Free-e-day

Hows the Weather T-shirt from Squid Ink Kollective

The Squid Ink Kollective are two fantastic designers who come up with amazing T-shirts and accessories, frequently featuring narwhals, but it’s the emotive clouds ($25) I love best. All their materials, dyes etc. are specially sourced to be as eco-friendly as possible.

leather handmade journals from Susan Green Books

As a writer, nothing obsesses my quite so much as journals, and the craft and attention to detail Susan Green of Susan Green Books pays to her handmade journals is extraordinary. made not just from leather but from beautiful vegan alternatives. From around $17

When I was a kid knitting was deeply unfashionable, but now it’s the coolest thing going, and for scarves, shawls, gloves, hats, wristlets like the one above ($18) and, yes, even black knitted chokers (huzzah!) you can’t beat the wonderful, and delightfully-monickered Awkward

Carry Your Kindle by Busted Typewriter

It seems seasonal to use this site to highlight some of the amazing Christmas gifts that can be found through the independent creative community. So for the next 10 days I want to highlight one person operating outside the mainstream whose talent deserves to be spotted. Busted Typewriter is a fantastic site consisting of a number of different indie projects, all the brainchild of one man – from complete da tweet to the jetsettr refurbished luggage range.

There is a wonderful steampunk feel to everything Busted Typewriter does, but the simple superness of the “book as a Kindle carrier” is what seems like the perfect present for those who love their books in the old form or the new. Available through Busted Typewriter’s Etsy. Prices around $25.

Free-e-day logo courtesy Lawrence Thomas

So I’ll try to make this a brief and business-like post Basically, I want to do three things:

- say a huge huge thank you to everyone who took part. That is THE most important thing of all. I won’t mention people by name becase that would be unfair – everone concerned can be found on this website, and I am beyond grateful to every one of the around 100 people who dircetly contributed their work and/or their time to give their creativity away, to offer their advice on the web workshops, to host webchats, to blog about the event, and to give their time to perform live. Read the rest of this entry »