Thursday 28 March 2013

BUNNY LOVE





















Happy Easter to all my lovelies far and wide, may you stay safe and sound, enjoy some time with your lovelies which is exactly what I am going to do. First have a peek at JANE FOSTER amazing, bright and beautiful scandi style things - girl crush!!

Wednesday 27 March 2013

NILS ANDERSON LOVE















































This collage is from photos I took yesterday of my most favourite paintings at the Norwegian Hall. They are huge and high up so almost impossible to shoot from below, so I cropped out the curtains and toilet signs - but small like this just does not do justice to their faded beauty. They are by NILS ANDERSON (1897 - 1972), born in Drammen Norway, came to South Africa in 1911. He is also responsible for the painting of the dioramas at the Durban Museum which I love with a passion too.

Tuesday 26 March 2013

RAIN CHAIN LOVE






























We have swopped around a gutter down pipe outside the MESSY STUDIO so that we could fit in the cement wash trough. So for aesthetics and acoustics I have ordered a beautiful copper rain chain from www.stanwoodimports on EBAY, I love to shop local but in this case these babies are a little out of my price range. With weathering and age they succumb to a wonderful green patina.
See the below video for how these lovelies work. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSchquaBFMA&feature=player_embedded#

Monday 25 March 2013

MESSY STUDIO COBBLES LOVE







































If you are in my neck of the woods you will know that it is raining in a most lovely manner today, so I had to take this shot with my phone precariously out the kitchen window. Look at the splendid cobbles that are being laid with much deliberation. Initially we had planned for a traditional stepped herringbone pattern but because the space is so narrow in parts it meant we would have had ugly halves with sharp edges. Also a cloud of h bomb like proportions rose above our back yard when just one cobble was cut, so in the interest of a dust free neighborhood we decided on the straight as you go route. Weirdly enough it suits the space and has a more contemporary urban farm feel.
They are the charcoal domed cobbles from TUSCANY PAVING which can be found at SHAPES GARDEN DECOR.

Friday 22 March 2013

REPLACEFACE LOVE































Came across these awesome (and hilarious) images by STEVE PAYNE whilst doing a reference ramble. Go and have a peek at them all, he replaces famous Russian Generals faces with those from present day pop culture.
I wish this one was mine xxxxxxxx

Wednesday 20 March 2013

HART LOVE






































Make sure you pay a visit to NIGHT & LIGHT & NEVERNESS, an exhibition by RICHARD HART at the KZNSA. His works are bold and beautiful, the colour palette is sublime and the light captured ecclesiastical to say the least!

Tuesday 19 March 2013

MESSY STUDIO JOJO LOVE






































This is part of the foundation/platform base for our JOJO. I am so excited I could pop! I have this thing for water tanks, we used to have an old cement one in our first rented house in Port Elizabeth and the beauty of catching rain water has never left me. I think it has something to do with the deeply imbedded and very stubborn desire I have to be self sufficient.

Monday 18 March 2013

KOKERBOOM LOVE






I have been drawing like crazy over the past 6 weeks and have enjoyed every second of every minute of it. Here are the drawings for a wonderful commission for Jane Du Rand of MOSAIC for a private residence. The Richtersveld is one of the most otherworldly beautiful landscapes ever and is home to my favourite tree, the Kokerboom (Quiver tree), so I could not have been more delighted to immerse myself in it's colours and detail. Can't wait to see this translated into mosaic and delicately sculpted clay.






Friday 15 March 2013

SHELDON LOVE






































"Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait........"
Bare Naked Ladies

BAZINGA!!!

Today is a small short ode to Sheldon Cooper of the BIG BANG and his wardrobe peoples wonderful sense of style. I love his t-shirts with the undershirts and the skinny pant. The colours, the prints - everything!










Thursday 14 March 2013

MONSTER LOVE






































Ok I have been obsessed with collectable dolls for years and now I have a small partner in crime so together we are a bit of a menace. We have loved MONSTER HIGH dolls since they first appeared on the shelves but they were not age appropriate for the small girlchild at the time. Now they are and woohoo the teeny tiny outfits, earrings, accessories and frikkin' amazing hair colour. I love attention to detail in fashion and this just floats my boat! They have a great message too - Be Yourself. Be Unique!

