elsewhere

A parcel of penguins, all white in the heat

Long ago, (before I disappeared on unplanned blog hiatus) I made a parcel of white penguins especially for Craft Victoria’s annual coloured Christmas and promised to share them with you here. Well, here they are for you. At long last. Taken sometime ago now and delivered a little while ago too, I thought you would get a kick out of this white grouping. With a Japanese waffle fabric on the front and various patterned fabrics on the reverse, they have coloured felt feet and puffy wings. Some, as you can see, sport bowties. Others have ivory beads on their tummies. They even have a little brocaded ribbon atop their heads so you can hang them at liberty from Christmas tree or festive branch.

Back soon with many more photos from recent days to share and news of a blog giveaway. It's an exciting giveaway. One worth popping back for, I promise.

Almost at an end

Our show closes this weekend at 5pm on Saturday and I have so enjoyed having our collaborative pieces, Gracia's collage works and my drawings on display for such a long time in gallery two. In between fine shoes (gallery one) and handsome jewels (gallery three), it has been great thus far. I wouldn't mind it staying up a little longer.

 

Nonetheless I am looking forward to starting a new body of work, to seeing what I am drawn to next. I have many ideas whirling about in my head. I have some large drawings in mind and a book of owls, too. It is exciting to begin again. I am looking forward, also, to creating new drawings for a neglected space.

 

Here, as is my blogging pattern lately, are a few more photos from said show. In these ones (below) you can see a balsa wood case of my drawings on the shelf beneath the window.

 

Especially for you, a collection housed.

14 loose pages, watercolour and pencil on Fabriano traditional white 640gsm paper. Housed in a balsa wood case with binding cloth and fabric ribbon tie.
Edition on 1.

Recognise a few familiar drawings?
 
(I rarely seem to make a photographic appearance here. Thought I'd pop that one of me in just to say hello.)
 
(Lest you missed it, we're having a sale on some of our things made.)

hop, skip and a jump

It is no more than a hop, skip and a jump from home to Craft Vic and yesterday I made that aerobic effort. The cause was a last page turn of Gracia’s beautiful books before our exhibition closes this weekend coming. (We may squeeze in one more, you never know.)

 

Before then, I hope to share with you a few more photos of our work. In particular a few more shots of G and my collaborative artists’ book and my set of original drawings housed in a balsa wood case, which matches the case of its neighbour on the gallery shelf.

Hope you enjoy these views as much as I enjoyed this and this and this and this and this.

Thank-you for your response to Gracia's new zine. There are a few editions available, if you're still keen.

A new zine to accompany our exhibition

A new zine is hot off the press and ready to accompany the last fortnight of our exhibition at Craft Victoria. It features 32 of Gracia's stunningly beautiful postcard collages in glorious colour. A few are in black and white but the vast majority have snuck into colour. This is a departure form previous zines where the opposite colour to B&W equation was the case.

I think it's a beauty, but I guess I'm biased. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did whilsy collating its pages and gluing its spine.

It's available on our online store here, alongside all Gracia and my other zines. Also, it will be available at Craft Victoria as of sometime Friday.

Until Christmas rolls around you will find all our postcard and greeting cards, A7 scribblers and wrap around notebooks, as well as a selection of earlier zines, on sale glorious sale. Between 25%–50% off ought well to usher in the festive spirit.

Find sale items here and enjoy.

Needle and thread

This past week or so I've been drawing with a needle and thread as opposed to my beloved 2B pencil. Watercolour and pencil on paper are all very fine but they are not the medium called for when crafting linen pinnies in the shape of owls and wrens.

Does anybody else find the sound of thread as it is pulled through a fabric very pleasing? I've been trying to think why It is that I do love it so. Maybe I was, in a past life, a Austin-ish lady whom spent many an evening embroidering by candlelight?

Before you go you might like to read a recent review of our show at Craft Victoria.

