The big yellow face

Ideas might arrive in my head half formed, to be completed them later perhaps, like a jigsaw puzzle. Other times they present themselves complete, like this one did. I don't know why, but I thought it might be an interesting idea to make an old fashioned soldier with an enormous yellow moon-like face. Sometimes you just have to follow through with an idea to find out. Maybe his job is to lead me down a new path?

Microscopically in Vogue!

Hut 13 in Armadale was featured in the Talk Shop section of the May/June issue of Vogue Living. It was the lovely Sandra of Swinkie at Home who informed me. After I saw the page for myself, I was surprised that she spotted my work at all! Ms. Sandra, you certainly have an eagle eye... thank you.

Gustav above, who can be seen among the clocks and mirrors in the photo. In case anyone is wondering why my etsy shop has a few "made to order" items in it these days, that is because the originals are (or were) being sold at Hut 13!

Here are some more photos of this beautiful shop.

Happy Easter!

I'm tired!!!

snails and mushrooms

Just glued together, above: a snail carrying a Brac style house. Not sure if that will be a hanging or standing piece. Above that is an old shop display perspex apple adapted from a fabric design that I made for seed. That one is waiting to be successfully glued back together -- nothing has worked so far!
More mushrooms. I am quite fond of the one on the right.
Very glad right now to have a second table in the studio, where I can put all these things in progress. It's actually a giant light box, which is very handy.

a little round face

This little face was meant to form part of a bigger piece that I am working on. I am reluctant to cut her out though for some reason, as I like her the way she is, peeking through the wood. She already looks a bit annoyed, maybe if I cut her out she will be even more so?

Work/Life II

I have finally received my copy of Uppercase's Work/Life II Directory of Illustration. My page above. Below, some other pages that I like:
above: Cynthia Merhej, who works out of London but hails from Lebanon.
above: Maddi Matthews, a talented young illustrator from Canada.
above: Jacqui Lee, also from Canada.
above: the magnificent Olaf Hajek, from Germany.
above: Andrea D'Aquino from the USA.
above: beautiful cover by Alyssa Nassner. Janine Vangool -- who pretty much does everything: write, design, distribute these little books -- is an absolute dynamo. I don't know how she does it, especially with a baby in tow, and at a standard that sets the bar for everyone else.

House on fire + a footballer

Some more work in progress. I am yet to cut these out: the guy who manages the studio where I work has declared that he dislikes the noise of my saw so I have to make sure that he is not around when I am doing my cutting. Party pooper! I actually quite like the way that they look in these photos -- particularly the footballer below. A confusing mess of limbs, kind of like in an actual footy game. Meanwhile, the house above should look like a variation on this previous one when it's put together.

Work in progress for Craft Victoria

The first bunch of work for the Craft Victoria May window is coming together, but there's LOTS more to do in the next few weeks!

A May enCounter

I am really honoured that my work is going to be shown in the window at Craft Victoria in May. There's ALOT of work to be done, but I thought that I would start gathering a few things that are ready, or almost ready, to see how they look. I had more than I thought but I need to do alot more. The really small pieces I made a long time ago, but I like how they look with the larger objects, and I might continue with those if I get time. I plan to show lots of mirrors as well. At this point I have no idea whatsoever how I will assemble everything in the window.

The current enCounter window by Sean Rafferty is magnificent. NO ONE can follow that up, surely?!

Gulp.

A man for this season

Early autumn is a particularly beautiful time here in Melbourne, apart from having given me a bout of the flu. I am working from home today, so that I can pretend to lie on the couch occasionally to rest. As you can see, that idea hasn't quite worked and I have almost finished a little autumn man. Beside him to the left you can see his inspiration: a photo of a strangely proportioned -- but incredibly appealing -- early 19th century German doll. He has inspired many, many of my little people but I think that this is the first time I have actually shown him on my blog.

Boy on Fish

This is a picture that I painted at the end of last year. I have not been able to show it online until now -- I will explain why next week. In the meantime, an A4 print of this picture is going to be part of an auction that Illustrators Australia is holding to raise funds for Japan. I will link to the auction when it's up and ready: there is sure to be some fantastic stuff on offer.

I am very pleased to announce that a selection of my cards will shortly be available at the wonderful Berkelouw Books, at their Paddington and Leichhardt branches in Sydney.

An excuse to become a recipe blog?!

Karen Martini had some particularly marvellous recipes in her regular Sunday Life spread in The Age (and presumably The Sydney Morning Herald) yesterday. As I looked for the third time at the one shown here -- double checking to see if I needed to buy anything in order to make it -- I noticed some familiar looking stitches sitting underneath the plate.

It was my scarf: the stylist had used it as a table runner! I was on public transport at the time, but I wanted to giggle out loud, or show it to the passenger in the next seat. Instead I waited until I got to my friend's house to show it off.

The best part is that we actually ended up making the recipe for dinner -- including the pita bread. It was beyond wonderful, and worth every second of trouble. Try it! You can use a different meat (we did) or if you are vegetarian, cook more eggplant and toss it in the spices instead.

Above: the first scarf I ever made -- which I wasn't sure about at the time because I thought that someone might think that I was wearing a teatowel around my neck. OK, now I know that I was...

I just realised that I have not included the pita bread recipe here...if anyone is interested I can always reproduce it here later.

A veiny clock

I finally assembled a very educational veins and arteries clock that I finished a while ago. The gold hands are quite fancy.

Illustration for article about dyslexia

Sketch and final illustration for an article published in Sydney's Child (and Melbourne's Child, etc.) this month. Looking at it now, I think I prefer the expression on the sketched boy's face to the final version. In the final version he looks like he's given up!

The perplexed lad was based on a photograph found in my beloved copy of The Family of Children, a treasure trove of inspirational images.

I have made some very spring-like scarves for the Craft Victoria shop. Luckily autumn is pausing for a few days of sunshine here in Melbourne, so that they seem less inappropriate!