30.11.12 DIY FACIAL HAIR FANCY

Images > Top, above left and above right all Julian Wolkenstein

Seems we are in the midst of a DIY facial hair fancy with men's bristles being the next thing to be crafted in a decorative sense. First patchwork beards for The Postiche Collection and now floral versions for Manuscript. Weird concept I know, but you've got to admit it's super cool imagery! A project that was a few years in the making, the patchwork beards of which there are six, were a collaboration between myself, photographer Julian Wolkenstein and art director Paul Sharp. Julian and Paul created the concept and called me in to create the physical beards which alone took over a year to design, mould, fit and craft. Big congrats go to Julian who just this week won first prize in the prestigious CCP Kodak Salon Awards for the hippy beard pictured above. I came across the floral beards below last night during my weekly Thursday night 'T' time which involves me trawling the internet late at night for 'fun' rather than 'work'. Made by Lisa Cooper who does all sorts of weird and wonderful projects like I do they are featured in Manuscript Magazine. What will we think of next...

Images > Top, above left and above right all Manuscript

29.11.12 DROP DEAD AMAZING

Image Elephant Ceramics

I have always appreciated the way my career as a designer has grown in a lovely organic way and Michele Michael of Elephant Ceramics seems to have had the same experience. A home design editor and prop stylist she now designs and produces her own range of the most drop dead amazing ceramics. After opening a prop house in Manhattan dedicated to tabletop items for photo shoots she ended up developing her range after searching for pieces in particular shapes and colours. Incorporating linen textures into the clay and taking a unique approach to glazing, Michele has recently collaborated on ceramic vases with Pottery Barn (who are soon to be gracing Australian shores by the way!) and built a dream barn as her new ceramic studio. I am desperate for these plates pictured...

28.11.12 TO JOHN DENVER WITH LOVE, FAREWELL

Image > via Pinterest

Today I'm dyeing more cord for my macrame owls. You see I have decided it's time to make the final run of these darling boys for The Six Week Boutique. I do love them so... how could I not, they started me on this wild modern craft ride four years ago! But for me it's time to move on and get busy focusing on other projects. For those of you who don't know the story behind my owls and how it all began for me keep reading. To John Denver With Love, farewell...

Images > Left Textile Cocoon, Right The Six Week Boutique

In the 1970's when I was most young and shapeable my mother owned a craft shop called Country Road Craft Supplies named after her musical love of the time, Mr John Denver. The one thing I remember most is the macrame bits. Metal rings in every size, drawer upon drawer of wooden beads and colourful skeins of furry, jute like rope all waiting to be carefully knotted into pot plant hangers, lampshades and king of them all...the macrame owl. Now some thirty years and many,many crafts later I have taken it upon myself to redesign the owl in all it's glory for those who missed out the first time around and those who secretly wish they had never left.

27.11.12 THE WILLIAM MORRIS

Image > via Pinterest

If you're into textiles you will have heard of William Morris. I adore his floral fantasies and have done since being introduced to it by one of my fabric reps ten years ago. Part of the Arts & Crafts movement Morris was kind of like a modern day celebrity designer back in the mid to late 1800's and decorated churches and grand English homes while founding the preservation of historic buildings, a protection still current today. I saw the piece above in the flesh at the Tate Britain when I was in London recently and fell in love all over again. One day I will commit to my love of William Morris and create the perfect marriage by upholstering a knock-out modern chair...

Images > Left via Pinterest , Right via Twilight Star Song

26.11.12 SUMMERING

Image Anna Garforth

Summer is making itself known four days early here in Australia. We're in for super high temperatures this week so I spent yesterday 'summering' our house in preparation. Gone is the thick quilt on our bed, fan has prime position in our living space and more importantly the house is now filled with summer flowers. Foraging in my neighbourhood, gardening shears in hand, I picked natives galore. Branches of neon yellow Wattle, huge crowns of pale pink Proteas, amber infused Banksia and stems of electric pink Bottlebrush. All seemed perfect as I woke this morning with incredible floral scents filling our space, until of course I discovered other less incredible scents coming from the porch where our pesky possum friend had messily partaken in the garbage we failed to bin. Cleaning up sweaty garbage was not part of the 'summering' plan! Speaking of flowers and touching on my continuing obsession of merging type with modern craft how amazing is this Polinate typeface by English artist Anna Garforth...

