An Oldie

An old Indonesian textile printing disc. Well, a drawing of.

Pattern Creation

                           

A while back I found this leaf with the craziest, coolest pattern on it. Actually, I think the pattern here is actually a fungus or disease on the leaf, but this is why I like it so much. I've been mucking around a bit, stylising the lines and creating my own drawings from it. I think that maybe this would look pretty neat as a graphic repeat on fabric, as a rug design, or batiked onto a sheer material for curtaining...

P.S. 'Scuse the really pixelated images at the bottom, don't know WHAT I did there...!?

Indonesian Textile Stamp

My dear friend Krista gave me the most beautiful present for my birthday - it is an old Indonesian textile printing stamp.

The pattern is made from flat strips of copper to form the outside edges, and hundreds of tiny pin like strips of copper to fill each shape. It is so intricate, and very delicate, apparantly it would have been used in the 1940's somewhere in Indonesia. It would have traditionally been used to dip into hot wax, print onto fabric and then the bolts of fabric would have been dyed, leaving the waxed pattern behind. In other words, batik.

I'm very tempted to try printing with it myself, but am so scared that the paint and water would damage its already flaking edges. It makes a beautiful ornament just as is, propped on it's handle.

Pippijoe

Ohhh I think I'm in love... I've seen Melbourne based textile design company Pippijoe featured in a few magazines and other online hidey-holes in the past, but my friend pointed me in the direction of the website yesterday.

Do you ever find things that you love so much that it actually hurts a little inside? Or is it just me?!

Sometimes the simplest things are the best, and this is certainly the case with Pippijoe's beautiful screen-printed fabrics. I want them really, really badly. Especially the birds on the line.

LOVE it!

Little Design Horse

Main image from Little Design Horse, segments from Blockbranding on Flickr

I wanted to feature this fantastic wall that was displayed recently during the Perth International Arts Festival. The light would change colour to depict different moods and music being played at the venue.

Produced by a wonderful team of designers from a studio called 'Little Design Horse', I tracked them down to a gorgeous wee store in North Perth.

They are experts in textile, surface and illustration art, designing items from this super wall installation through to fabrics, posters, packaging, wall decal and wrapping paper.

Check out their website and blog here for more goodies!

'Cool Stuff' Envy

The people who own the company I currently work for not only create some very cool pieces of custom designed furniture, they also scour the globe for art, sculpture and nic nacs to sell in the store.

I have 'cool stuff' envy something chronic at the moment, as they recently brought back some old printing plates from India, which I have sneakily taken a photo of to share, as I want them so bad!

Thing is if I owned them, I wouldn't be selling them as ornaments, I'd be using them to print fabulous fabrics and stationary and all sorts... my mind runs wild with super ideas all the time!

Thomas Paul for Duralee

I was lucky enough to snap up some large sample pieces of the super Thomas Paul fabrics, supplied through Duralee Textiles. I love the simple, bold, happy prints and colours, and they have cutesy animals and birds in these two designs - my favourites. I'm going to frame some of them as artworks... Project!

Undie Undies!

I want some undie undies! Get some here from Lucha Workshop at Etsy!

Ooh La La, Yellow!

For a long time I have had a soft spot for the colour yellow. Yes, that's right, the colour that many of my fellow interior designers screw their noses up at, and say, 'Ooh no, oh no yellow just won't work, eww no...' Frankly, I couldn't care less because though, of course, there are always situations where some colours will work better then others, I feel yellow gets a severely bad rap for just being a bit fun, and a bit cheeky. And jeepers, isn't it nice to break 'the rules' sometimes, (whatever those are) and just use yellow cos' it makes you happy!? So over the next wee while, I'm going to share images of 'yellow' in some form or another, used in an interior sense, to show everyone once and for all that to use yellow doesn't mean you have to slather all your walls in screaming sunflower hues. It can be your friend! So firstly, I want to share some images from Hawkes Bay based textile designer Leanne Culy. The fabrics featured here are designs from her range put out last year. These particular simple designs are printed in beautiful caramelly yellows, onto 100%cotton and hemp basecloths, available in drapery and upholstery weight finishes.

Check out all of the fabrics in this collection plus other work and info on NZ stockists, on her site Home Base Collections. Have a look at the stunning styling and photography used throughout her site too, it's super gorgeous and very effective!

Up & Coming: Cara Hunt

Today I wanted to share some of the work of super talented up and coming textile designer Cara Hunt.

Her graphically styled screen & digital prints are based on various Wellington skylines - look carefully you might recognise some of the scenery!

If you were clever, you may have snapped up some of the cushions she produced as a limited edition run, sold through ES Design last year in Wellys.

The lovely Cara is about to jet her way to America for a wee while, spread her wings and see the world, so all the best to her and I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future!

If you would like any more info about Cara and her work, email me and I can put you in touch.