Beautiful 2010 calendar

As we are barreling towards the end of the year I thought it would be fitting to blog about a beautiful calendar that I noticed in Kate's Paperie (a fabulous paper and stationary chain in the State of New York). The gorgeous letterpressed calendar is by Linda & Harriett.

There are 12 fully letterpressed months, tied together with a double-faced satin purple ribbon. The reverse side is designed so it can be cut and used as a post card.
Unfortunately they have sold out of the calendar from the website, but it's possible that Kate's Paperie might have a few remaining.

All the creations are designed by Liz Coulson Libré, who like many of the people I feature, happens to live in Brooklyn, NY. What a creative city this is! She started in 2005 creating pure custom hand-stamped invitations, and then in 2007 launched Linda & Harriett as a custom letterpress company. In her words she designs lines of "luxurious paper goods that are simple, unpretentious and fresh – but never cutesy, frilly or boring. Injecting a good sense of color and fun into her designs, Liz provides personalized attention and love for every product she produces." Here is a small sample of her work, to see more, please see her website.





I really, really love her stuff and I look forward to see what she produces in 2010. I have friends arriving tomorrow night to spend Christmas with us, so I'm unsure if I will get a chance to blog before Christmas, so if I don't - Happy Christmas & Holidays to everyone!

Words are Pictures

Tonight I'm going to my other half's AIGA NY talk, SMALL TALK NO. 4: CRAIG WARD. He has always been passionate about design but more specifically typography and as his pseudonym suggests, Words are Pictures, he likes to mix the two to create something unique and different. He is constantly exploring the notion of word as image.

I've always been proud of the work he has created and tonight, at his first US presentation, he gets to showcase his work. He will discuss his thought and idea processes as well as his journey from designer to typographer. He has another talk scheduled in France next July for OFFF Paris 2010 conference.

Here are some of my personal favourites...

Monsters of a household variety

It's seems this month is all about monsters, maybe it's a reaction of Where the Wild Things Are.... But these monsters are different as they are hand sewn and in a gigantic book called Monsters of a Household Variety .

The book is a creation of British textile artist, illustrator and 2009 winner of the New Designers One Year On prize, Ruth Ashton. The book was commissioned by Anthropologie, to coincide with it's London flagship opening.

The pages are so intricately sewn and she uses interesting materials for each monster. Each spread is dedicated to the different monsters you might find in your own house like the smelly bin monster, the light bulb popper, the remote control remover, the hot water runner monster...each have their own mischievous stories. The book is enormous (25.5"H, 24.5"W, 3"D), I've included pictures from the Anthropologie site to show the size!

The 24 page book doesn't come cheap - a mear $1,200.00, but to be honest it is a limited-edition, soft cotton page, hand-embroidered book so if you can afford it then it's worth it's money. I will just have to keep popping into the NYC shop to get my dose!

Buttons galore

I've spent the last couple of days searching New York for classic 4-holed red buttons. I'd been to many button and trimming shops in the Garment District, but the buttons weren't quite right. After searching online nymag.com (one of my favourite websites) came up with a goodie - a boutique button shop in the Upper East Side called Tender Buttons.

The shop is beautiful, and they had their Christmas decorations up too which made it feel extra special. On the right hand side of the shop there are floor to ceiling boxes of buttons, every kind that you could imagine. All the boxes are in lovely hand written brown paper carton boxes detailing the buttons, their prices and sometimes their age. On the opposite wall are thin display cabinets of rare and unusual buttons. Suffice to say, I found exactly what I was looking for! If you are ever in the neighbourhood or in need of a particular button, then I would highly recommend popping in.

My camera was playing up, so the last two images are taken from the nymag.com listing and from their actual website.

Knitted monsters

Whilst having a photo clear out, I found images of knitted monsters I created a couple of years ago. Having grown up on Sesame Street, I have a fondness for cute monsters and I was inspired to knit some once I saw The Thifty Knitter's adorable own creation, Thrifty Critter with Long Striped Scarf, who is made out of scraps and leftover bits of yarn. How cute is he?!


I knew I couldn't knit something as lovely as the Critter, but I decided to make up my own pattern and see what would come out of it (I'd only been knitting for a year at this point, so I really jumped in feet first)...they turned out ok in the end, slightly mis-shapen, but that adds to the homemade charm!

Alexander Girard - Grandfather of textile design

Even though NY born Alexander Girard died in 1993, there seems to have been a huge revival of his work everywhere from Urban Outfitters to V&A; from House Industries to Magma bookshop and even bike shops...
He was born in 1907 and was raised in Rome, Italy. He later returned to the USA to work for Herman Miller in the 50s to the 70s. He is best known for his timeless textiles with their heavy folk art influences. He bought to life the furniture designs of George Nelson and Charles & Ray Eames through colour and funky modern textile patterns. Girard and his wife, Susan, were avid accumulators of folk art, toys, textiles and many worldy folk artifacts. Eventually their collection got out of control so they donated it all to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, who since then are proud owners of the worlds largest folk art collection.

Girard never liked to self-promote it was only people in the know, like interior designers, who recognised his work. When he died máXimo became the official agents of his estate and are the ones answerable for awakening the world to Girard's designs and making them accessible again.

Through the Looking Glass - Bergdorf Goodman window displays

Every Christmas it's traditional for the 5th Ave stores to compete against each other via their window displays, and the Bergdorf Goodman A Compendium of Curiosities holiday window displays are a spectacle to be seen.

The theme is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. Of course it's no coincidence that Bergdorf have chosen this theme as the hugely anticipated Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland is due out early next year.

This years window display was created by Bergdorf’s Senior Director of Visual Presentation, David Hoey, and his team of artists. The windows are spectacular; complete decadence, nods to Carroll's characters and not and inch of empty space. The team at BG have perfectly captured fantasy through their looking glass displays and they submerge you into imaginary worlds of dreams, luxury fashion and products. Curiouser and Curiouser...

My personal favourite is the paper/stationery window.