Do you knit?

I do :) Well, a little bit. But while i am making my sweater or scarf, there are people who make a statement with knitting. "Yarn bombing" or "yarn storming" are another names for the same art. The knitting graffity. And the goal is not socio-political, and not advertizing, its almost all the time is about adding color and personalization of the grey, cold public places.

"Colors are the smiles of Nature" (Leigh Hunt)

 

 

 

One more amazing example of wine corks product.

Of cause it isn't a DIY shoes, but if you are into ecology, by wearing these shoes you are literally walk what you talk. Nike's brand new special edition Lebron X shoes' upper composed of 100% genuine cork, a regenerative material stripped from the bark of the cork oak every nine years.



The shoe honors the tradition of champagne celebration of sports winnings. It is expected to debut on February 23, 2013. Nike promises that 2013 will be a year of "additional basketball footwear surprises".

Upcycling rulls :)

There are so many creative ideas for the upcycling of different materials. Frankly, i seem to becoming a huge fan of the entire upcycling idea, not only for the environmental reasons, but because it makes me think creative and learn from others' creativity. I believe that the entire upcycling concept could be used with any given age group and it a wonderful and fun way to bring people to higher level of environmental thinking.
One of the coolest materials to upcycle is wine corks. They look cute and nice, there are cool slogans on them sometimes, the material is a good absorbent and feels really nice to touch.
Couple of years ago i created a cork frame for a small collection of matches from all other the world. The initial idea was to find a solution for the matches. But in the process it become more like cool arts and crafts project. I loved it a lot and my friends did too. I cut the corks lengthwise and glued them to a piece of cardboard. All the matches are pined to the board, so if needed, the exposition could be changed to anything else. Here is my corks board.

There are many other cool ideas of what could be done with the wine corks and i am thinking of trying some of them. Check these out (via http://sustainablog.org/):


1. Bath mat - corks make wonderful mats. The main thing they say is to use hot glue and not superglue so that the adhesive won't wash away. And it should be waterproof so you need to close the gaps between the corks. By the way, many pubs or restaurants will be happy to get rid of corks (for those of you who dont drink much wine at home).



2. Wine corks could be used for the indoor gardening. You can build a flower pot with them or you can put them on the bottom of your vegetable pot to help oxygenate and mosutrize the soil for plant health. In this case its better to cut the corks breadthways.




You can use corks as a nice plants markers. 
Or you can even make a tiny flower pot from corks.

3. Flash driver holder. Here you have to be very careful while removing the center of the cork. You can wash and dry a bottle and keep your flash in the bottle after you make it. It looks special on your table, makes you look a "struggling writer" :)



4. Birds house. This one is a wonderful architect's work and amazing implementation. Respect to the craftsman for this one indeed.




5. And the last one is the craziest one :) Its an armchair! A real one. If you had lots of free time and plenty of wine corks, would you try this at home?

What do you think of those? What are your ideas for the corks upcycling?
Feel free to share,  its interesting and its fun.

Happy birds of Netherland.

 

Klaas Kuiken, an inventor and a craftsman, developed this nice and cute birdhouse that not only will allow birds to be safe and happy, but can bring a little bit of nature to our urban environment. Understanding that nowdays the birds are not welcome anymore under houses' roofs and have no place to nest, Klaas decided to consult with the Duch Bird Association in order to create a relevant and comfortable housing for urban habitats. Each house sits atop a basket underneath that provides a space for the animal to build a nest. The basket is composed of a wooden slate framed with a screen that creates a comb-like barrier, making sure that the new house guests are not able to take advantage of amenities inside human dwellings. Produced in the Netherlands, the first 100 are available to order though his website.
Via www.inhabitat.com

Meet the universal material - Bamboo.

Bamboo is used to build, make textile and food. Thanks to the strong and flexible structure of the wood today we are witnessing a new direction of bamboo usage - jewelry with a natural touch. The Harbinger Co. created an entire line of sustainable, elegant and unique jewelry made of bamboo: the earrings, necklaces and pendants are all inspired by shapes of nature - honeycombs, flowers of crystals.
Via: http://www.theharbingerco.com/

"Big upcycles in everyday life" (c)

Canadian disigner Dominic Coballe from N-product desided to go further than putting empty shipping boxes to the recycle bin. Together with his wife and partner Dominic turns the shipping boxes into unique jewerly. Each ring consists of multiple layers of paper glued together and lacquered with a polymer epoxy for water-, chemical-, and ultraviolet-resistance.
What a wonderful creative idea!
Via http://www.ecouterre.com/

Guess who?

This is aye-aye, a funny and cute lemur, he lives as all lemurs in Madagascar  What is interesting about the aye-ayes is that they are kind of woodpeckers from the ecological point of view. Aye-aye lives on tree, it taps on the tree to find grubs and gnaws small hole to get the grubs out with its long and thin middle finger, so its capable of penetrating woods in order to extract food.