Nature Crafts — Knot Waste

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Turn Nature Activities into Nature Crafts

Turn your Nature Activities into Nature Crafts with a little inspiration from Knot Waste. Choose a Nature Activity that helps you to explore nature and deepen your environmental connection. Afterwards use some natural items likes sand or stones that you've found on your nature activities to create some nature crafts.

Both encourage hands-on creativity and a deeper appreciation for the natural world, which in turn supports your mental wellbeing.

Exploring Iceland

Sometimes it’s good to get away from your local environment and explore some place new to fulfil your nature connection needs. So we did just that. We ticked off a long-time ambition of venturing around Iceland from our bucket-lists. We started with the cool downtown Reykjavik that’s filled with biophilic design from houses with green living roofs to food shacks that serve up food that resemble the dramatic Icelandic landscape. We also couldn’t miss out on taking a nature stroll down Reykjavik’s stunning coastline, and stopping to dip our toes into the Kvika geothermal foot bath.

We took the opportunity to sign up to a few Nature Activities along the way, which included whale watching, an off-road experience chasing the Northern Lights, and booked a seat on the longest day trip in Iceland; a 14 hour round-day trip to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach. That’s all the way from the capital Reykjavik to southern Iceland, where icebergs float past you, little seal cubs splash around, and sneaker waves wash up diamonds carved from ice onto the black volcanic sand beaches. We stayed well away from the dangerous waves, even when we made a stop at Reynisfjara black sand beach and the village of Vik for dinner. Great to see in real life but only an idiot would dip their toes in those waves.

We snapped lots of travel photos throughout the trip (view our Iceland Galleries to see some of our faves), which inspired us to do some nature crafting. After visiting the glacier lagoon and learning about how melting sea ice has an impact globally, we wanted to do something to help draw awareness. So, we created our Glacier Melt embroidery pattern pack inspired by the glacier lagoon and the little seals that call it home. We might live a million miles away from glaciers and icebergs but since the trip we feel more connected to them than ever. Everyday actions can impact something on the other side of the world, and lead to devastating consequences globally.

Nature Crafting

Upcycling Old Handbags

Feeling so inspired by the dramatic Icelandic scenery, we breathed a second-life into some of our old handbags by creating mixtures with sand and stones to upcycle them. We kind of went full circle with our nature activity to nature crafting journey by then going back out into nature to snap photos of our upcycled bags. You do get a few side eyes when you’re snapping your bag by a mud flap but when you’re enjoying yourself in the moment… It’s no big deal!

We sailed from Reykjavik to Ísafjörður and out to the abandoned village of Hesteyri. It regularly gets battered by harsh weather, and is so isolated that all of its villagers decided to leave! It’s now home to summer-houses and an old doctor’s surgery which has been turned into a cafe. If you’re lucky, you’ll also get to see the resident arctic fox, which has learnt to forage for food from the cafe. Just like urban foxes do in London’s wheelie bins.

From Ísafjörður, we went on to Akureyi, which is nicknamed the capital of North Iceland. We visited craters, waterfalls, mud flaps that felt like we had landed on Mars, and battled midges at Lake Mývatn (Midge Lake). There are so many midges that it looks like rain on your windscreen… and it’s almost impossible to eat your ice cream from the local ice cream shack, but we managed it!

Our final destination was Seydisfjordur in East Iceland. It’s a little village set amidst a waterfall and mountains, that’s filled with colourful cottages and artists’s galleries.

Our trip gave us a greater appreciation of Icelandic nature. It left us totally inspired and wanting to live in a colourful shack in the mountains… but one with art galleries close by! Dream aside, we’ll relive the trip through our Iceland Galleries and by sharing our nature crafts with you.