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!

Wooden figures made by others

I make things using a number of materials, but my painted and cut out wooden beings are what I define myself through most.  (Examples here.)  I always get excited when I come across other artists who use the medium in a similar way.  Here are some of my current favourites.  Above: Max Estes.

 Above: Jeremy Tinder.

 Above: Merijn Hos.

 Above: Alexandra Lakin.

Above: Kim Laurenti (Hi Kim!).

It's really great too to look at these pieces in the context of the artists' other work and interests.  An immensely talented bunch.
Happy Holidays.

Merry Potato Christmas

I made some wrapping paper yesterday using potatoes and the two paint colours that I happened to have at home: it was way too hot to go near that furnace of a studio.  I think the last time I made a potato print I was ten.  I have grand plans to do something fancier next time.

Merry merry Christmas everyone!  May you have a day full of warmth and love, wherever you are.

And so I baked a cake

I can make lots of things, but I have never made a fancy cake like the ones that people actually PAY for.  So when the production designer at work asked me if I could make a butterfly cake for his daughter's birthday, I was extremely flattered but very tempted to say no.  However as my new motto is to say yes to all but the most ridiculous of challenges, I naively took it up.  My dear friend (and colleague) JP gave me wonderful advice, gleaned from both personal experience and devouring fancy baking shows on Foxtel.  Then it was on to Bake Boss to get some advice and an idea of the cost.  One of the first things that the lovely women there said unanimously was "that job requires fondant!"  Fondant to me is as foreign as brake fluid and wheel alignment.  However after a couple of calming pep talks, I bought said fondant, kneaded and rolled it, cut out some butterfly shapes and left it to dry.  (A pair and a spare: thank goodness my props job has taught me the wisdom making extra, as the first one I made ended up horribly pock marked!)  The template you can see above is an enlargement of the butterfly that the production designer sent as inspiration.

My mum very kindly allowed me to use her kitchen, her fancy oven and her baking skills as the 40 x 40 cm cake tin certainly would not have fit into my temperature gauge-less little 1970s Kitchen Maid.  The size of the tin required that the chocolate cake recipe be tripled.  Thank you Mum for all of your help!

 After it was cooled (on a spare oven rack!) the cake was cut into the butterfly shape, then iced using a good old fashioned Women's Weekly chocolate frosting.

Then it was back to the fondant.  The first coat of aqua pearl paint did not look great.  I was scared.

The second coat made the effect much more opaque.  After it dried I added the black details, placed the butterfly on the cake, stuck little pink pearls on with special gel, then strewed bronze coloured sugary bits around the edges (it would have been nicer if they had been a bit paler).  Initially I had wanted to surround the cake with little hydrangea flowers, but I read that they were poisonous so I stuck little pink pearls around instead.  (Shhh: this was all to hide my mediocre frosting job.)

The offcuts were sliced and iced and taken to the studio Christmas party.

Sorry about the bad i-phone photos.

This is a crazy time of year!  I hope that you have all had a restful Sunday.

Some new wooden things in the shop.

I started these little men a while ago.  Now they are finally finished and in the shop, and they are very pleased with themselves.