Stilllife : Absolute heaven to me

It's been a random and mostly awesome weekend. I caught up with friends for a chai in the sun, saw Inglourious Basterds, trecked through the markets, discovered a most excellent crocodile-patterned old suitcase (for $15... will post pics soon), had a father's day picnic on the central coast and to finish it all off gave myself food poisoning. Brilliant!

Speaking of randomly awesome... I'm crazy about these here kitchy cool 70s style prints and iron-on transfers. They're by Mandy in Adelaide: she can be found at her withwallpaper madeit shop (check out the cool gift tags and calendars), etsy store, flickr stream and blog. Buseee! Here is the lovely lady with the inside info...


Has drawing always been a hobby?
A hobby, a compulsion and a vocation. I used to entertain the idea of other occupations, but when I finished high school the idea of just drawing and painting all day was absolute heaven to me. I went to art school and then studied graphic design at university, so I guess it was never going to be anything else.


In what other ways are you creative?
I like to have a nice environment around me at home and you definitely need to be creative on an artist's income. I also try to be creative in my cooking (with mixed results).


What are your fave blogs?
I look at lots of different blogs and websites on a regular basis like theselby & sfgirlbybay. I absolutely love ffffound for inspiration.

What else are you reading?
I like reading autobiographies more than anything else (real life is so much more interesting than fiction!), but lately I have been reading novels set in the 1930s by writers like Evelyn Waugh & Nancy Mitford -I think they are quite semi-biographical anyway.

More: withwallpaper.etsy.com

Glazedware : Alive with age

How much fun would an architect have had a couple thousand years ago. They'd spend their time outdoing every other elaborate designer in town with baroque touches in every corner, crazy gargoyles and stunning, stunning, tiles. Fun times my friends.

Zavisa has a gorgeous range of photos on his flickr photostream. The Portuguese tiles (above and below) caught my eye straight away. These painted, tin-glazed tiles are called Azulejo; they're found on the walls, floors and ceilings of churches, palaces, houses and train stations. I think they're beautiful.

I asked Zavisa why he likes them so much...

First they are imperfect. If you check carefully, even if they were built in an industrial process, they never seem 100% equal.

Secondly, their surface and glazing shows signs of time - they've been consumed by years and probably sun and rain. They are simply alive. Old and alive.

Finally, they are always different. You will never see two equal patterns in a street. To be honest, after walking and riding a scooter for days, I never saw two identical patterns in the whole time I was in Lisbon.

What are you reading? Psychology and Alchemy, a fascinating book by Jung. Symbols and numbers. And then I start seeing the beauty of these patterns in a completely different way...

flickr.com/elkabong