Posts Tagged ‘book’

i was really excited to be asked to contribute a title page for the creative women’s circle “conversations with creative women” book by text mc cabe. the book contains interviews with 15 women of various creative backgrounds, and i was assigned to create a title page for an interview with milliner extraordinaire serena lindeman. i chose to play up the whimsical, organic forms of serena’s work and created the vines, flowery, feathery page pictured above.   receiving a copy of the published book was pretty thrilling. its a really interesting read, and came with the adorable letterpress scissor bookmark! well done, tess and everyone involved. get your copy here.   if you’re in melbourne, pop by the modern times pop-up shop 2 and see some of my work amidst delicious mid century furniture and accessories:

 

The Modern Times Pop-Up Shop2 December 10th – Dec 31st, Open everyday except Christmas Day for 3 weeks only 260 Smith St, Collingwood Preview and drinks 6-8pm Friday 9th December

dear santa,

you know, and i know, that i’ve been REALLY good this year. so lets stop this messin’ around and howsabout you bring me some of these treasures on my love list?


i’m not sure i even need to TELL you why i want this brooch by ‘friends with you’?! its just cool! and i have several lapels going unadorned at the current time.

books! books! books! i can never ever get enough. this christmas i’m wishing for:

the les mason epicurean magazine exhibition book, by the narrows gallery
20th Century Pattern Design by lesley jackson
and v&a pattern: pop patterns by oriole cullen

just when i think i’ve had enough of the stem pattern, along comes a bright yellow bag to prove otherwise. the orla kiely stem sparrow bag really needs to be in my wardrobe, and more often, on my arm.

all you need is love. in pin brooch form! a souvenir brooch from gemma’s bright signs show is just what i need to keep my OTHER lapel cozy.

and now my son is too big for blocks i suppose i have to just call these alexander girard blocks an executive desk toy? better become an executive quick smart!!

so thats just about it for me, santa. oh and if you could just go ahead and drop in a couple of airfares to new york via tokyo that’d be greeeaaaaat.

i finally got my hands on a copy of print and pattern 2 by bowie style today and hoo boy was there some excited squealing in the bookshop. its not the first time i’ve squealed over a good design book, but for once there was genuinely good reason…

 

… because i’m in it! i am in the book. see the book? see my alphabet series designs? i know, i know.. but i’m so. so. SO excited to be included amongst some of my idols (uh, marimekko, jonathan adler, call me!) there are so many more fab people in here: byGraziela,  ellen giggenbach, beci orpin, ingela arrhenius, lab partners, and on and on and on it goes.

so run out and grab a copy. you might not be driven to squealing mid bookstore, but its a pretty fantastic and inspiring collection of work and i’m so proud to be part of it. well done, bowie style!

 

book shopping in tokyo: take that concept in. yes, it was very good and by day one of our trip i was well on my way to a potential excess baggage fee. the bookstore in the basement of the parco department store was heaven, and all of the books i want to show you today came from there. i could have come away with many, many more because the range, and the quality was amazing. but i’m not at all disappointed by what i brought home…

“cheerful in 3 1/2 months” is a really amusing book  by Gerard Jansen full of great colorful illustrations by Sue Doeksen.

the book provides one tip per day for a 3 and a half month path to cheerfulness. and how could you not be cheerful at suggestions like inventing your own toilet choreography, jumping in a bouncy castle, and my #1 tip – “be your favorite piece of pie”.

was this for my son? no. no it wasn’t. i’ll just put it on the shelf next to my “worst mother ever” trophy.

…i mean, sure, he can look at it – while wearing cotton gloves. when he’s 19.
inside the back of the book is a collection of stickers to be used in the various activities through the book. and if you know of a kiddo who would definitely appreciate this book, then you should get it for them because its filled with fabulous alain grée illustrations. and probably a fun way to learn french!

“colorful room of the japan” is jam packed with some of the most “colorful room of the japan” you’ll ever see. but wait! there’s more..

not only rooms “of the japan” but also of the spain, and of the france! and there are some cute crafty decor projects too. i’d really love to tell you more but its all in “the japanese”.

so, i have NO idea what this is all about. but its PACKED with adorableness. anyone? leave a comment and enlighten me. it seems to be the inspiration files of a couple of designers – but i could be way off. its full of deers, and pandas so lets all look at some pandas!!

what do you think? should i go back and get some more books? go on. twist my arm!

 

✽ ready to roll ✽ the adventures of jodelle ✽ the fugitive pigeon ✽

✽ cook in ✽ christopher’s parade ✽ 365 ways to say “i love you” ✽

✽ off the sauce ✽ may i come in? ✽

 

who isn’t guilty of judging/buying books by their covers? not i that for sure! and i would buy aaaaall of these solely on their good looks.

