Interesting Finds

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Re-bagging

July 13, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | No comments

It is great when practical and sustainable ideas are real … and easy. For example, how often do you have cement left over when you build? This is one instance where you have to see the bag half full as opposed to half empty.

Local hardware stores are encouraging you to bring in your half full bag of cement, re-bag it and with the help of a few others, the bag fills up and potential waste is eliminated.

Now you know what to do with that half full bag in your garage that you have no need or use for.

[Thanks to Stuart & Cindy from Douglas&Co for getting one of the bags for me.]

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What a lot of Fiiissh!

June 3, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 2 comments

On the way back from my seamstress yesterday I noticed that the fish sellers had managed to string drying Snoek along the full length of this school fence (200m long and I counted nearly 1500 fish). Salted and dried Snoek is a delicacy that is used to make the traditional stew called Smoorsnoek. Honestly, I have never tried salted and dried Snoek or Smoorsnoek. After seeing sights like this where the fish is dried opening on rusted fences, I do not think I want to.

P.S. I couldnt fit the whole image in without making it tiny. To see up-close, click on the image and a larger version will load and you can zoom in.

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Linen Ribbon

May 31, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 2 comments

My parcel of linen ribbons and navy blue linen canvas arrived on Friday all the way from Linnet, Japan. I have no idea what I will do with it, for now it is sitting on my desk allowing me to dream up possibilities. It is so beautiful…

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Wonderful new blogs

May 13, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 4 comments

Weird and wonderful luggage by Williams Handmade via Designers Block blog. If I had these I would probably get to the hotel room, open it and everything would tumble out becuase I packed it wrong.

Packing cables into cardboard rolls is a great idea that I found on Freshly Found’s blog.

Forest Bound is one of my favourite etsy shops and blogs. We have the same fascination with old beautiful fabrics and her blog is full of her journey’s finding and making. The above image is of mail bags being printed in the early 1900s.

Lovely spider web knitting and other crafted goods shown on Sonya Philip’s blog.

Some wonderful raw inspirational images can be found on the blog Ouno Design.

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Blog Cleaning

May 11, 2010 in Featured, Interesting Finds by wendren | 5 comments

I know…I know…my blog and my shop have been rather neglected.

In my defense, Ive been painting the house (I couldn’t take living in a butter dish any longer), lecturing full time and keeping Wren afloat.

I now have time off (yippeee) and to start off, I thought I would tidy my blog up. There are so many great blogs out there and whilst living through the past few months, I haven’t taken the time to stop, chat and be inspired.

How awesome are:

…these hand drawn flowers in a vase?

Made by Jurianne Matter and found via Bloesem.

These budding storybook notebooks found via anything goes.

Astulabee attended a dimensional fabric collage workshop. Here is one example as to why (only sometimes) I wish I lived in the US (or if I could wish for absolutely anything, South Africa was closer to the US). With that mention, Heather Moore of Skinnylaminx is over in NY and having a wonderful creative sabbatical fulled with all these kinds of workshops – it’s great to see.

I love Oh Joy’s new website (or has it been like this for a while? – sorry, love the nature image widgets). It’s autumn right now in South Africa and although gardens are usually most loved in spring, I am loving this new season. All my Watsonia’s and Chasmanthe’s are shooting, my rocket is starting to take and everything seems to be recovering well from the Cape’s windy and hot summer. Design Sponge has a post on Marie Susa (of Susa farms) scented geraniums. Wouldn’t those make lovely tussie-mussies?

How clever are these business cards by Andrea Romani (en environmental consultant) found via laissezfairedesign?

Often I am challenged to develop a ‘new’ and more interesting business card but my response is that the ones I have are cheap, serve the purpose and are easy (and I think look pretty cool for the boring business card). To go and develop something more ‘captivating’ takes time and money – well not these. LOVE IT!

Also….how clever are these packing crate drawers by Maurício Arruda found via Design Milk? I have an open cupboard in our newly painted kitchen. The kitchen is big so I don’t desperately need the shelf space and I don’t know what to put there. Wouldn’t these be great and add colour? Adding this to the ‘to do list’…

Also….our post box is just about had it and needs an upgrade but I refuse to get one of those awful metal ones. How gorgeous are these post boxes in a photograph from Being Brazen’s Blog.

During this ‘inspiration feast’ I realised all my local favourite bloggers were no longer on my roll. I am SO sorry – please forgive me. I missed out of wonderful things like these crocheted stools by wood & wool via Beatnik Bazaar.

On the handcrafted note, Jesse (of Jezze Blog) always brings out the most fantastic little hand items (always beautifully packaged). I love her new printed buttons (left) and Jenny Arnott’s hand stitched buttons (right)(found via Print & Pattern)

Soozibee’s blog is always very down-to-earth and I love her new landscape prelims. I also love her sketchbook (I say this with a guild running up my spine becuase I should have a sketch-book too – note: add to to-do list (wow, this list is growing).

