Malvena Pearl's Emporium – Page 12

Decorating a bonnet

My friend got a plain, green bonnet form to match her new outfit for the Dickens Fair. She’s making the rest of the outfit so she asked me to decorate the bonnet. Here’s what I did.

Hat for M.’s 18th century costume

M. and H. talked me into going to the PEERS event in Alameda for Halloween. I hand sewed the silk covering on M’s hat with scraps of white silk from Betsy and some silver lacey trim from M. I think it came out well. It went well with her midnight blue outfit that she completed completely by herself. (She also made an outfit for her friend R.)

Roo Reports

For a full report on Roo, please go to the Roo Reports page!

wedding veil and hair ornament complete

I completed making R’s wedding veil and a hair ornament to go with Claire’s matron of honor dress. Here’s the dress we found for Claire at Dolled Up Vintage:

And here’s the photos of the hair ornament:

And the veil for R:

R&R’s big day: the team goes shopping

Team Rachel hit the East Bay pavements looking for accessories for Rachel’s wedding. We went exclusively to thrift and vintage shops and had lunch with our friend Charlotte and her charming pup Foxy Lady. We all felt like foxy ladies that day eating lunch at my sister’s restaurant, Sea Salt, and chatting with proprietor of Dolled Up Vintage, Karen. She helped us find the PERFECT dress for Ms Claire so she can be Rachel’s maid of honor. We hit Icon vintage, Pimlico Place, Discovery Shop and J. Sahadi for ring advice for R&R’s big day. Note: R&R aren’t just a couple. They are also sing, play and record with in the band they created, “Plot Against Rachel.”

At lunch Charlotte was trying to decide which parts each of us would play if she were casting “Sex And The City.” She wants to be Samantha and none of us want to be Carrie. But who would Foxy play? I told them I’d be Stanford Blatch.

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.

Shop the Emporium

Malvena Pearl’s Emporium: Services and Products

We sell ephemera, jewelry, costume accessories and other fine goods on our esty.com web site:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/malvenapearl

And we offer these other custom services to you:

Beadwork and Garment Repair Service:
We repair beaded jewelry, beaded trim on garments and we do mending or repairs that require fine hand-work. Small or complex jobs are right up our alley. Drop us a note.

Custom Orders:

We work with you to design and produce custom orders for bonnets, cravats, fichus, capes, jackets, vests and other garments that you need. You may be attending a dance, a ball, an historical reenactment event, a retro-themed party, a fair or a convention. We’ve created and re-styled contemporary garments into the full range of costumes from the Victorian era through outfits inspired by science fiction, comic books, Japanese anime and fantasy literature.

We also make custom beaded jewelry designed to accent that costumes you already own.

Custom Made Hat Boxes:

Beth Woolbright creates hand-decorated hatboxes to suit all of your vintage hat storage needs, made to your specification. Have you got that special someone to shop for, who really needs a beautiful container, decorated by hand, to suit her fancy? Or if you need a dapper hat box, created in a vintage, gentlemanly fashion to store your beloved’s derby, fedora or pork-pie hat, then Please do send us your requests!

And remember to visit the Malvena Pearl etsy site to see our goods today!

Special Projects: 1

My Kingdom for a Squid

So, Pete doesn’t really have a kingdom. But he was one of the Explorers who built La Legion Fantastique at the Great Dickens Faire in S. San Francisco last winter. Pete (who in his own way is related to Dickens Faire “royalty” — the owner of Overstreet’s) put out a call on his blog for a seamstress who could make a squid.

It sounded challenging and intriguing to me. He said, “It doesn’t have to be accurate…just close enough so it is visibly a squid. So natural colors (pinks and magentas…with gold eyes and black beak). Size…18″-24″ for the body, with tentacles to match proportionately…”

I made a (virtual) stepped forward to accept the squid mission as my own. I reported back to Pete: “Squid fabric/materials purchased – the squid is in the works. Repeat: We have Squid lift-off.” I confirmed the dimensions, so we wouldn’t have a SPINAL TAP Stonehenge incident. (to avoid a possible problem of proportions..)

