Handbag Chain Emergency!!!

Hoping one of you lovely craft people can help me!!!

I'm absolutely desperate for somewhere I can get 45" handbag chain - my usual supplier is out of stock and I need about 10 chains by Friday!

I've searched all the usual places without success, any ideas would be much appreciated!!!

Nightmare!!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

My New Bags!!

I'm so excited to finally introduce you all to my new bags!  They've been a little while coming but they're ready and waiting to go now!

A little while ago I started making metal-framed clutches, they've proved to be really popular but a lot of people were put off buying them because they didn't trust themselves not to lose a clutch, and would really prefer an over-the-shoulder bag.  I must admit I found it a bit frustrating, as it makes the ranges more complicated to start offering variations, but now - problem solved!!  Yes, the new Lucy Liz bags are both a shoulder bag AND a clutch - everyone's a winner!!

And here it is!  This bag is my favourite so far, stunning images of vintage Paris with a brushed bronze frame.  As you can see there's a good long chain handle (45" to be precise), and not only does the chain un-clip from the bag but the hoops fold away so you're left with a clutch bag, only without the empty loops.

Chuffed to pieces with these, they had their first run with the public yesterday and went down so well, I have high hopes!!

Now going to try and link into Wendy's fabulous Handmade Monday blog, fingers crossed!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

Inspiration at Seek and Adore

Seek and Adore is a fabulous site, dedicated to finding and promoting distinctive and unusual handmade products.  I was lucky enough to be invite to sell with Seek and Adore back in April and I'm so pleased to see it getting such great publicity, it deserves it!

Anyways,  Dominic Lutyens writes about contemporary art and fashion for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Elle Decoration, and he has picked the pieces he adores from the designer makers at Seek and Adore.

Take a look, you might recognise some of the products he chose! 

 http://www.seekandadore.com/GetInspired.aspx

Britain's Best Unique Seller 2011

After months of knitting, stitching, photographing and listing I've finally got my shop on Frooly finished! It's a great site from a company based in Sheffield, I met these guys at the British Craft Trade Show this year and was happy to sign up to sell with them. It's great to see hand-made being marketed as unique and fashionable rather than "craft" as so many places do!!

And here's the begging part...I'd be so greatful if you guys could head over to Frooly and vote for me as Britain's Best Unique Seller! It's real simple, just click on this linkand choose to "Become a Fan" at the top of my page that's it! And just for voting, you could win a £500 shopping spree - who doesn't need that on the run-up to Christmas!

Make sure you all take a look at the other products on there too, it's a real Aladin's cave!

I'm also hoping that I've finally managed to link through to Wendy's fabulous Handmade Monday on her 1st Unique Gifts blog...let's see!

The Handmade In Britain Daily

Just a quickie in between re-threading the sewing machine...

So pleased to see Lucy Liz mentioned on the front page of The Handmade In Britain Daily this week!! For those who've not seen this fabulous online paper yet, check it out here! http://paper.li/handmadebritain/1307318293

www.lucyliz.co.uk

Another Blog Feature

Must say another enormous Thank You to Linda for featuring more Lucy Liz products in her Blog!

Check our Linda's blog dedicated to all things Folksy! http://myblogfinallymadeit.blogspot.com/2011/10/scarves-handmade-folksy.html

How utterly rubbish am I? There I was, all full of blogging-beans, and what happened?! Must keep on top of this - must do better!!

Thought today I'd introduce you all to my litle clutch bags. As a lot of you know my "speciality" is felting, but I'm also such a massive fan of surface design and print, so when I came across these fabrics I just thought it would be criminal not to use them!!!

In the range so far we've got newspaper-print, animal prints, butterflies, birds, landmarks...there's definitely something for everyone in the range and it's getting bigger by the day!!

Most of you won't know that I actually made clutches a few years ago, but the biggest development - which has definitely been a change for the better - is the addition of the metal top frame. They've given my bags a stability and professional finish that I just wasn't able to achieve with my original bags, and you can't go wrong with a bit of shine huh!!!

Whilst the outsides of the bags are cotton, I've of course lined them with felt (couldn't leave it out now could I?!) for a good, long lasting bag that'll be with you for all occassions.

www.lucyliz.co.uk

Finally Made It Blog

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Linda who featured a Lucy Liz clutch bag in her fabulous blog this week!  For those who didn't see my links over on Facebook, take a look here: http://myblogfinallymadeit.blogspot.com/2011/09/moody-blue-handmade-folksy.html

Linda has a great blog dedicated to showcasing the hand-made goodies she finds on Folksy.  I think it's a wonderful idea, us handmade-ers need as much promo as we can get so it's brilliant to have people like Linda paying attention to our work and sharing it with the world!

Long may it continue!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

All You Need Is Love!

As well as the bigger pieces I make, I always like to have a good range of little "bits"...I'm sure everyone knows we're not in the best of times financially so I like to have a selection of little somethings for people to treat themselves (or others) to - we might all be skint but we all still deserve a little pressie every now and then!! 

My favourite of my little somethings is my love heart brooches.  There are two types, some entirely felt, and some felt and fabric, in lots of prints and colours so there's something for everyone.  And of course, no product of mine is complete without a button or several! ;-)

I love the felt hearts, I'm such a felt fan anyway and it really lends itself to being cut and manipulated when I stuff the hearts.  Style-wise I'm so pleased with these but if I'm to continue them I must learn to blanket stitch faster!!  They take forever!!!

The other batch are these fabric ones - fabric on the front, felt on the back, and they actually match my fabric clutch bag range (which, unless you've checked my Facebook or website you won't have seen yet!)  These are cut using those zig-zag scissors -  I want to call them pinking shears (spelling?!) but that reminds me of sometheing you'd use in gardening...anyways, that's what I use, and they're very effective but my goodness are they heavy!  I might be able to make the products quicker but I always have to allow for the time lost to hand cramp!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

British Summertime - Was That It?!

Well, blinked and you missed it, I think that's our summer been and gone!  I vaguely remember a weekend of tanning back in April but I think that was about it...time to be getting out the winter accessories!

Personally I love Autumn / Winter, I love the colours, the textiles, and all that wool!!  This is the time of year when I really get busy with my scarves, lots more selling and promoting, and inevitably a lot more knitting!  I actually knit all year round so I'm sure picking up the pace won't be too much hassle!

So I thought I'd introduce you all to my scarf range...there's 10 in the range in total (must get the last one on my site!), all with their own vivid colour palates, there's certainly something for everyone.  They're chunky too, I always say if you're going to wear an accessory then wear it loudly, for everyone to notice. 

You might be wondering about the names too...well, I'm really not very good at naming things, can never settle on the perfect one which results in a lot of wasted hours.  Girls names seemed like a good choices so I looked around and apparently the answer was staring me in the face.  My Mum, Ruth, is one of 8 children, 6 of whom are girls so that was Patti (actually Patsy), Lizzy, Katie, Anne, Maggie and Ruth sorted.  Grace, Rebecca and Samantha (the missing scarf!) are three of my cousins, and Helen is my best friend, though incidently I also have a cousin called Helen, so it's quite a family affair!!!

Think I've done enoug talking about them - go have a look!!!  http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/scarves.html

Just a VERY quick note...

Just a quick shout to all you jewellers out there...I'm having a major clearout of a lot of materials and at the moment I've got a ton beads on Ebay as job lots.  There's gemstones, pearls, shells, plastic...all brand new, just no longer needed.

Here's a link to one of the auctions, make sure you take a minute to look at the others!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330607969698?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Where it all began...

Seeing as I'm wanting you all to follow my blog and my work, I thought you might be interested to know how my little business came to be...

I've always been an arty one, for as long as I can remember, I vividly remember being about 6 and making handbags using paper and a stapler (and whilst my materials may have become more sophisticated, I can tell you that the methods aren't too dissimilar!).  I've always had a love of product, so apart from the period when I was determined to be a colouring-in person for Walt Disney it was probably inevitable that I'd end up with a product-based business.

I attended Cleveland College of Art and Design where I studied Design Crafts before moving on to my degree.  We covered a lot of disciplines there, which was great and gave me a lot of skills but it's also very confusing and I left with no clear idea of my niche and what my "thing" was - on a Monday I'd be making sterling silver jewellery, Tuesday I'd be preparing porcelain for the kiln, Wednesday I'd be fixing fabric dyes and working on the sewing machine...I didn't have a clue what I was meant to be doing.

I played around for a long time but the one discipline I continued to come back to was textiles, particulary felting.  Felt is a great material, hand-made felt is so tactile and so many colours and effects can be achieved, whilst "bought in" felt is just so practical, fantastic for linings.  And so it began!  I started to hand-felt my own bags, with handles that attached to either side (much like my stapled ones!).  I also started needle felting which is time-consuming but I love it - it allows me to be extremely precise, which the OCD streak in me loves!  To the bags I added large vintage buttons and lined them with strong felt, which actually was the beginning of my next product - large flower corsages.  I can't stand waste (nor can I afford it) so I was keen to make products using the scraps of felt left over from cutting the linings.  

Personally I love the corsages, they're real big and I treat them so they're stiff and hold the curves of the flower shape.  Each flower has a vintage button centre making them truly unique.  They've proved popular too!!!

I think that's probably enough for now, will be back shortly to share some more of my products with you!  Good night all!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

WELCOME!!

Welcome to the new Lucy Liz Blog!!!  For someone who talks as much as I do I struggle to remember to write my blogs, so I hearby swear to keep you all updated with the goings on here at Lucy Liz HQ!

For those that don't already know, here's a little something about who we are and what we do...my name is Lucy Elizabeth (hence Lucy Liz!) and I design and make a range of textile accessories - handbags, clutch bags, badges, scarves...you name it, it can usually be done. Most of my products are made from wool or handmade felt, though I've recently put together a range of clutch bags using some fabulous novelty fabrics...but that's a blog of it's own. 

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have something of a passion/obsession with buttons.  Big buttons, small buttons, any type of buttons I LOVE them!  So buttons feature in all of my products, sometimes obviously, sometimes not, but they're always there.

I think that'll do for now!  Plenty going on here so won't be too long until the next update I'm sure...