23.11.12 DECORATIVE FINDS

Image Gemma Bayly

I love decorative, especially when found in unassuming places. Prepare to be healed in every way with these incredibly beautiful Reiki stones by creator Gemma Bayly who is both artist and Reiki practitioner. First painted with metallic geometrics then charged with healing energy according to their symbol, Gemma's work plays with physics, nature, and our physical experience of spiritual energies. Hiding these stones in the nooks of cities, Gemma considers them beacons of light to be stumbled upon. Lucky stumblers can expect grounding, to find their soulmate, direction and clarity on their path, and power for their golden light within. Can you image finding one of these stones randomly as you went about your day? The perfect reminder to keep your eyes open for unsuspecting decorative wonder wherever you go. The fact these little pieces of art merged with nature come with such positive vibes making them even more of a hidden treasure...

22.11.12 SO GOOD TOGETHER

Image Inside Out Magazine

Neon yellow is kicking around I know, but I wanted to put in writing just how good is it paired with shades of nude... and nude back with metallic. After re-visiting my cardboard diamond image for yesterday's post I'm all over this combo again. In my opinion combinations such as these are the key to using insanely bright colours and/or metallics well in your space. Nudes, greys and beiges do all the necessary grounding work beside neon while metallic adds a layer of fearlessness to the security of neutrals. The super lovely and so very clever stylist Vanessa Colyer Tay illustrated this marriage made in heaven in a past issue of Inside Out Magazine above and the two Pinterest finds below are rocking this philosophy too. Off to Sydney now, I just know I'm going to have these colours on the brain the whole time I'm there. So good together...

Images via Pinterest, left Paravent, right Edith Dekyndt

21.11.12 HIGH TIME FOR THE FAMILY JEWELS

Image Tamara Maynes

Back from Melbourne... I love that place. Why I don't live there is beyond me really. Anyhow I'm late posting today but the main thing is I posted! Much earlier this year Yen Magazine asked me to contribute a DIY project to Issue 57 which, being a Yen fan, I gladly did. My project of cardboard diamonds are so beautiful and as the issue is now out of circulation I thought it high time to make the template available as a download on The Six Week Boutique. Not a bad idea for Christmas deco's actually... The Family Jewels cardboard diamond template here...

20.11.12 ONE DAY LATE

Image David Bromley

So here I am in one of my very favourite places, Melbourne! Having arrived yesterday it's purely a family affair and super fast overnight visit so no checking out the creative haunts like I usually do. Though had I arrived just one day earlier I would have fought tooth and nail to get myself to the final open day of David Bromley's magical space on Chapel St. Painter, sculptor and all-round wonder man, Bromley's best pieces in my opinion were his quilts. Oh to own one of these babies...

19.11.12 DOROTHY HAS SPOKEN

Image Tamara Maynes

As a child my first serious relationship with shoes was red, sparkly and held magical powers. Judy Garland walked the yellow brick road in them and with three clicks of their heels was transported back to that most wonderful of places. Home. As an adult my relationship with shoes has matured somewhat. Red doesn’t make an appearance, glitter shows itself only on very special occasions, and the magic lies in their craftsmanship. What hasn't changed is Dorothy's timeless message, I still swear by it. There really is no place like home. Feeling an affinity with Dorothy's words of wisdom? I am now selling this one-off embroidered footstool in my online store The Six Week Boutique...

16.11.12 OH DEAR

Image Papier Mache Magazine

Oh dear. It was bound to happen. I have been wracked with guilt having missed a whole two days of posting, but you must forgive me. My week, which looked like a standard busy one ended up mental and as I blog from my bed which has seen so little of me these past days I am aching all over. Even the muscles in my hands are struggling to type! What, you might ask has kept me from you? Lots of loveliness actually... like a phone interview with Temple & Webster and delivering all the rewards for those of you who helped me get to London recently. Though the two things that gave me the most pleasure were hanging out with the team from the incredible Papier Mache Magazine for the deco shoot I styled (out Feb) and the afternoon I spent with master basket weaver, fellow teacher at The School and SoHi neighbour Harriet Goodall chatting about her work. All in all a wonderful week which ends tomorrow night when I get back from Sydney after giving my twig & twine workshop at Ikke...

Image Harriet Goodall

13.11.12 OFFICE SUPPLIES SURPRISE

Images We Make Carpets

Perusing the Sass & Bide blog this morning and came across this carpet made of paperclips, as you do. We Make Carpets are based in the Netherlands and create the most amazing large scale decorative carpets from anything and everything, essentially products we see has having no value once they have been used. These guys like the fact that not only do you get a surprise at the materials used to craft their graphic designs but that it encourages us to consider our role as the consumer society that produces these 'weaving materials'. Supercycler contenders for sure...

12.11.12 GETTIN' TWIGGY WITH IT

Image Tamara Maynes

OK, terrible post title I know but I'm in one big state of crazy today. I have to make a huge 3D cloud, give a creative consult, pack and post wire wall type (which is a feat let me tell you) and make three tassel garlands for an installation. So you see, my post title requires forgiveness! Today is a reminder to those of you in Sydney that there are a few spaces left for the one-off modern twig & twine Christmas workshop I'm teaching at Ikke this Saturday. You will learn the twig & twine method which includes building 3D deco's plus we do some white washing. Details and bookings at Ikke. Christmas is only six weeks away you know...

