Saturday, June 30, 2012

Le Tour

We are crazy about the Tour de France in this household. So excited it starts tonight!


There'll be a lot of late late nights over the next couple of weeks, but that's 
also plenty of crochet time too! ;) Are you crazy for the Tour too?

Image from here.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

More postal goodies :)

Some more amazing deliveries today (I'm getting really scared about my next 
credit card bill!) but how could I regret buying these lovelies? :) They are all
specials finds from Alessandra's shop Knots


The pot holders are by the wonderful Renilde from At-Swin-Two-Birds.


I couldn't resist getting one of Renilde's mobiles while I was there as well...


And this gorgeous plate is from the Stylecraft 'Midwinter' range of Staffordshire 
Potteries. The design is from the 'Nature Study' collection (c.1955) by Terence 
Conran. Isn't it divine? I have it displayed on some postcards by Leah Duncan 
that I've had for a while.


Okay, no more shopping from me for quite a while now... I think I've helped 
the European economy enough at this stage! ;) 

Monday, June 25, 2012

The gap

I've been busy trying to build a body of work for my Etsy store and listening 
to a lot of tutorials and workshops on how to go about this. I couldn't work out
for a while why I suddenly had to make this work; where the determination came 
from... and then I found this poster by Sawyer Hollenshead of an Ira Glass quote.



Maybe it's just me being susceptible to suggestion, but I feel like I've been playing 
away for so long and I'm so inspired now to put these years of dabbling into practise.
I still like playing with ideas but I want to take what I do seriously... does that make
sense? Have you had a similar *moment* ? 

Perhaps I'm just deluding myself but I'm going to have fun doing it! :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

Postal goodies

Some more exciting deliveries arrived today... I was the lucky winner of Kate's 
giveaway. Two fabulous Japanese craft books - they are so gorgeous! 
Thanks Kate :)



The patterns are so easy to follow with great diagrams... I actually find them
much easier to follow than their wordy English counterparts.



AND my fluorescent wool arrived... (it's very bright!)


I ended up getting it from here and it was rather reasonable in cost but the 
postage was prohibitive! Not sure I would have bought it if I'd known the 
postage cost beforehand (there was no viewing of it until it had all gone 
through... don't you hate it when sites do that?)


Also, I was in the city today and saw this at Gorman... I couldn't believe my eyes! 
Funny how designs are nowhere and then suddenly they are everywhere! 
Weird actually... ;) Maybe it's simply a case that it's always there but you only 
notice it after you have something the same, like with cars or prams etc?

Hope you've had a great week!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Literary treat


This is the book I'm reading at the moment (it's WONDERFUL!) and
I'm really thrilled that Anna Funder has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Also... totally over the moon that she's given award-scrappers here in Qld a telling 
off as well! I think I actually hooted out loud when she referred to those here 
with "dictatorial inclinations"! :) So funny. Congratulations Anna!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Inspiration: Lynn Basa

I don't remember now where I first came across the work of Lynn Basa 
but the sensory feeling of being pulled into her paintings is just as strong 
today as it was then. Have you seen her works on paper before?


She uses a technique known as Encaustic Painting, which is basically 
adding pigments to wax (in Basa's case it's beeswax) and then manipulating
the pigments to create form or abstractions. When I first saw it I thought it was a 
kind of fabric painting medium with silk... I guess it has that same 'wet work' feel ;)


I often feel when mixing up fabric paints that I'm creating a brew of some kind; it 
has that vague culinary dynamic to it that always makes me smile. Nice to note 
that I'm perhaps not alone in these thoughts, as Basa has entitled her pieces 
fanciful names like Blanc Mange, Silver Cake and White Cake :)


Anyway, if you're interested in bio details: Lynn Basa lives in Chicago and teaches 
in the Sculpture Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She's a 
prominent public artist and is also the author of The Artist's Guide to Public Art.
But, for me, it's her works on paper that really *pop* and sizzle :)


You can see more of Lynn Basa's works on her website, which is gorgeously 
entitled Other People's Pixels :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Faces behind blogs

I'm a bit late but still joining in Elisabeth's 'intrusive face' fun... 
the up close and unadorned faces behind blogs (well, in my case anyway!)


Are you playing along? Do you like knowing what the people behind 
your favourite blogs look like? and why is that?

Monday, June 18, 2012

Deliverance: Fine Little Porcelain, Necklace + Print

Some happy postal treats have been arriving on my lucky doorstep...


Porcelain from Elisabeth at Fine Little Day (my saucers with the cups).


