FashionSaboteur

Cubism continued

2011-12-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

Just recently I created some new “Cubist” necklaces under my eponymous Anu Samarüütel label. The ones you see in this posting can be found exclusively in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn. Or you can order something similar directly from me. Cubist necklaces are made of wood and cork, all details are hand cut or finished and hand painted.

Colourful Cubist

2011-10-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

In September 2010 I designed some wood and cork prototype necklaces to go with my Freehand fashion collection. This summer I finally had time to create more of them, moving on from the prototype stage.

All the details of those necklaces are hand cut, sanded and painted with acrylics in beautiful pastel shades.

Painting by Ben Nicholson. Picture from nationalgalleries.org

Painting by Ben Nicholson. Picture from nzetc.org

Painting by Ben Nicholson. Picture from artcornwall.org

The design of the necklaces was inspired by the British artist Ben Nicholson.

You can find my Cubist necklaces from Shop 172, on Brick Lane, London and in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn, Estonia.

If you’d like a custom a_s_proto Cubist necklace, please feel free to contact me :-)

Pure Glee

2011-04-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I started a brand new family of necklaces. I gave it a code name GLEE, because making them and looking at them afterwards made me very happy. Glee necklaces are like little machines for creating happiness…

All necklaces: a_s_proto by anu samarüütel

Glee collection is available in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn

Zip Encore

2011-04-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

My Zip necklace family received some new colourful members recently.

All necklaces by a_s_proto

Freehand on a catwalk

2011-03-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

On the 4th of March I participated in a fashion show with 4 other designers. The show took place in Tallinn/Estonia, Viru Keskus Centre and I sent on stage my Freehand collection.

It’s the same collection I showed in an exhibition last May in London, 10 Gales gallery. The fabrics in that collection were designed by me and printed digitally.

The jewellery, created especially for the fashion show was inspired by the work of artist Ben Nicholson.

Onstage pics by Jürgen Joost/ courtesy of Viru Keskus

Check out Jürgen’s Flickr page

New Tube

2011-02-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

These are new pieces from my a_s_proto jewellery collection. They bare a code name “Tube”. Incorporating copper tubing, painted cork and ribbon.

Winter berries

2011-01-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Here’s some brand new Berry necklaces, under my a_s_proto label. The whole Berry collection is inspired by 1940’s and 1950’s bakelite jewellery, you can read more about my inspiration here.

The following Berry necklaces were made in summer 2010. You can buy my work in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn. www.nunordik.ee

Nu Nordik boutique presents: Anu Samarüütel s/s 2011

2010-11-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

My spring/ summer 2011 collection Freehand is on show again. This time in Tallinn, Estonia, on a large window that belongs to Nu Nordik boutique. It’s fashion week in Tallinn at the moment and my collection is making a guest appearance.

I have written about making of this collection in my blog before: http://fashionsaboteur.blogspot.com/2009/09/drawing-closer.html

And there are a few pics from May 2010, when I showed it in 10 Gales Gallery in London. http://fashionsaboteur.blogspot.com/2010/05/anu-samaruutelfreehand-in-10-gales.html

Inspiration behind this collection was drawing and freehand scribbling- which translated into series of fabric prints with large hand drawn motifs, that I got digitally printed on silk.

The dresses themselves are quite simple, with asymmetric collars, inspired by loose protective clothing and aprons that painters wear in their studio while they work.

With brushes and gouaches

2010-10-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today I finished working on my new illustration website. It’s called www.anuworld.co.uk and shows mainly my fashion and lifestyle illustrations.

Illustrations by Anu Samarüütel

People often assume I do my pictures with computer- but no! I use old fashioned gouache paints and fine brushes, then scan the ready image in the computer and clean it in Photoshop, sometimes adding backgrounds or small details.

This is how I do it :-)

Berry picking time

2010-07-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s because the berries in my garden are just getting ripe- red currants and cherries, black currants and gooseberries, but I just finished 3 new necklaces that I named “Berry”. I could not call them any other way- they just look like clusters of colourful berries hanging from a chain!

But where did this berry-thing come from?

