ueen Bea

Check out one of our favourite craft websites, Cut Out and Keep . This week Queen Bea is featured as a Crafty Superstar, which means you can learn a bit more about the lady behind the name and swipe some of our favourite crafty projects, including a burlesque diva accessory set!

Please note that we are off lazing in the Saharan sands being fanned by lovely Tuareg boys until 8th March, so any orders placed during this time will be processed on our return. All orders will be shipped with Roayl Mail first class service no later than Wednesday 10th March. Thanks for your patience!

We are thrilled to announce that one of our favourite new performers, the stunning Miss Dinah Might, will be appearing this year at the world’s biggest burlesque competition, Miss Exotic World, to be held in Las Vegas in June 2009. Needless to say we are rooting for her all the way. You can check out her fabulous Glamour Puss routine here – look out for her custom-made Queen Bea tassels too!

We couldn’t be more excited to be hopping the ferry over to Belfast next weekend for this brand new burlesque night. Featuring performances by some of our favourite artists, including our muse and model Miss Gypsy Charms, we will be selling our wares throughout the night and also at the Ministry of Burlesque Academy workshops running in the afternoon. For those lucky souls who have got tickets to both workshop and event, we are offering a 10% discount on all purchases. And look out also for Queen Bea designs making a guest appearance somewhere in the middle of the show! Hope to meet some new fans there xxx

We have a whole mutual love affair going on with Glasgow’s Britannia Panopticon, the oldest known Victorian music hall still in operation, spiritual home of Scottish burlesque, and our favoured venue for gigs and photo shoots (including the photo story you can see at the top of this page). However it is very much a restoration work in progress and there is plenty needing done to prop the glamourous old girl up a bit.

This Sunday sees a star-studded burlesque and music hall cabaret extravaganza taking place at the fabulous Oran Mor to raise funds for this very worthy cause. We will have a stall on the night but additionally our good friends at the Panopticon have authorised us to offer a reduced ticket deal for Scotland’s burlesque community. The full price of £45 includes a three course dinner and show but you, dear readers, may pay a bargainous £15 for the show only starting at 9pm. If you desire to reserve any tickets, please text your name and quantity and type of tickets required to 07766775055 (TEXT only please, voice calls to this number will not be answered). The cut off point for texting names is Sunday evening at 5pm but if you want to risk it there may be space for walk-ups on the night. Full details of the event and indeed the Panopticon can be found here

We are very excited to be participating in this ethical, eco-friendly event hosted by St Andrew’s and St George’s Church in Edinburgh’s swish George Street. We will be donating 10% of all our profits to Fresh Start , a wonderful Edinburgh charity which offers services to support the resettlement of homeless people into the community. So please pop along and pick up some ethical fashion in aid of a very good cause!

We will be returning to the Queen (Bea) Mum’s for Christmas this year, so orders placed between Friday 19th and Monday 29th December will not be processed until the 19th December. Please bear this in mind if you are ordering for Christmas.

This Saturday (13th December), we are excited to be attending the very first of these alternative craft fairs at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. We are looking forward to mingling with other makers of brulesque, fetish, and edgy crafts and perhaps doing a little Christmas shopping of our own. If you are in the neighbourhood, please do drop by for a peek at our merchandise in real life. And if you can’t make this one, keep your fingers crossed that the event will continue to run regularly in the future and watch this space!

My personal favourite of all the events I do, the Arts Market always has a wide selection of the highest quality items and a really great atmosphere. Well worth the paltry admission fee (which goes to support a great organisation!). Hope to see you there!

The holiday season is upon us, which here at Queen Bea means craft fair galore! This Saturday we are attending the festive Stafford Street Christmas Market in Edinburgh’s rather swish West End from 10am-4pm. If you are in the neighbourhood, please come by and say hello! It’s a great opportunity to support your local craftspeople as all 20 stalls feature top quality handmade items direct from the makers. Rumour has it there will be mince pies, mulled wine and carolling as well, so it will be a lovely alternative to the bustle of Prince’s Street.

