Show of The Week

Kitsch kool

Don't know why but the ladies of HML haven't explored the fabulous Lord Coconut mens jewelry emporium in Carlow House but that will change this week as there are lots of HML faves in their latest exhibition 'Kitsch Australiana'

We are looking for new things to be said about our kitsch heritage. We love how Liz Jones remembered to add Tasmania to her her linoleum Australia brooches. When using salvaged material you are instantly archiving social history. We likey! To see more of Liz's work go here

The exhibition ends on Feb 11 and you can find it at Lord Coconut level 4, Carlow House, 289 Flinders Lane, Melbs.

Want of the week

Two of our favorite swedish artist/designer/craftists Elisabeth Dunker and Anna Backlund have recently been in Tunisia (lucky buggers) where they were invited to build a new brand (RYM) for a Tunisian company and design its first collection. Given free range it's clearly a dream job for two incredibly talented ladies. To say that we're excited to see what they come up with is an understatement. We love their work. They've decided to include porcelain, carpets, fouts, chairs, olive wood and recycled kelimkuddar in the first collection. Which pretty much covers everything. Launching in early February Elisabeth has given us a sneak peak at some of the ceramics on her Fine Little Day blog. HOLY MOTHER. GENIUS. 

I love that they've decided to let people mix and match the pieces because I hate matchy matchy tableware, and that oak leaf teapot is completely brilliant - still my beating wallet! Granted these are just samples but clearly if they are any indication of what's to follow in the rest of the range I'd best start saving because I can see a major interior overhaul coming on. BECK

Mini Memento of the Week

Sentimental sap

Regular hml readers may remember that last year I won tickets to a pick and eat lunch at Heide Museum of Modern Art. You can read about it here

I made a crazy little mini journal this week as a memento of a really lovely day. It's interesting in this era of digital photography how special it feel to actually print photos. I may go a wee bit over the top in my presentation and preservation of them!

I am still madly in love with my gigantic wood grain stamp as you can see. I know this is a totally cheesy project and I debated even putting it here but memory keeping has always been a big part of leading a handmadelife. A little bit of sentimentality never hurt anyone in small doses! RAMONA

Wreath of the Month

Sweetie

You know I love valentines day, I always have. I don't care about how commercial it is or how it's 'so american'. In fact I love how the Americans celebrate it with full gusto, giving cards and gifts to everyone they love, like, share school desks and cubicles with. We've limited ourselves to our direct partners which means there are a fair few singletons who are left out of the celebration which I think is a terrible shame and the source of cynicism about this particularly holiday. I've made a wreath to celebrate the month and secretly plan to tell all closest and dearest to me that I love them in various ways - most of which involve baking, flowers, glitter and crepe paper. RAMONA

SHOW OF THE WEEK

shake it, don't break it.

Melbourne sculptor and mustachioed man about town Jarrad Kennedy usually likes to make big things, but it would seem that more recently he's been sweating the small stuff. Illusion Shaker makes over everyday bar items and ephemera in one of our favourite mediums - cardboard, displayed in yet another 'random wall in a hip venue' turned gallery: the Rooftop Art Space. Not to say that we don't like this particularly Melbourne tradition - we love a multi-tasking venue as much as anyone, especially if we can watch a movie, buy something handmade, eat good food AND look at art with a drink in our hand!

This is likely to be Jarrad's only 3D outing this year as he busies himself working on the hotly anticipated Nic Dalton/Half a cow doco for the rest of the 2012, and the show finishes up on February 19. That's only a couple of weeks away peeps... so if you like what you see hop to it, and while you're at it have a drink on us.

Oh and we should also mention that a little bird told us that Rooftop Art Space is looking for submissions for the 2012 program.  If you've got a little something up your artsmock sleeve you might want to let 'em know. BECK