Mechanical Alchemist

After a day spent trying to work out why Serge the Corsa had spewed oil all over the place resulting in the AA man producing the offending faulty 'bit', I was reminded of the work of the rather clever chap over at Mechanical Alchemist and thought I'd share:

Using pieces like my broken oil-switch-bolt-thingy and other superfluous engine parts, scrap metal and other 'Dad garage' paraphenalia, Pigskin (as he is apparently known) repurposes them into the ultimate in desirable man-craft pieces, mainly around the theme of robots (what else?) Look again though and said robots also multi-task as lamps, a moneybox and even a barbecue, so something practical to keep the ladies happy too. As a chick crafter keen to find any way to get the boyf to show even the slightest glimmer of interest in this arena, such work is to be applauded (and accompanied by a little victory retort of "see! I do talk about things other than decoupage and doilys!!")

Ahhhh, doilys...

Green and Fay

Another day, another swanky interiors store opening in Islington. As I made my way back from The Best Second Hand Shop Ever In The World, also known to the public as Past Caring on the Essex Road (if you're ever remotely near the vicinity check it out, and bring some readies) I took myself in to new kid on the block, Green and Fay, for a little peek...

And was pleasantly surprised! Green and Fay manages to combine the usual design classics with showcase pieces from new, up-and-coming design talent (they were partners this year's London Design Festival - image above of FKY shelving by For Use). They even stock eco shoes. Best of all is their collection of mid-century furniture, much of which is upholstered with fabric from the amazing St Jude's, who collaborate with a range of extremely talented British artists and print designers and screen-print their fine results from their base in Norfolk (such as this Ernest race chair, below).

So all in all, a cottage-industry-supporting, designey-vintage-fest, hurrah! If you love the look but are looking for more of a price-of-a-sandwich type investment, the good news is you can also buy notepads featuring key prints (including that of my print crush Angie Lewin - see her seedheads design below) - or if your hacking's up to it, go to the website direct and order some fabric to create your own mid-century upholstering at home. Do send in the results!

Sneak Peek at Taiwan

Errrr, apologies for my minor absence after the lofty claims from my last post... I've been on a two week holiday to the fascinating and extremely beautiful Taiwan, and crammed about a month's work of freelance work into the two weeks before I left in order to pay for it all! But I'm back now, culturally enriched and with ears still popping from the flight. I have about 1million photos to go through plus many other exciting things I'd like to blog about, but for now, here's three little hacks from the far east...

1. Love the contrast of this rustic driftwood fencing painted in delicious fuchsia pink

2. Pretty much every shop, restaurant and business we passed was festooned with Chinese lanterns - this enterprising display, consisting of a string of upcycled Chinese straw hats, made me chuckle. Note the use of eco bulb too for bonus greenie points

3. No idea what any of it means, but these old wooden boards do look rather beautiful with a lick of blackboard paint and vibrant chalk characters and illustrations, wouldn't you agree?

Adding Colour With...

Welcome, dear readers, to Craft Hacker Plus - OK, it may all look exactly the same to you, but I'm now "comin' at ya" from my brand-new swanky mac and hopefully (once O2 bother to actually connect my line), my new iPhone too! Meaning I should be able to post much more now that I'm not having to rely on archaicly slow equipment. Bear with me for the next couple of weeks whilst I figure out how to actually use the thing, though - the old one was sooo old it was little more than a glorified typewriter, so I now feel like I'm at the helm of the Starship Enterprise or something. So, let's get back to some craft, shall we?

I thought the timing quite apt to post a few more pics from my recent shoot with photographer Max Attenborough, after receiving a tip-off from Mise at Pretty Far West about a post on the fabulous Desire to Inspire blog featuring some of his work, including some styling from little ol' me! Hugely exciting to be out there in inter-web-land so thought I'd surf off the coattails of his success and post some more of our work for any straying DTI readers (welcome, if this is you!)

Well here goes - this is shoot one - think I'll feature shoot two in a coupla days time to tease it out a bit, a la the reality tv show presenter's dramatic pause before finally revealing the winner/loser/victim's name. This shoot is entitled Adding Colour With... , the premise being the colour in each shot only comes from one source. Here goes!

1. Adding Colour With... Wallpaper

A great way to use up old wallpaper scraps and a good (and somewhat less labour-intensive!) alternative to an entire patchwork wall. Hunt down an old room divider or get crafty and concertina fasten three sheets of wood together with some piano hinges. The vase is also covered in wallpaper, simply taped round an old vase and cut flush at the bottom whilst tucked in round the top - surprisingly resilient, though watch out for water splashes!

2. Adding Colour With... Fabric

As featured on Queens of Vintage and referenced further down this blog. Think outside the throw when it comes to fabric - decoupage is a fantastic way to completely transform any old furniture and is also a great way to use up small offcuts of fabric, plus you don't need any specialist skills to do it - a pot of PVA glue and a bit of patience are your weapons of choice here. 