…and I’m wondering…where on earth was I when all these great things were being posted???

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Lotus Thread

March 30, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 7 comments

Tucked away in one of these floating houses is place I would give a great deal to spend just one week.

My friend Alexa is a great traveler and on her way back from doing an internship in Japan she went to Burma. Here she found a weaving and natural dyeing workshop.

On the other side of the room from the dyers are spinners and weavers. They spin cotton, silk and lotus. All these natural fibres are locally grown, harvested and hand spun into threads and yarn that are then woven into beautiful cloths for sale (sadly, a very small percentage of the money received goes to the crafters as the country is run by a military junta who take almost all the earnings).

The fibre that sparks my curiosity is from the Lotus plant. The Lotus stems are collected from the lagoons or flooded fields in the area and then this old man, with a great deal of skill, breaks the stem in two without breaking the sinew-like plant fibres that are inside. Carefully (but quickly) he pulls the two halves apart, stretching and extracting the fibres out of the stems. As he does this he twists them to form a long lotus yarn that is later spun.

I think Alexa must have felt me trying to swap places with her when she took these photograph. To imagine the trade secrets and skills that are here leaves me with my mouth wide open and my heart running out the door to get on the next plane to Burma (but I am not quite as brave as my heart always wishes).

For Christmas Alexa spoilt me and gave me a naturally dyed silk and lotus scarf – it is as gorgeous as you can imagine.

P.S. Thanks Alexa for sending the pics and letting me share them

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Scissor Shop

January 27, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 5 comments

Scissor collection

On the corner of a street in Milan that I will never be able to find again I came across a wall full of scissors. From nose hair cutters, to lace scissors it was very ‘cool’ to say the least. My favourite scissors of this collection happened to be a thread cutter (see below). I am still wondering if I made the right decision to leave the shop without it.

My Fav Scissors

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Sightseeing in Milan

January 26, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 4 comments

Dome in Milan

Jeremy and I spent two days in Milan – I had to show him a bit of Italy and because it was so close, we went. What we did not realise was that the first two days of the new year are celebrated with huge 50% off sales and there were queues outside shops that I dare not even dream of entering around the block. Sadly, as a tourist, we also discovered that to see most of the sights (like the Last Supper) you need to book well in advance. Our sight seeing in Milan consisted of the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and people (including their fashion).

Water installations

I really liked this water feature with paper water lily lights and origami birds.

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Ironwork

January 21, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | No comments

Gate Iron work

In Basel, Switzerland the ironwork of gates and even the street lights captivated me.

Street Light

Gate Handle

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Pet Lamps in Zurich

January 18, 2010 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 1 comment

Alexa and I in Zurich

Europe is wonderful because it is so different (from South Africa that is). One cannot explain what it is like to see artworks that you have learnt about in books, to see buildings that are older than your mind can comprehend and to experience a way of life that is not orientated around your car. It is refreshing and in that, inspirational. However, there are the obvious design inspirations that I could not pull myself away from. For one, I was completely blown away by all the amazing lights that I saw: standing lamps, desk lamps, ceiling lights. How adorable are these animal lights?

Lights

My favourite light from this collection is the fish.

Fish Light

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Dragon’s Blood Tree

December 17, 2009 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 4 comments

Whilst traipsing through the back streets of Kalk Bay taking photographs of the Coffee Travel Bags Jeremy noticed this peculiar tree on an empty plot (of which there are not many in Kalk Bay).

Jeremy, having read Victoria Finlay’s book ‘Travels Through the Painbox‘ several times (I have only managed it a few times) identified it from a sketch as a Dragon Tree. Realizing the odds of this are extremely unlikely we went up to inspect it. Sure enough, from swollen pork-sausage like branches a crimson red sap oozed (hence the name “dragon’s blood tree”).

This red sap is what makes this tree special. Stradivarius used dragon’s blood resin (which is said to be a mixture of turpentine and dragons blood sap) to give his violins their amazing color (something which was a mystery for years). The colour of this lacquer has been described as ‘little lumps deeper in colour than a barbuncle, clear as crystal and fiery as a ruby’ and to find it harder than ‘…droping the city as hard as Digoengens had to grope for an honest man in a much less knavish town than London‘.

One has to wonder what on earth this tree is doing in Kalk Bay when they are naturally found in Northern Africa, Southern Asia and on the mountainous areas of the Canary Islands. After a few days of searching in vain for information about the Dragon Blood Tree that is in Kalk Bay I am left to my imagination: perhaps the Cape Malay people brought a seed or a small plant and planted it, Or if it was a sailor fromm a distant island stopping over in the tiny harbor who gave it away… We will most likely never know.

