CRAFT FIND OF THE WEEK

in from the outskirts


Ok so you all know we're massive fans... so much so that we like to not only admire the wall works and listen to the soundscapes but we find it necessary to wear the outfit while doing so. Below is one of our faves, but really the list is endless, we have the complete set, really we do. tragic isn't it, but once you graduate from the band tee you need something to fill the void that still identifies you as part of a club. So the OUTSKIRTS club it is for us. Beautifully printed, excellent color selection and images that include Dylan's own particular take on bats, wolves and sleeping cats as well as owl parliaments and atomic deer.

Want more? Have a look at Dylan's hidden archive to find more about news, exhibitions, prints on paper and the ubiquitous tee's. Well worth the click.

SHOW OF THE WEEK

The ladies of hml really do stand back in awe at the endless creativity and genius of Dylan Martorell. If we aren't parading around in his beautiful screen printed tees or wistfully looking at his amazing prints to be found on the hidden archive website we can be found jiving along to one of the many wild and crazy costumed music events that pop up in unusual places. His latest exhibition is at our fave rave indie gallery Utopian Slumps (you feel your cool quotient rising when you actually find the place) sound, music,mythology and backyard orchestras seem to play a big part in this new stuff and we can't wait to see what he's been building in there...

how to get there:

It's down a little alley - not so easy but you'll make it we promise.

INTERSTATE CRAFT FINDS OF THE WEEK

Sydney Swans...

While last week Ramona headed way out west checking out big sky country, this week Beck headed north to the big smoke with fitzroy uber stitcher Miss PenPen, who even fashioned a excellent new bag & skirt combo for the trip!

By the way - here's Penelopes new bag minding some well earned refreshments en route.

We here at HML always find Sydney enjoyable and yet perplexing, it's almost like being in a foreign country, but everyone is speaking the same language as you, even if you dont quite understand what they are saying. Don't get us wrong, we still get excited about at a trip on the Manly ferry, and we cannot help but love MOMA, and all those tropical plants and excellent japanese food helps, but once we hit the streets we always feel a little overdressed and significantly undertanned. Maybe we're wrong but we feel that Havianas with everything just doesn't quite work once you're over 30. Anyway we digress. There was a lovely lunch had, decent coffee found, random collections of knitted goods for sale on porches in back street Paddington, and superb vintage knitted Watanabe boots and fourties style Marc Jacobs suede wedges lusted after. However it was the Fleur Wood city store window displays that best on ground for the day, taking our combined breath away with this dreamy display of Tretchikoff swan paintings, vintage hardbacks and pearlised ceramic swan vases...

as well as the most beautiful chandelier style arrangement of deco candy-frost pendant lights we'd ever seen.

Top marks to the unknown window dresser - a Premiership winning performance!

thought patterns

Ronnie Lacham's show reminded me so much of this hardwood plantation I saw on the road between Perth and Geraldton last week. It was beautiful and quite surreal in the way ordered nature can be. As you can all see that have very big sky in WA. Paintings everywhere!

And the scarf went down a treat! There have been several requests for the pattern - easy peasy as it is (all highly skilled knitteres look away now)

Row 1: (RS): K all sts.Row 2: K2, p18, k2. (Those 2 border stitches on either end will always be knit in garter stitch—their role is to keep your fabric from curling.)Row 3: K2, (K2Tog) 3 times, (YO,K1) 6 times, (K2Tog) 3 times, k2.Row 4: K all sts.

Meanwhile Maggie B is putting the finishing touches to what has been lovingly reffered to as the 'endless afgan'. That's my inheritance!

SHOW OF THE WEEK

Flora Furniture

Alright alright we know we bang on about Craft Victoria alot - and yes Beck is the retail manager and Ramona is on the board so we have a vested interested in promoting our beloved organisation. But we have to say that we think that Ronnie Lacham's exhibition at CV is one of the most beautful shows we've seen anywhere...
We could wax lyrical about its zen like qualities, its clean modernist forms, its elegant balance between craft and design...

But you know at the heart of it, it is just so damn beautiful. It made our collective heart sing. Spring, dear readers, is finally in the air

OP SHOP FINDS OF THE MONTH!

south of the border...


Some days you just get lucky, you head out the front door to get the paper and think "you know what i'll just pop on down to the oppy and see what's on offer today" and there you find them. Three of the most spectaculalry crazy old school souvenier dolls, beyond your wildest imaginings and all from the magical lands of the south.



Sigh. Sometimes life is just too good.

CRAFT FINDS OF THE WEEK

prima piate

Yes theres a new craze at HML headquarters. As far as decoration goes you know we like to mix the high with the low, and we really really really love a bargain. Regular readers would also be aware that currently our shelves are full of strange ceramic figurines, the tables are clothed in a delicious selection of vintage cloths, the credenza is overloaded with west german ceramics and our couches are well and truly afghaned up the wazoo. We're almost at the point where every flat 'showcasing' surface has been gobble up with our craft finds, and yet we still cant stop ourselves.

