8 posts tagged “mini trend”
And now for something completely different. It's been some time since my last Etsy Mini Trend post.
For quite many out there, Jane Austen is a decidedly perpetual trend, what with her heroes and heroines, all the drama and awakening, the fine manners and her delicious style of writing. So, today, and before I pop my latest DVD purchase into the player (Northanger Abbey, 2006), here is a poster* with my favourite Austenian picks from Etsy.
For your buying pleasure, here are the direct clicks (top left through to bottom right):
papermenagerie | debbiecarroll | considerarson | JenniferRydinDesigns
ElizabethDarcy | thewritersbook | AnnaKristine | historicallytoo
kirby | modernvictorian | mylavaliere | bunkleberrystudios
See all Etsy mini trend posts here.
*poster built with Etsy's ever-so handy Poster Sketch tool.
Ah well, way past time I covered this. I actually have before, just not as Etsy trend coverage. Who doesn't know what a matryoshka (plural: matryoshki) is?
I noticed there's a trend coming up back in late 2005, when matryoshki would occasionally pop up in fashion and decoration magazines or at retail stores here in Germany. Then in early 2006 I noticed that they were taking off as a hot commodity in Japan, especially as decorative elements or in handcrafted items such as handmade rubber stamps and simple embroidery on sewn items. I started scouting for matryoshka pendants back then and soon found my personal supplier. At that time, runamok was about the only one who offered her unique and very cute matryoshka soft dolls on Etsy. I launched my own matryoshka-themed items in 2006 - hairsticks and lapel pins, which were greatly received outside of Etsy, but not so much on Etsy, weirdly enough.
What took off on Etsy shortly after, however, were supplies resellers who bought readymade Russian matryoshka pins in bulk, took them apart and sold pins and pendants separately and at a great markup. Likewise, though, the tiny wooden matryoshka pendants became more fashionable (I quickly stopped counting and answering the convos of people asking me for suppliers or whether I would sell my own supplies back then...) , and Etsy and the DIY world saw more and more creations featuring the tiny doll pendants. But a lot of people were way more creative than that - currently, there are pages full of matryoshka-themed listings on Etsy, from illustration through to candle holders to sewn items and Zakka-style rubber stamps, as you can see in my favourites poster above.
The trend scout blogs out there have finally caught up and announced the new trend throughout 2007 -- as for the real influentials, Jenna of Modish trendwatched (it's not a real word, right?) matryoshki back last July, Blueprint followed a day later with a trendwatch on their own (and both were so kind to include my lapel pins!). The Style Files mused in March '07 already, while other design blogs followed only much later in the year.
In the meantime, there even is a flickr pool dedicated to all things matryoshka. There are countless blogs that picked up to blog about the matryoshka trend. And lastly, here are all my Vox posts tagged "matryoshka" (I've been on Vox only a year and haven't cross-posted coverages I posted to an older blog).
p.b. I have also set up a matryoshka list on ThisNext last year:
See all Etsy mini trend posts here.
Acorn bead caps - I think this is a trend that started on Etsy entirely (correct me if I'm wrong). Since there are not just sellers of truly handmade goods on Etsy, but also a lot of professional jewelry supplies sellers who introduced these caps to Etsy, this little trend spread like a fever recently. You must know that acorns and squirrels, anything woodland-related, has been a greater trend on Etsy since a year now, so no wonder these bead caps sell like hot cakes -- and accordingly, anything beautiful made out of them.
For this poster, built with Etsy's poster sketch tool, I focused particularly on earrings, but I also saw some beautiful bracelets and necklaces. As you can see, Etsy artists are really creative when it comes to combining these acorn caps with beads - from glass, through pearl to gemstones, polished, round, faceted, AB, copper, brass, silver, there is something for every taste in it, and the prices are absolutely affordable.
Want to look at more acorn-themed items on Etsy? Use the search engine - for example with this tag.
It is time for another Etsy mini trend - I have noticed a growing amount of bijouterie that features flower glass beads, most notably vintage and new Czech flowers. For me personally it is a pleasure to see, as I have since loved the produce of Czech glass beads manufacturers (the history of Czech glass huts is amazing and interesting!). Especially the vintage Czech glass flowers were produced in glass huts of German origin - German bead makers were among the best and most influential in pre-war Bohemia. As always, I used Etsy's poster sketch tool to make a collage of my personal flowerlies favourites (all earrings).
Interesting read: Baubles, Buttons and Beads: The Heritage of Bohemia, by Sybille Jargstorf.
Another Etsy mini trend that I have been watching evolve in 2007: prints (and illustrations) on vintage or antique book pages. These here are my favourites.
See all Etsy mini trend posts here.
I remember that my grandmother had a necklace that featured pods similar to these - lipstick red and yummy. These beads are made of opaque, highly saturated glass and come in at least five colours, as you can see in the poster above. They were produced in Czechoslovakia around the middle of the last century, and it looks like today they're mostly available on the US vintage bead market. Strangely enough, they seem nowhere to be found around Germany or Europe (after all, we're not only neighbours, but some of the best glass huts before the war were German). On Etsy, these beads are usually called mod pod or simply pod, but I have also seen other names adapted straight from bead resellers.
When I joined Etsy two years ago, I came across Gemmafactrix, who uses red pods in her work and whose earrings reminded me of my grandmother. As far as I can remember, her shop was the first to feature pods on Etsy. The pod craze soon took off and spread, and it's still running, as you can see. There are pods now everywhere on Etsy, and they come in designs to fit quite a broad range of tastes.
Previous mini trends: Enamel Bell Flowers | Relics and Specimens
Look, how a propos! The "Etsy finds" column featured relics and specimen creations. I had been bookmarking some items for some time now - the curious, the weird, the morbidly beautiful and the fascinating alike. Or, "morbid pieces of history", as TeenAngster explains.
I used to make my own relics necklaces during my last years in grammar school, back in the late 80's. Found objects like perfume bottle glass pegs, bisque dolls' arms and rosary fragments were the perfect finds (I dug out some of these in a former bomb pit that had been filled with debris, shards and rubble after the war, and which is still fairly accessible). They usually went on simple leather cords, nothing uber-fancy. Needless to say that people thought weird of me. But look, my Etsy finds poster above is the proof that I am not alone - I'm actually in best company. Fifteen years late, but company at last!
Previous mini trends: Enamel Bell Flowers
I've noticed that Etsy, the microcosm of creative talents and indie design goods, produces mini trends on quite a regular basis. Currently, it seems that enamel flowers, and especially flower buds, are quite a hot commodity. I've put all I could find today into a poster.
Update Dec. 20th: more enamel bell flowers (though one is and unintended double - sorry!):