Wednesday 13 March 2013

BYBLOS LOVE






































The beautiful cutout detail on this top from BYBLOS caught my eye on the back cover of Heat magazine.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

MESSY STUDIO MARCH






































Yeehaw! Work resumed on the messy studio yesterday after a brief hiatus. It was a noisy day, it was a laborious day, it was a revealing day. Gerald, part of our small team of dedicated artisans spent the day painstakingly stripping the plaster off the bottom half of the back feature wall so it matched the part above ceiling level. It will be bag washed and painted white. I am so delighted with the result, the texture is perfect.

Monday 11 March 2013

JAMES LOVE






































ELLE DECORATION UK is truly one of my favourite magazines in a sea of publications that I treasure. There is something to ignite fires in my brain on every page (even the adverts are beautiful). This week as I am working on a very wonderful commission I am going to do a few quick posts on what caught my eye in the February 2013 edition. JAMES BROWN is an illustrator and printmaker based in London, he produces graphic simplicity at it's best. He worked in the clothing industry for 10 years for some awesome brands and is now a solo artist. Have a trawl through his website and blog.





Friday 8 March 2013

LIEBSTER LOVE IV







































Ok so now comes the time when I have to set 11 Questions for the lovelies who I have awarded the LIEBSTER to.

1. Do you have a collection, if so, how did it begin?
2. What inspires you most - fashion, interiors, product design, architecture, food, travel and how does this relate to your work and then your blog.
3. Have you had days when you are stuck with your blog and how do you dig yourself out of the writers block pit of doom?
4. Do you feel blogs are the new village market or town gossip?
5. Have you made real life connections from your blog (not of a romantical nature) and have they benefited your work and visa versa?
6. If your blog was an animal what would it be? (like in a vision quest kind of way)
7. Who would you most like to follow your blog?
8. Are you a fly by the seat of your pants blogger or do you meticulously craft your posts?
9. What is your favourite blog template and why do you like it's layout?
10. What has been your favourite online tutorial?
11. Would you like to make money from your blog?

Thursday 7 March 2013

LIEBSTER LOVE III






































11 BLOGS I NOMINATE

This is difficult for me because I am a creature of habit, so I have a small groups of blogs that I frequent religiously, I am loyal to a fault so it is rare that new blogs stick around. And some of my faves have a following of more than 200 eergh.

1. MINT The Shop - retro kitchenalia, collectables and furniture blog
2. ONCE - a beautiful artist with crafty hands
3. KITTENS WITH MITTENS - the most amazing embroidered brooches EVER!
4. NO 19 - amazing stylist and product designer, very talented eye for industrial vintage
5. LULUSHOP - more delicious vintage treasures
6. ILOVEBOKKIE - clever modern South African furniture design
7. LOST IS A PLACE TOO - my illustration girl crush
8. EENDAG OP 'N REENDAG - the best jewellery in all the land
9. IKHAYASTORE - my sista in all things made
10. MENGSEL - homegrown screen printing illustration talent in London
11. LUCKY PONY - now I am cheating with this one because I think Angie has abut 1 trillion followers but I LOVE this blog sooooo much

Oh shoot I have run out of time, questions will have to be tomorrow. Laters Gators!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

LIEBSTER LOVE II






































QUESTIONS FOR ME by ELLOMENNOPEE

1. When you find a new blog in the sea of blogs, what are the characteristics that make you follow it?
1. I am driven firstly by all things visual, so it is the pretty pictures but then once I am hooked I like stories, people who have an off beat sense of humour and the details of their lives and craft.

2. Will blogging be the next Myspace, disappearing into obscurity in a few years?
2. Who knows the way the wind blows. Some of the blogs I follow have been around for years and time slips by secretly. Maybe now is when I mention I have difficulty committing.

3. Have you experienced any negativity on your blog and how did you deal with it?
3. So far the feedback has been positive, most of my followers are within the craft community and share compassion and passion for work made by hand.
No trolls under this bridge!

4. Which is more important on a personal blog, style or content?
4. Ooh here I am at my fence sitting best - sheesh - I have rewritten this a few times - even with beautiful style, a blog can be a little vacuous without the personality of sprightly content.

5. What appeal do smaller, non-professional blogs have to readers, if any?
 5. Same appeal as hand made versus commercially manufactured?

