I have no idea how i’ve managed to go all these years without coming across the gob smacking work of Charley Harper. It was a post on Emma’s Blog about a needle point canvas kit ( cross-stitch type thing ) featuring some beautiful graphic birds that caught my eye. I’d assumed that the abstracted angular shapes were from a modern illustrator, and by that i mean drawn digitally. It looks so current. It’s only when i click through to the craft site Purl Bee and through to the artist’s site that i’m amazed to find that the work is several decades old! I was so surprised and excited to see the enormous amount of work Charley had created over many years. And the fact this very modern looking illustration style had come from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s. I urge you to head in and flick through the pages and pages of wonderful work. Amazing colours and forms. Hugely inspiring!

Charley was born in 1922, and sadly passed away 2 years ago. But i’m sure his work will be enjoyed for generations.

Cute vs Dark. La Boite A Monstres makes both fantastic jewelry and sweet plushies. Her lollies, cupcakes, and mushrooms are full of warmth and character. In contrast below there’s the Jack The Ripper pendants, and Pirate Jewels. Both are gorgeous! She makes an huge amount of original and unique necklaces, bracelets, and cufflinks. Flick through pages of great stuff over at her Flickr and check out the latest pieces on her Blog. I am SO tempted by the Pirate bracelet! I hope it’s still for sale.

A little while ago Katie passed me this Traveling Moleskine. There are a fair few of them knocking around all with various themes, this one with the theme Crafty… So i set to work creating a special tweedy felt monster. He actually turned out quite nicely, and i’m thinking that technique might work really well on a bag or cushion or tshirt maybe ? Anyway, i’ve been meaning to blog this for ages. I’ll pop some images on flickr too so you can see the details. You can just see the reverse side there of Katie’s wonderful paper embroidery. Very nice! And i’m excited to see what the next recipient, my old mate Jaypeg, will do to her page :) You can read more about the project over at Culture Vulture. ANd you can peek inside some of the other moleskine’s here.

One week, two weddings, several hangovers, and a biblical amount of rain. That’s a holiday in the UK for you :) Brilliant fun though. We managed to get all over ‘the North’ to a bunch of gorgeous places i’ve never been. The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Snowdonia, Cumbria, Loch Lomond ( way up in Scotland ), and many a tiny village on route. Many village pubs, and pub lunches too – i think i managed fish and chips at least 3 times. Amazing ;) We tested local ales where ever we went. I quite like Cumberland Ale but the Cocker Hoop was also very much worth a tipple.

We made a wedding cake. Well, Cookie baked it ( his first cake! ) and we decorated it with tiny marzipan characters. A labour of love but well worth it. To see the making-of shots, more pics here.

Cookie and i visited the Wensleydale Cheese making place, watched the cheese being made, and stuffed ourselves with an enormous Ploughmans cheese selection! And then headed underground to the White Scar Cave ….

We stopped off at the Keswick Pencil museum – the village where the pencil was invented! Saw the longest pencil in the world… wooOOOoo … And went nuts in the shop buying one of every colour they had.

( Van Photo by Akrabat ) – It was raining of course!

Cookie became a conductor on a vintage bus, punching tickets of the happy wedding party.

We listened to bag pipes, we smuggled wine, went on a boat trip, ate Haggis for the first time, ( it tasted amazing by the way! ). Did traditional Scottish dancing … and a few ‘power slides’ on the dance floor for good measure.

And we made a few new friends along the way :) Here’s the blushing bride El with The Cake! More wedding photos here.

Been making Monsters! Well, i’ve had a batch on the go for a while – but here’s a sneak preview… I’ve been mega busy at work recently, so as soon as i’ve had a second to myself i’ve been busying away on a new collection. These ones are going to be very special as they’re all based on a bunch of fantastically imaginative socks from Ashi Dashi. Check out their wares here. I love them! High res images of Meat Monster and friends on Flickr.

Meat Monster is going to be one of my all time favourites i think. The packaging the socks come in is brilliant. A plastic wrapped meat tray.

The Pencil Sock is also looking great. I’ve got some little arms and things for him yet so look out for developments ;) I put a little bit of stitching detail around the eraser on the end to plump it out a bit. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions! Next – the Wooden Socks ….! Watch this space.

This – Via my new favourite blog Make Do And Mend. Fantastic stencil / marker-pen-style portraits, but created by gluing down strips of cassette tape. Blimey. I’m admiring the artist’s patience! Brilliant though. Artist is Iri5. Check out the full set on his Flickr.

I really want to have a play with this! Perhaps we could borrow it for a week ?  ;) Would love to hook this up so the final designs could be printed out and framed. Or flipped up to a site somewhere for everyone to see. Lots of detail on the software and hardware here….. What would you draw ?

Spotted on McCandless’s tweets again ( @mccandelish ). Interesting finds from him. The 3D Etch-A-Sketch itself is made by Andrew Sliwinski. Check out his - This And Again. Ps- Can someone make me one! ? !

Amazing crochet food packaging. By Kate Jenkins from Brighton. Great details – and so much work!

This weekend i’ve been mostly getting sticky fingers, in the jam making process. These are my first ever pots of jam! Pink Grapefruit, Ginger, Lemon and Lime Marmalade. And if i don’t mind saying so myself, it’s flippin’ awesome.

