Etsy suppliers and my love of vintage items.

I have been letting my mind wrap itself around some new ideas for garters these past days, thanks to the arrival of a shipment of vintage trims and small items.  Like these wonderful pastel-colored embroidered butterflies from Switzerland that are new old-stock and date back to the 1950's.  I added them to a simple but elegant off-white vintage satin trim garter and love the end result!  With the addition of small fresh water pearls stitched to the butterfly, I thought it gave it a special touch and really enhances the applique even more.

 I am always on the look out for "new" vintage items to work with, so imagine my joy when I found these wonderful old beaded blue love knots.  I pounced on them and knew exactly what to do with them!

Here is the end result, a very pretty bridal garter made of vintage lace, white silk satin ribbons, a vintage daisy applique, and of course one of those fantastic blue beaded love knots.

I bought the love knots from a wonderful Etsy supplies seller, Bumbershoot Supplies  ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/bumbershootsupplies ) who has the most fantastic items.  I bought some of the pastel pearly-pink pearl beads below....

....as well as these white pearl beads.....

...and some of the crystal clear faceted glass beads.  Aren't they wonderful! I am working on a brand new garter design using these lovely beads, so stay tuned for the unveiling of something quite different then I have made before.

It is a lovely Etsy shop to browse through, the photos are fantastic and really show the items exactly as they are, even showing them with a little miniature piece of art work that is 1" by 1" square, so you have a good visual feel for how big the items are that you want to purchase.  And one can not help but find items to purchase at Bumbershoot!

Here is the finished garter once again, but my mind is already working on some similar designs using the same white vintage lace as well as some of the newest vintage appliques that I just recieved.  I like to lay the items out with each other, let them work on me for a while, and suddenly I just know how I want to combine them.  Some of the items are from my dear friend, Nancy's wonderful B&M shop in California,  Gilding the Lily.   http://gildingthelilyvintage.blogspot.com/ 

The photos below show how much I love to just lay different items with each other all jumbled together, including some of the pearl beads which are still in their little plastic bags.  As they say, "beauty is all in the eye of the beholder".  For me, that little collection of vintage laces, the pearls from Bumbershoot, little appliques, silk ribbons, and trims all look beautiful just the way they are.  But, soon they will be made into bridal garters and listed in my Etsy shops, and it will not take me long before I am mixing and matching other items to see what kind of magic they can make together!

Hop on over to Bumbershoot's blog, I have had the greatest honor of being a Featured Artist there.  I am over the moon with how wonderfully written it is!

http://bumbershootdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/02/featured-artist-deborah-blut-of-garter.html