Monday Mood Board: Birthdays

Happy Birthday Louise & Gran!

Row 1: I am [...] by Nina Matthews, Untitled by Forty-Sixth at Grace, Balloons 2 by Dean Fisher

Row 2: Untitled by Scarborough Fair

Row 3: Danbos' Birthday by Kyracee, Stars by Torpore

It was my little sister and gran's birthday on Friday, so it's been a busy week running up to it and a busy weekend post. Birthdays - much like Christmas - aren't actually as relaxing as they're ever made out to be so there's been no time for blogging. We had a nice day though, despite me having a very sore head due to being up very early to get to work and write clinics, rushing down to town to buy fabric and then spending from lunch time until very late staring at a very dimly lit sewing machine in order to make Louise her very own piece of bunting. How many people get hand-made bunting for their birthdays as well as....

...cakey mini bunting! Yes. I did sew up 15+ tiny little flags and sew them on to a piece of ribbon which my sewing machine kept trying to eat. This was also the point I was starting to doze off! Luckily the elder sibling made a very tasty mocha sponge cake for it to sit in. I want to take a better photo, but that will involve more cake...so you may have to wait for that.

Anyway, for this Monday, we have a birthday inspired mood board with lots of balloons, straws and a bit of sparkle. It isn't a birthday without glitter!

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Listening: The Beatles - Birthday

Miss Match Your Drawers

Sigh. Once again, I've fallen in love with a piece of furniture...probably because my bedroom is full of IKEA's cheapest. In fact the only piece of furniture in the room I really love is an antique wooden medicine cabinet which is too big to go on the wall and so has to sit on the floor hiding a multitude of things I should really throw away.

I love old furniture, especially old battered ones - my adoration of type case drawers is I think well documented on here - so I have been lusting over more traditional manifestations of the Droog chest of drawers by Tejo Remy (above).

by SchubLaden

by Entwurf-Direkt

Encasing old, discarded drawers in crisp white surrounds. Aren't they gorgeous? There's even one with a type case drawer! ♥♥♥

via - Papernstitchblog

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Listening: Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

Monday Mood Board: Rainbows

Row 1: From inside a rainbow... by Joshua Liberman, Jónsi by Lilja Birgisdóttir

Row 2: Rainbow Umbrella #5 by Yein~ , Chihuly 8 by Andi Wolfe

Inspired by my day at the Scottish Bead Fair 2010 on Sunday. So many wonderfully beautiful stones and beads, glass and plastic, natural and unnatural to be hand in every colour and finish imaginable. I spent way too much money but came away with a few ideas and some beautiful stones to play with.

My mum even bought me some glass rods so I can start teaching myself how to make lamp work beads or whatever my little brain can come up with. Very exciting. I've wanted to learn forever!

Shall post my purchases when I get a moment.

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Listening: Radiohead - Nude

Raindrops On Roses by Scarborough Fair

Rain...again...naturally.

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Listening: Elliott Smith - Angeles

Mood Board: Peacocks

Row 1: Anthrogologie via DomestiKatedLife, Peacock by Sebcio71

Row 2: Peacock 3 by BeKind20thers, As Vain As A Peacock by TheyCallMeQuietGirl

Row 3: Blue Peacock or Indian Peafowl by Ryan Brookes, {Peacock Blue} via Dress, Design & Decor

Past few days have been a little peacock mad. My friend Bex has asked me to make her a peacock charm to give her friend for her wedding. Not easy to interpret a huge show off of a bird in a tiny quantity of metal. Typically of course I've made it and realised that because of a tiny design flaw if it gets a bash, it'll warp. So I'm going to have to make it again. Joy.

Anyway for your enjoyment until I can get a minute to blog something new, a peacock inspired mood board.

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Listening: Albert Hammond Jr. - In Transit

I Carry Your Heart With Me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- EE Cummings

I saw this design for Capsule Letters on a random website I was linked too via another blog, called Poketo and it reminded me of that EE Cummings poem, I Carry Your Heart With Me. In all fairness, it also reminded me of Ted Noten's solid gold Wedding Pills but I prefer Cummings.

