Gnomes vs. Snowmen: The Battle for Mochimochiland

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Today I was lucky enough to attend the opening reception of Gnomes vs. Snowmen: The Battle for Mochimochiland, a brilliantly inventive and imaginary land created by fiber artist Anna Hrachovec.

The story was charming and told over 45 foot-long panels that are bursting with woollen delights. The details in the panels suck you into the chaotic and extremely cute battle scene. Want to know who won? Well you'll have to go and see it for yourselves! The exhibition runs from November 3 through to November 18th, 2011 at Gallery Hanahou.

Background Noise

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I'm not a fan of wallpaper, in general, especially when a room has been wallpapered floor to ceiling. I've seen too many wallpaper disasters in my time. But if you must wallpaper, then an accent wall with a stylish pattern is always welcome. For me wallpaper should make you want to look twice which is why I love Dan Funderburgh's designs - which are available to buy here. He also designed some Moleskine covers which you can buy from Engrave Your Book.

Another wallpaper design that definitely makes you look twice is Paper Voyeur's flora and fornication range - as Lascivious so perfectly put it; this wallpaper imbues "European eroticism with a sprinkling of English reserve, these wallpapers nod to the florid romance of Mucha or Beardsley - an outline of the idea without the pink bits."

This unique collection of wallpaper was designed by the British design studio, DED and is popular with stores such as Agent Provocateur and Coco De Mer. Enjoy!

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Paperfinger

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Since my wedding I have developed an interest in calligraphy, and Bryn Chernoff - the very talented lady behind Paperfinger - is one of the best modern calligraphers that I've stumbled upon. What I also like about this Brooklynite's penmanship is that she also incorporates hand drawn designs which are great for extra personalisations to any wedding or event invites. Click the image to see the details and her beautiful lettering. Please check out her site and her blog too.

Images taken from Paperfinger.

Missed Connections

Craiglist's Missed Connections are a good read on their own, but with Sophie Blackall's help they are a delight! For those not familiar with Missed Connections, they are online postings where strangers try and reconnect with someone they had a chance encounter with. They are usually romantic call outs of missed opportunities however Sophie has turned them up a notch by interpreting and bringing life to these random interactions. She has created a very funny series of paintings which are beautifully imaginative and very endearing, click on her blog here to see them. Here are the ones that tickled me the most (click on each of them to appreciate their loveliness):




Sophie Blackall is an Australian who as she put it "moved to New York [Brooklyn of course!] on a whim with her amenable husband and indifferent small children in 2000." She has also illustrated many children's books amongst many other things. She also keeps a blog which she updates showing the latest things she is working on, check it here.

Jessica Hische

Daily drop capper and adopted Brooklynite, Jessica Hische, is an extremely talented typographer, designer, illustrator and winner of an ADC Young Gun 7 award - meaning that she is under 30!

She has a great eye for style and colour and her work exudes maturity whilst also showing hints of playfulness. Here are a few snippets of her work, but to see more please visit her sites - not sure which one is her main one, so check them both out here and here.

She also runs an ongoing project called The Daily Drop Cap for which she creates hand-crafted, vintagesque ornamental initials. She also kindly gives you the coding for these decorative caps to encourage you to use them to adorn your blog posts or sites. So lovely!

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!

Elbow-Toe

We went to the Brooklyn flea last weekend in DUMBO and walking back to the subway, we walked past an interesting looking door and this caught my eye - which I thought was sweet.

I didn't think anything more of it until I saw this one in Union Square...

Now I noticed a pattern, so with a bit of research I discovered that they are the creations of Elbow-Toe, a Brooklyn based street artist. He has been creating hand-coloured linocuts pasted on walls for a while now.
"His artwork for the streets is grounded in myth, symbolism and poetry and is primarily executed in woodcut, stencil or large-scale charcoal drawings. His oeuvre is a study of human gesture as communication and he utilizes public spaces as stages for private moments. He is particularly interested in the ability of environmental forces outside his control to create a timeless quality to the work thereby allowing it to feel as if it has been memory and is part of the collective unconscious." He has also been busy on the side of the pond in London, like this one taken from his website:

D.U.M.B.O.

D.U.M.B.O. (or Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn, is where we spent some time back in April. I quite liked it's charm - the street car tracks, bricked factories, boutique shops and cafés and the more laid back atmosphere. It's a far cry from the chaos of mid-town, and yet so close. Here are a few snapshots of the area.

Datz awesome!

To me, Jim Datz, is the American Adrian Johnson (I will posting about him soon!). That is no bad thing at all. They are both extremely talented and share a similar style - modern techniques with a retro bent. I personally can't get enough of that style. You may have seen his work in Urban Outfitters back in 2006 as Datz art directed the stores, giving them their look and feel.




I found Jim Datz’ prints on my favourite online shop - Three Potato Four. I can't really justify buying anything on there, being that I live on the other side of the pond, but I caved in when I saw his seven color screenprints: Manhattan and Brooklyn. I was too slow to get the first edition run of the Manhattan prints but he has just released the Brooklyn prints, so to get your hands on them go to Three Potato Four.

Book worm

Our Ikea bookcase

I spent my bank holiday sorting out our bookcase issue, which is why I was quiet on the posting front. This is our 3rd stab at getting some kind of shelving for our alcove in a desperate attempt to get rid of our Ikea bookcase! (the 2 previous attempts have been a disaster involving floating shelves that only take a flea’s weight and big holes in walls...) But inspiration struck us when we passed a Brooklyn thrift store. There on the pavement were some lovely Pepsi-cola crates and we thought these would make lovely shelving. So when we returned home we bought some crates off e-bay and one in Portobello market on Saturday and here are the after shots of what we created. We also bought some old wooden cog patterns, from an antique shop in NW8. These cog patterns came from a foundry in the North of England and were used for making the cast iron cogs much used in the late 19th and early 20th century - we thought they'd make lovely bookends.

Too cool for school

We went to the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. in Park Slope last month and it was closed again. I’ve always wanted to go into the shop ever since I saw an article about it in the Guardian in 2007, but I must be hugely unlucky as it’s always closed when I turn up! Incidentally, Creative Review, also featured an article last year on Sam Potts, the NY designer who created the Superhero Supply store look, so clink on the links to see more.

There are many of these stores throughout the USA (see 826National). They are all non-profit tutoring and writing organizations for students between the ages of 6-18. The idea first began in San Francisco, whereby the founders had to set up a spoof Pirate Supplies shop in order to abide by city regulations, as they couldn’t get a license to tutor children. The NY store, pays homage to this by also having a hidden secret door at the back of the shop. It’s also a great way to make it more exciting for the children.


The other stores identities are Echo Park Time Travel Mart in LA, Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute in Boston, The Boring Store in Chicago; Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. in Seattle and Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair in Michigan. Some of the websites are nicely designed, so take a peek.


Tin and product images borrowed from Sam’s website.