buttons and pearls

Super heros, Models and a girl band

2011-11-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend at Britain's and Irelands next top model live show. The Scarletz came to visit our Pop up shop. They loved our vintage collar necklaces so we gave them all one! We love their look and they are the nicest girls. We took a pic of them in our By Jam pop up shop.


The Scarletz in our By Jam vintage collar necklaces

When we arrived to Excel early Saturday morning to set up for the show it was a little surreal as we kept seeing super heros. I had to check myself that I was not day dreaming! We later found out there was a Super Hero Convention on at the same time as Britain's and Irelands next top model show.

Draw it like it is

2011-10-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Anthony emailed me these yesterday and I LOVED THEM so I had to share them! He draws all the time and has hundreds of treasures that no one ever gets to see! Luckily he shares them every so often with his friends.

Drawing by Anthony McAndrew

Him and Her by Anthony McAndrew

YeahYeahYeahs by Anthony McAndrew

A night to remember

2011-10-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

My friend Fred had a spare ticket to a gig at Koko last night to see Gabby Young and other animals. I had not really heard of her before but I had a feeling she might put on a good show.
It was an amazing show and the atmosphere was electric. The energy and soaring vocals mixed with style all of her own, a world of make believe with 1920s style dancers, circus acrobatics, brass bands choirs, musicians. The music was beautiful but never boring and her voice was totally mesmerizing.

Gabby Young

Gabby had a change of dress half way through, The first dress below was sculpted, cocoon like, her look is vintage glamor mixed with an outer worldly creation. In the venture it self they had little cute stalls with vintage and remade creations on offer.

Gabby young at koko

Her second dress in the picture was by Inbar Spector it was stunning, in pale green sheer fabric with an origami like texture. She and her band were truely amazing, we danced and danced and when she finished we clapped until our hands hurt!


Gabby Young and other animals dress by Inbar Spector


The end of the show at Koko

Fulham Palace and Art

2011-10-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

We went all the way to Fulham Palace last Thursday night to see the Palace Art Fair where my friend Patrick O'Donnell was showing his beautiful pictures. His work is so good!

Holiday (0il and graphite on paper)By Patric O'Donnell

Remnants (0il and graphite on paper) By Patric O'Donnell

It was quite a challenge to find Fulham Palace but once we were there it was magical. They had live music in the court yard and candles lighting up a free bar. The perfect atmosphere to enjoy art.

I Had a good look around the fair and found an interesting decorative artist called Hyo Soog Hwang
Her work was created from ceramic and inspired by roses and flowers the bowls could be taken apart as well as inserted into each other to create flower sculptures.

Ceramics by Hyo Soog Hwang

On my way to the studio

2011-09-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Luckily the sun was out this morning, Wednesday mornings mean Deptford market. Its always a chance to pick up something on my way to the studio to inspire and stimulate ideas. A place that clothes, frames, books, old cases, shoes, table clothes, things you never know you needed are waiting piled on tables to be searched through and found.

Deptford Market

box full of old postcards

We are so lucky to have the magical creation that is Deptford Project set up by the design company Raw Nerve. It is a haven for creativity. Everything is done inside and out with a great style and energy. The food is delicious. I particularly love their breakfasts! So after the market coffee from the Deptford Project!

Deptford Project Cafe

Inside the train carriage of Deptford Project

wall on the out side of Deptford Project

All through the summer they have been having film nights, using these chairs that were built on site by Jail -Make. Its a real sun trap, its a great place to take you sketch book!

Garden of Deptford Project

Rebecca is the founder and has been heading a project to design a garden that shows off how much can be produced in a small space for food consumption. It has been done in a very elegant way. They won silver in Hampton Court Flower show. Rebecca is involving local schools to harvest and learn from the garden.

An Urban Garden by Deptford Project

Fashion at Somerset house

2011-09-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Michael and I went to have a rummage at The Fashion Weekend in Somerset House on Friday evening. Its such a great setting and a very civilized way to pick up a bargain. It was fairly easy to navigate around, and it had a calm and relaxed feel. Somerset house was divided up into sections, their was a vintage section, which I discovered this gorgeous pop up stall shared by Katie from Shake up Make up and Falicity of Now,voyager .

Loved this set up!

Falicity from Now,Voyager

Katie from Shake up Make up

I liked the vintage area as it mixed vintage clothes, accessories, hair styling and new vintage inspired labels. There was a designer section where I found my wonderful friend lucy who runs Never Fully Dressed.

I also saw Amy in the jewellery section which was set up in a marque in the middle of the court yard. She has a beautiful shop on Cheshire Street called Comfort Station She designs a whole range of beautiful, quirky and very unique accessories. I liked the look and feel of The Fashion weekend maybe we will look into being part of the next one.

