Yesterday two parcels arrived from Etsy sellers in Finland.
I finally found a copy of Tove Jansson’s The Dangerous Journey for a very reasonable price - in Swedish, yes – but clearly I am turning into an obsessive collector because it doesn’t seem to bother me.
Fabric from Tillukka (via My Paper Crane) and the book plus the beautiful stamps on the package are from Hapsitukka.
Favourite new book – Yumeji Graphics.
“This book focuses on the graphic works created by legendary Japanese artist and designer Yumeji Takehisa. It included his illustrations for books, editorial designs for magazines, drawing, typography and more.Takehisa (1884-1934) was a painter and pioneering graphic designer during Taisho era and early Showa era in Japan.”
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.
School is back and Lily has decided to start afternoon napping again which is kind of her, so I am getting a little bit of creative time:
1) painting wooden dolls
2) getting back to those marshmallow bunnies
3) piling stuff on my sewing table
4) reading “On Writing” by Stephen King but not actually doing too much writing. It’s good! I haven’t read much SK before but even his memoir is a page-turner.
More faces. The Dover Design Sample arrived in my inbox this morning and these girls stood out to me, as I have been painting so many faces recently. They are by American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson – who I had never heard of, though his illustrations are so iconic they seem instantly recognisable. With a little google searching I was fascinated to read about a whole chunk of American illustration history. Gibson was an illustrator turned editor and owner of Life magazine, owner of an island, head of the US government’s pictorial publicity division during WWI, whose illustrations captured a modern kind of American woman. She was a spirited, independent woman who played sport, had a career, drove a car and even had the vote. His “Gibson Girls” became enormously popular:
“There was merchandising of the Gibson Girl on the level of Mickey Mouse or Star Wars. Large size books (“table albums,” they were called), china plates and saucers, ashtrays, tablecloths, pillow covers, chair covers, souvenir spoons, screens, fans, umbrella stands…all bore the image of Gibson’s creations. There was even a wallpaper for bachelor apartments, with the lovely Gibson faces in endless array.
A popular turn-of-the-century hobby, pyrography, saw people burning the Gibson Girl into leather and wood; and the image was traced and stitched into handkerchiefs. There were plays, songs, and even a movie based on his creation.” from Gibson-Girls.com
Further:
Wikipedia on Charles Dana Gibson
About Irene Langhorne Gibson who married Gibson after turning down 66 (!) previous suitors.
That’s my art history paper for the day. Bye!
Little fuzzy – more doodling on wood… these little blanks I bought from Winterwood and I drew on them with my indian ink drawing pen. The ink bled a little but not enough to worry about. Phil thought I should make an entire chess set. Now that would be fun.
I seriously love painting on these wooden dolls – I can’t believe I put it off for so long.
Working on kokeshi dolls – turned by my awesome Uncle. About to sand out the nose on the front one and try something a little less clunky. School’s back today so it’s back to sewing rabbits. Stay tuned.
Hello! It’s been quiet around here, I know. It’s the school holidays, and along with another round of Wintery colds my blogging, writing, crafting, drawing etc etc (those Marshmallow Bunnies are coming along slowly) have taken a bit of a back-seat.
Something not in the back-seat is the newly released “Homemade: The Handmade Recipe Book“.
In February 2009 Victoria was victim to the worst bushfires on record, which wiped out entire communities, caused 173 deaths and left thousands without homes or shelter.
The Handmade Help Recipe Book evolved as part of handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com by a group of crafters and artists who wanted to contribute to the recovery effort.
The result is a truly international cookbook, packed with treasured recipes and family favourites, donated by people across the globe who wanted to help including well-known chefs such as Margaret Fulton, Allan Campion and Michele Curtis.
All proceeds from sales of the recipe book will be donated to the Salvation Army.
I can’t wait to check it out. I was asked to do the cover illustration and very happily obliged.
PDF copies are available now for download at a tasty $8 (AUD) or you can pre-order a paperback copy for $15 (AUD).
…the flickr world of artist and illustrator Virgin Honey! She’s a little bit Elsita, a little bit Nathalie Lete, a little bit J Otto Seibold… sort of… and entirely unique. I could hardly chose a photo, there are so many goodies.
