I started off my business with a custom bridal shoe and accessories shop but always wanted to branch out into bling accessories that weren’t bridal. I’d made a few Swarovski® Crystal phone cases but really wanted to make something that made people go ‘wow’. That was when I’d discovered crystal-embellished tumblers.
They have been really popular in the US since J Lo was spotted with a fully embellished Swarovski® Crystal ombre personalised Starbucks tumbler. It was honestly stunning, I’m a bit of a magpie for anything sparkly and this was really up my street.
I’d had a look on YouTube and Pinterest to see if there were any other tumblers or bottles I could take inspiration from. The majority of the tumblers I’d seen were the honeycomb fill pattern, a very uniform crystal layout using the same size crystal all over. I’ve never been a fan of this fill pattern, it was too neat and to me looks a bit boring.
I love the sprinkle fill its a bit messy but it gives off one hell of a sparkle with all the different sized crystals. The ombre effect was gorgeous and decided I wanted to do a sprinkle fill ombre bottle in dark blue, to light blue and then clear crystal.
All of the tumblers I’d seen on social media only really had the ombre effect with two colours, not three. Creating an ombre effect and embellishing a bottle was a completely new process to me, I’d never done anything like it before but me being me I wasn’t going to let that hold me back.
I started off my first bottle at Christmas but put it to one side for a few months, I was super busy with bridal shoe orders and couldn’t commit to finishing it off any time soon. Covid-19 lockdown happened and I got stuck into finishing off the bottle as all I had was time on my hands.
It took me around 14 hours to finish off my first bottle, it had its faults but I wasn’t going to let that bother me, it was my first attempt at a bottle and it looked amazing. I’m not sure how many crystals I used in the end but I’m guessing somewhere around 4000 - 6000 rhinestones and Swarovski crystals.
It certainly was a challenge but I love being pushed to my creative limits and the bottle definitely did that. I was hooked!
The ombre effect turned out perfectly, surely this was a fluke? It wasn’t by any means a beginners project, it was more an advanced project with advanced professional glue processes. I had to make more!
The blue ombre bottle had a white base colour which I didn’t paint and left it white, seeing the white gaps on the bottle was starting to bug me so I used pink bottles so the gaps wouldn’t stand out as much.
The first pink bottle was the all-over colour and this time I was embracing the gaps between the crystals. I wasn’t going to make sure every single gap was filled, the gap was going to be there and I just had to deal with it. This was a challenge I had to overcome, everything I produce for my wedding business had to be perfect, anything slightly off it just wouldn’t look right. I finished off the all-over colour bottle in around 10 hours.
The next pink bottle I went back to the ombre effect, the ombre bottle didn’t disappoint, the ombre effect turned out perfectly, I used the same bottle, the same crystals just in a different pattern, it was stunning. I was so happy with how it had turned out. The colours blended beautifully, I couldn’t stop looking at it, it was going to be hard to part with it and send it off to its new owner.
My next bottle project I wanted to create something that is affordable and something everyone would like. My next bottle was really simple but really pretty, a plain bottle but a name written in crystals and a fully embellished lid with crystals that matched the pink bottle.
The name was glued on freehand and didn’t have a vinyl transfer to trace the name, I don’t have a Cricut machine to make a transfer and I’m too impatient to wait for a vinyl to arrive in the post. Writing names on shoes in crystals is like second nature to me so on a bottle it was fairly easy to create. The end result was a beautifully simple personalised bottle.
I’ve loved making the bottles and trying out new processes and glues. I’m still learning and have some great ideas and even more glue processes to try out!
If you like my work and would like to find out more please drop me an email crystalbutton19@gmail.com
Please check out my website www.helendaviesdesign.com and follow me on Instagram @cute_button_shoes