Cookie helped me make it ( he’s a jam pro ). Then Sunday my sister came round and we made some pretty wicked Plum Jam too. It’s pretty satisfying. Both to make and consume. MMmmmmmm.

There wasn’t a special recipe as such, we just went freestyle. So if i get a chance i’ll write out the details : ) Right – off to eat toast!

Photos above taken by the Flippers!

I think it’s fair to say we were quite badly behaved.
Highlights were:

‘Elf n safety
- We can have plastic gun’s right ? It’s a cowboy duel.
- No guns… There’ll be children present. Not with the current climate.
- Well, we’ll use bananas in our holsters instead ?
- No, you can’t use bananas, people might be allergic to bananas
- …….  ?

The contraband booze boxes wrapped up in brown paper and marked “Hat Box”, “Box of Moustaches”, “Pony food” etc ;)

A lot of people not realising the ‘cold tea’ was in fact Jack Daniels despite it being in a Jack Daniels bottle.

Being allowed to legitimately shout out disgusting swear words at the top of your voice through a loud speaker at a baying crowd ( Adult’s night )

Lots of parents forcing their kids to play repeatedly, to get as many 50p shots in as possible before home time. ( Family day )

Mr(s) Simon Waterfall in a corset and yellow high heels.

Chris being helped into his chaps by two twin cowboys.

‘Slut in a bin’ incident – Our saloon whore getting carried away in the role. She made 20 quid for ‘services rendered’ and lost it down her cleavage.

Will Dogg’s five year old nemesis who kept coming back and whopping him at pictionary

The dubious and controversial drawing of ‘Berlin’.

People queuing up thinking we were the actual bar.

Branding a bare arse.

Ok, so i know this one’s well old now, but it was too good to go un-mentioned. It’s been tweeted and posted all over the place, but rightly so because they’re brilliant. I wonder who bought them in the end. Here’s the shop for more detail.

Meant to blog this before my holiday, but hey – here it is to enjoy in case you missed it ;)

An amazing couple of days was had at this, the final ever V&A Village Fete. Our Saloon was in place in all it’s glory. Punters were rounded up by the posse. We were ready. And as the crowd gathered, the cowboys dueled it out in the hot sun, to crys of “Sausage!”  “Godzilla!” “Gary Glitter!” “Jumping The Shark!”, followed by slightly less savory things later in the evening… ( they were skull and crossbones pack ). It was brilliant fun, all fueled by many shots of “cold tea”. A storming success with some hilarious moments. Excellent work team StuffClub! You can see the proud posse above. Five cowboys, one bar tender, one little Apache (me), and two saloon whores for decoration. ( One was a bit hairier than the other ).

Photos above, and a bunch more great shots taken by Stuff Club’s own Katie Marcus. Check them out here.

Thanks to everyone involved, everyone who came down and made it such a great couple of days, and also a massive thanks to Poke for sponsoring StuffClub for the materials, the big ol’ van and the booze! And also for letting us take the afternoon off to run around in silly outfiits ;)

Update: Wrote up the highlights for the Poke blog today ;) Check them out here.

It’s Giant Pictionary! In a Wild West stylie.

Yes, Stuff Club from Poke have been beavering away in the evenings constructing the Quick Draw Saloon – the setting for a duel of the marker pens. A few work in progress sketches above….

The game works like this: The barman gives out the cards. It’s markerpens in holsters at noon. The Sheriff’s decision is final. Winners get deputised. Losers get branded on the arse. Should be brilliant fun – or at least loud fun. If you fancy joining in, come down on Friday night for the boozy opening, or Saturday daytime for the Kids and Family day, at the Victoria & Albert Museum Village Fete.

Caveman Rides Trunki-Mamouth!

Cookie and I have been busy working on a little project for the Bristol Design Festival, Pimp My Trunki! If you’ve not heard of Trunki, it’s a much loved kids-ride-on-suitcase designed by Cookie’s college buddy Rob Law. ( Documentary about Rob here ) Kids go mental for them.

A set of Trunki’s were mailed out to prospective, product designers, artists, and wild cards for pimping. Fascinated to see what’s been done to the others ( i’ll post pics if i can wangle any ).

We’ve been sewing, stuffing, and weaving wig like no-bodies business! I was in charge of Caveman Construction, and Cookie of Mammoth Management. ( Although i helped with the stuffing and eyes ;) ). Mammoth is made from a bath matt bought from Ridley Road Market in Dalston – plus a couple of buttons. And Caveman Rider is comprised of a pair of American Apparel socks, some goofy tooth shaped felt, a bit of fake zebra skin i had laying about ( as you do ) … and finally, the pièce de résistance – the hair piece. Took me flippin’ hours to cover over his bald patch!

Cave-fella and his hairy elephant-like mate fold down and pack inside for handy carrying….. Does anyone else think he looks a bit like Tina Turner ?

I think he might be reading my mind….. It’s those terrifying eyes. And the sinister way he’s reaching out to shake your hand, while thinking about how good you’re going to taste with a bit of piri-piri marinade, and pineapple. Creepy… Find out more about Marcel Dzama’s work .

Meanwhile, on Heidi Slimane’s fashion diary…