Marbling Madness

I am mad on marbling at the moment. I have seen it appear online more and more. I had a go at home but never quite got it to work. I bought some marbling inks, which did the job, but I prefer the more vibrant colours that acrylic paint creates. A lot of sites say to use liquid starch to get the paint to float, which is not available over here. I tried powdered and spray - but this didn't do the job. I now have a cupboard full of starch! There are some more possibilities to try so perhaps I will have another go soon.

There is a good tutorial here on how to marble on fabric.

image from here

left image from here plus good tutoral also, right image from here

images from here

I love the marbled leather purse on a favourite site of mine, Scout & Catalogue. 

Nicely designed objects

TV is so bad right now, I have decided to browse way out of my league, beautiful objects on this site: Matter instead.

ITEM:
TRANSIENCE MIRROR - CIRCULAR

DESIGNER:

DAVID DERKSEN & LEX POTT

ITEM:
TRAVEL BACKGAMMON

DESIGNER:

FREDERICKS & MAE

ITEM:
GRAND BLOTCH DAMASK - SOLID WALLCOVERING

DESIGNER:

TIMOROUS BEASTIES

Have your cake and wear it

Check out this crazy cake girl! DJCosmosis is from Toronto and bakes cakes inspired by her outfits. I discovered her via the brilliant Fred Butler and her blog. These cakes are kitsch and colourful with a pinch of madness - love it! You can see pictures of the sketches, planning and building of the site on this garishly fun tumblr found here.

According to Fred, she is also launching an online magazine called Galgalz which is worth checking out, even before it's launched - due to the crazy gif madness that will ensure I look back at this in the future!

A possible new tube map?

The boyfriend (I feel I have to acknowledge that he saw it first) sent me a link to this on TimeOut's blog. This new proposal by Max Roberts has managed to feature the actual London Underground. Also I guess referencing the fact that the Overground is now circular. Very clever.

Brighten up an old chair

From Rocket St George. This is the sort of thing I have on my creative things to do list. But probably never will. I would be satisfied if my attempt looked like one of these. Should you not want to do it yourself, you can buy them here.

Print Club Blisters The Directors Cut

Went to this last week at the Print Club in Dalston. I must go there soon and do a workshop, in fact I think they have some sort of deal at the moment with their workshops, so I have no excuse really.

Anyway, they had this really nice open night and exhibition which was on in the MC Motors building next door, also a prop hire place hence some of the cool bits of furniture and signs lying around. The posters were from local artists/illustrators/graphic designers who use the studios and the theme was film or movies or whatever you like to call them.

The posters were all available to buy, it was a difficult choice but we settled on this one by Laurie Hastings and the film was Virgin Suicides. It was a toss up between this one and the Princess Mononoke one by Joe Wilson.

of course I had to check out Lauries other work, see below. Check out her portfolio here.

 

Paintaway by Michael Chase

Made in his kitchen sink with acrylic paint, photos taken on his iphone and then manipulated in photoshop. Check out more here on his Behance Portfolio.

Jaguar Shoes, Phillip Smileys Hive

We popped in to Jaguar Shoes a few weeks ago on a random Shoreditch crawl (don't rule Shoreditch out just yet, there are a few little gems) Jaguar shoes never fails with it's interior decor or rather exhibition space. This time stunning illustrations cover the wall of bees and nymph type creatures gobbling up honey. There is also a film installation and the most incredible bumble bee disco ball.

These images from Dazed Digital.

A little fact for you, Philip Smiley is actually the guy on the front of the hugely successful 'The Selby'
book. Go check out his house here.

random image from google image via Corks and Caftans

Nicola Rowlands Designs

I love these cards! more here.

Kettle love

I love this kettle. We don't have a kettle in our house, due to the fact our kitchen is the size of a matchbox. This one wouldn't take up any space though as it could sit on the hob where the (tea making) sauce pan currently sits.

I am showing my age, I would not have raved about a kettle a few years back.

Buy here for £125.

It's not just a kettle, its an investment. Ha.

Promoting myself!

I am, as you probably know, a graphic/digital designer, and although I can turn my hand to pretty much any project, my main focus over the last however many years has been fashion retail. I have created this to use as promotion and will make various others depending on what company it's sent to and the season.

If you know anyone in the industry, please forward my details!

Thanks! Grace x

Housing estates, old and older

Has anyone been watching the BBC program "The Secret History of our Streets?" Last night was about Arnold Circus in Shoreditch, somewhere I have always found fascinating to walk around. The program informed us that Arnold Circus (now grade II listed) was The first housing estate in the UK, although failed in that it couldn't afford to house the areas poorest of poor.

There still seems to be quite a community feel in Arnold circus though, despite the obvious changes in the area. I have yet to catch a band at the band stand in the summer, which looks great. 

Arnold Circus 1901 more fascinating pictures here.

On a slightly different note, I love a bit of 60's architecture and the fact it causes so much debate.
My sister, Alice told me about the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate she lives near, and I was intrigued. I now walk past the estate every day on my way to work so have done a bit of research. See their community website for more information.

images from Open Buildings

They have a great website with a brilliant film made by the residents. "it's great, apart from the dog shit' is all one resident had to say. As with most of the housing architecture of the time, it was a bit of a social experiment, so there are some elements that fail and some that don't.

T-shirt designs

I have recently made an album on Behance with some T-shirt designs I did for a company last year. They were designed for SS11 (ie now) and the theme was mainly tropical and bright, as you may have noticed, both are big trends this summer. Go see more of my designs here.

Check out these chairs

I spied on Stoke Newington High St this weekend!

Driving Soundtrack

Have you seen Drive yet? I'm not one for watching films with violent bits (I'm a wimp) but this one I loved. Proper 80s styling with a brilliant soundtrack that I cannot stop playing. The fact that Ryan Gosling is in it, kinda helps as well.

from Supply.com

from thefancy

Sara Cwynar, Artist, Documents on Private Life

I stumbled across Sara who is a New York based artist and Graphic designer via this blog showing images of her work 'Documents on Private Life' Described as a collection of secrets with images from Interior design books, mixed with diaries and photographs.

The work feels very British, the imagery of the architecture and the bleakness of some of the photographs, which is interesting as she seems to be from Canada, and now living in New York.

There are lots more interesting projects on her site and her Tumblr has some inspiring images.

I have also started a Tumblr here. According to my co-workers, that is immature. Nice. What do they know. I think it's a great way collating all your images into one place, that you can access wherever you are and whenever you are in need of some quick inspiration!

Eerie Embroidery

I realised as soon as I saw this that it must have inspired this fashion feature for Dazed and Confused magazine. Although reading on it seems that the artist, Maurizio Anzeri often works with the magazine on different collaborations and this is one of them. You can read more about him here.