Femme Petal

When I came across Erin Keys' the Etsy shop, Femme Petal, I felt like I'd found a creative soul mate. Along with being a pink papaya consultant, a mom, and a wife, Erin is an amazingly talented jewelry designer. Her work absolutely entrances me with its mix of the old and the new. It is feminine, classy, and so beautiful. I think you'll agree.

Here is a small preview of what Erin has in her current inventory (click on any image or title to see more):

The Carrie Necklace in Lilac
Hand-dyed silk ribbon in lilac connected to antique brass hammered circles and lavender glass pearls.

Summer Rose Necklace in Pink
Featuring a hand carved light pink acrylic rose
hanging in the center of glass pearls in different shades of pinks.

Embrace Spring
I'm in love with the pink and chocolate brown combo on this one!

A Fairy Cameo
Features a beautiful soft pink cameo and 3 small light pink pearls on an antique brass chain.

Click here to visit Erin Keys' shop, Femme Petal

What's new at Dusting in Pearls

There's some new stuff happening at Dusting in Pearls. I thought it would be nice to share.

I'm really excited about the new categories at the Dusting in Pearls online store! You can click on any of the buttons below to go to the new category.

Then there are the newly designed gift certificates that are now available at the Dusting in Pearls online store. Gift certificates are available in $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, $50 and $100 amounts.


Unlike a digital gift certificate that gets emailed to someone, these gift certificates are printed on thick glossy paper and placed in a beautiful pink envelope. Because the certificate isn't printed until you order it, you can choose to have the certificate printed with the recipient's name and the giver's name OR you can leave them blank to fill out yourself. The certificate and pink envelope are packaged in a rigid mailer and either sent to you OR you can choose to have it sent directly to the recipient with the new fill-in feature on the listing. Click here to see more...

And one other fun addition is the "Behind the Scenes" page at the Dusting in Pearls online store. It tells the story behind what inspired me to begin with.

Click here to go to "Behind the Scenes"

Flora Bond

There are times when I'll be "digging around" on the internet hunting for treasures, and I'll come across the most beautiful and delightful creations that I can't get them out of my mind. That's exactly what happened when I discovered Flora Bond. Nicole at Flora Bond has designed such beautiful neoclassical Victorian pieces that I cannot get them out of my head. She, herself states, that she infuses her "designs with a flare of romance and humor" and that has to be why I'm hooked.

Nicole uses almost all vintage fabrics that have been repurposed into something wonderfully elegant. She even does custom designs!

Here are just a few of her gorgeous creations. Click on any of the images to read more about it...

Feminine Confection brooch
vintage fabric and rhinestones with a touch of pink

Your Dream Wedding necklace

Silk and Gold brooch
Peach and pink vintage fabrics and pearls


Flying Flowers necklace
Faceted pearls, solid brass, Amazonite


Picnic of Pretty brooch
Vintage fabrics, beads, and rhinestones

Click here to visit the Flora Bond online store

Eating Al Fresco

In my red and white retro kitchen, I have a vintage metal picnic "basket" I use to hold reusable grocery bags. It is covered with wonderful retro illustrations celebrating eating in the great outdoors. I love them so much, I decided to recreate them by painting them by hand on canvas. And because there were only 7 designs on the basket, I created 2 more designs to make a perfect set of 9.

I painted these in acrylics on 4"x4" gallery-wrapped canvases. Each of these cute paintings is so chunky that they can stand up on a shelf or be hung on a wall in an arrangement.

In the future, I may sell reproductions of these paintings. But I will not be painting these canvases again by hand. I am hoping that they find a good home soon with someone that will appreciate owning the only original paintings.

Click here to find out more...

Brigette B.

I am completely smitten by a recent discovery... the artwork of Brigette Barrager. Brigette is a graduate of CalArts with a BFA in Character Animation. That fact alone could have easily won my heart, because way-back-when I dreamed of going to CalArts and becoming an Imagineer artist for Disney. Ah well... anyway...

Brigette's work is enchanting. She updates her blog, The Brigette Brigade, regularly with sketches and finished work (including a link to a wonderful animated ad for Swarovski crystal). Click on the title of her blog above to go over and snoop around.

