gNappies Gentle Giants gPants

As a soon-to-be Mummy, I’ve loved preparing for the arrival of my little one. My thrifty eco-conscious nature has been looking at ways to make sure my baby not only has the best, most natural start but that money is saved. Making less impact on the environment and saving money long-term by using reusable/washable nappies are two huge positives for me. It’s been nice to discover the brand gNappies, Co-Founded by Kim Graham-Nye, not only offering these positives, but also proactively doing social good collaborating with Every Mother Counts charity Founder Christy Turlington Burns to launch Gentle Giants gPants.

“Every Mother Counts was born out of a need to improve maternal health and reduce preventable maternal deaths. We know we can’t do this work on our own, so we welcome partners like gNappies with visionaries like Kim and Jason who are committed, as we are to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother,” said Christy Turlington Burns

gNappies pairs both patterned and coloured soft cotton covers with disposable inserts that are compostable (wet ones only). They are Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Silver — a mark trusted around the world for ecologically intelligent design, and also certified B Corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

The gNappies Gentle Giants gPants features a sweet bold unisex print of mama and baby elephants, inspired by the beauty of Tanzania and the mothers and babies there.

“Both teams share a love of Africa, and elephants are close to my heart, so the design direction took shape immediately,” said Kim-Graham-Nye. “We then layered in the Every Mother Counts colour palette and worked on keeping it both gender neutral and appropriate for newborns through toddlers,” she said.

Gentle Giants gPants are sold through websites and retailers worldwide at £17.95, and with every Gentle Giants gPants sold, gNappies will donate 50% of profits to Every Mother Counts’ portfolio of programs, which address three critical barriers to maternal health care around the world: lack of education, transportation and supplies. It won’t be long before my little one will be wearing the Gentle Giants GPants – completely oblivious to the benefits!

Print featured in photo by Ben Javens.

 

MADE x UNBOXED

MADE.COM takes on the high street to offer great original furniture design at affordable prices. It has recently turned its customers’ homes into its showrooms with the launch of its own social network. I was asked to be a part of this network and have MADE.COM photograph their gorgeous Dhurries Trek Wool Rug in my lounge and have other parts of my home featured (plus a couple of mug shots unfortunately!)

This new online community called MADE Unboxed (www.made.com/unboxed) launched last month and continues the brand’s trail of innovation in the interiors market. Unboxed enables people to connect with existing MADE customers in their own neighbourhood, take a virtual house tour and even meet face to face to see how they’ve styled their MADE products. Visitors to Unboxed can search by area or for a specific product to see who has purchased what in their neighbourhood.
Chloe Macintosh, MADE.COM Co-Founder and Creative Director, said: “Unboxed contextualises our products without the need for costly lifestyle shoots or high street shops, which ultimately the customer would pay for. But more than that, Unboxed demonstrates ‘collaborative consumption’ a movement empowering consumers to take inspiration from each other.
“We tested the idea at Salone del Mobile in April, using four of our customer’s Milan apartments as  exhibition space to showcase our new collections and the response was overwhelming. People not only want to see products in a real life situation, but more than ever we are fascinated by how others have decorated their homes…”
This is the latest investment in innovation for the brand that was one of the first e-tailers to bridge the gap between online and offline with its showrooms in Notting Hill and Leeds; undergo a trial with digital tagging service CloudTags within its London showroom and also launch an augmented reality app enabling customers to view its products within their homes.

I’ve been really impressed with the quality and service of MADE.COM and awaiting the delivery of a LULU footstool in Pisa Grey over the next couple of weeks. Will be Instagramming about it’s arrival… Follow my Instagram and Twitter feeds @onesugarplease.

For more information on MADE.COM please email unboxed@made.com

Brighton

Spent a day in Brighton recently and apart from getting drenched in heavy rain and my ‘new’ umbrella snapping in the wind, I still managed to enjoy a good mooch around fantastic shops and find lots of vintage and mid-century loveliness. I bought a new letterpress print with William Morris quote ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful’, a 2 cup teapot, useful household goods, and 3 bright geometric washi tapes.

