Projects

Project #11 Alphabet poster

Over at Bloesem Kids there are weekly art projects to do with your kids.
I wouldn't personally suggest to do them with children - and as you can see from the example above it's really a bit too pristine and non-personal for it to bare the mark of something your child's made.

I do however think they can be great little projects for anyone to make.

I especially like the alphabet poster - I would really love to have some typesets! - and the styling of the photograph is great.

"Arounna Khounnoraj is a weekly guest at Bloesem Kids, showing us some great art projects you can do with your kids. Arounna received several Art degrees. She lives in Toronto and divides her time between her textile designs and her artwork where she explores sculpture, drawing and printmaking. Together with husband John Booth she produces pieces for their own label...Bookhou design."

Colour inspiration

W Magazine March 2008. Editorial: "Pin-up". Photography: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott.

Beautiful colour and shape inspiration from the March 2008 issue of
W magazine. See more images from the "pin-up" editorial here.

Layered

Selection of wallpaper from Claire Coles Design - images from her website.

I just really love this kind of textured type of wallpapers - and I admire the thought process and sourcing of material that's gone behind creating each piece. In her own words:

"Sourcing old and new wallpapers, ranging from floral patterns to regency stripes, I adapt these papers to develop an innovative approach to traditional wallpaper design.

Stitching together various textures and patterns creates an intricate and layered effect within my designs, where it appears that the pattern of these papers begins to grow and come to life.

The use of needlecraft reflects the time and care given to each individual piece."


Claire Coles also make ceramics, furniture and accessories with the same feel and thought behind them. Her badges composed out of torn up love stories I think lovely Sandra would like.

That also reminds me that I meant to post about another (previous here) mixtape she's made (if you don't speak Swedish: click the mixtape link above - scroll down and click on "Sandras hångelpepp" and download).

You're guaranteed to like it!

Inspiring cover

Cover of Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles. Text by Kurt Tucholsky. Cover design by John Heartfield. Photographs/photomontages by Heartfield and others. Neue Deutscher Verlag, 1929. 231 pp. Quarto. First printing. Clothbound with colored photomontage by Heartfield inlaid into embossed sections on front and rear covers. No dust jacket as issued. Numerous black-and-white reproductions.

This wonderful first edition was up for auction at photo-eye a while ago (there's another later copy auctioned off right now). I think the cover is absolutely sensational. I really love all art, architecture and literature made around the Bauhaus period - and I just love collages (especially those newsprint inspired, typography focused and playing with shape or negative space).

"Heartfield's cover for Tucholsky's scathing 1929 satire of German society is an undisputed masterwork of photomontage and one of the most sought after examples of twentieth century avant-garde book design."

Miri says

Image from the Vi Agroforestry Programme website. Support them if you can.

Wonderful Miri has written a great post about luxury consumption. She has some very valid points - keeping the text objective, human, and full of that rare thing: common sense. Read here.

Grey as quietly beautiful

Images from the paris apartment.

Every time I've been writing it's raining or grey or horrible outside in some way the sun has promptly started to shine - and I've been frankly a bit worried that posting would jinx the sunshine.

Anyway it's pouring again ...and I like the feeling these images give me that grey doesn't have to be depressing.

raining for two days now...

Illustration by Julia Morstad. Via niotillfem blog.

It's been raining for two days ...and apparently it will just keep raining.

Before that it was sunny and spring-like outside - we were hanging out on the balcony - think we're all just feeling cheated right about now...

I found this wonderful image above on Sandra's sweet blog. That's how she was feeling yesterday - I'm sympathising.

Immersed in blue

Images from and by underbaraclara.

These images are from a blog called underbaraclara. Underbara Clara means wonderful Clara and Clara's blog is without fail absolutely always wonderful.

The images are from her grandmother's house and are just plain spectacular I think. I can't imagine wanting something more right now than a joyous spring-like room like this one!

I could spend hours dissecting why they're so absolutely beautiful and amazing, but I think I'll just leave the images to speak for themselves - a weekend treat for you...

Charley Harper x2

Charles Harper's Birds and Words and Charley Harper's ABC. Both by Charley Harper, with numerous colour illustrations, published by Ammo Books. Found via Apartment Therapy.

I love Charley Harper and am so excited about these two books out in the spring! (you can pre-order them at amazon for example).

Charles Harper's Birds and Words was first published in 1974 and is now being re-issued. It 's seen as a classic and "pairs his beautiful paintings with poetic commentary." A wonderful wonderful book.

Charley Harper's ABC is a children's book that (not surprisingly perhaps) gives you beautiful illustrations from A to Z. Definitely not just for the kids though!

Nina Simone Sings the Blues

Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1966) - album cover.

The album was re-issued in 2006 with two extra bonus tracks, but I still very much prefer the original album that I own.

"The blues from the original LP features Simone with organ, guitar, harmonica, bass, and drums. Her blues band is sufficiently small to allow her plenty of freedom. She covers the whole spectrum, from Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey to Muddy Walters, Willie Dixon, and Koko Taylor."

Nina Simone sung blues from the bottom of her soul - the way it needs to be sung.

