Birds Bring Spring

A fun little experiment gave some lovely results. Yesterday I burned some copper scrap wire to remove a plastic protection layer and give it a rustic vibe. They have these funny wiggly shapes as they were tests from our course from 2 years ago where we had to exercise making sharp hooks :)
After that the entire mass got cleaned in the tumbler.

After a few hours of figuring out these adorable earrings were the result.

The flowers and leaves are very fine mother of pearl. The eggs are pearls and finally vintage plastic birdies.These pretties are available at StaroftheEast.

They are one of a kind and I can't get over how cute they are :)

Funny enough I had this book right near me when I made it but I did not realize how much they matched before mum pointed it out. I did not look at it so it is just a fun coincident.
As a Potter fan I had to have it of course :)

Get the Look Vol.5

A little different Get the Look this time. The inspiration is my own picture and I decided to look up all the props I used :)
The shelves are from our shop, this is made out of two pieces so it can be used differently like bed side tables for example.
If you don't have enough color themed books, they are actually available in bundles arranged in color.
But if you like this look, here is what I found:

This beautiful vintage clock from AtelierVintage25.

Love this cute little globe from thelittlebiker. This one is cute too, and here another one and you have a collection of three :).

Here is a cute wooden train, mine is vintage from a flee market in Amsterdam and I have had the bus since childhood, I found a bus on Etsy too including passengers :)

I found the exact same ship as ours, only this one is not painted which I might like even more than our painted version :)

And finally a cute planter with a cute plant and you've got the look :)

Childhood memories and Alice in Wonderland

I was born in a typical Amsterdam house, 3 floors with steep stairs. People who are not familiar with these old stairs are often surprised how steep they are, but those are typical in Amsterdam. Our house had a garage on street level, then 2 floors and the attic, with lots of stairs in between. In the center of the staircase there was an empty space where my mother had bookshelves installed, throughout the entire height of the house it was books books and more books, thousands of books. Beside adult books there were at least a thousand children books as well and one of my most vivid memories of childhood was that I would sit on the stairs, pick up a book and read it then and there. As a single child with a working mother who needed sleep during the weekends I spent my weekends quietly escaping to all kind of magical places, learning English with Dr. Seuss and producing a colorful imagination.

Alice in Wonderland was of course one of my favorites, I actually dressed up like her for a school event, but I am not close to be a fan like Dina Fragola who shares her HUGE collection of Alice in Wonderland themed memorabilia on her blog. As I have been seeing her collection every week I remembered those old days back in Amsterdam, the stairs, the books (which are now due to lack of space mostly in boxes in the attic and we desperately need something like this) and was inspired to create something 'Alice' themed.

We have been creating Little Red Riding hood, Snow-white, The Seven goats and the Wolf, The Puss with Boots, Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel themed fairy tale clothing so Alice in Wonderland was bound to happen!

With a gorgeously detailed Japanese fabric, a fluffy petticoat lining, a lace trim with on top a red roses trim, the skirt is like a fairy tale itself.

While we were at it we also made one in black :)

Both skirts are available in our clothing shop!
What is your favorite fairy tale?

Hogwarts Library - Book Review and other Magic

As a big Harry Potter fan I treated myself for Christmas with the Hogwarts Library book set, which contains three books:
Fantastic Beasts & where to find them
Quidditch through the ages
The Tales of Beedle the Bard

All 3 books are mentioned in the Harry Potter books which makes it extra fun, however these books are not Harry Potter related but more extra details of the Magical world for us Muggles to enjoy :)

The books have some fun details, to my surprise I enjoyed Quidditch through the ages most, it explained in so much lovely details how Quidditch started and evolved.
I bought the set on Amazon, and highly recommend it, also a lot of the profits go to charity of these books. P.s. did you know that J.K. Rowling is the first Billionaire who lost that title because of the huge amount she donates to Charity? Something more to admire her beside her amazing penmanship!

During Christmas we sold out our lovely Feather Wingardium Leviosa inspired bookmarks, but they are back in stock and even more fun now.

Now you can choose the color of the house you belong in, if you are not sure if you are a Griffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin or Hufflepuff, you can do this quiz to see in which house you fit in best :) (I came out as a Ravenclaw).

While magic is still in the air we made this magical dragon necklace, we bought two of these dragons in Spain a while back and they have been waiting to be made ever since. While I was reading Fantastic Beasts & where to find them I remembered them again and now finally it turned in a magical necklace, I think Daenerys Targaryen would approve too :)

It is a limited edition of 2 and available in our StaroftheEast shop.

The Highest Tide

I've never recommended a book before here on our blog, which is actually quite weird when you know that mum and I are both avid readers and not a days passes that we don't read.
The reason why I am doing it now is maybe because this book, The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch, is all about the sea which is a topic we love and of course the sea inspires a lot of our creations.
Although it is a bestseller I never had heard of it but it caught my eye in our local second hand book store.
Mum read it first and was totally in love with it, but she wanted me to wait so that she could print out images of all the marine creatures mentioned in the book.
The book is so magically written that you'll think that the animals mentioned in them are fiction but they are in fact all real.

