A rainy weekend = productivity

I have been making some stitched linen scarves for Craft Victoria.
The "warm" coloured side of a patchwork yoga matt cover.
And wondering whether I should open my early Christmas present to myself: Taschen's giant book of the circus.

Some favourite advertising characters

Above: Dutch Cleanser Girl, 1956
Above: Minute Man servicemen, 1954
Above: Miss Bell Telephone, 1951 and Mr Bell Telephone, 1941
Above: Buffalo Bee, c.1962
Above: Vassarette Girl, c. 1946

All from Meet Mr. Product: the Art of the Advertising Character by Warren Dotz and Masud Husain, Chronicle, San Francisco, 2003.

Clearly I like my advertising characters to have a bit of movement: though I wouldn't have been conscious of that before doing this post.

Clocks and things in progress

I have almost finished some new clock hands. All that are missing are the mechanisms. Below: does Sailor Jim's tattoo look like she is being rained on? Those are meant to be the hairs on his arm! I didn't have a hairy model to look at, and my own arm hairs are virtually non existent.

Some mirrors in progress too. Finally a productive day in the studio -- despite the sunshine outside!

Frankie! Yippee!!

Yes I am one of the millions who do the "Frankie! Yippee!!" thing every time I notice that there is a new issue at the newsstand. However this month I did an even bigger yippee, and not just because I could say "nah nah nah" to the old newsagent lady who poo-pooed me the other day when I claimed that the new one WAS DUE OUT REALLY SOON. "No! We must get rid of old one first!" she exclaimed in reply. Luckily she worked hard at doing so because there were plenty of pretty new Frankies waiting there for me the next day.
...Ha ha! I love "a dash of wrongness"! Thanks Jo. And Lara! My lucky little man. And doesn't he look like he wants to make a move on Devon Smith's brooch girl above? She will have none of that, stern little thing that she is.
He is waiting patiently in the etsy shop too for those who do not succeed in winning the cards that Frankie has on offer. There are mini prints to be had as well.

The Illustrated Family Doctor, 1935

Images from The Illustrated Family Doctor, London, 1935. I love these pictures, I find them both quaint and poetic. And they make me think of the work of the Belgian artist Michael Borremans, which is always a bonus.

Turkey Reds

Above: circa 1810 -20 gouaches of textile designs from the studio of an Alsace textile mill. Called Turkey Reds.
Above: These patterns were called mignonettes, for reasons that are probably obvious.

Above: swatches sent to Christophe Philippe Oberkampf in 1791, confirming a textile order. Those who work in the fashion industry today know that some things haven't changed: although the rows of little numbered swatches that we see now aren't quite as captivating.

All from Susan Meller & Joost Elffers, Textile Designs, Thames and Hudson 1991. A fantastic reference for anyone interested in beautiful textiles and their social context.

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By the way, my work was recently featured in the brilliant Rojo and Garabato magazine from Spain! Do look at all of the issues if you have the time.

AND I was also recently interviewed in a special "Crafty Illustrators" edition of the Illustrators Australia members' magazine Outline. Daniel asked great questions (he certainly does his homework) and I learned alot from the two other women he interviewed as well.

I will attach the pdf of the magazine if someone out there can explain how to do it!

Wooden clocks and gentlemen

Some gentlemanly clock hands in progress.

I love to paint textile details, which is just as well seeing as I have designed a textile or two for a living in my time. I have also fixed up the sleeve of last week's clock hand in progress, below.
Pages from one of my favourite books, Gentlemen: A Timeless Fashion, details here.

I have been wanting to make a cigar mirror too, but I'm still skeptical about whether it could work.

(Pssst: I actually did very little work today: the sun -- and my lovely friend Anna and her family -- beckoned.)

East German packaging

From DDR Design: East German Design 1949 - 1989, Taschen, Cologne, 2004. I love this book because it reminds me of Yugoslav packaging too.

Reindeer clock hand in progress

I have been working on a new clock hand today. Above: in progress. Below: the first version, which I ditched because I realised that wearing a watch over your glove is a dumb idea.
Or is it? We rarely need gloves in winter where I live; perhaps a reader from a colder climate will enlighten me and say that yes of course one has to wear a watch over one's glove.

Above: perhaps instead of thinking about the technicalities of winter gloves I should have been outside in the spring sunshine like everyone else in Melbourne today.
(By the way, I have ditched the polka dotted sleeve seen here because it was a little too cute: I kept thinking of a girl who has snuck outdoors on Christmas morning in her pyjamas. A brown checked coat may -- or may not -- strike a more appropriate balance.)