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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.
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 just back from our holidays and after a busy summer we’re a little embarrassed at how much we have let our blog slip… As is so easy with these things, the more you slow down the harder it is to get going again, so very sincere apologies to all of you who have been wondering where we have been.
Well, we’re back, and with all the resolve which so often generates when we take a well earned break we’re looking forward to the coming months and we absolutely promise we will be more committed, better and more bubbly bloggers.
It’s Earth Day today and we’ve been discussing how we would like to be greener at twig.
We’re pretty good at the small gestures such as recycling our waste paper, shredding and composting old documents, using energy light bulbs, trying not to leave our electricals on stand by.
And we’re not too bad at some of the bigger gestures either. Our embroidery threads meet strict EU environmental legislation in their manufacture, the studio we rent is heated with bio-diesel made from recycled waste oil. We only use recycled soil improver and mulches in our garden design projects to conserve water and reduce the need for fertilisers.
But we still feel there’s a lot more we could, and should, be doing. So we’ve made a few pledges
- we’d like to reduce the amount of driving we do which means a little more cycling, a few more rides on public transport, and the possibility of moving our studio closer to home.
- we’d also like to be more careful about the fabrics we use so we’ll be adding some organic and some recycled textiles into our studio collections.
- and we will be changing over to recycled stationery
It doesn’t feel like very much but we reckon that a few small commitments every few months should make it easier to be green.
I was really privileged to get to meet two amazing embroiderers, Alice Kettle and Rachael Howard, this weekend when I took myself off to Liverpool for the Regional Day for the North West branches of the Embroiderers Guild.
If you think that embroidery is all about neat petite sensible pictures then think again! This was a day which celebrated two very talented and highly skilled artists both pushing the limitations of embroidery in their own highly distinctive style. You may well have never heard of either of them because embroidery rarely receives the attention it deserves.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Alice Kettle because her work defies every expectation and preconception you may have about embroidery. Here is a shot of her working on her latest piece, a solidly embroidered panel measuring a staggering 3 metres by 16.5 metres!
winchester discovery centre panel in progress
You can see more of her work on her website.
In contrast to these dense solid stiches Rachael’s quirky, sketchy printed and applique panels and tales of her work with primary school kids had me in stitches.
sunning by rachael howard
It’s always inspiring and encouraging to hear other designers talk about their work and inspiration and listening to Alice and Rachael reminded me how contemporary embroidery is very much alive as a dynamic, innovative and skilled field of design.
And both of them were incredibly lovely and friendly to boot.
One of us at least (and no prizes for guessing it wasn’t Jason) was delighted to discover this beautiful film, A Common Thread.
Yes, really, a film about embroidery!
And it couldn’t be more beautiful.
It’s a deliciously slow, visually striking story of two very different women struggling with their own private experiences as stitch by stitch the boundaries between them unravel and the common threads running through their lives unite them.
And all of this is set against a backdrop of mouthwatering close up shots of intricate couture embroidery and stunning, tonal, poetic still life moments.
Go watch!
(image mathew ingram)
Now that’s a question we’re dying to ask!
We’re just putting the shine to our talk for a local gardening group. We have been invited to speak about twig and the overlap and integration between the work we do and the home and garden. It’s really got us thinking about how we spend time in our gardens and how those needs are evolving.
Whilst we are fantastically focussed on design we were both brought up in gardening families and since then we have shared large, and small gardens where we have had a very hands on approach to gardening- keeping chickens, growing vegetables and fruit, propagating our own plants. (You get the picture- a touch of The Good Life…!)
It’s typical of garden design though that many clients come to twig because they don’t actually want the hard graft of gardening. More than anything they crave a space they can live in, be that spending time with friends and family, or relaxing with a glass of wine after a tough day in the office.
As a result we design gardens which allow our clients to do this as easily as possible. We integrate barbecues and seating as fixed features for entertaining. We create sheltered secluded seats for peaceful moments. We frame beautiful views and we create privacy from over looking windows and buildings.
And we do this in the context of lush, vibrant planting (because a garden without plants is as souless as a home without books) and the conviction that anything which draws us out into the garden is a fine thing. That the garden is the extra outdoor room that engages us with our environment. That it’s OK to hang out in the garden without getting soil in our nails and mud in our boots.
So now we’re asking is this your style of gardening? Is lazing in the garden more important to you than working in the garden? Does lounging in a hammock appeal to you more than digging the tatty bed? Are you a lazy gardener?