I wasn't the type of person to carry around photos of friends or deeply meaningful nicknack's when I was younger, unless you count a huge number of cinema tickets meaningful. But my friend Fe wrote out Max Ehrmann's Desiderata and Billy Connolly's alternative Desiderata for me when we were in second year of uni. I think it was because I'd never read them and I was a bit low at the time, but I folded them up, put them in my wallet and then got it stolen the following year. Gutted. I loved that purse and I loved that my friend had taken the time to hand write these HUGE poems for me. Anyway, the point is, I rewrote Ehrmann's version and stuck it in my new - distinctly suckier - purse and they're the only none currency/identification I do carry.

However, I'm really attracted to this design, partially because of my partiality for boxes and lockets and hiding things away, partly because of the novelty of the pill form. So like the poem in my purse, you open it up, read the content and feel a little better. It's not a pill to cure all ills, but it's a sweet placebo.

via - Poketo!

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Listening: Ryan Adams - Rescue Blues

How to Boggle the Mind, Using a Pencil.

Impressed? I bloody am!

Taking Brazillian artist Dalton Ghetti anywhere from several months to 2 and a half years in the case of the pencils with interlinking chains, each of these amazing pieces of sculpture are hand carved using only a needle, scalpel and a razor blade and without the aid of a magnifying glass. So the detail Ghetti achieves in his graphite boot, interlinking chains and hollow formed mirco-sculptures is even more remarkable.

I watched a TED talk by Willard Wigan about his astounding micro-sculptures which fit on the head of a pin, which this reminds me of, primarily because of the bizarre materials and tools he uses such a spiders webs, fibres from teddy bears, jumpers and shards of glass. Wigan's video is below and worth watching to see how such objects could ever be turned into the iconic Huf Haus, Bart & Homer Simpson and the Statue of Liberty.

This stuff makes my brain hurt, I'd say I was a pretty patient person when it comes to making pieces of work, I quite enjoy the mind numbing repetitiveness and more fiddly aspects of jewellery making...but I can't imagine ever having the patience to do this kind of work. Plus I'd actually need to wear my glasses!

via - Inhabitat

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Listening: Porcupine Tree - Collapse The Light Into Earth

36 Pencils and a Plastic Connector

...and voilà, you have a bowl!

How amazingly simple and beautiful is this? This bowl is the brainchild of Dutch designer Michael Cornelissen and is a tribute to the ubiquitous hexagonal colouring pencil we've all been brought up with.

Not only beautiful, but practical. Imagine the possibilities for the overly organised (or indeed horrendously disorganised) artist, designer or writer - all your pencils arranged by colour, grade or size. Okay three possibilities, but I'm sure all you creative types could come up with a few more. And if you have no strong feelings towards the arrangements of your stationary, hey, it's a bowl, artfully arrange your fruit!

via

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Listening: Paloma Faith - Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful?

Monday Mood Board: Verdigris

Column One: * by James Bogue, Colfields by Nikka, o by Doctor Swan

Column Two: Porcelain Bowls by Kirstievn, :'D by Petra Gyermán

Column Three: Romanticism by Sekator, For a friend [...] by {lisa.anne}

Verdigris is such a pretty shade of green. I'd forgotten how nice it can look given my memories of this particular patina are from second year uni and consisted of poorly finished sample pieces of copper used to investigate texture & colour.

I love this colour, it's a favourite and when I found the Porcelain Bowls by Kirstievn, I decided to base Monday's mood board around it.

I've been a busy bee today, doing guess what? Yep. Knitting. I should have been designing some new pieces, but yesterday my parents got down mums rarely used knitting machine. So Louise and I have been working it out and I've finally got it. Takes me five minutes to make a piece for the window where it takes me two hours to knit it by hand! The joy of nineteen eighties technology!

