Nut and Bee » inspiration

Beautiful Crochet Rugs

Annette / Nut and Bee — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:41:27 +0000

Since I decided to reclaim crochet as something I do just for fun I have been utterly obsessed with crochet rugs and afghans. They take so many hours, but the repetitive process means the journey is as calming as the destination, and what a destination it is – beautiful and useful and ready to last a lifetime.

I’m still working on the one I started while I was on maternity leave (trust me to pick a pattern that has at least twice as many stitches per square as the standard granny square!) but I’m mentally planning the next two or three as well. There are so many options, not just in colours, but stitches and textures and shapes as well.

Flickr contains a wealth of the most beautiful work, here are some of my favourites in various styles:

1. knotten2009, 2. solgrim, 3. whereyourheartis, 4. fwoukje
5. miainspiration, 6. wardi, 7. amygunson, 8. nathr3
9. slip_stitch, 10. littleberry247, 11. sarah london textiles, 12. ckroes

I’m fairly sure my next blanket will have a floral motif, but beyond that I am still dreaming :)

Permalink · Leave a comment!

The Small Object on Making

Annette / Nut and Bee — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:16:02 +0000

Sarah from The Small Object wrote an excellent post about being a maker.

“When you buy handmade directly from an individual, you are investing in me. And not just in me, but in my products, in my ideas and in my own well-being. When you buy something from me, you just gave me a double high five. We just connected and shook hands like mad.”

I love Sarah’s site because every piece she makes has such a clear sense of her own style. Every time you see something new you know it couldn’t have come from anyone else. If you haven’t visited The Small Object before, or recently, I would highly recommend it :)

Permalink · Leave a comment!

Colour Loving

Annette / Nut and Bee — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:05:56 +0000

I really love displays of colours – artist’s palettes, embroidery threads, eyeshadows, paint charts at the hardware store, websites like Colour Lovers – so I made a few palettes from some of my illustrations while I ate lunch today.

From Cosy Barnyard

From Wash ‘n’ Dry

From Orchard Snacktime

From Pencil Nibbler

From Burpy Bear

I didn’t realise how often I use “spring” colours until I saw these all together!

Permalink · Leave a comment!

Pixiv Festa exhibition

Annette / Nut and Bee — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:38:20 +0000

I’m going to wrap up my posts on Tokyo by sharing some of our favourite pieces from the Pixiv Festa exhibition we ran into in the Design Festa galleries in Tokyo! I’m copying and pasting the artist’s names, and linking to their profiles on the Pixiv website, which I hope is sufficient attribution :)

「もふもふカプチーノ」/しぶぞー	「心強い僕の友達」/tomape

「送電線鉄塔越え」ー飛ぶ犬ーより」 /[perro perra]	「カンニバルリンゴ」/まみな

You can see all of the pieces on the Pixiv Festa website. Lots of anime inspiration, and so much precise execution!

Permalink · Leave a comment!

Organized Collection group on flickr

Annette / Nut and Bee — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:06:23 +0000

I love the Organized Collection group on flickr. It’s like looking into hundreds of precisely arranged shadowboxes. Here are a few photos that have caught my eye from their pool:

Photos from:
(Top) loosetooth, irtroit, anaventura
(Middle) completely_cactus, bibbif, aviewto
(Bottom) knitalatte11, oliveonline, rosa.rot

Permalink · Leave a comment!