Love Cabbages & Roses quintessentially English fashion and homeware: faded floral fabrics & wallpapers as well as timeless classic womenswear
June has been an exceptionally busy month for me! Just finished a wonderful 'Open Studios' show, with still some jewellery commissions to create ... However, I haven't forgotten you ... but, as time is of the essence ... this will have to be a short and sweet project. Something you can experiment with and make your own! A lot of you will already know this wire 'Rose' design as a ring. However, the twist here, is creating it as a connector unit which you can suspend, link together to create fancy chains, a statement necklace, decorate on to hair accessories, or make as earrings and just generally accessorize! All you need to make this, is: Glue Stick (or similar cylindrical mandrel), 0.8mm wire/ 20-gauge-ish (or, whatever you have to hand!) and your usual wirework tools: round, flat, chain nosed pliers and cutters. 1. Cut about one meter of 0.8mm wire. (I just use the length of my arm as a measure!). Wrap the centre just once around your cylindrical mandrel and twist where the wires meet. 2. Push one wire in one direction around the centre and repeat with the second, to begin making a small, central spiral. Try and keep the wires parallel and flat so that they don't slip behind each other! 3. Once you have a small central spiral, twist the extending wires together - randomly - don't worry at all about neatness, leaving about 6cms untwisted at the very ends. 4. Continue wrapping the twisted wires around the rest of the central spiral, keeping it flat against the mandrel to increase the diameter of the spiral. Stop twisting when you are left with about 3cm-4cm on wire and bring the other wire around onto the opposite side. 5. Pull the unit off the mandrel and wrap the extended wires around each side of the back loop. Cut off any excess and neaten the ends. 6. Using your wirecutter, CUT THROUGH THE CENTRE OF THE BACK LOOP and straighten the wires out on each side. 7. Using your round nosed pliers, create links with the extending wires on each side of the unit. And there you have it! It's ready to suspended from a cord, or chain and you can suspend anything from the base link as well! If you wish to add a bead to the centre, this can be done in STEP 1. Alternatively, use some shocking pink wire and gently rub down the outer surface with some sandpaper or wire wool to create a two tone feel! Here I added a little Fimo rosebud bead, that I just happen to have sitting in my stash! You can also create this design using two different coloured wires. Put them together and work with both lengths in unison. This central 'rose' was created in silver plated wire and coloured with a red permanent marker pen. The red central bead was then added to the centre and the leaves were woven with green and silver 0.5mm wires. Or ... try making some elegant earrings and a necklace set, using this idea! But here's my favourite idea! Creating the units as chain links! Here's a fun necklace using different coloured wires! I should mention, that if you wish to make a matching ring - don't forget to wrap the wire TWICE around the ring stick or cylindrical mandrel, so that you create a more functional shank. HAVE FUN EXPERIMENTING - think how many other wire ring designs could be adapted like this!!!! - and don't forget to share your trials and tribulations on my FACEBOOK page! HAPPY WIREWORKING!
Little cabbage and napa.. Abbreviations: sc: single crochet hdc: half double crochet dc: double crochet tr: treble crochet inc : in...
A vintage inspired independent British brand, creating beautiful yet functional Fashion, Accessories, Homeware & Fabric, with a focus on making as much as possible in the UK.
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Laundry basket in Hatley cerise and cushion in hatley pink. Love love love these x
An example of what will be available at my vendor table the Art , Paperie and Pleasantries event on May 1-2 .
Cabbages & Roses 17th Birthday It is August in the year 2000. Two friends met in an Oxfordshire garden with two pink books and two pink pens. Plans were afoot to create a company that would change our lives and to a very small extent, change the world of interiors and fashion. When I say change, really I mean revert. Back to wholesome, back to homespun, back to basics, as our then recently departed Prime Minister John Major encouraged us to do. As we exchanged ideas in the dwindling sunshine, Brigette Buchanan – one half of the design duo – noticed a faint buzzing which grew louder and louder until an enormous swarm of bees’ appeared from nowhere. Efficiently, she immediately had to hand the telephone number of the local bee keeper. Swiftly he arrived, wearing the pinkest bee suit that can ever have been made. He told us that this was the ‘biggest swarm of bees’ he had ever encountered in his long life of bee keeping. This, dear reader, is why our very first fabric is called Bees. BEES FABRIC We had a million ideas of what to make out of our Bees fabric but not a single one of how to sell our creations. In November, just 3 months later, we launched at the Mary Howard Christmas Fair. We arrived with car loads of cushions, skirts, bunting, baskets, buckets (tin), books, antiques, paintings - anything that we loved. With no grown ups to restrict our wild vintage shopping sprees, or websites or product descriptions or care labels - we created a veritable wonderland of deliciousness. It was a time when the world, seemed chaotic and harsh and even our beloved Laura Ashley (the company not the person) thought it appropriate to branch out into black leather coats – we stepped into their homely shoes and gave our ever growing customer list what they wanted – faded floral fabric prints, easy to wear skirts and charming handmade knitwear. Fabric for tables and sofas and windows, clothes for their children and clothes for them. Those were blissful times and we were encouraged by friends that knew, but did nothing to dispel or crush our enthusiasm and innocence of the retail world. To them we say thank you. Especially to my devoted and darling friend Maureen Docherty who created EGG in, I expect, the same brave and hopeful manner. It was she who gave us the chance of experiencing our first proper shop on Kinnerton Street in Belgravia. We were astounded by the reception of our strange wares, and overwhelmed by our success. At the end of our first day, with piles of cash and credit card receipts we found ourselves with nowhere to keep the takings safe. The tin teapot seemed like a good idea at the time. Until the next morning we found sodden notes and card receipts with wet and illegible print – our takings had stewed all night in the residues of the teapot. This was the first of our many calamities but with washing line and pegs (both of which we sold to the good ladies of Belgravia) the notes and receipts soon dried and added, I may say, to the decoration of the shop. As I write, approaching our proper 17th birthday, I can happily reflect on the extraordinary things that Cabbages & roses has brought to our lives, the people, the enormous successes, the enormous frights, the shops and world wide concessions, our lovely partners, Innocent and Uniqlo in Japan, our lengthy stint with the Jigsaw empire, the wonderful Cabbages and Roses that have worked for us, the grown ups and the children. photo by belle daughtry photo by belle daughtry The amazing photographers and models, the publishers, the press and artists, the families that have put up with missing wives and mothers and girlfriends working into the night and up before dawn. There is so much to be grateful for in these happy 17 years, but most of all, we are grateful to our customers, without whom we would not exist. Thank you. Christina Strutt
Cabbages and Roses offer a a beautiful range of quintessentially British fabric designs, including floral, checked and striped linen fabrics
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I am an urban farmgirl. I own my own little shop in Illinois. I am loving what I do and loving my life.
A vintage inspired independent British brand, creating beautiful yet functional Fashion, Accessories, Homeware & Fabric, with a focus on making as much as possible in the UK.
{Giveaway is Closed} I sure hope you all are not tired of book giveaways yet. I seem to be getting lots of good ones. To be honest, I really had no idea about the popularity
Never say never, but it’s highly unlikely that you will ever see me sporting a purple and green sweater. But when it comes to plants, my tastes take a decidedly different turn. If you spend time in Dumbo, you probably walk by these ornamental cabbages/kale on a semi-regular basis. They are on Front Street in […]