A Tin Tin thank you necklace from Katherine (the printer ink recipient).


A gorgeous Superb Blue Wren print from Kristina and Jason of Inaluxe 
(lucky giveaway).

I've also been working away at new blankets and cushions... in fact I've 
become a woman obsessed. I have a picture in my mind of my shop filled
with strong graphic crochet designs happily waiting for the right person/buyer
to come along :) Ha! Yes, dreams and fantasies. Anyway, this is an update 
photo for the harlequin blanket...


Thank you to Elisabeth, Katherine, Kristina and Jason for my lucky goodies!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Inspiration: Guy de Cointet

I've been thinking a lot about patterning lately and continue to be fascinated 
by abstract forms. So, no surprises that the work of Frenchman, Guy de Cointet
has piqued my interest and had me turning my head from side to side in an 
effort to decipher his amazing work.



Recognised as one of the leading figures of Conceptual Art, De Cointet is said to 
compose his pieces as visual codes, which I think you can see in the pieces below.



To me, there's a sense of communication just beyond my comprehension in his 
works, like some elusive word game, so I wasn't surprised to read that Surrealist 
novelist Raymond Roussel is one of De Cointet's formative influences.


Anyway, it's their abstract patterning that really interests me. Does this make your 
eyes *pop* too and have you noticed how often it is the simple abstract forms that 
really pack a punch? 


And while I'm at it I just want to show you a hand-printed piece that I keep above my 
desk... I love it so much. Steffen from 3 Girls and a Goat created it as wrapping paper 
for her products. Isn't it wonderful? Also, you can just see one of Elisabeth's fabulous
abstract cutting boards. And even though he's not abstract I do love darling little
Arthur there too, created by Jess :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Rainy weekend

... oh it was so lovely! Driving up the mountains and going through the rainforest 
was just beautiful.


Do you remember previous posts of this view? This time we were living in a cloud :)


There was a lot of crocheting by the fire... 




I've started on a new design (even though the last one isn't finished!) 
Yes, I've gone diamond-crazy these days and the latest design is a classic 
harlequin pattern...




Love the rain :) Hope you had a lovely long weekend too!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Favourite feelings

We had a wonderful parcel arrive in the mail yesterday... it was full of feelings :)
Have you seen Mitsy's collection of 99 Feelings? My girls and I love them.


We love them so much we have a 'Feelings Fund' and when we have enough 
pennies in the pot we buy a new one :) This is our collection so far.


This time I chose Adventurous (the one that looks like Tin Tin!) because 
I've been charting new territory (for me) in setting up a new identity with 
Paravent... My Big Girl chose Confused because, well you have to know 
her to get that joke ;) ... and my Little One chose Super because she's
totally into the comic book subculture and that's just her 'thing' :)


Mitsy is so lovely she also included two pendant necklaces for my girls
and she picked their personalities so well!


She also included so many ceramic goodies we were totally overwhelmed.
(There was chocolate too but that disappeared very quickly...!)


There are so many fabulous feelings it really is so hard to choose.
This one is my absolute favourite, but I'm waiting until I feel that way ;)

You can see the whole collection at the Art Mind Etsy Store.


Thank you so much Mitsy! We love them :)


p.s. we're off to the mountains for the long weekend... see you Tuesday!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Creative Space: Pin Cushion + blanket update

Playing along with Kirsty's My Creative Space meme today. 
Pop over to Kidspot to join in or see other spaces.


I've made a pin cushion. It's my very first and in honour of an old 
friend who has taken up sewing (and doing some cracker pieces too!).
Happy birthday Anita! and yah to having sewing friends too! :)


Isometric blanket update... I've been diligently diamonding and I would 
estimate I'm about 75% finished. The blanket has been ravelled.


I'm dreaming of a fluorescent orange border on this one but do you think I 
can find fluoro yarn anywhere? I would have thought it'd be so easy!


Let me know if you've seen any in your neck of the woods?
(every time I write an expression like that these days I giggle to imagine what 
the auto-translator would make of it! Obviously I'm reading a lot of foreign 
language blogs lately! :))

Hope you've had a wonderful week.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Etsy Favourite

I love coming across something new and exciting on Etsy. 
My newest find is NiHaMa's gorgeous crochet teething toys for babies.
Aren't they just lovely? The quality of the crochet is wonderful, helped 
along by fabulous photos of course.





Such a simple stunning gift for a newborn, don't you think?
NiHaMa *** Etsy *** Blog *** Facebook pages.