I tried silk screen-printing a few times at college, but, after designing the image I wanted to print, a technician would always whisk it away and come back present me with a freshly-exposed silk screen. Just like magic.

At the Print Club London studios in Dalston no one gets such special treatment. You oversee the creation of your own prints from naissance to paper, magic and all. The Print Club indulges printing addicts with molten inks in a vast array of colours, squeegees, a light box and a dark room.

Modest and unassuming, the studio is nestled just off Stoke Newington Road down a back street. Prayer flags and Chinese lanterns in shades of reds hang overhead lining the alley; discarded prints and half-finished images litter the walls leading up to the entrance. The studio itself is reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock painting - every surface smattered with colour. The aroma of the inks intoxicating.

The time it takes to get my 6 perfect prints is an all-day affair, but the end result is well worth the patience. By the second pull of my squeegee I’m hooked. I’m suddenly fantasising about mixing colours, layering, larger paper, t-shirts, bags, a host of wildly inappropriate surfaces covered with my increasingly extravagant designs.

Since moving to London I’ve found it hard to find a creative outlet and whilst the £100 per month membership price tag seems steep, you do get a lot for your money. Unlimited access to the dark room, light box and 6 printing beds 24 hours a day, on top of that the collective of artists that make up Print Club London promote your work for you through group shows and exhibitions at such prestigious locations as Somerset House.

We all love discovering brands that inspire us to be creative and embrace our adventurous side that little bit more. This time we found a special one that deserves our full attention.

Francli is a new outerwear brand that takes great pride in up-cycling salvaged materials to make their gear. Alison Goodman and Frances Baseley are two recent Falmouth University graduates and the creative heads behind this brand. Drawing inspiration from their love for vintage clothing and workwear, while interning in London they filled their sketchbooks with designs of rucksacks, aprons, and tool wraps. These ideas flourished upon moving back to the rugged coastline of Cornwall.

We had a chat with Ali and Franki about pattern cutting, foraging and how they turned their passion into a job.  

Let's talk Francli:

Franki: Our products are made from old army surplus, second-hand clothing and materials. They are aimed at the rural artisan: a lifestyle we’re definitely trying to promote!

Ali: Unlike the mass-produced and throwaway attitude of the high street, all our products are made from reclaimed materials and have been designed to be as durable as possible. Being sustainable is important to us. We'd love for our customers to apply this attitude to every aspect of their lifestyle.

Tell us about your line:

Ali: The aprons and tool wraps are more for craft purposes, while the rucksacks are for outdoor activities. These are also designed to be interactive with one another, so you could own all three rucksacks and they’d work together.

Franki: Every product is different because they’re hand made and use different combinations of materials. Different fabrics can change their purpose. For example heavy canvas and denim is tough and durable for woodwork. Whereas lightweight cotton is flexible and comfortable for painting and cooking.

What was the design process like?

Franki: We designed everything together in London. Every night we’d come home from our internships and draw things out and problem solve the issues we had with products and clothing.

Ali: We’d sit next to each other, drawing individually, attacking the same problem but would come up with different things. Ideas moved a lot faster, we came up with something we wouldn’t have been able to on our own.

Sounds like the responsibilities are equally shared?

Ali: We make all the decisions together but then take the lead on separate sections. Franki is really good at artistic direction, seeing the thing as a whole, what we want to achieve with the designs and how we want the brand to communicate and I’m quite good at logistics and making that happen.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Franki: Foraging, cooking, sea swimming, interacting with people and being active outdoors. That’s what we do, that’s our passion!

So is this your ideal job?

Ali: Yes, definitely, this is what we want to be doing in 10 years. We took a risk to do what we love!

Francli run a bespoke design service. More info here.

Have your notebooks at the ready, we are pleased to announce the winners of our second Craft Club Challenge in association with The Amazings: Anita McBridge, Nikki Banham, Jennifer Brooks and Katie Tiley!

They delighted us with their dear little notebooks made following the instructions of Alice Morby who showed us how to make a notebook using the traditional art of Japanese stab binding in Issue 16.