We are fed up with the dreich Scottish weather. It has been grey, cold, windy, and rainy and Christmas is still six weeks away. There is only one thing for it – we are running away with the Bedouins for a spell in the Saharan sun. That’s right, until the 23rd November we will be taking a leisurely stroll through the desert. Which means any orders placed between now and then will be processed upon our return. That is if we don’t decide to run away altogether…

We are feeling festive here at Queen Bea HQ this week. Halloween is over, there’s a chill in the air, and we are preparing for the coming holidays with a new range of pasties. Want to give your partner something they’ll never forget for Christmas? Do a sexy striptease to reveal your santa hat pasties, complete with jingle bells! Or if you never know what to get for that special lady in your life, try a pair of extra-saucy Christmas puds – her sweet tooth will be satisfied and so will yours! Does your partner need a little guidance behind closed doors? Stick on our mistletoe pasties and they will know exactly where to start! Look out for these designs and more, coming soon to the website.

A few months ago I was searching for something glamourous to wear to a very upmarket wedding and realised there was a bustle-sized gap in my wardrobe! So I got sewing and created a full-on saloon girl look in black taffeta. I have modified the pattern to make it more suitable for a variety of sizes and easier to remove for you burlesque vixens. I will aim to keep a few listed on the website but please do contact me to commission one if you require something special. Look out for a stunning red moire taffeta version coming soon!

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with spats. Determined to help revive them, I recently found a pattern and have been playing away with different fabrics, embellishments, etc. Watch this space for exciting new ways to tart up your footwear!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed we have introduced a new collection featuring some non-accessory-based products. Performer, teacher, model, mentor, muse and friend Gypsy Charms has been inspiring us for the past couple of years and we are paying tribute. Following the burlesque night we recently organised in her honour, we were proud to be appointed administrators of a fund informally set up in Gypsy’s name to help burlesque performers just starting out. Basically we will be doling out drips and drabs of cash to help these hardworking ladies (and a few lucky gents) out with the high cost of performing. So our latest collection features products showcasing Gypsy Charms and her partner in crime, Viva Misadventure, and a portion of all proceeds goes into said fund. Check out the collection for magents, calendars and DVDs with a distinctly bawdy burlesque theme!

We are pleased to be participating in the Big Tent Festival, Scotland’s festival of Stewardship this weekend. We are hoping for a sunny weekend enjoying yummy locally produced food and drink, leading some art workshops for children, and chatting to our wonderfully clued-up customers! If you are visiting the festival, please pay us a visit. Consequently our online shop will be closed from the evening of Friday 25th July until Monday 28th.

Tonight (Friday 27th June) we will be appearing as a trolley dolly at this new free burlesque night at the Rat Pack Piano Bar in Edinburgh’s West End. We will be selling pieces from our Burlesque Glamour collection (including lots of new stock not yet on this site) so it’s a great time to pick up some fabulous accessories whilst checking out Edinburgh’s burgeoning burlesque scene.

On Saturday 31st May we will be running a stall at one of our favourite venues, Out of the Blue Drill Hall. This is one of the events kicking off the Leith Festival, which is in turn a celebration of our wonderfully vibrant, bohemian community. If you are in Edinburgh that day, please pop along and pay us a visit. It’s a great chance to get a look at all the new stock which hasn’t yet made it on to the website. A mere 50p admission fee (which goes to support the very worthy Out of the Blue Arts and Education trust) gains you access to a plethora of up and coming designers and artists, not to mention the delicious home cooking at the Drill Hall’s cafe! There is also an outdoor event running in Dalmeny Street Park nearby so why not make a day of it?

Exciting things are afoot here at Queen Bea HQ. You may have noticed the reorganisation of the site into themed collections. This will make it easier for you to find the accessories which are more to your taste. Of course, you can still use the righthand tabs to brose all our handbags, brooches, and so forth if you prefer to do so. Part of this change has involved the long, slow process of rephotographing our stock. We are getting there, but it will be some time yet before we are finished with this, so do bear with us. We are very pleased with the shiny new photos and hope you will agree that they really set off the loveliness of our products.

You may also have noticed some of our prices changing. We are keen to keep our prices affordable as we strongly believe that individual design should be accessible to everyone. However,we felt that our previous rigid pricing structure did not reflect the work involved in some of our more elaborate designs. So some of the prices for the more involved pieces has gone up to reflect this. However not all of our prices are going up – we have also reduced the price of a number of items in order to clear space for new stock so it’s the perfect time to grab a bargain!

We are particularly excited about our new burlesque-themed range. Scotland is home to a vibrant and very sexy burlesque scene that we are very pleased to be involved with. So in addition to some of our more dramatic designs which were already quite a natural fit, we have introduced a range of matching sets to complement all sorts of glamour girls! We are also developing ranges of nipple tassels and cocktail hats, so watch out for these on the website in the coming weeks.

