IsabeauxStudio

Back in university, I had a wonderful Russian teacher, Bella Veksler, who was the epitome of old school elegance and chic.  She was the master at making something from nothing.   I learned from her how to make silk flowers, hats, and techniques for painting on silk.  Remembering these skills, I dug up my tools for making flowers, and set to work. 

Again, I used recycled materials, swatches of fabric from my job that were from last years collections, vintage Czechoslovakian glass buttons, flea market baubles you name it.  I started to make flower pins out of every material imaginable.  A few examples are shown below.

This flower was made from a sweater that I bought at Goodwill, and washed and dried the hell out of it to shrink it up and make it soft.  I taught myself how to crochet, and used a "thick & thin" yarn to make the base.  It is one of my favorite flowers that I made because it has a very three dimensional look to it.

 This flower was made from denim.  I used the "face" of the denim and the reverse side of the fabric.  I used the fringed & frayed selvage edge to make the center of the flower.  The tonal play of colors and textures made it a beautiful piece.

 

 

I also used the Czechoslovakian glass buttons to make cufflinks. When I worked in New York,  I would often wear cufflinks.  I had a hard time finding links that were feminine and pretty. Though when making my cufflinks as product to sell,  I hadn't thought about the corporate culture in California too much.  Business attire here leans  towards the casual.  Needless to say these weren't a real big seller. Now, when I wear my french cuff shirts, I have plenty of cufflink options to choose from.

So I ended up making a ton  of flower pins and cufflinks, with the hopes of selling them.  I sold about two dozen flower pins to friends and family, and had gotten several "special requests."  The cost depending on complexity ranged from $12-35 dollars each.  Each flower was handcrafted and unique and each took me 1-3 hours to make.  Problem was, I couldn't make them fast enough, or cost effectively enough.  I was competing with $4.99 flowers that were made in China and sold at Old Navy. 

I was better at the one to one sales.  When I did the few select craft shows to try, it was a bust, and the preparation for these shows was very stressful.  I found that I no longer enjoyed making the flowers anymore and it became all about "getting it done in time for the show."  Remember,  I was still working a full time job.  Had I really spent the time on this, I probably could have done it smarter, and taken it farther but more and more I realized that I would have to return to more unique pieces, not found in the market,  in order to command the price that I wanted.