The thing about the Tree in Kalk bay is that it is huge - the trunk branches every time the tree flowers and this doesn’t happen once a year either – so this tree could be well over 200 years old. It think it is amazing that so little is known about this very unusual tree in the middle of Kalk Bay.

To see more pictures of this tree visit my flickr set.

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Green stars, paper rolls and brown books

December 7, 2009 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 1 comment

These metal drawers remind me of my wooden library ones. I wonder what their original purpose was. I love the green stars.

Packed high up to the ceiling were these cardboard rolls. From far they looked like a giant honey comb.

map-rolls

The book shelves that were filled with brown paper folded and bound books were beautiful. I love how each one is different, how they are each stacked to be the same but yet are not and I love that the writing on them is all jargon to me. It adds to the wonder of whats inside.

book-wall

Photographs from the Chief Directorate of Mapping and Survey.

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Map Archives

December 4, 2009 in Interesting Finds by wendren | 4 comments

archival-room

One of my favourite things about my ‘job’ (in inverted commas becuase Wren isn’t really a job), is finding new places that I would probably otherwise never have known about. The Chief Directorate of Mapping and Survey in Woodstock is my most recent find. I realise that this probably does not sound very exciting but I got to go into the archival rooms and open draw upon draw and discover maps from years ago and to be honest, being in such an ‘old world’ space was somewhat special.

wooden-shelves

When I first went there I asked for the maps they no longer needed. They showed me this HUGE pile but quickly added that they could not give them to me. For months I have been writing letters to various people explaining what I hoped to do with them and finally I was given permission to collect them. The maps will be going to the Hope Factory to be made into gift bags for Wren.

architecture-drawers

I searched for a beautiful set of wooden architecture drawers (as it is seemingly becoming my life long goal and dream to find one) but sadly they all seem to have been replaced with these grey metal ones (above). However there is something inspirational in the starkness and assembled line-up of these grey drawers.

book-rows

There were also rows of old books. Lined up at the end of the grey drawers this space felt like I gone back in time with its wooden shelves and hand bound books.

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MOvember November Moustache Wax

December 3, 2009 in Interesting Finds by wendren | No comments

‘MOvember’ has just finished and boy but were there were moustache’s all over the place. ‘Movember‘ is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues. If only I have found this ‘Moustache Wax’ (from MansFaceStuff on etsy) earlier. I know a handful of guys who would have had a great deal of fun moulding their moustache’s especially becuase that there is a competition for the most creative ‘MOvember’ moustache.

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Murex

September 17, 2009 in DIY Projects, Interesting Finds by wendren | 4 comments

Various shades of purple and turquoise come from a family of molluscs called Murex. The pigment (note, not dye) is secreted by the little sea snail when physically attacked so, in a way, this prized colour shares the same kind of sad love story as the oyster and pearl. However, the sea snail gets to live after their ordeal because killing them is believed to bring bad luck.

Daniela sent me the turquoise pigment from the murex family. One packet contains a purple-blue and the other a turquoise that comes from the sea snail “murex trunculus”.

The “murex brandaris” is the most desired molluscs becuase they produce what is known as ‘royal purple’. This colour has been described by many as not being purple at all but rather as ox blood or by those who are more kind, deep fushia or dark mauve. I think this little unknown bottle of mine contains it but I am not sure.

Purple

It is interesting that my favourite colour, Indigo, and the Murex pigments are very similar: they both react to the intensity, or lack of, sunlight. They also both rely on the reaction of oxygen to produce their colour and both need a mordant or oxygen to be removed from the dyeing vat so that the colour will fix to the fabric and not run. The purple-blue that Daniela sent me is from another sea snail and when produced in the shade produces a purple-blue colour and when produced in the sunlight a sky-blue indigo colour (as you can see by Pye’s nose who smelt the dye and then lay in the sun).

My favourite secret about purple is not about it’s colour but rather smell. They say that Cleopatra wore purple, her palace was draped with it and when she sailed or went anywhere, that too was purple. I find myself day dreaming of clear green waters and perfect blue skies with a soft wind blowing this powerful Queen gently along in a purple haze. It is a lovely image.

What killed it for me was that along with the colour, the sea snail secretes a garlic ‘flavour’ with the pigment that for years could not be separated from the colour. Still today on Cleopatra’s cloth you can smell the garlic undertones even though they have lost all their colour. Where ever Cleopatra went a garlic scent lingered. Not everything royal is wonderful I would say.

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« Older entries

Interesting Finds

Re-bagging

What a lot of Fiiissh!

Linen Ribbon

Wonderful new blogs

Blog Cleaning

Lotus Thread

Scissor Shop

Sightseeing in Milan

Ironwork

Pet Lamps in Zurich

Dragon’s Blood Tree

Green stars, paper rolls and brown books

Map Archives

MOvember November Moustache Wax

Murex

Wren SHOP:

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