I was especially shocked to find out that the Giant Squid was actually a real thing, also known as The Kraken. I'm sure you have seen a movie with the Kraken, like The Pirates of the Caribbean (a movie I totally love btw) where it destroys an entire ship. But before you get nightmares about it, it is a deep sea creature which actually hardly has been seen in its natural habitat and is mostly found in the stomachs of stranded sperm whales or sometimes they get stranded on the beaches of New Zealand, Norway and Newfoundland. Also they are not as huge as shown in movies, but they are impressive non the less.

(Kraken (version 2) by Chris-Garrett)

So if you decide to buy/ read the book, have a source of internet near by to checkout the animals mentioned as it makes it even more amazing. Jim Lynch does explain them all very well, but images does make it more impressive.

I decided to blog about this book way before this necklace came to life, but as it matches it so well and as we are very proud of the result I thought to show it off here :)
To give the impression of a pirate ship on sea we surrounded the beautiful vintage ship with large pieces of Variscite, small pieces of Lapis Lazuli and Pyrite as treasures hunted by the pirates :)
Available in our StaroftheEast shop.

Newly Listed: The Time Traveler's Wife Necklace

The Time Traveler's Wife Necklace Statement Steampunk Necklace by StaroftheEast
Door photograph, rustic, wood, garden, color photography, brick, rustic decor by oohprettyshiny
Floral Photography, Wall Art,  Home Decor , Landscape, Country Nature by TheTinOwl
Haughty woman portrait photography, a proud woman, sepia, goddess, original art by dorataya

The Night Circus

For years now I saw every month traffic coming in to our shop from the website, ErinMorgenstern. I checked it out a few years back and saw that she is a writer. No picture of our item could be found but I did find us in her FAQ mentioning a key necklace with a link to our shop, apparently people frequently asked about it, which is fun :)
As it now has been about 5 years and traffic still continues I googled Erin Morgenstern, she is the best seller author of The Night Circus! And our necklace can be seen in interviews from tv, here is one on youtube for example, the necklace she wears is our All My Secrets Are Behind A Lock...
I'm going to buy her book as the reviews look promising, and I love magical books :)

Mastering the Art of Embroidery

Yesterday we got by mail a copy of this book, which to we have contributed several projects.

It is a well printed and very inspirational book, with lots of contributions of modern embroiderers, many of them Etsy members.

Our contributions were mostly on smocking, more fabric altering than embroidery, really.

 It is nice to see very old techniques in modern and fresh applications.

The choice of  title is not very fortunate, in my opinion. Although many basic stitches are clearly illustrated with drawings, a beginner couldn't achieve the end results shown in the book, while an experienced embroiderer would not need the basis stitches explained. Also the language is a bit stiff which shall make the explanations more difficult to follow than needed.

But, again, the book is a feast for the eye and very, very inspirational. Lots of venues to explore if you are so inclined.

Finally, I would like to share with you a bit of our experiences with contributions to books or magazines.
There are publishers that ask for high resolution pictures and there are publishers that ask for the actual item(s) to photograph and style themselves. In both cases you get a free copy of the book or magazine and some exposure.
 
Both type of publishers are very cavalier with what they offer once they get what they need.

We have collaborated once to a Stampington magazine, Haute Handbags, and despite their solemm promises to return the bags in two months, in reality it took eight months. After all that time, the bags were not exactly damaged, but they were not exactly crisp either. After that we have been approached twice for Stampington magazines and have declined. Frankly, the exposure is not worth the hassle.

For this book we sent  high resolution pictures, no risks there. Again, though, we never got the promised notification of publishing, we saw the book by chance reviewed elsewhere, and it took four months and many increasinly harsh emails to finally get a copy.

My advice, thus, never send actual items and make the publisher keep their word, nothing is granted.

If you would like to have your own copy of this book you can find it on Amazon.

Dawanda Lovebook

A few weeks ago we have been contacted by Dawanda for a feature. The Lovebook is a press release of hand picked items from Dawanda, and we are thrilled to be included. The Lovebook will be sent to journalists and press contacts across Europe and in the US,  who use it to select products to publish in magazines and newspapers, so exciting!

Our Pearl and Shell Rose ring looks pretty in this pink outfit, and we will get a printed version of the book as well, so cool!

You can find the ring on Dawanda and Etsy, and if you want to take a closer look at the Lovebook you can find that here.

Flickr Favorites- Books

1. Dreaming in Colors, 2. Inspired by Yvestown and Whitney English, 3. Satisfaction, 4. Bird Books for Babies

I went through our contacts in search for books. Luckely they are good readers and some of them make their own books so a nice variation in the mosaic.


See more beautiful mosaics at ArtMind's Blog!

Monday Moodboard

1. Kreativlink 2. LapommeStories 3. BabongoHome 4. Vadjutka

I think I'm in a monday syndrom, so much to do, but all I want to do is scroll on a couch and read a book...

See more Monday Moodboards on FleurFatale's blog!

Friday Findings: Birds

abigailbrown-Little Orange Bird

LilyMoon-Rendezvous

Pamela Angus-Little Dandy Bird

Lapomme-Pink Pencil Bird

janesays-Sweet Tall Bird Blocks

humblebeads-Little Bird Bead

HeliS-Little book about a Pilot bird

fleurfatale-Dream Birds

emiliefriday-a little birdie and flowers

annarubyking-The Singers Gift Cards

michellizm-Nest Cafe