A Black Cat for luck?

Yes, i'm back with the Etsy favourites. This week I have picked a semi-topical theme - Black Cats, which are of course related to Halloween which is all over Etsy at the moment. The other reason for choosing Black Cats was for some ideas for my Mum's Christmas present as she has a mental little black cat. So here they are, my favourite Etsy shops for the week:

glass4mankind

Gorgeous handmade stained glass items in as many different shapes as you can think of. Most of the items in the shop are pendants and all have a lovely whimsy look to them - perfect for creating personalised Jewellery for loved ones. The featured pendant is Spooky, a cute black cat. The body is black glass and the wire is copper tinned wire that then makes the legs, ears, whiskers and face. The items are so cute in this shop and very unique as well as being very reasonably priced.

A. N. Original Jewelry

One of my favourite materials for Jewellery is silver and this lovely shop is full of handcrafted silver items. All items are hand pierced, sawed or filed and are so delicate. The little cat featured is only half an inch across and so pretty. The shop also features oxidised silver items and earrings to go with the pendants. This shop also has a regularly updated blog: http://www.anoriginaljewelry.blogspot.com/

Dwayne Bulla

"One man's junk is another man's treasure" is the slogan for this shop and it is truly amazing what gorgeous items Dwayne produces from 'rubbish'. This black cat is created from horseshoes, discarded bits of tools and nails! Other items in the shop are things like a saw blade flower and a drill bit dragonfly. This shop is the place to shop for something entirely unique and different to decorate your home or garden with.

Riricreations

This shop features handmade items such as cards, lunchbox notes, personalised gifts and blessing blocks. I have to admit to not knowing what a blessing block was when I discovered the lovely BOO blessing blocks in the photograph. They appear to be decorative blocks that are given to celebrate a blessed event, eg: birth of a child, wedding, anniversary or even halloween. I think they are lovely. The set featured are 2 and half inch square, handmade and hand decorated with lots of halloween inspired ghosts, spiders, cats etc and can be customised pretty much any way you like.

Susan Faye

You will notice my favourites often feature art and jewellery. These are two of my favourite things and the artwork in this shop is brilliant. I really like the bright, whimsical style of Susan's portraits. The featured artwork is an original ACEO, obviously with a Halloween theme, hand painted in watercolour. However I think my favourite things in this shop are the 'Custom cat lady' portraits - if you know anyone who loves cats (and I know several!) this is the perfect gift, an original portrait featuring the cat lover and their cat(s) all at a very reasonable price. Susan has a blog featuring her cat ladies at: http://www.365catladies.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoyed these (slightly spooky) favourites as much as I enjoyed finding them and happy shopping!!

Going Green

It would seem that being 'green' goes hand in hand with being creative. Perhaps because creative people see colour and texture where others see rubbish? Who knows. I decided this week's Folksy Favourites would showcase sellers creating from recycled materials. Here's my 5 favourites from the many I found.

Kerli
This shop features lovely handmade, recycled earrings and embroidered brooches amongst other bits and bobs. The earrings pictured are made from paper beads, coated with PVA glue to make them watertight and hard. They are really pretty and certainly will make a statement, then you can tell everyone that asks about them that they are created from recycled paper! In her profile, Kerli says: "I do like mad jewellery, corduroy, colourful things and board games. And recycling. And sometimes I have little animals in my head that need to come out... " Kerli also has a blog: http://kerliandanimals.blogspot.com/

Cat Loves Bear

This shop deserves a mention just for the gorgeous photo in her shop header! This shop features lots of lovely textile work, including shopping bags made from discarded shop curtains, which is what the photograph is of. You can help save the environment twice, not only by not using plastic bags for your shopping but by putting your shopping in a bag that's already using recycled materials. The shop features a fantastic range of a huge variety of bags in many different colours. A shop I feel I may well be shopping at myself.

British Cream Tea
Ooh, I love cream teas, you can't come from the West Country (which I do originally) and not be exposed to the yumminess of Cream Teas. And this shop is just as yummy. It is full of felt food. I have to admit I didn't know what I might do with felt food but that didn't stop this shop making me want to buy some! Some ideas of uses are pin cushions, holiday decorations or party favours. The featured item is obviously a French Fancy Set. They are all original designs, handmade and stuffed and use recycled felt. Absoloutely gorgeous.

Handmade by Tigerlily
This shop features a range of items from paper goods to bags, all created using ethically sourced materials. The item featured is from Made by Tigerlily's range of note books. It is 5" x 7" and made from 100% recycled card and paper. Ethical as well as being very pretty.

Faye Wilson

Stuff made from things. Sounds interesting, hey. This is Faye Wilson's subtitle to her shop. Faye says this about her shop: "I love mixing materials and textures to create different and unusual pieces. I try to recycle as much as possible and LOVE bashing old copper water pipes and hot water cylinders into delicate earrings and brooches." As well as gorgeous earrings made from bashing hot water cyclinders, there is the lovely pair of Earrings in the photograph, made from an old painting that was damaged. As she said, they are totally unique. What a fantastic idea.

I hope you enjoyed this week's shops. I think recycling is so important and I love it when people have the creativity and imagination to create something gorgeous out of some old rubbish.

Recycled Jewellery Boxes

After finding an advert in the current Make Jewellery Magazine, I have been looking at the website of the Tiny Box Company, which sell gift packaging and Jewellery Boxes. They use recycled materials as well, which is a bonus, not only from my own point of view but as an additional selling point. The range is huge, so I am going to have a good look through the site and order myself a few boxes, but it looks very promising.