Most exciting of all is the photo shoot taking place at the end of February. We are working with some of the UK’s top burlesque and cabaret performers to bring some glamourous new images for the site. These will hopefully be online from mid-March, so make sure and visit our website again soon to view our accessories as modelled by these fabulously gorgeous and talented ladies!

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas and new year. There are big things happening here at Queen Bea HQ, and hopefully this will all be refelected in the site before long. We have lots of new stock waiting to be listed, glamourous models waiting to pose, a whole new structure to the site, and prices are going to change so look out for big reductions on older stock and “white elephants” that don’t fit in with our new image. Watch this space and in the meantime, you can always email me if you are after something specific and can’t see it.

For our sanity’s sake, our outside Christmas selling events are over for this year. However there is still time to shop online. For Edinburgh locals, it’s entirely possible to arrange collection or, for a small fee, personal deliver. Please contact me for details of this service. You can also purchase a gift voucher for any amount (again, please contact me directly for this. pre-printed vouchers will be coming soon).

We have also accumulated quite a pile of stock (one might even say a stockpile) which has not yet made it to the website. We will endeavour to get things photographed and listed here ASAP but in the meantime, if you are looking for something and don’t see it here, please give me a shout and I will help if I can.

For those of you local to Edinburgh, there are several chances to buy direct from Queen Bea over the next few weeks. Here are some dates for your diary:
Saturday 1st December: Christmas Craft Market at Barclay Church in Bruntsfield, 10-4pm
Saturday 8th December: Christmas Craft Market at Columcile Centre, Morningside, 10-4pm
Saturday 8th December: Arts Market, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Leith, 12-7pm
Saturday 8th December: Just Desserts, Chai Teahouse, Merchant Street, from 9:30pm
Sunday 9th December: Private event at Queen Bea headquarters, Leith, 2-8pm Please contact me for an invite

And for those of you who can’t make the events, there’s always the online shop. You can even have your items gift-wrapped for an extra £2.00.

We’re very excited to be exhibiting this Saturday at Out of the Blue Drill Hall, a dynamic multi-arts space (new home also to my children’s art history workshops, First Impressions). There should be a wide range of work on display, both wearable and non-, and I’ve no doubt it will be well worth coming along for some very early Christmas shopping or to pick up a few treats for yourself!

Sat 29th September
12-6pm
Out of the Blue DRILL HALL
32-36 Dalmeny St, Edinburgh EH6 8RG 0131 555 7100/7102

Featuring the work of artists and makers from Out of the Blue’s studios and beyond, the Market is an opportunity to shop for everything from fine art to hand crafts directly from the maker. Paintings, prints, screen prints, cards, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, knitwear, bags, photography, leather accessories, felted accessories, vintage and handmade clothes, scarves, hats, jewellery, handmade books, macramé.

Café & licensed bar.

It’s the most exciting time of year here in Edinburgh and as festival fever descends and the streets are thronged with the bawdy, the beautiful, and the just plain bad. We are year-round fans of Dr. Sketchy’s Burlesque Art Salon and enjoying regular visits throughout this month to watch and draw some of the Fringe’s most glamourous performers. If you’re in Edinburgh during August, Dr. Sketchy’s takes place at the Green Room on Guthrie Street from 2-3pm daily (except Mondays) and is well worth a visit. Be sure to pop into the bar afterwards to view (and purchase from) Queen Bea’s burlesque range of hair pieces and necklets, designed exclusively for Dr. Sketchy’s.

We are proud to be exhibiting at Scotland’s first ever Civil Partnership Wedding Show, organised by Dreams Above event management on Sunday 21st October at Tiger Tiger – The Glasshouse in Glasgow. Look out for our stall with examples of the wide range of co-ordinating accessories which can be created especially for your ceremony, from bags, jewellery and hair ornaments to bowties, buttonholes and ring cushions. If there are items you are especially interested in seeing, please contact us in advance and we will endeavour to include samples in our show stock.

The online shop will be closed this Saturday (2nd June) as I am exhibiting at a local jewellery fair. If you are in Edinburgh that day, please pop along and browse at your leisure. The fair is centrally located in St George’s West church on Shandwick Place (just off Prince’s Street) from 10-4. Further details (including a list of exhibitors) can be found here.