6. Do you find blogging fuels your consumerism?
6. My consumerism usually relates to a collection which I follow with dogged persistence but my collections are sparked by obscure triggers and not related to blogging. However I do use my blog as a vision board for objectives/wishes/dreams/grand schemes so maybe in an indirect way I am romantising my consumerism.

7. Does blogging and social media ever make you feel like you are living life through a camera?
 7. Not so much through the camera as through a sieve of judgement. Sometimes blogging can play on one's desire to be living a hyper happy life. I try to steer clear of unrealistic expectations which can be a downer on natural, spontaneous creativity. My spice rack is not alphabetized.

8. People evolve all the time, do you ever feel the need to edit old posts?
8. I think way too much and worry way too much about the smallest minutiae of life as it is, so have to be strict with myself about not stressing about what has come before. Let that sleeping past lie.

9. Do you ever feel shy to tell people about your blog and why?
9. No, I love my blog, in a gentle way, it is a pleasant place for me, one step away from a poem that you let other people read even though it's not that amazing but you are proud of it anyway because it means something to you.

10. How much do you think about your online identity and how do you decide what is too much information to share?
10. I don't think about it outside of my daily post, I don't like to share too much personal family stuff as this is a blog that relates more to my work. I also keep it upbeat not to make my life like candy floss but because it is an escape for me from mundanity, fear, sadness, boredom, anger, frustration and negativity.

11. What is the most rewarding part of blogging?
11. Making things happen. I began this blog to focus on my illustration again, to try new things and to push myself to accomplish and finish creative tasks. If I write about it, I must make it so, that is my first rule of Blog Club.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

LIEBSTER LOVE


Woot woot! Thank you to the lovely ELLOMENNOPEE for nominating me for a LIEBSTER AWARD. Liebster means dearest in German which is a word I like very much. You can be nominated if you are a relatively new blog with less than 200 followers. You have to write 11 random facts about yourself, answer 11 questions from your nominee and then set up 11 questions for 11 new bloggers and let them know. It is a way to spread the love and hopefully introduce more people to some of the smaller blogs out there.


11 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MOI

1. I am asked at least once a day where I am from so here goes - I am part English, French, Spanish, Dutch and 6th generation South African on my maternal grandmother's side.

2. I would have been burned at the stake during the Spanish Inquisition and pretty much all the way through the middle ages. Flame coloured hair was evidence that the bearer of such locks had stolen the fires of hell, not to mention that I am covered with freckles ' the marks of the devil' in Germanic culture during the 1400's. Although it is thought the first human redheads walked the earth about 50, 000 years ago in Africa - so I am back where I belong.

3. I would like to be a proper herbalist, not a voodoo hoodoo chile but someone who can identify herbs, indigenous & foreign and prepare remedies, toiletries and household cleaning products from my own garden. I am about one fifth of the way there.



4. I am obsessive compulsive and struggle to finish my grand schemes once the initial mania has worn off. 

5. I have a serious addiction to television series and books out of my age profile - The Secret Circle and Beautiful Creatures.

6. One day I will learn archery.

7. In my dreams I can ride a horse, light a fire and sleep under the stars with just a bed roll. In reality I am a fancy camper. Sleeping outside on a school trip in Standard 2 near a lion enclosure cured me of any desire to be wild and free. 

8. My animal totem would be a crow.

The Graphics Fairy


9. My current visual pash is vintage mountainscapes.

10. If I ever get a tattoo the first would be two nautical stars on the back of my calves.

QUESTIONS FOR ME

I am going to answer these tomorrow, I think this may be a 3 part post xxx


Monday 4 March 2013

MY BAG LOVE II


Woot, woot! I have found someone to make me a custom bag, just how I would like it. Went to the IHEART Market on Saturday and met the wonderful peeps of SAVIOR BRAND CO. They make beautiful bags and are also amazing people doing good for the vunerable youth in our communities.





Friday 1 March 2013

DESIGN INDABA IKHAYA






































The lovely Rhenda and Nev from IKHAYA are part of the Durban contingent at the DESIGN INDABA 2013 Expo. If you are in CT, go and check them out, their stand is beautiful. This is the Foxy head I illustrated and Rhenda screen printed onto their vintage target DO NO HARM posters.