Anita Mcbride continued with the Japanese theme by stitching an origami style crane on to the front cover – how cute!

Jennifer Brooks’ book made us smile with its brightly coloured cover, covered in flowers.

Nikki Banham-Hall made her notebook reusing her post. Making pages from letters, envelopes and postcards, even the covers were made from cardboard parcel packaging with some stamps she had saved as decoration!

Katie Tiley also made an ecofriendly version by reusing pages cut from 'The Great Book for Boys' to make her notebook covers - we think it’s wonderful.

They have all won a newly-launched online 'How to Make an Altered Book' tutorial from The Amazings, which will teach them how to transform an unloved book at the back of their bookshelf into a work of art worthy of its very own bookcase.

Congratulations to them all and thank you to everyone else who entered. Be sure to keep a look out for our third Craft Club Challenge, which we will open to coincide with Issue 17.

Designer, chef and all-round innovator Jasleen Kaur has made something rather special. She's taken a well-loved cooking tool, the Tala Cook's Measure which first graced British kitchens in the 1920s, and transformed it into a curry measure.

Her Tahli Curry Measure gives you the right quantity of ingredients for nine different Indian dishes, from butter chicken to chapattis, and constitutes the only change to Tala's iconic tool since the addition of metric measurements.

We spoke to Jasleen about the story behind the measure, and how she got her mum to help tweak the recipes.

What was your experience of the Tala Cook's Measure before you redesigned it?

I know Tala from my Dad’s hardware shop. If a lady came into the shop asking for jam pot covers or muslin, I'd point them in the direction of "the blue gingham packet with Tala written in red". Later, whilst I was studying in London, I came across a really old Tala Cook's Measure at a stand in Spitalfields antique market. I became obsessed with how great a tool it was. And the choice of ingredients it measured was telling of the era it came from; lentils, rice, custard powder and what the hell was tapioca?

When did you develop the idea for the Thali Curry Measure?

After I bought the Cook's Measure my obsession grew as it sat on my desk. But as much as I loved how it worked, I didn't really use it. I don't bake and the combination of moving away from home and the lack of Mum’s home cooking meant the only thing I felt like eating for dinner was a tomato aubergine curry or yellow dahl.

What sparked the initial idea to redesign it was simply to tell the story of what we cooked at home. I pitched my very raw idea to Tala as, "I want to redesign your iconic 1920s Cook's Measure to make curry”. They loved it but told me to focus on finishing my MA first.

How did you go about designing the tool?

Before I could develop the recipes, I had to decide what it would cook. Along with some of my homemade favourites, like Mum’s simple dahl or Dad’s chicken curry, it also needed curry house classics such as jalfrezi and butter chicken. So I worked with my Mum to get the recipes right before product testing the measure on friends and family. 

How does the Thali measure fit with your design work more broadly?

My work has always been about finding ways to communicate with my family through visual language. With Tala, I wanted to take the values and importance of Indian home cooking, a language learned from my mother and nani ji, and work this into a product that speaks to a much wider audience. Most importantly for me, Tala’s existing distribution networks mean ultimately the product will end up selling in my dad’s hardware store, filtering back into the community the ideas originated from.

But the Thali Curry Measure here.

Issue 16 has landed and with it our second Craft Club brief. This month there are oh comely subscriptions and online craft tutorials courtesy of The Amazings to be won, so listen up!

In the issue, Alice Morby showed us how to make a notebook using the traditional art of Japanese stab binding. The technique's beauty is in its infinite variations: from fluro stitching to aged paper, you can make each notebook exactly how you want.

Here's your challenge: make a personalised notebook with a stitched spine.

The prizes: four craft tutorials and four Oh Comely subscriptions.

How to enter: Email [email protected] or tweet #OCcraftclub by July 1st.

Following Alice’s instructions, you’ll produce the traditional tortoise-shell bind that creates a diamond pattern along the notebook spine. Once you've mastered the basics there're plenty more patterns and techniques to experiment with – including four-hold binding shown here by a crafter at Design Sponge.

