Photoshoot: Rainbow Bracelet

The rainbow bracelet was designed as a simple introduction to peyote stitch pattern and can be found free in this blog post. It was intended to show support for our keyworkers during this time of lockdown and difficulty around the world. It's easy to focus on the NHS, but they were not alone in their efforts.


My husband works at our local hospital and I have included a badge he wears on his uniform. These were distributed as part of the Rainbow Badges Initiative which aims to promote inclusion with a focus on LGBT+ community. The programme was begun by the Evelina London Children's Hospital and has been adopted by many hospitals across the country.


The set of elephants was purchased at the Japanese Garden in St Mawgan. We went a couple of years back on a really hot day and it was such a cool and peaceful treat to wander around. I adored the shop and this set of elephants was one thing we brought. It was a dull day when I took this photo and they are not catching the light as normal. They are made from recycled aluminium and then enamelled by a fair trade company called Namaste in India. They are sold individually but I wanted a herd, because elephants belong together, well, the lady elephants and young do. They live together on a shelf, traveling together.


The little glass dish was I think from Ikea and is full of skittles whose slogan is taste the rainbow. It's a cheat but we don't have many rainbow coloured things. I also love sugar way too much. Skittles did a limited edition a while back where they made white skittles in white packs for pride. I would have brought some but there was no way! I am allergic to orange and I pick out all the orange sweets and give them to other people. If I can not tell which ones are orange, that gets a little tricky!

The lack of rainbow items is why I made a rainbow out of lego. Lego is great and I really enjoy playing with it. I have a basic classic set and a bunch of minifigures. Growing up we had a whole tub of lego and my Mum kept it for any children that visit to play with. It's amazing what you can create with basic blocks and a bit of time. Olafur Eliasson created a magnificent city for the In Real Life exhibition at the Tate Modern I went to. You could then go and work on the city and change it. There was a huge queue to do this and people were not getting bored and leaving very quickly! We watched from above... It was amazing what people were doing! It would have been great to see how it actually changed over time.

 

The three little dishes were brought in the old town of Lisbon. We had been to the Castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge) and walked back down the hill through Alfama, popping in a few shops with a visit to Lisbon Cathedral and the Miradouro de Santa Luzia. We have a dish and a bowl as well and I hope to expand our set of these lovely pieces as I adore their bright colours. None of the bowls are the same size but with this style, I think they look great, all mis-matched. They are just so cheerful. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the shop. I have tried looking on street view but we were wondering a little aimlessly.


The card was brought for me by my husband and I love it very much. I think he got it from Tesco but looking online for Rainbow Sheep card, it looks like it can be brought on Amazon and from Hallmark. It's such a great image. I really like sheep, they are pretty cool, and wool is a great material to work with. They do have an image of following the crowd though but this image makes the point that you can be a glorious individual while still being part of a group. Being true to yourself is so important, but it does not mean you have to stand alone.

Such great themes from these things for the rainbow!