So now, a few op-shops trips and excellent garage sales later our walls are slowly being covered in decorative plates. The starting point for this new fad was the rediscovery of a set of four very special Arnolds Diner inspired Barbeque Bowl plates... But of course you only really come across that kind of 60's RSL charm once in your life, so the genre has been expanded to include all manner of decorative plates from Beck's favourite decade... the 70's.

This here is the collection so far, but with a kitchen renovation in the offing, and fine weather coming we expect this collection to breed molto rapido. And of course it goes without saying that we're always more than happy to recieve donations.

EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK

groovy gurus!

HML headed out with high hair and last friday night with hep cats and hot rodders for the launch of the Mid Century Modern exhibition at OUTRE Gallery. Heidi might be Ramona's spiritual home, but Outre's free opening night tiki bar is definately Beck's, so really it was required viewing.

It was a huge night of outsider excellence with newly minted original paintings by goateed maestro of finger snapping cool Derek Yaniger, clean modernist cocktail inspried interiors by Shag and sleek and sexy robot girls by Keeth Weisner...

...there were also wicked ice maidens by Lynne Naylor, delerious amobeic monsters by HML fave Tim Biskup and studiously hep beatnik doodles by local ex Bachelor from Prague (oh yes we're showing our ID's loving old selves here) ... Jeff Raglus. Top show really, we only wished we had the serious cash to match our serious wishlist.

The exhibition in on for two weeks only then it hits Sydney on the 17th, it's well worth a look if you feel the need for some bongo fueled space madness. Lucky Sydneysiders might be still be in the running to join the royal order of hipsters at the exclusive cocktail party launch being held at ubercool Rose Seidler house.

Melbournites on the other hand will have make do with a drive by through Ivanhoe and Kew in home-made leopard print fez...

I MADE IT MYSELF

after weeks of hard slog it was really nice to get back to something as simple a bit of knitting by the telly (yes too many movies are not enough - square eyes barry they call me) as you read this dear readers I will be winging my way to WA to deliver this simple lace scarf to its recipient. I hope she likes it!

It's funny knitting for someone you haven't met before and I worry a little that it's too much of an OTT gesture - especially since I'm not the best knitter in the world(Im hoping the wood pin will make up for that!) Gift giving is a tricky thing sometimes. But hey, she's flown all the way from England and will be returning to a chilly Autumn (and possibly floods) so a little warmth won't go astray. And who doesn't like blue?

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

society games
The ladies of hml got to talking about Rock Paper Scissors and it turns out that Beck has the mad skills that Ramona believes will take her to the 2007 Rock Paper Scissor International Championships in Ontario in October. We may have finally found a sport we can excel in!
Those of you who are feeling particularly competitive and quick on their hands should head to the World RPS society for the latest in strategies, game basics and artwork (as seen here - Paper is the Answer is already winging its way to the hml office - woo hoo!)
There is even an online trainer for those wanting to hone their game. We though competitive eating was the greatest - but we couldn't face trying to beat Henry Hatau's 2007 record of 66 Nathans Hot Dogs (taking the crown from our beloved Kobayashi). But with RPS we may be in with a chance!

SHOW/S OF THE WEEK

Does dynamite beat tiger claw?
as we slowly emerge at the end of this week from our cinema stupor (not to mention, bad colds, huge badge orders and general seasonal grouchiness) we are going to do our best to get along to Westspace this week to catch up with a mega group show (a kind of superband of Melbourne artists) for the schoolyard game inspired exhibition ROCK PAPER SCISSORS. Artists include Louise Hubbard, Ash Keating, Lyndal Walker and our fave rave - the Book Surgeon Nicholas Jones.
And yes we do remain in MIFF land -nearly there folks. Yesterday Ramona went off to In the Company of Actors to see why Cate Blanchett is as good as everyone tells her (actually that sounds churlish - she is quite good it's true.) and then the entire hml staff (minus intern - still under 18 - poop!) trooped off to see the new Hartley pic Fay Grimm. sigh we heart hartley.

Today we are off to Japan with the screening of Eijanaika - nothing like going into a cinema at noon on a Monday - work schmirk we say!

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

square eyes

Saffron Burrows in a scene from Ramona's festival pick: Hal Hartley's Fay Grim

Unless you've been living under the proverbial rock you would be aware that the Melbourne Film Festival is on again. which of course means that we are doing nothing but fillum watching for the next two weeks. Well except for the 5,000 badges Ramona has produced, the CCP photography course Beck is undertaking, the normal time at work, and family meal preparing, etc etc etc. But we wont complain, despite all of the chores attempting to intervene we really are having an excellent festivus.

Regular readers would know that this is our annual mid-year break, and so far we've travelled to France, Italy, Jamaica, and the deep deep South, we're very much looking forward to our next jaunts into Tunisia, Japan, South Africa, North America, the UK, Sweden, Nigeria and Greenland - armchair travel with a bucketload of popcorn... happy trails indeed. Interestingly we've unintentionally bookended the festival with two hugely influential bespectacled gentlemen of no small sartorial excellence: we kicked off with the Karl Lagerfeld documentary Lagerfeld Confidential, and we're bringing it home with Scott Walker - 30th Century Man.

So if hml is a little thin on the ground for the next week or so, you'll know why, and where to find us. Our very own 'happy place' - in the dark, with square eyes and greasy fingers.