I´m dreaming of knitted dresses...

Just a quick update after a very busy weekend where I laid hands on the last details of my order to Norway. I thought I show you some of my latest cuffs that are going to be send tomorrow.

A vibrant yellow-pink-orange cuff that was inspired by the dahlias in my garden.

The next two cuffs capture the more dusty still rich colours of an autumn day.

A glamorous version for the festive season – would even make a gorgeous wedding cuff I think.

I was visiting an old friend in Germany a couple of weeks ago, she is a weaver and designer and gave me some of the most gorgeous mother-of -pearl buttons she had left over. To be precise, she gave me a whole bag of them – thank you Brigitte! As you can see I made some rather glamorous rings with them.

I also created these rings, they are made of vintage bakelite buttons which are simply lovely with their subtle colours.

And here a picture of my "Mohair Beauties", sweet crocheted flower brooches just perfect to lighten up a grey winterday! Available in 8 colours in my etsy shop

Other news include the purchase of a knitting machine. I have thought about getting one for a long time but after having seen the film “Sequins” - french title "Brodeuses" - (which actually is about two embroiderers who are very different but make friends through the shared love for their craft ) I simply had to buy one! Why, you may ask, isn´t it about embroidery? Yes, but when I saw the green lacy knitted dress Claire is wearing in the last scene of the film I knew I wanted to make dresses and shawls like that!

Now I´m soon going to be the proud owner of a Brother KH 900 knitting machine (it is going to be delivered on Tuesday). I signed up for a course next weekend and going to keep you ajour with my lace knitting progress! And - if you haven´t seen the film go and get it! It´s so typical french with a good plot and it´s simply a feast for the eyes! It´s my favourite film ever, bien sur.

I´ll be back soon with a little feature about one of my dear blogfriends and favourite artists!

Baroque and Quirky

Shame on me – what a bad blogger I am! I can´t believe it, but it´s three months since I last updated my blog!! Sorry to all of my followers, but it´s not only laziness but more a combination of incredibly much work and serious illness in our family, but luckily it looks as if things are going the right way now.

While my summershop was open a Norwegian girl, who turned out to be the owner of a beautiful shop just outside Oslo, came around and was really enthusiastic about my stuff, and – she placed a really big order due to deliver in October! So now you can figure out what kept me so busy!

But my true agenda for today is a different one. It was my birthday in September and, well, I´ve reached an age where it´s not unconditionally fun any more to have birthday, because it actually proves you are getting OLDER. But, the good thing still is – you get PRESENTS!! And I love presents!

My lovely parents had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and without hesitating I had answered that I wanted some of the gorgeous pieces of the Danish ceramist Marco Friis. He is one of my favourite ceramists and his work is just amazing. Baroque, opulent, quirky and subtle – all at the same time.

Marco Friis really knows how to combine styles from Romantic to Baroque with clean, modern lines and in 2006 he was awarded the Danish Craft Prize by her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. Often people tend to think that these beautiful pieces have been created by a woman, but there definitely is nothing effeminate about Marco Friis – when you enter his stylish little combined studio and shop in the Latin Quarter in the heart of Århus, you are greeted by a tall, blond and handsome guy who likes to chat and makes you feel welcome.

These are two of the pieces I have chosen for my birthday present, and I LOVE them! The pictures don´t really do them justice as it was a grey day not suitable for photographing, but I simply had to update my blog today. I have to admit that I haven´t used the cup for my daily cup of tea yet – although Marco emphasized that his ceramics are made for daily use and can be put in the dishwasher – but then this is easy for him to say!!! If he breaks a cup he can just make himself a new one, whilst I have to wait for my next birthday, lol.

For further information visit his website www.marcofriis.dk and take a closer look at his opulent cups and quirky bambi- and rabbitbowls in his showroom! And should you ever come to Århus make sure to visit his cosy and stylish shop in the Latin Quarter, Badstuegade 16.

Last not least: to make up for my long blog absence I have decided to have a free blog give-away all four Sundays before Christmas – the give-away presents include a ring, a pair of earrings and two brooches, all of them handcrafted by me, of course! More about this next time!

Train update

Just want to give you a quick update on how it´s going with my summershop - and thanks to all of you who left such nice and encouraging coments and a special thanks to Mandarine d´Italie and Rafaela Tomazzoni who featured me on their blogs.

