A Little Embellishment
Amelia-Jane was looking through paper samples this morning and came across this delightful retro piece that made us both exclaim, “Oooo! It’s so pretty!” as we ran our fingers over the embossed and pearl foiled bar of soap on this sample. Nothing like embossing and foiling to get a couple of graphic designers excited!
The paper stock is 320gsm Freelife Vellum Cream, supplied by Spices paper, and was printed waterless – an offset lithographic printing process. The super-cute copywriting is by Al et al, and the appealing retro design comes from Lloyd Grey Design, both companies based in Queensland.
Fragments of Poetry
Exotic Style :: Watts // Big Up // No flash
The other week I killed two birds with one stone. I was clearing my storage room of junk (old UK Elle Décor magazines) and simultaneously adding to my stockpile of random poetry fragments.
I had realised I just didn’t have enough personal pronouns and conjunctions. I had also been holding onto these magazines for more than five years. I had bought them for renovation ideas, and kept them because they were such nice magazines.
… I just didn’t have enough personal pronouns and conjunctions.
Manners :: Watts // Big Up // No flash
Space :: Watts // Big Up // No flash
Funnily, when I looked at them again, I realised that so much had changed in interior design since the mid-noughties and that I didn’t want to keep the magazines at all. So I quite happily butchered them. All in the name of poetry of course.
As I happily sliced away, it occurred to me that all these fragments scattered over dissected pages were quite pretty. The Bondi Hipstapak (inspired by photographer Ben Watts) seemed quite perfect to capture these collages.
Clare Regularly Bounces :: Watts // Big Up // No flash
Sixties Design Window :: Watts // Big Up // No flash
Chasing Down the Perfect Card
The affenpinscher card from the Rifle Paper CoIt was my sister’s birthday recently. I have this unfortunate reputation with my family of always giving gorgeous greeting cards, which creates a bit of pressure if I’m in a hurry.
For Star’s birthday card I went to a usually reliable giftware and stationer’s, but was daunted when I just could not hit upon anything I really loved. Aggravatingly, they had plenty of gorgeous Christmas cards. And then I spotted it (no pun intended) in the bottom row. An array of illustrated dogs from the Rifle Paper Co, and one that looked very like my sister’s moodle dogs.
Rifle Paper Co is based in FloridaThe Rifle Paper Co was founded by Anna and Nathan Bond, with Anna as illustrator and designer, and her husband acting as business manager. Anna’s whimsical and nostalgic style incorporates hand-painted illustrations and lettering. They pride themselves on high quality stock and printing methods, and believe that ‘life’s personal stories and moments are best told through the gift of a hand-written note or card’.
“It’s Pepito!” Star exclaimed in delight when she opened her envelope. “No it’s not,” her husband pointed out. “He would never wear pink polka dots, let alone a bow*. It’s Madeleine.”
Success! My reputation has not been sullied.
*Except when he was tortured in his youth by one of their daughters.
Images from the Rifle Paper Co
A Collector’s Trail
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
With my revived interest in collecting ephemera with which to make collages, I was prompted on the weekend to pull an old book from the shelf. Written by Barbara Hodgson, Trading in Memories – Travels Through a Scavenger’s Favourite Places is a wonderful account of a collector’s trail through Europe, the Middle-East, the Orient and back home again to Vancouver in British Columbia.
The short chapters are written as essays, and they are easy to read and full of fascinating titbits and a wealth of detail. Hodgson’s writing style is evocative – her words draw an enticing picture in the mind’s eye that would surely be best expressed in the form of a magic lantern show, or flickering film reel from 1910.
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonIf the words aren’t enough to help you step back in time, the images will. What an astonishing assortment of ephemera she has collected or photographed, presented in collages or displayed in cases reminiscent of the Victorian mania for collecting curios.
Her words will truly whisk you off on a whirlwind tour while you are still comfortably curled up in your armchair, a cup of Turkish coffee at your elbow.
Scroll through some sample pages here, and make sure to click on the images to see larger versions. Included are the four pages of the last chapter, with her ‘few words to scavengers’.
Read a review at Good Reads or The Sydney Morning Herald.
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Two pages from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson
Japanese Elegance
Afternoon, one of Hiroshi Yoshida's Dai-oban 1926 Sailing Boats Series prints Today I had cause to search online for Japanese woodcuts, an artform I have always admired. I particularly love the texture this ancient form of printing creates, and it’s something I often try to emulate digitally in my own illustrations. Of course the Japanese aesthetic is also very elegant and spare. The lines are eloquent; the colour palette often limited which adds to the quiet austerity of the images. Here is a little collection of prints I admired.
Click images for links.
Seated Cat by Kiyoshi Saito, 1955
Woodcut by Koich, (early twentieth century?)
Print from One Hundred Flowers series by Kono Bairei, 1880s
Rapid sketches made in the Asian Art Museum, by Teesta Rongbuk