Happy New Year

OK so where did 2009 go? Actually at Tiararama Towers we are quite glad to see the back of 2009. Not because it was a bad year - in fact quite the opposite - but because all our hard work in 2009 has laid the foundations for what will be a fantastic 2010 for us.

And no I am not just being optimistic - I firmly believe that this year will be a great success. We're currently working hard in the background on new collections and on updating our website as well as still designing fantastic pieces for our customers. Oh and we're busy preparing for the National Wedding Show at Olympia in February. It's just so exciting here that it's hard to contain all the excitement!

So before we launch headlong into the New Year I thought it would be nice if I did a review of 2009 so that you can see some of the exciting things we did last year that we will be building on in 2010 (I must warn you - you may require several cups of coffee and packet of Jaffa Cakes to get through this!).

That was the year that was.....2009

January
January saw the birth of one of our most popular designs of last year - Danielle. It was designed for a bride with a pale gold gown which had a heavily textured bodice and so I used a blend of golden toned crystals, crystal and crystal ab, pale gold freshwater pearls, cream pearls and diamante to create a lovely textured effect within a simple wide headband style. The beauty of this design is its simplicity and its ability to be customised to suit the bride's requirements. And because of its success in 2009 we will be introducing it in various forms into our 2010 collections.
So here is Danielle and one of many customised versions of the design


February
The snow arrived in February and our new garden provided some wonderful snow covered inspiration for one of our 2010 winter collections - the aptly named Snow collection which is full of beautifully structured and textured pieces made from pearl. The only additional adornments are wire wrapping and silver lined seed beads which represent ice crystals in the snow. It wasn't just the snow that inspired me to design this collection. In the past I have had comments from customers that they have found it hard to find dramatic all pearl hair accessories for winter weddings and the snow on the branches of our trees and the undulating snow blanket that covered the garden spurred me on to begin designing this collection.

Here are some of the main pieces in the collection


March
March saw the birth of a concept design called Raquel (why Racquel?....who can forget Racquel and Curly) which has also led to a number of similar spin off designs. This particular design was created using strands of silver interspersed with sterling silver beads, Swarovski helix crystals and freshwater pearls combinations and then twisted to give a random, free flowing feel but within a structured shape. This technique will be used again in some of our new 2010 collections.
Here is the original Racquel design


April
For me April represents the start of my busy summer season. And April 2009 was no exception. As well as my commissioned designs, 4 designs seemed to dominate our customisations in this month.

So in ascending order we have
4.Our Donna comb
,
3.Our Danielle headband- see images in January,
2.Our Sarah tiara

1.And finally our perfectly simple and elegant Maria headband

But our favourite commission of the month was this lovely diamante and crystal tiara which was designed with the theme of a wild flower garden in mind to reflect the rustic nature of my client's wedding. Incredibly striking yet delicate!


May
May was incredibly busy for us. Not only was the summer season in full swing but I was also preparing for my first photoshoot of the year. One of the things that has frustrated me in the past has been that due to the dramatic nature of many of my designs it is very difficult to get across the full impact of the design. And I knew that in order to start showing off what Tiararama is all about, I needed to get my designs on heads. So together with Vikki the designer at Liliia and Sarah at Assassynation we headed into the Cotswolds for a photoshoot on a gloriously sunny day.

Some of my favourite images from this shoot are:


June
By June we were right in the middle of our busiest time but one of the best things about the majority of my work being commissions is that I get to work in fabulous and unusual materials and fantastic colours. And each year one colour seems to dominate and in 2009 the colour of choice seemed to be black. And June saw the start of many black (Swarovski jet) based commissions. Here is the first

This stunning piece uses beautiful Swarovski jet diamante with black diamond and crystal cluster accents on black wire. It is an incredibly striking design made all the more special by wonderful Swarovski magic.