For those of you based in or near Edinburgh who fancy having a go making some textile-based jewellery yourself, I am running a workshop next Saturday at the award-winning North Edinburgh Arts Centre. The workshop runs from 11-3 on Saturday 19th May (with lunch break) and costs £25 including materials, or £8 for Good Neighbours. Further details can be found here.

For those of you in Edinburgh who would like a chance to view the collection in real life, it might be worth a trip out to Muirhouse tomorrow (Saturday 17th March) to the award-winning North Edinburgh Arts Centre. Our total sell out jewellery making workshop will be accompanied by a stall selling our current range (including many new products which have not yet made it onto the website). Our stall will be on from 12:30-4 (approximately) – why not have lunch or a coffee in the cafe followed by some Mother’s Day shopping?

We are offering a new service in Edinburgh and surrounding areas. Host your own Queen Bea party and you can have your choice from our current range. Please see our party page for more details.

Our dedicated bridal page has now been launched. As all bridal designs will be completely bespoke according to each bride’s requirements, you cannot buy directly from the site, but please do contact me to discuss what we can offer you. Bridal designs will start from a comparable price to our normal collection and work upwards, depending on materials required., with discounts offered for multiple purchases.

We are in the process of creating some sample lines specifically for weddings. Please look out for our bridal page coming soon. In the meantime, you can email me for further details. Also see our bridal collection in real life and chat about your requirements at the Scottish Wedding Show at the ROyal Highland Show grounds, Ingliston, on 3rd and 4th March.

The bad news is that the online shop will be closed for sales on Friday 13 October. The good news is that customers local to Edinburgh and East Lothian have the option to come and see (and buy!) Queen Bea accessories in real life at the Loretto School Autumn Fair, which takes place at Loretto Senior School in Musselburgh from 3:30-7:30pm. This also means if you have been waffling about whether to buy anything on the site, you may want to put your orders in now as the Christmas season is nearly upon us and with it will come many craft fairs and, hopefully, many sales.

You may have noticed that we’re quite girly here at Queen Bea. We love flowers, feathers, beads, lace and all things pretty. However we also have a darker side, and Queen Bea’s alter ego is busting out all over the website. Or, to be more accurate, in a new showcase collection known as Drone. Drone shares some similarities with Queen Bea: every design is still a one off, designs are still mostly created from recycled fabrics for added eco-friendliness and individuality, and the bags are still very much design led. What’s different is the vibe. Drone was created with men in mind (although the designs are fine for women, too!) and since most of the men we know are software developers, these designs are inspired by things like sci-fi, cyber fashion, and Japanese animation. They are also intended to be incredibly functional, with little extras like pen loops and pockets for your phones and MP3 players. Dronewear is funkier, punkier, less trad than Queen Bea. And whatever you do, don’t call it pretty.

August is a very busy month here in Edinburgh. I have been seeing shows, running workshops, and generally carousing for the last few weeks, as well as putting up the perennial August visitors in my studio, which means it’s been some time since any new stock appeared.

However, the Fringe is drawing to its conclusion, my sewing machine has been serviced and is purring like a kitten, and I have stacks of new fabric just itching to be turned into more gorgeousness! So watch out for new items appearing over the next few weeks.

Am in the process of organising myself to exhibit at some autumn/Christmas craft fairs, about which I will post more details when they are confirmed.

Here at Queen Bea we are all about recycling. That’s why I’m so excited about my recent acquisition of a die-cutting machine. “But Julie, why a die-cutting machine?”, I hear you ask. (Oh, wait, that wasn’t you, that was my mother.) This machine allows me to take the tiniest scrap of leftover fabric from any of my creations and use it to make something completely new instead of just chucking it out. Look out for more items featuring die-cut shapes in future, and also check out our selection pack of flower cuts if you fancy getting creative yourself.

You may have looked at the photos of pouches and not understood why they are our most popular type of bag. To see them in real life is to want one, but it is virtually impossible to do them justice in a photo. Well, thanks to my personal IT monkey, there is now a small animation to give a clearer picture of how the design works. To see it, either open the pouch collection page or click on the “What’s cool about pouches?” link on any pouch page.

I am just starting to make some more autumnal bags, so they will be appearing gradually over the next few weeks. My source for recycled fabrics has done me proud recently, and I have a gorgeous range of velvets, tweeds, and tapestry fabrics that you won’t find anywhere else. Many of these were bought in sufficiently small amounts that there will only be one or two bags made from each, so they are even more special.

We’re open for business!