Photos in the front room

Took some photos in the front room this morning while the light (from the skylight) was briefly good.  The Village Heads above are left over from The Design Files Open House and are now in the shop.
The fantastic retro styled wooden blocks from Luft are by American illustrator Christian Northeast -- have a better look at them here.  My favourite is the corn dog, in the middle, above.

Happy Valentine's Day II

Playing around with old copies of the Good Weekend.  Words inspired by a jewellery catalogue.

The orange background is courtesy of some purposely lo-fi (i.e. lazy and can't be bothered fixing it) Photoshopping.

I think I'd like to hang around some primary school art classes and just cut coloured paper into shapes and Clag things to toilet rolls.

Happy Valentine's Day

I have been playing with my fountain pens, after not having touched them in about four years.  I am so happy that most of them still work (after a clean, a change of ink, and a loving squeeze).

Digitally printed cushions.

I had a few of my illustrations printed onto organic cotton hemp by Frankie and Swiss last week.  It was very exciting to see my work enlarged and in the form of fabric, which is weird because I used to work as a textile/ graphic designer and see my work as fabric all the time....
Above and below: my volcano, which spews molten lava at the front but has a very calming vintage rose print at the back.

 Above and below: my little blue apple man, who looks so funny as a stuffed doll but is kind of  endearing.

Above and below: the burning house.  It has a rather homely and relaxing blue and white ticking stripe for its back.  

They are all in the shop.  (The tree cushion is not, it's in Sara Carr's.)

Kitty and Darth

I was going to save this one for Valentine's Day, but I don't have anything else to show for this week, so here they are: Kitty and Darth.  Like Kitty, Darth was painted on wood and cut out as a figure, and is actually, um, a 'full frontal'.  I have decided to show the pair in a slightly more modest form, partly as I think that to hint is more interesting, and because I don't want my blog to become a target for a certain type of spam.

Anyway, Happy Sunday.  

(Let me know how Linden went, Saskia...!)

Feeling a bit autumnal?

Hello. I must be feeling autumnal today, with these warm but subdued colours.  Perhaps it was something about the lovely mild weather we had in Melbourne today?
Below: postcard of an untitled work by the Russian artist Ivan Kljun, c.1917.  (I love that his surname means 'beak'!)

Below: trompe l'oeil Fornasetti screen.

Below: vintage wooden tiger from a circus set.

Below: eighteenth century patchwork quilt from Vogue Living, May/ June 2010.

Il Cuscino Pinguino by Franco Mattichio.
....Good night.

Actually, a rant before I sign off: the 'new' Blogger is still so annoyingly difficult to use.  This is not the order that I wanted my pictures to be in, but they seemed to have a mind of their own this evening.  Does anyone else still have these issues?!

Around the house today

Hi! Above, a gift for my friend Bridget.  The wrapping is a patchwork of print outs and magazine tears.  I think that patchwork wrapping will become my new hobby, it's fun!  It sits on a tablecloth that was probably embroidered by my maternal great grandmother.  (As a young girl, she was a lady in waiting to a countess, and was skilled in a great number of crafts.  I'd like to think it's been passed down.)

 Above: vintage wrapping paper, waiting to be flattened and placed on a wall.  It calls to mind my friend Anna's fantastic exhibition held last year at The Rooftop at Curtin House.

 Above: forbidden love between a mushroom (made by me) and a giraffe (vintage).  I wonder what the offspring would look like....

 Above: this is where I am presently sitting.  The wall collection is looking decidedly brown and dully-coloured for me.  A new phase.   Not a great photo either, sorry.

 Above and below: In the kitchen, vintage stuff largely bought from Etsy and around Melbourne.  The beautiful blue Beehive knitting needle size guide above belonged to my friends' David and Margaret's late mum.  (More here.)

Above: 1950s bathers which I bought at a flea market in Fiesole many, many years ago but have unfortunately never worn as the elastic shirring at the back is very loose.  She is a beauty though, isn't she?  I am also enjoying the colour green more than usual lately.  I really go through phases with colour.  Do you?.

Too scared

Too scared to deliver Kitty above to Linden today as my entry for The Postcard Show this year (previous lucky entry here).

Reason being: the bottom half of her body is decidedly more frank than the half you can see here.

...I am going to go for a swim and that might clear my head enough to decide.

I love their style

This week I read and gawped at the wonderful images in Amanda Brooks' I Love Your Style (New York, 2009).  Having recently read Fashion and Sustainability: Design for Change (by Kate Fletcher & Lynda Grose, London 2011) it seems to me that guides to perpetual style are increasingly required in this world of fast disposable fashion.  The making of clothing is so fraught -- from the production of textiles using dangerous pesticides and water polluting fabric dyes, to questionable labour conditions and the sheer volume of discarded goods destined for landfill -- that it's actually mind boggling.

For me the solution is to love what you have, buy vintage, support the few brands that care about how their goods are produced, make your own or have someone else make things for you.  And to know what suits you and makes you happy.  While an imagined "Jackie O in Capri '65" look is one of my favourite style aspirations, this rather more formal Chanel suit above would still get a good work out if it was in my wardrobe, though probably not worn together.

Another perennial favourite for me is 1970s preppie.  Above: Jodie Foster, 1979.

Above: Style!  Gotta love a woman who is so at ease wearing so very little.  The magnificent Josephine Baker, 1925.

Above: so simple, beautiful and timeless.  Louise Brooks, year not cited, 1920s.

 Above: Nina Hagen, the ultimate rock'n'roll bad girl.  Love that fringe and eye make up.  1979.

Above: the author's mother's wedding, 1966.  Custom made Lilly Pulitzer dresses with matching green shoes.  Bring back the fun in wedding attire, I say!!

 Above: reminder to self that I must make a replica of this coat before next winter (rather unlikely).

Above: Let's be realistic about this whole style thing.  If you have a face like Catherine Deneuve's you can get away with wearing (and possibly doing) ANYTHING.  Those cheekbones are perfect.  1966.

Brooks' book contains some beautiful, colourful and fantastically inspiring images.  I have chosen a relatively dull selection, but that's where I am at right now.  I would love to know what (or who) other people would choose as their style aspirations....

My mirrors on Apartment Therapy!

Above: A detail of the web page below.

I was very excited to discover that my painted mirrors were recently shown on Apartment Therapy!  I am an avid admirer of the site, and especially love to lurk around the wonderful Kitchn.  In fact I have probably spent too much time in The Kitchn to look anywhere else -- which sounds like my life at the in general at the moment.  (There has been so much sweet food preparation in the props department at work lately that I do not care to EVER see icing or lollies again.  OK -- maybe until next week.)

Sunny day things.

Above: a page from The Art of Instruction, compiled by Katrien Van der Schueren, San Francisco, 2011.

 Above: necklace purchased by my mother in Mexico, waiting to be restrung for the fourth time, hopefully by my mother....

Above: a detail from my favourite belt.

 Above: one of my favourite flowers in the garden right now.

Above: a hand stitched seat cover from my paternal grandmother's kitchen, recognised recently by visiting cousins.

Pretty Old for the New Year

Increasingly enamoured of this lovely vintage wrapping paper left over from Christmas -- thanks WK.  Inspires me to improve my potato printing skills, among other things.
Happy 2013 to one and all.....may it be happy, healthy and CREATIVE!