Missive #1 about squid & other projects a go-go
Okay, so now I am making a model of a squid for some of the folks at the Dickens Faire! Jules Verne fans, all, the Legion Fantastique will have their squid. Yee-haw

And I’m making cravats. If you need a new, stylish cravat, I will custom-make one for you, once I have the squid situation under control. Oh, and I’ve completed Betsy’s short cape.

Bonnet-obsession may be dangerous and cravat-obsession is downright archaic, but you knew I was obsessed. You just didn’t know it would be an additional squid obsession.

II
It’s all about the squid.

Greetings earthlings,

Well, the squid project is turning into The Thing That would Not Get Finished. Hopefully it will not take as long as my (BLEEEP) undergraduate degree. I was on the 11 year “plan” for that. Not that there was a plan. There was just a lot of, oh, rent to pay and food to purchase and bus passes, and day-jobs. Umm, not so different from now, I guess. Pre-degree days. But I digress. It’s all about the squid.

For those who went to use the loo during my last post, this squid is a project for the Dickens Faire folk who are enamoured with Jules Verne and Under Sea Adventure, Journeys to the Center of the Earth, Steam Powered vehicles, steampunk aesthetics, etc. The cutting edge of Victorian technology and science. SCIENCE!

Yes, said squid is in stage 2.5 out of 4 — the tentacles are being filled with stuffing but not at a fast enough clip to keep me sane and not slow enough to stop the seams from ripping on the terry- cloth members. (get your mind out of the gutter, you weirdos.) Tubes. We’ll call them tubes.

Anyway, once we have achieved Tentacle Stuffage, we shall move along to Assembly of Body to Tentacles and then final (artistic? frosting?) touches- attachment of beak, painted nautical/splooched details of suction cups, and the dreaded gold eyeballs.

Who knew this would take so long??

In other Dickens news — I found a wonderful pattern for a fichu in the wonderful book by Frances Grimble – and it turns out that I “already got one1” (just like in “Holy Grail” where the French soldiers tell King Arthur that they don’t need a Grail — they already got one. heh.) Actually I already MADE one, I just have to learn how to tie it on so it doesn’t fall off like it did last Sunday at the Faire. Several times. Thank you KC3 for retrieving my wood-shaving-covered lace fichu several times from the floor of the Cow-Palace. I shall make use of a pin to hold it fashionably in place, this weekend.

Key to stuffing squid: have new episodes of Project Runway on in the background.

So, check back here, adventurers, for photos of the squid as it develops — umm, when I find my camera, again. I did find it and it is now elusive, once more. Did I say I am moving? Yes, well, the camera is now disguised cleverly among my belongings. I will find it, darn-it.

So, I took a break to move my possessions to a new apartment, and got back to the squid…
III
Found Telegram:

Squid nearing completion. stop.
Roo cat controls my brain. stop.
Send more chocolate. stop.

note to Pete: “The Squid is about 3/4 done, with just another bag of stuffing and some applique or gold paint for the eyes.”

Squid Delivery:
On a Sunday late last December I took the BART train, carrying the squid, to San Francisco to meet some friends who were driving to the Cow Palace. It was time for Squid Delivery. On the train, I sat next to some young men who were going to a football game. They were intrigued by the squid and one young man admitted that he had been in art college for some time, but then the scholarship money ran out. So he switched over to a new field: criminal justice. Wow, I said, that’s quite a different field. “Yeah,” he said, “but I work at a paint-ball place and I get to design their uniforms and signs, so I still do some designing.” Bravo. Keep that creative dream alive! I mean, I’m carrying a squid on a train and my day job involves spread-sheets, not models of Natural Wonders from Victorian novels. Keep the create fires aflame!

Squid Delivery Accomplished!! Met Mr. Fogg (Pete) and saw the MAGIC LANTERN SHOW at La Legion Fantastique!

The moral to this story: the squid is worth every effort. We have met the enemy and he is not squid. (though calamari are tasty when they are not made of fabric.)