bonbah » inspiration

Pinterest: I’m addicted!

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:17:54 +0000

I know bookmarking things have been around for ages, but I’ve never really got the hang of them – Skirty? Zoopla?. But I love Pinterest. It is the next step to my usual method of printing images, cutting them out and sticking them in my notebooks. Because it’s even more, now I can peek in other people’s notebooks and they can peek in mine, but I don’t feel the pressure to make ‘friends’ and tell everyone what I’m doing 24/7.

You can make several pinboards so organise different things you find and as far as I can tell you can ‘pin’ any image you find on the web. You can ‘explore’ other peoples boards and follow different general boards. You can click other people’s images and go to the original websites so even if someone doesn’t describe the image they’ve pinned you can still find out where it came from.

It’s a brilliant way to do moodboards for design jobs and it’s also a great, visual way to keep track of craft projects you might like to try, recipes, home decorating etc. I’ve started keeping track of project to make for (and with) George:

UK Inspiration: Thereza Rowe & Crayonfire

admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:49:08 +0000

This week, here’s some strong, bold colourful and characterful graphic illustration:

1. Thereza Rowe – London

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2. Crayonfire (Neil Stevens) – St. Albans

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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

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

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Owl Gift Tags, Ink Drawing Designs, Brown Black White

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

Appliqued Dog Cushion

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Shoe Cushion

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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

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gerbera daisy earrings

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sterling silver and purple felt bow necklace

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

hand screen printed sleepy dog in teal

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hand screenprinted owl toy in yellow

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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

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

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Raining Cats and Dogs from Emma Lee Cheng

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Rainy Day Brooch from Nelli D

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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

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Grain Chopping Board from Lee Borthwick

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Say Cheese Camera Case from KraftyKorner

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

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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

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scandi hand screenprinted fabric

twist hand screenprinted fabric

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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

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Hoot Owl A6 Notebook from Nell

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Blue Hare from deebeale

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Matryoshka Gocco Print by Kipi Ka Popo Shop

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Brown Owl Gocco Printed Lavender Bag from Inkmeup

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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.

mini inspiration: Lucienne Day

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:31:55 +0000

I’m starting a new weekly post: mini inspiration. Just a very quick visual look at someone or something I find inspiring. Who better to start with than my favourite textile designer Lucienne Day: