Melanie

Melanie married Nick in Autumn 2011 in the rustic Oxfordshire countryside venue Lains Barn.

Mel’s dress was based on the blossom dress but with several alterations in style and colour. The base fabric was gold satin with two layers of pale pink silk chiffon to give a warm, golden pink appearance and a golden shimmer through the layers. The hemline was embroidered with a blossom design, hand painted pink and gold and the back featured three dimensional embroidered flowers and lacy butterflies.

Strawberries and butterflies in February

I didn’t actually believe John when he said there were strawberries growing in the garden. I thought perhaps that they had clung on since the Summer, managing to avoid rotting and shrivelling like the others. But no, he was right and here they are:

In amongst the crocuses and one solitary flowering daffodil we have two plump (but green) strawberries!  Sadly I doubt they will reach their full potential since the weather has turned so cold and frosty.

January was surprisingly busy this year. It is usually the most quiet month but this year I have been working on several wedding dresses and also developing a new range of butterflies. They are all based on British butterflies and I am aiming for a more realistic appearance than the usual butterflies I make. So here they are, and watch this space for more to come.

Rock n’ Roll brides: Jen and Debs

Jen

Last week Jen and Rob’s brilliantly named wedding ‘Joyfest 2011’ was featured on the inspiring Rock n’Roll Bride blog. It was great to see more photos of their wedding and you too can see them here:

http://www.rocknrollbride.com/2012/01/joyfest-2011-a-weekend-long-festival-wedding-jen-rob/

Can’t you just feel the fun and joy oozing from the photos?

Debs

Another wedding that recently featured on Rock n’Roll Bride was that of Debs and Sean, who were married on 5^th November 2011. The wedding looked fabulous and was photographed by the massively talented Sassy of www.assassynation.co.uk, aka Sarah Lafford, my Sister-in-Law and friend since waaaaay back. It was featured a while ago but I missed it at the time as I was off gallivanting around the country. To read the article and see more photos please follow the link: http://www.rocknrollbride.com/2011/11/a-gothic-masked-ball-debs-sean/

Debs’ dress was made from a coffee coloured silk satin with ivory lace overlay that I dyed in tea to get the aged colour. It also features embroidered detail beneath the bust, which I made as a brooch so that Debs could remove it to clean the dress, or to wear as a brooch on other clothing after the wedding. It was designed around the ideas of Debs’ love of birds and the general bird theme of the wedding. The idea came from Art Deco winged brooches, which I developed gradually over a year, including learning to cast resin to make the centre cabochon which features flying swallows.  Her headdress design was based on the similar idea, but in the centre featured an antique brooch in colours to reflect colours of peacock feathers.

Debs said:

Vikki was introduced to me by our wedding photographer when I was panicking over finding a dress I liked for our wedding. She was a pleasure to deal with from our first moment of contact; she was attentive, helpful and a genuinely caring person. As I didn’t live close by most of our contact was by email but this worked extremely well. After meeting Vikki and describing what I wanted from a dress, she suggested some fabulous ideas and followed them up with more emails. I would email ideas and pictures I had seen of dresses I liked, Vikki would email back saying what would work and what wouldn’t. When I wasn’t sure of something, Vikki was positive and attentive, changing my design to suit. Her ideas were incredible and when I saw my dress in all it’s glory I couldn’t believe she had designed exactly what I had in mind. Vikki is so, so talented, I’m so glad I was introduced to her because there’s no way I would have been married in my perfect dress without all of her help. I had so many compliments of my dress – thank you so much Vikki!

Thank you Debs! xx

Jo’s dress part 2

This week I received more photos of Jo’s wedding, which included some great action shots! It looks like a really relaxed, beautiful day and I love the bouncy castle and space hopper idea for wedding entertainment.

New Year’s resolution

Happy New Year everyone!

I’m a bit late with my first post of the year. So much for my feeble stab at a New Year’s resolution ‘I shall be more organised’. Hmm, it’s not happening. Maybe next week my new year enthusiasm will kick in? Everyone else seems to be excitedly spring cleaning, starting afresh, feeling motivated and working on new projects, but I’m just feeling sad that the Christmas tree has gone and left a gaping hole and that I don’t have any reason to drink sparking wine any longer.

I love Christmas. I love the lights, colour and warmth and Christmassy smells like cinnamon, mulled wine, chocolate, Christmas trees and cranberries. December has dark nights and cold days but it has a warmth to it, whereas January just feels empty, cold and bleak.

Vlado

 

 

2012 has great potential; doesn’t every year start off this way? I have lots of ideas and I am currently working on some new accessories and a dress design that I will show at the Alternative Wedding Fair at the end of the month. There is a new 2012 wall planner in my studio (part of my attempt to get organised) and my diary gets bigger every year, this year it’s HUGE! But since it’s nearly the weekend, I think I’ll begin my new year resolution next week.

 

 

 

 

Oxford Arts and Crafts Market

So, after all the concern about the weather, Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day! Oxford Arts and Crafts Market went ahead as planned and it was a very successful event, well attended by stallholders and visitors. It was very cold, there was a short hailstorm and a few gusts of wind that rearranged my display somewhat, but no big disaster (like the last time I showed outdoors!). I wrapped up in so many layers that I could barely bend my knees but it kept the cold at bay and taking a piece of carpet to stand on was a brilliant suggestion- it really helped.

There were eight of us showing from the Oxfordshire Craft Guild and there were other artists and makers there that I know from other events and organisations, so it was good fun and a great chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen for a while. Not bad for a day at work!

My new leaf necklaces were particularly popular so I plan to develop the range in the New Year- watch this space.

