Mrs Betty Collins

These wonderful things belonged to Mrs Betty Collins, mother of my dear friends David and Margaret, and their older brother Ross. Betty died exactly one year ago today, on her 81st birthday. I feel really honoured that my friends have given me some of her craft items to look after.
above: I love this 1940s Patons knitting pattern model, as she is so unlike anyone you would see today, modelling a cardigan or anything else for that matter.
above: 1950s boys' sweater pattern.
above: Sanchia, from another 1940s Patons knitting book. This, my friends, is not a sewing pattern for lingerie, but a knitting pattern. Only fellow knitters can understand how tiny the 2ply stitches would have been, how long and laborious the process. And imagine wearing knitted "scantees"! My how times have changed.




Betty owned various types of mending thread, including a special one for stockings. You may be imagining that she ran a fine household while her husband went to work. Far from the truth: she studied pharmacy right after the Second World War, and eventually ran the Collins Pharmacy in Sorrento with her second husband Peter. There were both happy and tragic twists and turns in Betty's life, but I don't think that I have ever met anyone with such strength, positivity and beautiful ready smile. And her children are exactly like her.

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And yesterday I realised just how modest a bunch my studio colleagues are! The weaver of great tapestries and photographer Tim Gresham; Peter Summers, painter of beautiful abstract symphonies; Jenny Bolis, brilliant photographer/ designer and all round sweetie; and Troy Mendham, none other than Mr Norf Guide!

knitting in progress

Knitting in progress. I have taken things a bit too far with the frequent colour changes in this one and there will be a great deal of neatening up to do at the back after I am finished.

I am very inspired by Intelligent Clashing at the moment. How nice that there is someone else apart from me who still appreciates 80's Kaffe Fassett!

A Tartan Hunter for Hut 13

A recent conversation with Lucy from Hut 13 resulted in this dog. I am quite fond of him and I can't wait to see how Lucy arranges him and his friends in the Hut 13 window!

A burnt mummy for Melbourne's Child

After the sad stories I have recently been asked to illustrate for Melbourne's Child magazine (Sydney's Child, etc, in other Australian cities) it was such a relief to work on this one. Here a mum laments that her four year old is finding it difficult coping with the attention that the newborn of the family is getting. He does this in all sorts of ways, but when he brings home a picture that he has drawn of the family with his mother "burnt in a fire", the mother is unsurprisingly at wit's end.
As you can see, there was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with this one. Here I think that the mum looks a bit TOO upset, but I like that baby looks grumpy! I worked on this picture just after having gone to an illustrators' seminar: there I got to see how other people work and was reminded that not all of the characters have to be sketched together on the same page: this way they can be shuffled around more easily. (I do the shuffling in Photoshop.) That's why the little lad is missing from this one.

I don't remember why I ended up reversing the whole scene, though!

Strange kitchen sightings...

Strange sightings of wooden creatures hiding amongst the greenery in the kitchen.

I took these photos on a dark day, in my dark house. I thought I would try and liven them up in Photoshop: even though I had fun I might have taken things a bit too far. When it comes to fixing dark photos, I am no Kim Brockett! (I still marvel at the magic she worked with the shots she took at my studio on that very grey late afternoon.)

...Digital photography is a very different beast to the traditional sort, isn't it? Not that I know that much about either!

Knitting without a licence

Knitting football jumpers in a more innocent era, or rather a full decade before licensing deals snagged everything imaginable, from mugs to underpants. In fact, this was knitting before The Australian Football League even existed.

The Melbourne Museum has an entry on this little early 1960's Patons publication here.

If you would like to knit one of these for your little football fan, let me know -- I am happy to post the instructions on flickr.

From the knitting collection of Betty Collins, who died last year at exactly the age of 81. I don't know whether Betty followed the football much herself, but I do know that she was a wonderful woman.

