Sunday, August 31, 2008

This is......my favourtie fabric and craft supply shop


This week we've been asked to list our favourite fabric and craft supply shops. So here's mine: For all sorts of stuff I love going to Reverse Garbage. They sell industrial offcuts, fabric samples, craft supplies, and lots, lots more. My favouite fabric shop is Tessuti, they sell amazing fabric and have a blog too. And for art supplies you can't go past Parkers in Sydney. It's like the Armani of art supply shops, selling Belgium linen, exotic pigments and beautiful paints and brushes. It's been a family business since 1918, so it's got a really nice old world feel to it.

Thanks to Handmaiden for this weeks theme, and Three Buttons for hosting the game.
Images are from the Tessuti and Parkers websites. xxxx


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

On My Desk


Lately I've been thinking about the Giant Pink Sea-Snail from Dr Dolittle, and strangely enough I couldn't find an image of if anywhere on the internet. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, but in the meantime I made my own pink snail, and did lots of different texture mapping on the shell - then turned it into a wallpaper.

If anyone can find a pic of Dr Dolittle's snail can you let me know? Thanks to Kootoyoo for hosting On My Desk. xxxx

Monday, August 25, 2008

Nozomi Ishiguro



Another cool Japanese designer: Nozomi Ishiguro, found via Breathe-Design. xxxx

Sunday, August 24, 2008

This is...my favourite childrens book


This is a childhood book I've managed to keep in my travels and still look at all the time because of the great illustrations. I also laugh every time I read the bad joke I wrote on the inner page when I was a kid:

If we painted every car in Australia pink would would we be?
A Pink Carnation.

Thanks to Potty Mouth Mamma, for this weeks theme and Three Buttons for hosting the game. xxxx

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Amanda Upton's webiste


My lovely friend Amanda Upton just launched her website. She did the gorgeous illustrations above. xxxx

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Nice pics from old books


This afternoon a friend of mine emailed me a picture (the one with the black background) from Goethe’s Theory of Colours with the email header 'Nice pic from old book'. I liked it, so did a bit of a google search and found a scholarly website called colorsystem.com that explains the history and science of colour order. Rather than read all the scientific stuff I decided to look at the illustrations, of which there's many. So many in fact that I forgot to list where all the pictures came from. If you want to find out you could go through the site yourself. I found them while I was looking through the historical articles listed on the left hand menu. Here's the link. xxxx

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Typographic Masonry


While I was reading Niko magazine, (above images) I found out about the designer's Richard Niessen and Esther De Vries. They do really detailed and colourful graphics, including the typographic work below (click to enlarge). You can see more of their work at niessendevries.com. Amazing stuff. xxxx

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

On My Desk


Here are some fabric swatches I got back from Sublitech. Some turned out well, some didn't. The octopus print on the top left bleed too much so you can hardly see his legs. Have to print it larger next time.

And below are some Dodo birds I did a while back. I accidentally clicked on an old email today and was reminded of them. I'm gonna make some more 3D birds soon, so I'll be able to re-use his head and turn it into a different shape.

Thanks to Kootoyoo for hosting On My Desk. xxxx

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Design Stuff


Above are some examples of typography work by Si Scott. The website is worth going through, there's some beautiful work there. And below are some images from us design studio UK. This particular project is a collaboration between YNC, Nike and Nick Night. xxxx

Sunday, August 10, 2008

This is...a work in progress

This weeks theme for this is... , is 'a work in progress'. Through the week I made a little purse for a friends birthday out of fabric offcuts.
I made a mobile phone holder as well, but it's so badly constructed that I think it's going to stay a work in progress.... Thanks to Debbie from Kept in a Jar for deciding on the theme this week, and Three Buttons for hosting the meme. xxxx

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Op Shopping and a blue and white bunny




A couple of weeks ago I got this cute beret (top pic) at the markets, and that night I was looking through my Olle Eksell book and found an illustration he'd done of the exact same hat.

It was also lovely to pop over to Debbie Hill's blog and see that she had made a bunnie from the pattern I posted a while back. I like hers better! (image below)

I scanned the Olle Eksell image from his book, and got the bunny pic off Debbie Hill's blog, which is otherwise known as Kept in a Jar. xxxx


Sunday, August 3, 2008

this is ... my trade secret



This weeks theme for 'this is' is a good one. It was suggested by bollewangenhaptoet, and it's this: This is .... 'My trade secret'. I'll be very interested to read everyone else's secrets, but this is mine.

In order to have happy results it's good to have a great working relationship with the people who help you do what you do. I've seen lots of horror stories lately where people have got things produced overseas and because of the lack of communication, or problems with technology etc, things have gone really pear shaped, and they've had to start from scratch.

So here are some of the tried and trusted people I can recommend (apologies that the list is a bit Sydney-centric):

Digital and offset stationery printing: MBE Surry Hills. There's a great guy called Andrew. If there's a colour problem, or something he's not sure about, he'll call immediately. He's lovely to deal with and his pricing is competitive.

Woven Labels: Clothing Labels. I've just had a great experience dealing with them. They spent ages with me going through colour charts etc. Akira uses them, so you can count on the quality being really good. (see examples above)

Digital Fabric yardage printers: Sublitech. The only drawback is that they only print onto polyester, ie lycra and flag cloth. I found a fabric that is canvas like in quality which I'll be using for bags, but I'll wait till Wednesday's On my Desk to show that.

I'm still on the lookout for a yardage screenprinter so if anyone knows one I'd love to hear a recommendation.

Thanks to Three Buttons for hosting This is.... xxxx


Friday, August 1, 2008

Designers from Antwerp



Today I got a book called Fashion Now 2, which is a selection of contemporary fashion from around the world, chosen from the people from I-D Magazine. Two of the really colourful standouts in the book are Dirk Van Saene, and Walter Van Beirendonck who are both designers from Antwerp. They are part of a group known as the Antwerp six, which you can read about here. I was interested to read that designers from Antwerp are a huge sucess in Japan, some of them exporting to the Japanese market only. Just when I thought I'd finally found an influence from a country other than Japan, I find out that theres a Japanese story attatched. I've really gotta go there ....... xxxx