EVENT OF THE WEEKEND - TONERPALOOZA

staple diet

It's going to be a gloomy old winter weekend here in Melbourne. Perfect opportunity to head into the State Library for the delightfully monikered 'TONERPALOOZA' zine fair. In fact it may inspire more of you to go photocopier crazy (we've done it, we loved it!). Saturday is more for the makers, with workshops and demos. Sunday hosts a fair of 100 zine makers. A fun day out and just for a few gold coins you'll return with a stash of original printed matter. You can find out more here at Sticky Institute.

BOOK OF THE WEEK - FORGOTTEN CRAFTS

ye olde excellence

We here at HML have had some very intense discussions this past year about crafts. the loss of skill, things that are on trend (macrame! polymer! weaving!) and crafts that seem to have fallen by the wayside somewhat. So much so that it is hard to find current practioners of not only excellence but also forward thinking contemporary craft practice. We know of course that this goes beyond having a great website or a profile on the Design Files but if we can't find them, then who can?

I was thrilled to find this book, the very Anglocentric 'The Book of Forgotten Crafts' which focusses on skill specific crafts that seem to have become so specialised and arcane there are fewer practioners than ever. The titles alone should pique your interest enough. They put each of these crafts in an historical context and then give an extensive interview with a current practioner. The overarching theme is skill and tradition. I'd love to see more of an emphasise on preservation and skill sharing.

As damning as we can all be about 'hipster' culture we have many things to be grateful for. This new generation of interest in artisanal living has meant there has been a resurgence in some long forgotten crafts. Last year saw traditional sign writing making a big comeback. Handmade shoes were everywhere at the design markets along with handhewn furniture. 

As a domestic crafter what interested me about the profiles in the book is how their craft is a lifelong process of learning and refining. They were pretty singular in their passions. I can't imagine the dedication it takes to be a lobster pot maker or cricket bat maker or even a gunsmith. There may not be a big call for broomsquires these days but there should be (I am now obsessed with learning how to make my own broom).

The book also includes illustrations taken from The Complete Book of Country Crafts published in the 1970's - not that long ago really, but so very long ago in many ways. The Book of Forgotten Crafts, though published in 2011 is a throwback book that not everyone will like. I love it and it's a great reminder to not always get lost in the visual splendour of the internet. Some days it's important to sit quietly with a good book, or a loom, or a pair of needles and learn how to make something slowly and well. RAMONA

BOOK OF THE WEEK

inspiration point

Calling Beci Orpin's  Find and Keep a craft book is a bit of a misnomer. Yes there are projects, yes there is a paper garland, washi tape, and even a touch of macrame. But it is so much more than that. The projects are sweet, but they are not the real substance of the book. Orpin gives us a unique and personable insight into her life and work and the whole thing is rich with colour and generosity of spirit.

There is also a deep kindness too. Every step of the way she tells us to do it our way, to choose our colours, our inspiration, objects that make us happy. Orpin is not telling us how to live, she is just inviting us into her space which is purely inspiration rather than aspiration.

There were several projects I did find really appealing. The cross stitched pegboard was a winner. instead of the plain white I sprayed mine 'Julia Child Blue' (my food hero had a giant blue pegboard in her kitchen). I also doubled up projects and put white paper underneath when I was spraying to create polka dotted wrapping paper.

This is a great gift book, and I confess I have gifted it to myself. I've also seen it at wildly different prices around town and online. It's not a craft book, it's a book about a young, innovative and much loved designer who celebrates the domestic handmade with her signature style, and in this instance, lovely openness.  RAMONA

BOOK OF THE WEEK

good golly miss molly

We'll all be seeing this book a lot over the next month methinks. Very English Mollie Makes magazine has harnessed a strong following since it started up a couple of years ago and has now produced this very sweet hardback Christmas book. I must admit I avoided  the magazine for many moons but since the inception of the iPad I've been downloading digital issues and catching up on the craze. I prefer its rival Making magazine (more substance over style - twice as many projects). I do have to admit that under all the cutesy stuff  in MM there is some good content that will appeal to fledgling crafters and people with more advanced skills (many of the knitting projects in the magazine are beyond me).

The book itself is beautifully produced. gorgeous paper, lovely styling and very generous in tone and spirit. It has some nice ideas in it, but is pretty useless if you are making gifts. It's pretty much for people wanting to hand make their decorations (wreathes, garlands, baubles). I loved the finger puppets - and the added suggestion of stuffing them and sewing them up so they could be decorations.

