services – Malvena Pearl's Emporium

Welcome to London! (inside the Cow Palace, Daly City, CA)

Hello, hello. It’s that time of year when theater, dance and literature enthusiasts from all over the greater San Francisco Bay Area congregate to prepare the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, to go on beginning November 22, 2014, 10 AM – 7 PM– we are open for five weekends, including the Friday after Thanksgiving, through December 21, 2014. Check out this Map of London!

On behalf of the Emporium, Miss Charlotte Badger would like to Cordially Invite You to help us celebrate the holidays in the tradition of Charles Dickens! Miss Badger has agreed to step in to the hubbub of the Fair on behalf of the Emporium proprietor; she’s been helping out at Dickens workshops by hemming pants, finding suitable hats, locating lace and caps and helping our friend Jacqueline with her hand-sewn bonnet commissions. In just a few short weeks, Miss Badger will be singing with the Coventry Carolers and working at the Green Man Publick House at the Great Dickens Fair.

Would you or your loved ones would like to come see the spectacle, eat delicious foods, greet Father Christmas, encounter various characters from the works of Charles Dickens, see Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her retinue, or dance at Fezziwigs? Yes?! Then please contact the Emporium so we may assist Miss Badger with preparing the appropriate amount of discounted tickets for you on the day you wish to attend.

interior design project: custom pillow covers

We recently put in a request to the elusive batch of House Elves to do some overtime, assisting with the pillow covers for a client’s sofa. The client provided all of the materials and requested biased piping, using a cashmere blend that will match her sofa. It turns out that the House Elves were on sabbatical, so the Proprietor completed all the sewing, research and musical accompaniment selection, herself. Soon, the House Elves will return, but until then, I’m on my own. With some limited assistance from Hercule, who eats his dinner in the Malvena Pearl Studio and sometimes naps there, this project is now COMPLETE. And as my thesis mantra became, Done Is Good.

Any road, here are pictures that Mr. Acorn was kind enough to take for us.

NOTE: The musical accompaniment that assisted in the completion of two pillow covers are listed below the photographs. Happy New Year!

Music that helped me complete this project:

The Band (the brown record)

Mel Torme sings Songs of New York

Frank Sinatra Songs for Lovers

Robin Williamson Songs of Love and Parting

Bruce Springsteen Unplugged

Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown

Mr. Cinders (1983 revival original cast recording)

K.T. Tunstall Live in London 2010, in which KT does her impression of an audience member: “MORNING LOVE. I’M OFF TO WORK, NOW.” in her Biggest most Boring Voice, ever.

Canine Couture sparkle collar

I recently designed, produced and completed this sparkle collar for the owner of a very lucky Brittany Spaniel

Canine Couture update

The line of clothing for dogs is coming together. We are drafting and designing patterns, finding recycled and re-usable fabrics, testing possible trims to make canine couture. Currently we are developing three lines of customized dog couture: warm coats for Northern California; fleece and flannel lined, water-resistent rain coats; and coats for working guide dogs. We have also found a number of dog owners who are willing to have their dogs pose for the camera of our staff photographer, Kenneth Cooper Smith, III.

Kenneth C. Smith III in Mad Hatter's hat by Lynne McMasters

Several of our clients have hairless breeds, such as the Mexican Xolo or hard-to-fit breeds such as bulldogs with wide rib cages and necks; “Heinz 57” mixed breeds with unusual proportions and distinctively-sized bodies, very small “teacup” breeds and very slender breeds, such as whippets.

To inquire about our offerings, please use our Contact Us page to send us your inquiries! Thanks!

dress trim project

Progress! Hand sewing some gorgeous trim onto a cotton dress that will be worn to dances and to the Dickens Faire!

Yes, that is 2 layers of trim: the first layer is three colored and the top layer is thin, red velvet.

On the dvd player: Freaks and Geeks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Jeremy Brett production.

progress not perfection

Well I found my copy of “Bleak House” on dvd and have been working on the Halloween costumes for the little ones. The Emporium project room is still being unpacked, so it’s multi-task a go-go, these days. The cats have decided I need to take Many Naps during this process. That makes it is slow-going. Her Highness, Roo, has been under the weather again. See the Roo Report for more details.

Emporium open once again for visitors

Hope is the Thing with Feathers — Emily Dickinson

Our proprietors have returned from their vacances with new energy, new project plans, new pen pals and plenty of inspiration from the old country!

We cleaned the Emporium shelves and opened the windows to make room for new creative energy. What inspired us? A number of things.

If you listen, you will know. Can you hear the birds? How about the pedestrians greeting one another, perhaps in another language that you may still find familiar? Can you hear the distant revving of a motor scooter or the closer ring of a bicycle’s bell? Can you smell the loaves of fresh bread from the boulangerie/patisserie, nearby? See the red geraniums in the window box?

Or you may take a walk and view the deep green leaves of very tall trees and an ornate iron gate to a park. If you listen now, you hear the water of a fountain and the calls of ducklings swimming just beyond the trees. There’s a cylindrical, red box near the gate at the end of the tree-lined street. It’s time to mail those letters! And on the same block, near an ancient church, is a time machine. (Well, it’s really a phone box, but it will always appear as a time machine to many of us.) Some of us may even think that if we get to the correct phone box and dial a certain number, we’ll be magically transported to other places.

The contrast of the rich reds and deep greens, the sunlight and the birdsongs have recharged our batteries. The proprietors highly recommend a train trip to you; we learned how to navigate four new train systems that were almost – but not quite – like the ones we have in the U.S. If you don’t have access to a train, read your favorite short story aloud to someone you care about and find out how relaxing it is to take a vacation, in your mind, heart and life.

Thanks for your patience as we assemble our new work, renewed and grateful for the respite.

Stay tuned for additional pieces on the Etsy site and for journal entries about the adventures of the Theme Song Committee.