"Cabinet" photographs - coming to a tarot deck near you soon.

Called in to see our friend Dita (please DO visit her shop if you are in Prague - I will add the link when I can find it) and picked up two incredible and very old pieces of hand-embroidered fabric. Which this time I WILL post pictures of (once it's dry - I handwashed it carefully as we try to clean everything before use). The fabric is VERY old, and maybe too fragile to use more than one section of one piece - it's SO very beautiful though. Anyway, just for interest, here is one of the cabinet cards we just bought.It's Viennese, and we've been speculating about the relationship of the two girls. They are dressed identically, but they obviously aren't twins. Sisters? Two friends in school uniform (did mid-19th century uniform look like that?) Well, who can say? We are using a lot of these cabinet photographs as one of the major sources for the deck imagery. They may end up looking very different by the time they are incorporated, but they have an authenticity that we just couldn't get by drawing from scratch. As Alex says, somehow people had different faces then (or is it different hair and expressions that make it seem so?) We nearly have all the imagery we need - I think we have plans for about 70 of the cards now. But there are always a few that are hard - and of course we tend to see alternative images as we go along so sometimes there are changes. I am loving making this deck - it has a tremendous atmosphere I think:

Bag plans, bag plots, recycling and angsting

So, now that we have a heap of local vintage folk-costume fabric (I would feel like a vandal but we only buy things that are a bit damaged or otherwise not completely usable - though this did not stop one friend from shrieking in horror at the idea that we'd cut old folk aprons for our embroidered bags - and then buying two :) ) I have to work out what to do with it. So here is a quiz - what do you think these are going to be? They are old silk on cotton folk ribbons. You can buy these nowadays, but they are always synthetic and usually the patterns are less wonderful (still nice though). But these are the real thing: There ought to be some sort of prize for the winner I suppose. Hmmm.

Elf boy in dancing skirt...

Edited to add. This bag is sold out now - but we're making more. ___________ We just made one of these for a regular customer (who may be reading this?) and I LOVE it! Fortunately we made a second, so I've put it on Etsy. This fabric was the skirt from an old folk costume. Folded away and a bit dusty, but when we washed and ironed it - it came to life! No time to put it on the shop just yet, but it's listed on our Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5943637

Another Etsy "Treasury"

I had this one "up my sleeve" for a while so it only took a minute to do. Just as well as today is busy again - with an interview with a (very nice) vampire this evening ;) Only in Prague: http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php?id=1178264865638U5006746

Fabric indulgences

At the crack of dawn (well, it wasn't but these days I generally work very late - until midnightish, then sleep late) I went off to buy and pick up another large lot of antique and vintage fabric. Four of the French/Hungarian aprons (I'll post later - one is velvet flowers on satin, one is ikat satin brocade with roses, one is like the blue one I posted earlier but in crazy yellow and red, one is also overwoven but in wonderful browns, pinks, blues). They are wonderful - extraordinary pieces really, and I doubt I will have the heart to cut them. Perhaps they could each make an absolutely heirloom kind of cushion? Maybe I will do that with them (which is of course my excuse to hide them away in my own stash and refuse to sell them!) There is also a - gasp - silver damask (silk on cotton or linen, I suspect linen but need to test) tablecloth with six huge napkins. Unused. Perfect. 19th century or anything up to 1920s I'd guess. This puts me in a dilemma. I don't want to cut it. I want to keep it and stroke it (and Lotte, always a cat of taste when it comes to fabric immediately decided it was her bed and had to be moved gently on - against much "I like silver silk damask" resistance). But when do I host dinners grand enough to pull out a vast tablecloth like this? And if I did, would I have to attack with a table-knife anyone who spilt red wine on it. What to do? Not sure. If only it had a whole I would be out with the scissors and making the most ravishing, sensual tarot bags. But it's perfect. No-one has ever used it - even once, it still has fold dust. Well, nice dilemmas to have. This beats worrying about the washing up any day. But talking of washing - I feel more washing line photos coming on. I wash everything by hand in silk-wash and then use aromotherapy conditioner on it. Well, it seems to deserve it. Then out it goes on our terrace - where I have to persuade Banzai that "Let's hang from the exquisite, museum-quality, turn of the century French ikat brocade" is not such a good game. Okay, enough text. You want photos right?

A fabric-hunting we will go...

We've just got a real treasury of antique and vintage fabrics - here are some of them hanging on our line (we usually wash everything, although as some of these had already been dry-cleaned we just hung those up to get fresh). From left to right - gorgeous, sweet and subtle 1930s fabric - hard to see from this photo but will look wonderful with 1930s fairies. Then there is an Art Deco embroidery/cross-stitch. Just gorgeous - and the side panels are actually stitched in bronze metallics. I think this will be four small shoulder bags. Next is a Baroque style (but maybe around 1900?) silk mix velvet/plush. It's faded in the middle but the borders are perfect. Bags I think. Over at the right a 1960s pure silk dress - I love this kind of thing. It will be tarot bags but I have to think how best to use the print - needs something sixtiesish or maybe Art Nouveau with it. Then at the front another velvet/plush carpet - heavier and in cotton I think. Beautiful colours - just not like anything you see used now. I think we will only be able to get three or four bags from this though, as the centre has damage. I think this will have to be with handwoven handles, don't you think?

Spring newsletter about to go out - sign up now!

Just a reminder that the spring newsletter will go out this week so if you aren't signed up you might like to subscribe (free of course) now. Please go to http://www.magic-realist.com and follow the link at the top. This time I think we'll include an introductory offer on Cats print shoulder bags and also on - at last! - cellphone bags.