huggin & loving

New-ish Work & Site

2012-02-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

I suppose this is the kind of thing I should be posting here... I recently updated my portfolio and added a few new projects!

(I'm still not 100% happy with the photos, but they'll work for now.)

The project in the image above is the packaging for The Rucksack Willies' latest album, Letters to Anne. It was a joy to work on with Angie on this project - she had a lot of great ideas and was keen to hear mine too.

City of Craft!

2011-12-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

It's happening... this weekend! Boy i have a lot of work left to do. Here is a rad poster, designed by Deadweight.

See you there!

Beehive Craft Show

2011-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Next weekend I will be participating in the Summer Craft Fair put on the by the amazing ladies of the Beehive Craft Collective! It will be happening in Hamilton's James Street North Neighbourhood, in a beautiful old building. On Friday evening the fair will coincide with the James Street North Art Crawl, and it will also run all day Saturday. Lots of talented creative people will be there including Katie Muth, Bespoke Uprising and Rosalyn Faustino. Complete vendor list here! See you in Hamilton!

Update: Thank you to the Bees for this little write-up.

Andrew Lyons

2011-06-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

I just recently came across the work of Andrew Lyons and I love it. Andrew is a freelance illustrator based in Normandy, France. I love his use of colour and texture. His simple forms and shapes are combined with beautiful little details. I also love the compositions of his more complex illustrations. Each one tells it's own story.

^ Self directed illustration.

^ Community garden.

^ Self Promotional Illustration.

^ The Old Man and the Sea.

Click on any image to view it in Andrew's portfolio.

Philadelphia

2011-06-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago (I know, this is way overdue! I was busy with a freelance project as soon as we got back, and then another and another...) J and i went to Philadelphia to visit Aprile and Jory. We had such a good time. The city is beautiful - so many gorgeous old buildings, painted and mosaic murals, trees, parks etc. Aprile and Jory were the perfect tour guides, we did a lot of walking and got to see a lot of the city. Aprile took us to see the Urbn head offices where she works. It is amazing - each company (Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters) has it's own building and they're just beautiful. So pretty. I took a ton of photos. It was really fun to just be a tourist.

^ Homemade pizza at A + J's place for lunch on day 1.

^ South Philly.

^ Free People lobby.

^ Inside another Urbn building.

^ Navy Yard.

^ I want to live up there.

^ Nice type.

^ Cobblestone streets & row houses.

^ Beautiful mural.

^ Neat bike shop. I took Jory's foldable bike for a ride around their neighbourhood on day 2.

^ Lots of old signage & nice lettering.

^ A building in Rittenhouse near the Mutter museum (which was very cool and very creepy.)

^ We had lunch at the Reading Market Terminal on day 3. I had a whoopie pie and cookie for desert, Aprile had mint ice cream!

More photos here!

Instagram

2011-05-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

I'm an Instagrammer. It's so much funner than hipstamatic!

Living room // Oats // Window sill herbs // Fruit & nut energy bars

Spring Trunk Show

2011-05-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to be participating in the Spring Trunk Show this Sunday May 15 at the Workroom. I love the Workroom's trunk shows... they are so much fun, and the vendor line ups are always stellar. Tons of handmade, rummage and vintage stuff will be available (+ snacks!) The show runs from 12 - 5.

Jaime of Send More Mail was sweet enough to mention me on her blog, here!

And here is a little Trunk Show sneak peak, from City of Craft.

(Image by the Workroom.)

FITC 2011 - mcbess

2011-05-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

A company that I did some freelance work for was kind enough to offer me a pass to FITC, a design and technology conference/festival. I'm not so into the technology side of design (flash... not so much) but there were also talks about creativity, design process, ideas etc. so i was excited about that.

One of the speakers was mcbess who is an illustrator & director. He was born in France and now lives in London (he has the best French/British accent) where he works for The Mill a visual effects/3D company.

mcbess' work is really distinctive. It covers a broad range (film, animation, illustration, music, objects) but a very consistent mood/feeling is carried throughout. He talked a lot about infusing work with what ever you're really into (in his case, music, food and boobs...) and having a story behind the work.

Here is a really neat commercial that he showed us... he did the illustrations, directed it, and wrote the music for it.

