Fashion

I have always wanted to make my own faux magazine style pages, so after shopping with Suz yesterday, I photoshopped together some items I’d found to make a little joke spread ;)

Faux magazine spread by sabatomic

Writing fake magazine copy brings me so much amusement :D That’s a real quote by the way! Click on the image to view it larger.

Credits: Dress and shoes from Forever New, garland from Sportsgirl, rose stock courtesy of Free Nature Pictures.

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Alannah Hill discount store minihaul

by Sab on November 5, 2011

I was pleasantly surprised to find these two Alannah Hill items at the “Clear it!” discount outlet in Claremont.  The first item is a cream blouse, I figured I could wear it both at work and play, so it would get a lot of wear.

The shot above was inspired by countless wedding dress photos I have seen where white dresses are hung up against a window :D As an aside, wedding photography is fascinating to me because it has a lot of elements within it; product showcasing of clothing / jewellery is one of the many facets. But back to the blouse, here’s a closeup of the bow I attempted:

The ruffles on the shirt taper down from the bow in gentle folds.

The buttons on the blouse are hidden from view beneath folds of ruffle, however they are view-worthy:

I also adore the intricate lace detailing on the sleeves.

The second item I purchased were black lace shoes, also Alannah Hill, and also with bows. The lace shoes are semi-transparent as evidenced in the photographs below.

I actually didn’t plan to buy these, the friendly shop assistant gave them to me to try on with some dresses and I ended up buying the shoes and not the dresses!

I have to confess that I’m not much of a shoe-girl, but these were so pretty that I had to have them. The current “black heel” in my wardrobe will be displaced by this pair.

I really love the gently tapered shape in the profile view of the heel. As a girl with larger legs, this looks far better on me than the thin stiletto shape that is so popular.  The shape in the toe of the shoe is perfect for my feet; the gently pointed shape helps to make my broad, rectangular feet appear slightly more feminine!

I noticed that there’s no discount Dangerfield items at the clearance store, I asked the girl working there about it. She said that for some reason, all of the Dangerfield overstock is sent back to Melbourne. Alannah Hill and Dangerfield are sold together at the Clear it outlet in Brunswick street in Melbourne so I was hoping that we’d have the same thing in Perth, but I guess not :( There does appear to be an online shop for all the Clear It overstock clothing though…

Hope you enjoyed this post, being on uni holidays means that I have time for things other than just eating :)

Expect more non-food related posts in the near future!

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Laser Cut Jewellery – Part 2

by Sab on February 14, 2011

This post concentrates on custom made goods, rather than premade designs, so if you’ve always wanted your own name, netspeak, an unpronounceable jumble of letters or some expletive hanging around your neck, you’re in luck!

Customised designs

For custom acrylic lasercut nameplates, try the personalised designs from Sugar and Vice, based in the UK. Sarah and Matt have a variety of designs, fonts and colours to choose from. If these do not tickle your fancy, they are happy to create completely custom acrylic jewellery to your own specifications. They also have interesting non-personalised merchandise: I was very amused to find necklaces that reference phrases from Big Bang Theory and IT Crowd.

Sugar and Vice - Double Layered Mirrored Custom Necklace

Sugar and Vice - Double Layered Mirrored Custom Necklace

Sugar and Vice - Custom Mirror Necklace

Sugar and Vice - Custom Mirror Necklace

NB’s closet is another option based in the US. They create customisable nameplates for necklaces as well as custom nameplate knuckle dusters and custom nameplate earrings! NB’s closet also sells non-custom acrylic and wood lasercut pendants: I have my eye on this deer necklace, and these cool Pretendo and 8-bit necklaces.

NBs Closet - Barbie Font Custom Mirror Necklace

NBs Closet - Barbie Font Custom Mirror Necklace

For somewhere close to home, Cupcakes and mace is a viable option, as they are based in Wellington, NZ. They offer 4 different fonts but contact the sellers for more details if you do not like these, as they have other fonts available. Cupcakes and mace also offer a variety of other premade pendants.

Cupcakes and Mace

Cupcakes and Mace

Completely custom woodcuts

Meanwhile, if you wish to have a design of someone’s head laser cut into an engraved wood pendant or brooch, look no further than VectorCloud on Etsy. VectorCloud also provides a variety of beautiful wood pendants such as a cute hot air balloon and a customisable camera necklace where you can slot your own photo into the lens part!

VectorCloud - Camera necklace

VectorCloud - Camera necklace

VectorCloud - Head Engraving

VectorCloud - Head Engraving

VectorCloud - Dog Engraving

VectorCloud - Adorable Dog Engraving!

