The Handmade Highway!

We recently joined a brilliant site called The Handmade Highway so I thought I'd make all our lovely blog readers aware of it.

To quote the Highway 'The Handmade Highway is a living, dynamic directory of handmade sellers giving users 1-click access to handmade shops'.

I thoroughly recommend that you take a look without delay, it's a brilliant site to find unique sellers. The only problem may be leaving the highway, there's so much on offer and with the holidays fast approaching, it's very tempting to spend spend spend.

Just this morning I had a quick browse and found this delightful piece by hjmart

Or this holly green crane in a bottle by LotusTreeCrafts

If your a seller it's worth taking a look too. Our exit is fairly new, but if you fancy a look it's here.

Button Bracelet Tutorial!

I love collecting buttons and use them to add interest to items of clothing, shoes, cushions, and in jewellery projects. I always look for them when on holiday and usually come back with several little bags of goodies. I have noticed that in Europe you still seem to be able to find shops with walls lined with interesting and unusual buttons. The last place I bought any was Bratislava in Slovakia. This is a very small city especially the old centre and yet I was able to find several items to bring back. I also have buttons from fabulously interesting shops in Prague. These shops tend to have the feeling that time has stood still and they are there to cater for customers who are still making their own clothes and household items.

I enjoy visiting Italy and have buttons from Florence, Venice, Bologna and many other places. On our last trip to Florence we took a train to a very small town call Lucca and as soon as I got there I started to ask the locals if there were any shops selling buttons. I was advised that a shop called Casa de Buttoni (The House of Buttons) was located just outside the old town walls. It was one of those amazing little shops with the walls lined with brown boxes with a sample button fixed on the front of each box. I bought a selection of mother of pearl star buttons with the intention to use these for jewellery projects, you can see the results here Star Earrings. Because of the exchange rate they did not seem cheap, in fact they seemed rather expensive but I had been looking for this design for a long time so bought a good selection of sizes.

To get back to buttons, I have found an antique shop in Bath that sells cards full of vintage buttons but I don’t find many sources of interesting buttons in town centres. I have bought some off eBay but it is not the same pleasure as being in a shop with all those enticing buttons. I have made button bracelets from small buttons and waxed cotton and will add the instructions at the end of this blog. The buttons that I have used for these bracelets were a good find at a Derbyshire Mill that used to make items for Marks and Spencer. They were selling off the buttons cheaply and I bought up most of their supply.

TUTORIAL

You will need enough buttons to stretch comfortably round your wrist, probably about 14, each measuring about 1 cms across. For this style of bracelet they need to be buttons with four holes.

You will also need a length of waxed cotton or good quality string. Cut the waxed cotton to a length of about 80 cms and fold in half. Tie a single knot in the folded end to form a loop. Before pulling this tight make sure that your loop is the right size for one of the buttons to pass through, be careful however to make sure the loop is not too large as this may cause the bracelet to come undone.



To make it easier to thread the buttons you could now fix the looped end to your table with some masking tape. Have the two loose ends of cord facing you and thread through two of the holes in the button from behind, with the cord coming out at the front. Cross the cord and thread diagonally through the other two holes in the button from the front to the back and pull tight.

Repeat the previous step with as many buttons as you need to go round your wrist.

Once you have the correct length tie a reef knot behind the last button. A reef knot is achieved by passing the right hand cord over the left and passing it under to knot and then passing the left cord over the right and under to give a second knot.

Pull the knot tightly. If you have any suitable glue it is a good idea to place a little glue on the knot. Once this is dry cut the ends and your bracelet is finished.


The loop that you made at the beginning will now be used to go over the last button to fasten the bracelet. Your done!



Tutorial by Anne

Our First Competition!!!

To celebrate the start of our brand new blog we're running our first ever Angel Eden competition!! We're giving away the sparkly Angel pendant shown above that would be perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

To be in with a chance of winning:

1. Become a follower of our blog and leave a comment on this post
2. Blog about our competition (please provide a link in your comment)
2. Tweet about our competition (please provide a link in your comment)
4. Purchase any item in either of our shops Angel Eden Etsy Store or Angel Eden website and then leave a comment stating what you've bought (this will give you 5 entries!)

If you do all of the above you will be rolling in entries! Make sure to tell me about them though and provide your email address so if you're the lucky winner I can get in contact. The competition will run until 30 November when one lucky winner will be chosen at random by picking a name from a hat.

Socks Are For Your Feet????

Meet Pumpkin!

Pumpkin is the latest addition to our family. He is a gorgeous little sock puppy who winged his way to us from the world of Etsy. The Sock Sanctuary. The name intrigued me and I decided to take a look.

What I found was a new etsy store featuring wonderful bright cuddly creations all looking for a new home. I was instantly drawn to Pumpkin (then called Patch) and it wasn't long before I could resist no longer.

On arrival I was not disappointed, clearly a lot of time, thought and effort goes into these cuddly sock creations. He arrived in a box filled with tissue paper with a ribbon bound adoption scroll and care sheet.

The only problem now is resisting buying him some friends, I'd love to say I was buying them for the children but it would be a lie, Pumpkin sits next to a lamp and my twins are under strict instructions not to give him to the baby (we're at that stage where everything goes in the mouth and I don't fancy having to save a soggy sock puppy).

Just to try and tempt you further here's a few of my current faves from the store

Abi

Hello!

Hello and welcome to the first post on the brand new Angel Eden blog! I've been trying to decide what to write here and I began thinking that the first post ought to be something grand and momentous, but in the end I've settled for a good old-fashioned introduction.

My name is Abigail and I am part of a jewellery business with my Mother Anne, called Angel Eden. This venture started out several years ago with us both at the helm. However after a marriage and a set of twins I took a back seat for a few years but now I'm back with a vengeance and integrating more and more back into the business.

Please feel free to visit our etsy store www.angeleden.etsy.com or indeed the website www.angeleden.co.uk Don't forget to mention you came from this blog :)

But this blog is going to be far more than just personal promotion; I, just like everyone else, am not a fan of spam or having things pushed down my throat. I plan to use this blog to showcase many more wonderful businesses I come across. I'm fairly hard to please so I hope this translates into an interesting and enlightening read. After all, our business was born out of a mutual love of creativity, jewellery and design. So to not respect it in others would be sinful.

Unfortunately the world wide web is so huge these days finding people can be hard, so if you make or sell something fabulous that you think I might like to blog about then please get in touch.

For now though I shall end my post there. I don't want to bore you and I have to get prepared for a midday parent teacher meeting. Wish me luck, like all mothers I think my children are geniuses born to take over the world, whether the teacher will agree or not is of course another matter.

Abi