Urban Cookie UK

Someone new and twinkly caught my eye this week! Take a peak at Urban Cookie UK

http://www.etsy.com/people/urbancookieUK

 

Captivated by all the glitter, I decided to investigate further!

Hello Urban Cookie, who are you?

Hi everyone! My name is Sarah and I am the girl behind Urban Cookie resin jewellery. I live in Essex with my Fiancé and my gorgeous rescued greyhound Major who is my baby!

I’ve always been a girly girl (despite climbing trees in my youth!) and I’m forever on the lookout for something different. When I finally found 'kawaii' it opened up a whole new world for me (For those that don't know, kawaii is Japanese for cute. Many follow it as a fashion culture, a bit like a 'Goth' or 'Emo').

This is when I first decided to try and make some kawaii jewellery for myself as a hobby. It took me over a year to perfect the process as there was so much ‘trial and error involved’ but alas I finally found the perfect combination of best materials, moulds and development time and before I knew it Urban Cookie was created.

What inspires you to make your jewellery?

My jewellery designs are inspired by the love of all things girly, cute, pretty, sparkly and kawaii. Urban Cookie jewellery is designed to be fun with an original candy glam style. If you like cupcakes, rainbows, glitter, candy and uber cuteness, then you will love the unique edge Urban Cookie has to offer.

Tell me more about your creative process

 

My resin pieces are all hand poured and sanded and usually take around 3 days to create, mostly due to the amount of time the jewellery takes to cure. I love it when the jewellery is ready to come out of the mould to see how the design has turned out. They don’t always go according to plan but I find that sometimes these turn out to be the best pieces! I have also started to make some more classic pieces from beads and charms.

I love the thought that even the "imperfect" pieces are still beautiful in their own way :)

What do you do when you're not creating your beautiful jewellery?

When I’m not creating I work full time as an Invoicing Validation Team Leader in the Finace department of a Telecommunications company. I also love shopping in any way, shape or form and browsing through the shops of my fellow Etsians!

Now for a random question..

I think the way to find out what's really behind an artist is to take away any worry of time or money. So if you didn't have to worry about either, what would you create?

If I could make absolutely anything in the world, regardless of time or money I think I would love to customise a candy glam car Urban Cookie Stylee! I’m thinking so many Swarovski’s you would need sun glasses just to look at it and it would absolutely have to be pink! It’s nice to dream (**sigh**)

Wow!! I would LOVE to see that! :) I can just imagine a super twinkly car parked in someone's driveway!

Thank you so much for telling us all about yourself and your amazingly sparkly jewellery, go and take a peak at Urban Cookie's work and prepare yourself for unique cuteness!

http://www.etsy.com/people/urbancookieUK



Bear Follows Cat

On my adventures, exploring the world of crafty people to share with you all, I discovered something amazing! I am super happy to introduce you all to

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BearFollowsCat?ref=pr_shop

 

Thoroughly intrigued, I decided to poke my nose a little into the world of Bear Follows Cat...

Hello Bear Follows Cat, who are you?

 Hello! My name is Pippa. I am 27, currently doing a masters in art and having a lovely time. I live in Leeds, with a soon to be married couple and three lovely naughty cats, and spend most of my time cluttering up my bedroom/studio with good pieces of art and failed pieces of art that I can't bring myself to throw away!

I think I realised that I had an arty streak when I was at school and I was "sat down for a chat" because I was neglecting all my other subjects for sitting in the art studios! One degree and three boring years sat in an office later made me realise that it's what I was miserable doing anything else so off I went back to school. Seems it's working out fine though!

What sparks you to create your beautiful work?

 My dreams are the main inspiration point for my work. It started when I had a crazy post apocalyptic dream that the world had been taken over by man eating bears and we were hiding out in a big building. It was so vivid that I was still thinking about it weeks later, so I started to draw bears, which turned into silhouettes and then the paper cuttings. My dreams have always been very vivid and so its a great place because your imagination can run riot without logic getting in the way!

To carry on doing my work? Other artists are my inspiration. I just think that it's incredible the things that people can do and make and the fact that other people are doing it and being successful is an amazing inspiration and motivation to keep going, even when it's a bit tough.

Tell me a bit about your creative process?

