Mercator open studios - Abbotsford Convent

Yesterday I headed along to the open studios at the newly refurbished Mercator Building at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent. The main building at the convent is already home to illustrators, writers, painters, art therapists and various health practitioners who work in dorms that once housed the Sisters of the Good Shepherd from 1863 to 1975.

Floor tile detailing and some of the beautiful stained-glass window patterns in the main convent building.

The Mercator building is the newest development in the Abbotsford Convent's transformation in becoming a creative arts community. It houses 10 light-filled open studios set in the historic buildings and beautiful surroundings of the Convent, and includes jewellery designers, industrial designers, glass artisits, ceramicists, printers etc.

The open studio was a great opportunity to meet the designer-makers who have made it their home and take a peek into their creative workspaces (I always love seeing how other creative people work!).

One of the best studios in the building is home to the amazing lighting designer Volker Haug. A huge double room with ceiling windows and a section of see-through floor, original brickwork and exposed beams show-off Volkers unique pared back and industrial-styled lighting creations.

Some of Volker Haug's lighting creations

Industrial designer Dhiren Bhagwandas was next door with another huge studio space! Lots of windows for natural light and again the space had a mix of original features but with a contemporary and simple aesthetic.

Helen Punton the creative source behind the fabulous Zaishu also occupys a delightful studio and gallery space showcasing her eco-designed slot seat/tables and line of hand-printed fabric-based products.
The seat/tables are simple in design, but beautifully executed and considered - from the involvement and collaboration with other artists and designers, to their sustainable ethos and manufacturing process. Beautiful and smart - that's what makes good design! Zaishu also has a blog for more information.

Some of the historic outbuildings found around the convent.

I am so, so envious of the space the tenants have to work in, but mostly of the artistic community they share. I envy their opportunity to work with such a diverse and creative mix of people, who can inspire each other and offer the potential for collaboration. I dream to be able to share a studio space like this and to be able to work and talk design with people.....rather than my cat! What a fantastic place to work!

The public are welcome to visit the studio's in order to purchase directly or discuss design projects with the artisans. It's probably best to contact the relevant studio to find out opening hours first.

A big thank you to Volker, Dhiren and Helen for allowing me to take photo's of their studio's to share on this blog.

You can also read more about the Mercator Studio's here:

Cassandre

I was lucky enough back in London to find this book about the life and work of A.M. Cassandre in a second hand shop, I didn't hesitate to quickly snap it up and couldn't believe my luck in finding it!

It is actually my dad who introduced me to Cassandre and we both love his work and graphic style. Cassandre's work is instantly recognisable and typified by bold graphic imagery, strong geometric forms and use of typography. Along with designing for theatre and creating typefaces, Cassandre is probably best known for his poster designs and commercial advertisements produced during the 1920's and 1930's. Here he cleverly integrated 'experimental' artforms, in particularly cubism, into his mainstream commercial designs.
Below: 'Borwick's' 1935 (gouache)

The typeface 'Bifur' designed by Cassandre in 1927; simplified geometric characters and the elimination of any solid horizontal or vertical lines that were not completely necessary, filling the left spaces with thin parallel lines.

It was Cassandre who was responsible for the famous logo and typeface for Yves Saint Laurent back in 1963.
Below 'Nord Express' 1927 (oil on wood)

Most people will probably know Cassandre's work from the series of travel posters he designed advertising trains and ships such as the 'Etoile du Nord' and the famous 'Normandie'. These perfectly demonstrate his strong use of geometric forms, integration of text and powerful graphic nature. His clever use of perspective in these posters is a dominating feature, along with simplified colour palette and employment of a lot of black.

Below another design for 'Nord Express' 1927 (lithographic poster)

'L'Atlantique' 1931 (lithographic poster)

'Normandie' 1935 (lithographic poster)

Unfortunately I think the book is sadly out of print now, so worth checking auction sites or ABE books if you want to get hold of a copy.

'Garden Wisdom' - Angie Lewin illustrations

I thought I'd share a book I recently bought called 'Garden Wisdom' which feature the wonderful woodblock illustrations of Angie Lewin. I'm such a big fan of Angie Lewin's work and I couldn't resist this book - more for the design inspiration than the gardening tips!

The book itself was inspired by the art of Angie Lewin; 'She sees the beauty in all seasons and manifestations of all plants: the ordered pattern of the blooms, the thrusting energy of the emerging buds, the prolific seed heads and the varieties of shapes, colours and habits to be found in meadow and border.' (Leslie Geddes-Brown, Garden Wisdom).

The book has handy snippets of garden wisom (literally) from various gardeners and garden designers throughout the ages - which would probably be very useful for me to read if only I didn't get so distracted by the pictures!

You can buy Garden Wisdom here.

New cards on Etsy

It's been a bit quiet recently on the blogging front......I've had quite a lot of freelance work, plus I've been feeling a little under the weather and have now developed an ear infection :-( Hence I haven't been up to much other than moping around and feeling sorry for myself.