I have been a big fan of 30’s and 40’s bakelite jewellery for a while now. Especially the fruit and berry necklaces and brooches. I do not own any myself, as those once cheap costume jewellery pieces now reach incredible prices on the international vintage jewellery market. For example I just spotted a fantastic cherry necklace at http://www.vintageswank.com for $2400.

Photo from “Bakelite jewellery, Collectors Guide” by Tony Grasso

Photos from “Bakelite jewellery, Collectors Guide” by Tony Grasso

Although I do not own any bakelite jewellery, I have a book called “ Bakelite Jewellery, The Collectors Guide” by Tony Grasso, that you can buy on Amazon. The book is full of good information and inspirational close-up photos, which is where some of these pics come from.

Photo from http://www.whitakerauction.com

a_s_proto Berry necklace

Here are my “Berry” necklaces that combine chain, baubles and beads and are inspired by berries in my garden and 40s bakelite jewellery.

All three of them are one-offs, two are available in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn. One will be on sale in my Etsy shop.

a_s_proto Berry necklaces

New ones

2010-07-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

New a_s_proto necklaces by me

You can find them in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn, Estonia.

www.nunordik.ee

Kerry’s Goldmine

2010-05-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Yves Saint Laurent 1962

There’s a brilliant website called kerrytaylorauctions.co.uk

that has lots of fantastic photos of vintage garments and accessories. It is a real goldmine when doing research. It’s actually an auction site, advertising the items that will be on sale during the next sale in its London auction rooms.

I love taking a peek inside designer garments to see how they are made and kerrytaylorauctions.co.uk provides some interesting views. All these pics here are close-ups of haute couture pieces, note all the charming hand stitching…

All the photos from kerrytaylorauctions.co.uk

Madame Grès 1947

Madame Grès 1975

Christian Dior haute couture 1952

Jean Dessès haute couture 1951

Balenciaga couture 1961

Pierre Balmain 1955-57

Jean Dessès haute couture late 1950s

Christian Dior 1957

Elsa Schiaparelli 1930s

Madame Grès 1965

Marc Bohan for Dior Couture 1963

Jean Dessès couture 1950s

Jeanne Lanvin 1936

Pierre Cardin 1950's

Balenciaga 1966

Pierre Cardin haute couture 1967

Chanel haute couture late 1950s

Louiseboulanger 1930s

Christian Lacroix haute couture 1980s

Jeanne Lanvin 1930s

Jeanne Lanvin 1938

Balenciaga aka Eisa , late 1960s

All the photos from kerrytaylorauctions.co.uk

Exhibition Extended

2010-05-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

My exhibition Freehand in East London gallery 10 Gales, will be open for two extra days.

It is closed on bank holiday Monday, May the 3^rd.

It will be open on

Tuesday, May the 4^th 12-19

Wednesday, May the 5^th 12-about 17.30.

Free admission.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116339391723193&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=110988202269627&ref=mf

Illustrations by me.

Plastic Fantastic!

2010-05-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

I spotted some great pieces of jewellery on Selfridges’ windows in March. Unfortunately there was no sign who was the designer.

Those voluminous plastic creations reminded me of the jewellery of African Ndebele tribe.

Ndebele woman in national costume. I found this picture on the net, but somehow lost the address of the page were I got it from. Sorry for the lack of credit.

After spotting those colourful necklaces in Selfridges I kept finding more and more plastic stuff, by different designers.

On Etsy I found designer Liana Kabel, who makes pieces out of recycled knitting needles and Tupperware mugs.

Later I came upon a website called trenddelacreme.com that had a story about a designer Emiko Oye of Reware Style who makes impressive necklaces from Lego pieces, recycled plastic and plexiglass.

Emiko Oye also makes smaller and more wearable pieces that are on sale in her Etsy shop.

anu samarüütel_Freehand in 10 Gales

2010-05-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

This Thursday I opened my fashion, print and illustration exhibition in East London, 10 Gales gallery. It will be open until Monday, May the 3^rd, 18.00.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/London-United-Kingdom/10-Gales/339218165159

London Inspiration

2010-03-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Bethnal Green wall

Wooden stomp, Hyde Park

East London wall

East London door

Bethnal Green wall

What my students did part 2

2009-12-24T05:23:00.000-08:00

The collection by Kadi Adrikorn

In November I did another fashion short course and workshop in my studio.