I liked her style

love this dress!


Somerset House

we walked back to Charing cross station through the Victoria Embankment gardens,

Let are hot Indian Summer continue!

My Room

2011-09-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

My room in our flat has become more important to me as its a place I can put objects and paintings and photographs that I have collected and have been given to me over the years. I get to enjoy them and let them inspire me.


Hair salon painting from Afghanistan given to me by Ella

This painting is on a metal surface and was given to me by my cousin Ella she obtained it on one of her research trips to Afghanistan. Its for advertising a beauty salon. I love it! I have hung it next to a white ornate wardrobe that I have on loan from my brother Eli. He has moved to Paris for a few years, he has great taste and is always inspiring me. He brought me the teapot below for my birthday. It looks great on my shelf!

Teapot from Elias and Sebastian

Buttons from my wonderful Aunty Amanda

Last Christmas my aunty Amanda gave me her button box. I have always loved playing with these buttons and love that she kept them in colour co-ordinated sections. I have decided to make it into a table so I can keep them forever. Still need to do this!

Oil painting by Suzanne Redstone

This is on loan from my Mum who is an amazing artist, she did this in the 1960s but has continued to create beautiful work.


Oil Painting by Suzanne Redstone

sculpture by Suzanne Redstone

I am so lucky I have a creative mum!

present from Louie

This soap was given to me from my friend Louie, I have not opened it yet as the soap is shaped in red as a Dachshund and is to cute to use! Louie has a Dachshund called Billy, there is a picture below that Louie made of Billy. I have known Billy since he was a puppy, he made me fall for Dachshunds big time.

Beautiful Billy

Painting by Edd Bagenal
Edd gave me this for my birthday, its painted on a small piece of hard board and its beautiful. Thanks Edd! I also got this card below from Anthony, I need to get this one framed, it always makes me smile.

Drawing by Anthony McAndrew

by Anthony McAndrew

Painting by Shaun Caton

Shaun is a pretty amazing artist, He is known world wide for his performance art but is very prolific in his sketch books and paintings. I love this painting, he let me choose which one I wanted as a thank you and it was so hard to choose, I loved them all! He is inspired by cave paintings and primitive art.

My room is still work in progress.

A Fabulous Thames festival 2011

2011-09-13T05:11:00.000-07:00

Thames festival 2011

Well, what a week end! there was music, and there was dancing, and there was fashion and an amazing carnival and lots and lots of food and to end, fireworks! What more could you want from a week end in London!

Ladies of the carnival

The atmosphere was great, everyone was out to enjoy themselves and apart from a few dropped ice creams cones there were no sad faces in the crowds. Our By Jam stand was very busy and it was great to see some of our loyal customers (thank you for visiting us!) I did have a few moments to enjoy the festivities, I got to see the carnival as they were setting off.

carnival setting out

I also got to see the roof top garden on top of the South Bank, it was a peaceful treasure, I had not realized it was there. I have found out since it opened on the 4th of september and was created by homeless charities. Its pretty amazing, and a very relaxing spot for a coffee.

Roof top garden above South Bank center

Apart from being a little tired yesterday another good year for the Thames festival. It really feels like the city comes together for no other reason then to celebrate and enjoy the surrounding and all the offerings and creations this city holds.

Sundays at Spitalfields

2011-09-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Spitalfields is one of my favourite London markets there is! I have been going there for years and then when we started By Jam we wanted to be part of it, so we opened a stall and sold our little creations. I have always been inspired by the people and the beautiful and stylish things they sell. Its a great fashion and vintage market. Emma looks after our stall on a Sunday. Here she is!

We have a great vintage sunglasses stall near us called klasik. Adam knows everything about every pair! The best coffee is from The English Restaurant just outside on Brushfield street and just next to our stall you can get great vintage shoes for a fiver!
Whats there not to love!

A Happy Customer

2011-09-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

We loved this look, she is called Eva Sedlmeier and is from Germany. She came to visit us at our stall at Greenwich market on Saturday wearing our striped Edi that she brought from our pop up shop at the vintage festival. She teamed it with high wasted jeans, peter pan collar white shirt and vintage shoulder bag. Eva is working as an au pair in london and we like her style!

Blitz

2011-08-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

I visited Blitz a new epic vintage department store on Hanbury street just off Brick lane. Its pioneering! the immense space covering two floors has been laid out to entice and inspire every part of your vintage desires! It even has a vintage children's area, coffee lounge bar, bikes, furniture and of course loads of luscious clothes for both sexes! all displayed in the most stylish awe inspiring way.

You couldn't ask for anything more. If you love vintage you will love Blitz. I will be visiting again to shop my way through autumn!

