Wish List Wednesday - Barruntando Ceramics

It's Wish List Wednesday again and this month I've discovered and fallen for Barruntando Ceramics. I actually found them through the Red Door Gallery website. The gallery is a stones throw away from my work and a great place to pick up gifts and homewares, it's stocked by local and independent makers and the staff are so friendly!

Barruntando Ceramics have their own Etsy site as well as distributing internationally from there base in Spain. The pieces are made by a group of five ladies who all came together over their shared love of ceramics, they hand craft in white earthenware clay because they like the purity of its colour and it's strength.

They make the most adorable pieces that are practical and cute, their work includes; spoon holders, cake toppers, salt and pepper shakers, jewellry, figures and their signature yarn bowls. Originally I was going to base this post around the Jurassic Clay Collection, set of five dinos that are hand painted and full of character but as I kept looking through their Etsy page I fell for the Mermaid Miniature Figures, Unicorn Cake Toppers and the Trees Ring Dish too.

They say that their main goals are to 'Create different, bold and modern, light and original utilitarian pottery.' and I think they have hit the nail on the head. So if you are looking for an interesting gift, something to brighten up your home or a little quirk to add to your special day then you should check them out. Everything is hand made and decorated so all their pieces are unique, no two are the same!

I'll leave you with a picture of the adorable dino team to swoon over. xxx

Personalised Scrabble Art tutorial

Check out the adorable Scrabble Art I made for Martyn's sister and her boyfriend for their Christmas. They are moving into their very own house early this year so I made them something for it. These are super easy to make and not to expensive either!

All you need it;
A box frame,
Scrabble tiles 
Backing paper
Craft glue
Double sided sticky tape
Scissors
Bits and bobs

First things first you need to create your design, start with your 'topic' for me it was their New Pad but you could create ones for birthdays, anniversary's or new babies. Once you've decided on that you can add in the extra words or names. I had an easy one just incorporating Natalie and Michael into New Pad. You could use someones name and and put words that describe them through it.

Once your happy with your design move onto the frame. I used the Ikea Ribba frame, it's nice and deep and comes in a couple of colours. Grab your backing paper, it can be wrapping paper, decoupage, fabric or just plain paper. I used some beautiful hand made paper that I bought from Paperchase with a cream back ground and lovely gold pattern on it. Place your backing of choice, pattern down, on your work surface and take out the back section of the frame and pop it on your paper and drawer around it. Cut out your background and use the double sided sticky tape to attach it to the back of the frame, use plenty of it as you'll be sticking the tiles and bits and bobs onto it.

When you have it lined up and stuck to the back of your frame you should lay out you Scrabble tile design, you can pick up the tiles in most good haberdasheries. Begin sticking the tiles down using your craft glue starting at the middle and working your way out, that why the design should stay pretty central. Once they are all stuck down you can play with your bits and bobs, I had picked up a packet of felt keys, locks and blue birds that I arranged around the lettering. 

As you can tell I like things symmetrical.

Give your design a couple hours to dry before lifting it. When you feel the glue has done its job and everything is secure all you do is pop it back into the frame. I had a little trouble with this as I hadn't made the edging of my backing paper very neat but it should be easy. 

Ta dah! Beautiful handmade personalised gift for friends and family. 

Wool and the Gang knitting party

Have you guys heard of Wool and the Gang? I've been following then on Instagram for months now, you should check them out! They are changing the way fashion is created and consumed by sourcing their products with 'consideration so as to reduce impact on our environment'. The wool is natural, renewable and biodegradable and they work with fashion factories to re-purpose their fashion waste into new yarns. They sell their products in 2 ways, you can either buy a kit with wool, needles, a pattern and whatever other bits you need or you can buy the finished product. The Gang are an army of makers, both knitting and crocheting the collections in their homes and not in factories, the majority of whom are based in the UK. Many of their larger pieces are made by their Peruvian Gang. 

Lovely colourful wool

They also host knitting parties across the UK, Europe and the USA. My friend Emily and I went along to one before to knit the 'Snood Operator' woolly snood. Tickets cost £30 each but Emily, who I work with, wangled us a pair for half price! One of the knitting gang who knits at home was hosting the party in Outhouse on Broughton Street Lane so we headed along for 7 on the dot to make sure we got our pick of the wool colours. 

My equipment

We were the second folk there and chatted away to our host for the evening and chose our wool colours, Emily took the grey and I went with, my staple, maroon. We took our seats and a few others arrived, there were 6 of us in totally with a range of skill levels. Wool and the Gang provide everything you need to complete your project including the wool, access to videos about how to cast off, a needle to sew it all up and you get to take away the stunning 15mm rose wood knitting needles. 

Knitting and a pint!

Our host was very patient with us, we had 3 patterns to pick from for our snoods and she demonstrated them for us, I picked moss stitch for mine (which, for knitters, is knit then purl on an odd number to create an amazing texture). We sat in the pub for 2 hours gassing away to the other ladies and catching up on our work gossip and it flew by! At about 9pm we realised that we should be heading home and we were both nearly finished our snoods so we packed all our bits and bobs into the bags and headed down the road. Emily finished hers when she got in but it took me a couple days to get round to it but I love it now and it’s hardly been off since! 

Lovely Emily!

I would definitely recommend looking them up on Instagram and signing up for their newsletter because that’s how you hear about the deals they have and upcoming events. So go on folks check them out and change the face of fashion!