired by the decade have to be my black lace shift and purple and white patent Mary-Janes from Camden Market. The outfit is so cute and easy to wear and I feel like a doll every time I slip into the shoes. In terms of accessories; black eyeliner is the only thing I need - slicking on some Rimmel is the quickest way to create glamour and it adds a touch of drama to any outfit.

My favourite decade for style: The Fifties

In the first of a new series in which guest writers tell us about their favourite decade for style, journalist and lindyhopper Katie Allen champions the Fifties rockabilly look.

I first got into Fifties style through my love of rockabilly clubs and music. A pair of ballet pumps to dance in one week, a full skirt the next, and suddenly I was tracking down frocks at vintage fairs and rifling through shop rails for pencil skirts and lace blouses. Here, at last, was a fashion that suited my figure too - I'm five-foot-nothing and euphemistically an hourglass-shape; Kate Moss I'm not and skinny jeans make my legs look like parsnips. But give me a high-waisted skirt and I feel a hundred times more, well, feminine.

It's the rock'n'roll side of Fifties fashion I am drawn to most. The New Look, which in 1947 turned a world of women from boxy jackets and 40s deprivation onto yards of tulle and white gloves, is a little too staid and impractical for 21st-century girls who need to work and catch buses. Plus I am far too clumsy to cope with fragile Lucite handbags and delicate pin-tucks every day, and I save the hair-rolling for special occasions.

I prefer the sassier style of the rocking gals who tied their shirts round their waists, wore rolled-up jeans and Winehouse-style eyeliner.

I'd have to say my style icon of the era would be, perhaps predictably, pin-up queen Bettie Page. I love her flat, black "bangs", fitted wiggle dresses and leopard print obsession.

My favourite item of clothing, a vintage blue-flowered frock, is far more traditional though. The gathered skirt and scoop back feel so much more flattering than anything modern and stretchy, and unlike a cheap Primark number, some far-flung factory worker hasn't suffered to get it to me for £6. The passion and care of whoever made it is evident in every tiny stitch and carefully placed pleat and gather. Plus I was able to wear it to my dad's wedding two summers ago in the knowledge that no-one would have the same dress on.

Katie is the editor of www.fat-quarter.co.uk

Oxfam Vintage Day & Loved, Worn and Reborn

With two flyers for vintage and second-hand clothes events having taken pride of place on my fridge door for the past couple of weeks, this weekend was one eagerly awaited, and it didn’t disappoint.

Saturday saw Hove’s Oxfam shop transformed into a snoopers’ paradise for vintage-enthusiasts, with the usual stock stored away and only the best retro gems allowed to reside on the racks. The place was packed as word spread and every corner offered up equally enticing items; from clothes, shoes and accessories through to kitsch home-wares.

Sunday provided an equally alluring prospect, playing host to a ‘Loved, Worn and Reborn boot-ique sale’ – a better-class of car-boot or jumble-sale – in a little-known Brighton church hall. With clothes-rails interspersed with tables flaunting home-made gifts, cupcakes and mulled wine, a warm Christmas atmosphere radiated and, once again, there were some fantastic finds to be snapped up.

The best of my haul

All items £5 or under (includes above Brigitte Bardot poster in frame)

My so called second-hand life

Second-hand shopping has claimed more column inches since we fell into recession, but while the impetus for the growth in popularity of charity shops, boot-ique sales, and vintage fairs may have come from necessity, such outlets have flourished thanks to the increasing number of people searching for the unique in a consumer market saturated by fast-fashion and mass-produced style statements.

Not only is second-hand shopping often cheaper than the high-street, the experience can be constructed as a sport. Where it may be easy to find stylish home accessories in Habitat, for example, it takes a more tuned eye to spot the gems in a car boot sale, or down the local Oxfam store.

Our increased inclination to peer fondly backwards rather than strain forwards – this season’s top fashion trends; body-con dresses, statement shoulders and leggings all made their catwalk debut in the 1980s; and Cath Kidston’s 1950’s-housewife-inspired prints have found appeal well beyond the yummy mummy market – has also helped propel second-hand shopping into the mainstream.

Fashion seems to have become self-referential to the point where we have come full-circle – when wondering which defining trends from the noughties will make it onto the moodboards of future designers; you have to ask which trends from the noughties didn’t borrow from eras past. Thus it’s only natural for full-skirted 1950s dresses and kitsch homewares to have become more fashion-forward than fuddy-duddy.

To me, second-hand shopping is a discipline, in which to excel I have to put in the hours, but from which the reward - the buzz of finding that unique item to help create my individual style - becomes slightly addictive. And if said item originates from my favourite decades in style – the 1960s and 70s – all the better.

A few of my favourite vintage finds from around my home:


Bought for £3.50 from a Brighton flea market.


Dressing table, bought for £40 from Gumtree. Vintage bags £3 and £4 from a charity shop.


Coffee cups and saucers, bought from a flea market in Amsterdam - 10 Euros for the set. Flask £1.50 chairty shop. Clock £5 Ebay.


Metal tea pot bought from a charity shop for £2.50. Cup and saucers part of the above set.


JH Lynch print, bought from an street market in Amsterdam for 7 Euros.


Old knitting magazine cover, bought from a Brighton flea market for £1.50 and framed.


Bought from a charity shop for £1.


Bought from a charity shop for £1.