recycling – Just Real Ruby

Twelve ways of #Craftmas: Hooked on Helping

Born out of a loathing for the corporate exploitation of Black Friday Sales and Christmas marketing, #Craftmas aims to get word out about the artists, artisans and craftspeople making beautiful gifts. Why buy a mass produced piece of plastic when you can gift an exclusive and interesting piece made by a creator-maker looking to make a living.

Support #Craftmas by using it to Tweet about your favourite makers, by using the hashtag as a Christmas shopping directory or simply by retweeting!

“It was coming up to Christmas and I was seeing a lot of social media posts asking for warm clothing – I couldn’t afford to donate much money but I had a stash of yarn so started to make items that I could parcel up and send off. It kind of snowballed from there.”

ViviLnk

Kaz Molloy is an occasional vendor of crochet goods, but a full time creator of winter warmers for those in need. For her crafting has been a lifesaver for her and has turned into a series of good deeds with untold value.

Originally from Birmingham, Kaz has lived on the Isle of Bute, of the west coast of Scotland for 17 years. Over the years she has dabbled in card making, sewing, jewellery making and decoupage – but has found a love of crochet which unleashed her creativity.

Since a diagnosis of womb cancer at the end of 2009 her life has changed a lot. “I’ve been left with long term side effects of the treatment so am virtually housebound,” Kaz explained. “My crafting has been the only thing that has kept me sane – well, almost!”

Just over a year ago she found her own way into craft activism. As she started to make items such as wristwarmers for the homeless her efforts resonated with friends and Facebook followers and the balls of donated yarn started rolling in. Sitting in an armchair by her kitchen window Kaz kept making more and more and parcelled them up and posted them to homeless outreach groups across the UK.

“Since I started doing this last October, she recalled. “I’ve sent out 51 parcels which included 363 pairs of wristwarmers and 73 scarves.”

Kaz added: “I put the same amount of effort into my scarves as I would if I was making them to sell. Just because someone is homeless doesn’t mean they should have to make do with inferior items. All my items are made with love and hopefully the bright colours will bring a smile to the face of the person who receives it.”

Although Kaz rarely sells her wares she will be at a Christmas Craft Fair in the Isle of Bute Discovery Centre today, November 30, between 11am and 4pm and some items are occasionally listed on her Facebook page. She also has a blog page where you can follow her activities.

Want more #Craftmas inspirations? Kaz recommends:

Felt Isle is a friend on Bute who does fab felt textile work. Rowanberrybute is another who knits lovely items. Off island there is Rowanberry Designs who makes the most amazing lampwork glass beads and Connor Viking Blacksmith.

Twelve ways of #Craftmas: The Fabric of Times Past

Support #Craftmas by using it to Tweet about your favourite makers, by using the hashtag as a Christmas shopping directory or simply by retweeting!

“I have always loved fabric – I can often be found stroking cushions,clothes and bedding in shops.”

Lampshade, pillows and quilt in vintage fabric, by Quilterdown

Nicki, of Quilterdown, is all about the material things, but not in the corporate way. Her one-woman-and-a-cat business uses vintage, recycled and upcycled fabrics to create new and unique quilts, cushions and lampshades. Her work owes a debt to the past – and not just in the retro materials she creates from.

“As a child, I was surrounded by fabrics,” she explained. “I have been sewing as long as I can remember. My mother used to make all my clothes and I learned at her knee. As a new wife I made curtains, cushions and such for my first home and I have always made clothes.”

Nicki first started stitching quilts after a visit to a vintage fair around ten years ago.

She said: “I walked into the room and was suddenly surrounded by the most amazing vintage fabrics. I was gobsmacked and inspired. From that point, I knew vintage fabrics were my future.”

Starting out with a quilt as a birth-gift for her god-daughter her quilting enterprise began to grow and the hobby flourished into art which in turn grew into her own business, Quilterdown.

Drawing inspiration from the world around her – whether it be the customer, tiles on a floor, Pinterest or the fabric itself – Nicki works alone in her South East London shed, an oasis of calm amongst the birds and trees of her garden.

“Quilting makes me happy,” said Nicki. “Working out a design,putting it together and seeing it work gives me pleasure!! Even a really simple design is wonderful to put together. I make a lot of baby quilts and receive a lot of pictures from parents – it’s so wonderful to see a beautiful baby lying on one of my quilts!”

She added: “Quilting will always be my world. I love the maths involved, despite never always being rubbish at maths, the cutting, the design, the fabric choices! I love working with a customer to make something utterly unique.”

Nicki’s work is available on Folksy. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

Image of Nicki, standing by a poker table — Nicki, the creative force behind Quilterdown

Want more #Craftmas inspirations? Nicki recommends: The House of Upcycling (@thehouseofup) on Instagram; RevampedbySara – @revampedbysara (Insta & Facebook); @TheBlueberryPatch (Insta & FB); HandmadeandVintage – @handmadeandvintage (Insta & FB); @whenidecorate and @wittydawnuk

The Home Front: War On Plastics

Plastic bottles are driving me to distraction.

In our family of seven we get through far too many items of plastic – shampoo bottles, conditioner bottles, spray bottles, food trays – the list is endless and depressing. I cast my eyes upon the recycling basket with a sense of woe. It endlessly refills and is not empty for long after I’ve skipped it out into the recycling bin. I’ve watched the Attenborough documentaries, I’ve seen news reports about the energy required to produce plastic goods, the scientific advice around how long they take to decompose, and it paints an increasingly bleak picture. We’re suffocating the earth with our plastic habit. This is about more than just my sanity viz clutter, it is about giving our children a fighting chance.

As they say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, so I’m starting small on my attempts to change. I know that I have the ability to do this – apart from a small slip involving a particularly pretty yellow blouse (in my defence I was having a particularly bad few weeks around my post-twins shape) – I remain committed after two years to avoiding fast fashion by being a devout recycler and sourcing second hand clothes exclusively in charity and thrift stores.

In my new campaign to improve my habits, my small start is around my biggest bugbears – the number of bottles we take into the shower and deodorant.

Shower gel is an irritant to my sensibilities. It hardly seems to last, it is too easy to use more than is necessary (usually with a considerable globule plopping straight down the drain) and we always seem to have about eight different flavours on the go at once. I decide this needs to be replaced by soap. Happily, I received a Christmas gift of a selection of Bomb Cosmetics, from an incredibly lovely friend (hence free to me!), including a Festive Ginger Soap Cake.

In considering the shampoo and conditioner conundrum, which means elimination of two plastic bottles, I considered an array of solid shampoo bars, ultimately opting for a Funky Soap Butter Bar Shampoo. Helpfully this bar includes advice on natural alternatives to conditioner and recommends using one part of apple cider vinegar to two parts of water.

Finally my plastic free solution to deodorant comes in the way of an ammonium alum crystal – from Puro Mineral bought as a set of three via Amazon. To use you moisten the crystal and rub it on the underarms.

So, with myself and the other half as willing guinea pigs, I have started my experimental war on plastic.

Report on how we go to follow…

* For note the items I have chosen have NOT been provided by the makers or any other company. Unless otherwise stated I buy the items myself so that there is no obligation to be positive about any products.