A night to remember

Come along to the Kingston Night Art Market! It's on this Saturday. Details here ... Facebook info here ... wee flyer thing right here...

...and me talking about the market here (on page 32 of Bayside Leader if that link doesn't work)

...and again here... (page 29 of Mordialloc Chelsea Leader)

...and again right here on this blog for those of you who can't be bothered looking at those links!

The market is on Saturday, December 3 from 4pm to 10pm at Kingston Arts Centre, 979 Nepean Hwy, Moorabbin (Melway 77D5). I'll be selling super cute critters like these...

quirky accessories like these...

...and earrings for only $5 a pair - great for Kris Kringle gifts! I'll also have lovely clutch purses available, plus lots of other goodies - come and see!

A crafty way to shop

Who wants to watch telly when you could be at Markit at Fed Square?

Oh, unless the telly looks like this knitted one from the lovely folks at Lark.

I fell in love with Jimmy at The Gently Unfurling Sneak...and left with some of their brilliantly quirky cards.

Then it was time to Ask Alice about her super cute stationery. I couldn't resist these gift tags.

Retro Print Revival had some bright ideas. I especially love the Very Hungry Caterpillar lamp (in the front right corner of this pic) and I'm certain Leeyong at Style Wilderness would love the Frida Kahlo number, since she dresses like her sometimes. Minus the monobrow, though (disappointing I know.)

I can't even tell you how much I loved this stall. SO MUCH CUTE. You should check them out here.

Can you believe this beautiful print was on a doona cover for a cot? Some babies have all the luck. It's from Sunday Morning - appropriate since Markit was on a Sunday, yes? Oh yeah, in case you hadn't worked it out yet, Markit is a MASSIVE market full of independent Melbourne designers showing off all their great stuff - accessories, bags, prints/ posters, ceramics, jewellery, everything you can think of, really. There is so much talent in this town it's almost scary. I left feeling super inspired...

...saw Santa waiting for a train... (for the record, he was wearing black Ugg boots. Ugh. But not surprising, really, given he was waiting for the Frankston train.)

...and got so excited about my purchases I thought I'd do a bit of photo shoot when I got home. Sadly this super cute red clutch purse from Pigeonhole does not match my very favourite maroon Fluevog boots. Oh dear, I shall have to buy another bag to match them. Heh.

This, however, will match everything I own. It's from Greg Mann, who does terribly clever things with cutlery - like make spoons into pendants and earrings and forks into rings. He told me this brooch used to be a salt and pepper pot - the other half of it was sold to a Brisbanite so I am almost guaranteed to have the only one of these in Melbourne!

Ooh, and I nearly forgot to mention the very best thing about the whole Markit - Cat Rabbit was there with her amazing softies. (I have four of them already and had to fight the urge to buy more.) She is incredibly lovely and talented. I have a gigantic craft crush on her which makes me embarrassingly tongue-tied around her. I must have missed the 'how to talk normally to people you admire' class in school. (Cat, if you are reading this, I am super sorry that I tend to run screaming with joy towards your stall, then screech to a stop and babble incoherently at you before blushing and running away. It's only because I think your creations are AWESOME.) Ack, I'm babbling incoherently even now, aren't I? Anyway, she has a book coming out next year - hurrah! I shall start practising my congratulatory speech now so I don't look like a complete idiot during the book launch...

Open up and say braaaaaaaains

Appropriately enough, there were bodies everywhere at last night's opening of Esprit de Corpse, the zombie-themed art exhibition I'm holding with my undead artist pals Charlotte and Kitty. (Yes, the same show I've been banging on about for a few weeks now. Fret not, it has all come to a (severed) head and this will be the last you hear of it. Just tumour me a while longer, OK?)

Oh, and some of these pics come courtesy of my sister, Leeyong. You can read a far more reliable account of the night on her blog here.

And, courtesy of Kitty and Charlotte, you can see pics of us installing the show right through to pics of us celebraaaaining its opening here.

