Category: badges

Biscuit Brooches (and Eye of Newt!)

eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop iced gems biscuit brooch
eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop iced gems biscuit brooch

Do you know, when I started making things to sell, I had no idea how important it would be that those things should make me laugh. I realise that this sounds like an utterly bonkers way of doing things.

“Does it make me laugh? Yes? Let’s do it!”

Honestly though, that approach has been so important.

eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop rich tea biscuit brooch
eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop rich tea biscuit brooch

I absolutely love a good novelty print, and I also love the thought that something I’ve made will make you smile – not only when it pops through your letterbox, but also every time you see it or wear it. I mean, who doesn’t love a cup of tea and a biscuit, for a start?

eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop bourbon biscuit brooch
eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop bourbon biscuit brooch

I bought these tiny little embroidery hoops based on two facts:

  1. they make me smile, because I love a miniature version of just about anything, and
  2. they’re both made and distributed by independent small-businesswomen, and I very much like to encourage that sort of thing. 

I also thought that they’d be an excellent way of using up some of the smallest fabric offcuts from my dressmaking. I already use up a fair few scraps with the lavender bags, but I always seem to end up hoarding the tiniest little pieces. 

eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop eye of newt brooch
eternal magpie mini embroidery hoop eye of newt brooch

A few years ago I made a similar brooch for my Mum, using a tiny offcut, just a couple of inches square, from one of her handmade childhood dresses. I thought that was a lovely way of elevating a little scrap of fabric hidden away in a box into a really sweet little keepsake that she can still wear. 

So, I’ve just made these four brooches, to start with.

I have A LOT (no, really, I mean A LOT) of fabric scraps to use up, so if these are popular you can definitely expect to see a few more of them!

Felted layers

Felted brooch bases

Progress on the fleecy hats is slow. Hand-sewing the bands and brims is taking about half an hour per hat, and there’s a limit to how much I can do in one go before my hands start to complain.

I’d been thinking about making some felt brooches, so not being one to do things by halves, here are twenty-two little circles. I had planned to work blanket stitch around the cut edges, but I actually really like the way you can see all the layers of colour showing through.

They’re made from half a dozen rectangles of wonky, uneven felt that I made as practice pieces. They’d been sitting in a cupboard for about a year, gathering dust and moths, so I decided to chuck them in the washing machine and see what happened. After a quick whiz through a hot wash and a tumble dryer, they’d shrunk down from about A4 size to about A5, become nice and thick, and developed a lovely crinkly texture.

I have some little pieces of Harris Tweed that I’m hoping will needle felt nicely onto the top of the circles, perhaps with a little button each to finish them off. (And a pin on the back, of course.)

Much as I love the bright colours in these, I can also imagine them in nice muted, natural, sheepy shades. Maybe with some Wensleydale curls and semi-precious stones stitched on top. Something to think about after Christmas, definitely.

Preparing the badges…

The Reveal Showcase exhibition starts next weekend, and just for once I’m prepared well in advance!

I’ve spent today preparing all the badges for display. I’ve used mini cards and postcards from Moo for my packaging. I’m a big fan of Moo, and the mini cards are just the perfect size:

REVEAL Showcase preparation

I have forty individual badges, and twenty sets of four. I have no idea whether this is far too many, or nowhere near enough. I guess I’ll find out as the week of the exhibition goes on. I have plenty more materials, so I can always put together some more if I need to. (Or sell them at the next Art Market, if I end up bringing them all home again…)

My only concern now is how to display all of the postcards and mini cards at the exhibition itself. I don’t really want to spend money on a fancy stand that I’ll never use again, and I don’t really want to spend all of next week making something wonky out of cardboard.

What I really need is a pretty letter rack, or maybe a vintage toast rack of some kind…

REVEAL: a showcase of quality hand-made craft

I mentioned this a little while ago, but some of my badges are going to be in an exhibition!

It’s called REVEAL – a showcase of quality hand-made craft.

It’s on from Sunday 6th to Saturday 12th July, 10am to 5pm every day, and entry is free.

It’s at the Henley Exhibition Centre.

The website has a gallery of work by all the exhibitors – I’m really looking forward to going along and seeing all the lovely things!

Lots and lots of badges.

Today I have been mostly making lots and lots of badges.

Badge mix-up

This probably wasn’t a very clever thing to do with a bad wrist, but I needed to get some photographs taken to send to Lauren Denney. She’s organising an exhibition of local artists, and she saw my badges on Etsy and invited me to take part!

Lauren is a ceramic artist, and the exhibition will take place in Henley, from the 6th to the 12th of June. Rest assured that I will be advertising this like mad as soon as I have more details!

I’m submitting three different types of badges to the exhibition, all made from recycled paper ephemera:

Map badges
Damaged Ordnance Survey maps (this one’s of Sheffield)

Textbook badges
Discarded Library textbooks

Pin-up badges
An out of date Gil Elvgren pin-up calendar

Some of the badges will be sold singly, simply pinned on to individual Moo cards. Others will be grouped into sets of four – I need to design the packaging for these, and work out how they’re going to be displayed.

I’m on the reserve list for the Rising Sun Art Market the day before the exhibition opens, so I’m planning to make even more badges over the next three weeks, so that I can also sell them at the Art Market if I’m lucky enough to get a place.

I need to make lots of pillowcase tote bags for the Art Market as well, not to mention having a jacket and dress fitting day in the meantime, so it looks as though I’ve got a busy time coming up!