Archive for fair trade
A few owl toys
It feels like the last few posts have been vaguely baby-related, so I’m going with the flow and adding one more post of small person-related niceness before reverting to some serious pear indulgence for larger people (watch this space). Anyhow, back to owls, and toys. Ahem.
I am very drawn to this first owl on today’s agenda. I mean, come on, it’s perched in a tree for starters, and look at its lovely printed cloth tummy (which is vintage William Morris fabric, stuffed with sheep’s wool) and fold-down beak. This owl is sold out on Etsy, but maybe Simmy Bains will sew up some new fledgling owlets in the future. In the meantime, check out her blog Echoes of a Dream, and cross your claws.
Next up is illustrator and picture book author Chris Haughton‘s owl toy. He designs lovely bags for one of my all-time fave fair trade fashion outlets, People Tree – woop. But if you need further proof of his niceness, then check out his blog post about Mahaguthi, who produce gorgeous fair trade handicrafts from Nepal. Chris (@chrishaughton) has written and illustrated a children’s book ‘A Bit Lost’ (which has just been published – you can grab yourself a copy here) and wanted to design a small fair trade soft toy to sell with the book that could be made by the women at Mahaguthi.
The result is the gorgeous owl toy above “made entirely from raw cotton, using all the traditional cottage industry techniques that Gandhi made famous. It is hand-spun into yarn, dyed, hand-woven and finally sewn all by the women at Mahaguthi.” Here’s hoping Chris’ publishers will agree to make this toy available to sell with his book – check out his blog post above for updates on that front.
To round things off, I couldn’t resist including this wonderful crocheted owl plushie by US-based delightful designer Ana Paula Rimoli (@anapaulaoli), who has a plethora of knitted lovlies for sale via her Etsy shop – Seriously Cute Crochet. Not much needs to be said: it’s seriously cute, it’s an owl, it’s crocheted. And bingo – it also comes in the form of a bag, which can only be a very good thing.