This time I had 4 students- it’s not a lot, but that’s actually the max size of the group. This way I can give each of them lots of time and personal tutoring.

Altogether this year I’ve had 17 fantastic, enthusiastic and talented students attending my studio courses. Plus the ones in the Academy of Arts of my native land, where I teach too.

The collection by Regina Sepp

The course in my studio runs for 5 days, 3 hours a day and the students have to work HARD!

First I give a talk about different ways of doing a research- with lots of pics. Then we get draping and designing with second hand garments on a dummy and taking lots of photos of this process. Then we analyse the pics and decide what goes in their collection and Photoshop it all together- just to get a better idea.

By the end of the course they will have the whole collection lineup ready- in drape and on paper, so all there is to do is to develop the patterns and cut and sew it all.

The collection by Mirjam Kristian

I learned this way of working by observing my co-students, when I was studying in the Famous College of Arts and Design in London and it has completely changed my design process.

In the olden days I used to design by drawing on paper- this was a sure way to frustration- I NEVER got the results I was looking for. Now a whole new world of 3 dimensional design process has opened up for me and it’s so exciting! Hopefully it has helped my students too. Most of them are just high school students, some as young as 16, planning to go and study fashion in their home country or somewhere abroad.

The collection by Mariann Metsis

PS.

Thanks for all the models and photographers who’s catwalk/static pics were used by the students during this project. It was all for good reason- education!

(Desperately) Searching for Jeanette’s

2009-12-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

Jeanette’s boutique, London, photo by Darrell Berry

http://www.darrell-berry.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellberry/

One Sunday not long ago I decided to go and check out a new and interesting fashion shop I had read about- Jeanette’s in London’s East End. It’s quite funny that a designer fashion shop would pop up in East, which so far has been a domain of second hand shops, Asian restaurants, markets and bizarre little boutiques.

I had done all the background research, finding that Jeanette’s was established by James Main aka Jeanette who is described by New York Times Style blog as a club host, designer muse and stylist. Obviously a person with many contacts in London fashion scene. In Jeanette’s he sells rare items and one-off special pieces from his friends- hot London designers like Louise Grey, Kim Jones, Christopher Kane, James Long and Richard Nicoll. Some of them happen to be my course mates from London Famous College of Art and Design MA Fashion course.

Jeanette’s boutique, London, photo by Darrell Berry

I was quite excited about going there, and just a little bit intimidated about the idea of meeting this important fashion person who is running the shop. We walked up the Redchurch street and then up and down the Club Row, where the entrance was supposed to be- and can you believe it- we could not find it! It was not there! Or it was hiding from us! I even entered a hair dressers salon to ask for directions, but still no avail. Jeanette’s with its famous multicoloured wooden shutters was nowhere in sight.

Jeanette’s boutique, London, photo by Darrell Berry

I was understandably very sad. To relieve my sadness I took lots of pictures of street art instead. Very useful as a source of inspiration. And then I went back home to design my own collection.

Giant Squirrel on Club Row, near Jeanette's.

Nice flower motifs.

Pair of charming owls.

Interesting colour scheme plus great motifs.

PS. I’m sure Jeanette’s actually exists, probably just this Sunday the owner had decided to have a day off….

Check out the Jeanette’s opening party pics from Colette’s blog.

As I could not take any photos of Jeanette’s, I used some taken by a photographer called Darrell Berry who, among other things, has taken lots of pics of London nightlife.

http://www.darrell-berry.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellberry/

Jeanette’s, 64-66 Redchurch Street, entrance at Club Row
London E2 7DP

Wed - Fri 11 am - 7 pm
Sat - Sun 11 am - 5 pm

10 Gales Gallery, London, Bethnal Green

2009-11-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Today I was walking past the Bethnal Green railway arches near the underground station when I noticed a sign I had never seen before: “New gallery open” and “Fashion boutique”.

Of course me and my companions had to go and investigate immediately. I had been down the Gales passage before - with its dark and musty second hand furniture and junk shops- it’s not the most glamorous location for a fashion enterprise.

