Auction for Japan

Whilst the awful images of the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami on Japan are no longer dominating the front pages, the suffering continues with over 10,000 people confirmed dead, over 16,000 still missing and many living in evacuation centres.  The scale of destruction and upheaval is so immense that it's hard to comprehend. It's heartening nonetheless to see how people around the world have responded with so many gestures of support. 


One of these is a fabulous auction of bespoke jewellery and handmade textiles being held by The Collective to raise money for the Japan relief fund via  OXFAM.  The auction will run from Monday 28^th March 2PM GMT until Monday 4^th April 8:30pm GMT. All of the money raised will be paid into a PayPal account which will then be paid onto the Japan fund via the OXFAM site.

Items on offer include Bespoke Jewellery kindly donated by:

Joy Funnell ; Izzy of Flame and Glass; Barbara Lewis ; Emma Ralph; Lush Lampwork; Lori Anderson; KookieDesigns; Clair WolfeDesigns; Kristin Smith of K S Jewellery Designs; CeeGee Jewellery Designs ; C-Urchin, Anna Stassen  Saukura Jewellery; Jemima Lumley

plus stunning artisan Lampwork beads donated by the following artists:

Ray Skene, Annelyse Taylor, Glittering Prize,  Rebecca Weddell, moogin, c-urchin, Emma Ralph, Chameleon Designs, Clare Scott , Cheeky Cherubs , Sublime Beads  and  Flame and Glass

and beautiful handmade Textile donations from:

Lisa Pidgeon of dharmaflyer; Bev Hicklin of Hattie Rae and Atelier Glass and Lazy Daisy Glass and myfuroshiki.

Please pop over to the auction page and have a look. It is easy to bid, just follow the e-mail link and state your name, auction lot number that you are bidding on and your bid amount in £ sterling please.

Bunny wraps

Just been practising my bunny wraps, ideal for all those easter eggs and other gifts. 

These cheerful checked furoshiki are now in our Folksy and Etsy stores, and also available in blue and green.

Happy wrapping!

Coming soon

In like a lion

I love our house - it's part of a much larger mill owner's house which was added to over the years to create a marvellous Georgian / Victorian hodgepodge. Our bit is the oddest shaped (very tall and narrow) and quirky with a tower room which, the estate agent told us, was built so the owner could look across the village to the churchyard where his young wife was buried.  Nothing like a story of doomed romance to entrance a buyer. Rather more prosaically (and probably), it also has an excellent view of the entrance to the mill yard and any dilatory workers!

There is a price to pay for character though and the blocked up doorways and rickety floor boards all make for quite a draughty home.  Our living room door, in particular, would never stay shut so I had a play and now we have a furoshiki doorstop!

 
The wraps shown here are the basic furoshiki gift wrap - which has the advantage of creating a handle for when you want to move the doorstop - and a more dramatic looking wrap created by putting all the corners up above the centre, then knotting one around the others to hold them in place. The furoshiki themselves are about 1 metre square and made from remnants so tying them in different ways creates different patterns.

The inside is a calico bag with a velcro fastening which can be filled with sand or rice or beans or whatever you have to hand.

And there you have it - a quick, easy and flexible solution to doors with a mind of their own!  Available soon from the myfuroshiki folksy and etsy shops.

Just contemplating all the things I'm going to / have to do today.  It's always important to include a few treats I think and one of mine will definitely be taking five minutes or so to browse the new UK Handmade magazine - over ninety pages of inspirational articles, 'meets' and 'makes' - including an interview I was lucky enough to be able to do with the amazing Suzanne Stallard of Jelly.  Read all about it!