Design | Luke Turner Bottle Openers

Beer seems to be at in the top five priorities when me + Nik meet up. The running order goes something like this; coffee, actual work duties + Buckets meeting (coffee before work, yes), checking it with PRs, visiting new stores, and beer.

While you can’t open a PR with a bottle opener, you can open another on the list. A terrible segue way, but we got there!

I spotted these rather cool looking customised bottle openers on Instagram, created by a chap called Luke Turner. He’s only selling them via Instagram right now, which I actually thought was a pretty sweet idea - people turning their social media into a quick turn over-type of side project. Just flogging them out there, no website, just Paypal. I dunno, I just liked the convenience of it all. Especially seeing as you can use the Paypal app on your phone these days.

Anyway, these bottle openers have all been collected over a few years, from various places like second hand shops, car boots, vintage sales…and have been spruced and cleaned up. They’ve been finished off with a little bit of natty paracord, which can be attached to your wallet, keychain or even wrist if you really must.

Find them at @helloluketurner for £8.50 each.

- Mat. Editor of Buckets and Spades.

You can find Mat on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

FlyingJack - Design that's most definitely unique

Taking a leaf out of Mat's book, a quick one for today. There's not really a lot to say about FlyingJack, other than it was a quirky looking water bottle searching for investment on KickStarter - until 6 days ago.

I really can't make my mind up about this. It's either a cool design I'd like to see sat on the shelf or something I'd regret buying.

Either way, it doesn't look like I'll need to bother making a decision, as they just withdrew the project from KickStarter.

Whether you like it or not, it's always a shame to see an idea someone wanted help with fail. Oh well. Let's hope they find some investment from another source.

For now, I'll just keep browsing projects on KickStarter until I find something I definitely want to invest in.

Cyclehoop | A message in design

A neat idea, that I'm sure everyone has seen already, the Cyclehoop converts a car parking space into a rack for ten bikes. They've just put one outside the office and I was suitably impressed enough to want to share it.

20 likes! So I can't be the only one behind the curve.

But even with such a great invention, sometimes people just want to stick to the traditional method of locking up a bike. This picture was taken outside the Glenfiddich Distillery in Scotland. Now, if someone can tell me what's wrong with the picture, they'll win a cookie.

Broughton Boots | Relaunching a family tradition

There's definitely a growing interest in the provenance and heritage of clothes. While well-established brands are looking back through their archives to revise, update, reuse and rejuvenate styles from previous eras, many brands that are just starting out are taking inspiration from the past too.

Broughton Boots is one such brand. Established by the guys responsible for Cubitts glasses, Broughton takes a boot originally designed for coal miners by the founder’s great-great-grandfather and translates this into a product for the modern day.

Made to order in a Northampton factory and featuring a Goodyear storm-welt and an optional steel quarter-heel, the brand is looking for funding via Kickstarter to get the first pairs into production. They've already passed their original target, which means we should get to see the finished product some time soon. Exciting stuff!