Naomi has been working on some glorious new products – a series of hand crocheted pendant lights in several different shapes and colour combinations. The yarn is excess stock that has been sourced from Italian mills who service the fashion industry, so the colour choice is dependent on what colours were in last season. Clients are also able to choose their own combinations (the Gluck light shown above top, has a navy body with a mustard yellow trim along the bottom rim).

The wire frame was designed by Naomi and made in the UK and the lights come with the Plumen bulb, a low energy light bulb, which won Designer of the Year this year.

The pendants were a hot item at TENT and Naomi will no doubt be getting some good press in the next few months and some orders!

Yemi has been busy over at her old alma mater RCA, working on some enterprise projects with the Industrial Design department. She has also just showin in a group show called RCA Black, featuring the work of African and African Caribbean current students and alumni from the last 50 years. There have only been 85 black students out of 800 students who have graduated from the RCA in the last 5 years. Yemi has produced a beautiful wall installation using cork tiles called Tint, and some more cork work will also be on show at the Barge house, Oxo Tower, Southbank through the London Design Festival.

Other artists showing include Chris Offili and another Chelsea graduate Emamoke Ukeleghe, who now works for the African & African Carribean Design Diaspora, an initiative funded by the London Design festival and the Arts Council to celebrate and encourage the design talent and skills of this minority design community.

A review of the show by the Guardian is here.

We love the culture of DIY and the way the internet has allowed us all to share and swap skills and ideas and we have been thinking about making some ‘how to’ videos for a while now. But we knew they needed to look good, and be works of art in themselves, being the visual connoisseurs we are! We also want to capture the wonderful quietness and grace of making, and using your hands.

So we have been lucky enough to be working with the wonderful Uli Schade, photographer, stylist (and now film maker) on our first ‘how to’ films. We are currently editing a ‘how to’ do basic block printing (with Clara) and patchwork/quilting (with Katherine), and above are some stills from the footage. We will hopefully have the films ready for the autumn so watch this space!

bricolage has been busy preparing our wall for Supermarket Sarah, the great online boutique that supports designer/makers and artists. We have been busy making some new products, including lavender pin cushions by Katherine (soon to be available on her new etsy site too), some bags by Yemi, a new teatowel design by Polly and a new giant knitted floor cushion from Naomi.

The wall should be up in the next few weeks so get your wallets ready!