You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2008.
Today bloggers all over the world will be uniting to post on the single topic of poverty in the aim of raising awareness and inspiring a global collective dialogue.
To mark Blog Action Day 2008 we’re celebrating a flipping ingenious community project to tidy up the East coast of Africa, protect wildlife habitat and at the same time provide fair trade eco-friendly work for local women.
Taking thousands of abandoned flip flops which litter the shores local coastal villagers turn them into a myriad of colourful goodies from keyrings to beaded curtains.
recycled flip flop elephant
The fabulous flip flop recycling project began in the late nineties when Scottish performance poet Elspeth Murray, witnessing the abundance of washed up flip flops on the beach of the Kiunga Marine Reserve, flippantly wondered why nobody had thought to use the debris creatively.
She wrote the now famous Flip Flotsam poem, which triggered a rush to make recycled flip flop fancies, which inspired the award winning Flip Flotsam film and with the hard work and directive vision of Monique Oliff and Julie Church the rest, as they say, is history.
Today the successful concept has spread to surrounding islands and UniquEco, the (Flipflop) Recycling Company now stocks a vibrant range of products made from recycled flip flops for your home, garden and wardrobe. Buying a recycled flip flop product helps protect the environment and lifts people out of poverty.
You can also support the amazing environmental and community work of UniquEco by donating money and your old flip flops.
And, you can vote for them in World Challenge 2008.
You can read a lovely interview with Elspeth Murray here.
We thought we’d continue our eco-design theme this week by giving a mention to a couple of makers in our design directory who have mastered the art of upcycling.
David Farrer takes waste papers and transforms them into fabulous paper mache animal trophy heads.
image David Farrer
Squint gives new life to old furniture by recovering it in a vibrant patchwork of vintage and classic fabrics.
image Squint
If you want to know a little more about upcycling you’ll find the wikipedia definition of upcycling here.
recycled embroidered eco cushions
We have a new collection of embroidered cushions.
We made a decision not too long ago that we wanted to be a little greener and so we’ve been working hard to develop a range of cushions made from sustainable textiles. We’ll explain more soon, but for now let’s just say our eco cushions are made from a combination of natural, unbleached hemp, recycled fabrics and that because of the way they are made each one is completely unique.
Eco cushions will be appearing on our website and in our etsy shop this coming week. Watch this space!
spring bulbs ready for autumn planting
It’s a beautiful Autumn day here in Edinburgh. The sky is clear and blue, the sun warm and the starlings are chattering away on the chimney pots.
And what better way to spend it than pottering in the garden? We’re tidying up pots, pulling baby beetroot and picking the last of the sweet peas.
We’ve also been sorting through the delivery of spring bulbs that arrived earlier this week. We plant bulbs in all our client’s gardens every Autumn so that when spring finally knocks on the door their gardens are full of green shoots and flowers.
There’s something magical about this annual ritual of unpacking the beautifully wrapped packets and nets of strangely shaped bulbs, an anticipation of next year’s growth as this year starts its slow wind down.
If you have any questions about planting bulbs in your garden then feel free to fire them our way!
We’re loving these gorgeous spiky ceramics by Ikuko Iwamoto and Lorna Fraser which we’ve just posted up in the design directory.
image Ikuko Iwamoto
image Lorna Fraser
I love finding makers who go the extra mile and as someone who once made a lumpy clay hippo in pottery class at school I’m in complete awe of these delicate, intricate structures and their eerie organic beauty. Can you imagine how much time and energy went into hand sculpting such exquisitely perfect forms? Incredible!
