Sparkle Studio Chromo Collage Greeting Cards

Over the years I found that I had an affinity for making different kinds of greeting cards. I tried as often as i could to send out handmade cards for the holidays and for birthdays. Working with antique fabrics and trims for as long as I have, I incorporated textile fragments that were too small to make anything else out of, and these even sold fairly well in our antique shop. Because most of what we carried in our shop was of a French origin, I became familiar and knowledgable with chromolithography. This was a technique of art reproduction used widely in 19th c. France among other places that allowed a larger number of reproductions to be made with out the tedious element of handcoloring. Artists who traveled abroad to document other people, botanicals, animals etc., were able to share images of their journeys with a wider number of people. Also, figures and flowers were reproduced to be used by young girls as sort of paper dolls, for them to create their own fantasy world.

I bought a cache of smaller sized chromos at a flea market next to Versailles, figurines, flowers & animals, and most seemed to be from the late 19th century. This small collection has been a constant source of inspiration for me, and incorporating them into my greeting card designs was one outlet. As can be seen here, I am currently working on reproducing images from my collection and placing them on backdrops of either real settings for a slightly surreal effect, and placing them on a fabric background. I plan to make them in limited numbers, and they will be available for purchase at Sparkle Studio.

Les Souvenirs de Mer & Memories of Childhood Shell Collecting

Inkwell Souvenir, French ca. 1900

Souvenirs de Mer were very popular travel mementos in the early 1900s, especially in France. When visiting a coastal town one would be able to purchase these small handmade items which would have the name of the town inscribed somewhere on it. These could be purchased reasonably and took the shape of inkwells, salt and pepper holders, napkin rings and small jewelry boxes.

It seems to me in the sense of travelling souvenirs somewhat of a continuation of the Victorian Sailor Valentine (pictured below) that were purchased on long sea trips and brought back to their loved ones. The octagonal shape is representational of the Valentines of the time, this one is from Barbados ca. 1865 which would have been made by a local artist. These of course were much more intricate, but would have certainly brought something "exotic" back from abroad.


I know that my deep connection with shells started when I was very young. Growing up in Hawaii my sister and I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents on Maui. Their house a stone's throw away from the ocean, and my grandfather being a fisherman, I developed an almost focused obsession with combing the beaches for shells, broken glass and driftwood. My grandfather collected shells as well as glass balls in rope nets used as fishing flotation by the Japanese boats. My grandmother also picked shells with my sister and I, and my mom's younger brother had an affinity for driftwood and unusually shaped rocks. As you can imagine this created quite the collection of objects at their house! My collection is still there and probably needs a bit of sorting through after years of storage.

I am currently very busy working on shell projects so I am still amongst them, and I have my own collection of shell mirrors and boxes too. I also have a very charming example of Souvenir de Mer: a wonderful pair of small handpainted conch shell lamps from the Italian Coastal town of Rivazzurra, ca. 1940...love them!

La Maison Picassiette, A True Inspiration

I will be mentioning this house repeatedly in the future, because La Maison Picassiette is an incredible example of creative expression reaching and surpassing the point of obsession. Located in Chartres (yes, the cathedral), about 50 miles southwest of Paris, this very quaint house was owned by built in the 1930s by Raymond Isadore for himself and his new wife Adrienne who happened to be a widow 10 years older than him and with 3 children. In the later part of the decade he began decorating the house with mosaics of broken pottery, glass & china. Over the next 20 years he would leave not one spot of the house uncovered with his art: tables, chairs, beds, the stove, the walls, everything. For me it seems clear that this was some extremely strong religious calling, since there are crosses and religious imagery everywhere, and the garden includes an amazing depiction of the town of Chartres, complete with the cathedral at the top of the hill. Amazing.
*Source: The Joy of Shards site.

Fabric Can Drastically Change A Window, And A Room...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! Looking through my portfolio again, and looking through my collection of antique fabrics coordinating various pieces for my upcoming collection of purses and totebags, I came upon some photos I took at the residence of Sandy, one of my favorite clients from over the years. Helping her rework some of the draperies I had made out of various French fabrics from the time of Napoleon III, I created this window treatment for her bedroom. I consider her bold in her love for those French fabrics that incorporated both reds and blacks, very typical of this time period. I would say that there are a total of five different fabrics in this treatment, and the combination is a sophisticated statement which I love. All I really did here to make the drapes and swags from her previous house work here was to lengthen the side panels and add on to the swag fabrics. I installed 3 French curtain brackets above the window and set on it a faux tortoise bamboo pole, the antique finials on which ended up the only elements visible. I worked my swagging magic to create as much of a sense of symmetry as possible, using hidden saftey pins to hold my arrangement in place. Using antique French corded tassles that had previously been used as tiebacks, I hung them from the bamboo pole as decorative accents that altogether resulted in a richly colorful window treatment the client was extremely happy with.

For the love of French homespun linen, part 1...

This may very well be the first of several posts on my feelings towards homespun linen over the course of this blog. My experience with it over the years of having a shop where we specialized in French textiles, and being exposed to the weight, weave and texture of this fabric, has made it my very favorite textile. I was first introduced to it by my uncle's then wife who is French and is responsible for exposing me to the world of antique textiles in the first place. We bought and sold the large sheets, some of which had monograms in red. There would be a small hand embroidered monogram in one of the corners, not more than a square inch or so, or there would be a large monogram/double monogram in the lower center of the sheet with one letter on each side of the seam. Most of these sheets would only be about 76" wide, comprised of two approximately 36-38" wide lengths hand sewn together. This hem that ran down the sheet (which varied from 76 - 116" in length), was sewn in such a way that it would be nearly impossible for the two lengths to become separated. The hemp 'threads' as you will were more like jute string, and the stitches so close and tight together, that even with a seam ripper the task, should one want to separate the panels to put the fabric to some other use, is extremely tedious. The strength of the stitching is very much successful in keeping the sheet in tact for a very long time...

Shown here is one of the ways we put this incredible fabric to use, as custom draperies for a client's pool house. The challenge of this job was not the actual sewing - just some hemming at the bottom to accommodate the height of the rod - but having enough sheets in a similar enough color to use together, side by side. We needed a total of 8 sheets, and with working with such an organic, natural fabric, color tones of the sheets varied from a subtle off-white/sand to an almost camel/tan/wheat color. Here the beauty of using homespun linen as drapes can be seen in the way this fabric hangs, the texture of the weave filtering the sunlight, the contrast to the Spanish style wrought iron rods/brackets/finials, all working together to produce a wonderful effect and ambiance.