On the 1st Day of Christmas...

...this blogger gave to thee...

...a calendar made out of tea.

How to drink a year away...if you're a tea jenny/junkie.

I admit, I am not - yeah my friends will be horrified, my ex-boss would be hugely disappointed and my sisters, well, they already think I'm a weirdo, but the truth is, I don't drink a lot of tea, I've just never had a taste for it. I have been, since I was about 16, a coffee gal and as soon as the coffee version of this product is devised, I will be buying it instantly!

However, tea is one of those little rituals, one which most of the UK will partake in multiple times today, you may even be sitting with a cuppa as you read this post, enjoying a lull in the Christmas Day mayhem which always ensues

And it is this daily ritual which Hälssen and Lyon have adopted for their Tea Calendar.

Made from fine sheets of presses tea leaves, each day of the month, 365 days of the year, you're treated to a new variety or blend of tea, which you rip from the calendar, place in you cup ( I'd say a proper teacup for a bit of added ceremony and gravitas) and cover with water and allow to dissolve into that days particular brew.

The Hälssen and Lyon Tea Calendar unfortunately isn't available to buy, it was a promotional tool designed, handmade and sent to selected business partners of the company. Lucky ducks!

Link | This Is The Greatest Calendar In The World via Buzzfeed

Link | The Hälssen and Lyon Tea Calendar via The Inspiration Room (+Images)

Link | Calendar Made Of Brewable Tea via Carbonated 

I hope you've all have/had a wonderful Christmas Day, it's past one for me and I'm off to bed.

Merry Christmas! Part two tomorrow...

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Listening: Cups - Anna Kendrick

Thermochromic Blooms

Source: openmaterials.org via Emily on Pinterest

In the early nineties, Hypercolor t-shirts were popular. I was probably six or seven when I had one, which turned from green to yellow with body heat. I remember loving it, the mere act of creating and leaving a hand print on your clothes was a wonderful novelty to a kid, but the transition of colours eventually wore off the more frequently the t-shirt was washed and it was eventually rendered unworn and was discarded. Mood rings on the other hand, which apply the same technology - still linger in my old jewellery box, even when the colour change has pretty much ceased.

The thermochromic technology was flawed because it was easily and irrevocably damaged by washing at too high a temperature, ironing or tumble drying. Or in other words, overheating would kill your t-shirt. Yet somehow thermochromics are back and are being re-introduced by designers into clothes - as with my friend Jo, who is researching her PhD - and into conceptual wall papers.

Shi Yuan’s creative wallpaper (above) incorporates thermochromic paint that changes colour as the temperature from heating appliances rises. This allows the somewhat chintzy floral design to gradually blossom with pale pink flowers across your walls, then gradually fade as the heat source returns to a cooler ambient temperature.

Source: elisastrozyk.de via Emily on Pinterest

Thermochromic technology has also been used in wallpaper by Elisa Strozyk, who's designs look less at the evolution of a wallpaper pattern for aesthetic reasons and more at the increased awareness of the occupants surroundings. A change in colour allows you to know when your radiator has begun heating the room, and the progression of the pattern and it's vibrancy indicates where heat is now reaching. Strozky has also experimented with applying the same thermochromic paint to the radiator itself, allowing it to disappear into your wallpaper pattern as the temperature increases, thus letting you know visually when a radiator is either on or off and hopefully act as a reminder to turn them down when you aren't in the house in order to save energy.

In the nineties, thermochromic technology was flawed because its inability to withstand even short exposure to high temperatures. If their now being applied to radiators which are intentionally and repeatedly exposing the paint to high temperatures, does this mean that they are now, in the naughties, more stable? Or have we simply forgotten about the discarded t-shirts?

Is it nostalgic novelty or viable design concept?

Ideally the latter, but only time and further experimentation will tell.

link - Shi Yuan
link - Elisa Strozyk
via - Open Materials
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Listening: Ray LaMontagne - How Come

Get on your dancing shoes...

In fashion, we're always being told that having a capsule wardrobe is a wonderful idea. Limiting ourselves to a few interchangeable pieces of clothing which we can mix and match and allows us to save money and remove the detritus which lurks within our wardrobes and chests of drawers. Years of spur of the moment buys, or long lost loves which no longer fit or have seen better days - as a jeweller all my clothes have acid burns and the rest have pulls from ill-placed cat claws - which we keep for years on end.

Same with shoes.

In the ideal capsule wardrobe, you should - apparently - have four pairs of shoes. I assume this means, for women, one pair of flats, boots, heels and I suppose trainers, or a variant of that based on casual or formal and indeed your preference for heel height. But could you limit yourself to four pairs of shoes? (I couldn't, for a start there are simply too many different colours of Converse Sneaker and secondly they're just too pretty!)

I bring this up, because of a design I saw recently by Israeli designer Daniela Bekerman, who has created a modular shoe which has it's own capsule wardrobe.

Ze O Ze, which means 'This or This' in Hebrew, is a shoe created by Bekerman with an interchangeable heel. Thus allowing the wearer to go easily from high heel to flat, from Mary Jane to Oxford by simply slotting the modular heel into the sole of the shoe. One shoe, the basis of your feet's capsule wardrobe, given endless possibilities by the simple exchange of a heel and ankle support.

