An artisan jewelry journey in color, texture and fun. Beaded jewelry with handcrafted sterling silver is my focus and joy.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

What the heck.....



....is this? a trivet? what? Well, it's a nifty little item that I custom-requested from one of the best Etsy artists ever - dottyral. She was so great in pulling together my brain-child. A very fun project.

So here's what it really is. Let's start with the "brain-child." I have forever had an issue with the storage of my pins and brooches - they are awkward shapes, I don't like having them on top of each other to get all scratched, and it seemed like the pinbacks were getting duller and duller. And I wanted something attractive, too, for display of my pins so I would more easily access them and choose to wear them.



Then, last week, I came across these oh-so-cute pincushions in Dotty's shop, and I got an inspiration! You see, Dotty often makes an extra cushion for her pincushions just like the classic "strawberry" on top of the "tomato" that I am sure you are all familiar with. Here, it's the cherry on the cupcake. These smaller cushions are filled with a corundum sand called "emery" that serves to sharpen pins and needles.


Ah-hah, I thought - I need an emery cushion large enough to hold all my brooches! But how do you make a big cushion that won't be all sloppy and heavy? So, I contacted Dotty, and we came up with this idea of a slotted pad, to keep the emery to a minimum, and Dotty figured out how to fill and sew the slots together, creating the pad you see at the top of the page.



When it arrived today, I hopped over to Michael's to get a frame on sale, stapled the emery pad into the frame, and voila - the perfect display for all my pins, with the added bonus of a sharpened pinback every time I put the piece away after wearing.




So you decide: isn't this the greatest idea? I am sure Dotty would make one for you, too. Etsy artists are the greatest - thanks, Dotty!

7 comments:

Dotty said...

Oh my gosh. I love the way it looks! Great job! It was so fun to work with you! Thanks for the feature!

that's Headley! Jewelry Designs said...

It was great working with you, too, Dotty - and I agree with Erin, it IS fabulous!

Ravenswick said...

That is so creative plus it makes a beautiful display for your brooches. You both are so talented!

Sarah J. said...

With all the pins in place, it really does look like art! What a great idea!

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful, effective idea. Congrats to both of you for coming up with it. I also love to see etsy artisans working together and supporting each other.

magpie said...

absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

Anonymous said...

This is inventive - and I've Cyber-Tagged you. You can read about it and see if you want to participate at my blog.