A to Z

 

This was my weekend find, an A to Z of London with delightful linocut illustrations by one of my favourite British artists Edward Bawden. It is very entertaining and packed full of information about London in 1953 including D for debutantes, S for spiv and where to purchase the correct bowler hat (Locks of St James's). The list of restaurants ran to five pages and when my dad looked through it he had happy memories of many, some involving dancing!

Edward Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art in the '60s where he mentored and inspired Christopher Brown. His influence is clearly evident in Christopher Brown's Alphabet of London where he brings the A to Z up to date with his quirky linocut illustrations of contemporary London life.

21!

My baking skills are limited, but after 21 years I have perfected the art of decorating cakes with a tube of smarties (the pair of socks were Lucy's idea) Apologies for the dodgy quality of the portrait, taken when we were out and about on Saturday, proves that you don't need instagram to take murky pictures. Happy birthday Charlie and Lucy!

goat love

I have been researching goats, and heres a fabulous one from American illustrator Abner Grabof. He illustrated a huge portfolio of amazing childrens books in the '50s and '60s, fantastic colour, design and humour, love it.

More about him here on the very entertaining and informative Fishink blog.

scorpio

Wednesday has to be illustration day this week. I'm working on January's capricorn illustration for Red Magazine so looking at goats all day.

And here is Novembers scorpio illustration. It was quite difficult to make a scorpion look appealing I can tell you. But when I found out that they carry their babies on their back I saw them in a whole new light. My twins are both Scorpio (obviously! and there is a big birthday coming up) so I tried to fit two babies on her back but it just didn't work.

Happy birthday scorpios!

I am back from Spain and it's going to be a busy month as I am taking a stand at the Midcentury Modern show down the hill in Dulwich College on 2nd December. Stock is quite low and I am hoping to have some brand new designs ready for the show so I have decided to organise my week: Monday for admin and Tuesday will be my printing day. I have started well, today its an edition of ballooning screen print.

Not sure about Wednesday, Thursday and Friday yet!

new broom

Yes, I have a thing about brushes, useful, tufted, and their sole purpose is to improve or transform.
I wandered into brush heaven this week, Brodie & Middleton on Drury Lane. Brushes for every creative purpose, flat, wavy, stiff, pointy, soft, so many! I bought a wide copper bound beauty which I use for brushing around my desk and ridding myself of tiny annoying bits of stuff.
I have also renewed the household brushes, sweeping leaves is just a bit better when you use a brush with a fish on it (from a Harringtons, a splendid hardware shop in Broadstairs) and a proper broom from the local high street bucket shop. Also quite handy for getting from A to B.

On the subject of flying, I am off to Spain for a week. I may blog, I may tweet and I aim to get to grips with Instagram and Pinterest. Or I may just take time out from all of that and do very little!

book art

After months of snipping and folding and living with tiny bits of paper glued to her fingers, my sisters new book is out today! Book Art by Clare Youngs published by Cico books, is full of inspirational ideas for creating magical and delicate objects from old books and manuscripts. The book is simply but beautifully designed and styled and has a suitably traditional cloth binding.
Clare is keen to point out that no precious books were harmed in the process! She has foraged for battered and torn volumes from boot sales and charity shops, saving unloved and forgotten books from disposal and transforming them into puppets, dolls, flowers, tiny houses, birds and nests.

Still no sign of a blog from Clare yet, but she tells me it's on its way, I will be the first to link to it!

jobs half done

I am surrounded by jobs half done. On top of orders and two freelance design jobs I am re-upholstering our scratchy brown sofas with this grey linen found for £5.00 per metre in Brixton market (joy!), cushions ok but not sure how to tackle the rest, painting this old Habitat standard lamp white and rewiring with trendy coloured cable, trying to deal with fabric scraps and mis-prints in my studio, painting this old trolly white, painting everything white really, then photographing them rather than getting on with things, this is not good!

free post

In the shop now, free post worldwide if you order a matching tray and mat in rocking horse or logpile!
Photo from my photoshoot with Heather back in July, buns from the bakers.

anguished carrots

I won't be winning any prizes for these.

I should have followed this advice for 2'6"carrots!

You may have noticed a lack of 'find me here' buttons on my side bar. For a long time I have puzzled over social media, and found it nearly as troublesome as carrot growing. But I have finally given in and joined Twitter, so follow me @roddyandginger if you like (it may take me a little time to get into it but I promise I will tweet more than just contorted vegetables!)

Next stop, facebook, instagram, pinterest... then I won't have any hours left in the day but I will have an impressive row of buttons.