 I'm a bit of a jumble when it comes to process. Sometimes i need to think really hard as to how its going to work, making sketches and planning it in my mind. Other times I just sit down and it pours out. I usually know pretty quickly once I have started something if it's going to work though, and I am not afraid to abandon something if I think it's not right (even if i do keep hold of it, sometimes, you just need a bit of space from it). I like to sit down with a cup of tea, with all my drawing things and put some music on and just go for it. I like to get other peoples opinions on things too, that means a lot to me to get peoples opinions, it lets me know what works and what doesn't.

I do think however that a good cup of tea is important to any process!

Yes! Tea is most important I think :)

What do you do when you're not creating?

 I work part time in an office still, so three days a week I am sat at a desk answering peoples letters. Other than that, I love watching films and day trips! Oh, and being in the garden and pottering around. We have a great garden, its like an extension of the house in the summer.

Sounds lovely!

Now this might sound random, but I think the way to find out what's really behind an artist is to take away the issues of time and money. So if you didn't have to worry about either, what would you create?

That's a very tough question! Last year, I had one of the bears in my paper cuts made into an MDF 5ft silhouette laser cut out. Its as tall as me and I love it to bits. If I could make anything, I would create a whole space filled with the animals from my paper cuts made into (weatherproof) life size cut outs, like the bear. When I am making my work, its not just a scene I am mapping out on a piece of paper, there is a place where they are all are, and I can see it all in my head and all of them milling around.

It would be nice to share that with other people!

That's so beautiful! It would be amazing to walk amongst giant versions of your work!

Thank you so much for letting us have a little peak into your world!

Please go and visit Pippa and her world!

The gorgeous and quirky designs will take your breath away.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BearFollowsCat?ref=pr_shop

A New Look!

I did it!

I spent the whole of Saturday taking oodles and oodles of photos and re-vamping my shop.

I decided to use the window to really take advantage of the sunlight and then, by using white paper and felt, I managed to use this light to illuminate my images.

I do love photographs that are taken using natural light, the focus is just so much better and the images really pop.



Take a peek at my shop to see all of my other creations re-vamped!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RebeccasEmporium?ref=si_shop

Take A Peek

Quite a few things going on at the moment!

Firstly, I have a sneaky peek at someone who will be visiting my shop soon...

Say hi Mr Bunny! There is more too him, but you'll have to wait and see!

I have also decided that I need to do some MAJOR tidying!

Just look at the mess I've gotten myself into. Honestly, I can hear my mother's disapproval from here!



I need to get a move on sharpish! Not just to stop my mum from grumbling, but I'm planning on re-taking photographs of all of my work and I was hoping this would be the perfect place... at least when there's less fluff everywhere.

New Blogging Plans

On another note entirely, I have a new plan for my blog!

As much as I love to ramble on about my crazy little adventures with fluff, I've decided that I would quite like to use my blog to help other crafty makers out there too :)

So, here's the plan:

Through the help of the british-sellers-on-etsy team, I'm going to explore the world of creatives and bring you a little insight into their world and their amazing work. I love the idea that people can come to my blog to find out more about the "artist behind the art", so why not get everyone involved :)

So, keep an eye open, I'll hopefully be sharing some wonderful work with you all soon!

Just Like Summer

It's so lovely outside! It's just like Summer out there, so I thought I'd make a lovely summery Treasury to remind everyone of those summers where everything was amazing and you couldn't get that smile off of you face. :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4dc1463df6548eefc8caf4ac/do-you-remember-that-summer?ref=pr_treasury
I hope this brings back some sunny memories for you.

x

On another note, I listed my first creation on Folksy. http://www.folksy.com/shops/RebeccasEmporium

It's just a trial run for now, but the site looks quite nice and I like the way that the front page changes with new listings rather than Treasuries. We shall see how it goes!

Such A Wonderful Start to May

Do your ever feel like for one day everything is perfect?

I swear this weekend has been wonderful!

I've added two new creations to my Emporium, and I have to admit, I'm rather proud of these two, I hope that you like them too.

Here's my flower sculpture which I'd made before, but hadn't quite finished

and here's my little environmentally friendly sheep sculpture

I made these both to enter a challenge for the Needlefelt team on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/teams/6449/needlefelt

There's been some amazing entries! Have a look at these in this treasury that was made to show us all together http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4dbe74445f686d9198df6e01/sheep-and-flowers

Today's been amazing too, chocolate Easter presents, a fried breakfast, a long walk by the river feeding the ducks, and watching films with popcorn and biscuits and tea! :) My fiancée has treated me to the most wonderful day!

 

I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your May too.