July
July is usually the month for existing customers to add to their orders with jewellery and bridesmaid accessories and 2009 was no exception. I like July because there is usually a lull in commission designing (I love it but I do need to let the grey cells recuperate sometimes!)so as well as creating customer pieces I can concentrate on concept pieces which will in some way or another form the basis of the following year's collection.

July was quite interesting for me because I was invited to submit pieces for a photoshoot at Chiswick House - my lovely Jadis design

and the incredibly stunning Philomena.

Philomena is the biggest design I have ever designed not in terms of height but in sheer weight and intricacy. Essentially it is a wire structure made out of abstract twists of wire which are then draped with crystal and freshwater pearl so that you can still see the wire structure in the background but it all melds (now is that a word or is something we have to blame Star Trek for?)into one. This is then bound in thinner wire. It is a lovely warm and sparkling piece that has a deceptively light quality to it. The number of times it has been picked up by unsuspecting customers who think it will be quite light only to nearly drop it because it is much heavier than it looks! Maybe I should put a warning sign on it!

Alas Philomena's size and intricate textures are incredibly hard to photograph but here are a couple of images which I hope will go some way to showing her off. This really is a case of the pictures doing no justice whatsoever


August
Is that light I can see at the end of the tunnel? This is the question that I always ask in August. The summer season is nearly over and although I am busy all year the intensity of work begins to ease slightly. This August was a little different because not only did I get a lot of last minute orders but I was also working on pieces for a family wedding. It is bad enough when you work with clients to ensure that you meet and exceed their expectations but family - enough to give you a nervous breakdown!

August also saw the return of an old design friend - my simple Lillia design which had a resurgence in customisation requests this month. The beauty was that I was allowed to update the design using seed beads and metallic mesh ribbon in one case which maked revisiting the design much more exciting. Here is the pin combination created for a client using these materials consisting of a Grande Lillia and 2 simple Lillias.


September
The family wedding was upon us in September and whilst our normal work continued in the background this was what was occupying most of my time in the first week of September.

Gemma's gown was designed by my Mum and was a rich creamy champagne colour. The overall look was that of contemporary vintage and I needed to design a hair accessory to incorporate this theme. Knowing that she wanted a flower with a few trailing sections and that she was not going to wear a veil and was wearing her hair in french pleat led me to one conclusion - a hair vine which incorporated the floral theme and the delicate trailing sections. She also wanted a simple pearl bracelet and studs and a 3 strand pearl collarette. Whilst looking through my portfolio she immediately fell in love with my Lillia flower and we worked on combining different textures to give the piece more depth. But the hardest part of this piece was the colour matching. Although the gown and bolero were this rich creamy champagne colour, gold wire didn't suit it all. So I needed to use warm creamy freshwater pearls with hints of gold provided by pale gold metallic mesh ribbon and Swarovski crystal golden shadow beads on silver to achieve the right blend of colour. So here are a couple of images from the wedding of the hair accessory.

It is always amazing to see your work in real life but it is also great to see it on the television and September saw some of our pieces on Celebrity Four Weddings. We designed the headchain and bracelet for Terry Coldwell's (of East 17 fame) bride to be, Faye. The gorgeous Swarovski helix crystal headchain looked beautiful and suited her so well. Was really pleased with the results.

September also saw us travel to France on holiday (yes we did manage to escape for a few days) and it was here in the Loire Valley that I gained some wonderful inspiration for a new beaded collection which will be available in the summer of 2010.



October
October saw me exploring new techniques for my work. 2010 I feel will be the year simple but intricate designs. There will always be those who want the dramatic and the large sparkly tiara but the move towards simplicity began in 2009 and will continue throughout 2010. One of the new techniques that started exploring in October in more detail was beaded work (see September for where the inspiration came from) and my first dip into this medium came with this design
.
Using a mix of silver lined seed beads and Swarovski crystal sewn onto fine fabric this piece has a lovely texture and subtle sparkle and gives an elegant finish. Although it is laborious to make the results are worth it.