Being an import the magazine goes for the steep price of $15 at the local newsagency and a fairly hefty $7.50 on the iPad. The book is only available in paper form (why I wonder?) and is the same price as the magazine! It would actually make a really good present in itself. I got mine here because I'm a sucker for free shipping. It took a good two weeks to arrive tho so if you are in Melbourne you can buy it here. RAMONA

BOOK OF THE WEEK

minx meet

When the Kelly Doust book The Crafty Minx came out last year I must admit I kind of got my nose outa joint. Who was this woman with pretensions for being the queen of craft? I'd never even heard of her and yet here she was with this lusciously styled book and her name on the cover. So I chose to ignore it, just giving it a cursory glance in the bookstore.  But then kindle was having a special on the ebook version and I thought, well why not just down load it for 10 bucks and see what it's like? Much to my irritation loved it. So I snapped up The Crafty Kid this week at the library and checked it out, again lovely. annoying. I may be buying this one.

the book version on the left, mine on the right.

 Turns out this Kelly Doust is actually a lovely person with a great 'make do and mend' attitude that comes through in her warm writing style. I'm not sure why the plastic bag holder above was in the crafty kid book (Kelly suggested letting small ones crumple up the bags and put them in - turns out Thom LOVED this idea so there you go, small things amuse small boys).

my dodgy one on the left and the good book one on the right

 There are lots of nice simple projects that aren't really up to gift giving status but a certainly sweet enough for your own abode. My oilcloth lunch bag is decidedly dodgy and may end up as a catch all for my washi tape collection instead of a personal picnic bag as intended. So if you see the Crafty Minx or the Crafty Kid books out there, don't dismiss them out of hand like silly old me. They aren't for the highly skilled, it's purely simple and domestic. Have a peek, she seems nice, not royal, but nice. RAMONA

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Modern Family

We confess we have a total crush on American designer Todd Oldham. Last year Beck was lovely enough to give me his amazing biography of illustrator Charley Harper so I was very excited to get my mitts on his craft book for kids. Of course it's supercool, engaging and brilliant.

The projects are awesome, the styling is delicious and not twee, and the inclusion of design inspirations, reading lists, design heroes, design advice makes it such an intelligent read. If we'd seen this book when we were 12 we may have fainted with joy.

It's rare to see a kids crafting book that is aimed directly at the kids and not at hovering parents desperate to see their offspring be creative by shoving a glue stick in their hand (I'm guilty of this and it is something I worry about). I borrowed this one from the library but you can buy it here.

Perfect for older kids on their own (8 up), younger kids with supervision and grown up kids who want a big dose of design inspiration. Hot Toddy indeed. RAMONA

BOOK OF THE WEEK

under a paper moon

Ok so between us the ladies of HML have about 300 craft books. No we are not kidding. So as you can imagine we are pretty tough critics when it comes to these things. With bookshelves so full it takes some convincing for us to hand over our hard earned cashola. Being parents we are particularly interested in craft books that focus on stuff to keep the kids amused - despite the fact they have attention spans of about 30 seconds we can usually entice our boys into some serious gluestick and glitter action on quite a regular basis.

I am mighty impressed with this one. PAPERCRAFT by Kathreen Ricketson. For those of you that don't know, Kathreen is the founder of the much loved and used craft site Whip Up and is already the author of several books. She's brought together papercrafters from around the world to put this clever little compendium together. 

Yes there were a lot of owls, and we may all be sick of the woodland creatures but let me tell you kids LOVE them and always will. There is something nice and fresh about the design of the book, there were lots of gender neutral crafts (a nice change from the girl heavy craft books of late) and despite being sweet it's not saccharine. So if you got kids or are on the lookout for a crafty present for a family you know, or you just want to make paper beads yourself I highly recommend this one. RAMONA

craft crush of the week

hello awesomeness

Yesterday I was lucky enough to hear (amongst a bevy of other great people) the lovely Ebony Bizys, (aka hello sandwich) speak at craft's annual seminar Craft and Design as a Career. Interestingly enough her work pretty much sits right in the aesthetic sweet spot between Ramona and I, which is kind of amazing because as you know when it comes to most things we have very different taste. While I'm a complete Japanophile who loves the stationery, colour palette and special top knot styling of tokyo, Ramona is a keen new school scrapper. But as it happens along with representing our mutual washi tape of choice mt, Ms Bizys also currently has Ramona's dream job - using and promoting the Martha Stewart collection of craft products... and she's so good at it even i'm considering getting on board.

It was really fantastic to hear someone so talented (and delightfully unassuming) speak in such a down to earth fashion about making the big step away from dream job (vogue art director) to following their dream (living and working in tokyo). Made me both inspired and envious!

