Talk Crafty To Me Dedicated to all things handmade

I stumbled across this amazing playhouse made out of woven willow while browsing treehugger for some work related research. Judith Needham, is a basket maker and willow weaver from England, who set out to make a beautiful and magical playhouse for her daughter as an alternative to the all too common plastic playhouses, found in every suburban neighborhood.

Handmade from natural English willow, not only is this playhouse beautiful to look at, but it’s also incredibly eco-friendly. The structure gradually degrades over time, due to sun and rain exposure, but when your child out grows it and it becomes brittle, it may be recycled: shredded and used for garden mulch, added to a compost bin, or used as kindling for building a fire.

Currently only available in the UK, and with a hefty price tag it’s definitely not something for everyone. But I hope this inspires you to consider building something imaginative and creative for your child.

For more about the ‘Dreaming Spires Playhouse’ visit http://www.judithneedham.co.uk/

If you haven’t heard of Night Owl Paper Goods before you should definitely head over to their site and check out there beautiful selection of handmade letterpress cards and wooden eco-friendly products.

This video has been out for quite a while but I recently came across it again and wanted to post it here. Every time I watch it I am totally inspired. The video was shot using stop motion animation and the entire set was made out of yarn, wool, buttons and fabric. The walls, the furniture, the instruments, the recording equipment, even the camera were all knit, sewn or crocheted together.

For more information on the video check out this article.

Facing rising production costs and shrinking ad markets, CRAFT Magazine has decided to discontinue it’s print version making Volume 10 it’s last issue. It’s unfortunate to loose such a great publication, but it’s encouraging to hear that they will not only be continuing but also improving the companion site craftzine.com.

“We’re going online exclusively with Craft because that’s where we can best reach and serve our audience…We will focus on bringing you more craft projects, just as the print magazine did but we’ll be able to do so with greater frequency. We want Craft online to be visually appealing and easily accessible; we want it to be fun but also useful.”

While there is something to be said about being able to hold a tactile magazine in your hands… the glossy pages, the beautiful pictures, the colorful typography… ultimately I think this is a good move for CRAFT. So much of the indie craft community is active in the online space, it makes sense for them to improve their offering where their target market already spends much of their time. Hopefully they will live up to their promise of more projects, more often and continue to grow and improve their site.

It’s said to see such a great publication fold, but I am excited to see where they go with this new opportunity.