I’ve had a few email enquiries about my Paper Garlands since I added them to my Zibbet shop. I’m so glad people love them as I love making them and have also got some out decorating the house – they look great! The enquiries have mostly for people’s weddings and parties. In these instances people would want to buy in bulk and so instead of just dealing with each enquiry separately, I’ve decided to add a few ‘bulk buy’ listings to my shop.

Each bulk buy listing is for a pack of ten 5m long garlands made from either envelopes, maps or music,  giving you a discounted cost for each individual garland. I hope that goes a little way to help people with their budgets! At the moment I’ve just got my circle garlands listed, but as there has been an interest in heart [...]
read more »

I was asked recently by my friends Dan and Sonas to make one of my sea glass pendants for one of their friends for her birthday. They came round to select a piece of glass from my vast collection and settled on 2 pieces and couldn’t decide between them. So I said I would make both into pendants and that would make it easier for them to decide.

Then Sonas spotted a unique piece of pale blue glass and asked if I could make a ring for her out of this. I didn’t even know I had a piece of blue glass as it’s mostly pale green and white glass that I find. So it was quite a find. I set to work and here are the results…

I popped over to Edinburgh on Monday to see Fiona at Concrete Wardrobe and dropped off a load of new stock. Fiona was on the phone when I got there and that gave me a chance to have a browse around the shop and see all the lovely things for sale – they have quite a talented bunch of designers on their books and I’m pleased to be on that list myself. Carry on reading to find out what’s new on the Milomade shelf at Concrete Wardrobe…

If you’re a fan of my Antique Silver Rings made from teaspoons, then you’re in for a treat – pop in and see what is now on display! There are 8 new designs to choose from – lots of different sizes and 7 of the designs are adjustable, so if you like what you see, [...]
read more »

I’ve been busy with my sewing machine making paper garlands from envelopes, maps and music. This involves punching hundreds of small and large circles from sheets of music, or from envelopes or maps and stitching them all together in long strands to form lovely paper garlands that you can use to decorate your home. Perfect for weddings and parties or to decorate your Christmas tree even, these garlands can be made to custom lengths to suit your needs.

They come in 5m lengths, but I’m happy to take custom orders to suit your needs. You can also decide on the colour of thread so that the garlands fit in with your party theme or match the colour of your bridesmade dresses – the decision is yours.

I can’t wait to list them in my shop, but here’s a sneak preview…

read more »

I love making button pendants from my huge collections of vintage buttons. I found a whole bunch recently that are brightly coloured and carved and patterned and these make perfect pendants as they’re so distinct and unique – most of them are one-offs so the resulting pendants are one of a kind creations and I love the exclusivity of that – wearing one and knowing that not another one in the world exists is kind of special.

Here are a few more I made last week:

The carved buttons are just so lovely – the blue has a diamond shape, the orange one has a central square and a cross cut out of it so you can see right through it and the pink one has a lovely heart design. I’ve antiqued the silver and the 40cm chains as this enhances the vintage nature of the buttons and also [...]
read more »

I’ve not been able to spend much time in my studio of late due to work commitments, illness as well as other stuff. Plus it’s not much of a studio at the moment as we cleared it out at the beginning of the year in order to renovate and install a wood burning stove – this work is still in progress and a little slow – so everything is in boxes and in storage. But my trusty jewellery bench is  still there and some of my tools. Yesterday I had a huge urge to go in there and get on with some work and lock myself away from the world with only the radio for company. I’m so glad I decided to be so selfish with my time as here are some of the results.

I bought a bottle of ‘Liver of Sulphur’ recently and haven’t had a chance to [...]
read more »

I have just listed some of my envelope packs in my shop. Please visit the Milomade Shop to see the whole collection.

These envelopes are all created from my vast stash of old maps, music and magazines. Instead of sending these off for recycling I’ve decided to recycle them myself and breathe new life into the maps, music and magazines by re-purposing them into envelopes. I love making envelopes and my studio floor always gets filled with rows and rows of envelopes drying after gluing.

