My second guide to unique gifts for sausage dog lovers showcases the best Dachshund-related jewellery I’ve come across. By “best”, I mean the most elegant, the most unusual, the most original, or the cutest.
Artist Spotlight
Artist Spotlight: enter the enchanted world of illustrator Gaia Marfurt
Showcasing the vibrant patterns of the extremely talented Italian artist, Gaia Marfurt, whom I discovered through one of Spoonflower’s weekly Design Challenges.
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Gift Guides
Dachshund lovers gift guide #1: Striking black and white art prints for sausage dog fans
Until I started making my jazz-themed Dachshund brooches, I didn’t truly appreciate the almost cultish popularity these little characters enjoy, nor how paradoxically photogenic they are. This gift guide is a collection of striking, minimalist art prints that do these enigmatic hounds justice. Carefully curated to delight the Dachshund lover in your life.
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Extreme Weaving
Baskets for Bears
I have long been a fan of Lawrence Anthony, aka ‘The Elephant Whisperer’ and the work of the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation (LAEO). Recently, I became aware of a chapter of the LAEO in Ukraine which is trying to improve the deplorable living conditions of animals in a Ukraine zoo before another fierce winter sets in.
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Extreme Weaving
Fabulous Forty Basket #3 – for Jane
Continuing the zig-zag theme of the Fab 40 series, this basket is for another very special friend, Jane. We met in our first year of boarding school and…
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Extreme Weaving
Fabulous Forty Basket #2
I turned 40 this year. Gasp! Where did the years go? This means that several of my dearest friends also turn 40 this year. To celebrate, I intend to weave each one of them a special “Fab-40” basket…
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Pattern
iMade iPhone Wallpapers
A few days ago my iPhone started to misbehave to such an extent that a reset was required. The reset itself was fairly painless, but I only discovered after a resync that I’d lost most of my wallpapers. So I decided to design some of my own…
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Monkey Business
Why Monkeyshine?
I recently changed my business name from Hit the Spot to Monkeyshine. Hit the Spot wasn’t hitting my spot any more. In fact, it had become quite an identity crisis…
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Colour
Broadbandemonium
For the past fortnight swarms of fluoro-clad cacophonists have been eviscerating the streets of South Hobart to lay optic fibre cable for the National Broadband Network. Last week I caused the crew some amusement when I stopped to ask what the inside of the cable looks like…
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Extreme Weaving
Extreme Weaving
I weave baskets. Out of telephone wire. On top of mountains. Weaving with telephone wire is a traditional South African craft of the Zulu people that has developed into an internationally recognised art form. After my last trip to South Africa in 2004, I set about teaching myself the soft-wire weaving technique…