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Choose 'shop indie' gifts - naturally
David Knight • 20 October 2022
If you’re looking for gift ideas with universal appeal, look to nature and look to UK creatives and independent businesses.
It’s an approach that can only yield gorgeous gifts destined to delight as testified by our #NatureGiftsDay on #UKGiftHour #UKGiftAM last weekend.
So much inspiration on show – this won’t be the only selection we bring you:
Clockwise (from top left):
- Earrings created with real acorn shells and copper stripped from waste electrical cables by Brighton eco-conscious jewellery designer EcoOctopus
- Seascape bowl celebrating the sea and coast – and ideal for the meal table – from Wales ceramic artist Tideline Ceramics
- Butterfly pin created from original watercolour art by Liverpool designer and illustrator Rebecca Christian
- Jolly pheasant doorstop from nature-inspired Gloucestershire gifts and homeware store Poody and Berty
- Christmas tree eco cards containing wildflower seeds for later planting from Staffordshire arts and crafts centre Brambley House (for every order through Crafter’s Market UK, a tree is planted)
- Lavender-filled embroidered and beaded bags relating to the natural world from Chilterns artist and designer Embroidered Gold by Pauline
- Woven wicker style coasters made with water hyacinth - a fast-growing aquatic plant – sourced by Cheshire planet-friendly ambassadors Sustainable and Organic
- Mixed media insect box frame art from Scottish Borders artist Derrick Armitage – a specialist in combining beaded beasties with digital imaginings
Join us on #UKGiftHour #UKGiftAM every Saturday and Sunday morning on Twitter from 9am-midday – we reach out above and beyond to support the makers!
What foods make Halloween, a UK Sausage Week feast day for the patron saint of butchers and the man behind probably the first book written about salads. Just some of food & drink delights for which we give thanks to 31 October. Click on the links for extra helpings.
Colourful character who was ‘the father of mixing cocktails’, the man who decided the world needed a cheese slicer and a sense of tea with Jane Austen. Just some of food & drink delights that 30 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
Sparkling confectionery from Britain’s top chocolatier, an artist sets the table for a bubbly get-together and the Champagne’s on ice in a cool movie gesture. Just some of food & drink delights that 29 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
Revolutionary ways of ‘one of the most influential Western chefs in history’, meaty art from a bold British artist and for relaxing times. . . make it Suntory time. . . Just some of food & drink delights that 28 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
A troubled poet’s extraordinary go-to recipe, a pop artist’s mouthwatering dessert and a downtrodden movie wife’s shocking calamari revelations. Just some of food & drink delights that 27 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
The dish that gives a country its identity, pioneering women chefs who championed a classic cuisine and a week-long banquet that came to a melodramatic conclusion. Just some of food & drink delights that 26 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
Favourite dish of an art colossus and the Champagne regrets of a national treasure on the day that the world celebrates it. Just some of food & drink delights that 25 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
Twenty minutes for chefs to create a dish with ingredients costing less than £5, 40 years cooking for the leaders of the world and the artist whose work is ‘liking drinking a good glass of red wine’ Just some of food & drink delights that 24 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
The epitome of cheesecakes from a pastry chef extraordinaire, lychees and peaches with a sensual touch and the festival ‘for women who wouldn’t have thought beer was for them’. Just some of food & drink delights that 23 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.
An lavishly sweet tribute to an extravagant theatre star, the man who coined the term ‘alcoholism’ and a literary ‘what should come first’ picnic conversation about chicken and eggs. Just some of food & drink delights that 22 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.