 

ps: who agrees with me that the fugitive pigeon looks like it could be the sequel to Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! noooo! we TOLD you not to let him drive! and now he’s on the lam!

the old woman who lived in a vinegar bottle

written by rumer godden

illustrated by mairi hedderwick

published by macmillan, london, 1972

this book has been with me since i was little, and its possibly responsible for my love of patchwork. isn’t that a gorgeous cover? i really enjoy the pen and ink illustrations by mairi hedderwick. they evoke the colors and textures of the rugged parts of the UK countryside so well.

aren’t the pebbles and hillside rendered nicely? so washy and soft looking, with that added complexity of the pen lines. but on to the story…

the old woman lives a modest life in her vinegar bottle, which the author explains is most likely a modified oast house which bears a resemblance to old style stoneware vinegar bottles. her cat malt is well fed while she ekes out her existence on bread, trimmings from the butcher and a drop of milk for her tea.

one day while cleaning she finds a sixpence just as the fishing boats are coming to shore. she buys what she can from the fishermen – a small fish but she can’t bring herself to take it home and so she throws it back into the lake. just as she is leaving the fish calls to her. he is a prince and he offers to grant her anything she likes in return for saving his life. the old lady is stunned and thanks the fish but says she doesn’t need anything.

she returns home in a daze before realizing she has nothing to eat. nervously she returns to the lake and asks the fish for “a good hot dinner”. the fish tells her that when she goes home she will find one. at home the table is covered with roast beef and all the trimmings, bread and dessert, with milk and catnip for malt the cat. full from dinner, the old lady falls asleep and awakes later to a clear table and a note reading “another one tomorrow”.

that night a storm batters the vinegar bottle, and the following morning the old lady visits the fish if it would be too much trouble to have a little cottage. the old lady turns to head home and is met with a pretty little cottage. she walks through it in awe, but realizes her old furniture looks shabby and sparse. she once again asks the fish who grants her request. at home, in the new bedroom mirror the old lady sees how plain she looks. she asks the fish for new clothes and she’s immediately in a fresh new dress. at home her wardrobe is stocked with everything she could need. as she eats her dinner that night she realizes she no longer has clothes to work in and she couldn’t possibly get her new clothes dirty. she hurries to the lake and without greeting him, demands a maid.

“‘go home and you will find one’ said the fish. his voice was quiet … and a shade tired.”

at home, the old lady is irritated by the maid’s presence and the lack of her rocking chair. she hears the church bells and decides to go to church to show off her new clothes. but her shoes pinch and so she marches down to the fish to demand transportation. when she finds a cart and pony she sniffs in disdain and stamps back to the lake to explain she wanted a car. a car appears, but the old lady wanted a different car with a chauffeur.

the little fish did not say, “go home and you will find one,” but stood up out of the water on his silver tail. “you used to curtsey to me,” said the little fish. “yesterday you came and said ‘thank you’ before you touched a morsel of the dinner i sent you. that was yesterday, but now! you are a greedy and ungrateful old woman,” said the fish. “go back to your vinegar bottle.

back at the vinegar bottle everything was back to how it had been. the miserable old lady goes back to the lake to apologize and beg the fish’s forgiveness. the fish offered to restore the dinners, and cottage, and clothes, and maid and chauffeur for the repentant old lady, but she insisted that her and malt were best in the vinegar bottle. all they needed was a nice hot sunday dinner.

have we all learned a valuable lesson from the fish? i think i’d be happy with someone magically providing dinner!

wedding by barbara norfleet, a fireside book published by simon and schuster, 1979

today’s bookpile choice is quite different from our usual cute kid’s book fare, but i just had to share  it with you. this book comes from my mother’s collection and despite never being much of a wedding girl, i’ve always enjoyed looking through the photos and wondering about the women behind the veil. i hope you enjoy a peek at this book, and i hope the photographic subjects all live(d) long and happy lives together.

‘wedding’ by barbara norfleet is the expanded catalog of a photography exhibition, ‘the wedding’, that was held in 1976 at the carpenter center for visual arts at harvard university. the exhibition was such a success that the following year it moved to new york’s international center for photography and became one of the most popular shows in the history of the ICP.

click any image to view a larger version.

her veil is very beautiful and worth a close look

double wedding!

what a cute couple! i really love how happy everyone looks, the whole family is so joyful – and the old lady with the little girl has her hair in rollers. can you imagine seeing that in today’s magazine-esque staged wedding photos?! even then it’d no doubt be painfully ironic.

draw your own academic comparison between the last supper print on the wall behind the newly weds and their bounty of wedding swag. i like their satin bedspread.

i really like this photo, taken at a home rather than a studio. under the benevolent watch of the kennedys.

i find this image quite sad, poor lonely bride on a tarp sheet. her beautiful dress seems at odds with the mess hall she’s standing in, and that lone streamer in the top of the frame doesn’t do much to turn the mood around. do you think she stood there for the whole day while people queued around her for cake? maybe she’s a ghost and its not really her wedding.

this dress is my favorite. she looks young, elegant and modern (for the time). i like the composition, making her look toward the bright future, while those cherub sculptures gaze at her beauty. its a bit hokey, but i like it.

this feels like the collision of two stages of a girl’s life: the horsey ‘tween’ stage, and the bride stage. do they give ribbons for brides?

i love this photo! look, she’s flashing her garter belt! and so many flowers! and her eyes! oh its all so great and like some eastern european vision of americana.

damn hippies. (i kid, i kid, you guys know how much i love damn hippies. if you’d prefer to you could read it like “day-um!! hippies!”)

and lastly let me leave you with this happy, carefree photo of the tossed bouquet.

get your own copy from amazon

(FYI i’m an amazon affiliate, but also a person who thinks you should own interesting books)