Unfortunately we both ummed and ahhed about joining one of workshops at both Harvest and Craft for a millisecond too long and they sold out in minutes. I wonder if that makes Hello Sandwich the stationery equivalent of Prince?

Thankfully Ebony is extremely generous on the how to instructions and project ideas on Hello Sandwich, and also has her new book out now - and  being such an avid consumer of japanese craft books she's made sure the instructions are super easy to follow so we wont be defeated by the kanji.

So to all you lucky bunnies who already have or are about to start enjoying your time making stuff with the queen of kawaii - enjoy yourselves thoroughly. We're as jealous as hell!  BECK

MAGAZINE OF THE WEEK

MAKING STUFF

Many moons ago I was a great consumer of magazines. I am (affectionately) ribbed by my friends for having every copy of Martha Stewart Living since 1994 - but even that obsession waned with the closing of Borders bookstore and the purchase of an Ipad. I haven't bought a magazine since September 2011.  I now subscribe to the digital editions for the same amount it would cost for one copy. I guess this means I'm just consuming in a different way!

 I've recently discovered the lovely English magazine 'Making'. You can pick it up in local newsagent for around $15 a copy or purchase the digital edition for $7. It's aimed squarely at domestic crafters, comes out once a month, is beautifully photographed and quite inspiring. I have bookmarked 24 projects in the 10 issues I've downloaded so far. Nothing crazy, just nicely presented little nudges without the whole 'aren't we cool we craft!' element. I've been meaning to make the lavender hearts for our bedposts for ages now. Nothing original in that I know but a prompt was all I needed.

It won't be to everyone's taste, like I say it's for us gift making weekend crafters with added inspiration of interviews and insights from professional makers. It's very anglocentric (a whole edition dedicated to the jubilee - which I LOVED). It's a sweet magazine so I thought I'd give y'all a heads up. RAMONA

MANICURE OF THE WEEK

hard as nailz

Last week Ramona and I celebrated the opening of Harvest textiles new retail space Harvest Storeroom. Of course its awesome and filled with amazing stuff we want to fill our homes and outfit ourselves in - including a chevron unitard which I will be sporting all summer. We'll report more on the new shop tomorrow. Today is more about the hand than the hand made, and Lordy, we are SOOOOOO on board this one.

Now we both love a bit of nail polish, and have enjoyed watching the recent move towards neon, grunge, glitter, crackle and patterned manicures with interest if not actual engagement. But while sipping our champagne last Thursday night we watched a long queue of people get made over by gangster nail outfitters  the Super Rad Nail Sisters . In a collaborative stroke of genius they've translated some of harvest's signature prints from cloth to nail. Oh Boy. Until August 5 book in with Rohani and Rosalie and get your very own set of super bright teardrops, leopard print, polka dot or chevrons. Can't decide which - hey get a digit done in each!  Read more about it here and get in quick. BECK

BOOK OF THE WEEK

in stitches 

I was hoping to show you my friend ms J's birthday present today (as today is her actual birthday!) but I had a french seam incident that I am yet to recover from or unpick so I thought I'd show you what she bought me for Christmas instead. 

'Hoopla: the art of unexpected embroidery' is an inspirational craft book that combines projects, artist profiles, cultural reflection and contemporary analysis that is rare in this age of jolly hockey sticks craft writing. I've been working my way through it for the past month and I absolutely love it. 

clockwise top left: Eliot M Henning, Jo Safferton
Alexandra Walters, Claire Platt

When I say I've been working through it, I haven't tried any of the projects. It's so well researched and written it works perfectly as a good read. Author Leanne Prain was the co-author of Yarn Bombing (another great craft culture tome) and really takes the time to paint what feels like a really detailed picture of the current state of play in embroidery land.

Jacque Lynn Davis

At 400 pages this is no small book but it still muscled its way onto my bedside table - where it still is! Thanks Ms J - your birthday present is going to be a couple of days late...RAMONA
PS dear reader, you can buy this book at READINGS and ARTISAN BOOKS

Books of the Week

Neither a borrower or a lender be

I have been spending an unusual amount of time in libraries the past couple of weeks. We all seem to be members of different ones (near work, near school, near coffee). I'm fairly impressed with how many new craft books seem to be hitting the shelves as it gives me a 'try before you buy' opportunity which my credit card is grateful for. Only three of these were any good, a couple of them were appalling (cute potholders? For goodness sake) and one will be bought (the Fassett quilt book is amazing and inspiring).

