Malvena Pearl’s Emporium

I am altering some garments that I found at the flea market–  and also resurrecting a skirt I completed sewing a few months ago– to wear to ‘Space 1889: A Victorian Steampunk Ball in Space,’ happening in just a few short days.

The folks with Period Enactments & Entertainment Recreation Society are at it again. Their monthly soiree will be all about Steampunk: gloriously anachronistic Victorian technology and it’s derivatives. The event features a performance by the Legion Fantastique.

There will be live music from Bangers & Mash, dancing and revelry at the Masonic Lodge, in San Mateo, CA.

Rule, Britannia!
Britannia rule the stars!
Britain’s flag extends to Venus, Mercury and Mars!

Hope is the Thing with Feathers — Emily Dickinson

Our proprietors have returned from their vacances with new energy, new project plans, new pen pals and plenty of inspiration from the old country!

We cleaned the Emporium shelves and opened the windows to make room for new creative energy. What inspired us? A number of things.

If you listen, you will know. Can you hear the birds? How about the pedestrians greeting one another, perhaps in another language that you may still find familiar? Can you hear the distant revving of a motor scooter or the closer ring of a bicycle’s bell? Can you smell the loaves of fresh bread from the boulangerie/patisserie, nearby? See the red geraniums in the window box?

Or you may take a walk and view the deep green leaves of very tall trees and an ornate iron gate to a park. If you listen now, you hear the water of a fountain and the calls of ducklings swimming just beyond the trees. There’s a cylindrical, red box near the gate at the end of the tree-lined street. It’s time to mail those letters! And on the same block, near an ancient church, is a time machine. (Well, it’s really a phone box, but it will always appear as a time machine to many of us.) Some of us may even think that if we get to the correct phone box and dial a certain number, we’ll be magically transported to other places.

The contrast of the rich reds and deep greens, the sunlight and the birdsongs have recharged our batteries. The proprietors highly recommend a train trip to you; we learned how to navigate four new train systems that were almost - but not quite - like the ones we have in the U.S. If you don’t have access to a train, read your favorite short story aloud to someone you care about and find out how relaxing it is to take a vacation, in your mind, heart and life.

Thanks for your patience as we assemble our new work, renewed and grateful for the respite.

Stay tuned for additional pieces on the Etsy site and for journal entries about the adventures of the Theme Song Committee.

Dear visitor:

We will be closed to new business from June 22 to July 5.

Please visit us again after that time for new stories and items in our shop

We’ll see you soon.

The Proprietor

Malvena Pearl’s Emporium: Services and Products

We sell ephemera, jewelry, costume accessories and other fine goods on our esty.com web site:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/malvenapearl

And we offer these other custom services to you:

Beadwork and Garment Repair Service:
We repair beaded jewelry, beaded trim on garments and we do mending or repairs that require fine hand-work. Small or complex jobs are right up our alley. Drop us a note.

Custom Orders:

We work with you to design and produce custom orders for bonnets, cravats, fichus, capes, jackets, vests and other garments that you need. You may be attending a dance, a ball, an historical reenactment event, a retro-themed party, a fair or a convention. We’ve created and re-styled contemporary garments into the full range of costumes from the Victorian era through outfits inspired by science fiction, comic books, Japanese anime and fantasy literature.

We also make custom beaded jewelry designed to accent that costumes you already own.

Custom Made Hat Boxes:

Beth Woolbright creates hand-decorated hatboxes to suit all of your vintage hat storage needs, made to your specification. Have you got that special someone to shop for, who really needs a beautiful container, decorated by hand, to suit her fancy? Or if you need a dapper hat box, created in a vintage, gentlemanly fashion to store your beloved’s derby, fedora or pork-pie hat, then Please do send us your requests!

And remember to visit the Malvena Pearl etsy site to see our goods today!