Didn't I promise a ban on the knit subject for the next few posts? Apologies, but I'm excited, I've wanted a go on the machine for years and I loved watching them in the knit room at uni. Not sure why, but I found them kind of fascinating.

I'm a weirdo. I know. But hey, a new skill is a new!

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Listening: Chris Thile - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

Thread Spool Vases

I finally found where I'd hidden this beautiful photography by French stylist Vania Leroy-Thuillier, who uses empty wooden thread spools as mini vases for single blooms.

Just to complete my little set of textile vases...

I've been thinking about how you could make the spools water tight so you could use them properly as little vases. Perhaps by using a piece of metal tube sealed at the base with some silicone. I'm not sure, but it could make very pretty table decorations.

via

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Listening: Marilyn Monroe - Runnin' Wild

Massive Knit

Okay, I admit it, I'm a knit-oholic. I'm becoming progressively more obsessed with knitting and I blame work. For the Christmas window we're planning a knitted extravaganza and I've been knitting since March to get it all done. I am officially seeing knit patterns in my sleep!

And again, I'm smittened, Christien Meindertsma's Urchin Pouf's - which aim to "regain understanding of processes that have become so distant in industrialization" by over emphasising the handmade nature in huge woolens- are gorgeous and the photo of Meinderstsma's knitting with giant needles amongst the huge balls of wool just tickles me. I would like one in every colour.

Now this has apparently been doing the rounds on the blogsphere, however, I have an added extra. I've discovered that Curbly has a pattern for making a Meinderstsma inspired knitted pouf. So if you're handy with giant circular needles - unlike me - head on over to Curbly: Knit a Puff Daddy Pouf. OR head straight to the pattern by Pickles.

If you knit one I wanna see!

Enjoy!

via

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Listening: Bon Iver - For Emma

Knit

Similar to Mara Skujenieve's spool vases, these amazing knitted ceramic vases are by Annette Bugansky.

Each vessel has a knitted covering of traditional and experimental knitting patterns before being cast in porcelain. This reproduces every detail of the knit, giving the pieces a highly tactile surface which it incredibly beautiful.

Again. Smittened. Would it be wrong to knit all my vases snoods?

via

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Listening: Elbow - Starlings

Spools

Ceramic thread spool vases by Mara Skujenieve based on the designers interest and love of textiles. I love how the Dutch designer has written the type of thread on the sides that was on original casting spool.

Now I want giant spools just for decorative purposes. Must...wait...until...have...own...space!

via

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Listening: Fables - Sewn With Your Thread

Monday Mood Board: Dreamscape

Row 1: A Cup of Psycho Traumatic Hypnotic Dreams by Crazyfrogleg [catching flies],

Her Body of Water by Kane Longden, Untitled by Hoi-Kam Chan

Centre: Inception ? by Roger Do Minh

Row 2: It's our light, not our darkness by Jessica Islam Lia, To The Dreams... by ~Potapova

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- William Butler Yeats

Okay, this is Monday Mood Board on a Tuesday, but I had a busy day yesterday and was confronted with making a half assed mood board at quarter to twelve when all I wanted to do was sleep. So I decided to shut the computer and continue today.

The reason I had a busy day is because I was my sisters and I decided to go the cinema in to see Inception and then I was preparing for the latest practice window and the Christmas window...you know after all this preparation for the December window I hope it will be good! Anyway, Inception, it was amazing and I'm now desperate to see it again and my sister said it best "it was like The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for boys". Therefore, inspired by the film todays/yesterdays mood board is based on Dreams and dreamlike imagery.

Also, my song today is Edith Piaf 's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, which I already love, but was one of the triggers in the film for waking. I've had lucid dreams before, usually first thing in the morning, just as my alarm clock's gone off and I've not woken up, I'll hear music, I'll realise I'm dreaming and then I'm in a fight to keep dreaming. Where I used to spring up the second my alarm went off, I've now come to loathe it. But I love that feeling when you realise. Must dream more.

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Listening: Edith Piaf - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien