Spotlight On The Seller... Bethanie Yeong

Bethanie was born in Portsmouth, then moved to Norwich for University, and is now based in Leeds! Along with her ethnic background, locations naturally became an important part of her life. Originally using her papercuts as stencils for printmaking, she felt sad to throw away these detailed stencils and decided to frame them.

For as long as she can remember, Bethanie has always been cutting paper. All artwork, including her business cards, are carefully designed and hand-cut with minimum injury to herself!

With a lot of patience, she creates intricate maps and designs to share with everyone. Big or small, her products can personalised to suit all occasions, with a wide range of frames, colours and designs. Bethanie loves to explore different possibilities to frame and display her work, from magically floating her papercuts to protecting them between pieces of acrylic.

Her small products are beautiful pieces of artwork and doubles up as a practical paperweight in the office or at home. Nothing is too small for her to cut out!

She often looks around, thinking, “What am I able to cut out next?” If you have any maps you would like her to transform into a papercut, feel free to drop by the shop or contact her at www.bethanieyeong.com.

Spotlight on seller ...Jackdaw Decor.

I never was too sure what I wanted to ‘do’ in life until after a false start or two I began working in a flower shop.

I was lucky to be trained by some incredibly talented florists & attended college, to learn as much as I could about the creative process.  I loved the work but life moves on & I needed to pay a mortgage.

Time for a career change I started temping in an office whilst deciding my next move,  I learned about paper, print, office politics  and what I didn’t want to do. It only took 14 years until my next change

An opportunity presented itself, a brave leap could be taken, and the fledgling idea of Jackdaw Decor could take flight.

It was time to embrace my love of making things; textural, tactile, 3D items of loveliness, whether for me, as a gift or for the sheer joy of creating something new from old. Re-using or re-purposing items rather than throwing them away. Trying to use every last scrap. I hoard -in the true nature of a jackdaw- shiny, bright, pretty things, paper, ribbon and beads that I will keep until I discover what it was destined to become. 

Inspired by traditional Victorian techniques and styles, using modern and natural materials in a fusion of floral art.

From mini book flowers to truly unique bridal bouquets – my paper flowers are created from a hoard of paper loveliness that I have lovingly collected over the years; this means I cannot always source any more -once it’s gone it’s gone. This gives my work a transient uniqueness which I love; I have no desire to create the same item 50 times. I love the process of tweaking an idea to suit a client, or to completely ignore the rule book & start from scratch – it’s my fickle jackdaw nature coming to the fore!

Designs inspired by and taken from nature: Like Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown I want my products to be “more natural than nature”.

This is true of the window & wall vinyls I design, they are based on real life images & observations. 

My reusable window vinyl snowflakes are based on photographs taken by Wilson Alwyn Bentley (1865-1931), Whitby Abbey from our own snapshots & my Christmas holly wreath from memory when as a florist we made our own from scratch 100+ every year.