Interview with Katy of Luxulite!!! <3

Aloha my cherrypies, so I'm pretty sure that if you're into the vintage scene you will have come across the absolutely amazing company that is Luxulite. I for one have been a massive fan since I first discovered Katys creations on Instagram, it's been wonderful to have seen her company go from strength to strength over the last few years and it's no wonder when you see her fabulous designs for jewellery. If you have a love for novelty brooches, earring or necklaces then this company is the way forward for you, as my regular readers will know I'm a huge fan of novelty so I adore all the Luxulite brooches and have quite the collection growing myself. So I thought I'd do a little interview with Katy and find out all about the amazing world of Luxulite.

1. Your jewellery is simply amazing! What first inspired you to make jewellery?

Thank you! I think it's a combination of a huge love for the fashion and accessories of the mid 20th Century, and the problem of being able to firstly find it, and secondly afford it! When I started out I was making the jewellery for myself to wear as you just couldn't get good repro jewellery anywhere at that time - the vintage and rockabilly scenes were saturated with tattoo-inspired plastic jewellery (which is fine but it just wasn't my bag!) I wanted to wear jewellery that looked like the originals from the 1940's and 50's. The more I made, the more friends and family wanted things and it just grew from there!

2. I love the vintage inspired design of your pieces, how did you first come up with these designs?
I first set up my etsy shop as I had sourced a large lot of original 1950's confetti lucite stones, which I made into earrings. As I was gluing earring backs onto the lucite pieces I decided to try and replicate the appearance myself, and started to research ways in which to cast the pieces. I have always been a huge fan of brooches, especially novelty designs, so this was a natural progression once I had mastered the processes. It's lovely to look back at some of my first cherry brooches and see how they have evolved – my early ones have super-long stems and they look so funny to me now! They have come a long way and have been carefully refined and improved over time.

3. I have so many favourites from the flamingos to the elephants, do you have any particular favourite theme/design?

I think my favourite piece to date has got to be the little yellow corn cob brooch with chickens! I love how my carving came out on this one. I also wear my brown horsey brooch quite a bit. I think both of these brooches look great with casual day wear – dungarees, plaid shirts or western shirts. Being in my workshop all week means I rarely get to wear nice dresses, so these two brooches are my go-to pieces to perk up my daily outfits.

4. You've had some pretty big achievements like your jewellery being sold on Pin Up Girl clothing, what would you say is your biggest achievement so far?

Seeing my creations for sale on Pinupgirlclothing.com is definitely up there on my achievements list! When I'm browsing their gorgeous dresses and one of my brooches pops up I always get a little fright and think... I made that! I think my proudest achievement has got to be the moment I decided to ditch my day job. It was the most terrifying, exciting and emotional moment of my life. Getting to that point took a lot of hard work, late late nights and early early mornings (and there have been lots of late nights and early mornings since then too), but not a day goes by where I don't feel very lucky to be able to do this as my job.

5. Your jewellery is pretty massive in the vintage scene! What do you love most about the scene?

The music will always be my first love, (followed closely by alllll the dresses!) We are really lucky in the North East as there is a fantastic rockin/rockabilly scene, with tons of gigs, DJ nights and events happening every week. I love the sense of family that this scene provides too – you're never too far from a friendly face and its always so great to meet up with friends that you haven't seen for ages at the weekenders – I wish I could go to them all!

6. Does anyone in particular inspire you?

Looking at style icons such as Carmen Miranda, Lucille Ball or Jane Russell has been great for my work, I find their style and beauty mesmerising!

The work of jewellery designer Martha Sleeper is a constant source of inspiration and ideas, but I also love to look at novelty prints and designs from the period – there are so many amazing (and some utterly insane) themes in fabric prints, it really is a treasure trove of inspiration.

7. Luxulite is going from strength to strength, what are your next plans for your amazing company?

I have some exciting projects and collaborations in the pipeline for this year – I am so excited about them I'm finding it really hard not to blab about it! I am constantly testing out and experimenting with new techniques and processes in my workshop too, so who knows what might happen next... You will have to wait and see.

You can find Katy's etsy site by clicking this link https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Luxulite

Coco Von Vintage x

Novelty Brooch Friday!

Aloha everyone, seen as its Friday I thought I’d do a post on novelty brooches. As you can see from my picture I have quite the obsession, I love collecting novelty brooches and it’s not something I plan on stopping any time soon. I love how fun and quirky brooches can be and how they can make you stand out from the crowd and I also feel its a chance to let your personally shine through your jewellery.

So I thought I’d quickly go through where each of the brooches are from but I’m planning on doing a more in depth review of each of the companies featured here in separate posts. The first row of brooches are by the amazing Ella Mobbs of Creep Heart based in Australia, I love her style of illustration it’s so cute and I LOVE her tiki mug brooches! You should definitely check out her website she’s got tons of amazing stuff on there!

In the second row I have 3 brooches by the wonderful Katy Crebbin of Luxulite, I’m sure every gal will have heard of her Etsy store by now because her brooches are just amazing. I love fruit inspired pieces so I just had to get the pineapple and cherry brooches that she does! I also have on this row a poison apple brooch by Poison of Choice which is based in the US she does really lovely resin pieces and this brooch is just so amazing and sparkly.

On the third row I have my two favourite brooches by Erst Wilder based in Australia, as soon as I saw the flamingo brooch I knew I had to have it, it’s perfect and when the new American diner collection came out the milkshake brooch made my heart stop! Also on this row is another flamingo brooch by Jubly-umph, the illustrations by this company are so cute I just simply adore them. I also have a teapot necklace that they did and they have just bought out a baking themed collection which I’m lusting after. The other brooch on this row is from the Crave Yard, I love atomic pieces and this blue one is just awesome, Junebugs and Georgia Peachesdid a review on this company and as soon as I read it I knew I had to purchase one of these brooches.

The last row features two brooches from Deer Arrow which is a company I have only just heard about based in Australia but everyone is raving about them, the milkshake brooch and the diner brooch as just too cute and it was love at first site when I saw them, I love how they are made out of wood and hand painted which gives them that little personal touch. I also have my Hula girl on this row which I purchased from the amazing Rock'a'frilly based here in the UK, she has such a lovely site and sells all of your jewellery needs. The last brooch which is the glittery lips I got in my Lucky Dip Club box last month which is a super amazing company where you sign up to a themed box but you don’t know what you will receive till it pops through your letterbox, I love this company and am planning on doing a bigger review on them soon.

I also thought id just mention that the background I used to display the brooches is actually a really amazing silk scarf in pineapple print that you can get from Clumsy Kate. Her stuff is really amazing and every tropical girls dream!

Thanks for reading Guys and Dolls x