Brigette has a leaning toward Audrey Hepburn and the Hollywood of yesteryear (which you know I love), as well as a wonderful way of rendering that makes characters come to life. I am so be smitten with this print, Librarian Bookended, that I'm seeing it in my head as I fall asleep at night.

Click the image to see it larger

Here are some more of my favorites among her cadre of characters. It was so hard to pick just a few to feature. Click on any of the images to see them larger.

Foxy Music

Shangri-la's

Click here to visit Brigette B.'s Etsy shop
Click here to visit The Brigette Brigade
Click here to visit Brigette's flickr portfolio

Club Shangri-la

While going through an old family photo album to scan in the photos, I came across a vintage souvenir photo folder from "Club Shangri-la" in Oakland. My grandmother had saved it as a momento of a glamorous evening out. I made a digital print of the high-res scan of this folder and it is the foundation of this new collage art painting.

The dancing couple is an original watercolor painting based on the illustrations of that time period. The couple IS NOT a reproduction, but is the original watercolor sealed onto the canvas with a water-resistant protective glaze. The woman's ball gown is hand-embellished with silver paint sparkles that glimmer as if the ballroom lights are glinting off silver sequins. Her belt is adorned with black German glass glitter.

The hand-embellished giclee canvas has been painted with warm red, gold and brown tones. Gold and silver metallic elements have been added, as well as a light dusting of a fine ruby glitter that makes it shimmer.

To give the "Club Shangri-la" the look of a marquee, a string of small iridescent ruby beads have been attached to the edges.

Click here to read more...

Cupcake Baker Extraordinaire

I've been wanting to venture into creating original art canvases for quite some time, but I've had a hard time finding the inspiration for what I wanted to create. Then last week, I was going through my "vintage graphics" file where I put any piece of vintage paper ephemera I come across that intrigues me. In it, I found that I had stashed some wonderful travel and hospitality brochures from the 1950s. I finally had my inspiration!

I painted and inked the baker and his yummy treats, his baking table, and his baking flour. The painted illustrations became a part of a collage along with a harlequin design that I created for the canvas and some reproductions of recipes I found in my Grammy's recipe box (couldn't use the original family heirlooms!). I hand-wrapped the canvas "gallery style" so there are no visible staples and made it ready-to-hang with a gorgeous milk chocolate colored satin hanging ribbon.

Click here to see more photographs of this latest creation...

Angela Harris

I recently started following a new blog by Angela Harris. Angela's sub-title for her blog simply states "Enjoying the pleasures of the heart & intellect". Angela's artistic sensibilities show through on her blog and in her Etsy boutique wares embodying that sentiment perfectly.

Angela's work is inspiring because most of her work is intended for the buyer to take it and use it to enhance their own creative activities. Here's what I mean...

For those that sell at boutiques, craft fairs, and antique malls, Angela has a wonderful array of very affordable sets of tags. But you don't have to be a seller to enjoy them. You could use these as gift tags or as embellishments for scrapbooks.

Adorned Pink Pearl Hang-tags

Angel Crown Border tags

For scrapbook and collage artist, Angela has a lovely array of coffee stained trim tags filled with lace, trim, and recycled fabrics. Each trim tag comes adorned with a beautiful adornment so you can even leave the tag intact and enjoy it as a piece of art (Angela suggests that they look beautiful framed).

Sapphire Filigree Lace Trim tags

Giant Lavender Floral Trim tags

And if all these goodies aren't enough, Angela also has some lovely home decor and vintage pieces that are scrumptiously elegant like this wonderful feather fan with a vintage millinery rose.

Vintage Millinery Feather Fan

Click here to visit Angela Harris's online boutique

A special honor

I am so excited! Dusting in Pearls is currently the "Featured Seller" on the LolliShops home page. If you haven't been to LolliShops, then you've GOT to take a peek! If you follow the link below and scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see the Dusting in Pearls feature!

Click here to visit LolliShops

NEW Antique Orange Blossom postcards SPECIAL INTRO PRICE

I am happy to introduce the latest addition to the Dusting in Pearls stationery line...

"Antique Orange Blossom" set of 6 postcards (with envelopes)

And only for a limited time, this set of 6 postcards is available 

for only 99 cents (plus shipping/handling)!  

Offer expires 5/31/09. 

Click here to read more...