Judy's affordable vintage fair

2011-08-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we ventured out to Spitalfields market to explore the treats of Judy's affordable vintage fair. It was buzzing and filled with goodies. Vintage scarves, shoes, bags, blouses, sequenced dresses, tea cups, furniture they had it all! It was very reasonably priced, I brought myself a carpet pattern bag for ten pounds. Apparently it will be on for the next few bank holidays! It had a great atmosphere, it was laid back, no forceful selling and the displays that people had done were really cute.

There is a real love of crochet going on at the moment. I thought I was the only child that had a black and bright coloured square blanket made for them by the Grandma but apparently not!

There is also a new found love for the 60s, not that it faded, I think its my favourite era, it seems everything from the prints to the shift dresses are having quite a revival.

I can't wait for the next vintage fair at Spitalfields!

Finds

2011-08-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

There is a great vintage shop in Deptford, I feel the need to share it as every time I go there I always find an inspiring buy, yesterday I found a 60s floaty cape top! Its called Rag and Bone and is on Deptford high street. If you are in the area check it out and please share you finds.

Inspiring Embroidery

2011-08-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

My neighbor Tony who likes to wear dresses popped into the studio and handed me an array of old embroidery cards from 50s. They were such a treat and very timely as I needed some refreshing images to start my summer 2012 ideas flowing. Thank you Tony!

Elliott's Food

2011-08-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

We had a magical evening celebrating a birthday at a new chic ethically sound cafe in borough market called Elliott's.
It was their launch night on Monday, they locally source all there food and use the farmers from borough for almost all their produce. The highlight for me was the home made apple sorbet, it was amazing!

Birthday girl Ella and waitress Sarah

Morocco Magic

2011-08-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

We popped to Morocco last week to visit some suppliers, this is when I love my job! we flew into Tangier and then took a taxi to Larache, its a beautiful drive, it follows the coast line and luscious country. There is some cute pottery stalls on route selling large plant pots and plates, if only we could carry them all home! we had a lovely taxi driver called Ahmed Ben Amar apparently he has a face book page but i could not find it. In Larache We stayed in Hotel Espana, it was a really sweet hotel, simple and clean, our balcony looked out over the town square. Larache is completely surrounded by a beautiful sea so i made sure I watched the sunset which meant fasts could be broken as Ramadan is on.

Pure Spirit

2011-08-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

We have just finished Pure Spirit which was on from Sunday 7 August through til Tuesday, we had a great show and are really excited to be selling to our wonderful boutiques but also some new ones!

We enjoyed setting up and used flower brooches to decorate our walls and a ditsy navy floral fabric as wall paper. It was a good show, our neighbors were Foryoureyeslie we loved there collections and they were really friendly too. We also liked Tofu and Dahlia.
Our collection which was inspired by the 70s, with braids, tassels, flared sleeves and long skirts is easy to wear and stylish. I was wearing our new willow top, I have not wanted to take it off! Thank you to everyone that visited and has purchased our Autumn Winter collection.

Vintage festival week end

2011-08-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great week end at the vintage festival on the South bank in London this week end. We had a pop up shop in the vintage village. The weather was amazing, the stalls were unique and beautiful, the people were stylish and we felt like as I heard a stylish shopper say "like we woke up in Vintage heaven"

Our By Jam pop up shop on the vintage high street last week end

A big THANK YOU to everyone that came to visit us!!
We saw some very stylish shoppers, we took some pictures when they came to visit us, we love there looks!

Our stylish shopper on the far right is a burlesque performer Beau Rocks
We have taken some snaps of things we loved and wanted to shout about.

We could not resist these hand made dolls and cute animals from lands far away, Bea's Beastlies are created by Justine who is a pretty cool lady, a vintage queen if I may say so! These are not just dolls but fashion accessories. We also loved vintage scarf cushions and a rocking horse covered in floral print fabric by Olive may all made out of recycled fabrics and furniture by Billie, I purchased a particularly special scarf cushion!

We liked these candles in tea cups, and we shopped until we dropped, we brought some treats from Cows vintage pop up shop and Heaven Vintage . We loved the ladies from the Powder room who were doing make up and hair in the most stylish retro dos. There were tea sets and beaded bags and sexy vintage inspired underwear by Hepburn and Leigh, silver dancing shoes and vintage style everywhere.

The festival highlights

Stylish shoppers

We also sited Daisy Lowe! we were to shy to say hello but we loved her dress, see if you can spot her in this picture!

It made us want it to be at vintage village everyday. I have already been experimenting with forties curls in my hair.

Music in the car park

2011-07-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

We went to see a free concert on saturday night, an orchestra was playing in south london inside Peckhams' multi Storey Car park. The atmosphere was amazing, and the music seemed to suit the surroundings perfectly. They played "The Rite of Spring"

After wards we went up to Franks bar on the roof top of the car park. There are sculptures and installations leading up to the top and a pretty insane inflatable rat the inflates to music. I definitely recommend a visit. They are doing free events, film, dance and art all summer long. Its the perfect grown ups playground.