It has been going well so far, it was a good decision to convert the train carriage into a shop/gallery space and I get a lot of positive feedback from the people who come around. I just wish more people would find out here but having said that I have actually sold quite well and I even got commissions for a customized slip dress and two bags so I am quite busy ;-)

Last year I bought some plain white boxes for my wares which I decided to pimp a bit so these are my new Fleur de Boheme giftboxes:


I even made Fleur de Boheme badges in different colours which I give away to customers to help them remember me and people seem to like them - haven´t taken a picture of them yet but will post one later.

Last not least two pictures from the exhibition at my friend Tracys gallery, the space is much different from my own venue but it´s such a beautiful gallery and my things look very nice there I think.



I haven´t asked the other artists yet if it´s alright for them that I post pictures of their work on my blog, but I hope I can show you their work in my next posting.

Train in Vain ;-)

I have been very busy the last weeks as I had to get everything ready for my summer shop in our vintage train carriage. I opened last thursday and I´m really happy with the result. I painted the table, bench and steps I use to display my bouquets of flowers from the garden in a nice lavender-blue shade to make it look cosy and inviting to visitors.


The rough style of the carriage creates a very interesting contrast to my handcrafted textiles and jewellery and the venue has a nice shabby chic feel to it.


My worktable with jewellery and accessories in the corner.


Vintage linen and tableclothes and in the mirror a peek of my vintage dresses.


Dainty summer scarves and my embroidered jewellery.


We had a heat wave the last couple of days, so there weren´t particularly many customers yet - everyone was at the beach I suppose, but I hope more people will come around during the next weeks. My summer shop was mentioned in one of the Danish lifestyle and interior mags, they had even put two nice pictures in, so I hope that´ll give me some extra customers.

I´m also exhibiting with three other artists in my friend Tracys gallery, I´ll post some pictures of that exhibition soon - the three other girls make fantastic stuff, too.

That was all for now - enjoy the summer!

Busy times and new opportunities!

I´ve really been busy these last weeks! My parents visited us last week, which was really nice. I had such a great time with my mother, she is a creative mind too and we made jewellery together, went shopping and chatted a lot. And she ironed all the clothes and linen that had piled up for weeks in my laundry basket.... Here´s a picture of us, doesn´t she look gorgeous? She is 66 years old, who would believe that! Hope I have inherited her good genes!!


I´ve been stressing around a bit, I have to deliver my work for the first exhibition on friday, I open my own summershop in the train carriage the 1. of july (and the carriage still has to be cleaned, some of the furniture I use for displaying my work has to be painted and there are some reparations to be done on the boards of the carriage) and then there is also the exhibition at my friend Tracys gallery....

Anyway, I managed to finish two re-vamped vintage slips and made a couple of headbands using some of my vintage millinery flowers.


I even found the time for a little brocante tour last saturday. Here are some pictures from the first place we visited, an old farmhouse that used to be a pub in a tiny cosy village - so typical Danish!



They had mostly old china, glassware and silverware, but I managed to find these beautiful old tins and the funny small forks.



We decided to have a cup of tea in Ebeltoft, a small town nearby, and popped around another antique store. As you maybe can see in the picture, it´s quite a shabby venue, but packed with all kinds of vintage stuff.


I rummaged through a basket full of all kinds of small items and found these nice old pearlnecklaces, beads and jewellery findings. Great stash to re-use in my work!


After that we went to the café, and on the way I discovered that in one of the old warehouses someone had opened a combined studio and vintage clothing shop. Of course I had to check it out, and I found a nice black dress from the 50ies, quite hard to find in bigger sizes so I am really enthusiastic about my find!! The owner, who is a painter, actually recognized me, she had been at my summershop. We started to chat and she asked if I was interested in doing a vintage fashion show with her at the local festival the last weekend in July and I said I was indeed! We agreed we would show both vintage dresses, my re-vamped vintage slips and tops and my handcrafted textile jewellery. Quite exciting, I´ve never tried that before.

And, there are more good news: she actually rents the studio for a very reasonable sum and told me the owner was interested to rent out more of the space, so I´m going to meet him on thursday to discuss the possibilities. My plan is to gather four or five artists/crafters and use some of the space in the warehouse as a combined studio and shop. By sharing the rent we can keep the costs low, which is important, because Ebeltoft is heaving with tourists from June to September - but the rest of the year it´s more or less dead, so you have to earn your money during the summermonths.

