Swell times ahead

Hello once again, my loves! Did you have a good Easter time? Did you eat your body weight in chocolate? I certainly hope so.

I've had such a nice and relaxing long weekend, but I probably should have used my time more productively as things are getting increasingly busy. I'm still working on pieces for the Handm@de Fair in Winchester on 5th July, and I'm also starting on my next collection for Trinket in Edinburgh. Not only that, but I'm moving to East London in about 6 weeks - needless to say, there's plenty to do!

However, I did manage to make a couple of things. This necklace, for example:


I really like this vintage perfume bottle. I've cleaned it up, replaced the flimsy chain it was found with with a stronger, more textured vintage one, added freshwater pearls and hung it asymmetrically. I also like that it is still functional - all you need to do is pull the cork (as below) and insert a small piece of fabric soaked with your favourite scent:

A necklace by any other name would smell as sweet!

This bracelet is made from a vintage faux turquoise brooch and is linked on vintage chain. One of the stones was missing around the center turquoise (oh no!), so I removed them all and (shockingly) replaced them with fresh water pearls. Now I think it looks a bit like a weird cake with a bird's egg in the middle.

So what do you think? I always love to hear what you think of my pieces, so any feedback you may have will be welcomed with open arms, and maybe even a cheeky kiss!

Also, I wrote an article on vintage satchels for the Queens of Vintage last week, which you can read here if you fancy it. Not only that, but Handm@de Winchester kindly posted a "Meet the Maker" interview with me on their blog, which you can read right here. There really are so many lovely people in the blogosphere!

Well, now that Easter is over, it's back to normality. I hope you have a really good week! I'm now going to watch Clueless and attempt to catch up on my (ever-expanding) blog reader.

Thanks for reading. It's been emotional.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Swell finds

Another Sunday, another blog post...

Hello, my dear friends. How are you, and how was your weekend?

Mine was very lovely, thanks. I visited my good friend Jamie Smart (http://www.fumboo.com) in Brighton. It was perfect weather to be beside by the seaside, and it was brilliant to fill myself with sea air and candy floss in equal measure. I also visited Snoopers Paradise - have you ever heard of it/been? Another good friend of mine, Mark Pavey (http://www.themarkpavey.co.uk) had been talking about it for a good while, so I decided to take a look.

Snoopers Paradise is a huge indoor market, full of vintage, antique and second hand bits and bobs. Basically, I was in heaven, and it was the perfect opportunity for me to stock up on vintage treasures to make some new pieces with.

Here are some of my finds and what I've done with them so far:

I really love this brooch - the black and gold is very striking. I can't wait to try and make something rather special with it.

I've already had a little go with this one. This brooch had a few stones missing, so I replaced them with freshwater pearls. It looks a little random, but I quite like that.

This brooch had horrible chipped faux pearls on it, so I pulled them out and replaced them with freshwater ones. I really like the shape of this one too.

This brooch has stones missing, too. I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet, but I really like the colours and how shiny it is.

This is a vintage ceramic perfume necklace. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to adapt this one yet, but it'll probably feature some pearl. Can you tell I quite like pearl?

Speaking of pearl, I wrote an article on vintage pearls for Queens of Vintage last week. Fancy a read? I'd love your feedback, if you'd be so kind.

Is it sunny where you are at the moment? The UK has been glorious over the last week. Let's hope it continues to last so I can wear my vintage sunnies constantly!

Thank you for reading my blog. It really does means a lot. You spoil me with your amazingness, you really do.

Have a good week! See you soon? Yes, please...

Many thanks,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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