The Intelligent Kitchen: Francine

Modern Mailboxes

http://www.mailboxes.co.nz

I'm looking to update my current plastic mailbox with something a bit more eye catching and not so hideous. I found this company years ago but only now have a need for one of their awesome mailboxes. I really love the Carona, but I think it's too small for my needs . So I'm going to go with the Contempo - Zincalume. I'm still unsure what color to get. My first choice would have been yellow but they no longer carry it in that color, sigh...

Tutorial: Alphabet Card Art Display

I found this cute tutorial over at Tiny Decor, enjoy!

"This entire project was inspired by these awesome alphabet cards by Jenn Ski for K&Company that I found at Michaels. I previously featured Jenn’s animal letter prints in my roundup of modern nursery art on Etsy. When I saw her new Actopus to Zelephant Collection at Michael’s I immediately knew she had licensed her designs to K&Company.

The set of alphabet cards was only $6.99. So cute, but too flimsy for my son to play with. I wanted to find a way to display the lightweight cardstock cards so my son could enjoy them. After a lot of pondering over frames, cork boards, and clotheslines, I finally came up with a great idea to mount the cards to canvas and secure them with silver brads."

Click here to read more.

Doodles

I've been loving my vacation! I cleaned my office and it's still clean for now. In my quest for organization I came across a 1960's craft book I bought on Etsy months ago but never took a look at until just a few hours ago. It got creative juices flowing!

Cleaning my office

Earlier this week I went to Ikea with my husband and we bought a bunch of white Billy bookcases for my office, the dinning room and extensions for the bookcases in the Foyer. We finally put most of them up and the ones in the office look lovely. I'm so happy to have an organized office again!

New Sculptures from CZM

I did an interview with her in the past but here is an update on some of her new projects. CZM is an illustrator but I've been loving her sculptures especially her new stuff. I want it all! You can purchase her stuff on eBay.

Inteview: Tadeusz Deregowski

Name: Tadeusz Deregowski
Occupation: Artist
where you are located: Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

1. What kind of art do you make?

I make Monotypes in a variety of styles, either using stencils-

Stencil example 1
Stencil example 2

...with the "right" end ot the brush-

Right end example 2
Right end example 2

...or with "wrong" -

Wrong end example 2


2. What do you enjoy most about working in this medium?

I'll talk about Monotype here.

What I like about it is that it encourages spontanaity and wit.

Monotype is very much akin to a "live" performance, and just as some musicians are better live than on record, I'm much better working rapidly than slow.

Because it is fairly rapid, I usually produce several images in a session, then discard the weak ones (sometimes, indeed, all the work from a session ends up in the bin).

This allows me to work in series, and that gives me considerable freedom to experiment and play around.

There is little in life so delightful as the sensation of pulling the paper off the plate and seeing that it has been a success.


3. What challenges have you found in your work?

I think the main challenge is one faced by all artists, which is that you can have not just single bad days, but whole fallow periods.

Fortunately for me these have only ever lasted a couple of months at most, but when they occur it is possible to become quite morose. At such times, it's best to go on holiday.

To forestall dead patches, I have become something of a magpie, collecting and noting things which I might transform into work.


4. Where do you find inspiration?

I love 19th century architecture, maps, the illustration plates in natural histories, sea shells, insects, city plans and architectural theory, gardens, religious iconography and flags.

Travelling to new cities always brings me lots of ideas.



5. What are your favorite artists, designer or blogs.

I am a big fan of the architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson, the Glasgow Architect. I also like Edwin Lutyens very much.

I'm very fond of the painters Hammershoi, Poussin and de Chirico.



6. Where can we purchase your work?

You can visit me in Florianopolis, or write to me by email. The work is priced to the Brazillian market, and therefore very affordable for those in first world economies.

Tadeusz598@Yahoo.co.uk

My work can best be seen on Flickr.




7. Do you have any new projects in the works?

I'm working on a project entitled "The Garden City"- quite large monotypes, 60 x 86 cm.

I'm documenting this on my blog.

