Gloomy photo day

Today was going to be all about the photos – the rabbits that I have been slowly (oh so slowly) stitching away at for months are finally done and I was going to take some lifestyle-y kinda shots to make them look oh-so-appealing but of course, it’s a gloomy August day and no matter how much I rev up the saturation in photoshop it still looks grey. So perhaps tomorrow will be better. If all goes to plan I will have rabbits, punkdorf dolls, kokeshi dolls and prints all available either on ebay or etsy some time next week. Stay tuned for details – and photos!

And look: Daffodils are out in the garden – and now in a vase in our kitchen.

Susie Ghahremani is DRAWsome

Here’s a fun idea from Susie Ghahremani of Boy Girl Party – order a custom illustration designed to your specifics. Answer a series of questions for Susie to narrow it down and get your own personal B G Party original. What I like about this idea so much is that it takes advantage of the wonderful communication tool that is the inter-web. Makes me want to think of ways to do something similar.

Good stuff by subscription

Photo from yesterday’s Age – by Rodger Cummins.

Subscriptions! So good. Sign up once, and then it just keeps going and going. I subscribe to a couple of magazines and a couple of zines, but there are other things which you can keep surprising yourself with every month.

Wilkintie (above): This one looks awesome – Fine art prints for children by fabulous illustrators printed by letterpress

“Subscription to Wilkintie offers you an opportunity to collect all twelve prints in our first series. Each month we release a new print by a different artist, which we will send to you in the mail at the beginning of that  month, wrapped in a little parcel of fun. The artwork itself will be a surprise or, if you’d like a sneak preview of the latest release you will be able to view it on this site. But we think the surprise is all part of the experience.”  

When you sign up for the subsciption, each of the 12 prints works out to be only $40 each. You could collect the lot or keep your favourites and give away the others as gifts. Single prints are still the very reasonalbe $80 (Australian). 

(via @weheartbooks on twitter)

Threadless 12 Club - I gave this fab subscription to Phil for his birthday and Christmas at the end of 2007 – 12 special edition Threadless Tshirts, one in the mail every month. He got a couple he would rather he hadn’t but mostly he got a wonderful and bizarre collection of shirts that he might have otherwise not thought to buy. And now he won’t need another t-shirt for at least ten years.

Emusic: I have the package which gives me 30 songs a month to download from a vast, vast collection of music. The trick here is to remember to download all your songs before the end of your month or you lose them. I spend ages looking through my recommendations from iTunes and fast.fm to find good things to download. I don’t know how I’d cope if I had the 75 songs a month package. My head might explode.

Etsy: I have also added a couple of subscription based services I found on etsy to my ‘etsy favourites’ which display in the sidebar, or find them here.

Do you have any other suggestions? I wracked my brains and probably forgot something obvious.

My uncle rocks!

My Uncle Michael has always been such a good mate to me. We have long, rambley conversations about creativity, and true callings and all that. We put each other on to good things (The Artist’s Way, Elizabeth Gilbert etc) and share a common understanding of what matters to us – I know if I say something  about my work or my need to write, or draw or craft, he just ‘gets’ it, even if I am talking in vague and slightly frustrated terms. 

Recently I have been helping Michael get his beautiful turned wood up and onto etsy – and I was going to try and write something coherent about his work but his profile from etsy says it all beautifully:

“I discovered my passion for wood and wood turning back in 1995 after a trip to Tasmania and then discovering my father’s old home handyman’s drill kit with a rudimentary lathe attachment. My first piece was a huon pine candle stick. Now I devote my time to finding timber that I can open up and discover what lies beneath…and my 25 years as an architect has given me a sensitivity to design which I bring into the shapes I make on the lathe. I feel it is important that the wood speaks for itself and I help that with the shaping and finishing of each individual piece.

I enjoy making objects that are not only a pleasure to look at but also practical….”

I just wanted to add that Michael’s work is exquisite, and tasteful and modern and I am pleased that I can say that from the heart (and not just say that out of familial obligation!).

He is also very open to discussing custom pieces so do contact him if you have an idea.

See? I told you he rocks.

PLEASE NOTE: Michael is in Sydney but his prices are in US Dollars.

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Day six: Finished 500 words, just, by 11pm. Exhausted. Right as I hit the 500 word mark (or there abouts) smallest child started vomiting, thus eliminating the possibility of getting up the next morning at 5.30 am.

Day seven: Tired day – slept through the 5.30 am wake up time, as predicted. Spent a lot of precious time resizing pretty images of writers’ rooms to fit in my blog template and then had to write my 500 words after the kids were asleep. Wrapped it up around 10.30 having written 1,230 words.

