Needlepoint in the News!

I happened to catch the teatime bulletin of Five News last night (if you're sick and tired of the doom and gloom of 'proper' bulletins, do tune in: it's kind of like real news spliced with E! Daily Ten). But I digress. Today's fluffy end story was not the latest on Jordan/Petergate, it was, in fact, a little piece on the 'hip new trend' of needlepoint!

First up, a look at the work of tapestry kit maker and designer of these Kiss and Hug cushions that I heart deeply, Emily Peacock. After a peek at her work, a short talking head piece ensued about the general greatness, easiness and 2009 relevance of needlepoint.

Followed swiftly by a trip to a Cupcakes and Cross Stitch workshop, courtesy of the fantastic Urban Cross Stitch, where Five's roving reporter got down to some embroidery hoop action with London's hip kids.

With so much craft news in the press these days, it sure is an exciting time for us crafty folk. But if needlepoint is the new knitting, what's going to be the new needlepoint? Potato printing and hobby-smock-making, a la my earlier post? What are your predictions?

(picture credits: courtesy of www.emilypeacock.com (first three pics) and www.urban-cross-stitch.com (last two images)

Credit Crunch Canvas: eBoy Poster Hack

Hack time. My boy housemate has for some time now coveted an eBoy poster for his walls (for those unfamiliar, think quirky, lo-fi pixel artwork. Cityscape posters of said artwork are on sale in Magma from around the £15 mark (plus framing costs) - but they also sell an identical version printed onto sheets of giftwrap, for a fraction of the cost. Never one to turn down a bargain (I train them well over at my gaff), Boy Housemate duly purchased two sheets, two artist's canvases from art-supply-bargain-haven Cass Arts, and we set about making our own credit crunch version of his beloved print.

After working out which parts of the print we wanted visible on each canvas, we simply cut away the excess paper, pressed folds around the canvas edges to keep it looking slick, then used a little trusty sellotape around all the edges on the canvas back, allowing the print to smartly wrap round the canvas sides.

Et voila!

Mounting them side by side, smug admiration of our thriftyness, followed by a celebratory coffee, ensued. We even used the paper offcuts to customise a chest of drawers, but let's save that excitement for another post.

Vintage Craft Books

A recent foray into a second hand bookshop introduced me to these two beaut's which, I think you'll agree, are far too good to keep all to myself. What could beat crafting, other than - vintage crafting, right from the 1970's original horse's mouth?

First, macrame: my Mother was somewhat prolific in this act of tool-less weaving back in the day, knocking out many a hanging plant pot and decorative wall hanging. I have hazy memories of having a go myself as a child, but am hoping to turn hazy memories into modern-day reality now I have this little number in my arsenal. Fingers at the ready!

Happily I bounded to the till ready to make my purchase, until this little number caught my eye.

At only 40p it felt rude to say no - particularly when confronted with a world of craft possibilities, including: A painted paper mache lampshade (check out the food styling - were bread rolls a special and luxury food item back in the day to deserve such product placement?!)

  ...a bit of good old honest potato printing on cushion covers (surely time for a revival in the potato print department - can you think of any good examples of print or motif?)

...a double whammy of rope covered plant pots and decoupage

...plus - just for fun - a sleepsuit, playmat and knitted toy modelled by a baby with the best afro IN THE WORLD. 

But wait, I hear you cry - what should one wear to protect one's clothing when crafting such projects? Well, I'm glad you ask: what else, other than....

Yes, the Hobby Smock. 

These books bring joy to my life every time I flick through them, and I sincerely hope to be posting some of my retro crafts on here very soon. God Bless the crafty 70's.

Repurposing Article on Queens of Vintage, and some not-so-sad Sacks

Happy Bank Holiday one and all!

First things first - I have a new article published over at Queens of Vintage! This time, I focus on five ways to reuse vintage in the home - from turning teacups into plant pots and chandelier crystals into tablecloth weights, to repurposing old biscuit tins for storage and framing vintage fabric patterns to create bespoke artwork. 

Above: selected pictures from the article

Also, a musing: I've long been a fan of coffee bean hessian sacks for their texture, prints and olde-worldy feel. But what to do with one? Well, a few options have been catching my eye recently. Firstly, they make a perfect oversized cushion cover (which I saw at a recent craft fair but helpfully now can't find details for) - though my Google search subsequently threw up this alternative on Etsy, by ErnstandThistle (picture credit to them):

A visit to an independent coffee shop in Bristol introduced me to this rather charming artwork - this would be so simple to recreate by stretching some sackage over a wooden frame or box canvas. 

