SailorBear

My flatmate Jen & I rocking the nautical wildlife look for a friends 'hot hat party'. There is nothing like wearing bear ears for pretty much any activity. They look a little wonky here though.


Severe coat envy

Sigh.

Stu Kolakovic actually makes me a bit sick. This is too incredible. Those colours. Seriously. I am all over this the minute it gets released as a print. I wish he'd stop it.

Me Violin and Dancing Bear

A little bit of work from our first mini project back at college. The project was a bit of a weird one and involved a lot of making things out of tin foil and cardboard and shuttlecocks but our group also managed to squeeze a bit of drawing in. Above is a bear who may or may not live in the grassmarkets in edinburgh. He lives there because of the ready access to vintage clothing.
Hmm. Ok its a bit of a rushed one. And yes. Its another bear. Sigh. One. Trick. Pony.
(I like the scarf though)

On a related not. The view from our lovely studio.



I'm not completely sold on the bow trend. I think its too easy to render yourself ridiculous by sticking a bow on everything you own but I am quite taken with this yellow bow necklace from V for Vintage. It would look pretty cool over a plain t shirt.

Illustrative treats

Becky Walker has some really lovely drawings on her site. Plenty of pencil work which is pretty ace by my book. She is also a secondary school art teacher. Can you imagine having had an art teacher who made such sweet work? So cool.


I wanted going to post about Patrick Gildersleeves today and Jez beat me to it. But I'm going to plough on regardless as I think his work is great. Winning colour combinations every time and some super cute animal things. He has an etsy shop too. All the cool kids do.

Back To School

(above eca on flickr)
Today we started back at college for our fourth and final year. As the mild panic subsides I'm actually quite excited about the whole thing (perhaps less so about the dissertation part but the degree show for sure) and I can't wait to get stuck into my major final project stuff though I have no idea what that may be. There are some amazing things being planned for the near future but I'll let you know those as and when they occur for now I hope to start posting more work related things and sketches and so on.


I was very happy to see that one of my favourite blogs Design Is Mine had included on of my prints in a haul of lovely things available on etsy.

Tina Fey does a pretty mean Sarah Palin.

New Prints in the Shop

The Grizzly Bear prints and some extra special custom prints are now available in my shop.

For a Friday Afternoon

I wasn't going to post this as its been everywhere over the last few days but its too good to pass up. 'Silent World' is a wonderfully serene (yet occasionally ominous) series of photos by Michael Kenna. This one looks likes a drawing (a drawing that I wish I drew) with the texture of those posts so rough against the snow.


How amazing are these log bowls from Loyal Loot? All of those colours look so great together.


Le Blog De Betty is a lovely (and not too intimidating) style blog.

New Goccos

We had a bit of a gocco session this afternoon and these are the fruits of my labour. The bear crest type things is a thankyou card to go out with print purchases and so on and the big grizzly bear print I'm not quite done with yet but will soon be for sale in my shop.

Ahoi!

Hurrah! New tote! I love me a tote. I have far too many but they're just so useful that more can never hurt. This one is from Smil.

I just stuck a few photos of some of the nice things around our flat on Flickr.

'A Sad Country Ballad For A Tired Superhero'

Uhuh. (from The Quiet Life)

THIS trailer made me cry with laughter. I know I know. I'm a bit of a child but seriously its utterly ridiculous.

I am enjoying ungtblod.

'Knock Loud I'm Home'

I'm borrowing the map that jez used to illustrate the fact that we have just travelled halfway across the country from our respective family homes in South Devon to Edinburgh where I'm due to start my fourth and final year at ECA and Jez is freelancing from our nice new flat. Its good to be back. Yes it is.


A photo of my cat? Alas I am truly tragic. Anyhow I just a new camera and I was playing with my (very old and very grouchy) cat before I left so here he is. My sister is convinced he is going to die whilst we're both away at Uni and whenever she leaves home she asks him not to.

Finally...Andrew Holder has all sorts of incredible illustration skills and I am sad to be in the wrong part of the world when his new show 'Neon Frontier' takes place in the Hibbleton Gallery in California through October. The poster looks ace and is surely representative of all the wonderful things he'll have on show.

Sons & Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts

This is a reworking of an old image that I had lying about on m hard drive. Its fun to find new life in things that seemed to have no particular purpose.


lots of lego treats from Band Of Outsiders

Wilkintie

I got a lovely email today from Carly at Wilkintie who run a lovely little letterpress print project based on the sort of magical illustrations we fondly remember from childhood. This first print is from Niels Oeltjen and its available to buy now. I love the quality of letterpress prints and this one is really fun with loads going on. Thanks Carly!