Day eight: Lily might (just might!) be asleep at 12.35. I am going to try getting my 500 words down right.now. Where are the lollies?

Dear Prudence

Yesterday I finally took a little leap of faith and starting working on a Waldorf doll.

I am calling her Prudence because if it hadn’t been for the gorgeous Waldorf dolls which Prudence makes and sells on Etsy, I would never have attempted it. Prudence, the doll, is a big tribute to Prudence in Montana, who inspired me to ignore the “rules” of Waldorf doll making (something which I have found very intimidating hence the reluctance to ever attempt this before) and do an alternative interpretation.

I like that she has injected huge amounts of personality into these dolls. They are a little bit Waldorf, a little bit Raggedy-Anne. Each one looks so incredibly sweet and endearing. I love their distinctive faces. Quite obviously I was very taken with her idea to use multiple soft and stretchy fabrics to make up the body rather than the traditional skin toned fabric. This is the bit that really appeals to me – lots of nice texture and crazy colours.

The head construction was challenging. I gotta tell you – if the Steiner ideal is to create a unique doll full of love, with a specific child recipient held lovingly in mind etc etc, then this poor wee doll is going to have to be stashed away in the cupboard because not a lot of love went into that head. A lot of “frigging” fleece went in, but not a lot of love. That being said, don’t let me put you off. Once I finally finished it I felt pretty sure I could do it again with far less struggle.

I did some free form cutting (that was fun) based losely on my rabbit pattern and came up with something that does quite well… if a tad derivative and just a little wonky.

Is there a way to avoid those little gathery puckers around her neck? I am hoping that goes with practice.

Yes – I want to make more now – I can see how people get quite addicted to it. I was thinking it would be fun to make each one without a pattern so no two are the same. That would be pretty radical for me – a person who has been making rabbits and cats from the same pattern for the last four years!

For those who might like to try it — I got all my supplies for the head from Winterwood here in Melbourne where I also got the book Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey which has very clear instructions. This tutorial helped a lot too – and Sooz has a great tutorial for a simple Steiner doll to get you started. Magic Cabin looks like the place to get your supplies in the States.

Thanks!

Thank you so much to those who bought a print last week and thank you to those who left supportive comments regarding my first foray into Etsy selling – I really appreciate it. It was lots of fun and really not too terrifying so the plan is to do some more in the not too distant future. I’m thinking prints, goccos, original art and maybe, just maybe, some soft toys.

Speaking of soft toys… I’m tired tonight, the kids have got my virus from last week and I’ve been up most of the night, so I don’t want to write a crappy post about this and I also realise that I am a bit late to the game – but in efforts to raise awareness (especially if you are a designer or Australian), I would like you to click through to Hillary’s post from last week. And there’s an ongoing discussion which is worth reading at Jennifer’s blog. It makes me feel sad.

First print on Etsy!

WELL. I did it. I have a slightly stiff neck from the stress of putting up my first item, but my Gocco print is now for sale on Etsy. There are only 30 prints in this limited edition and my mum has one and we have another two so get in quick! (How exciting!).

Etsy angst

Last night I had a crazy dream where I discovered Matt Damon was a loobylu reader (and why shouldn’t he be?) and he had a daddy-blog at gracious.blogspot.com. I went and had a look there this morning secretly hoping to see the beautiful photos that Matt had included in my dream of his family running on the beach and some of their beach-related crafts… but no… nothing Matt Damon related at that url. How disappointing! Imagine if Matt Damon was secretly a daddy/craft blogger? However, it did occur to me upon waking that things are weird (and possibly a little out of proportion) when you dream about blogging. Especially when it involves a celebrity.

So here’s my most recent gocco print called “Hulahoop, Skipping Rope” which I am planning to list on etsy next week as my first foray into etsy selling. I have to find some light yet sturdy envelopes (does anyone know where I can buy Jiffy Rigi Bags #4 in Melbourne?) and work out the postage issues. I’m a little nervous but when I look at Emily and her 13,600+ sales I think I might be being a little pathetic. (13,600 ??? How exhausting! Poor girl! We need to send her a care package!). I had better get back to our Saturday — I have stock on the stove and it sounds like the kids are getting a bit wild.

Meow!

Happy mail day! My woodcut print by Maho Satoh-Britt arrived. I have been a fan of Maho’s husband Stephan Britt’s work for a long time and it was with great pleasure when I discovered that he had an equally as talented artist wife. If Etsy had a “best value” section this print would have to be in there. A five colour wood cut print for $15? What is the world coming to?? It’s just beautiful. Thank you Maho!