(Image from mcbess.com)

Sonnenzimmer

2011-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Luci Everett posted about art and screen print studio Sonnenzimmer last week on her blog and I can't get over how beautiful and unique their work is - really different from a lot of the gig posters and music packaging that's happening right now.

Sonnenzimmer is Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi. They started their studio in 2006 and have backgrounds in typography, printmaking, graphic design and fine art.

(All Images from Sonnenzimmer.)

Drake Spring Market v2

2011-05-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Just a few photos from the Drake Market on Saturday... the weather was great, and I got to hang with Sandi all day. Thanks to the Drake for putting on such a fun event!

^ Left: me / Right: Deadweight

^ Deadweight

(First photo is from The Drake.)

Drake Market

2011-04-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

I will be at the Drake Market a week from today - Saturday April 30, selling pouches, pencil cases and gocco prints. I'm working on some more quilt block patterns for the prints. Hoping it will be a warm sunny day, we will be outside on the patio of the cafe. It runs from 10-4.

Gunta Stölzl

2011-04-14T20:40:00.001-07:00

I can't remember where I first saw these beautiful images pop up, but I finally looked up Gunta Stölzl, and she has quite a history.

Gunta Stölzl was a German textile artist with the Bauhaus school. She began her studies there in 1919, and immediately became very active in the weaving department. She learned dyeing techniques and reopened the Bauhaus dye studios in 1921.

Gunta had a huge impact on the development of the school's Weaving Workshop. She returned to the school after graduation in 1925 and was appointed Craft Master of the Workshop. In 1927, she became a Young Master (the only female master) and began a change of focus within the Workshop. The work being produced moved away from it's decorative, "women's work" association, towards a more modern and functional approach.

After leaving the Bauhaus, Gunta ran her own business, creating commissioned hand woven textiles. In the 60's she shifted her focus to tapestry weaving. Her work has been shown internationally.

Gunta talks about the Bauhaus and the purpose and function of fabrics in her article, The Development of the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop.

^ Gunta Stölzl working in her atelier at the Bauhaus Dessau, 1928

^ Design for carpet, 1926/27

^ Design for a Jacquard woven wall hanging, 1927

^ Left: Jacquard wallhanging "5 Chöre", 1928 / Right: Wallhanging, 1923

^ Decorative fabric, "Mohair", 1964

^ Design for knotted carpet, 1923

^ Design for Jacquard weave, 1928

^ Design for wallhanging, undated

All images are from guntastolzl.org

Yoshiko Jinzenji

2011-04-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yoshiko Jinzenji is a master quilter and textile artist. At first glance many of her quilts appear quite simple, with monochromatic and subtle colour palettes, but they are full of intricate detail and unique characteristics. In Quilt Artistry, Yoshiko describes many of her techniques, including natural dying which is a huge component of her work.

Yoshiko lives and works in Bali and Kyoto and her work is heavily influenced by her surroundings. She says "The quilts I create incorporate textures that I have absorbed from overseas. They are woven with contrasting textures of other cultures, shaped by innumerable differences in ethnicity, customs, lifestyle and values." She also talks about finding a balance between the cultures she finds herself apart of and her own personal aesthetic. Very inspiring.

[Yoshiko lived here in Toronto during the 60s which is pretty neat!]

^ Dew II. Made with silk, cotton, wool and linen, dyed with natural dyes.

^ Baby quilts in various patterns. Bamboo-dyed silk.

^ Optical Quilt: Star Connection. Nylon dyed with natural dyes.

^ Quilts from the Color series. Silk, cotton and wool, dyed with natural dyes.

^ Engineered Quilt: Coconut Field.

^ Quilts from the Mandala series, each 15 cm square, made from silk, cotton and pineapple fibers.
Photos taken of the book, Quilt Artistry by Yoshiko Jinzenji.

Skinny Ships

2011-02-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

I really love this lettering by designer/illustrator Skinny Ships (aka. Richard Perez.) He illustrated his top 10 albums of 2010, you can see them all on his Flickr.

(Teen Dream was one of mine too... so good!)

February Six

2011-02-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the Love & Rummage Trunk Show at the workroom. The vendor list is kind of nuts (in a good way!) including Deadweight, Coriander Girl, Bookhou, and Fieldguided. I'm sure there will be lots of cute valentinesy goodies.

