I love autumn. The days begin and end quite crisply and in between are glorious bright blue skies and beautiful days. Our garden is full of orange, red and yellow leaves, both on the ground and on the trees. It's glorious.
I hope you have an equally glorious and happy weekend.
x
Lisa
Happy Friday!
08 May 2009
Mini Art Feelings
Meet my new friends: Sad, Cute and Balanced. They came to live with us all the way from Belgium via Etsy. Sad, Cute and Balanced are the much loved children of the gorgeous Mitsy, aka ArtMind. I'm sure they miss her, but they seem to be very happy here in Australia. Poor Balanced suffered a bit from jetlag and wasn't quite herself for a while. But she has recovered and found her balance again.
These Mini Art Feelings are a part of Mitsy's beautiful 99 Feelings project. Mitsy used the shape of a babushka doll as the blank canvas for her imagination. The resulting ceramic mini sculptures are minimalist and delightful. I have to say that I chose my little friends based on they way they looked rather than the feelings they portray. I like to think that little 'sad' is happy now and he has just been out in the summer rain.
You can see the other 96 little fellas in Mitsy's Etsy store.
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Etsy Search Top 10: Vintage Aqua
One of the things I searched Etsy for this week was aqua coloured items in the vintage section. These are my top 10 finds:
1962 Wonderbook of Science ExperimentsRaffiaware Sherbet Dishes
(If only the seller shipped here I would have bought them)
Pyrex Casserole Dish
Aqua Blue the Owl
Read more...
Frederique Morrel's "Decycled" Tapestries
07 May 2009
When wandering around markets or garage sales I am often very saddened to see discarded embroidery. I think about the love, time, craftsmanship and patience that went into creating such beautiful things and find it so sad that they end up unwanted and for sale for a few dollars. All of those wonderful tablecloths, doilies and cushions and the skills that are evident in those discarded things are in danger of being lost to future generations.
Frederique Morrel was similarly troubled when her grandmother's handiwork was thrown out when she passed away. Frederique has since been on a mission to find and "decycle" - or give a new life cycle to - similarly unrecognised and unvalued artifacts. She says hunting for materials is the most fun part of her job.
The Frederique Morrel range was shown at Maison & Objet in Paris early this year, and it includes trays, poufs, lovely lamps with reclaimed timber bases and the surprising application of tapestries to lunch boxes.
Frederique works with her partner (in business as well as life), Aaron Levin, and their mascot Maggie the Jack Russel to create fabulous creations from decycled needlepoint. Their products are designed to connect with old fashioned values with respect and humour. They seem to have achieved their objective don't you think?
Image Source: Federique Morrel.
Just My Type
06 May 2009
Ouch, sorry for that terrible title pun - it will become evident when you read on - I just couldn't help myself.
I know I promised a second post yesterday, but well, I just didn't make it. I'm still sorting our house out after the painters finished. There is a fine layer of sanding dust that seems to keep reappearing over everything no matter how often I have wiped things down, swept, mopped, and cleaned. And I'm still moving things back to where they were and finding new homes for other things. You know when you move house and you unpack all the boxes and you leave the difficult ones to last? The ones that contain stuff that is really just bits and pieces, but it's stuff that you still want. Sort of. But you don't know where to put it. Stuff that you can't be bothered to sort out and make a decision about. Well that's the bit we're up to.
And I'm trying to fill orders from my website, get an email/newsletter with some special offers to my mailing list completed and sent, get my new Vintage Storybook Tiles up on the site, meet my graphic design deadlines, do the school run... oh, the list goes on. And on. We all live busy lives, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. So blogging wasn't one of the things I got to tick off my list yesterday.
On to today's post. It's all about beautifully and imaginatively crafted type (hence the title with the bad pun), and it started with the link to Jessica Hische that Anke sent me. Anke was right in thinking that I'd love the retro vibe of Jessica's hand drawn type and illustration.
These were a series of covers for the Boston Globe "G" magazine. The beautiful colours, images and all the different type styles Jessica created are so magical and fitting for each concept.
Here's what Jessica says about the Shopping in Marrakech cover above:
A book cover I just completed at Louise Fili Ltd for our client The Little Bookroom. This project was so fun! First, I hand lettered the alphabet and designed the cover in illustrator. Next, I traced it onto fabric and hand stitched everything. This is what the actual piece looks like, no photoshop!
Amazing. Such lovely detail and execution.
Jessica's website has lots of beautiful examples of her illustration, here. And see her work in progress on her aptly named blog, I Love Type.
Another superbly talented typographer and illustrator with a distinctive style is Linzie Hunter. You're probably familiar with her spam project. Such a fun idea.
The colours Linzie has used in the first image below just make me swoon. I really admire people who have such a wonderful colour sense. It's evident in all Linzie's work.
Linzie's website has a wonderful section with pages from her sketchbook (one example above) - it's really worth checking out.
One last example of inspiring typography is this oil painting by Marion Bantjes for Spanish publication The Creator Studio. The theme was rituals around the full moon and Marion chose to illustrate the word 'spell'. You can see the 'incantation' and 'curse', the others in the series, here.
And although this isn't type, I just had to show you these breathtaking illustrations of snowflakes that Marion did for Saks Fith Avenue 2008 Christmas season. A quote from Marion's website about creating these incredible and unique snowflakes:
I drew some like feathers, like antlers, with little people, one made all of houses, some like sparkly lights, a hairy one, a few like ribbons, some were complex and three dimensional, others simple and flat …
Oh. My. Goodness.
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