Back from the End of the Road

I arrived back at home today after three days soaking up the loveliness at End of the Road in Dorset. What a perfect way to cap off a rather wonderful summer. It was great to spend a few days in a beautiful place (the Larmer Tree gardens where the festival is held is home to peacocks and parrots and quaint folley type constructions and some pretty massive trees) with some nice people listening to some of our musical favourites (thanks to Woodpigeon who made is possible for us to go for free!).
Far from this being a music blog I would really like to share some of the best bits with you because there really was some super special music going on. Please excuse my inadequate writing and aimless rambling.
For me friday really belonged to Laura Marling. Its easy to criticise a singer like Marling ('she's too young to know what she's singing about', 'she's too obvious' etc etc) or to have preconceptions about what her music may be like (It really would be wrong to lump her with the droves of female singer songwriters clogging the charts) when in actual fact she deserves far more respect than many fashionable indie types would be ready to admit to (I will admit to being an occasional music snob). Her voice was flawless and endearing and she never hit a superfluous note. I stand by my belief that Night Terror (which you can download here) is one of the best songs of the year.
Saturday Bon Iver won for me although a more than honourable mention goes to the Bowerbirds whose album I've been listening to for a year now I think and it still hasnt lost its inescapable charm. Anyway Bon Iver was incredible. There have been innumberable folk praising the soaring wonder of Jordan Vernon's album 'For Emma, Forever ago' and I was fairly sure the live show couldn't live up to how much I loved the record and yet he managed it and more. That guy's voice is astounding and frequently heartbreaking and as the whole audience sang 'what might have been lost' at the end of Wolves (act I & act II) it was fairly obvious that every single person stood in that garden was completely in love.
Finally Sunday and The Mountain Goats. Oh god the Mountain Goats. They were always going to be the best bit for me and they didnt dissapoint in the slightest. They played No Children! Yes! John Darnielle sings songs about awful, sad, horrible things with so much enthusiasm and childish joy that they become triumphant and wonderful without ever losing sight of the sadness and frustration that they were born of. Its a pretty special thing when every song an artist plays feels like an old favourite. Amazing.
Anyway that was my weekend. I hope you enjoyed yours too!

End Of The Road

Hurrah! We're off to End of the Road Festival early tomorrow morning so blogging will be suspended for a few days while we enjoy all manner of musical treats and a nice slice of Dorset countryside. Have a nice weekend!

(photo from flickr somewhere...I've lost the exact location though)

And I would Travel Just By Folding A Map

This collection of maps of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississsippi River were made by Harold Fisk in 1944 and they're incredible. Well worth a look (and you can download a pdf of all over them here)

via Camilla Engman

Postal treats!

AARGH! I'm so bloody excited. I just came back from a lovely weekend with Jez only to find that I'd managed to pile up the greatest haul of post ever over the three days. First off Julie sent me over a copy of our issue of Running Amok and it looks great! There are photos on my flickr.


The main event was a package from those Tiny Showcase folks Shea'la and Jon. Not only did I get a fair few of my own 'Mary-Ann' shirts (in both colours!), a copy of my print (I cant believe how perfect the colours are) but also one of the new Ray Fenwick shirts that came out the other week! AMAZING.

Darling Dont You Go And Cut Your Hair

I am in dire need of a haircut. I caught the back of my head in a mirror earlier and was shocked to see just how much my ridiculous mane has grown. I am so useless at the hairdressers (mainly because I have to take my glasses off which renders me completely oblivious to the world around me) and I never know what to do. I used to let my flatmate do it (she had no experience she just liked chopping away) but she's off on a global adventure so I really should suck it up and get it cut. Any suggestions?

(normal NON self indulgent posts will resume soon)

Gustavsberg's Bersa Ceramics

I had a bit of a swoon in the Stockholm Nordiska Museet when I saw the Gustavsberg Bersa Teapot. So imagine my delight when I found out (albeit it rather late) that the company had relaunched the iconic leafy design (by Stig Lindberg) this year. I would love to see it sat amongst my burgeoning collection of tasty mugs.

Alas at $90 the cup will never be mine. Perhaps a ring or a pin would be a suitable (and far more affordable) subsitute. All available from Huset.

Church As A Witness

Finally developed some of my holiday photos. Flickr yo!

This Side of the Blue

I lovelovelove this midnight blue soopascarf from Yokoo on etsy. Suddenly I really want to get knitting.

Printed awesome from Tugboat Printshop

nice things on etsy from a view to. (that delft necklace, sigh)

oh i love this too

Sing Statistics Running Amok

Running Amok no. 26 is now available to buy from Analogue and it's rather a fine one (as they all are ). Mainly filled with views of town and country we also managed to slip in this chap who we're rather fond of.

The Night Life of Trees

I love these wrist worms by Smosch (aka the wonderful Sandra Juto). Those colours look so wonderful together.


