Design Files - Jewelrymaking, My Designs

Just over a year ago I began this blog and over the course of the year the look and the feel has evolved. In the beginning you want to write about and highlight every interest you have, posting as often as you can.
Here is the first post I wrote describing and illustrating my jewelry.
Unfortunately, with my varied and different interests, you begin to burn out by trying to cover all the topics. At last I think I've hit a balance and thoroughly enjoy curating what the web has to offer in the way of needlework ideas and building on that.
Another deep passion I've had just about all my life is making jewelry, from friendship bracelets to metalwork. I've run the gamut of making jewelry for friends and hosting jewelry parties. Sadly, like any handmade creation, unless you have gone through the process, you do not realize just how much work is involved.
Jewelry can be anything you wear for adornment. I've worked with all different mediums, love them all and continue to make and remake pieces when the desire and inspiration hits.
What is particularly effective is adding vintage parts I've collected to the mix. Plastic, glass, semi-precious stones, yarn; it's all good!

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DIY Restyle - Bagging a Man's Suit

Handbags | Edson Raupp at Victoria and Albert Museum Shop, London

Handbags are made from just about anything you can think of. There is the recycling of what we consider throwaway materials such as plastic bags cut into strips and then crocheted into a bag or can tops clipped together to make a mesh fabric for totes.
Restyling is huge with belts made into barrel-shaped bags, jeans made into totes and what I found to be particularly interesting, men's suits.
It's a shame to see a good quality suit discarded, a common occurrence when fashion dictates its time for an update and the inevitable weight gain or loss makes it necessary to buy a new one.
All the more reason for a quality suit to be restyled and given a second life.
A variety of rich fabrics including banker's pin stripes are used to make these artistic bags. The Brazilian artist, Edson Raupp sells his impeccably made bags at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a museum renowned for it's art and design.
Read further for more examples and ideas of how designers have been inspired to use suits in their designs. A French designer illustrates how she utilizes all the parts of a suit to make her bags.

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