Old Britain Castles English Transferware

One of my favorite china patterns to work with is Johnson Bros Old Britain Castles (this was also the china pattern of the necklace I made that was featured in Country Living magazine last month.) Here are a few favorite jewelry pieces that I have created from this classic pattern.

Pin brooch with crystals and glass pearls

Teacup and saucer

Necklace pendant

Matching necklaces...great for sisters, best friends, mother/daughters.

Matching pendants

Necklace

Cereal bowl

Pin brooch with crystals and freshwater pearls

Bowl

Sugar bowl with lid

Heart shaped necklace pendant

Necklace made from the rim of the plate

I'm in Country Living Magazine!

I am thrilled to announce that Country Living magazine contacted me and asked to feature one of my necklaces in the October 2011 issue! Be sure to check it out! "Fresh Picks: Statement Jewelry" page 32

October 2011 Country Living magazine cover

Country Living magazine chose to feature this piece, which I created from a broken antique plate.

Page 32, Fresh Picks: Statement Jewelry

I Was Once Broken... Jewelry Made From Broken Calendar Plates

Jewelry made from antique broken calendar plates...

Antique calendar plate from 1909 with lots of damage

I have a great love for these old advertising calendar plates...they seem to be one of those things that combine everything that I love in one package: it's a plate, it's old, it's got a beautiful floral transferware design on it...but most especially, it marks a certain point in time. In this case, 1909.

Let's see...in 1909 a newspaper cost 1 cent, coffee was 20 cents a pound, (tea was $1 for 2 lbs, by the way), and a pair of children's shoes cost about $1.50! Hershey bars were 2 cents, but they were a lot smaller than today's 1.65 oz, weighing in at 9/16 oz! To put things a bit more into perspective, the average wage was 22 cents per hour, and the average worker made about $350 a year. We can only wonder what things will be like 100 years from now...

Cracked antique calendar plate from 1909

William Carlos Williams published his first book of poetry in 1909, and Pablo Picasso first began dabbling in cubism...

Necklace that I hand crafted from a broken 1909 calendar plate (sold)

Pin brooch I handcrafted from 1909 calendar plate (sold)








Here are a few necklaces that I just made from the broken plate shown above:





September 1909 available here





September 1909 available here





November 1909 necklace available here





November 1909 necklace available here






What do you think? Do you like these?

Refreshed

So glad to be back to my little blog and working again - this winter I made like a bear and hibernated most of the season...but am back with lots of new pretty things and a refreshed Etsy store with tons of new stock! (Check it out below!)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Note the new Etsy store name - missing the letter "a" in Dishfunctional - but alas, Etsy only allows so many character spaces for shop names....so I am without the a, but still dishfunctional if even now more so...

I actually had one of the very first shops on Etsy way way back when they first began. At the time, I had been a steady eBay seller for many years (I started selling my broken china jewelry on eBay in 1999) Since then, I've amassed over 5,000 positive eBay feedback - the number they show is 3,788 give or take a few, as ebay no longer counts additional feedback from returning customers - a bummer for sellers, but what can you do?

In any case, I closed my Etsy store after the first year, as I found I was spreading myself too thin, trying to supply both eBay and Etsy with new stock on a constant basis. Now times have changed. I've found the handcrafted market on eBay to be too ...well, too complicated. Fees and rules are always changing, I get phone messages on my answering machine from eBay associates trying to sell me new features, etc etc... I figure it this way, life is hard enough, why complicate things? I'm still a registered eBay seller - I haven't cut the cord completely, but am definitely shying away from the eBay marketplace. My new items will now be listed on etsy on a regular basis!