February Giveaway: Leather Loops Wristlet

February greetings, readers!
Welcome to the second edition of the automaticsweetheart monthly giveaway.
As you may have gathered from my last post, I've been busy manipulating leather and fabric and dreaming up new styles for the next season of bags. This little wristlet is one of the first pieces I'll be offering for Spring/Summer '10, but you, my faithful readers, get the chance to win the first born, pictured below. This wristlet is made with super soft ivory leather and is lined with a glittery print corduroy from Italy. Fancy, no? The little wristlet strap is detachable, so it also functions perfectly as a pouch.
I spend most of the day in my studio listening to podcasts and music whilst sewing and drafting patterns. At the moment I'm tired of everything in my ITunes. Yes, it's very sad.  Help me out, will ya?
To enter to win this little gem of a bag, post a comment telling me about a band OR a podcast you just can't get enough of.  Have a look here to see what I've already been overplaying if you'd like. It's all laid bare there, guilty pleasures and all.  Looks like I've got Kate Bush and B&S covered (seriously, I have NOT listened to either of that artists that many times, have I? Kate Bush maybe, but B&S? Impossible! And surely my Billy Bragg count must be somewhere in the 200's. I don't know about you and your counting reliability, Last FM...)
Anyhow, I thank you in advance.
The winner will be chosen at random on February 28th. Good luck!

manipulator.

I love manipulating leather and fabric! The past two weeks have found me making fabric swatch samples of neat texture treatments to put in my portfolio, so I thought I'd try my hand at applying some manipulating techniques to leather. Here's a view of some clutches I'm working on that have, what I like to call, the tortellini treatment. Yes, my thoughts are often on food.
Basically, I take a semicircle of leather and pinch it together to get the petal-like shape. I glue each of them in place first and then go back and sew over once I'm happy with the placement. I'll be putting a little group of these in the shop soon. I'm excited to try out some more treatments on the bags. I think smocking would look really neat...

works in progress

Two new automaticsweetheart Beulah bag variations I'm working on tacked to a spring mood board for a group I'm designing for the never ending portfolio. I'm loving very dusty pinks paired with low intensity colors, like olive green and fragile-looking & intricate detailings and trims.

January Giveaway Winner

Thanks to everyone who entered the very first Automaticsweetheart giveaway. Your comments were so very inspiring.  Our first winner of the year, picked using the Random.org drawing generator,  is randajan! Yay! You have a new coin purse coming your way asap.
I'll be posting the entry rules for February's giveaway in a few short days, so stay tuned. Here's a picture of my sun dappled kitty Marcel to hold you over till then.


xx-r

automaticsweetheart January 2010 giveaway

Hello readers!
Just a little reminder to let you know that there's only a handful of days left to enter the January giveaway. Go here and post a comment to enter.

xx

Etsy Finds Email: Kindred Spirits

The Enid Carryall was featured in the Etsy Finds: Kindred Spirits email yesterday. Yippee!!!!!

Thank you to the Etsy powers that be. It made my day.

Color Inspiration: Balthus

I'm working on a portfolio (yes, still! sigh.), and have been gathering images for color and mood inspiration. I've recently rediscovered the paintings of Balthus, an artist whose work I admired back when I was an art student. I find his color palettes so moody, feminine, and ethereal.