I also loved the 'Sweet Treats in Cross Stitch'. Part of the Made in France series this one felt very fresh and pretty with not-too-easy projects and lots of good charts at the back of the book. In the spirit of our craft book challenge I'm going to do the little baby bottle cover as a gift for a new bub. Better get onto it to avoid late fees.

blogs of the week

b is for breakfast, d is for dinnertime

OK so last year was all about me posting breakfast daily on Facebook. An interesting exercise for in which I discovered I consume more bagels in a year than they bake at Glicks in ten. So, this year I've decided try and branch out a little and try to find some new favourites and fall backs for my favourite meal of the day. I've also decided to follow Ramona's lead and put together a blog chronicalling my morning repasts rather than bore my friends stupid on facebag. 

So now you can see how I start the day, and how Ramona finishes it. Riveting no revealing definitely. Like they say you are what you eat. BECK

first day of the week

Salutations!

Can you believe it? Brand new year! The ladies of hml are looking forward to a craft packed summery start to 2012. This is the perfect time to just relax, slow down in the heat (or chill depending on your hemisphere) and work on little projects that bring you happiness. We never start on big projects in January. Sometimes a little paper wreath for the front door is all that's needed.

Ps. Inspired by Beck's 2011 365 project of documenting her breakfast, I'm doing dinner. Everyday I cook for 5 people between the ages of 3 to 69. The family dinner may seem like an odd thing to document and to share but I'm interested in how, over time, it will build a narrative of family life. Don't worry I'll include my culinary disasters, bad takeaways and dodgy desserts so it might be entertaining for you.
It's on a separate blog called 365 dinnertime. If you like to check it out please do!

Books of the week

Poetry and stitches

I've been so lucky lately. I have received quite a haul of gorgeous books for my recent birthday. One of which is just so mega amazingly wondrous it will get it's own post next week. It's a book so special Im actually giving it it's own shelf! In the meantime I can recommend any of these texts for inspiration and Ideas.Miss P recently came back from an annual sojourn in Tasmania and brought back a gorgeous limited edition book of 10 island writers and crafters along with a whole pile of goodies for me from MONA. The book is just lovely and I have read it cover to cover. The other tomes are some great boy focussed DIY sewing books and a crazy Japanese embroidery book. Aren't we all suckers for those Japanese craft books? Are they useful at all? Probably not but lovely nonetheless! RAMONA

SHOW OF THE WEEK

paper rocks scissors

image James Eisen

CURTIN @ Seventh.

Curated by Johann Rashid and his lovely lady Andie Tham, two very well connected peeps on the local indie art scene. Apparently "when not studying film at RMIT, Joh makes film clips, and occasionally hosts tv shows too"... nice work if you can get it! This, his latest project is a free publication called “Curtin” loosely based around artists involved in melbourne's own Curtin House. This exhibition features work from all ten artists involved in the book, all of whom site sourced and found material as the starting point of itheir mage making and technical process. As usual perhaps there is the linking of themes and narratives through juxtaposed high and low brow imagery however this exhibition has promised fun, along with the insider analysis and "conscientious cropping collaging and re-approproptiation" of the found imagery of popular contemporary culture. And people, if the flyer and artists door list at Curtin House is anything to go by this  promises to be quite a treat.

28th April – 14th May at Seventh Gallery
55 Gertrude st, Fitzroy.
BECK

SHOP OF THE WEEK

All the pretty things

Anyone into craft and design knows that it's as important (if not more) to visit shops as well as galleries to keep up with what's happening on the professional handmade scene. The ladies of HML have long had a hankering to visit Mr Kitly in Sydney Rd as this little shop of treasure has already garnered quite the rep for ceramics, jewellery, wood and macramé (!) sourced locally and from Japan - it's main source of inspiration.

So while on my epic Saturday gallery jaunt I made sure I had time to climb the carpeted stairs to see what all the fuss is about. Let me tell you it's one of those places that photos don't do it justice. It's so gorgeous. I mediately thought "If Beck was a shop she'd be this one" it tapped into so many of our shared passions - macramé being one of them of course!

Beautifully curated selection of goods, including some drool worthy design books.

These wooden vessels are going on my wish list right now. Perfect for HML meetings!

And of course I went a little faint at the sight of the Fog Linen napkins. Oh goodness me...

It's exciting to find something really fresh and authentic. There was nothing contrived or cutesy. The sweetness was tempered with intelligent choices that just sang. Close to perfect! RAMONA
Mr Kitly
Upstairs
381 Sydney Rd
Brunswick
Open Thurs-Sat 11-6, Sun 11-4