bonbah » craft

UK Inspiration: Lil3Birdy & Naughty Dog

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:09:43 +0000

A couple of talented UK based surface designers to get me back into the swing of things.

1. Lil3Birdy (London) beautiful, intricate designs with birds & geometric patterns.

Bird Gift Tags, Illustrated Art Designs, Turquoise Blue Grey

khjlkhklhjj

Cute Bird & Flower Gift Tags, Illustrated Art Designs, Blue Green Pink

hjlkhjlkhj

Owl Gift Tags, Ink Drawing Designs, Brown Black White

khhkhkh

klhlhlhk

2. Naughty Dog (Hartlepool) really lovely cushions with line drawings of dogs, shoes, butterflies…

Appliqued Dog Cushion

kl;lj;lj;lj

Shoe Cushion

kghlkhjlkh

Dog Cushion

UK Inspiration Caroline Cowen & Robin and Mould

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:50:53 +0000

Finally some time to find some more UK based inspiration. Another random search on Etsy brings up some lovely silver jewelry and beautiful hand screenprinted home textiles.

1. Caroline Cowen (from Hertfordshire) – beautiful handmade jewelry in quirky, pretty designs.

sterling silver and cold enamel retro flower necklace

kjhglkghj

gerbera daisy earrings

kjhglkghj

sterling silver and purple felt bow necklace

l;jl;j

2.Robin and Mould (from Devises, Wiltshire) – beautiful handmade and hand screenprinted home textiles.

hand screen printed sleepy dog in teal

kjhglkghj

hand screenprinted owl toy in yellow

khjklhklh

hand screen printed dream big cushion in teal

Folksy Friday on a Saturday – rain rain rain

admin — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 21:35:14 +0000

We’ve been getting ready to go away so although I picked out my Folksy picks on Friday I didn’t get a chance to post. Luckily or unluckily Mother Nature has kept up my theme for me. Rain rain rain. Not my fondest thing when I’m trying to get loads of clothes dried. But luckily some crafty folksters have used the theme brilliantly:

Teeny Rainy Day Studs from Joanna Rutter

sgfsdfg

Rainy Day Child’s T-shirt from Rocky the Zombie

sdfgsdgf

Raining Cats and Dogs from Emma Lee Cheng

kjklhk

Rainy Day Brooch from Nelli D

sdfadfaf

Breadcrumbs Screenprint from Fancy and Fondant

(can’t believe it’s already time for another) Folksy Friday – cheeeeeese

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:43:28 +0000

How is it already Friday? Is it really Friday? I’m pretty sure it’s Friday so here’s my Folksy Friday. This week it’s all about cheese. We love cheese in our house. I am particularly amazed that someone has created a card that actually says exactly what Jeff and I say to each other pretty much on a daily basis. George is fitting in well. Yesterday all he would eat for dinner was a nice vintage cheddar, some Carr’s water biscuits and grapes. Pretty classy for a 10 month old.

Red I Love You More Than Cheese Card from Storeyshop

sdfdsf

Grain Chopping Board from Lee Borthwick

asfdasdf

Say Cheese Camera Case from KraftyKorner

ddsfgsd

Enid Mouse (the cheese is in her bag!) from Mia Design

sfasdf

Cheese Board from Woodturning Craft

UK Inspiration – Summersville & Ruth Robinson Ceramics

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:05:31 +0000

I’ve been doing Folksy Friday for a while now and I really like Folksy and what it is growing into. I’ve also started getting involved with UK Handmade which is very exciting and very inspiring. There’s nothing more motivating that meeting and building relationships with people with like interests. Especially when you’re a work-from-home mum like me. Sometimes it can feel a bit like I inhabit my own little universe. Etsy UK seems to be stepping up a bit of late which is great as although I love Etsy and have for ages, recently I’ve been feeling like it’s a bit too US based. There are alot of very talented artists, designers and craftspeople in the UK, but the public opinion of ‘craft’ definitely needs changing. There are still a lot of old-fashioned WI style things around (and I probably have an outdated vision of the WI!) if you’re looking but there are also many hand-crafted products that could match and outdo any commercially made product for ingenuity, craftsmanship and uniqueness. Looking back, for the most part I have been focusing on UK makers, but going forward I’m going to make a stronger effort to find inspiration from the UK.