New mirrors in the shop

There are new mirrors in the shop. For a while now I have had "made to order" on most of them, as I have been too busy to replenish the sold ones. I have been busy making replacements, and now they are ALL ready! Bright red lips, a nice warm chestnut brown moustache, and a brand new design, inspired by an ancient mask.

The mask was in turn inspired by the hunter/collector aesthetic of Hollister Hovey and her sister Porter, whose fantastic New York apartment was featured in British Elle Decoration a few months ago, and Inside Out this month.

(Here is a nice link for the curious who do not have access to either magazine article.)

A house on fire and two new clocks

There is a new house on fire wearing slippers,
a very sophisticated clock wearing a pinstripe suit

and another clock with sailor tattoos in the shop.

Dancers in the shop!

Hooray! There are two new special little dancers in the shop, one with a bird for a skirt, the other a hamburger.

And there is a special price for the pair.

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Meanwhile, my very dear and talented friend JP has set himself a most admirable task which he will be documenting on his blog. He writes:

"I'm throwing down the gauntlet and challenging myself not to buy another stitch of manufactured clothing and make everything from scratch."

And he will, you know, with the amount of talent and patience that he has. Go JP!

Mushrooms and Snails travel far

This is a post in two parts.

Firstly, it is my great pleasure to announce that the three little wooden creatures shown above have travelled all the way to the beautiful TarraWarra Museum of Art where they will be very well looked after in their shop. (I had such a great time meeting their lovely staff the other day. They are very excited in anticipation of hosting the Archibald Prize for the first time shortly!) A whopping seventeen more of my latest wooden creatures will be there too: the series that I have been working on the last couple of weeks. You can see them if you look at my last few posts.

The second part of this post are these beautiful photos below sent to me by the delightful and very talented Ms. Sandra Winkworth (or Swinkie) from Sydney. I posted her a mushroom and a snail recently, and in return she sent me these beautiful photos which make my work look good! Thanks so much Sandra W.




She also sent this photo of some very beautiful pokers. Sandra has a huge appreciation of nature, and her blog is a treat. I am not sure whether these flowers are the result of her toil, but they might be as she is a great gardener.

I love seeing where my work goes to live after it leaves me. Whether you have a clock, a mirror or even a greeting card propped up, please consider sending me a photo as I would love to see where it's living!

Birds of Paradise

Not long ago I did two things. I read an article in Frankie on internet dating, in which the author* lamented the phenomenon of men wanting to meet women with "no baggage", among other things. I also watched a documentary narrated by David Attenborough which showed the incredible courtship rituals of the birds of paradise of New Guinea. As I watched the male birds preen and fail to win over the female every time, it reminded me of those men that the Frankie writer described, and it made sense to combine the two.

* I don't have a copy of issue 41 so I can't cite the author unfortunately.

Two women in progress

Two special women in progress. I have LOTS of work to finish by mid next week, more on that later. Meanwhile, lovely weekend to one and all, may it continue to be sunny wherever you are!

Prudence Flint is one of my favourite local artists, and I have been thinking about her work ALOT while making these.

Oesophagitis illustration for Melbourne's Child

So far as a regular illustrator for Melbourne's Child (Sydney's Child, etc) I have been asked to provide pictures for some sad and difficult stories. However when I first read this one, about a boy with eosinophilic oesophagitis, I was left reeling. The sufferer of this condition is allergic to every single food there is. The boy above obtains his nutrition from a special amino acid liquid. His mother, the writer of the story, reports that he is actually quite big for his age.

I always try to show a positive side to the story; this month it was pretty challenging.

New woodens in navy and red

Because the studios near mine are being renovated, there's been a lot of building noise, and I have been sawing to my heart's content. It's been great to be able to finish an item completely before moving onto the next. As each one is completed I put it next to its friends, and the idea for the next one springs up from what's there. I liked how the Hamburger Dancer looked next to the Man + Fish and mushrooms and wondered whether another nature lover might like to join them. I had my bird book out. Would a bird make a nice skirt? I think so.