Winter storms

Over the past few weeks I have been spending much of my time out and about at shows and exhibitions, and finally catching up with friends after a busy year. The shows are now winding down but I have two exhibitions on at the moment and one outdoor market at the weekend with the Oxfordshire Craft Guild- eeeek! Yesterday we had snow, high winds and hail and I hear there is another storm approaching. I hope it passes before Sunday as the last time I exhibited outdoors it was a disaster due to the windy conditions; my butterflies were literally flying away! I shall keep a keen eye on the weather forecast over the next few days.

Beautiful stormy skies- but hopefully it will be bright and calm on Sunday

 

Jenny’s pre-raphaelite, earth goddess dress

Jenny married Rob this summer in a ceremony and party they called ‘Joyfest’. It was a whole weekend of festival style celebrations and sounded so wonderfully laid-back. Jenny gave me a couple of photos to share until the official photos are finished and a wonderful card that is so expressive (I have tried to convey it here, which is quite difficult using a keyboard and regular font/size restrictions).

What Jenny said:

Dear Vikki, this is an extremely belated “Thank you, thank you thank you!” card- I had written you a card B4 the “Joyfest”! but never got it to you so I just wanted to write this card post “joyfest” to say an absolute “heartfelt” thank you for helping to create what Rob described as “A Work of Art”! I felt absolutely wonderful wearing such an amazing, beautiful, special, bloody GORGEOUS dress! I loved it & love it & I had soo many comments about how gorgeous it was & where did I get it!

I now have it hanging in the living room where I can just “STARE” at it & know that I felt the best & most beautiful I could & EVER will! My wonderful garland is sitting in it’s own special place above the fireplace & I long to have the opp to wear it again! Thank you so much Vikki 4 all ur hard work together with Naomi for creating a timeless piece which I shall treasure 4EVA!

I look forward to sharing the photos with you!

Jen xxx                 

Jenny’s dress was a real collaborative project with several of us involved- Jenny of course, me and also Naomi. Naomi and I often work together and have great fun. As well as having a good natter while we work, it is also really helpful to have four hands when handling slippery fabrics! Jenny’s dress was made from a layer of silvery grey taffeta and an overlay of ash (blue-grey) silk chiffon and would have been very difficult to handle alone. It also meant we could each focus on the skills we prefer.

Jenny’s dress features vine embroidery I designed around the hem of the dress and creeping up the back of the puddle train. This was embroidered and then hand painted to produce quite a subtle effect. She also had butterflies and dragonflies in purples, blues and greys scattered over her dress. I made them on brooch pins so that she could remove them afterwards and keep them separately, make them into a collage or wear them as brooches, and they were also sewn to the dress in several places.

I made Jenny’s garland headdress using the same fabric as her dress, wrapped it in ribbon and embellished it with embroidered and hand painted vine leaves, butterflies and dragonflies.

I hope I can share more photos soon, I have seen a sneak peek from her photographer and it was beautiful! x

Autumn leaves

I just love this time of year. I’m not keen on the dark evenings and I often want to hibernate, but I love that feeling I get when I step out into the garden and take a deep breath of crisp autumn air that seems to flood my lungs and fill my head. I really love the beautiful colours of autumn and I especially love the way the birds hop around in the leaves in such a playful manner, flipping the leaves over their heads in search of bugs. It is like Natures last flourish before settling down into hibernation for a few months.

I am constantly amazed by the beauty of nature- it cannot be replicated or surpassed. There is no imagination on earth that could dream up creatures more fascinating, fanciful and ludicrous than some of the underwater creatures I saw on Frozen Planet last week- yet they are real! So why am I inspired to try and create beauty and represent nature in my own way?

Anyway, I have been developing my embroidered and painted leaves for a few years now but recently branched out (pardon the pun) into leaf and berries necklaces, which have so far proven very popular. I hope to make a new batch in the next week ready for my upcoming shows.

 

And I have to add this in whilst on the theme of marvelling at nature…. Today I visited my Grandad (or Pop as us grandkids call him). He is a keen gardener so we wandered around the garden looking at all the flowers still in bloom. But it’s November! And I was wearing shorts! Here is a picture of the most wonderful smelling rose, it smelt just like Turkish Delight.

Jo and her ‘swooshy but not too puffy’ dress

Ok I know I said I’ll try and catch up on things that have happened over the last month or so and I’m probably going to do it all out of sync, but it doesn’t matter, right?

Last week I received a lovely card in the post from one of my most recent customers Jo. She married Toby on 1^st October. Remember that beautiful weekend when temperatures soared and everyone flocked to Devon? Or at least it seemed that was what everyone had done when we were trying to leave Devon on the Sunday afternoon! What a perfect weekend to get married.

Jo’s dress was made from ivory regal silk dupion, with appliqué lace detail and hand crafted flowers and leaves. The flowers were embellished in the centre with pearls and tiny Japanese glass beads and hand painted to give a slight blush colour. The leaves were a pale green colour to add definition and a little colour to the dress.

Jo also wore a hair band that I made using the same style flowers, leaves and lace and additional sprigs of pearls to compliment her dress.

What Jo said:

My dress, my beautiful dress! How can I thank you enough? It looked gorgeous and I felt gorgeous and it had full approval from the groom- I believe his words were “stunning”?

Thank you so much for all your care and hard work. I’m sure I must have been one of your most indecisive customers but I felt that you ‘got me’ and fully understood what I was after even when I didn’t (something swooshy but not too puffy maybe?!) I really did enjoy the whole experience- it is something quite special.

Huge thanks and best wishes, Jo

Thank you Jo and best wishes for a very happy marriage x