Julie at Analogue showed me this book the other day. Its by three artists of the Gond Tribe of Central India and is filled with incredible drawings of trees each accompanied by a short paragraph of folklore. The entire book is screen printed on nice black paper. Definitely a future purchase I think. There are more photos and things at Book By Its Cover (who i forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago when they posted an interview with us)

ALSO! We're running pretty low on copies of 'I am the Friction' now (which is wonderful and baffling) so if you're still debating a purchase I reckon you should take the plunge (seriously. its a great book. really)

This is Not A Song About A Train (thank god)

So yesterday I slogged through the nine hour journey back to Plymouth for a couple of weeks at home before term starts back in Edinburgh (final year! final year!). With my ipod deciding not to cooperate I decided to have a play around with scraps of scans I could find on my laptop and came up with the above image. I'm really quite pleased with it so far though it needs some tweaking. From here on in I shall only work on trains.

I'm off to End of the Road festival in a couple of weeks which I'm crazy excited about. The line up is flawless and the setting is amazing, i cant wait for the mountain goats, bowerbirds, bon iver, david thomas broughton and Akron/Family (and pretty much all the others. Seriously that line up. Swoon).

Stuart Kolakovic made a rug. Yet another reason why he is one of the most awesome illustrators in the UK. Head to his etsy shop for the rug and many other printed treats.

Natural Disasters

This is a little zine that I knocked up really quickly. I've only made four copies so far and I'm heading home today so perhaps I'll make some more when I get back down south and stick them on etsy when I'm done.

Upward Over the Mountain

An image for a zine I'm working on for my own entertainment. It feels good to be working fast and without any particular direction beyond the need to fill 20 pages.


As August draws to a close it finally seems ok to be swooning over autumn clothes. I love autumn (and the day when it is finally acceptable to break out the winter coat). This years autumn collections are looking really really exciting.
A.P.C (whose menswear is also pretty ace) , Gap and Toast seem to be rollling out my dream wardrobe this autumn. Oh and Wiksten by Jenny Gordy is looking beautiful too (the alison skirt and handwoven scarf combo is perfect). Alas having just moved flat I am painfully aware that my wardrobe is extensive enough as it is and so I shall have to try and cobble together outfits from what I have as, like Rosie, I'm imposing a shopping ban for a while.

Tonight I'm off to Calton Hill to see A Midsummer Night's Dream with a friend. All I've seen of the festival thus far has been straightforward comedy so I'm much looking forward to a bit of theatre.

Throw From Your Window Your Record Collection

OK first up some nice things for your ears. Eagleowl are an Edinburgh based trio who peddle some seriously lovely musical wares and recently released their first EP as part of the Retreat! music festival. The EP (pictured above) is amazing and absolutely perfect for evenings and culminates in one of the nicest songs you will ever hear (fact!). Anyway I did the lettering on the cover (which was then lovingly goccoed by the band on my little gocco printer, all 500 copies) and the pattern for the CD comes from a poster that we did for them a while ago. Its a great EP and easily worth the £5 asking price.



Our fine friends Woodpigeon have just released yet another record (mainly for their canadian cohorts) for which we supplied the artwork. Woodpigeon pretty damn reliable when it comes to fulfilling the whimsy quota on record so their alarming prolificness is actually quite a good thing. It was on sale but now I cant find it..aha! yes i can go HERE to get a copy (buy the REAL cd version not the MP3! i=Its all lovely and screen printed on a nice cardboard origato sleeve. well nice).


There are a couple more releases coming into the world bearing my silly drawings soon. very soon.

Returned

I am now very much back in Edinburgh (its raining and there are festival goers everywhere) after a very wonderful trip with Jez to Stockholm (abovand then Paris. I'll probably post bits and pieces from the trip intermittently for a while but for now I'm trying to assimilate my enormous collection of tat into my new flat and attempting to get over the excitement of my first ever Tiny Showcase print and t-shirt combo (below). Argh! Tiny Showcase! AMAZING!

I have tonnes of work to be doing as well as wanting to sneak in a few festival treats (although I'd be perfectly content just to leave it at the two flawless shows I've already seen by the Penny Dreadfuls and Kristin Schaal) and catch some more of the mini Retreat! festival going on in the Scottish Scullery.

Also! 100th post! Win!

TINY SHOWCASE

Hello! I'm taking advantage of a brief period of internet to say that something very exciting is happening tomorrow night on Tiny Showcase and it may just have something to do with my work. And t-shirts. Maybe.


I'll be back to blogging very very soon. Hurrah!

Holiday time

Yes! I'm off to Stockholm tomorrow and then back to Edinburgh by way of uh...Paris (not the most logical detour but definitely the most fun). Amazing! I am dangerously excited and I've vastly over packed on the clothing front (and also too many cameras) but who cares! Holiday time! Hurrah.
Anyhow I'll be back to my regular blogging habits when I get back around August 26th (maybe before if we can fix up internet in the new flat but thats highly unlikely).

Yeah!