So imagine our surprise and delight when we stepped into Gales number 10, freshly painted, brightly lit, blindingly white spacious gallery.

At the entrance green fake grass, kitschy glam chairs, tea and cakes waiting to be served. Lovely! The gallery downstairs had an exhibition of colourful pop paintings by John Lee Bird. In the back there was a separate room- a hairdresser’s salon!!! Very reasonable prices by the way!

Dramatic steps took you from the entrance to upstairs, to a rather large fashion space/ gallery office, under the curved roof of a railway arch. There was a well edited selection of designer wear, absolutely charming in-house Staffordshire bullterrier, modern furniture and quite a luxurious atmosphere. Not in a Prada Boutique kind of expensive and polished way, but in a arty and cool way. Altogether it was a great find that completely lit up my day!

10 Gales

Arch 10, Gales Gardens, London E2 0EJ

Near Bethnal Green tube station and Salmon and Ball pub.

New one

2009-10-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

New a_s_proto zip necklace n158

Macrame comeback

2009-10-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

London Selfridges

This summer I took an interest in macramé- not a terribly deep interest, just thought that I might do some jewellery using this rope-knotting technique. I did some initial small samples and then, because I was busy with other things, I put it aside for a while hoping to return to it soon.

My little macrame test

London Topshop

Well- now it seems it’s too late! It’s already all over London shop windows!

Last week both Topshop and Selfridges had decorated their windows with rope arrangements.

Rope jewellery, London Topshop

Topshop also had some jewellery pieces in its Edit section, by a young designer who used colourful rope. Luckily his/ or hers were completely different from mine.

Macrame instructions from 70s

I have noticed- when you have an idea- you must act on it immediately, otherwise other people will get it. As soon as you think of it, it’s out there, in the air, for anyone to grab. It’s so true! One must realize one’s ideas very fast!

Digitaria’s new look

2009-10-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to visit Digitaria. It’s a great fashion boutique/ gallery on London’s Berwick street, you can read more about it in my earlier postings.

Digitaria was doing well, it was busy with customers, had a lovely new window display, lots of new designs and a new exhibition downstairs. And you can buy my a_s_proto jewelley there!

Mary, mirrors and Museum of Childhood

2009-10-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

Mary Katrantzou Spring 2010, pictures Style.com

I love the work of London designer Mary Katrantzou. She uses a lot of fantastic digital prints in her collections and her last 2010 spring collection was not an exception.

When I saw the pictures of it on Style.com I knew they reminded me of something.

I had been to London Museum of Childhood in 2005 and taken some pictures of an attraction they have in there- a distortion mirror. All the toys and colourful interior reflect in it in a mad psychedelic way, it just looked so great!

Mary Katrantzou Spring 2010, pictures Style.com

Mary’s prints were actually a development of her earlier work- perfume bottles, so I don’t think she had been to the Museum of Childhood for inspiration.

Museum of Childhood, London

I visited Museum of Childhood again a few days ago. My friend’s colleague Helen Carter, who is a designer and also teaches fashion in University of East London, was opening her exhibition there- a collection of very cool Sindy dolls from the 60’s.

Museum of Childhood is worth checking out, they have got some nice stuff there, lots of good research material!

And its all free!

The house itself is fabulous too - it was built in the 19^th century for some agricultural exhibition.

When you go, don’t forget to take some nuts for the squirrels who inhabit the park that’s next to the museum.

More “deco”

2009-10-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

There are more new members to my “deco” jewellery family, under my own a_s_proto label.

In all of them I have used cheerful colourful plastic, metal press buttons and steel bits and pieces.

This one you have already seen, but why not look at it again, surrounded by its relatives!

You can find them all in Nu Nordik boutique, Tallinn.

Discovering Jakob Bengel

2009-09-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

a_s_proto necklace

I made a few new necklaces last week. They look a bit 80’s and a bit Art Deco’ish. It’s only by accident, I was just using the details I had near me, honest! Of course I love Art Deco design and jewellery, so it’s not such a big surprise.

I just checked online to see if there’s any original Art Deco jewellery on offer. This is what I discovered.

