The Forlorn Things

The Forlorn Kitchen, 15 February 2011 :: Lucifer VI // BlacKeys B+W // No flashDuring my daily perambulations one of my favourite things to do is to spot lost things and photograph them using my favourite photographic app, Hipstamatic. I’ve collected many, many photos over the years.

Some of the items aren’t strictly ‘lost’ – they’ve been abandoned or carelessly dumped, but many of these items are both pathetic and amusing.

The Forlorn Cosmetics, 26 January 2013 :: Watts // Claunch 72 Monochrome // No flash The Forlorn Sparrow, 1 December 2011 :: Matty ALN // Claunch 72 Monochrome// Laser Lemon GelThese lost things range from the enormous (an entire kitchen left on a nature strip in my street), to the bizarre (a zebra-printed floating armchair caught in the rushes of the Yarra River), to the tiny (a button on the steps up to the Shrine monument), the predictable (innumerable hats and thongs left behind in the Botanic Gardens, broken umbrellas thrust headfirst into rubbish bins), the unpredictable (a cat playground complete with scratching post and dangling fake mouse, in the back alleys of South Yarra where I live) and the truly forlorn (a tiny sparrow lost amongst a flock of wrought-iron ducks).

I’ve endured the stares of strangers – wondering what on earth I’m photographing, crouching on the ground – and you can now see some of these pictures in my new Hipstagallery, The Forlorn Things.

Revisit Lost Things here.

The Forlorn Jacket, 5 February 2013 :: Tinto 1848 // D-Type Plate // No flash

O What a Beautiful Morning!

What a beautiful morning :: Abbie // Dixie // No flashThis was yesterday’s morning sky. Isn’t it beautiful? It makes me feel the glory of being alive. And the Little Fancy comes from a spring afternoon from last November.

Little white clouds :: November 10th, 2012, 5:17:14pm

Little white clouds
sail through the sky
like marshmallow puffs,
on their way to die
from roasting in the fire

but the sun,
the sun is kinder
and merely chases them away.

Lacemotif

I have made no secret that I love lace, and I confess I ooohed when I saw this picture on the Pin Pals blog yesterday. It is so deliciously Seventies, so clever in its imaginative use of lace as a collage material, so striking, so bold, graphic … so … chartreuse. The picture is from Collage: Unusual designs from everyday materials, edited by Linda Doeser (Marshall Cavendish Publications Ltd, 1976).

There is something exotic about it too – perhaps it is the tropical colours, the vaguely eastern flavour, with the wild-plumaged bird atop a tree and feline prancing amongst the trees. It reminds me a little of Indian miniature paintings, but that is another story. 

Pin Pals

The April page in my Frankie calendar is illustrated in appropriately autumnal tones, and comes from Pin Pals. That Fair Isle knit is nice and cosy for the weather too.

Sam and Sara of the cutely named collective Pin Pals are two creative women who live in two cities. They say this of themselves: “Living in two cities. Busy making and drawing independently, but inspired by similar things. Mainly, folk art, children’s book art, lost handmade articles in thrift stores, cats and dogs, coffee drinking, radio, people and places.”

You can visit their blog and see what inspires them, and see some more of their work on Flickr.

Happy April!

Easter Greetings

Here’s a little vintage Easter greeting from me to you.

Pink and green, and sky blue and butter yellow seem the perfect colours for Easter, even if it’s autumn here in the southern hemisphere. Such fresh pastel hues herald a new season and a clean slate.

Did you know the end of March was the end of the year once upon a time? So really, it’s a second chance to dust off those new year’s resolutions that fell by the wayside and make them shiny and new again. Happy Easter!