Inglewood - a collectors treasure trove

 

One of the many second-hand and collectable stores jam-packed with old wares

vintage furniture, books, kitchenware, kids toys, ceramics etc.......

     Some of the decorative signs, window and doorway details on the historic buildings

 

Inglewood...... it's a tiny little town north of Bendigo and there aint' much going on.......HOWEVER, what it lacks in size and population it certainly makes up for in its concentrated selection of antique, vintage and collectable stores. 

 

Once a small gold mining town, Inglewood is a great example of a Victorian Gold Rush town demonstrated with it's period architecture.  But most importantly I'd heard it was a great place to visit for finding second-hand paraphernalia, and it didn't disappoint!

 

There are at least 4 or 5 large shops filled to the brim with all-sorts of vintage, retro, antique, second-hand and collectable items - from ceramics, kitchenware, tins, old packaging, furniture and books, to childrens toys, clothing, machinery and tools.  Phew!  

 

It's well worth a visit for an afternoon.....take a bag......take some money.......and take your time to browse, fossick, hunt and collect for a few hours.  

yellow.....orange.....green

 some recent 2nd hand purchases in accidental colour groups......yellow,orange and green

A few weeks ago I was visiting Daylesford - and it's impossible for me to visit Daylesford without a trip to the fabulous Mill Markets to see what second hand, vintage or retro bits-and-pieces I can find.

It was only when I got home and unpacked my goodies, that I realised I'd unintentionally purchased in colour groups!  My little second-hand lovelies were all yellow, orange and green.

I picked up the very cute retro melamine cup (love the square shaped handle), saucer and plate set featuring a yellow rose pattern, which sits so happily on the ceramic plate with the orange and grey geo pattern on the rim.  I also picked up 3 jugs; a small English jug with a yellow and green floral pattern, the larger orange melamine jug, and finally the large green and white polka-dot jug (which I think is Australian).

And lastly I found an old English 'Mackintosh's' tin, with an over-scaled daisy pattern - in orange, yellow and green!    

The Owl and the Woodpecker

 

 

 

I was really chuffed to come across this Brian Wildsmith book The Owl and the Woodpecker in the
second-hand section of my local bookshop the other day.  Not in the best condition, however at $4 I wasn't complaining!   

The book (published in 1971) tells the story of an owl and a woodpecker who live in a far-away forest.  The woodpecker lives in a tree where he sleeps all night and works all day - however - in the tree next door lives an owl, who likes to work all night and sleep all day!  All the animals in the forest get together to resolve the disagreement between the angry birds, so that peace can return to the forest.

It's the fabulous illustrations by Brian Wildsmith that captured my attention - Wildsmith has created a series of lively, expressive and frenetic animal illustrations to accompany the story.  Painted in what appears to be layers of gouache, oil pastel and the occasional use of collage, the multi-textural illustrations are playful and portray a sense of movement and energy on each page. 

I love Brian Wildsmith's freedom and relaxed illustrative style, and these colourful animal illustrations are really delightful (the photographs don't do them justice)..... and they make me want to rewind my life by several years and go to study illustration at college! 

There are some more examples of Brian Wildsmith's work on my blog here and here. 

Vintage tableware...melamine designs....help!

Fancy a Cuppa

 

I'm having a bit of a dilemma with what to do with my Vintage Tableware melamine plate designs..... The three designs currently in the range are Fancy a Cuppa, Tea Party and High Tea (as seen above and below). Fancy a Cuppa and Tea Party are definitely the most popular designs, with High Tea not selling quite as well.

Tea Party

 

High Tea

So, I'm wondering whether to delete High Tea from the range and replace it with another design using the vintage cups and saucers.  I've mocked-up a new design below featuring the yellow rose cups with a saucer and a teaspoon, with a working name of Time for Tea

I like the simplicity of the singular teacups design which contrasts the busier teacup patterns in the other plates, but it still works as a mix-and-match coordinate to the other two designs.

New design (mock-up only) Time for Tea above, and shown with the other teacup designs below

Anyway, I'd love to get a bit of feedback if anyone out there in blog-land cares to share an opinion! So, let me know - should I keep the original teapot design, or replace with the new teacup design....

 

Retro coffee pots....and diamonds

 

I think I'm a very easy person to buy presents for...... pretty much anything ceramic, second-hand, vintage or retro - I'm guaranteed to love!  No diamonds, pearls, emeralds (OK, I do like emeralds - my birthstone and favourite colour), but really, I'm not one for expensive gold jewellery or fancy gemstones, so I think Mr B has it pretty easy when it comes to buying birthdays and Christmas gifts.  

 

He did particularly well this Christmas when I received these two rather funky retro coffee pots!  The gorgeous teal coloured coffee pot is marked as 'Sadler' England, and the other pot is a 'Kathie Winkle' design by Broadhurst, England.

 

I can't find much information on the Sadler design, but it's a really beautiful colour and features an embossed geometric pattern and stripes on the body, with part of the geo design echoed on the lid.  The Kathie Winkle pattern is called 'Roulette' and features her trademark stamped black outlines with green, orange and light blue hand-painted detail, dating from about the 1970's.  The shape of the Roulette coffee pot is the same as another Kathie Winkle design I picked up recently.

 

So there I was on Christmas day, one happy lady with two second-hand ceramic coffee pots - and no diamonds!    

Sunsets....Kyneton style

We've had some amazing coloured skies and fantastic light effects during sunset over the past few weeks here in Kyneton.  Mother nature at her finest - and all this spectacular viewing right from our veranda.  Beautiful!       

Up, up and away.....

Towards the end of last year I was commissioned to create a range of young girls and boys coordinated designs for ceramics and bedlinen application.  These sweet children's designs have an old-fashioned flight theme, with hot air balloons and vintage air planes.  

 

The designs were originally drawn in black ink, before being scanned into the computer for adding the colour.  This results in the artwork retaining a hand-drawn feel, but making different colourways very easy.        

 



The Big Brown Bear - book & record

The Big Brown Bear - a little golden book and record!   

Well, here we are.... one week into the new year and January is already racing by with lightning speed!  I managed to find time over the festive period to have a rummage in my local charity shop, and found this super-cute 'Read and Hear' Little Golden Book AND record! (a 45 RPM for those old enough (like me) to know what this means).

The story is written by Georges Duplaix and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren (copyright 1944, 1947) and tells the story of a naughty bear who gets stung on the nose after stealing some honeycomb from a beehive, whilst he was supposed to be out catching fish for his dinner.

It's been a mighty long time since I've seen a 45 RPM record, and it reminded me of the little portable orange record player I had as a child. Sadly, I no longer own a record player so I can't actually play the record, but I still thought the book and record set was too good to resist!

Another year nearly over.....

I can't beleive we're on the countdown to the end of another year, it really doesn't seem that long ago I was sitting down and doing last years Christmas blog post.

 

This year has been a jam-packed 12 months, with amongst other things selling our house and making the move to the country, freelance designing, trying to maintain regular blog posts and being a mum to a now 17-month old active toddler.  It doesn't sound much when written like that, but each week I seem to struggle with fitting everything in, and my 'to-do' list never seems to get any shorter!

 

To all the people who read and comment on my little blog, thank you for taking the time to check in once in a while to see what's going on over here, and apologies if I haven't been able to respond to comments, or regularly comment on your blogs.

 

This little Santa illustration was for some Christmas ceramic designs I was commissioned to create last year - I wish I could wrap up my Christmas presents as prettily in real life!   

 

Wishing everyone a fabulous festive season and much peace and happiness for the new year x x

A Year in Provence

A Year in Provence - illustrations by Paul Hogarth

I love how Paul Hogarth paints everyday French people!

          Rumbly tumbly old buildings, local architecture, landscapes and townscapes are

                     captured in quick pencil studies and light washes of watercolour.   

A few weeks ago I posted about a series of old Penguin books I have, which are all illustrated by Paul Hogarth.  Writing the post reminded me of another book I have, A Year in Provence, which again feature illustrations by Paul Hogarth.  It was a lovely excuse to rummage through my bookshelves and leaf through this partially forgotten about book.

'When Peter Mayle fled grey London for Provencial sunshine and bought an ancient farmhouse in the Luberon mountains, pastoral dreams were disrupted by the year's round of icy mistrals, demanding visitors, ruinous floods and absentee builders.  He soon realised that the only thing to be relied on was lunch, with military regularity at midday'.

All painted in watercolour, Paul Hogarth's illustrations perfectly capture the changing seasons and charm of life in Provence.  I'm really drawn to his expressive painterly qualities, and the quick sketches of landscape, people and historic buildings.  They are simply executed in pencil with washes of watercolour and minimum detail, but they are so lively and almost whimsical in feel.

The book is punctuated with these fabulous snippits of visual life in Provence - you hardly need to read the book, but just look at the illustrations to get a sense of the story.  I'm always in awe of people who can paint with such minimal fuss and detail, and I think this is a classic example of less is more.

New illustrations sneak peak.....

I've been working on a project recently which has involved creating some new hand-painted illustrations.  The objects I'm painting all have a slight vintage feel to them, and the artwork itself has all been created using watercolour.  I've loved getting back to doing some drawing and painting and it's been a really fun project to work on.  I'll blog about it again when the work is all completed, but for now, without giving too much away, here is a little sneak peak of what I've been working on including the initial sketches and finished painted versions......