To top that, for this Craft Club, we've teamed up with the lovely folks at The Amazings, a craft community of wise elders eager to share their mastery and wisdom with budding creatives. We're giving away 4 of their newly-launched online 'How to Make an Altered Book' tutorials, which teach you how to transform a dusty old book into a work of art, just like this one below.

Rather inspiringly, The Amazings’ aim is to keep the traditional skills and practices of yester-year alive by teaching them to the new, young crafters of today. They have a resident Italian glass artist, a Scottish Kiltmaker, a Spanish crocheter, and classes range from learning to play the ukulele to creating retro hair do’s.

Their new online master classes include over 2 hours of entertaining how-to videos, teacher’s notes and handouts, and the opportunity to connect with classmates and ask the teacher questions. It’s rather like going back to school, except you get to swap the textbooks for well, fun stuff! 

Check out The Amazings website for the full range of classes and courses taught by lifelong crafters and makers. You can get your first class free using this link.

For your chance to win a subscription and enrollment on a master class, email your finished notebook to [email protected] by 1st July, or tweet it with the tag #OCcraftclub.

T&Cs: 1. The competition closes on 1 July. 2. One entry per person. 3. There is no cash or other alternative to the prizes stated. 4. Any entries may be published on ohcomely.co.uk and its social media platforms with credit.

Fancy a free dram of whiskey and learning about how this most delicious of brews is made? We've got 10 pairs of tickets to a talk at the Balvenie Whiskey Féte in London this Saturday that promises just that.

Held at the New Craftsmen in Bloomsbury, you'll learn from Balvenie's David Stewart about the finely-tuned process of whiskey making, from choosing a cask for single-barrel malts, to the concept of sequential maturation. He'll then talk you through a tasting. Following that, you'll be sipping a Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14yr!

Natalie Melton, from New Craftsmen, will also be there discussing her work with British craftsmen. It’s an appropriate pairing, since Balvenie’s whiskey draws heavily on traditional methods of making and by-hand processes. 

To win, write to [email protected], or share this link over on Twitter.

Meet The Maker: A New Craftsmen and David Stewart talk: Saturday 15th June, 17.00-19.00, The Balvenie Whisky Féte, Tavistock Square Gardens, London.

“Have you got any plans for tomorrow?” asked my boyfriend. “I’m going to learn Jacobean stitching!” was my somewhat unexpected reply. Amused as he was by the idea of me embroidering a ruff for myself, I was hugely looking forward to the day course, which is run by the Royal School of Needlework in the beautiful grounds of Hampton Court Palace.

Having been to William Morris’ Red House the day before (a highly recommended outing too, arts and craft fans) and been inspired by the embroideries on show, I was already in the mood for some sewing of my own. Making my way down the palace path in the morning sunshine and up to the tallest tower overlooking the gardens was enough to put anyone in the mood for a genteel day of needlecraft.

The course was run by a couple of graduates from the Royal School of Needlework who guided us through a Jacobean sampler of trellis stitch, French knots, woven wheels and seeding whilst the beautiful examples on the walls around us were a reminder to keep our stitches neater than the topiary in the gardens below.

There was a real mix of ages in the class, as we shared crafting confessionals, and there was plenty of back-patting and encouragement, making it a lovely environment to try your hand at something new.

Before I went completely cross-eyed there was an hour for lunch in which we were free to roam the grounds too. After a traditionally Tudor BLT in the cafe I took a walk round the stunning courtyards and gardens and tried to avoid the advances of Henry VIII. For anyone with a love of needlework this is a wonderful day out.

The school runs both day classes and longer courses throughout the year, with full details of their programme available to look at here.

For jewellery that packs a proper punch we look to Revival's range of hand made collar and bib necklaces encrusted with semi-precious and crystals, feathers and lace. Their designer, Chaichan Jantarasuwan, is influenced by "the natural world and traditional Thai design," and uses embroidery, macramé, wire work and needlepoint techniques - it's no wonder they've been featured in a glamorous photoshoot for Thai Elle.

Don’t be shy now, invest in a neon bib (£115) found at Revival.