Bon Viaggio!

Party people I am in the last throes of packing and organising for our month in Italy. The to-do list is very long, and I am really looking forward to being all packed and sat on a plane with my Sam Jinks, who has worked like a mofo (is still working) to get a gorgeous piece ready for Venice.

I will not be blogging while I'm away, but you can follow me  @emblueski on Instagram.

See you in June!

Recycled rainbows

 Hazel and I emptied all our bags of plastic containers and decided to organise them in terms of colour.

 This is our finished stash, in a colour spectrum with neutrals and metallics in the centre. We have a lot of white, blue and red, my favourites, but what surprised me is how much I like the yellow. It's very bright and for some reason the yellow plastic is a lot softer than the other colours, which makes it easier to cut.

Yesterday in the studio I played with some more plastic, and made a few more Military pins, I've had an enquiry about them so thought I would update the colours. Today I am making a new pattern for a key wallet, these retro items are making a comeback I tell ya!

Olde Worlde

 French boots from the 1860s.

 The stitches were so small and perfect, every detail was exquisite and I felt like a big galumph in my battered boots.

 This is my ideal outfit, seriously, I am such a fan of these old military  uniforms. Do not be surprised if you see me sporting one of these jackets in the near future.

Bentwood cradle from the 1860s. Gorgeous. I had to restrain Hazel from climbing in.

These treasures are all in the permanent collection at the NGV.

Arty Farty

 Listened to a lot of The Strokes' new album. Full volume.

Ditto the the new Phoenix album. Glorious.

 Went to the Abbotsford Convent for Brick Club, which is a Lego day on the 3rd Sunday of each month. They also have a Maker's Market in the adjoining rooms where Hazie gets her fix of $2 facepainting, and this week I got my fix of Sandra Eterovic prints. Sandra has a show opening tonight at Hut13.

 I got a haircut.

 Used my Northcity4 shopping trolley token.

 Went to the NGV with Hazel. This is a new acquisition, a Japanese artist whose name I forget. There is a taxidermied deer underneath all the globes of acrylic, glass and crystal, it's all about pixels and magnification. Delightful.

 Bronze woman.

 Toni Maticevski and Richard Nylon for the Australian Ballet.

 Jeremy Scott and Adidas. I love every single variation of these winged high tops.

 Does this look like a 2D stencil-esque work? Because it's not - it's a fiberglass lifecast which is painted.

 On Saturday we went to Lamington Drive to see the Beci Orpin and Kat Macleod show. Hazel loved this installation of streamer curtain/confetti heaven, we recreated it on her bunkbed.

I loved these little beetles which Kat had embellished with sequins and machine stitching. So gorgeous. I'm planning a return visit sans enfants, I was too worried that Hazel would rip the streamers down to really look at the works for a long time.

Bag of tricks

 I packed my freemason's case ($4 at the opshop) to head off and play show and tell with a potential stockist.

When I got home my case looked like this, and I can happily say that my Pinwheel Flower Brooches and Postal Luggage Tags can now be found at Five Boroughs in East Brunswick!

Studio

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Ray Gascoigne

I love reading Smith Journal, and the latest edition features the subject of this short film - Ray Gascoigne, maker of astoundingly detailed ships in bottles. Leo and I pored over the photos but now I can show him this video, and hopefully it will make a bit more sense to him.

In contrast to yesterday's post about Loewe, and their impeccably clean surfaces and benchtops, Ray's workbench looks very familiar to me, layers of materials and tools with one small clear space directly in front of him. I'm always keen to see how makers order their space, or not!

Bravo to the Etsy blog for featuring such gorgeous short films.

Loewe loves leather

Via The Selby - wow.

In the words of Liz Lemon 'I want to go to there'!

 

  

 

  

 

 

All to be found....

...at Craft Vic. Poor Carmel, I took in the stamp tags today and she just couldn't choose, so she took them all!

Frank Catalfumo

Wow, to be still busy at 91 is my dream! Via the Etsy blog

Split personality

After spending all day in the studio I find it very difficult to go back to being a Mum.

Last week everything in the studio took longer than anticipated, and when it was time to get the kids from school and daycare I was very reluctant to leave.

I was out for about an hour, including time at the supermarket planning meals on the fly, then in the car the kids commenced their bickering which is far from pleasant, and really tests my somewhat flimsy state of zen.

At home it all became chaotic. Small girl doesn't sleep during the day, and after a big session at daycare she is a hungry whingy banshee. The big kid dives into his Lego pond and is self sufficient, and I am left looking at the manky kitchen which I have hardly seen since breakfast. In my head I'm still in the studio, trying to follow through on making an item, photographing it, uploading tweaking and emailing to potential buyers. Gotta pay for that daycare somehow.

So this is where I find myself torn.

Before any food can be cooked the whole kitchen has to be cleaned - unappealing and time consuming. Before any leather goods can be sold the images have to be tweaked and formatted - time consuming but infinitely more appealing than domesticity.

Essentially I'm constantly shocked and disgruntled that my kids require feeding at the end of each day. It is my least favourite scenario. Sure I can cook, I'm not unfamiliar with my kitchen, but I want to eat Tom Yum soup at 8, not kid friendly stuff at 6.

The irony was not lost on me that this particular evening it was me that turned into a banshee. I have apologised to my family, but during dinner I was unbearable. Somehow I made a huge spread of tacos and vegies, all very colourful and not slop at all. But I kept moaning about being interrupted from my work, I ate so fast and wanted to hurry everyone off to bed or into an activity that didn't include me.
Part of me was internally screaming 'just enjoy time with your family, damn you', and the other part was already out the door and into the studio.

It reminded me of The Divided Heart all over again. Rachel Power's book of conversations with creative mothers essentially boils down to this principle - to be creative you need to be selfish, to be a Mumma you need to be selfless.

And that's me there in the middle having a meltdown.

The fruits of my labours this week - luggage tags featuring big beautiful stamps. These went to a friend who is, you guessed it, an equestrian fan.

Luggage

Well these have been on my list for a very long time.

I prototyped one a few months ago, it was way too detailed and there was no way I could have made them in bulk or for a reasonable price. Seeing as I am not Hermes yet, I cannot charge $1500 for a luggage tag!

So here is the new, basic version, I made them in red, black and dark chocolate. The darker colours don't photograph well, but the red is resplendent!

All available at Craft Vic, and soon in the online shoppe.

H is for horse

 

 

Remember my wonky stamp scans from last week?

I'm excited to reveal their purpose, horse themed Postage Belts featured at Hehe. A great site for all things horsey/equestrian, so if you know people like this then you might want to click over for potential gift items. 

I've made a couple of belts; chocolate brown and black, with gorgeous horsey stamps from all over the world. Self-promotion ahoy!

Andiamo Venezia!

We're all very excited to announce that Sam's work is going to Venice!

Ten years ago Sam and I visited Venice during the Biennale, so it is quite a thrill to be going back with his work. The whole family are going, kids, adults and Granny, and we'll be visiting Florence and Rome as well. We should be there for about a month, during which there will be a lot of eating, adventuring and sweating in the summer heat.

Obviously there is a lot to organise, and for Sam, a lot of sculpting, which has been quite challenging in the recent heat - melting plasticene anyone?

I've already started Italian classes at the CAE, molto bene! Can you tell I'm ridiculously excited?

Le Jardin

These are way better pics! Will be listing them in my bigcartel store ASAP, if you want to snap one up let me know what colour takes your fancy. $25 incl postage within Aust.