At the
end of last year Etsy shop owner Vente from Lithuania asked me if I would like
to use some of the products from her shop..Nosnowsupplies and see what I could
create with them.
Soon a
packet arrived...
I was fascinated
to read why and how Vente set up her shop.
This is
what she told me
I’m a journalist by profession. I opened my shop a few years ago. I`ve always enjoyed arts and crafts, and was always making something with hands, especially during winters, which are very cold here, sometimes so cold, that people don`t leave their houses for several days (so you can see why I named my shop "no snow supplies" :-). I inherited a big box of buttons from my grandmother, who was a tailor, and then started to collect vintage beads and buttons from various sources to mainly use for myself, until I realized I really have too many and it was time to open a shop. I love vintage beads because of their bright colours and funny shapes. I think that contemporary beads are not made this creatively. I mainly sell beads from the Soviet Union, West Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia and Japan. They date 1950-1970`s. I also have some modern beads, but not much. These soft flexible plastic beads are from West Germany, a small town, called Kaufbeuren, which had a big bead factory and a jewelry school (both closed already). There was a huge fashion to wear jewelry and accessories made from these beads in 1950`s and you can still find some in the flea markets in Europe (they were exporting them all over Europe and also to US). They`re fun to play with and can be stacked in different designs. These beads are very hard to find and my stock is limited.
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I used white
knotted cotton cord for the necklace then layered the green and white flowers, finishing
them off with crystal glass beads .... I made matching earrings too.
and then some more earrings ...
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| Dark blue and pale yellow flowers, I added silver wire centers and dark blue rings and completed the earring with silver studs |
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| Orange feather shapes with paler glass flowers |
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| Dainty lilac daisy with three tiny plastic flowers bunched together in the center. I added tiny glass seeds and silver ear wires |
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| This shape was really challenging , I layered it with a paler yellow flower, a white bead center and a tiny yellow seed bead to finish. ... I was pleased with the results. |
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For this
bracelet I layered the brown and black flowers and added some natural wood beads. I affixed
them to a dark charcoal crocheted wrist band.
If you
would like to try them for yourself here is Vente's shop address on Etsy.http://www.etsy.com/shop/nosnowsupplies
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