Knitting Typography

 

  

After teaching a summer school last year and having all my treasured vintage typography books go missing (it still hurts to think of it), I've been looking out for a source of vintage typography loveliness. And now I've found it...

I was going through another bag of the stuff that seems to make its way into my car after each trip to my parents' and this time it was my Granny's knitting patterns. The adverts in the back are great. Who wouldn't wear a twinset called "Patricia"? The lettering comes in all shapes and sizes and has me twitching for a dip-pen and ink session, studying and enlarging letterforms.

Caterpillars

I found these Victorian prints at the weekend and am really amused by how hairy South African caterpillars are. The chrysalis are weird and beautiful too. My Dad who will remember these from his childhood describes their hair and 'long and luxuriant', I don't know how luxuriant I find them, but they certainly look quite dapper. 

For the Lovers

I've been working on a silly project for fun.

I had this brilliant idea of how long-distance lovers could have a chute to hop down so they can see each other at bedtime, or to say good morning. I think they'd sell like hot cakes. I also wonder what the world would look like if it were covered in pipes like these. Obviously you'd want them to take up as little space as possible, and like, not block out any major landmarks. But you'd also want them to be fun to ride on and have loads of twists and turns, as you might have a long way to go...

Anyway, I think you'll agree it's a great idea.

Succulents

 

My little family of succulent plants are growing fast! I have them on my windowsill in front of my desk and they are just so weird, they're enough to distract me every day. Most of them are native to South Africa and I bought them online here - well worth a visit if you're interested. I can't stop looking at mine, they're so fleshy and bizarre. The plant at the top flowered a couple of months ago, and the bloom looked like an orange daisy, but within 24 hours had completely shrivelled up! Second from bottom is something called 'Baby Toes', and the tips of each toe are slightly see-thru. So weird!

Happy Circles

I'm noticing lots of circles at the moment and they're so cheery. A couple of lovely finds from a weekend in Bristol: vintage Heals fabric called 'Carnival' by Evelyn Redgrave, and The New Ghost by Robert Hunter, and finally something which I've been meaning to photograph since it was given to me at Christmas. It's a signed screenprint by the legendary Alan Fletcher. It kind of blows my mind that I own this..

A little Show

Goodness me, it's been a while since I thought about blogging. Life has been busy and nice. I hope you  had a lovely Easter break.

I am part of a little exhibition at the Cambridge Art Salon that opens tomorrow night. Eleven of us who work for the Fitzwilliam Museum in one way or another are having a really eclectic exhibition, and they're all lovely people so it's been fun setting up today. I've done a little new piece called Making and Doing which has been jolly nice to do. It's a collection of everyday tasks and things that I do with my hands that I felt like illustrating. So in the likely event you are unable to make it due to geographical reasons, this is what the piece looks like!

I'm also in the process of putting together a book of drawing activities that I ran last year for the Big Draw, so it's an interesting time getting to grips with InDesign and looking at as many 1960s modular grid layouts as possible! In case you are interested in trying to teach yourself to do this sort of thing, I would thoroughly recommend starting with this website which had me slapping my head and saying "of course!" lots of times. Good design is fascinating.

New Work

I've been working on a nice little commission from a religious education group to promote RE in schools. Let's face it, it's always nice to get a 60s bob into a project.

Wire letters

I designed a letter S for a poster recently and then thought it would be interesting to see what the other letters looked like. I wanted to make them all a bit funny on the eyes, deliberately messing around with how the 3D-ness works and I quite like them. 

Happy New Year

Have a wonderful start to 2013! We survived the Mayan apocalypse, hurrah! Here's to the start of a new era.

Marrakech - Christmas Shopping

 

 

In Marrakech we went a bit crazy buying Christmas presents (and a few things for us too!), and came back with quite a haul. I'm so glad I'd read about others going and thought to check an empty suitcase! It was groaning with goodies on the way back..

From top to bottom, pretty patterns and some of our purchases:

Tiles in the Kasbah, necklace and resin box from Berber sellers in Rmat, Sand roses that are formed and collected in the Sahara, leather slippers and hooded coat bought in the souks of central Marrakech, Ornate stonework outside the Ben Youssef Madrasa, Vintage teapot and tea mix from Kasbah markets, Tiles at the Bahia Palace, Saffron and leather bag from the souks.