This is one of the best albums of all times - and it sure is up there with the most beautiful album covers ever! If you don't have it you should really make sure to get it.

Muted colours

Images by Martyn Thompson (picture 1 and 2 published in British Vogue February 2007). Images from this is glamourous.

Maybe it's because I escaped from the dreary Swedish winter for a little bit - or maybe it's just that you can only have so much technicolor - but somehow these muted colours just looks really really fresh and exciting. I also really love the different textures - it's like you can almost feel them under your hands.

this is glamorous has lots of goodies on her site - I'll definitely be referencing it again!

PS. Maybe it's not so much a departure, but more a sense of rejuvenation in patterns and objects colliding / mixed together - rather then bright colours - that is the theme.

Magical - work by Catherine Hammerton

Work by Catherine Hammerton - images from catherinehammerton.com.

Catherine Hammerton is a Royal College of Art-graduated designer based in London. As she puts it herself her work is defined by its handmade aesthetic, utilising traditional silk screen printing and hand embroidery together with cutting edge digital technology. You can clearly see her intuitive use of techniques, colour and texturing.

Her work is sometimes magical and sometimes fresh and graphic, but always very very beautiful. Her website is also one of the greatest ones around!

Aila.

Aila. Photographs by Rinko Kawauchi. Foil, Tokyo, 2005. Unpaged, numerous color illustrations, 9½x12".

This book is interesting as a whole, but it is especially this haunting picture (quite different from the other in the book) that really grabs me.

"The photographs cropped by Rinko Kawauchi invite us to confront the line between life and death. By interspersing the portraits of everyday situations throughout the series, AILA finally becomes the most completed, overwhelmingly big series of Rinko Kawauchi to date."

Obsessed

Lovely milk is unhealthily obsessed with everything summer - so am I...

I love!

Lovely lovely pattern (and folds) on my new-ish second hand dress - reminds me of Swedish summer seen through nostalgia - I love!

Reminds me of

Common City Birds - the Jacky Winter Group 2007 Field Guide. Found via and image from Book By Its Cover.

This image reminds me of the work of Caitlin Shearer (her flickr here), who Sandra wrote about a while ago.

I really really like this illustration! Could be a picture of me.

UPDATE: The illustration is by Fontaine Anderson - more wonderful here.

Isolde

Isolde by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98).

I like the Bridgeman Art Library - you will too!

It's sad (rest in peace)

Still from I'm not there. See the trailer here.

High Tide Wane Moon.

High Tide Wane Moon. Photographs by Kazuumi Takahashi. Essay by Shino Kuraishi. Nazraeli Press, Tucson, 2007. 56 pp., 51 four-color illustrations, 14x11". First edition of 1,000 casebound copies.

"The son of a fisherman, Takahashi grew up near the sea. The schedule of the tide influenced his daily planning, just as the moon in turn influenced the tides. In this large-format book, Takahashi presents 25 double-page spreads, each with a photograph of the moon on the left side, and a corresponding photograph of the ocean on the right.

[...]

Collectively, the photographs pay homage to forces that have inspired our dreams, and influenced our ways of life, since the beginning of humankind."

You can find vibrancy and beauty when it's dark.

The Garden at Night.

The Garden at Night. Private Views of Public Edens. Photographs by Linda Rutenberg. Essay by Christopher Dewdney. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2007. 176 pp., 160 color illustrations, 11x13".

"By photographing public and botanical gardens at night, Rutenberg reveals a luminous landscape of plants, colors, shadows, and light. [...] flowers and plants glowing in the blackness, revealing a secret nighttime world of subtle yet vibrant beauty."

It will get boring I know, but I'm just in a dire need of light.

...and more

Kirsten Dunst for Miu Miu (SS08 ad campaign)

Images from niotillfem blog. On her blog post you can also download a mix tape she's made (for those who don't speak Swedish click on "Sandras fredagspepp" and download the zip file) - Friday treat!

More vitamin injection

These images are of Betsy Johnson's New York apartment as featured in House & Gardens and Elle Decoration / Decor / Interior.

I first saw and loved them in the August edition of Elle Decoration UK, but got reminded just how happy they are when they were published again in this month's edition of Elle Interior (Sweden).

Just the perfect vitamin injection! ...which is what we will be needing for the next four months or so as it's just dreadful here (what you reap in summer you have to pay for in winter).

Makes me happy

Jennifer Connelly for Balenciaga (Balenciaga SS08 ad campaign)

These colours, shapes, patterns and colliding inspirations just makes me happy and exhilarated! ...and that's needed as today is an especially slushy, grey, dark, depressing winter day in Stockholm.

Works on Paper.

Works on Paper. Photographs by Ion Zupcu. Introduction by Jan Staller. Park Island Press, New York, 2007. 52 pp., 9x9. Signed copies available at photo-eye.

''Zupcu's work calls to mind the early 20th century abstract photographs of Man Ray and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. While their photographs involved graphic arrangements, Zupcu pushes his investigations into spatial illusion. His photographs do not look like their ''subjects''. By aiming his camera at nothing more than paper and light, he dissolves the very idea of the subject.''

...and a happy 2008!