And finally, a quick visit into eco clothing empire Howies unearthed my third find: Used to reupholster a chair, this manages to look both slick and rustic in one hit.

Chess Table

As I'm on here already, I may as well do a double posting as this keeps slipping from my mind: Passing by Redchurch Street in East London (home of the outstanding interiors store Caravan) on the weekend, I passed this somewhat elusive, nameless and closed vintage furniture shop, featuring this in the window ('scuse dodgy phone cam pic):

It's quite literally a chess table, and whilst I have no idea how to play chess and no intention of learning, I still desperately want it. There's something about oversized versions of everyday items that I love, and this really appeals for that very reason and also as I think it'd be quite an easy hack. Well, the tabletop would anyway, with a few black and white tiles (or cream and brown, or indeed any other colour combo you dare to dream up) grouted onto an existing square table. As for the chess pieces, short of whittling down some trees, perhaps these could be substituted with appropriate vintage objet - a perfect excuse to further trawl the charity shops for numerous small, pointless pretty things. Hurrah!

Ikea Hacker blog inspires Independent on Sunday

Fantastic to see crafty topics hitting the weekend supplements once more (yes, I know it's Thursday now - I'm something of a slow reader). In particular, the wonderful Ikea Hacker blog has received an amazing piece of coverage in The Independent on Sunday (Pimp My Ikea: How to 'Bling Up' your Billy Bookcase, 19th April 2009), where several designers (including Michelle Mason, whose doily-esque felt rugs I deeply covet) have been invited to pimp out several Ikea basics, inspired by said blog.

The Ikea Hacker blog is up there with my all-time favourites, and in part inspired me to create my little blog over here too (both in spirit and in partial-name-nickery, but I hope they'll see it as the compliment it's intended as). If you've not visited the site before then get over there now. The premise is simple - members of the general public send in their submissions of Ikea items they've customised. Sometimes, the results are a simple repaint of a table, others are far more heavily pimped - from splicing several items together to create something new and doing 'clever' things involving wiring and lighting, to entire rooms bursting with repurposed, re-envisioned Ikea-ness (check out their top 20 hacks of 2008 to give you a good overview). As the yellow and blue giant's produce is literally everywhere (can you think of a single person who doesn't own at least one bit of Ikea?) the world can surely use a guiding hand in individualising their generic pieces.

The article features Michelle Mason, who customised a Henriksdal dining chair with felt silhouette's of classic British design items, as well as...

...Jamie, Astrid and Phil from Jam Design, who created an individual 'picture frame' tabletop for the Expedit glass-top coffee table (see Rockett St George for another take on this - they supply this fantastic fake lace tape which could be used instead of the frame tape shown here)...

...plus a hacked-up Billy bookcase, courtesy of Black and Blum - love the way they've repurposed to create a computer desk with fold-down shelf, instead of just a purely decorative hack. I myself am about to inherit an old Ikea wardrobe which will require serious hacking if it's going to store all my clothes and paraphernalia whilst also (hopefully) look stylish - am feeling inspired by all this designer camaraderie to get cracking once it arrives!  

All pictures courtesy of www.independent.co.uk

How-to: Decoupage Wallpaper Canvas Hack

High time for a hack I feel: this time, a simple affair featuring a rather crumpled offcut of some Laura Ashley wallpaper, some snazzy blue paint and a canvas with some previously rather shite artwork emblazoned on it. 

Said canvas had been hanging on my bathroom wall since a previous housemate created it prior to my tenancy, and for some time I've been meaning to do something more exciting with it. Cue a bin rummage at the end of a recent magazine shoot where I salvaged this piece of vintage-tastic Memento wallpaper. Far too pretty to use as just wrapping paper, yet too crumpled to use in its entirety, I decided to liberate the print from its plain cream background. Several hours of cutting and scalpel-ing later, my pattern was freed. I decided to go for a contrasting colour on my canvas so painted over the old artwork in this gorgeous cobalt blue, which really picks out the blue/grey tones of my bathroom wall. I then simply arranged my rose on the canvas and stuck it down with some UHU adhesive, along with a few butterflies also on the original wallpaper. Et Voila!

Simple yet effective I feel. I had intended to go over the slightly dodgy sticky-up corners with more glue but actually liked the extra texture they gave to the piece (plus had already tidied everything away) so decided to keep them as a deliberate feature. 

Stay tuned for more exciting wallpaper-offcut hacks - with the bank holiday almost upon us, a little DIY action seems as inevitable as stuffing my face with cream eggs to the point of feeling sick.