12 DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS 2012

Monday is the first day of this years 12 DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS, I am so excited I could expire at any moment! There are 12 splendid and wonderful makers/artists/designers/collectors/stores that are taking part, each have selected a piece of their amazingness to be won. All you have to do this year is leave a comment/e-mail on each post for all 12 days and you could be the lucky winner of the entire bag of loot! Ready, steady, GO!!!!

RPAT MAD MAX LOVE

Ok, seriously, don't laugh! This is about the fashion, really. I am so loving this shoot for L'UOMO VOGUE by Caitlin Cronenburg, styled by Rushka Bergman. It's in the November 2012 issue and is so MAD MAX meets a vampire biker. How insane are the enormous pointy studs, they must weigh a ton, I adore the outsize concept, it is the shizzle.

 

ARIELE LOVE

There is this beautiful Woolies clutch with a black diamond pattern on it in one of their window ads but I cannot find this clutch in any of their stores or online. Sis Boo Humbug. Which made me want to do a post on black triangles today which led me on a wandering path to DESIGN SPONGE and the super dynamite ARIELE ALASKO'S studio, cue extreme artist envy and a complete distraction from the post I was going to do. Have a look at her blog of magnificence BROOKLYN TO WEST, her work is amazing and the photos too.

MADELEINES LOVE

WHITEONRICE

Bought a delightful book yesterday called We Love Madeleines by Chronicle Books from THE SPACE. I have been dying to make some for ages but didn't want to use the new pans you can get at Osman's. So snapped up the vintage ones a little while ago from MINT faster than you can say dipped in chocolate! There are so many tasty recipes and wild variations plus plenty of really good advice on the practical aspects of making these morsels. Was planning on taking some creative shots today but guess what, it's raining! I really must get a better set up for photography, maybe when the messy studio is completed.

FLORENCE LOVE

How insanely beautiful is this image of FLORENCE WELCH from THE VOGUE 120 September 2012. Shot by NORMA JEAN ROY, wearing a CHANEL dress and DOLCE & GABBANA cape. I love the drama and detail and wild luxury.

PIPPI LOVE

Swan and I have been visiting Villekulla Cottage in the evenings, at bedtime. Reading about the amazingly strong and altogether resourceful (and wayward) PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by ASTRID LINDGREN. This is a little linocut I have made as an ode to her loveliness. It has 7 separate little blocks that make up the different elements. A perfect stocking filler for lovelies or littles.
A5, 147 mm x 210 mm on 200 gsm Ashrad 
R200 (unframed excl. postage & packaging), Edition of 10 

SCOTT BOARD LOVE

Scott always gets the short end of the stick or the back end so to speak of our board. He has to work around the skeg and because I am a spoilt diva he has to wait while I labour away for weeks. He had 48 hours to crank his out and I think he made a beautiful piece of typography, both in form and words. He did hand inked type which was then scanned to scale and made into a vinyl, he then dry brushed two different shades of blue to distress the texture. His side tells the story of the human man who has taken a selkie wife, lost his heart to the sea.
It is still super overcast today so I have had to be a bit creative with the shot.

BOARD LOVE 2012 FINALE

The Beast is finished!!! It was so windy yesterday and the board is super light, most of the photos I was grimacing and what looks like a delicate hold on the board is actually a pincer grip. You can see the scale of the longboard in the photo, painting was like pilates, lots of stepping up and down on a chair. Scott has finished his side and I will post a photo later once it has stopped raining. I love this board and hope that this years Art Auction raises an even bigger total for the charities. Have a look at the other wonderful artists taking part HERE.

BOARD LOVE 2012 VI

A small snap of the last few layers of the board - I am so happy with the colour of the hair! Usually red is evil to get nice and flat, across pretty much all paint mediums but I was crafty and sprayed a really good coverage of yellow first. This takes the nasty transparent edge off and I managed a bit of a sunset like fade. I actually wish I had left a little bit more of the yellow showing but no matter how loudly I say it in my head, there is just no Command Z when you are painting for real. The fur was my first attempt at recreating my ink drawings on a large scale with acrylic paint, it was no picnic I tell you but am really pleased with the result. This may well be my favorite board so far.

SIELU LINTU WINNER

NISES NOSTALGIA

Dear AMY you are the winner of my SIELU LINTU GIVEAWAY! Hooray! Please E-MAIL me your postal address so that I can send you your loot. Do not despair Lovelies, I am delighted times a billion to announce that PB will be hosting another 12 DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS, beginning on the 3rd December. I'll keep you posted on who will be taking part this year, you will be beside yourself!!!

MESSY STUDIO LOVE II

MESSY STUDIO Phase 1 will be completed today. We are doing it lil' bitty by lil' bitty - as budget allows. So we are aiming to be complete in 6 months, sounds like forever but the messy studio has been messy for 6 years so what's a little longer. It is amazing how having a visiony quest blog makes you do the things you dream about. I may even squeeze in a kiln!
P.S Don't forget today is the final day of my SIELU LINTU GIVEAWAY.

BOARD LOVE 2012 V

Some stages of the masking and spraying of the leviathan large board. The reno on the messy studio is moving at a rate of knots, so have been sneaking out early in the morning to spray and late in the afternoon after the builders have left. The taupe fur colour has come out quite gold which looks awesome but may have to rethink the chinoiserie. Going to make a hand cut paper mask/stencil today for the Dia De Los Muertos face paint.