Great cards

2011-07-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

birthday card by Anthony McAndrew

We went to the New Cross House to celebrate a friends birthday and she was given this card by Anthony. Loved it! I think hand made birthday cards are worth keeping and this one is worth framing!

Week at Huntsham Court

2011-07-14T03:25:00.000-07:00

Huntsham court

We have just come back from an amazing wedding week end at Huntsham Court, we stayed in this Gothic Victorian manor house for three nights and it was incredible. Check out the wall paper and the double baths in the bridle suite. It was shabby chic at its finest and felt like we were in Pride and Prejudice! http://www.huntshamcourt.co.uk/

Hampstead delights

2011-07-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

Louis in Hampstead is always such a treat! its always so hard to choose which cake to have.
Love this car, love the cafe they should always be seen together.

Also not to be missed in Hampstead our the Ponds, you can forget you are in a city. Seriously idyllic! Always a place to be inspired.

Vintage broaches

2011-07-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

Carved our beauties

We found these in a vintage clothing shop in Totnes in Devon called Revival. Its a treasure trove, we love these broaches, the flowers are actually carved out.

Wonderful wallpapers

2011-06-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

from an old New Yorker mag

Enjoying old wallpapers, imagine having striped walls, we love this! found in a 1950s New Yorker magazine. We would also buy any of the chaise longue in the collection, if only they made them like that now.
We also like the large printed walls! and the cat!

Ornate and Old

2011-06-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

From the Farm

We have been inspiring ourselves with photos we have taken from our childhood homes. This is taken where I grew up in Devon.

Dancers Delight

2011-06-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Laban Center at night

Took this on my way home, its one of Deptford's delights. The Laban dance school designed by Herzog and De Meuron, I think it looks best at night as the lit up colours seem to glow through the building. Deptford also has an amazing bric a brac market open on Wednesdays Friday and saturday mornings. You can always pick up a real find, old suitcases and frames and stuff you never knew you wanted. Then to top it all there is a converted train carriage called The Deptford Project cafe!
they do a great breakfast!

Peckham Secrets

2011-06-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

We went to a Copeland book fair this week end and found some great wall art!

Gallery opening style

2011-06-24T03:29:00.000-07:00

These girls rocked, we loved their style. Unfortunately we did not get their names.

More Talent at Free Range

2011-06-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

Rianna Goss "Over 50's"

We liked this Portrait, Rianna looked at the portrayal of women in the 1050s advertising campaigns. Her work challenges the view to confront contemporary stereotypes.

By Kate Edwards Photographer

Kate Edwards showed a film, we are hope she puts it up on you tube so keep your eyes peeled! These are pictures used in the film, a little lady Gaga mixed with McQueen mixed with Kate Edwards. Big white dress in large derelict building, butterflies, powder paint and makeup. Kate we loved this!

Talent Spotting at Free Rang

2011-06-24T03:19:00.000-07:00

We went off to the photography degree shows in brick lane last night to eye up the new up and coming talents. There was definitely some delights. We have picked our favorites and hope you like them to!

Ravi Raghunandan "hidden shadows" University of West London

Ravi uses Plato's "Allegory of the cave" as inspiration for this work "Hidden shadows" We liked the classes timeless feel of the pictures and the dramatic lighting.

cups and saucers

2011-06-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

We are feeling so inspired by cups and saucers, the flowers, country scenes, patterns we love them all!

The Finished Fabulous Look

2011-06-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

Kasia Looked amazing!! Here is a sneak preview of our AW11 collection

The Hair

2011-06-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

Becky did the best 70s hair! curls curls curls!!
We also loved the way her cats loved fashion!

Photo shoot at By Jam

2011-06-14T03:43:00.000-07:00

Becky's make up studio

We had a great day taking pictures for our Autumn winter range. We loved Becky's studio! so retro and full of beautiful things.

So much to choose from!

Crazy for Bunting

2011-06-09T04:57:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better to get that summer feeling then making beautiful bunting!

Beautiful Bunting

We are going to decorate our stall at Spitalfields market, our studio and a family summer wedding with it, We just can't make enough Bunting!

sweet suitcase

2011-06-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

We are feeling in the mood for holidays so have collected some of our little cases

Welcome to By Jam!

2011-06-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

We are going to write about things we love!

We love fashion and we love vintage and spend our days finding objects, clothes, and stylish people to inspire our design studio and us!

As this is our first post I though we would give some back round about us.

We work in studios in London with round windows. They are built out of shipping containers. Its peaceful and surrounded by plants that our lovely studio neighbors water everyday!


things from our studio