^^ Over the Moon print (& photo) by Deadweight.

Tomorrow night Best Coast and Wavves are playing a show together in Toronto, so that will be fun too! I hope Best Coast has some kind of ridiculous cat t-shirt for sale.

^^ Poster by Doe Eyed.

Karen Barbé

2011-02-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

Karen Barbé is a very talented textile designer from Santiago, Chile. She seems to work with a broad range of materials and techniques. i love her simple patterns and her colour combinations. And there is so much lovely texture in her work. (I guess that's what I love about textile design, in general.)

Here is Karen's shop & her blog. Click on any image to go to her Flickr account.

(all images are by Karen Barbé.)

City of Craft

2010-12-15T13:28:00.001-08:00

I am very excited to be participating in City of Craft this year. It happens this Saturday & Sunday at the Theatre Centre in Toronto. I will be selling my handmade bags and a few screenprinted greeting cards. Please come by to say hello or to pick up some last minute gifts... there will definately be a lot of great vendors!

Here's a little preview of what I will have available...

Recent Tweets

2010-11-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Oh hello! Here are a few nice links that I recently shared on Twitter...

- From the Torontoist, a review of 'Look At What The Light Did Now', a documentary film about Feist and her collaborators. If you're a fan, you will love it. It's a beautiful film. http://bit.ly/hb2gzS
- New work by Jacob Whibley, featured on The Best Part: http://goo.gl/fb/JbfKL
- Megan Whitmarsh on MLFY: http://tiny.cc/t5eo4
- My grandmother's beautiful cross stitch pieces that I need to frame: http://twitpic.com/37g4tg
- Bears and mermaids by Sean Morris: http://tiny.cc/onuya. (And Kitsune Noir has suddenly changed to The Fox Is Black... wierd.)
- Nice quote from Chuck Close on inspiration: http://j.mp/bGX5Pp. From H&FJ.

Winter Knits

2010-11-25T13:58:00.001-08:00

SO... I am bad at this blogging thing. Big surprise... anyway. I'll try harder.

I don't particularly like the change of season when winter comes. But if it means i get to make or pick out a cute new accessory to keep my little head warm... i'm okay with it! This winter my goal is to graduate from scarf-making to hat-making. Until then, here are a few of my winter-knit-picks:

^ You have probably seen Sarah Mcneil's beautiful drawings. Well she knits things as well, like these adorable wool mittens. Available here.

^ Super bright colourful cheerful machine-knit hats by Annie Larson. (Pom poms by Crystal Quinn.)

^ I love Yokoo and her impressively over-sized, chunky knits.

^ Simple but cheerful hats, cowls, mittens (on a string!) and, oh hi! bowties by Joanna Boxall aka Dolly Knits.

Canzine

2010-10-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today was Canzine, the big zine fair in Toronto. Lots of great work this year. I really wanted one of Selena Wong's bunny zines but I had run out of cashmonies by the time i got to her table! She is amazing - she also did these beautiful paintings for The Dazzle. I also really loved everything by Fantasy Camp / Eunice Luk. Lots of cute screenprinty/letterpress goodness. She is super sweet too. Oh, and I grabbed a couple of $5 posters (!) from Doublenaut.

^ Zines by L - R: Aaron Manczyc, Marta Chudolinska, Ryan Dodgson, Amber Forrester, Tessar Lo, & Jeannie Phan. Tiny tooth cards & pin by Fantasy Camp, magnets by Selena Wong.

^ Fantasy Camp/Eunice Luk.

^ Culture Slut #18 by Amber Forrester.

^ Jeannie Phan.

^ Mountain Hair by Ryan Dodgson.

The Book Cover Archive

2010-10-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Book Cover Archive is a great resource for anyone interested in book cover design. It is really well organized - you can browse book covers by designer, illustrator, even typeface!

Here are a few favourites from the site...

(From top to bottom, designed or art directed by David Pearson, David Pearson, Rodrigo Corral, John Gall, Greg Mollica, Jason Booher & Helen Yentus, Barbara Dewilde, Jason Booher.

Here is a great interview with John Gall, who is the art director at Vintage/Anchor books.