Jakob Bengel jewellery from the 1930s

I found some great pieces by someone- please excuse my ignorance, never heard of him before- called Jakob Bengel on graysantiques.com Pics above are from that site.

Jakob Bengel jewellery

Found some more fantastic necklaces by Jakob Bengel at gardenpartycollection.com. Pic above is from that site.

Jakob Bengel necklaces

And then I hit gold and found even more great stuff by Jakob Bengel at tademagallery.com

Pics above are from www.tademagallery.com

Oh My God, I Google’d more and found so much of his stuff and so much about him! He is fantastic!!! I’m a fan! Never knew he existed!

Drawing closer

2009-09-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

It’s not always very clear, where the idea for the collection comes from. One looks at lots and lots of things, goes to exhibitions, searches the internet, sits in the library and goes through many books and collects lots of research. In this huge amount of information there will be some images that seem more interesting than the others. So you will print out a few, put on the floor and look at them for a while.

And then you go and look for MORE interesting stuff, as if you did not have enough research already. Then you will let it all settle a bit.

At some point you’ll get a certain kind of feeling of what you will want to make. Well, that’s how it works for me anyway. During the design process it will usually all change, but you have to start from somewhere.

I had been collecting lots of research when suddenly I realised that what I was interested in was art. Art by some certain artists. I saw some fantastic works by Ben Nicholson in Tate Britain. It was white on white geometric cutout shapes from the 30’s and elegant line drawings. I found the same works also on Tate online

http://www.tate.org.uk , where those images above originate.

I looked at a book called Ben Nicholson Recent Paintings on Paper and realised I was very interested in drawing, the line and the empty space. Pics above are from that book.

I found another inspirational artist, Maret Olvet from Estonia. Loved her colours and shapes. Pics from www.vaal.ee and www.haus.ee

All this did not take me very far. Except that I knew that I wanted to design some prints with hand drawn lines, something spontaneous and a bit… “arty” ( sorry, it sounds terrible!).

By accident I picked out some of my own old drawings from a few years ago. They are old rough sketches and graphite fashion drawings which I liked because of their spontaneity.

Then I just took paper and started scribbling and drawing without thinking much

Out came those swirls you have seen before in this blog. I drew a whole mountain of them, maybe about 100.

The best ones I scanned in, blew them up and scattered all over the fabric with no repeats. And that’s how my prints were born.

It’s a whole science to get the colours right in Photoshop, when filling in a surface that has different shades.

To get the colours I wanted, I printed out a sample with dots, and numbered the favourite dots. Of course I could have done a sample of each print, but the time was not on my side. The problem was also the size of the files, they were HUGE! More than 200MB, so it took forever to make even smallest of changes. So I had to get it right from the start- that’s what I thought.

Still it was always a small surprise when I got my fabrics back from printing: oh, that’s how it came out! But that’s allright, because this collection is inspired by art and you must leave room for coincidence and happy accidents when making art.

I did some different colourways too, just wanted to see what happens if it was orange :-)

I took pics of ready fabrics on the dummie. Somehow it’s very hard to see what you are doing by just looking at it. You have to look through the mirror or take a photo.

The photo always tells the truth. Most of the designers take photos of their work in progress, because then you can see what is wrong.

Now all there is left to do is to turn those fabrics into a collection.

I have only done some toiling and sketching. The most interesting toiles so far are the ones I made using some horrible old ripped up dress I found from somewhere.

It really is an old rag, and I did not even bother to iron it, but you must know how to READ those pictures and the toile. You must be able to SEE the interesting detail, the interesting cut. You must be able to see the potential of fantastic dress even in a horrible rag of a toile.

a_s_proto jewellery in London and Tallinn

2009-09-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Lots of things have happened since the last posting. There’s a whole new installation of my jewellery and graphics in design and fashion boutique called Nu Nordik, in Nordic capital Tallinn, Estonia.

These necklaces with giant blond wooden balls you will find in Nu Nordik only.

I have managed to source some chunky bicycle(lookalike) chains. At the moment I have only made some samples while waiting for the delivery of more of those great chains in mid September. Then I will surely put some new designs using them on Etsy as well.

From this week one of the coolest fashion boutiques in London called Digitaria will be stocking my jewellery too!