3. Adding Colour With... Paint

Turn a dowdy old darkwood table into a neon popping colour riot - more on this little project to appear in a how-to feature soon so stay tuned...

4. Adding Colour With... Flowers

Shun formal flower arrangements and huge bouquets in favour of lots of little blooms in an array of vessels. This shot was inspired by an earlier test shoot I did featuring different ways to display flowers in non-vases - think vintage bottles, shot glasses, milk jugs, teacups...

Hope you like. Keep posted for shoot two - a riot of retro inspired by Abigail's Party - see you there!

RIP Ailing Technology...

Just a little note dear readers to say I'm still here but after a series of technical malfunctions, both my desktop mac and the boyf's iBook have independently died all in the same week. We also had a powercut one night which didn't help. Plus builders are currently tearing the house to shreds (that's not actually anything to do with lack of bloggage, just trying to add to the portrait of woe I'm currently painting). Anyhoo, am currently in exile at the folks place, using t'internet on their doddery old PC to rinse my credit card and get some new kit ordered ASAP. Which is actually hugely exciting as I'll be able to make the blog bigger and better once I've got myself a super-fast 'pooter, fancy new cam and iPhone. Except I'll probably have to take on so much extra work to pay for it all that I probably won't have time to use any of it. Errrr.....

See y'all once I'm back in the 21st century!

From Orange Pine to Simply Divine

Forgive the cheesy post title (I just couldn't resist...) but just to draw your attention to my latest article over at Queens of Vintage, where I teach you how to turn this...

...into this!

Unless you're a fan of glossy WAG-toned furniture I hope you'll agree that the update is somewhat easier on the eye. This decoupage-fest took about three hours to make in total, plus about three hours painting further PVA coats to make the whole thing durable, done intermittently over several episodes of Hollyoaks. The great thing about decoupage is you don't necessarily need a lot of fabric, and can easily cover a piece using leftover bits of silk scarf, shirt sleeves and old pillowcases as well as more conventional 'off the roll' stuff.

Shout out to Max Attenborough for his beautiful photography on the 'after' shots (and not for my fuzzy 'before') - pics taken from a recent test shoot which I'll be sure to post here uber soon for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, for the full how-to, please take a look here!

Lordship Park Location House

And into July we spring! I've been uber busy of late working on an all-consuming shoot but thought I'd squeeze in a quick post before round two kicks off tomorrow. As most of my shoots tend to happen in location houses rather than studios, it gives me the perfect opportunity to snoop at some seriously drool-worthy properties (before then coming home to the reality of my rented share house with soiled carpets and chipped 80's white formica worktop, prompting a whining sesh with the boyf on when exactly we'll be buying that million-pound London townhouse...)

I was lucky enough to be at one of my favourite houses over the last few days, over at Lordship Park in North London. Whilst the house is undeniably gigantic and amazing, its clever owners have employed a few craft-hack-friendly design tricks to keep the space unique, that could be applied to more modest abodes. I shall share:

How much would you have lurved this swing seat when you were little?! OK, I'm fooling no one - if this was in my house even now you'd have to prize me off the thing. I'd be curled up on there with my interiors books grinning like a loon for 23 hours a day. Though if you avert your eye skywards, you'll notice the extremely pretty ornate banister - or, to be technical - an old bedhead-cunningly-turned-banister, customised to fit the space by lopping a bit off one side and using it to fill the other. Quite simply genius.

These doors are the sort of thing you glimpse at the back of a dusty old antiques warehouse and marvel at what a grand space they'd fill. Whilst there's no denying these are some pretty big beasts, however, they've been cleverly utilised to replace some standard sized doors in a standard sized frame (note how the doors are considerably higher than the doorway is). By mounting them outside the doorway, as opposed to inside the doorframe as standard, the fact they are outsized simply does not matter.

Alright, so that last one is pretty 'out there'. But hands up who's got boring, flatwood, featureless doors? Well then this one's for you. By covering both the door and surrounding walls with this glorious thick embossed wallpaper and topping it off with a pretty handle, these doors manage to become both invisible and a grand feature all at the same time. There's an almost magical quality to them, like you've discovered the gateway into Narnia or some other such silliness. 

Finally on this whistlestop tour, is this retro-tastic wall covered in beaten copper panels, as featured in a bedroom so fabulously cool even a 70's James Bond would feel somewhat inferior to its awe-inspiring aesthetic. I believe this panelling is a leftover set-up from a previous shoot, though if you're handy with a hammer and happen to have some spare panelling lurking about, it's actually a pretty simple set-up, jigsaw style. Another take on this look could be to cover a wall with a mixture of different sized canvases, either painting them or covering them with mismatched wallpaper, allowing enough breathing space for chinks of wall to peek through.