WEDNESDAY GIVEAWAY

It's been a while since I did a GIVEAWAY and it's rainy today so maybe someone out there needs cheering up. Up for grabs is an unframed A3 archival print SIELU LINTU on Innova. I would like to hit the 150 lovelies mark so spread the word! To enter leave a comment on this post by Friday. Smiley face!

SYLVIA JI LOVE

Was looking for some reference for Dia De Los Muertos face painting and come upon the awesome SYLVIA JI. Cue massive artist crush!!! I love the colour, I love the pattern, I love the gothic sauciness and the big hair. I would like to dress like this everyday. Two of my lovelies have done wonderful posts on DDLM, have a peek at ELLOMENNOPEE beautiful Halloween costume and ONCE for more Day of the Dead splendidness.

BOARD LOVE 2012 IV

This is my SELKIE LADY planning drawing, it's a bit Goth but I just go with the direction my pencil takes me. The white overlay is temporary, I want to do gold chinoiserie style flowers, birds and butterflies on the black but the hair took over, I originally wanted more black background. I may still cut out some of the hair. I want to focus on the line work of the fur and keep the rest quite minimal in colour and detail.

BOARD LOVE 2012 III

Working on the layers for my cabinet miniature illustration which I use as a template for the board. It means I can work out the scale, detail and colour so that there are no mistakes on the larger piece. As usual I have an initial idea which then morphs into something entirely independent of any of those thoughts I may have had the temerity to have. I am definitely channeling Lana Del Rey hair on this baby! p.s I just noticed how filthy my keyboard is (PeeeeU!)

BOARD LOVE 2012 II

DAVE VAN GINKEL created this years WAVESCAPES ART AUCTION board. His Dad gave him the board years ago, a hybrid  transitional board that marks the beginning of the evolution from the longboard to the short board. It was made by the grandfather of SA surfing JOHN WHITMORE. Whitmore is regarded as the pioneer of surfing in SA, particularly around surfboard shaping. A chance meeting with Dick Metz at Glen Beach lead to the import of Clark foam and the change from wood to fibre glass. He also discovered many surf spots including Elands Bay and Cape St Francis. As the owner of the first Kombi in the 50's (he worked at the VW factory in Uitenhage), he was the seminal surf tripper.

Here is a dodgy shot taken of the beautiful board to show you how tall it is! I take a photo at the beginning of the painting process to make a template for my initial sketch. I am going to have to stand on a ladder to work on this one.

WWI XMAS LOVE

Thank you to the awesome lady womens of the WWI for our Xmas bash last night, I had a blast. You guys are the best non-bookclub bookclub ever! I had lots of fun with the table, originally was going to go with a Delft theme but then saw these beautiful little birdie plates at Mr P Home and then the rest just grew from there. I nicked the bird lid idea from Rhenda IKHAYA (thanks Rhen), Swan loved helping with these and I got to try out my new matt black spraypaint. The tablecloth, gold chargers, plastic tumblers and rosettes are also from MR P Home. The stripey straws and DIY crackers are from MERRYPAK. Plastic birds and dotty napkins are from THE ONE STOP PARTY SHOP. Enamel vase from MINT and white vase from LULUSHOP. The chalkboard tags are from the IHEART Market and my silverware is from IKEA and THE SPACE. Salted caramels and volcano salt from WOOLIES.

 

THE TRIBE LOVE

Whilst doing some reference Googling gathering yesterday I came upon young Russian,  PAVEL PROKOPCHICK'S photography. I love all his imagery but am particularly attracted to his THE TRIBE series. Captures that time for me when humans are not children nor adults and are free to roam.

CAFE BLOOM LOVE

SA-Venues.com / Foter / CC BY

Escaped to the Midlands yesterday, been doing that a lot lately, would like to escape there permanently!  We visited most of our usual haunts and one new one which somehow slipped past our radar even though COELHO CULTURE did a lovely post on it in March. I also forgot my camera, so couldn't take any pics myself of their beautiful garden and barns, as well as the crazy wild roses abundant and riotously taking over the roadside hedgerows. I have artist envy of every part of CAFE BLOOM, from their very prolific vegetable beds cultivated by Sally and their 11 year old son Jo, (who were working in the garden while we drank our lime blossom tea) to Michael Haigh's wonderful ceramics. I had a lovely chat with him about seed saving when I went to pay my bill. It is encouraging to see a family living their convictions and creative dreams so thoroughly, a purposeful and beautiful life.

BOARD LOVE 2012

This is our 2012 WAVESCAPES board, I am calling it The Beast because, although you can't tell because of the perspective shortening from trying to take a photo in our narrow passage, it is very LONG! Will get some info on the shaper and it's vital statistics for next weeks posts. Messy studio has had it's springclean and the sun is out finally, so will see what Monday brings.

MESSY MESSY STUDIO

Wooty woot! Our WAVESCAPES board has finally arrived but I am now faced with a wee dilemma of where to paint. The messy studio is not suitable for storing anything in this weather although we seem to have finally sorted out the worst of the flooding problem (touch wood). Am doing a big clean up of the dried mud today but still a bit worried about the roof falling on my head. Phase 1 of the long term overhaul of the messy studio starts in 2 weeks. Yay! But may well have to paint in the inside workroom which means no spray painting, hmmmmm.