However, I have finally managed to list my new cards onto Etsy!


I had the cards printed for the markets I was doing in the lead-up to Christmas and have been meaning to put them in my Etsy shop for a while. I sold two straight away to a lady in Philadelphia which was pretty exciting, she wants to frame them and put them on her desk at work . This made me feel a bit better :-)

There are six different designs, all of them are taken from original watercolor illustrations by me!

I'm keen to do more of them - or maybe even to put them onto additional products - so I'd love to know what you think of them and any favourite designs?.....

Delilah Devine

I thought I'd profile a friend of mine who is a very talented illustrator, designer and most recently creator of her own product range under the title 'Delilah Devine'

I met Linda a few years ago when we worked together, before she ran away to Italy with a rather nice Italian man (ahhh - isn't this everyone's dream!) She is now back in Australia, married (to the Italian man) and has set up her own business hand-making gorgeous brooches and framed children's pictures. On top of this she is also a new mum - phew!

She crafts these delightful wares using found vintage wallpapers, so each one is a little bit different to the other - and exceptionally cute!

I bought the Kookaburra brooch - I loved him because he was green :-)

Delilah Devine has a website, etsy store and a blog

Linda you are an inspiration - love your work x

Super-cute packaging!

I love good packaging, and I think it speaks volumes about the product, brand and company if they have made an effort and put thought into the packaging of their products.

So I was delighted when my sister came to visit from England and bought out some biscuit packaging for me (not a traditional gift I know - but one she knew I'd love!!)

How super-cute is the packaging for these organic vanilla biscuits from Artisan Biscuits! These 'The Owl & The Pussycat' biscuits are aimed at children, with the biscuits cut into charming animal characters. Each box tells a classic children's poem or story, alongside gorgeous wood-block style illustrations. Click here to see more examples from the lovely childrens range.

Unfortunately the box came to me empty - so I didn't get to experience the biscuits :-(

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat, they took some honey, and plenty of money, wrapped in a five pound note.
Taken from 'The Owl and the Pussycat' by Edward Lear.

Me Old China at Moose!

I'm delighted to be a new stockist for the wonderful Australian on-line retailer Moose: Art for Living and was very excited to see they have featured my Me Old China designs on the front of their website :-)

Moose stocks some fantastic Australian designers and the on-line store covers a wide range of jewellery as well as textiles, paper and interior products. It's lovely to be in the good company of fab creatives such as Betty Jo Designs, Angus & Celeste, Sophie Milne and Flatland OK.

Thanks Moose for inviting me along to be part of such a lovely creative on-line store :-)

Bangalow treasures

We had a rainy day or two whilst visiting Byron Bay, so we decided to hire a car and head out to the surrounding towns for some exploring. I'm so glad we did because one of my favourite places we visited was a small town called Bangalow.

It's a small historic town with lovely coffee shops, restaurants and gift shops. The main street retains a village feel with wide verandahs and it has a sophisticated feel rather than being too touristy.

However, the main appeal for me was the Retro Shop and Heath's Old Wares and Collectables barn!

These are some pictures from The Retro Shop (no website unfortunatly) It's a great little shop with some proper retro goodies all in great condition. It was a good job we were flying back home and had weight restrictions with our luggage - the kithcen units were fabulous!

Heath's Old Wares and Collectables was more of a mixture of anything old and found - books, ceramics, old tins, lamps, glassware etc and a great place for a good rummage on a rainly day! They have a blog here:

I bought this old Ladies Journal dated July 1949 which was originally one shilling!

I thought I'd share some of the illustrations from the magazine as they are typical of the imagery from this particular era. I love the fact most of the imagery is hand-drawn; there are no photographic images and certainly no CAD artwork, with even the advertisments featuring hand-drawn illustrations and type.

Most of the illustrations are in black and white - with only a very few, such as this Birds Custard advert, being in full colour! It's great to look through to see how much has changed with advertising, design layout and of course with the input these days of computers and digital photography.

Back home, holiday over....

Well I'm back home after a fabulous time away....why do holidays always go so quickly?!.....

First stop was Sydney and no matter how many times I visit she always stuns me with her beautiful harbour. There is always so much life and activity with boats and ferries constantly on the move, and even at night there is much to gaze at with the ferries and city lights reflecting in the waters.

Next it was onto the beautiful Blue Mountains. This was the first time I've visited the Blue Mountain region and it was well worth the visit! The scenery and walks are rather stunning, and there are some cute towns in the area (in particular Leura) with lots of yummy cakes - which is a must after all the walking :-)

Then it was time to chill out in Byron Bay. What can I say..... just a great laid back place with gorgous beaches, fantastic food and a totally relaxing place to finish the holiday. A highlight has to be kayaking with the local dolphins who were playing in the bay and skipping over the waves so close to us. Just amazing.