Why helloooooo there! These three lovely ladies would like to EAT YOUR BRAAAAAAAAINS. That's me wearing traditional Melbourne black, with the corpse-a-licious Charlotte in blue and gore-geous Kitty in envy-inducing green.

Kitty gazed lovingly at the dead bird on my head.
'Egad!' I cried, 'there's a dismembered My Little Pony upon your noggin!'

My colleague Michael and I rose up from a particularly hellish grave.
Well, OK, from the office. Same thing.

Prior to the show opening, Kitty gave me two black eyes. Luckily Clive, my bodyguard, turned up to prevent any more. It was just like in that crap film with Whitney Houston. Who's up for a rousing rendition of 'I will always love yooooooooou'? No, me either. I prefer the way more romantic 'Til death do us part - and then we shall return as zombies!' which was on someone's iPod shuffle...heh.

Lans tried to blend in with the artwork.

So did our Zombie Burlesque lass...

...Who kicked off her heels, one of which landed in the wall and stayed there.
Take that, Hollywood special effects!

Charlotte convinced the crowd she was bloody innocent.
Kitty didn't look so certain.





By the end of the night I had truly suffered for my art.

Now it's your turn.

If you missed opening night, you've got another fortnight to see the show at

Egg Gallery, 66a Johnston Street, Collingwood.

We've hit the big time! Well, mX at least

Oooh look, me and Charlotte are in today's mX newspaper!The lovely Nicole Cleary took this photo while I was attempting to look like a squinting horse. That's Charlotte on the right, probably wondering why I am such a nuffy. If you have extremely good eyesight you'll be able to read the accompanying caption which is spruiking our art show, Esprit de Corpse. And just for the record, the giant zombie octopus behind us is a BOY, not an Octomummy - you can tell because he is extremely well-endowed where it matters most...in the...er...tentacles. Ahem.

Making (severed) head lines

Regular readers of this blog most probably have a diet high in fibre and will most definitely know all about my impending dooooooom, er, impending zombie-themed art show, Esprit de Corpse, since that's pretty much all I've been banging on about lately. But why just read what I've got to say about it? You can read a much more professional account in Melbourne Times Weekly. Thanks heaps to Al Walsh for his words and Stephen McKenzie for the stellar pic, in which it appears I am trying to eat Charlotte's head.

Stuff this

My heart is stuffed full of love for these amazing taxidermied creations by the utterly amazing Enrique Gomez de Molina.

Thank you, Leeyong, for stuffing around at work and sending me the link.

Note to self: will my corpse to Enrique with a request that I be combined with a giraffe.

FINALLY I will be able to buy jeans that don't need to be shortened.

Wanna see my zombie artworks? Of corpse you do!

Reasons I have not updated this blog lately:

1. I had to walk my pet cauliflower.

2. I have discovered the joy of vanilla vodka martinis. They Absolut-ly awesome. (Ahem, Absolut, I'd like payment for that name-drop, please.)

3. I've been preparing frantically for the Zombie Apocalyse, aka the Esprit de Corpse art show I am holding with my dear undead artist pals Charlotte and Kitty. So far, this has involved battling for space on the craft table with a giant black-and-white striped zombie octopus who may or may not be a ninja in his time off, decapitating a Barbie doll and working out exactly which type of wool makes the best sort of brains for a ghoulish zombie critter made from an airline sock. (I can tell you now in all honesty, wool does not work, you're better off with felt and a lot of hand stitching. Take that, Martha Stewart, I bet even you did not know that.)

Come and see the results of all this unscientific experimentation - opening night is Friday, November 4 from 6pm at Egg Gallery, 66a Johnston St, Collingwood (opposite the Tote). Prizes will be awarded for those who turn up dressed as zombies. (Although by 'prizes' I mean 'you shall be spared from the brain-sucking activities of any other zombies present', which is a pretty good prize really. You might also get a gourmet dinner cooked by me if you're lucky, but seeing as my cooking skills only go as far as opening a box of Barbecue Shapes, don't get too excited about this. Hello, Arnott's, cough up.)

