Design Crush: Kirsten Johnston + Zaishu collab

Artist collaborations are always so exciting - seeing the melding of design aesthetics, 
particularly when combining opposites. The hard with the soft etc... and all that 'sum being 
greater than the parts' business ;) 

My latest design crush: Zaishu ply seat/tables with surface artwork of the fabulous Kirsten 
Johnston's knitted creations...



Pieces in process...



Trial panels...



And a little peak at how the final construction comes together...



Don't you just love it? Such a fabulous collaboration :)

Here are a couple of other designs I rather liked too!

‘Banksia’ by Nicola Cerini

‘Indigo Weave’ by Matthew Butler

If you'd like to see more of their work, you can find Kirsten's blog here and Zaishu here.

Artist Crush: Ari Athans

Ari is very well known in Brisbane for her breathtaking jewellery, but she is also an
amazing artist. Her most recent exhibition, Rockheads, is on from the 30th July till 17th 
August... I LOVE it! Have a peek online here, or if you're in Brisbane, you can see them 
in person here. This is not an ad - it's a true artist crush :)

Happy days are here (again)...

Those who've visited my old blog over the years will know that this time of year is my 

favourite... It's that time of year when I get to hitch a ride with my Mr and go to the optical 

trade fair in Paris for our business.

I'm so excited - I just can't wait to get on that plane tomorrow :) We used to live in 

London for a while, so it's the first stop to catch up with friends and visit our favourite 

places... (this involves me pretending that we still live there, of course.)

We try to add on a place we've never been before and have had some lovely 

little stop-overs to Copenhagen, Antwerp, Rome etc in previous years. This 

year it's Berlin and I'm sooooo looking forward to this :)

And then, our final destination will be Paris (the actual work part of the trip).

Usually, the Mr and I are caught up at the Parc des Expositions for days and see very 

little of the city. This time we've scored some frequent flyer tickets so we're taking 

the girls with us, and well, someone has to be with them all day :)

I'm going to post photos on my Instagram account, but other than that I won't be 

posting again for a couple of weeks.

These fabulous posters are all from the very talented Caroline 

from I Love Design London on Etsy.

Au revoir! À Bientôt!

Noticing... (and an update!)

I'm about to run out of the house and go to the Queensland Museum to see an 

exhibition called Dressed By the Best. It's a tribute to Gwen Gillam, a Queensland 

fashion designer from the 1950s and 1960s.  

Meanwhile I've been looking at some photos from my last outing to the gallery/

museum precinct at Southbank. I took a few photos of a North Korean mosaic at 

GOMA and I'm becoming obsessed with pixelation all over again. 

This is a black suit...

A white suit...

A button on a jacket....

Some flowers...

A wreath...

A trombone....

...and the whole mosaic :)

Loving how the different tiles come together to create a colour perception that

isn't necessarily there... and a depth perception too. Fascinating, isn't it?

Hope you have a good day :)

UPDATE: I'm back from the exhibition and it was quite good. So funny to see all 
the archive photos of the Brisbane social scene... Lennons Hotel etc and, of course,
all the magnificent frocks! I only took a couple of photos before being told that I
wasn't allowed to, so it's just these two I'm afraid.





The one thing that really struck me from the exhibition was the QUALITY of fabric.
You just don't see this kind of fabric anymore... not for purchase anyway and I'm
sure if we did it would be inaccessible price-wise! ;) Anyway, if you're in Brisbane 
I do recommend going... for the social history, but also the fabric :)

Figuratively speaking...

I am such a fan of figurative paintings. They draw me into their world like the 

playing out of a story. I guess that's what the hook is, the narrative of a moment 

captured. The painting below are by Minneapolis-born artist, Michael Carson.

There's almost a photographic reference to his work too, like negatives have been 

placed over each other of the same figures to show a kind of time-lapsed movement.

Lovely, aren't they? You can see more of his paintings here.

Umbrella Canopy

Sharing a lovely find that made me smile... have you seen this one around the 

blogisphere? These photos were taken by photographer Patrícia Almeida in 

the Portuguese town of Agueda at their local art festival. Patrícia Almeida's 

Flickr page shows more and you can read more about it here if you wish.

I've been out and about most of today, catching up with old friends in a park.

It feels like way too long since we've done something like this. Life gets so 

bogged down into school/work routine, doesn't it? 

Hope you had a lovely weekend :)

For the masses

A big thank you to everyone for being so lovely about my last post. How amazing 

to have so much fabulous advice from friends... I feel very spoilt. Thank you :)

Something about public art now... which isn't too far a jump if you think about it.

I love how visual enrichment used to come as standard with buildings of old; the giving

of something so much more than the functional. The ceramic reliefs below were created 

by sculptor P.Lindsay Clark in 1926. Perhaps they began as iconic signposts, these 

fabulous sculptures on the Widegate Street building for the Nordheim Model Bakery 

in Spitalfields, East London. These days they provide not only a historical reference for

the area, but, in my opinion, a formative take on the notion of branding and logos... in a 

much more evocative and impressive way.

Whenever I come across pieces like this it's like a gift I think :)

I first came across these lovelies via this blog, but read up on them here.

Photographs by Robert Freidus.

So exciting...!

What's exciting me this month? The Hey Maker! collective in Murwillumbah :)

These fabulous peeps are fund-raising to set up a creative hub in their town...

I think it's fabulous and have made a pledge to help them along... 

Can you help them too? Find their pledge site here.

The Hey Maker! collective is a group of creatives in the Tweed Valley area 

who are passionate about creating a space where artists, designers, makers

and crafters can gather to create, exhibit and sell their wares.

They are Ellie from Petalplum, Jo Olive from Olive and the Volcano, Belinda 

from Belinda Smith Artist and Kathy from Oiko. They have a joint blogsite here, 

or you can visit their Facebook page to keep up with their progress.

I think it's a wonderful project. Hope you think so too :)

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! ;) 

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 :)