9.11.12 ONE MORE FOR MY LOCALS

Image via Vosgesparis

Ok, so after never having given it a second look previously the mint green in yesterday's chairs has stuck and now I have another addiction which my local second hand stores are going to prosper from. I mean check this colour out put back with an industrial space like the home of interior designer Paola Navone above. Wow. I am seriously considering grabbing a tin of paint a slightly darker shade of mint like the one Jen Ramos has incorporated below and giving my old Bentwood chairs a makeover. Just to give you a visual, there is drool...

Image Cocoa & Hearts

8.11.12 ON THE BRAIN

Images Pacific Wonderland Inc

I am making a special macrame prop for a magazine shoot and developing a macrame workshop at the moment so have it, the technique, on the brain. These chairs caught my eye a while back and considering I'm in macrame mode I thought it a good time to share the love. Handmade by husband and wife team Steve Nasker and Charlotte Stone under the label Pacific Wonderland Inc in LA the chairs are made from plywood by Steve and the seat crafted by Charlotte. The chair is referred to as the Macrame Palaper Lounge Chair, which seems a bit odd to me considering the seat is woven without featuring any actual knotting techniques, but hey who am I to argue! Nonetheless I love this chair, macrame or not...

7.11.12 THE SIMPLE LIFE

Image via Pinterest

The fabulous new book Rethink : The Way You Live by Amanda Talbot, an incredibly talented stylist who also happens to be super lovely, is onto something. It's launch coincides with another book I'm reading titled Better Off which documents one couples real-life experiment at simple living amongst a Mennonite community in America. To be honest living with no technology and only life's necessities as do the Mennonites, Amish and Quakers alike,  sounds strangely abundant. But as usual with me it gets visual and I start picturing how my home would look and what outfits I would don. My version of the simple life pictured above and below, though forgive the electric lights I need them to keep my eyesight in good working order for all those patchwork quilts I'd be making...

Images, left Vogue Italia, right Kathleen Hills

6.11.12 WHAT A WOMAN

Images via Pinterest

Wow, I am in love. Not only with these amazing ceramics but with the woman behind them, Bauhaus inspired German ceramicist Hedwig Bollhagen. Hedwig has been quoted as saying 'Art? Oh God, some call it that... I make plates, cups and pitchers'. Says it all yes?! Hedwig started as a child and went on to become one of Germany's most important artists, continuing to produce work throughout Nazi occupation, State control and the ensuing post war difficulties. Working until the ripe old age of 93, Hedwig passed away in 2001 leaving her factory to continue producing her work and the Hedwig Bollhagen Foundation running a Museum in her honour. What a woman...

5.11.12 THE TRUTH

Image via Pinterest

I like to write my blog in the early morning... actually I need to write my blog in the early morning before the other half of my household is awake. Whilst enjoying my relatively short focused posts each day you may be mistaken for thinking each is quick and easy to publish but that my friends is not the case. Realistically it's a lot of work requiring creative direction, planning, research, editing, and of course writing. Thankfully I have a love affair going with all of these things so we are both in luck. The truth is I never imagined I'd enjoy it this much and I'm so glad you're all here...

P.S. Take a look at this cool little mini film I made over the weekend

2.11.12 A BONKERS PROJECT

Image Tamara Maynes

Whenever I get emails whose subject line states the word 'project' I get excited. So when I received one from clever Sydney stylist Jane Frosh whose subject read 'bonkers project' I got extra excited, and for good reason. Miss Frosh of styling duo Cool Edies landed the installation job for the foyer of the amazing new QT Hotel in Sydney and commissioned designers and makers such as myself to craft wild dresses to be housed in the buildings original glass cabinetry. After being supplied with a vintage bust and one huge pile of rope I was left to my devices and my divine macrame girl now sits in all her glory until Feb 2013. Wee 'in the making' film here! I'm telling you, best project ever...

1.11.12 HOTNESS

Image Lauren Krukowski

I am heading off to Sydney today where it's going to be super hot. First work in air conditioning (insert sigh of relief) and then to the launch of Megan Morton's new book Things I Love, which I happened to get a good sneak preview of during my appointment with her publisher in London. It's a corker and celebrates the work of many of the clever dicks in my extended creative family! With this hotness in mind whilst browsing Pinterest for inspiration I remembered this amazing painting I had saved previously. If you click through to artist Lauren Krukowski's site you will discover all her paintings are worthy of saving and wanting...