ANHOO, as Mr T would have said if he was into the walking undead, I pity the ghoul who does not turn up to this show! Be there or be dead, in fact if you ARE dead, you should definitely turn up, we will put you on display as a piece of modernist realist artwork...

This little crafster went to market

This week I made...a craft stall at Made n Thornbury craft market! Here it is:

You might recognise some of the critters from previous posts. Or you might recognise them because they came home with you today - if so, thanks for buying a critter from me!

Hurrah for you!

Having a stall was an optional part of the Make Craft Your Business course held at Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House earlier this year. Most of the girls who attended the course had a stall, or turned up to browse, and it was ace to see them all again. The market was held today - if you missed it, there's another one coming up in December. Details here.

My stall was next to the always lovely Rosie Ruse - see more of her beautiful jewellery here. Her equally lovely partner James braved the elements (namely, a hall full of women and craft stalls! Now that's a force stronger than a cyclone!) and came to visit later in the day. Awwwww.

I'd like to say Janet from Slow Spun spun out, because that is the obvious pun to make in this kind of yarn. But she's a real purler, not a knitwit, and I doubt she'd ever have a woolly thought. As you might have guessed, Janet hand-knits beautiful garments including scarves and gloves. She even spins her own wool. How cool is that? She knitted all through the course and has been known to walk, shop and knit an intricate, tri-coloured design AT THE SAME TIME which is COMPLETELY FREAKIN AMAZING to someone like me - I am so uncoordinated I sometimes marvel at my ability just to walk up stairs without tripping over. (I say 'sometimes because it's fairly often that I DO trip over.) And I can't cannot co-ordinate my thoughts, either. I wanted to compliment Janet on her incredible multitasking skills, and what did I wind up saying? 'Oh my god you can knit and walk and talk all at once, and you don't even need to look at what you're knitting?! You should be in a circus, that's like juggling while you're on fire!'

Yep, sure, whatever... anyway, there's more about Janet here.

Donna's handmade greeting card stall is on the left here - it was just next to mine. We spent a vast part of the day exchanging cat stories - Donna named her business, Millie n Daisy, after her beloved furry friends.

On the right is Two Birds by Lisa Kerr.

Lisa makes super cool accessories - she hand-paints beads and then makes them into chunky, modern and very wearable necklaces and brooches. I was lucky enough to do a craft swap with her - I made her an owl door stopper (which I stupidly forgot to photograph, oops) and she's going to custom-make me a necklace in exchange. Yay!

Lisa has been super supportive of me and my crafty ways throughout and beyond the craft course. I can't wait to wear the necklace and, at the risk of sounding cheesier than the Vic Market deli, keep feeling that support. And for me, that's really what the craft course did best - introduce a bunch of crafty people to each other who really 'got' what we were all on about. Never before have I been able to discuss buttons for 30 minutes without a single eye-roll in the room! If you're in any way crafty I recommend you do the course - read more here.

This little critter went to market

We'll all be having a hoot on Saturday! Join us!

I'll be taking these cute critters and badges (and plenty more!) out to play this Saturday, October 15. Come and see us all at my stall at the Made n Thornbury craft market. It's at Leinster Grove Community Centre, 99 Leinster Grove, Thornbury (MEL 30 D5) from 10am-2.30pm. There will also be delicious sweet treats available from Melbourne Epicure (yes, I am open to bribes of their amazing cookies!) and gorgeous handpainted necklaces by 2birds - and that's just the start of the fun.

See you there!

Mouth of Menace

RAAR! A zombie-work-in-process I be!

Also, speak like Yoda I do!

Partway towards being finished for the Esprit de Corpse show at Egg gallery I am. 

Perfect for brains my massive black gob is.

I crave BRAAAAAAAAINS! Non-grammatically-correct sentences! And...BRAAAAINS!

He's got his father's eyes...

Aw, lookit the widdle baby sock zombie monster, isn't he ka-yooot? 

Look how proud he is that he can feed himself, awwww. 

What's that?

He's got his father's eyes?

Yes, and aren't they love-AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!!