The Nencini's

2010-09-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Peter and Sally Nencini are one of those talented and clever collaborating couples. Peter is an 'illustrator-designer-lecturer.' Sally is a textile designer and upholsterer. Individually, they do amazing work but i really love their collaborative pieces. In this work, Peter draws and Sally embroiders. The results are beautiful pieces of furniture upholstered with gorgeous intricately stitched illustrations.

Peter posts about each of these projects (and the processes) on his blog. He says "Our collaboration is working best when we think together about the physical equivalent to linework, acknowledging the behaviour of a needle through quite coarse linen-cotton texture and allowing for this to lead a little more."

It's interesting to think about how they would each have to consider the other's medium and intent when working on their own part.

Links: Peter's Blog / Portfolio & Sally's Blog / Portfolio / Shop

^ The Tyrella Chair

^ The Point Chair, designed for 1-yr old Isaac, with pockets in the back for books and pencils!

^ The Shoe Stool

^ Detail of the Calligraphic Chair, one of four dining room chairs. Second image is Peter's drawing.

^ The Pea Stool.

Madewell

2010-09-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

I recently found Madewell, and am now obsessed. I ordered a pair of jeans and they are purrfect. Really nice dark grey wash, high waist & perfect fit! Yum. They have plenty of pretty non-jean things too.

Etsy: Jewelry

2010-09-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

I am a little obsessed with Etsy. I probably spend way too much time on it but there is just so much really great stuff happening!

These are my favourite Etsy jewelry finds & makers at the moment (click to enlarge):

Left to right, top to bottom: Noble Town, Macha (My favourite shop on all of Etsy! They make the most beautiful things), Elisabeth Rosas, Local Library, Moth House, Laura Lombardi, Yokoo (love her giant pastel hand painted beads), Dores (love her use of fiber), Mini Cyn (facets!)

Weekly Tweets

2010-09-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some neat links from the past week:

- Mittens on a string! http://tiny.cc/4ouoa I love this Etsy shop. Super cute cozy things for the winter time.
- Bear cake: http://tiny.cc/a1w2e I love bears a lot. And cake.
- Aubrey Beardsley & the Yellow Book on BangBack: http://tiny.cc/p7uv8 Love Aubz. And BangBack is one of my new favourite blogs.
- Etsy cupcake cups: http://tiny.cc/28gor
- Owen Pallett's new song, A Man with No Ankles: http://t.co/EjB0Cc9

Brock Davis

2010-09-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Brock Davis is a very clever multi-talented kind of guy. He lists his talents as 'music, drawing, graphic design, writing, works of art both serious and absurd, and a killer instinct for video games.' I especially love the humour that shows through in his work. (Check out 'Living Photo.')

These pieces are some of my favourites from his 'Make Something Cool Every Day: 2009' project. So much good stuff there, it's worth the time to scroll through them all!

Links: Brock's Portfolio / Flickr

Linky Links

2010-08-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

Some neat things i have shared over in twitterland, in the past week or so:

- Minimalistic Album Covers: http://tiny.cc/j1cw6
- Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice's new project, Jenny and Johnny: http://tiny.cc/j6siu
- Kate Bingaman-Burt & Clifton Burt's house tour: http://tiny.cc/6hx9p
- Interview with Todd Selby: http://tiny.cc/z97yb

Annie Larson

2010-08-28T18:56:00.001-07:00

Annie Larson is a textile designer. Her focus is currently on knitwear, and her work is amaaazing. i basically want everything in her shop. Annie's geometric patterns and use of colour is so so good. She works on a knitting machine and produces sweaters, tanks, leggings, tops and bags.

She also has non-shop-related work on the main/portfolio part of her site.

Links: Annie's Site / Shop / Blog

Luci Everett

2010-08-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

I love love love Luci Everett's work. Luci is a graphic designer from Australia, and she uses handmade elements in every single one of her pieces. Whether it be with paper, string, fabric, or hand done lettering, she finds a way to fuse digital and handmade perfectly. Her work is delicate, cheery and so so pretty!

A few of my favourites below, and some process shots from Luci's Flickr. (Her Flickr is full of lovely photos too!)

Links: Luci's Portfolio / Blog