2X2X2=

A sunny Wednesday and I am sitting here sewing a parcel of round-bellied penguins for Craft Victoria’s forthcoming White Christmas. I have Omar for company, and he absolutely loves this hot spell. He sits on the couch and occasionally looks up to make sure I am still working.

Tonight I will be conducting a bookbinding workshop at Craft Victoria. You can find further details here, in a recent post I penned for Clog. You can also see all the pages of Gracia and my collaborative book stacked one on top of the other though not in the sequence they appear in the bound book. For that you will have to head to the gallery in person.

(Two double-spread page details from an artists' book you are seeing a great deal of at the moment. Click to enlarge in order to see the detail better.)

(Good journey to you, Brian. Looking forward to your London life blogged. (See further.))

Put two and two together

It is Sunday morning and I have time to share with you two more page details from Gracia and my most recent collaborative artists’ book. Time to post this here and then brew a second coffee.
 
This evening, however, I am thinking of things past.
12 page concertina, four-colour lithographic offset print and colour pencil on Fabriano bright white 300gsm paper
Title page, watercolour and pencil Fabriano bright white 640gsm paper
Housed in a balsa wood case with binding cloth bound by Jennison
Edition of 12, printed by Redwood Prints

In other news, Gracia has recently posted a second post to Craft Victoria's Clog featuring several of her postcard collages. You can read it here, or peruse all posts in one swoop here. And dear Leah of Milly Sleeping crosses our path and we miss once again.

(Especially for you, Shari, cloud forming rounded masses.)

Yet another view

Earlier this week, Gracia and I turned the pages of her 21 collaged artists’ books currently being exhibited at Craft Victoria. I know each page well, having had the joy of seeing them being created these past months. We plan to turn the pages at least once a week. It’s a fiddly job, but much fun and the reward of a celebratory coffee always follows. 

You can see more images of Gracia's beautiful books here, in a first of several guest blog appearances on Clog.

Here, too, is a detail from our collaborative artists’ book which you can see sitting upon a shelf below the gallery window. Hoping you have a lovely weekend.

So much to show you

This time last week, Gracia and I were setting up our work in gallery two. We were probably, late on Tuesday afternoon, scratching our heads and thinking of having another coffee. It feels a long time ago already.

Magic forests, bizarre circus folk... The interior worlds of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf have inspired a collection of beautiful lithographic works by collaborative duo Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison. The pair have worked together for over a decade since graduating from RMIT. Titled A key to help make your own world visible from a quote in Hesse’s novel, the exhibition is a continuation of the pair's work in building miniature worlds in artists' books and on paper.

Dylan Rainforth, The Age, p.19, 23.10.09

(Jumping forward from the installation, here is how it looked at the opening. G & I look ever so slightly nervous and overwhelmed by the attention. To those of you who came along: thank you!)

A thing installed

On the first day of installing A key to help make your own world visible, G and I commenced with the walls. We laid out on the floor our collaborative prints in their frames and my drawings, wrapped in many protective layers of tissue, on the floor. We mapped the space and tried many arrangements before many hours later hitting upon the most fitting way. We had too much work, we soon realised, and many pieces had to go.

On the second day, we set up the two tables running vertically through the space.  A long shelf was also kindly installed underneath one of the two windows (thanks Erik), the perfect spot for our concertina book and my loose drawings housed in a balsa wood box, one of many I had made especially.

On both days, much coffee was needed.

From these photos, rosy though they are, you can get a better sense of the scale of my drawings. frequently shown here on this blog You can also see more behind the scene photos on G's post here, and Craft Victoria's post here... with more to come all round throughout the week.

A key to help make your own world visible
23rd October – 28th November, 2009

Gallery 2, Craft Victoria
31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne


 

Thanks Michi Girl for the super sweet mention of our exhibition and (then forthcoming) opening. (Click to read)

Thanks, also, to Sunday Arts for featuring a little of our work on last week's episode.