Round ‘n round … and finished is your paper twine basket! After the big success of our knit bangle DIY kit you can now also make your own paper twine knit baskets – fun and easy and no knitting skills required!

Our Knit Basket DIY Kits are availabe in three sizes and include everything you need to make your own baskets:
- A round knitting loom (diameter 13.5cm / 5.3 in)
- Hook tool
- Strong Paper Twines
- Detailed instructions on how to make a basket, shape it and possible finishing touches
- An extra postcard for you to keep our give away with one of the baskets

and you can even choose and personalize the colors for your very own DIY kit. A total of 24 colors are available and 5 of them a exclusively available as part of our DIY kits. All kits are packed in a beautiful cardboard box filled with fun paper frizzels to protect the precious contents.

We need to warn you though: the risks are high that you’ll get hooked! Luckily paper twine baskets make a beautiful gift as well so keep knitting and all your friends will love you for it! Just get some more strong paper twine and keep knitting and knitting…

Paper Twine Baskets & Water:

Our strong paper twines are also used for the manufacturing of carpets and are very sturdy. They’re colorfast and do not stain when wet. It’s no problem to wash them gently by hand or to rinse them from time to time. You will need to re-shape your baskets after the washing (instructions found in the DIY kit).
To keep your baskets in perfect condition for a long time we suggest to nevertheless avoid contact with water when possible and to never leave them humid for long (let them dry!).

The DIY Kits: Knit Baskets are also available in our Etsy store.

Sophie Baumgärtner: peng, paper twine, tissue paper, stainless steel brooch needle

How to better start into the New Year than with a lovely New Year’s cracker? And even better: a cracker you can actually wear the whole year?

But to start at the beginning let me explain that late last year we got a super-urgent order by German Jewelry Design student Sophie Baumgärtner for a “suprise”. A couple of days ago I found these great pictures in our mailbox of the “suprise”: Sophie’s recent side project of “peng” brooches.

Handmade out of paper twine and sometimes a lining of colored tissue paper the brooches are carefully mounted on a stainless steel, nickle-free brooch pin. Sophie’s inspiration for these pieces – by now there are four different lines – are indeed New Year’s crackers and the sound they make then exploding: peng!

Besides the “peng” brooches Sophie is currently working on her diploma at the Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein (Good Luck!) and is also co-curating the Schmuckkantine, a platform for contemporary jewelry.

KNOT can be worn as a necklace as well as a bracelet

We introduced out new KNOT jewelry line in August this year (here and here) and it has become a huge success. In fact we sold so many that our supplier ran out of the beautiful, matte latches we used to add even more options in the style you can wear the necklace/bracelet. But now the latches are back in stock and because they were made especially for us in Germany we now do have a lot of them in the studio!

If you’re looking for a Christmas present for one of your loved ones (or for yourself) then this versatile piece might be what you’ve been looking for. KNOT jewelry is made of paper twine and it can get wet though to keep the pieces in pristine condition we recommend to take them off before washing the dishes or going for a romantic walk in the rain! All pieces are packed in clear gift-boxes and if you need them wrapped as gift just drop us a line and we’ll whip up a fantastic, papery gift for you. Buy it online in our etsy shop.

Also we’ve been working with our Nordic agent Stjernestunder and there are now a lot of shops in Denmark and Norway that are selling our KNOTs – you can find a complete list of our stockists here (please note that not all PaperPhine retailers have the KNOTs).

KNOT can be worn as a necklace as well as a bracelet!

We talked a lot about our new KNOT jewelry lately and yes, it might be that we’re a bit proud of the new pieces. If you read the last blog articles as well you know that there was a long and laborious process behind finding the perfect design. Today we want to share some picture of the KNOT pieces worn as necklaces with you – and yes, it’s the same piece that can also be worn as a bracelet!

When worn long you have the choice between extra-long or you can make a big “knot”/loop to slightly shorten the piece. When worn short you can use the latch that is available in shiny as well as in matt to hold the strands together. And of course you can find your personal way to wear the necklace as well!

The good news are that our agent Helle from Stjernestunder found a lot of shops that loved our KNOT pieces at the Formland Fair she attended. This means that there will be a lot of shops that will stock our KNOT pieces in Northern Europe (and other places!) soon. For the moment you can get the KNOTs at feinheiten… in Innsbruck or you can send us a message and we’ll send you your very own KNOT bracelet/necklace!

Some weeks ago we shared the first two paper flowers made by Linda’s parents with you here and your feedback has been overwhelming. Thanks a lot for all the comments and emails – Linda’s parents experienced for the first time how many paper lovers can be found online!

Since then they’ve made many more paper twine flowers … it seems that the whole family is infected by the “paper twine – virus” by now (it’s very contagious, we have to warn you!). Today we want to show you three of the latest paper twine flowers and we would love to see your creations, too! So don’t be shy and send us a picture or two to office (at) paperphine (dot) com !

We’re wishing you a colorful start into the weekend with our two new paper twine colors: coral/pink and aubergine! Available in the PaperPhine etsy shop

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We just added a new color to our paper twines in the shop: yummy orange! A wonderful color for all that spring and summer crafting you’re having in mind – and in case you live on the other hemnisphere it’s also a very nice hue for autumn

Thanks again to all our newsletter readers who let us know what colors they would like to have next. We really enjoyed hearing from you and your kind words and comments lifted our spirits! The three colors you requested most were: orange, aubergine and coral. As soon as the pictures of the aubergine and coral twines are ready they’ll be available as well.

The randomly chosen winner of the newsletter give-away is Sandy – your paper twines are on their way!

Pixar’s WALL-E inspecting some paper twine

So this is what happens when you take work home and leave both your work (e.g. paper twine bobbins ready for a photo shoot) and your camera unattended. You come back to find some very interesting pictures on your camera that somebody else – e.g. the boyfriend – has taken. And quite obviously he likes to play as well…

We might have to invest into a bigger LEGO crane….

Strong Colored Paper Twine slightly untwisted to form little “leaves” and to make the undyed interior visible

The wonderful thing about taking part in a Christmas market is not only meeting new and old customers, fellow artisans and sellers but also having the possibility to stock up on unique Christmas presents. And that’s exactly what we did last weekend in Vienna at the FESCH’markt. The first presents are already wrapped (don’t show our Grandmothers these pictures!). We wanted a natural style and used our Strong Paper Twines

and some handmade paper with fibres and leaves showing.

You can slighty untwist the Paper Twine to make it into a broader paper ribbon that gets lighter in color towards the center in case of the Colored Paper Twines. Also the twines are stiffer than most other warpping twines and therefore bows keep their form beautifully.

Please keep our shipping deadline for Christmas supplies in mind when ordering from our shop and on etsy

We’re busy – and we’re nearly ready to launch our new product: Twisted Paper Twine in Red/White and Black/White on an old spindle. We’re very much in love with our new Paper Twine that proves to be perfect for early Christmas wrapping and also with the old spindles we found in a former weaving mill. And we hope that you’ll like our new twine as well!
Available in November 2011.