These are very nice shops indeed and worth a visit if you’re ever nearby…

Utility

Workshop

Unlimited Shop

Swag Brighton Antiques

Vintage City Brighton

Mad Dogs and Englishmen Exhibition

I had a meeting at Bilston Craft Gallery this morning and was so pleased to have seen a wonderful exhibition of work by artist Lauren van Helmond while I was there.

Wonderfully fun human and canine characters have been created in a mixture of wire, clock mechanisms, recycled biscuits tins, pegs, wood and washers. Each unique and up-cycled piece shows very British narrative scenes of gardening, tea drinking, day trips and hobbies. I loved the interest in dogs and tea particularly, being a fan of both myself! The exhibition is on until 18th January and is very much worth a visit. The rest of the craft gallery itself contains stunning locally made historical enamel work alongside more contemporary art and craft design.

Made By… Pop-Up Shop

Over the past few weeks, I have been super busy having meetings and email discussions with fellow Made By… group members in preparation for the opening of our pop-up shop in the local town of Walsall. Yesterday the transformed empty retail unit shop opened it’s doors and I feel a warm glow after working so hard in helping to make it a reality. A reality that has had a wonderful response from everyone who has seen it.

Made By... are a collective of artists, makers and designers who run workshops, creative projects and open pop-up shops. My roles were to re-brand, design the publicity and style the shop where we were selling our handmade and printed products, and vintage furniture from a local curio shop. I loved finding inspiration and creatively planning how the shop should look, and even though the 2 days setting up was exhausting, I was in my element as it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. The local council have been running a scheme to fill empty shop spaces for a few months now so we utilised this opportunity to have our own shop again as last November the group had a pop-up shop in a different unit.

Upcycling and recycling played a massive part in the shop’s styling. Two cabinets were kindly donated by Sp4ce originally from an old school, and as a group, we got together one evening last week and made our labels and paper decorations for the shop using old magazines, newspapers and waste cardboard.

The shop is open until Sunday 27th in the Saddlers Centre, Walsall. Find out more and see photos on Facebook

Vintage Flower Triptych Prints

Inspired by the glorious blooms I have in my garden, I have designed a set of prints which work together as a set of 3 and individually. Printed on A3 recycled uncoated 300gsm card, they’ll be arriving in my shop next week.

New Stationery Designs for National Stationery Week

Arriving soon to the extended By One Sugar Please shop and to order, new colourful 325gsm postcards with envelopes. One for thanking people and another for telling people they’re brilliant, because we should say that to each other more often.

‘Hands Up’ EP Artwork

UK beat-boxer Shlomo asked me to create the artwork for his latest EP collaboration with his 7-piece vocal band The Lip Factory. Stream it before the official release at the 2 launch concerts at London’s Jazz Cafe on Feb 21 and 22nd here.

The First Cut Exhibition

Last week I hopped on a train to Manchester to catch The First Cut exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery before it closed there at the weekend. It was truly beautiful and so inspirational for someone like myself as a designer who cuts and crafts using paper as a material. The work by 31 international artists who cut, sculpt and manipulate paper, made the exhibition space feel almost like a fantasy film set and I was in awe with the detail in each individual piece. It was wonderful to see work by the ever talented Sarah Bridgland and Rob Ryan and discover stunning new work by Andy Singleton amongst others. The exhibition will be touring and showing at Djanogly Art Gallery Nottingham 20th April – 9th June 2013 and Southampton SeaCity Museum 11th October 2013 – 12th January 2014

Habitat Spring/Summer ’13

Habitat has for many years, designed high quality, functional and beautiful products for the home. The newest products for Spring/Summer 2013 don’t disappoint. In fact, they may be my favourites yet. It was great to glance through the look book last week as the snow fell heavily outside, to take me to Spring/Summer looks to inspire me for my own home. Habitat’s new products are modern, fun and brightly coloured yet feel uniquely hand-crafted through the styles of finish. This nod of respect to handmade techniques and qualities, just shows how in tune with current trends Habitat really are.