Felt and Our City O-Tautahi present like something different, an exhibition of inspirational Christchurch makers exploring the business of craft.

Featuring work by Black Swan Designs, Pink Paper Pinafore, Walter Logeman, Papillon and Naomi Smith, like something different explores the motivation and philosophy behind creating and selling handmade products.

From sock monkeys to laser cut jewellery, modern, traditional and technological approaches to craft and creativity are represented in an exhibition for those who like something different.

Visit like something different from 18 August to 13 September at Our City O-Tautahi, on the corner of Worcester Boulevard and Oxford Terrace in central Christchurch. The displays are open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.

In November 2007 Christchurch-based psychotherapist Walter Logeman completed a project to make a 1000 digital images in a year. The project is fully documented in the Thousand Sketches blog and a selection of his limited edition prints is available on Felt.

What do you make?
Digital images and from those I make limited edition prints. And I paint!

Your favourite materials, tools and processes?
I love my little Toshiba M200 Tablet PC, not the latest, but nice. I can draw on the screen with a pen. ArtRage 2, top of the line artist software. My Printer is an A3 Epson printer that uses pigment ink. I am still blown away by the depth of colour.

I use mostly thick Hahnemühle Paper.

The process starts in my observations and doodles. My play with the media. Meditations on what emerges. My process can be summed up: One thing leads to another.

What inspires you?
Artists. I go to galleries and last year went to San Francisco and New York. I blog my experiences and reflections on art: http://walterlogeman.com/art

Nature. Nothing inspires more than the beauty in nature. Tramping works well for me.

Describe your workspace:
Anywhere where there is a place to get comfortable with my M200 – I need power, and preferably the Internet. I only print in my home office studio surrounded by books and prints.

Five words that describe your mind:
Restless, driven, busy… dreamy, thoughtful.

What are you currently listening to?
Gillian Welch

Recommend an album:
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

Your favourite childhood book?
Biggles

What are you reading now?
Just finished “The Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. Loved it. Have a book by Andy Warhol to start on, or perhaps a book by Peter Temple, classy crime writer.

Your hero/heroine:
Dr. Jacob Moreno, founder of Psychodrama and someone who combines deep spirituality and a scientific approach.

A favourite quote:
Not really a favourite, as I just came across it, but it describes the moment, the moment we could call by many name, he calls it realisation.

“Then one must think in terms of transcending beyond your own thought and your own feeling to, let’s say, a religious state of mind — not a religion, but a religious state of mind. And a philosophic state of mind which could lead to realisations. And realisations aren’t really tangible things.”

Louis Kahn, an inspired architect.

Do you have any pets?
Little. Ocicat. The keyboard cat, she likes to sit on the keyboard as I type.

Limited edition prints by Walter are available in his Felt shop, waltzzz, and will feature in like something different at Our City O-Tautahi in Christchurch from 18 August to 13 September.

The big day is here – applications are open for the first Craft2.0 Christchurch ever!

Our City O-Tautahi is hosting Craft2.0 on 23 August from 11am till 3pm. If you’d like to be part of the action, apply now at www.craft2.org.

The colourful creations of Wellington-based WHSKR will be at Craft2.0 at theNewDowse on 19 July.

What do you make?
I make art dolls, large and small as well as my beaded brooches.

Your favourite materials, tools and processess:
Fabric and beads, paints and dyes. Fabric I collect in fat quarters to make little bags or some I dye to make Art Dolls. I also realised I had far too many beads in my stash so started to add beads to almost everything including my range of beaded brooches. These are flatter than the Doll pins but just as flamboyant.

What inspires you?
The 1920s for my doll brooches, they are all inspired by ‘pochoir’ prints that used to form the fashion prints of their day with the most beautiful clothes portrayed by complex stencils of the next fashionable evening gowns, car coats and ladies’ hats. For the beaded brooches it’s a combination on the collage and assemblage work of Michael de Meng and the work I see in magazines like Art Doll Quarterly.

Describe your workspace:
Untidy is the kindest word I can use. I get things out when I construct my larger dolls and bit by bit these accumulate around my Sew-Ezi table as piles of books, sketch pads, boxes of colured pencils with a path to the desk where my iMac lurks. It’s hell when the guinea pig gets lost underneath it all – thank goodness for lettuce to tempt him out!

Five words that describe your mind:
Questing, creative, surprised, busy and wondering where our partially sighted cameo kitten Dash has got to.

What are you currently listening to?
You won’t believe this – The Count of Monte Cristo from Audible.com (all 49 hours 42 mins!). I’m a fiend for audio books while I work, the longer the better. If not that then I work really well to ambient music like Jamie Janover, Michael Masley and many of the artists at www.magnatune.com.

Recommend an album:
The View from Olympus – John Psaphas – makes classical music the coolest thing on the planet!

Your favourite childhood book?
Wind in the Willows – Ratty and Mole are a constant delight and Toad deeply irritating.

What are you reading now?
Rita Angus – Jill Trevelyan and The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix

Your hero/heroine:
You are not supposed to pick politicians but any women in high office generates admiration. Hillary Clinton in particular for putting up with some absolute rubbish from the US media.

A favourite quote:
Cavie Diem! Seize the day or “Write that down you will forget it by tomorrow”!!

Do you have any pets?
Five cats Peanut, Sooty, Little ‘Un, who came over from the UK with us 2.5 years ago, and Dot and Dash (the two Kiwi kittens) plus Caspar the Peruvian Crested Guinea Pig.

Check out art dolls and beaded brooches by WHSKR at Craft2.0 on Saturday 19 July at theNewDowse in Lower Hutt, or visit her shop on Felt.

Awesome Craft Site Beckons From the Southern Hemisphere

Felt has just been featured on CraftStylish.com in this lovely write-up by editor Michaela Murphy. It’s great to know that New Zealand is making some waves out there in the world! Read more.