A very sweet swap

So far I have found only a handfull of Etsy shops, owned by fellow Slovenian artists, but we keep discovering each other through comments on our blogs or in Etsy forums. I found Saša from Tika Ceramics through Sonja's blog and I instantly became a fan of her beautiful ceramic dishes, cookie jars and oil burners. When we started emailing eachother she mentioned she likes my handbags and that is how we decided to do a swap!

Pippa Grande in sky blue corduroy with applique, buttons and embroidery

We met during my summer holidays in Slovenia (it was all in a bit of a hurry so unfortunately there was no time for a picture) and exchanged the goodies. I made Saša a larger version of my sky blue corduroy Pippa bag ...

...and in return she gave me this beautiful lidded cookie vessel, adorned with birds, imprints of handmade lace and delicately painted.

Saša also gave me a small handmade ceramic pendant (which I will model another time and post a picture!) and I really hope we have a chance to meet again soon. 

If you want to see what Saša aka Tika is creating next or to know more about the beautiful part of Slovenija she is from, check out her blog, Tikin svet.

Pippa Grande

This new design came to life thanks to a custom request from Heather - she wished for a larger Pippa shoulder bag she could carry around every day and I made her a bigger version of this bag in brown chenille with embroidered branch.

I liked how a larger scale shoulder bag looked like so I decided to introduce Pippa Grande to Loddelina family (thanks, Dawn from Latouchables, for suggesting the name :).

So here is another one, this time in salmon orange corduroy and warm gray upholstery fabric, decorated with various blue buttons and embroidery. The shoulder straps are made from the same gray fabric and matching denim blue canvas and I added some teal blue stitches for a more graphic look.

I really enjoyed making this bag and focusing on all the little details, from the zippered pocket to swivel hook loop and embroidered word "handmade" in the lining.

Today I ran out of daylight to take the final picture of me modelling the bag, perhaps tomorrow...

Good night!