So here are a couple of wonderful designers I had never heard of but found by doing a couple of random searches on Etsy:

1: Summersville (from Suffolk): Beautiful screenprinted prints, notebooks & fabric

totem – hand screenprinted fabricsdfaf

scandi hand screenprinted fabric

twist hand screenprinted fabric

lkjl;sfgd

2: Ruth Robinson Ceramics (from Cheshire): Gorgeous ceramic buttons and hairclips

Handmade blue porcelain owl hairclips

Handmade green porcelain buttons

Handmade grey porcelain buttons

Folksy Friday – Gocco

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:22:18 +0000

I wanted a gocco machine for ages and I got one two years ago. I think I’ve used it once. Mainly, in all fairness, because I don’t have access to an old-school carbon copier. But it’s still one of my favourite things and finding a way to use it more often is definitely up there on my todo list. One day I’ll be able to gocco as well as this (click on the images or shop names for more info):

Vintage Button Gocco Badges from Asking For Trouble

lajfasfj

Hoot Owl A6 Notebook from Nell

fsadf

Blue Hare from deebeale

gfdfgsdgsdg

Matryoshka Gocco Print by Kipi Ka Popo Shop

khjklhkl

Brown Owl Gocco Printed Lavender Bag from Inkmeup

lkjhklh

Have a Terrierific Birthday – Boston Terrier Card from Forever Foxed

(please click on the images or shop names for more information)

Proper Folksy Friday

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:19:51 +0000

This week my Folksy Friday is over on the Folksy blog! So it’s a proper Folksy Friday this week. I found some lovely things that people were making from old books.

Folksy Friday – Kitty Kat

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:37:29 +0000

This week’s Folksy Friday is dedicated to the Kitty Kat as we’ve decided, although we are probably a tad delusional, that these are our baby’s first words. It is true that he makes the same noises that sound very vaguely like ‘kitty kat’ everytime he sees one of our cats. I’ll have to show him this post and see what he says!

Cadbury the Cat from ToadyBobbins

kljhklh

Bells on Cats from The ReWorkd Workshop

,,.jhklhj

Linen Cat in Ellie Flower Print Dress by The Linen Cat

jgkjg

Roly Poly Rainbow Cats by Quernus Crafts

afasf

Lady and the Cat by The Beespoke

asdfsa

Folksy Friday – George

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:24:41 +0000

Nine months ago today, the very best moment of my life happened at 2.47 in the afternoon. So this week for Folksy Friday it’s all about George:

George and the Dragons from Hole in My Pocket

asdfsaf

King George by Alice Gabb

kljhj

George from The Snail Emporium

asfdsadf

George, Hand Embroidered Brooch from Bird & Bridge

sdfsdf

George Bear Plushie from Dotty Daisies

little steps

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:32:55 +0000

I’m not the most patient person so it’s been quite hard telling myself that building up a business from scratch is not going to happen overnight. The biggest problem being that when I set up as a freelance graphic designer, it did literally happen overnight. There were a few dry spots, but for the most part since the day I left my permanent job I was pretty much set for work. I never really had to do any marketing or self-promotion, pretty much all my clients came through word of mouth, ex-colleagues etc.

But this is something new, something more creative, something more flexible, something that not many people know I can do. Most importantly something that will exist with and around my family. There will still be late nights and short deadlines but these will have to happen around playground visits and the (actually quite loud) pitter patter of little feet. I’ve been doing a few stationery designs here and there when I have time, but everything has been feeling a bit all over the place. So over the past couple of days I’ve been having a good think about what I will create, who would be interested and what it will hopefully mean to them. I’ve had a few good chats with a very good friend who is in pretty much the same place as me and that has left me feeling very inspired. Yesterday my head was buzzing with all the things I want to do, but I was feeling pretty tired. I told myself if it was earlier than 9.30pm then I’d start creating something. It was 9.24pm so two hours later and I’d finished my first little steps:

I dragged out my favourite thing, my sewing machine. As much as I love my Mac and all my pencils and paper, there’s something much more satisfying about my sewing machine. I know I don’t use it how you’re really supposed to. I probably sew more paper than cloth, my lines are never straight, my tension is all over the place, I’m more of a sketch sewer than a fine artist, but the results end up feeling really ‘me’. So the little steps I started last night are the beginning of a new ‘little bulldog’ shop banner. A couple need redoing, in fact I’ll probably redo all of them, but it’s a start and it’s a huge step away from the client-led retail designer I’ve been for the past few years. It feels right, so we’ll see.