Death is just the beginning

I like eggs. I like chicken's eggs and chocolate eggs and one of my favourite Mr Bungle songs is called 'Egg'. So I'm pretty eggs-xcitedthat this critter will be in Egg Gallery's opening show on September 23. Yep, it'll be a mad scramble to get there and see this poached critter's head on their walls. No yolk. What's that? I can't hear you over all the groaning over my terrible puns.

The piece is called 'Death is just the beginning' which I confess I ripped off from a Nuclear Blast metal compilation, but since it's a decapitated zombiefied animal's head dripping with blood and gore and mounted in a picture frame, much like what you might find at a zombie hunting lodge frequented by death metal heads, I don't think they will mind. In fact I just googled Nuclear Blast and their bands are a minefield of potential titles for this series of zombie-themed pieces I'm working on. 'Cadaverous mastication' (thank you, Meshuggah) might just make it in if I can work out how to mechanise a corpse-like critter so it looks like it's chewing on braaaaaains. Shouldn't be too hard with my degrees in engineering and bio-mechanics. Cough.

Anyhoo, I'm working on these zombie-like things as part of a zombie-themed art exhibition with the most excellent Charlotte Tizzard and Kitty Robertson, whose hilarious blog you can read here. Charlotte does bee-you-tiful drawings (even her zombies are drop-dead gorgeous) and Kitty's creations are fascinating because they are, well, fascinators. Zombie fascinators. How cool is that? Our zombie show - titled 'Esprit de Corpse', and no, that is not a rip off of a metal band, yours truly thought that one up! - will be at Egg from November 2. Bring your friends, bring your lovers, bring your braaaaaaaains!

Badge of honour

Hurrah, my business cards arrived! They were designed by my lovely friend Cass in about, oh, 2 seconds because she is ACE and very clever. The button-like thing you see in the top right hand corner is indeed a button badge, made from - can you guess? - yes, a button, stitched on to two layers of felt. Cute and fast - just like Cass!

George the Giant Octopus

 If looking at this picture makes you scream

AAAAAAAAARRRGH 

THERE ARE GIANT INTESTINAL WORMS ON YOUR CRAFT TABLE

Then you should get your eyes tested, for they are, of course - 

AAAAAAAARRRGH! LOOK OUT, THERE'S A GIANT DECAPITATED OCTOPUS HEAD IN THE NEXT PICTURE!!! RUN!!!

 *exasperated sigh* 

Look, it's not a decapitated giant octopus head, OK, it's just a giant octopus head that is not attached to its legs. And the first picture is not of giant intestinal worms, they are giant octopus legs. The cluey, less terrified among you can probably therefore work out what I was TRYING to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, is that I'm making a GIANT OCTOPUS. YES. At the moment, it's clearly a work in progress. But when he's finished, he'll sit in Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe, or possibly dangle menacingly from the ceiling. (Yes, in this picture, you can see some of my other critters hanging out there, including Takoyaki the mighty Octopus who's in the front window. Nice shot, Broadsheet!)

 George the giant octopus is a collaborative work - I've been getting lots of help from these guys, who

AAAAAAARGH! THERE'S A ZOMBIE HAMSTER IN THAT PHOTO!

 

I give up.

Let's have a hootenanny!

Mother Owl sometimes thinks her baby, Spots...

...looks a bit belligerent. But hoo is she to object when he's such a hoot?

Let's have a hootenanny!

Well owl be damned

I'm having a hoot making owls from all kinds of fabric. Daisy - the brown owl - is made from vintage velvet that my friend Fiona's gran (an ex-dressmaker) had stashed away.

This one - Goldie -  looks a little pinned, but I assure you all pins were removed prior to this photo shoot. She's made from an op-shopped gold lurex top (I'm not telling if I wore it to an '80s disco before chopping it up!)

Jumper to it

Aw, how cute is this little guy? I made him from a jumper sleeve for my lovely workmate Laura, who needed a gift for a one-year-old's birthday. You might recognise the fabric from an earlier critter's jumper.