I cut about 10 envelope shapes out at a time with a thick cardboard template I made. I then do all the folding and squash the envelopes in groups of 5 under heavy books. After that I glue them and then use a special “lick and stick glue” on the flaps and line them up in [...]
read more »

I have just listed 9 new Elasticated Buttons Bracelets in my shop. Please visit the Milomade Shop to see the whole collection. These bracelets are all created from a vast stash of shirt buttons I have amassed over the years and I team these up with new similar sized colourful buttons to form simple patterns in long strands that can then be made into bracelets.  Such a simple idea transforms buttons into something beautiful to cherish and wear. They are  nice and stretchy and comfortable to wear and will fit most wrists.

These bracelets often remind people of the confectionery type bracelets and necklaces you could buy at the sweet shop as a child. I’m not sure if this type of confectionery jewellery is still made, but that’s the memory these bracelets evoke.

I used to give all my products individual names, but this got quite [...]
read more »

I’ve been busy today taking lots of photographs of my products for my online shop and have just listed 12 new Button Flower Brooches. Please visit the Milomade Shop to see the whole collection. These are all unique, so whichever one you purchase you’ll be buying a unique piece of eco-chic – one of a kind – and will be able to wear it with pride, knowing that not another one like it exists in the world.

I used to give all my products individual names, but this got quite tricky after naming so many and now I’ve decided to just name them according to colour. There are lots of colours and combinations to choose from so you’re bound to be able to find something to match a specific outfit or jacket – they looks great on winter coats or woolly jumpers and cardigans and [...]
read more »

Less of the bells on her toes though – as I’d just like to let you know that I’ve listed a set of new rings in my shop – rings for your fingers – more to come soon. They are all made from sets of sterling silver teaspoons and therefore come in small limited editions. When you buy one of these rings you will be safe in the knowledge that only a few other rings like it exist.

Sourcing, restoring and re-purposing antique silverware into unique delicate jewellery is something I really enjoy. I much prefer to use fine silverware as a starting point for my jewellery as this way I am recycling rather than using up the world’s natural resources. There is a sense of history with each piece and I feel that as I am forming each ring, sanding and polishing it, I am capturing a memory or [...]
read more »

I’ve been very busy of late, not only creating new stock for existing and new stockists, but also coming up with some new products too. I’ve been working with my sea glass collection of late. I’ve got draws and boxes overflowing with the sea glass I pick up on the beach every day that it was about time I started making jewellery with it.

Last year I made a few pieces for craft fairs and the earrings I made sold quite well. Here is an image I took recently of a simple pair:

Holes were drilled into two pieces of glass that I managed to pair up. I then used a thin gauge of silver wire to wire wrap them and then attached them to a pair of my hand crafted silver earwires. I need to make some more of these, but I might get an even thinner gauge of wire [...]
read more »

I’ve been busy making lots of lovely button Christmas cards for my up and coming craft fairs – Christmas in the Loft [Adross Farm, Elie] and Magpie Market [Edinburgh]. I love my new printer! I bought it a while ago and not really used it yet. I bought a load of pre-cut/scored blank cards made from recycled card and have been pondering for a while what to do with them. But I got my thinking cap on last night and got productive.

My initial idea was to cut out shapes from my stash of security envelope patterns, but nothing I did looked any good and I didn’t think anything made much impact. So I reverted to using buttons instead and I’m chuffed to bits with the results. I got out my stash of singles boxes – these are all the lovely buttons that have no partners and just hang around [...]
read more »

I’m currently having some technical issues with my own online shop and it will be taken down at some point this week and either fixed or replaced by something new. So in the meantime I’ll be listing my items in my new shop at Zibbet, as well as adding some more items to my Coriandr shop.

Here are some images of the items I will be listing:

“I was originally a teaspoon made in 1956 by Edward Viner, Viners Ltd, Bath Street, Sheffield. I was recently discovered by Milomade and lovingly re-crafted into this pendant for someone special.”

Hung on a very delicate sterling silver chain, this leaf pendantwill make a unique gift for someone or even for yourself.

The leaf measures approx. 4cm by 2.3cm. Price = £35

—–

read more »