October also saw my second photoshoot of the year which featured my Snow Collection. Many of these images can be seen in our new and exciting advertising and the images from that shoot can be found here here

November
November traditionally sees the rise of the last minute Christmas/New Year bride and although we had a few of those our main focus was on sorting images from our last photoshoot, advertising (our latest ads can be viewed here and preparation for the National Wedding Show in February. Stock was ordered, logistics have been planned, purchases made and designing and creating in earnest began. And this process is continuing as we speak! It is a long process but very worth it!
And our popular customisation of the month was Marcia with her simple freshwater pearl and crystal decoration.


December
It was an unusual December for me this year. As well as all the preparation for Christmas and New Year (and the obligatory stinking cold and virus of some description) there was also show preparation going on. But one of my final commission pieces of the year will be seen on your television screens on the Four Weddings show sometime in 2010 (if you have Living TV that is! We don't and no longer have the ancient video recorder so can't even watch it on tape if someone recorded it for me!). This is the second piece of ours to be worn by a participant on this show. The first, a simple strand of Swarovski helix crystals, was worn by Faye who married East 17's Terry Coldwell last July and was seen in the celebrity special.

The piece in question is an asymmetric tiara created in sterling silver and using freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystal, silver shade, black diamond and jet crystals. The use of layers of curled wire are finished with a pearl or crystal bead in various shapes and the colour graduates up through from jet to crystal from the base to the centre of the piece. This stunning rosette is then encircled with wire finished with cube shaped crystal bead and placed on an encrusted band. An unusual piece but one which although it has dramatic colours and shapes is still quite subtle and elegant in many respects. Unfortunately like so many pieces of this kind it is very hard to photograph so please forgive my amateurish attempts but they give you an idea at least


Are you still with me? If you are you deserve a medal but I hope you can see that 2009 was a year of foundation building for us and on that foundation we are moving forward to a very exciting and hopefully successful 2010.

I look forward to being able to share more news from Tiararama Towers over 2010 and hope that you all have a very prosperous and healthy year.

So until next time.....

All change please

As with alot of my blog posts I do like to tell a little story and for those of you who are unfamiliar (or even familiar) with the London transport system I apologise if this seems like a rant. There is - as always - a link!

As I was on the tube the other day at Hammersmith I noticed an information poster. The first thing I noticed was that it mentioned my birthday - well my birth date to be precise but I still held out hope that Kevin had organised a huge birthday bash for me and was informing the whole of West London about it! But on reading further I noticed something that actually quite surprised me - the Circle Line is going to go Hammersmith now. How could this be? I hadn't seen any major line work so how could the Circle line still be a loop? Was the circle line just not going to go to High Street Kensington anymore? There were so many ponderables!

Then yesterday I received an email from Transport for London (lucky me!) advising on what this extension would mean. First of all the Circle Line was not going to be a complete loop anymore - no longer can you fall asleep on it and travel round the line for hours on end (this may be a good thing!). If you are travelling via High Street Kensington you have to change at Edgware Road and if you want to go to Kings Cross from Paddington best get the Hammersmith and City Line! How is that making it better for us? It all seems a bit unnecessary to me! I mean why change something that has worked for years?

Well the reason is to provide more trains and it is part of a big upgrade programme for some tube lines. But that doesn't mean that change is always welcomed or easy. Sometimes it seems unnecessary to begin with but you have to change to be able to move on. And this is what is happening at Tiararama over the next 12 months.

Exciting developments are afoot at Tiararama but in order to make the best of these we have to change. Some of the changes will be obvious, some more subtle and some will only be seen by us behind the scenes but overall it will mean that Tiararama is stronger and better equipped to deal with the exciting opportunities the future will bring. The only things that won't change will be our ability to design fantastic pieces and provide a first class service to all of our customers.

The most obvious changes will come on our website. Over the coming weeks and months there will be subtle changes happening which will pave the way for more radical and exciting changes. And by the summer our website will be all sparkly and new. We are so excited about the future at Tiararama Towers and I hope that overall you will feel the benefits of all the hard work that is about to be undertaken.

