In honor of Earth Day this year, Anthropologie collected corks for use in their store window displays. As someone who has been saving corks from my wine bottles for years now, my interest was piqued. I haven’t yet decided what to do with my collection, but now I’ve collected some great inspiration! Of course, it takes time to collect enough corks to make much of anything, and now my collection of dozens (maybe a couple hundred?) looks tiny compared to some of these large scale cork projects. So, I doubt I’ll be making a Corkxedo (yes, really, a tuxedo made of corks) anytime soon!
After Anthropologie breaks down their cork window displays, the corks will go to Cork ReHarvest where they will go on to become fishing bobs, brand-new flooring, paper pulp and more.
Cork is a green resource and is 100% natural, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. “Trees are not cut down to harvest cork, rather, the bark is harvested by hand every 9 years. Cork oak trees can live up to 300 years, so they are very sustainable resource! Approximately 6.6 million acres of Mediterranean cork forest extend across Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and France. These oak forests support one of the world’s highest levels of forest biodiversity, second only to the Amazonian Rainforest.” -Cork ReHarvest Read the rest of this entry »
The instinct to reuse, repurpose, salvage, recycle, and reinvent has long been a part of Ladybird’s DNA. Like a bowerbird, this Ladybird compulsively saves odd bits and scraps with visions of a future purpose for materials that would often be considered trash or waste. This new pillow design was created out of Ladybird’s stash of selvedge edges of fabric that she has been collecting for several years now, and include many nice silks and wools from numerous pillows, suits, curtains, and other textile projects that have been cut out by Studio Ladybird.
Selvedge stripes are lined up side by side, raw edge to selvedge edge, and then steam fused to a backing layer of fabric, with diagonal topstitching across the stripes for extra stability and dimension. The back of each pillow features an overlapped envelope closure that also showcases the selvedge edge of the fabric whenever possible. Each of these 10″ X 18″ pillows is one of kind, and represents close to a dozen feet worth of selvedge edges from Ladybird’s collection.
This bird especially loves finding selvedges that have script along the fabric edge; this pillow includes a stripe with the words “Tasmania Stretch Extra Fine” woven into the selvedge.
Back envelope closures showcase another selvedge edge. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve long been intrigued by the visual geometry of mechanical components and have gravitated towards Neo-Victorian style and yesteryear’s machinery as well as the contrast of modern industrialization for as long as I can remember. I was into Steampunk style long before I heard the term (and posted about it) three years ago. During my college years in Charleston, SC. I was surrounded by historic architecture and objects dating from Victorian times to the Colonial Era; these days I am surrounded by Victorian mining history in the CO mountains.
Gears are a common motif in the world of Steampunk; people are using gears and cogs that are usually salvaged from clocks, watches, bikes, and machines as well as representations of gears in a variety of projects. The following examples just begin to scratch a little rust off the surface.
Being a bit of a music nut, I love these – four of the many funky steampunk guitars as well as some crazy guns as featured on WebUrbanist.
Make your own gear switchplate covers by following a tutorial at the Steampunk Workshop.
This flash drive is a stunning assemblage of tiny watch parts.
Read the rest of this entry »
The word “Assemblage“ has caught my creative focus this evening. Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. -Wikipedia
I’ve always loved to make collages, and I collect small odds and ends with the intention of one day using them in some sort of assemblage. Trouble is, I haven’t spent enough time creating. The good news is that I’ve got some pretty great collections started, so I have some inspiring materials to draw from! Both my fabric clothing label collection and my selvedge edge collection will no doubt be appearing once I have some free time to create…right now I’m so busy sewing in many moments of what used to be spare time that this blog post is the closest I’ve made it to creating something new. (unless you count that I’ve made a suit jacket and vest already this week…but that’s still in the work category.)
This is WAY cool: This Sewing Queen Marionette Assemblage by Jeanne Rhea was made from old sewing machine parts, old spools, mirror, silk, box, notions, bobbins and other found objects.
I can see a doing a regular feature on assemblage artists…these are just a few with the sewing bird theme for starters…
Check out the details in this “Hen” by whileshenaps on Etsy….I love the fabric measuring tape trim and the intricately wrapped wire and fabric legs. What a great use for fabric scraps!
Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to my new home! I’ve been busy building my blog’s new nest here with WordPress. I’m still working out all of the kinks and learning oodles about coding and formatting with all of the options available on this platform, but am excited to have my own domain and am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of web design and blogging in the process. I’m also in the process of building my home page, though it might be a few weeks before I get that up and running. (It will be my first website building project ever and I’m doing it from scratch in Dreamweaver…I’m a teach-myself-how-to-do-it kind of girl!)
What do you think of my new nest?
(collection of nests by gooseflesh)
Since so many of you enjoyed learning about the
sewing birds that I discovered last month, I thought there might be some canine lovers out there who might like this cute little dog to assist them with their sewing projects. I didn’t realize how tiny these Victorian antiques were until I found the picture below as reference! When you push down on the lever, the dog’s mouth opens and clamps down on some fabric while you hold the other end of the fabric taunt and sew. He’s also sitting on a pincushion in case you have some stray pins that need a home while you work.
I found this dog on ebay without the clamp base (sorry…the auction is over)
Or maybe a Sea Serpent Monster is more your gig? It could be yours for $895 at
Patented-Antiques. And that’s a deal….a dog like the one above already sold for $1595!!! Visit their site for such clamps as the Barracuda, Mallard Head, Squiggly Snake, Swan, and more figurative creatures. I think I’ll stick with the bird, myself.
The Sewing Bird…where it all started! I SERIOUSLY want one of these for my collection (I am Ladybird AND a seamstress, you know!) I might need to scoop this one up off
Ebay…
“Maita’i” is the
Tahitian word for “good.” I went off on a tangent just now and learned the history of the Mai Tai cocktail. Invented in 1944 at Trader Vic’s “Polynesian-style” restaurant, it has become a Tiki-themed favorite.
Here’s the tale of the first Mai Tai in Victor Bergeron’s own words: “I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn’t meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color … I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, ‘Mai Tai – Roa Ae.’ In Tahitian this means ‘Out of This World – The Best.’ Well, that was that. I named the drink Mai Tai.” (from
Bartender’s Database)
If you want a twist on the original recipe, I found all sort of great recipe variations
here.
Of course, great Tiki mug collections go hand in hand with sipping a Mai Tai.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these tasty concoctions, with several memorable drinks (served in authentic tiki mugs, of course!) shared with friends at
Voodoo, a kitschy Tiki bar in Charleston, SC (just over the bridge in West Ashley, to be specific). You sure do make a good drink, Rich T!
I’ve got spoons on the brain tonight. I may not be hungry at the moment, but the more I keep looking at spoons the more I want to scoop some ice cream! Too bad there’s none in my freezer to speak of. It all started with these spoons by
Anneke Van Bommel that were posted over at
Design*Sponge today. I love the concept that she is exploring by taking discarded, utilitarian tools and making both functional and nonfunctional transformations that redefine how we view the object, be it “collectable, disposable, temporary, or lasting.” I think the sheer effort of creating art like this out of common abandoned materials makes it a lasting, collectible piece. Wouldn’t these spoons be a cool collection to display in a funky kitchen?
I found a few other interesting spoons…
I like the ladle turned storage idea from Country Living (via
Poetic Home)
I’ve had dress forms on the brain lately, now that I’ve started doing more clothing construction out of my home studio. I developed an appreciation for vintage dressmaker’s forms during my years of working at
Worthwhile in Charleston, SC where we had a great collection of old forms to display clothing on. While not as practical for my current tailoring use, I dream of owning an assortment of antique forms one day for the sake of display and collecting alone. These are some of the forms that caught my eye today.
(Click on the stars below each image for the source.)
There’s just something about tattered and torn bits of history that I absolutely adore.
I discovered a new (well, actually antique) sewing tool today: the sewing bird. These handy tools were popular in Victorian days, before the invention of the sewing machine. If you know anything about hand sewing, you’ll understand that sometimes a third hand can be helpful. These sturdy little birds are just that. Well, actually it’s a beak instead of a hand, but you get the point. When you depress the bird’s tail feathers, the beak opens and then holds one end of the fabric while you pull the other end taunt with one hand. Then you still have one hand free to sew. Clever, huh?
I enjoy collecting old sewing tools and memorabilia, and now I have something new to keep an eye out for when I’m out antiquing and junk shopping. These little sewing birds can be rare and pricey, with the one above being a gorgeous gilded antique example from
Ruby Lane.
“Every child who sews with a will should have a wee birdie to help with his bill.”
You can read more about antique sewing birds
here.