Etsy Finds

I've been finding some amazing goodies on Etsy lately, everything above I've snagged in the past week or two. I just got the yellow brooch set yesterday, I need to take a new picture of my growing flower brooch collection. Also how gorgeous is that cup, I saw it and pounced! I need to head over to Ikea soon and pick up 3 billy bookcases, two for my office and one with glass doors for my dinning room to house my growing collection of vintage cups and plates.

Also on a sad note I am going on vacation 18th-31st so any orders purchased in that time will go out June 3rd. I'm not going anywhere special, I'll just organizing my office and maybe do some day trips.

I will do a few posts once I get my lamp and bookcases, cya soon!

Papier-Mâché Floral Brooches

I just love mod flower brooches and I was so happy to see on Cathy Callahan's blog (Cathy of California) that Craftzine just posted her tutorial on how to make your very own papier-mache floral brooches. Check it out!

Addicted to nature

For the last few weeks I wake up in the morning do all my work and by noon I'm outside playing in the dirt! Since living here I've seen many wild turkeys, gray squirrels, red squirrels, lots chipmunks, mice, frogs, salamanders, snakes, tons of different species of small birds and now this hawk. I was sitting on the couch using my laptop when it sounded like someone hit a soft ball at the window. We get birds hitting the glass at least once a week, but I was so surprised to see a hawk on the ground looking a bit dizzy as it's eyes kept spinning. After a few minuets he was fine and flew away.



And we also have a new member to the chipmunk clan, I call him mister chipy. I just started seeming him apear just a few days ago and yesterday we found him on his back looking dead and my heart just broke into a thousand pieces but then he turned right over and waddled away. I think another chipmunk nearby had attacked him and he played dead. Hopefully that hawk won't eat him.



I've been adding more rocks and plants around my koi pond. This is what it looked like when I moved in, a little bit out of control.

Numbers

I'm working on a new print with numbers. Here are some parts to the poster. (In the end it will be one big poster)
Yes this is how I spend my friday nights, working...

The Rogue Element -- Escalation

Sharing a cute video my husband found.

Interview: Jacqueline Davies

Name: Jacqueline Davies
Occupation: Artist
Location: Colchester, England
home page
Flickr


1. What kind of art do you make?
I create paintings, prints and textiles. I'm a painter that comes from a printed textile design background. I'm interested in surface design but love the world of whimsical imagery that sets a scene.



2. What do you enjoy most about working in this medium?
I enjoy experimenting with new and usual colour combinations and the love the feel good factor that the work gives off. Im totally self indulgent when working on commissions. I like to put my own bent on a subject and do not know how I get away with it so much.



3. What challenges have you found in your work?
Well the toughest at the moment is finding time to paint for myself in between commissions and projects that I am involved in. Usually Im rubbish in the morning and can only get into being creative in the afternoon until the early hours.

I was once told at art school that I think really flat. Strange but true.



4. Where do you find inspiration?
Im really inspired all things mid-century and can't get enough of the era. Palm Springs Architecture, Tiki, Hot Rods, Eames, Googie Architecture and vintage fabrics. Rummaging around vintage markets is often a source of excitement, but mostly pattern is my passion.

5. What are your favorite artists, designer or blogs.
Two of the favorites are textile designers Ray Eames and Lucienne Day. There's loads of great inspirational artists and designers: Alexander Gilard and Charlie Harper are who I'm into at the moment. Love them boys.

Silver lake

Via Design Sponge

Glass coral by Heather Palmer

Heather Palmer is a glass artist from San Fransisco. Her coral pieces are so beautifully intricate and look like they take hours time to make. I want the small red one on my coffee table. Heather is also on Etsy.

Noguchi

I finally got my Noguchi table that I have wanted forever. I'm in love!

Also this week I'm going to organize my office/home and spend some time away from my computer. I'm calling it a vacation but I will still be at home. I don't think you'll see many posts from me, but who knows i'm a blogger addict so I may say "Hi" later this week.

ciao

Happy Friday

Meet Super-Floyd! Nothing goes to waste in my house, I took some of my vinyl scraps and made him a mask. He's so funny!