Oh and have a look at English-Wedding.com - it's always lovely to have nice things said about you!

And it would be remiss of me not to leave you with a picture from our new Spring collection. This is a very simple double headband in freshwater pearl and crystal called Melissa. It has lovely texture and warmth and but despite its simplicity it has a lovely subtle pattern which is offset between the two bands to provide another clever layer of detail.

Melissa by Tiararama

So as always....until next time......

Let it Snow.....

Well it's December 1st 2009 and here is the first preview of our 2010 Snow Collection which will be one part of our 2010 Autumn/Winter collection. One of the things I often hear from clients, especially those who are getting married in the Winter months, is that they see lots of "ice" tiaras but not many "snow" tiaras and with vintage style dresses with their beautiful lace and pearl trims being so on trend in 2010, I decided to design a range of pearl tiaras and accessories which follow the Snow theme.

The pieces I am showing you are the core pieces in the collection - the collection itself is still expanding with matching accessories and also I am customising some of my best selling designs to complement. And where the images are just of the products then they have come from my own fair camera and therefore are likely to show the pieces off to their full potential (I apologise in advance).

The three showcase pieces of this collection - The Snow Queen Crown, The Snow Princess Half Crown and The Snow Storm comb - are made up of columns of graduating white Swarovski pearls which are wrapped in silver wire with silver lined seed beads. Much of the inspiration behind this collection came to me in the snows of February 2009. The snow on our pear tree branches looked like spikes of white and crystal which sparkled as the sun caught it and so I decided to incorporate this kind of effect in our 2010 Winter collection. So once I began getting feedback about a lack of pearl based tiaras especially for winter weddings I decided that one of my collections would at least use beautiful Swarovski pearls in white. And rather than using crystal integrally in the design to add that hint of icy sparkle I decided to wrap the structures in the design with wire and instead of using crystal for that bit of sparkle I wanted to use silver lined clear seed beads to add a more subtle hint of sparkle. So what we get are imposing structural designs in soft pearls with interesting texture.

So here you are.....The Snow Collection

The Snow Queen Crown

This crown is incredibly imposing. Columns of graduating pearls are twisted and curled to form a more natural abstract feel to the crown. When I designed the piece I felt that it should look a bit wild but what was an absolute joy was that when I began to create it, every column had its own natural idea of which direction it should be placed. Obviously I moved some of them but where possible I tried to keep the columns as they naturally fell into place. I often feel that so many designs are forced into symmetry and perfect lines but this piece took on a life if its own and was all the more beautiful for it. At approx. 13cm tall at its highest point it certainly isn't for the faint hearted (or the weak necked) but if you are having a winter wonderland wedding this crown will certainly help to make it a memorable experience.

The Snow Princess

One thing Tiararama has never been afraid of doing is trying new styles and designs and this piece is no exception. This piece is literally half a crown - it isn't an asymmetric design in the sense we all know and love. You wear the band like a standard tiara but only half of it is decorated. It looks fabulous with big hair and gives an imposing feel without being as heavy as a design such as The Snow Queen. In some respects you have to be braver to wear this than you do The Snow Queen but if you do wear it, you are guaranteed an elegant finishing touch to your winter wedding ensemble.

The Snow Storm

This comb is incredibly versatile and extremely stunning. It is a fabulous alternative to a tiara. It is also great if you are little indecisive about how you are going to have your hair on the big day because it can be worn in two ways. The first way is horizontally as shown in the image above and below. The asymmetric design creates a stunning and dramatic impact but still retains a sense of elegance.

But if you want a more traditional feel you can wear this piece vertically pushed into a french pleat or other twisted design. The piece follows the shape of the head so the hair style can be as neat or tousled as you like and yet the piece whilst still elegant takes on a more sleek feel.

