I've got the Bug

A friend of mine asked me to do her some shoes to match her Zatchels Ladybug bag:

As soon as I saw the bag I got very excited about designing some shoes to match it! I love the colours and the cracked leather effect, but I wanted to put my own spin on it.

Here is the finished result:

I'm really happy with how they turned out, they're more cartoony and bright than the bag, but I think they will compliment it perfectly :)

Fashion Favs Fri 10/08/12

1. madama Robe - Cute little speech bubble pins that come in a variety of colours with lots of different sayings on. Perfect as a gift for a special friend!

2. Oh Honey Hush - Beautiful bow hair ties and bandanas. So many great colours and patterns! A perfect addition that will jazz up any outfit.

3. Rock Cakes - Super fun jewellry. I love the bright lazer cut gem brooches!

4. LeBestiaire - I love love love their embroidered feather tees and sweaters. If I owned one I'd want to wear it every day.

5. LaLa Shoes - This shop has the most incredible baby shoes ever! I might start popping some babies out just so I can buy these shoes.

Etsy Shop Feature: inameliart

While looking through inameliart, it took me back to my childhood. Her work reminds me of the Jane Hissey books I used to read as a child.

Inameliart sells the artwork of Amelia, an illustrator and graphic designer based in Poland.
If I had a nursery I would love to cover it in these beautiful paintings!

 Amelia also has a blog where you can see more of her paintings.
 

Wednesday Art Feature: Akumu-Kurai

Akumu-Kurai is a spanish artist who specialises in portraits in her own unique style. I love the way she incorporates pattern and fashion into her work. Akumu manages to take a simple colour scheme and a simple portrait and make it into a feast for your eyes. She finds patterns and textures where others wouldn't.

Akumu also has a blogspot where you can see more of her work.

Alex in Australia: Sydney Biennale

A few weeks back myself and friends visited the 18th Biennale of Sydney at Cockatoo Island on Sydney's harbour. The event is a three month long exhibition of varied pieces of art scattered around the abandoned ex-prison/boatyard/workshops of the island. The venue in itself is a fascinating place to wander and the art was a welcomed addition.

The island houses many large warehouses with vast amounts of space to work with. Therefore most of the art is on a grand scale. Below are 3 of my favourite pieces.

The first is 'Gravitas Lite' by Peter Robinson. He uses Polystyrene in most of his work and in this case built  chains, cogs and machinery providing a strange contradiction in material to the real metal structures surrounding it. The detail and intricacies are pretty spectacular and the general size is amazing.

The second piece is by Cal Lane called Domesticated Turf. A slightly left field exhibition comprising of stencilled persian rugs made from outback sand. The rugs lead to a freight container that has been cut out in an almost rob ryan manner. The piece is situated in the largest room of the main warehouse area which, adding to the grandeur. In honesty it wasn't all my cup of tea, but the rugs were very interesting! Again an odd contrast in materials, from the delicate lace of the rugs to the metal of the container.

'I like to work as a visual devil’s advocate, using contradiction as a vehicle for finding my way to an empathetic image, an image of opposition that creates a balance, as well as a clash, by comparing and contrasting ideas and materials'

And finally my favourite installment is Ocean of Flowers by Li Hongbo. The work is situated in one of the buildings at the top level of Cockatoo Island. At first it comes across as a field of colour...amazing papercraft but not much else. As you walk to the back of the room the exhibition is explained. Each rolled out piece of paper is infact a gun or weapon when put back together. Giving you a completely different perspective as you leave.

'Over the past few years, Li Hongbo has been gluing piles of paper together. Ocean of Flowers begins with the honeycomb technique carved into forms resembling weapons that he twirls into new ‘flower shapes’. With the global proliferation of weapons – the utopian ideals of the 1950s in China, or the 1970s elsewhere, seem so long ago and forgotten'

Cockatoo Island is a fantastic place and well worth a visit. It was a good day and interesting to see the different works in such a fascinating place. In October there should be another exhibition called Outpost, which has more of a street art vibe to it. I visited last year and probably preferred it slightly. Keep posted for that review!

Fashion Favs Friday 03/08/12

1. Sharon Boaz Fashion - Hand made and vintage inspired fashion. This shop is full of beautiful prints and lovely statement pieces for your wardrobe. Very reasonably priced too!

2. Still With You - I discovered this shop when I fell in love with their hand stitched jewellry. They have a great combination of other items too, including really pretty raw crystal jewellry and hand dyed scarves.

3. Santa Cara - Almost everything in this shop is on my wishlist. It's whimsical, quirky and beautifully illustrated jewellery makes me want to have a rave tea party on the moon (that's a good thing)

4. ArchetypeZ - With my recent obsession with geometric everything, I was drawn to this shop and it's fabulously modern jewellry. I particularly love the wooden geometric earrings because it's mixing nature with awesome shapes.

5. Cara Mia Vintage - In my opinion, one of the best vintage shops for great quality designer vintage items. They have such a great selection.

ER MAH GERD ERNSTERGRERM

Translated: Oh my god Instagram. If you want to learn to speak ERMAHGERD look no further than this translator. Em from Lick My Cupcakes was kind enough to send me the link to this ingenious website. It's entirely her fault if I start talking like this in real life.

Anyways, here's my latest update in instagram pictures, as you can see there aren't many this week as I'm saving loads of my piccies for a post about this Sundays photoshoot (although, it may not go ahead now due to stupid rain).

1 & 2. Of course I can't do an update post without featuring my scruffy little bear dog. She's now had a hair cut and looks far too sleek and neat, it totally dosn't fit her crazy bouncy personality. In pic 2 she's snogging the face off my friend Ginge. She loves ginge cause she smells like dog butts. True story.

3. I made the nommiest chocolate fudge cake I've ever eaten, seriously! And it's vegan, but you can't even tell. I sort of vowed never to make this again cause I ate far too much of it. But now I've decided to make it again in order to get some good pictures of it and do a recipe post :)

4. I tried lino printing and failed. The result looked awful! I'm going to have to try again. I managed not to take a chunk out of my thumb this time, so kind of a happy ending.

5. I made PonyChops note paper!! This makes me so happy. I want to write everyone letters on it now.

6. I painted and reupholstered some charity shop furniture for sundays photo shoot. I've decided I'm keeping this furniture as I've fallen in love with it.