Made With Love by Kat

I’ve been meaning to blog about The First Cut , the latest exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery, for a while as it involves one of my absolute favourite crafts – paper cutting. I was lucky enough through my work as a press officer to attend a special private viewing and chat to the curator, Fiona Corridan, who talked about the resurgence of paper cutting in art. I also spoke to three of the artists – Nicola Dale, James Aldridge and Andrew Singleton. Nicola Dale’s work Sequel depicts a real “tree of knowledge” – with leaves made from reference books covering all areas of learning, while Downed (pictured below) features a drift of paper feather made from Ordnance Survey maps which were being thrown out by her local library.  Nicola Dale - Downed She said: “Because we are moving into a digital world books are suffering – particularly reference books. Consequently, charity shops are full of reference books so I go in and hoover them up! At least I’ve rescued the...

I'm still not quite sure about Raf Simons' collection for Dior. I like the classic shapes, but does anyone else think the models' lack of curves make it look like the dresses are going to fall off? The colour palette is gorgeous though, and I would love to see my Grace Kelly necklace (£30, bottom centre) teamed with the pink frock pictured. Sticking with the same muted tones is this belted silk gown by Lanvin, £3,675 from net-a-porter. Yes, so it's probably way out of most people's price range but it's nice to dream, non? And at least my raspberry drop earrings , which I would team it with, are only £12. Finally for this montage is another of my perennial inspirations - Blair in Gossip Girl. Yes, Blake Lively might be the one all the fashion mags want, but Leighton Meister's top-end eclecticism appeals to me. I'd accessorise her outift here with my Falling Leaves necklace (£29, bottom left). To see more of my reworked vintage collection, clic...

…a necklace I made last night! I’ve been wondering what to do with this small red and gold brooch and with a large carnelian drop I had for some time, but inspiration hit when I was playing about with gold leaf (my new favourite thing). I embossed the drop, which just so happened to match the central stone in the brooch perfectly. The chain is embellished with glass pearls, to pick up the tiny pearl detail of the brooch, a very old brushed metal gold bead I had, an unusual twisted brass hoop and two beautifully mottled chunks of fire agate. This necklace is actually long enough to slip over your head, but I have added a feature heart and arrow clasp at the front. Apologies for the awful pic. Hopefully I will have time to photograph this necklace – and the other new pieces I made last night – properly this evening. But if you would like to reserve it at a special price of £28 (RRP £38), drop me an email . First come, first served!

As part of my shop overhaul for Christmas, I have added styling tips to each of my items (I've also reshot my photographs on a white background - would be interested to know what you think. I suspect I'll be going back to using books in the background in the New Year). This is based on my love of the "magazine" pages of shops like Net-a-Porter, and I wanted a way to incorporate that into my Folksy shop . However, the Folksy set up means I can't show you pictures of suggested items to match each piece - so I thought it would be the perfect subject for a series of blog posts, starting with… Anna Karenina  I love the opulence of the Russian tsars in film and TV, and with all those muffs, furry hats and velvet layers it's perfect for winter. The look is perfect to accompany some of my deeper coloured items (a range I'll be adding to over the next week - I have some exciting new pieces waiting to be photographed!) Team my Nary...

Fans of my jewellery and this blog may remember that a couple of years ago I was asked to design a collection for Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre , to be sold in their gift shop in the run-up to Christmas. Well I’m thrilled to say that they have asked me to work with them again, this time to create a collection to be sold over Valentine’s Day. Naturally I’m thrilled, but I was very aware that I wanted to create pieces especially for them, and with the romance of Valentine’s Day in mind. I’ve started building a Pinterest board to help me research the collection. It contains images of my major, regular inspirations – including ballet dancers and classic 1940s and 50s styling. I have added some images from the recent film version of Anna Karenina, which has really caught my imagination, but I’m not sure yet if I will use them for this collection, or for a winter collection on my website . What I really wanted to avoid were the clichéd “Valentines” images – the occasional di...