Last Day of Summer

Last day of summer today, but I think I'm still waiting for it to start. Its also the last day of my school holidays and being able to stay in my dressing-gown for extended periods every morning.

A photo I took in January using my Holga.

Although I'm sure in the coming weeks I will miss the laziness holidays has allowed, I am quite looking forward to student life and have been getting inspired by a few things that I would like to share here:

1.  'Girls Zine'

Even though its entirely in Japanese, one can still appreciate all of cute, quirky, naive illustration and design.  I often think that if I was Japanese I would be a better designer.  These are a few of my favourite pages in the book:

2. Valerie Anne Molnar knitted creations...

Images from Valerie Anne Molnar via id textile.

3. Pedal Pushers

Bike gang at uni.  We printed some tees for Bike Fest 2010 and we were back in the print room last tuesday making bags for orientation day. 

Click here to read a post I did for the RMIT textile design blog about the day.

It was a very short stint at tumblr indeed.  While the layouts are appealing (especially for people like me who doesn't know any CSS!) I am not interested in the concept of 're-blogging', and really don't understand it either! It was not a total waste of time... I'm using one of the layouts for a 'gallery' page on this blog which you can also view here.

Over the past month I have been doing some postcard and business card designs for a vintage clothing company.  It has been really enjoyable; especially because the owner is open to ideas and letting me have a fair bit of freedom.  These should (hopefully!) be printed in the next couple of weeks:

business card....

postcard....

concepts inspired by lovely paper doll sets like this one...

I'm currently experimenting with a tumblr blog and making my posts there....  Not sure if I'm as keen on it though, so it may be a reasonably short switch.
visit http://yolandazarins.tumblr.com/ to check it out.

This pavlova obsession knows no bounds...

I have spent the past 5 days holed up in my room with what I now know to be tonsilitis.  I thought this was a sickness that only children got.  Perhaps because it featured frequently in books read to me as a child that talked about hospitals and operations. One book in particular showed a little girl going to the hospital to get her tonsils out and then she got to eat as much jelly and ice cream as she wanted! Unfortunately, these types of books have glorified such sickness to me and I was very disappointed to learn that I should observe a normal diet.

In other news, during the hours I have not been fever-ing I have been working on a pavlova-inspired printed tote bag.

 The screen design.

 Printed design using screen and transparent pigment.

Some stamps I made using lino and cutting tools.  The red ink ('Versa-Craft') is great for fabric and very easy to use.  As simple as putting ink onto the lino and stamping the fabric!  You can get it online, but I got it from Mr. Kitly on Sydney Road, Brunswick.

The finished design.

Detail of fruit.

Detail of text.

I got this tote from 'Blank Clothing Australia' you can use it without tightening the drawstring.....

....Or scrunching it right up!

Very fun to complete, cheered me up a lot!

Finger puppets

Some finger puppets I made as a Christmas present for my niece.  So fun embroidering their cute faces!

Mystic Knit-Marie-Louise Vogt

As mentioned in previous posts I get a little excited by finding knit-designers who push the boundaries and create unique products and Marie-Louise Vogt is no exception!

Fascinated by materials, fabrics or any other kinds, Vogt is into almost all traditional handicraft methods. Most of the time Vogt is knitting or crocheting in her Hamburg based studio and when she's not it's only look to for new materials in her direct surroundings.
In addition to the images below, you can check out her website here.

Mononoke madness

I only watched Princess Mononoke for the first time a few months ago.  I liked it very much!  The Cremaster Cycle image/character strikes me as Princess Mononoke with her bloodied mouth after she assists the mother wolf.  I couldn't resist sharing the catwalk images of a Mononoke inspired collection...

colouring in book

This is one of four dinosaur pictures I made based on children's colouring-in books.  I used stickers, gouache and pencils. I'm hoping to keep up motivation and eventually make a A5 colouring-in book/zine with the original line drawings.

The largest laundromat in Australia!

Hung out at the self proclaimed 'largest laundromat in Australia' yesterday.  Laz did some washing and I did some drawing and we both ate a curry.  I have always found laundromats so relaxing, especially when its raining outside like it was yesterday when these pictures (below) were taken.  Once again, my nokia phone camera is the source of the photos.

Sirena con Jersey

I am always on the lookout for knitwear design.  Often I will type 'knitwear designers' or 'knitwear designers Australia' into google search as a way of procrastination, but surprisingly sparse results are the outcome.  So it is always with great delight that I find something unique. I was looking at Hello Sandwich's blog and found 'Sirena con Jersey'.  Below is a bit about them from their website and some pictures of their jumpers:


"We produce stuff we would like to wear but we don't find in the stores.
We both come from the graphic design world, but Eli is illustrator and Ali loves crafts.
Sirena con Jersey was born in 2007 with a series of handmade knitted sweaters. Then we produced a series of screen printed totebags. People like our stuff, so we decided to keep doing things."

Sirena con Jersey also produce a range of screen printed clothing, totes and lazer-cut jewellery which are equally endearing.  Check it out on their website here.