Well, as you can see - lots of things going on at the moment - I´ll keep you informed ;-)

Oh - about the peacocks - they actually belong to a farm outside our village, the people haven´t had them long and obviously the peacocks decided that it was time to take a closer look at the surroundings ;-).

Peacockblue Surprise

Yesterday I had quite unusual visitors.... these two beautiful peacocks!


They first landed on the roof of our conservatory......


Then I served them diner in the courtyard and tried to persuade them that they had found the perfect home...


After that they took a rest on the roof of our vintage train carriage....


And then they spent the rest of the day wandering around the garden (and, although I loved them, I was slightly nervous what they might do to the vegetable garden - but they didn´t touch anything!)


Unfortunately they left our garden in the evening, but tonight I saw them on the roof of our neighbours house, and not only two but actually three peacocks!! It seems as if they have "adopted" the village, and no one knows where they are coming from. I hope they stay around, I always wanted to have peacocks! (And I hope they drop some of their beautiful blue feathers next time they come into my garden)

Busy Springtime

I can´t believe it´s three weeks ago I published my last post!! But it´s so much to do right now -my parents are coming next weekend, so I had to tidy up the guest room and I even moved some furniture around and re-arranged some of my still lives. Here you see a collection of ceramics made by a friend of mine (and my cat eye glasses from the 60ies - I love them!!).


I also gave my beloved collection of vintage jewellery a good clean up and picked some flowers in the garden - the result turned out nicely I think.


There is still a lot of work in the garden, although I have to say the garden really looks great this year, espacially my vegetable patch. Took this picture in the greenhouse today, lots of flowers waiting to be planted in my flower tubs.


I have been a bit frustrated lately because I can´t exactly say that I sell massively well on etsy... I really make a big effort to network, take good pictures and upload new items regularly, which is quite time consuming, because I both have to supply my Fleur de Boheme shop with my own work and my Extravaganzza shop where I sell vintage clothes and jewellery. I sold my first handcrafted pieces a couple of days ago to Canada, the lace scarf and matching brooch shown below.


Of course that was nice, and the vintage shop is doing slightly better, but still....
I find two things difficult, the first one is to get enough traffic on the sites and the second one is the fact that I live in the most expensive country in Europe (probably one of the most expensive countries in the world) and I feel I just can´t compete with American prices at all!! We pay 49% taxes in Denmark, the prices for food are hideous and supplies are expensive too! I like where I´m living, but I find the fact that everything is so expensive really hard to accept!

Anyway, I reduced the prices on most of my items on etsy a while ago to see if that would make a difference, and I want to ask you a little favour: Would you take a look at my shops and give me feedback concerning my pricing?
I booked a few showcase spots to increase shop awareness, and the storque and accessories showcases were quite successful and gave me new followers, whilst the vintage showcase was a flop I would say. I also tried two snatch a treasury many times now because I think that´s a good way of networking, but it just seems impossible!

My newest item in my shop are these whimsical flowerbrooches - they´re almost like butterflies and I really like the picture ;-)


Well, to finish the etsy talk - if anyone out there has more tips concerning how to become a successful etsy seller, I would be grateful!

Talking about my work - I didn´t get done too much but I finished another brooch and I am now working on a bracelet, both for my summer exhibition - that´s the reason why they´re not in my etsy shop yet ;-)


Last year I started an education in creative embroidery, it´s a mixture of short courses and distance learning and it takes three years. I did the second module a couple of weeks ago, and now I have lots of projects to finish before the next module in september. The topic of the last module was nature, and one of the pieces I did was this embroidery inspired by birchbark. It includes printing, different layers of fabric, machine and handembroidery. I´m not sure if it´s finished yet, I might embellish it with beads in some places.

I even saw a fascinating exhibition while I was away for the embroidery course. It featured the work of the Danish artist Marie-Louise Otte who creates the most scrumptious ballet costumes made of paper, gold leaf, svarowski stones and other vintage materials. I hope to be able to write more about her next time and to show you some pictures of her amazing sculptures - I´m waiting to get her permission to show pictures of her work here on my blog.

I can´t give you any update about the article in "Isabellas" yet. I bought the newest magazine and was sooo disappointed because there wasn´t any article featuring interesting craft and vintage shops in Denmark - until I found out that the article is first due in the next issue which doesn´t come out before july ;-)

So, enjoy this lovely springtime - see you soon!