This necklace is exclusive to Digitaria. As you can see,the whole Tribe jewellery collection has been evolving and I have started mixing the zip theme with the tribal notes.

Research on the beach

2009-08-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, I love to be on the seaside…and I love to swim in the sea… Only this summer I did not get there quite often enough. That’s why I will dedicate the next chapter to the beach.

Scandinavia and especially Baltics states have great beaches. Very few tourists know that and that’s why those splendid expanses of sand, pine trees, and shallow and tideless sea are left mainly for the locals.

In the Nordic cities during the summertime you will be lucky to meet a native- they all lie down on some secluded beach, watching swans and taking a dip in the lovely warm and gentle waves.

This remote beach by the Baltic sea is one of my favourites, because of its great architectural features, beach kiosks and beach house from the 60s. Sadly no one looks after them now.

Brighton Beach

I have been to some beaches in Britain too, mind you. One has to be a real hero to go swimming there. The sea is ice cold, you can only take a few steps and already you are in deep and furious water, plus the sharks( although toothless basking variety, still scary).

I have collected some lovely research from the beaches I have been to. You might argue now that this is not a proper research, as you cannot use it to design something. Well- one can use those images as a research for a fashion shoot location, or a colour scheme or a mood… or something like that.

I took some nice inspirational pics on Brighton Beach, including some wall paintings and a lonely stack of beach chairs. Later on I developed those chairs into actual print design. It is not quite finished and I have not used it anywhere yet.

But at least I have proved you, that one can really gather some good research, while lazying around on the beach.

Joining the dots

2009-08-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I designed some fabric prints for no other reason but pure fun. I started designing by making some large dots in the Photoshop, then I printed the dots out on paper and cut the paper to strips, then glued the strips back together in no particular order. Finally I scanned this glued up picture back in the computer and played with it some more in the Photoshop.

The result was chopped up dot pattern with a handmade feel that I liked a lot. I dug this design up again this June, when I was making some digital prints in London and got a small sample printed on cotton canvas. I must say I was very pleased with the print on fabric.

A Few weeks ago I came to my native Nordic homeland. One day, when rummaging around the attic, I found a suitcase with my childhood clothes. There was also a dress with big white dots.

When I looked at it more closely I got a little shock as the pattern was very similar to what I had designed: chopped up strips of dots! I swear I had not seen this baby-dress for a very long time and I did not remember the pattern at all!

Strange things those childhood memories- they stick in the subconscious and then pop up when you do not expect that at all. You may think you have invented something new and fresh or think you have a great taste, but actually it all comes from your childhood. Or does it?...

New faces

2009-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

There are now some new members to the Tribe jewellery family: brooches with funny faces, made from metallic silk and all kinds of metal bits and pieces as eyes, noses and lips.

Someone said they look quite 80s. To me they look cubist with a punk twist. At the moment there is only three, but there are more in process. Hope to put some for sale in my Etsy shop soon.

Tribal brooch making is such a great activity for those moments when you are forced to sit and wait, like being on the airplane or on the train. Or working in a shop and sitting behind the counter and being a bit bored. That’s exactly what I had to do last Saturday, so I took my brooch making implements and bag of hardware with me, spread it all over the counter and managed to do quite a lot of stitching of eyeballs and noses.

Those brooches look really good on gray tweed- I already tested them on my jacket. At least that’s one reason to look forward to September and cooler weather.

Pressing issues

2009-08-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a wholesale place to buy some press buttons. They have become to play an important part in my jewellery making, I just cannot do without them at the moment. You can create a beautiful “ribbed metal sausage” that just looks SO good in necklace or earrings.

So here I am cycling down the street, completely happy, bag full of newly bought press buttons of all sizes and suddenly there’s an open gate. Quite unusual in that area, so of course I glance in. There’s a lovely old wooden house, flowerbeds and attached to the fence- tens of metal car wheel covers. They look almost exactly like the press buttons I just bought! It’s like a little sign from the Lord of the Press buttons, telling me I did a right thing buying so many of them and using them so much.

Now I just have to turn them into lovely necklaces and hopefully everyone will fall in love with them!