Floral Fantasy

It has been some time since my last blog post - mainly due to many months designing and finishing my 2011 collection. For a long time now I have been planning to merge my life-long love of flowers and my accessory design - which has resulted in a brand new, fresh collection of florals for Rose Garden Accessories.

During the design process, I have often spent hours and hours searching for suitable floral components to use in my designs, I know what I want, but finding it has proved impossible. Once in a while I would find a picture of a gorgeous, 'handmade' flower that I thought looked perfect to use in my designs, only to buy it and be bitterly disappointed when the package finally arrived - mass produced, glued together flowers with plastic components - more often than not just heads cut from the inexpensive bunches of artificial flowers you might find in a garden centre.

So the next step for me, being a creative soul, was to make my own flowers. This process started not months ago, but years - and although I never thought it would be easy, it has taken much longer to perfect the skills needed than I first thought - but when something is worth doing, its worth doing well.

I have learned about fabric - chiffons, silks, organza, satin, velvet and all the variations thereon. Some fabrics drape better than others, some are softer, the processes of stiffening and preparation, bias cutting and which fabrics are suitable for tooling.

I have learned about shaping fabric - using heated tools, crinkling, curling, cupping, and even using a flame.

I have learned about sewing - one thing I was determined to avoid was using glue on any of my flowers - so through trial and error I learned about sewing - and a surprise to me was that a past hobby of cross stitch came in very handy for some of the methods I use!

So every fabric flower I now make has every petal prepared, cut, tooled, shaped and sewn individually - a long process indeed, but in my opinion, worth it. Finally I have the flowers I wanted.

White Silk Rose

Silk Ranunculus

Ivory Chiffon Bloom

Silver Double Headband

Red & Black Hair Flower

It never fails to amaze me what can be done with a piece of fabric, and some sparkly bits and pieces. The following is a preview of some of the flowers I have made recently for bespoke items, and as part of bigger pieces..

I now suspect that my life-long love of flowers has blossomed into a rest-of-my-life-long love of making flowers.

Diana
Rose Garden Accessories

A new blog on the block

I am delighted to share with you my new venture - a specialist blog dedicated to all things sparkly.  I have joined forces with seven of the best accessory and jewellery designers in the business, and together we aim to bring information, help, how-to guides, inspiration and of course the odd sparkly secret to our readers. And not to mention lots of special offers and the latest news in the sparkly world.

But do I hear you cry: "but aren't you competitors?" and "why promote each other's work?" - good question, and the answer is simple. In recent years, the bridal jewellery and accessories business has become huge, as the ease in which creative people can open a web based shop or sell through established sites, and hobbies morph into a way to make much needed extra money.

Now, tastes become ever more individual, brides are more discerning and spoilt for choice - but with all the pieces and styles to choose from, people are becoming ever more baffled at the sheer amount of jewellery and accessories to choose from.

As the designers who write for Sparkles & Secrets primarily design bridal items, to compete against each other in this competitive market would only add to the confusion and bombard the bride with one particular style when there are enough to choose from that the bride should always end up with the exact piece she has had her heart set on.  So by working together with the customer's satisfaction the utmost concern, we hope to make the process of choosing jewellery and accessories a pleasant, informed and enjoyable experience.

So take a look at Sparkles & Secrets today at www.tiarablog.co.uk.  There are lots of blog entries on many different accessory and jewellery related subjects, there is a section with our specially selected Christmas Gift Ideas, and Ask the Expert facility to put your question to our 7 experts, and special offers, which will constantly be updated from each designer.

We love to get feedback too - if there is a particular subject you would like us to cover, just get in touch!

Brides At Work - Get Involved!

The National Wedding Show's charity initiative - Brides at Work in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer - is now less than two months away and will take place on Friday 17th September.

Brides at Work is open to all and everyone is encouraged to get involved.  For anyone whose wedding dress is languishing in the attic lovingly packed in a suitcase, this is the perfect opportunity to retrieve it and give it a well derserved outing!  Of course if you don't want to wear your dress, or simply don't have one, don't worry - there are plenty of other options!

Rose Garden Accessories have produced an official Brides at Work limited edition Princess Crown - a sparkling and striking traditional tiara in soft pink finished with a Swarovski crystal embellished ribbon.  There is also the limited edition Candy Stripe Headband - an adorable braided headband in candy shades of pink satin, cotton and cord and also finished with the crystal embellished ribbon.  Each of these headpieces is only £9.99!

Diamon'T has designed the official Brides at Work limited edition designer T-shirt, that holds the distinct 'Brides at Work' logo embellished on the front of the T-shirt in dazzling diamante for a glitzy item of clothing to wear on 17th September in support of this great charity event.  The T-shirts are available in both black and white and a range of sizes - and also at just £9.99!

Rose Garden Accessories and Diamon'T will be donating 10% per headpiece and T-shirt sold to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.  Over 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.  Breakthrough Breast Cancer is a pioneering charity dedicated to saving lives and changing futures through research, campaigning and education - removing the fear of breast cancer for good.

Be a part of Brides at Work on 17th September to help raise vital funds to help beat this disease.

For more information, visit www.breakthrough.org.uk/bridesatwork and www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk

Alice in Wonderland

In honour of the eagerly awaited Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie, Rose Garden Accessories launches its new collection of inspired pieces. The signature piece in the collection is the Queen of Hearts Crown. This piece was inspired by the Red Queen’s bold red and gold flavour, with a touch of Tim Burton’s gothic, with fine gold woven wire brought to life with deep red Swarovski crystals and hearts.

The White Queen choker, with matching bracelet and earrings, was inspired by the ethereal “White Queen” (Anne Hathaway), made from Swarovski white pearls and crystals. Elegant and sophisticated, and slightly daring.

Rose Garden’s collection would be incomplete without its signature flower. The collection’s Wonderland Wild Flowers celebrate the “Flower Garden”. The first is a rich blend of red and gold handwired into an exquisitely pretty 3d flower and mounted on a hair pin. There is also a ghostly, gothic silver and white flower made using the same technique.

See the collection here!

Welcome to Rose Garden Accessories!

Welcome to the blog from Rose Garden Accessories. Here I will share with you the latest accessory trends, celebrity wedding style, and indulge in all things gorgeous.