Archive for the ‘Projects & ideas’ Category

Tricking up our office part 1.

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

Last week I had a revelation. Every room in our house has nice, handmade, inspiring things in it, apart from the office. Not only is it boring, but as I’m not a very organised person, it’s also really messy. This is not the ideal situation, because it’s the room where WSW is created, where we need the most inspiration (and where it would be useful if you could walk, rather than jumping over things filed on the floor). Because I sometimes need tricking into tidying things up (bribes, rewards, etc), I’ve decided to tackle the room as a fun project rather than a chore.

It was a a rainy weekend so my first Office Trick-Up project had to be using materials that were already in the house. I covered my boring, forest green office chair with lovely cherry-blossom fabric that had been kicking round the sewing drawer for a while. It actually made me smile when I walked into the office this morning – I’m inspired to do more… mission accomplished (or at least started)!

chairbeforechairafter

(ok, the before shot is actually our other office chair – I forgot to take a before photo, but I swear it was as ugly, if not uglier than this one!)

Hannah

The Great Stitch-Up

Friday, May 1st, 2009

peggy-squares1

Congratulations to the guys at unicef who have a whopping 1900 knitted squares at their offices so far, with loads more promised. They were only aiming for 1400 for their Mothers Day campaign Unite For Mothers! Good on you to everyone who got out their needles in support, including sharonnz whose peggy squares are pictured.

Now Unicef needs help sewing all the squares together to make a giant blanket to present with the petition. The first Great Stitch Up session will be on Tuesday 5th May at the Southern Cross Bar in Wellington and will start at 6pm.  A few drinks and snacks will be provided as well as needles, wool and some stitching professionals who can help those of us who need some guidance! There may also be some copies of WSW to be won. We’ll neither confirm nor deny.

What:    The Great Stitch Up!
When:   6pm, Tuesday 5th May
Where:  The Southern Cross Bar,  39 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro, Wellington. Phone 04 384 9085
Why?:   To support the Unite for Mothers campaign and raise awareness about how to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children

Reel good bargains

Friday, April 24th, 2009

reel

Anton, one of our regular contributors, is having a garage sale. It’s not his house he’s clearing out, it’s his workshop where he makes (and apparently stores piles of) awesome stuff – raw materials for making things. Essentially, it’s a workshop full of stuff that someone else managed to snaffle up before you had a chance to see it. Don’t let it happen twice – be there on Saturday from 8am til middayish to score a load of goodies!

305 Mansfield Street (down the SPCA drive way), Newtown, Wellington

There will be various odd objects to make stuff out of, including, but not limited to:

furniture

fridges

chairs

a sun bed

reel to reel tape player

a microfiche

a motorbike

a tv

and other stuff…

Knitting for change

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

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Unicef is calling all crafty folks to knit or crochet a square as part of a campaign to help prevent pregnant mothers from passing HIV on to their children. Sign the petition and help knit a giant baby blanket! Unite for Mothers this Mother’s Day and give a mother the chance to see her child grow up healthy… the best gift a mother could have.  Unicef is aiming for 1,400 squares by Friday 1 May, which is flippin soon. So get out your needles and knit for a cause!

Fabric-a-brac

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

fabric-a-brac
I’m really excited about an event that we’re sponsoring next month. It’s called Fabric-a-brac, and basically it’s the fabric equivalent of a huge second-hand clothes market. All those of you who have an oversized stash of fabric that you’re really not going to get through in your lifetime (or, perhaps that you want to add to), Fabric-a-brac is for you! And it’s not just for material – there will be all sorts of sewing related goodies up for grabs as well. Oh, and we’re giving away copies of World Sweet World too. What would a fair be without a few freebies :)

12noon – 4pm,  Saturday 18 April
Brooklyn Community Centre, 18 Harrison St, Wellington

Stalls are really, really, really, REALLY cheap, so do get in touch with Josie if you’re interested in selling, or getting a group of friends together to do so: fabricabracwgtn@gmail.com

Start sorting out your sewing room – this is going to be fun! Hooray!

Hannah

Making ideas issue #1

Friday, February 29th, 2008

This is the place for exploring ideas. In each issue, Alex from Origin Design will open an idea up for discussion.

“The opposite of love is not hate, but efficiency”

At Origin Design, we love ideas. We also know that the best ideas are those that have been shared, challenged, picked apart and shaken up, so we’ve decided to open the start of an idea for discussion in each issue of World Sweet World.

Here’s the beginning of one that I’ve been looking at through my kaleidoscope of influences lately: “The opposite of love is not hate, but efficiency”

I came across this in a book called ‘the answer to how is yes’ by Peter Block, and thought it was worth consideration. It seems to make sense in some instances but not others.

As I scrubbed dishes furiously and efficiently in the sink, my partner tried to read me poetry and got a kick in the groin for his care. In this case, my efficiency didn’t leave much room for love at all. Context determines so much.

Love takes time and care and it is greatly helped along by a pinch of spontaneity. Is efficiency about the removal of the unpredictable, so that each component (of any action or thing) is finely tuned to do whatever it does in as little time as possible? The dictionary defines efficiency as ‘productive without waste’. In that sense, it has to be an opposite of love doesn’t it? Think how extravagantly wasteful love can be.

And another thought: Love is an emotion – but so is hate. Is efficiency more an absence of emotion?

Can you be efficiently creative?

Then I thought about this point made by my all time favourite blogger, Kathy Sierra:

Love or hate

But this takes us back to the idea of opposites.
What is an opposite…?

Any thinking you may have, I’d love to hear – email: alex@origindesign.co.nz, or post your comments right here. Thanks!