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Tag Archives: DIY

The Balmain Boat Company Messes About With Boats

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Joanna in Australia, Design

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Arthur Ransome, Balmain Boat Company, Boating, Childrens Book, DIY, Do it yourself, Flat Pack Boat, How to be an awesome grandparent, Kenneth Grahame, Sailing, Swallows and Amazons, Wind in the Willows

The Classic Balmain Boat Company Rowboat at Watsons Bay

The Classic Balmain Boat Company Rowboat at Watson’s Bay
(Original Image from here)

Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won’t drown. (Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons)

I’m feeling a little nostalgic today. It’s my Dad’s birthday and he’s on my mind…

When I was a child, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons was one of my favourite books. His writing had the ability to transport me into all the action and adventure that the Walkers and the Blacketts experienced in their little sailing dinghies. I vividly remember wanting to be a member of Team Swallows so badly.

Mr Ransome wrote the book way back in 1929, so it’s a sign of his seriously good writing that I was still so engaged almost 50 years later. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and read it again, to see if I can still feel that sense of escapism… Perhaps I will!

I was lucky enough to grow up in a boating family. Not all that surprising when you consider that the City of Sails was my home-town.

My Dad is still boating today. And, I know how much he appreciates messing about in boats. So, when I first found out about the wonderful Balmain Boat Company, it made me think of him.

The Pilot by Balmain Boat Company

The Pilot by Balmain Boat Company
(Original Image from here)

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows)

The good people at Balmain Boat Company reckon anyone can build a boat. They create flat-packed, DIY rowing and sailing dinghies so that anyone who has a hankering to get out on the water, can do just that.

Founded by Nicole Still and Andrew Simpson, the awesome Balmain Boat Company  mission is “to make parents and grandparents look like legends.” Brilliant!

Purists can rest easy – the design of these beautiful wooden boats (no tinny’s here, thank you!) is a combination of yester-year rowboat (think Swallows and Amazons!) coupled with the clean lines, not to mention neat edges, of computer-led wood-cutting.

I think they are just lovely.

The Classic Balmain Boat Company Rowboat at Watson's Bay

The Classic Balmain Boat Company Rowboat at Watson’s Bay
(Original Image from here)

And, you want to know what else?

You can even design your own figurehead for your Balmain Boat. All Balmain Boat Company boats come with a standard figurehead, inspired by the co-founders first built boats. Nicole’s figurehead is a Fairy Penguin, inspired by the world’s smallest penguins, which come to shore on Phillip Island here in Australia.  Andrew’s figurehead is the mythological flying seal.

Nicole and Andrew rightly feel that every boat has a story, and your boat should tell your story.  So, you can send them a photo of your family dog, your favourite animal or your lucky charm, and they’ll design a custom figurehead just for you. I think that’s inspired!

The Penguin Figurehead

The Penguin Figurehead
(Original Image from here)

If you have a hankering to make your own Balmain Boat Company boat, you have a couple of options:

  • If you live in Australia, the DIY boat kits can be dispatched from the Darlington, Sydney warehouse within 7-10 business days of ordering.
  • If you live in the USA, the DIY boat kits can be dispatched from the Poland, Ohio warehouse within 7-10 business days of ordering.
  • If you live anywhere else in the world, shipping charges are determined by order size and postcode. The company has shipped to Taiwan, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

If you’d like to learn more about the very fab’ Balmain Boat Company (including how to have your boat built for you!), check out the website here.

DIY Macramé Kit by TMOD

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Joanna in Haberdashery, Sydney

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Arts, Australia, Calvin Trillin, Crafts, Crochet, DIY, Do it yourself, Macramé, Shopping

Macrame plant holder

TMOD DIY (completed) Macrame Kit in mint
(Image from TMOD)

Anybody caught selling macrame in public should be dyed a natural colour and hung out to dry.(Calvin Trillin)

Is there a verb for macramé?

My Mum macramé-d when it was last fashionable. About a million years ago. I remember her macramé onion bag. Truly. A macramé bag just for onions. If my memory serves, she was quite good at it, too.

Fast forward about a million years (or at least thirty) and Georgie Swift and Milenka Osen are the creative minds behind funky Aussie label TMOD. They’ve designed this nifty DIY macramé kit. I’m seriously considering trying it out. Only you know how I went with learning to crochet…

Natural Macrame Kit by TMOD

TMOD DIY Macrame Kit in natural
(Image from TMOD)

The girls assure me this DIY kit will make me feel proud of my craftsmanship. I would believe them, except that my crochet teacher said she could teach anyone how to crochet. I was very definitely the exception to THAT rule.

The kit apparently comes with simple easy to follow instructions to make it, then hang it in my home, and fill the glass jar with a plant, flowers, make a terrarium or even house a gold-fish?!

It includes 10 metres of rope, 4 wood beads, a glass jar, 1 ring (to hang it from), and weaving instructions…

TMOD DIY (completed) Macrame in mint and natural

TMOD DIY (completed) Macrame in mint and natural
(Image from TMOD)

The kit sells for AU$39.95 from the TMOD online store. There are also a variety of international stockists listed here.

What do you think? Should I risk it?

 

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