This piece also seems to have a chameleon like property depending on the gown it is teamed with. The pearls give it that sense of restraint but the design gives it a sense of flair so depending on the look you wish to achieve this piece could be the one for you.

Simply Snow

In all of our collections I am conscious that for many brides getting married might be one of the happiest days of their lives but not all of them want to make a statement so I always design very simple pieces which add a sense of elegance and simplicity. And Simply Snow is just that - simple and elegant. Using different sized pearls to form the base pattern to give a nice texture and then binding in silver and silver lined seed beads gives you that feeling of settled snow with a subtle sparkle of ice. The piece feels quite chunky but it is in face one the thinnest designs we have done along with our Maria design. It will look gorgeous with any hairstyle and would also look great on bridesmaids. There is nothing clever about this design except that it is simple and beautiful.

Fallen Snow

This piece has a similar feel to Simply Snow but it is a little more textured. The wire and seed bead binding is missing from this design because this reminds me of the first time I looked out onto our garden in the snows of February, when it was just getting light and seeing all the normally recognisable shapes in our garden distorting their smooth, pristine white blanket of snow. It was a scene of simple beauty and this design reflects that.

Snow Cuff

You will already have seen several images of our Snow Cuff being worn. Probably the best examples of it are our model shots for The Snow Queen & The Snow Princess (above). Essentially this is the simplest of cuff style bracelets. It has 4 strands of Swarovski white pearls - a classic and simple concept. But there is literally a twist in this tale. This slight twist gives the piece an elegant contemporary feel whilst still retaining that traditional look.

SnowFlake

Again a simple but striking style, this 4 strand pearl necklace is a stunning style on its own - very traditional and elegant but the addition of Swarovski Snowflake pendants gives the piece a sense of fun whilst retaining its elegance and makes it suitable for any winter wedding.

Some of this new collection will be showcased at the National Wedding Show at Olympia in February 2010 and will be available to buy online at our website from that time as well.

Hope these pieces and the stories behind them have inspired and look out for more collection updates and showcases over the next few months. So until next time.....

Coming to a bridal magazine near you.....

It's been quite exciting at Tiararama Towers recently. We've had a photoshoot, I've had some lovely new commissions to work on and I've been planning my new collections and pieces that will be exhibited at The National Wedding Show in February at Olympia.

It seems at the moment that The National Wedding Show is taking over my life - it isn't all about turning up with a few tiaras and plonking them on a table you know! And one of the things that has been preoccupying me is my advertising and promotional literature for the show. And as magazine copy deadlines loom for the magazines I will be advertising in around February next year I decided that I wanted to have similar style adverts in all of them.

Luckily for me I know a very talented graphic designer who took images from our recent photoshoot and turned them into fantastic adverts (these are just the low res copies of the images - the high res are huge!)

I'm really excited about seeing these adverts in the magazines and hope that they inspire brides to take a look at the fantastic services that Tiararama can offer them.

Next time on Tiararama Tower's news...wrap up warm because the Snow Collection is about to be launched in all its glory!

Special thanks to Lisa at Vanilla Gecko for all of her help and patience in designing these ads for us.

PRIZE DRAW: Everything's looking Rosey

Rosey - 5 clusters of pink toned freshwater pearls with Swarovski crystal

It seems ages since Tiararama has run a little competition and now in the run up to Christmas seems as good a time as any.

The prize is this wonderfully funky pink tone freshwater pearl and Swarovski crystal bracelet on sterling silver chain. There are 5 clusters of pearls and crystal on this bracelet to give it a fun and funky feel but with an elegant twist. The chain length is 19cm but can be altered if necessary.

So what do you have to do to win this lovely bracelet?

Well this is more of a draw than a competition. All you (or your friends) have to do is become a fan of Tiararama's Facebook page and once we have 50 fans then I will be entering your names into the draw. The lucky winner will be the person whose name is pulled out of the hat!

To go to our Facebook page and become a fan click here

Hopefully I will see you on Facebook soon and remember the quicker we get to 50 the sooner you have the chance to win this fabulous prize.

Coffee and photos

Tiararama's Snow Queen Crown, Snow choker and bracelet with Rosey Ring, Gown by Vikki Lafford (www.liliia.co.uk)

There really is nothing nicer than sitting down on a cold November afternoon, looking through some photos and drinking a nice cup of coffee. And that is exactly what I have been trying to do (the "trying" bit will become clearer in a minute!).

The lovely photos in question relate to our photoshoot at the end of October. As a designer of quite unique and theatrical bridal tiaras and accessories it is often difficult to take good product shots of pieces which are very big and complex and still get across the beauty of the design. So the best way to show them off is to show them being worn and the best way to do that is to organise photshoots. And I also wanted some fantastic images for my next round of advertising in the run up to the National Wedding Show at Olympia in February which I will be exhibiting at. And I also want some great images to take with me to the show so that I can show how wide ranging my design skills are.

Tiararama's Snowstorm comb with Snow Choker and bracelet with Rosy ring, gown by Vikki Lafford (www.liliia.co.uk)

The trouble is once you have done your photoshoot and you have had your 250 images from the 1300 taken sent to you, it is never an easy task choosing images because what is a fantastic product shot might not look good in advertising and what might look good in advertising might not look good as a product shot and what might look good in a frame, might not look good as a product shot or as advertising. All very time consuming and frustrating but in the end when you have your handful of images it's all worth it.

Tiararama's Raquel tiara

The three images in this post are those which will be used in various adverts over the next few months but there are some more images which will be used at The National Wedding Show or included on our new and improved website which will also be launched by the time of the exhibition - so watch this space! To see the rest of the images please click here

Now of course you might think that the "trying" part of this blog post was about choosing images. But the trying part is actually refers to the coffee. You see the reason we are improving the website is because as of next year Tiararama is changing a little bit. We are improving our collections to be more wide ranging and we are also making more of a distinction between the collections and our designer service. Not only will it be easier to understand but it will be truly couture.

But when you offer a service like this you also have think about what kind of things could be done to improve the quality of the client's consultation experience as well as the design process. I decided it would be a nice touch to be able to offer a choice of coffees and teas at consultations. So an espresso coffee machine has been purchased for Tiararama Towers(it is also a good way to get your other half to agree to something you have wanted for ages too!).

I thought to myself "how hard can it be to make a lovely cup of coffee?". Well today I have found out how hard it is and have a new found respect for those who work for Cafe Nero and Costa! I am still a long way off producing a lovely cup of coffee but each attempt is improving. Like everything I do for my clients it has to be perfect - I just hope I can get it right soon before I overdose on caffeine!

Once again many thanks to Sarah at Assassynation for her hard work with the images.

And if you are looking for fabulous couture and designer tiaras and accessories for your wedding or just find yourself at a loose end between February 19th and 21st 2010 come and see us on stand C31 at The National Wedding Show London Olympia.

Another sneaky peek

I'm sure there will be alot more of these blog posts over the next few weeks but here is the first (or was yesterday's the first?) sneaky peek at some of the images from Saturday's photoshoot. They've only been quickly edited but there are lots more to come.

These images feature pieces from our new Snow Collection - the fantastic Snow Queen crown made from columns of Swarovski white pearls, each bound in wire studded with silver lined seed beads,together with the opulent Snow necklace with its 4 strands of Swarovski pearls finished with Swarovski snowflake pendants and matching 4 strand bracelet. This is accompanied by our Rosey ring (not part of the Snow Collection). The Rosey ring is a wonderful cluster of pink freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystal - absolutely stunning.








I really can't wait to see the final edits from Sarah (www.assassynation.co.uk) and I'm looking forward to seeing some more images from the shoot and sharing them with you. And obviously once we get the final edits and decide which images we will be using in our latest promotional work and on the website, I will blog the images for you all to see.

So until next time.....