Bulk laser cutting services

Hypothetical: you’re interested in designing and selling your own pendants, and either do not know anyone with a laser cutter or are not game enough to approach a local laser cutting company that appears to be geared heavily toward production of industrial materials. You could try Ponoko. Ponoko not only has a variety of materials and tutorials to help you through the process, it also offers the ability to set up an online shop and sell your own custom-designed jewellery.

I’ve found two more sites which allow you to produce batches of your own, custom designed laser cut pendants: Cut Your Way and Zap Creatives.

Cut Your Way, which offers free shipping to the US and Canada, has a range of materials available including some unique glitter acrylics and an impressive range of specialty woods, as well as stencil mylars, which would be ideal for craft projects and wall stippling.

Cut Your Way

Cut Your Way

Zap Creatives, based in the UK, offers a range of acrylics for laser cutting, including mirrored acrylics in almost every colour you can imagine as well as specialty acrylic such as this funky, retro space invaders pattern. What makes Zap Creatives particularly interesting is that they provide the ability to create ”charms” which are coloured designs printed onto acrylic pendants, whereas the majority of other sites I have found offer only cutting and engraving.

Zap Creatives

Zap Creatives

So that’s all I have. I hope these two posts were interesting or helpful, this is the kind of post I would have liked to have had when I was trying to find sellers of laser cut jewellery and then was curious about the possibility of making my own. I trawled through pages of designs on etsy and google searches to put this together!

See also: Laser Cut Jewellery – Part 1

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Laser Cut Jewellery – Part 1

by Sab on January 28, 2011

I have had my black acrylic “Wtf” necklace from sickforcute for almost a year and it is one of my favourite necklaces. I have been hunting around for similarly awesome statement pieces – specifically laser cut pendant jewellery. I found so many pieces I liked that I decided to put my favourite ones together into a post.

Laser cut jewellery

Finest Imaginary (also available on Etsy and some on Sick for Cute) was the beginning of my laser cut obsession. They have a range of whimsical, polished laser cut designs at exceedingly reasonable prices. There are net-speak necklaces featuring acronyms such as “wtf” and “lol” in stylish font as well as a handful of adorable wood cuts and other cute things. I especially love this etched clear acrylic science beaker and flask necklaces, they remind me of the good old days in our high school science labs.

Finest Imaginary - Science Beaker and Flask

Finest Imaginary - Science Flask (left) and Beaker (right)

When I found the gothic stainless steel designs at Fable and Fury (also on Etsy), my jaw dropped. These polished, gothic, stainless steel laser cut designs feature ravens, owls, stag, locks and flourishes reminiscent of victorian wallpaper. Many of them are versatile pieces that are not limited to gothic outfits and could be worn with almost anything, eg. this two-headed fawn design and these jackalope earrings (they describe the jackalope as a cross between a pygmy deer and killer rabbit!). I personally love the look of silver stainless steel; their metal designs are also available in black and red.

Fable And Fury Two Headed Deer and Jackalope

Fable And Fury Two Headed Deer and Jackalope

If you like the idea of Alice in WonderlandMarine Antoinetteshipspeacock feathers and nature-inspired designs, go no further than Untamed Menagerie. On their etsy, they mention that there has been a recent influx of orders – given how pretty everything looks, this surge in popularity is unsurprising. This shop features a variety of beautifully intricate, silhouetted designs that are striking statement pieces that you’ll want to own.

Untamed Menagerie - Marine Antoinette Silhouette

Untamed Menagerie - Marine Antoinette Silhouette

Untamed Menagerie - Ship

Untamed Menagerie - The Seas Be Ours

As someone who’s dabbled briefly in graphic design, the stylings of plastique really grabbed me. Helvetica is my favourite font and what better way to show it than a necklace that says helvetica in the font helvetica? You also need to check out their detailed white-etch on black acrylic retro tape and boom box designs.

Plastique - Helvetica necklace

Plastique - Helvetica necklace

Plastique - tape

Plastique - tape

I found a Mac cursor brooch whilst browsing through the delightfully quirky wood laser cut creations from bRainbow. I would totally dig it as a gigantic hair clip. This appears to be a very new shop (opened in December 2010) – I hope it sticks around, I’m curious to see what else they have to offer.

bRainbow - Mac Cursor Brooch

bRainbow - Mac Cursor Brooch

And lastly, if you are not afraid to literally wear your opinion on your chest, Lazy Oaf’s U Suck necklace may be exactly what you’ve been looking for ;)

Check out Ponoko’s 100 lasercut designers for even more laser cut jewellery suggestions. I did not see that post until after I found these sellers… unfortunate as most of them feature on that page and would have saved me a lot of time browsing the internet!

If you like laser cut jewellery but want something a little more personal, stay tuned for Laser cut jewellery: Part 2.

See also: Laser Cut Jewellery – Part 2

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