Now think about how convenient these would be after a long day at work, or a night out. No more spare shoes in your bag, or under your desk, or walking home in bare feet. Just change your heel and save your soles.

link - Daniela Bekerman

via - Design Milk

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Listening: Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes

Childhood Confessions

Milk by Milla, a design concept by Christy Srisanan and Erick Barrios gives you a chance to fess up for those childhood misdemeanour's which still linger decades after they happened. Everyone has one, a confession from their childhood, whether it's cheating on a test, or behaving badly because you liked someone, it stays secret, not necessarily because it's too horrendous to tell, more because the time has passed.

"There's nothing purer than a child and Milla knows it. That's why they built their brand upon this truth. This packaging shows childhood confessions and makes us go back in time. Milla brings back the pureness by encouraging people to go to millaconfessions.com and share their innocent memories." (C. Srisanan, 2011)

I've thought of a couple of childhood confessions, then again I'm 26, childhood wasn't that long ago. But if you like this concept and feel the need to confess to something from your childhood, I'd suggest going to Post Secrets. It was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this design and it's equally anonymous and not a concept design.

Link - Christy Srisanan & Erick Barrios

via - The Dieline

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Listening: Blur - Coffee & TV

Degree Show 2011: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design

Saturday 21 - Sunday 29 May 2011

Dundee’s largest art and design show

www.dundee.ac.uk/degreeshow

Monday - Friday 10am - 8pm

Saturday - Sunday 10am - 4pm

(Admission is free)

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design,

University of Dundee,

Perth Road,

Dundee DD1 4HT

Hey guys! Guess what time of year it yet? Yep, degree show time! And for anyone who can make it over to Dundee I always highly recommend you going, it's always a great show.

I was at opening night last night, after hemming and hawing about whether to go - I was scared about seeing people because seeing people means explaining why I've been M.I.A. and that I've been suffering from designer block & depression. Truth is it's always the thought of it that's worst than the actual event. As soon as I'd gotten myself not lost - jewellery design has moved to a completely different part of the uni - I walked in the room and got a huge hug off my friend Kate who said she'd been asking people if they'd heard from me and was worried. Nice to know. So I saw a bunch of the students I know and a few of my friends, which was nice. Now just to get myself back on Facebook and get back in touch with everyone else.

Anyway, my brain's hurting after last night, I didn't have anything to drink as I'd barely eaten and was driving, but I had a long day at work and then did the shopping, then rushed home to change and then over to uni...and the giant drums didn't help. Though they were entertaining.

I'm going to go through during the week and have another look around, I only got through jewellery, textiles and some of fine art before my brain felt like it was going to explode and I decided to bug out. So, when I go through I shall upload some images of my favourite pieces, there's definitely some from jewellery and textiles!

Now, again, if you can get to Dundee this week, get your butts over because DoJ Degree Shows are always brilliant!

Oh! And congratulations to this years 4th year, especially the lovely jewellers! Amazing show and well done on getting your degrees!

Em x

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Listening: BBC Six Music - Adam and Not Joe (Garth Jennings is sitting in for Joe)

I'll have hot water and a stick please!

Do you guys know that I love coffee?

I wouldn't say I was addicted.

I can go days without it and it doesn't bother me, but it's part of my morning ritual too. Has been since uni when I'd be up by 6.55, in uni for 8.30 and caffeinated about five minutes after that. Whenever I'm in the workshop now it's still the first thing I do. Even if I don't drink it until it could be classed as 'iced' coffee.

This brings me to the concept design by Heo Jeong Im who brings us Coffee on a Stick.

Boil the kettle and fill your cup, then pick your poison (cafe latte, cappucino, caramel acchiato, mocha latte or americano) and simply stir. The coffee coloured portion melts away and the white portion becomes your spoon. Couldn't be simpler! And how elegantly designed.

I can think of one very, very good reason for a design like this. No more bad cuppa's! Admit it, we've all been made a bad cuppa - in my house, my tea making skills are notoriously bad, but my excuse is I don't drink tea, so how am I supposed to know how to make it?

The art of coffee/tea making is a really personal thing. If you're anything like me, in order to make your cuppa just how you like it, you have a system, be it a particular cup, spoon or order in which coffee, milk and/or sugar are put in the mug. That system leads to the perfect caffeinated beverage for you.

A design like Heo Jeong Im's means, no messy coffee grounds or instant coffee accidentally sprinkled over the worktop; no more carefully measured out spoonfuls of coffee and perfectly packaged for carrying around with you for a mid-afternoon fix.

I was sold when my freshly caffeinated mind heard the word coffee.

via - Design Fetish

via - Yanko Design

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Listening: BBC 6Music - Adam & Joe

Cuppa Luck

Tea Set meets Scratch Card, for those of us who can't resist scratching off that silver surface.

Cuppa Luck is a concept design by Jo Westrop and it plays on the randomness of chance and the excitement people feel at playing scratch cards. Each piece of the tea set has an unknown pattern lurking beneath the silver scratch-off coating, which includes an eclectic mixture of patterns inspired by British culture.

Westrop's design work is based on escaping the confines of what she considers 'safe' minimalist design via the use of serendipity. Therefore if you're lucky, you end up with a design which you like on the tea sets actual surface, if you're unlucky, one you don't, and in the end everything is left up to fate.

Takes out the dilemma of choosing a pattern at least!

Off out to sweep up last nights snow. Please let this be the last for at least a little while.

Link - Jo Westrop

via - Urban Taster

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Listening: The Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses