Lovers & Dreamers' Affair to Remember

Wow! 4 weeks goes so fast! In the last 4 weeks I've seen Singapore, England, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris. This was my first trip overseas and, turning 27 in only a few months, it was a very long time coming.

So, first things first: Glastonbury Festival. This was initially the whole point of our trip. Glastonbury is exactly what you think it will be - muddy, very muddy. Walking out of wellies stuck in 15cms of goop, trekking up a massive hill at least once a day and the frequent waft of poo did not deter me. The festival is amazing and people go out of their way to help one another; you could never be sure if you'd be the next to fall or get stuck in the mud so the general attitude is 'help them now, in case I need help later'. Throughout the site there are stores to buy an array of goods, from food and camping equipment through to second hand clothing, outfits by local designers (mainly light weight, hippie-inspired pieces) and even handmade lingerie. Glasto was a big city of tipis and tents, where it was about sharing a passion for music and respecting those around you; in 4 and a half days we did not see a single fight break out but instead witnessed people singing en masse to Oasis's 'Wonderwall'

Next stop was Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a beautiful city and so are its people, they definitely go above and beyond to help and are more than willing to stop for a chat. Whilst street art is clearly popular, it was the contemporary design that caught my eye. Our hotel, Citizen M, had a wonderful lobby/lounge area filled with furniture by designers such as Charles & Ray Eames and our room, with a huge bed (XL King Size) and changing mood lights, was unforgettable. There are also a number of homeware and furniture shops that provide great inspiration and there's a particular Miffy lamp that I am now trying to track down in Australia after seeing it on display in a number of stores throughout the city.

We then travelled on to Berlin, which is a major hub for urban artists. Berlin frequently left me awestruck by the sheer size of some of its artworks, as well as artists' ability to take over buildings with there being little or no resilience shown by police - my dream would be to walk into a place and claim it as my studio (without the stress of having to pay rent).

Below are pictures from Tacheles, the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery and artworks by Blu

Paris was a quick stop but like Amsterdam, it too had a strong sense of modern design. below is a picture of our hotel room at Mama Shelter, which came complete with Asterix and Batman masks, as well as an in room TV/ PC/'photo booth' (aka Apple Mac) which saves all photos to the hotel's hard drive and can then be viewed inside your room or seen scrolling across the TV in the restaurant downstairs (we decided not to take pictures this time).

Whilst there were plenty of architecturally renowned places to be seen throughout Europe, this is just a glimpse of the things I saw. Back in London, I got my fill of Banksy pieces and went to a number of markets - Portobello and Camden markets being 2 of the best known. I also visited Tate Modern, which is the most amazing gallery I have ever been to. So many more things were seen during my time abroad but I won't bore you with further details :)

LD xxx

Clearer Skies

Hello!

We have been gone some time, sorry for not keeping you up to date on all of our happenings! Miss Veeni has visited the lovely land of Bali and LD has taken to the rails to see parts of Europe, but we're back and into the swing of things again (albeit slightly jet lagged).

Here's a run down on Veeni's trip:

"I crossed the street to walk in the sunshine" Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) 

Bali, it's beautiful! Although I'd visited before, this trip was about getting away from the tourist centres and into the peaceful villages and farming areas. It's amazing how most of the people have nothing, but they seem so much happier than a lot of people living in Australia. The locals are generous, offering what they can when they can, and are almost completely self sufficient, with chickens and children running everywhere! Their can-do attitude is inspiring and it was definitely the escape from my daily routine that I needed to re-balance.

The arts and crafts of the Balinese varies greatly from traditional artwork inspired by the everyday, such as paintings of people working in the rice fields and women working in the home, to more westernised jewellery and accessories. During our stay in Bali, my partner and I visited the Ubud Markets which is set up according to a more traditional 'locals' market (although it is now too somewhat of a tourist destination), offering hand-carved statues, wooden beaded bracelets, works by silversmiths and batik fabrics.

In contrast to Ubud, Seminyak, a fast developing Spa area, had lots of little boutiques that were clearly inspired by Western trends. Apart from the roads, the shops are so shiny that you would almost think you were not in Bali. Upcycling was definitely a selling feature of many of the products. Whilst traditional Balinese ways are to use and re-use found items to further improve living and working conditions, these modernised pieces were taking items such as plastic bags and turning them into fashion pieces to further improve appearance. This use of everyday items was inspiring, but one can also see the change in culture from improving home/work life to improving the individual.

All up a great journey and one I'm keen to do again, but next time I think I'll go further into the mountains and trek through, meeting locals on the way and gaining a greater understanding of the Balinese culture and the skills and crafts used within the home.

Spotlight on Veeni

For those that have yet to see Veeni's work, here's a little spotlight on her cute, wearable creations.

Our recent work with old records sparked these beautiful upcycled bracelets

And check out all of these felted goodies:

There are so many more that are just as adorable as these but hopefully this gives a glimpse of the things to come from Veeni. We'll keep you posted as to when the online store opens or if there are any public appearances happening.

LD & Veeni xx

Going Where The Sun Shines Brightly

Winter has definitely arrived in Perth, it's rainy, wet and (to us little sunshine lovers) cold. With many people starting to hibernate into their black and grey uniforms of winter, Veeni has already escaped to the sunny sites of Bali and LD is now packing her bags for an English summer. With travel being on the recent agenda, we got to making some itinerary wallets.

Using the hand painted and printed fabrics of the previous week, LD decided to cut up the pieces and collage them onto a base piece of pre-cut fabric. The dimensions of our base piece was based on it being a little larger than a business size envelope; you need enough room to fit a folded A4 piece of paper, a passport, tickets and any other bits and pieces you intend on taking with you.

LD hadn't used a sewing machine since she was 15, so Veeni provided a few pointers and LD was off.

Once the pieces were stitched onto the base piece, we then stitched it to another piece of fabric, this time leaving one side unsewn so as to creat a pocket. By creating a pocket we were able to insert pieces of card so as to give our wallet some strength and keep its shape. It was then folded into position, ironed and stitched together.

Having already completed the sewing side of it earlier, Veeni continued to hand stencil onto her wallets and finish them off with buttons.

Here is what LDs wallet looks like. Considering LD hadn't sewn for years, Veeni's tips were definitely useful and we were pretty happy with the end result.

For easy access we decided to finish this one off with velcro and, as you can see, it fits everything perfectly!

Leave Your Prints

So much has been going on lately! Veeni just got back from Bali and it's less than a week til LD is off to see Europe. On the Sunday before Veeni left this is what we got up to...

Veeni's ever so talented father made a beautiful silk screen printer for her, so with the sunny weather still on our side we thought we'd give it a go.

Veeni received The Street Art Stencil Book for Christmas which was a great starting point for us beginners. It includes a variety of designs by street artists from around the world and provided a lot of inspiration.

Having done silk screening in high school, it easily came back to us. The hardest thing is getting the right amount of paint on the screen without it bleeding under the stencil, after a few attempts we got better at this and sometimes the bleeding works quite well depending on the print.

Veeni was dog sitting for her parents while they were off romancing for their wedding anniversary ♥, so Rosie was always on hand to provide guidance and help with the breakfast clean up.

While our screen prints dried we went on to do some hand painted fabrics. Here's Veeni's brain that has a slightly eggy appeal. Perhaps it's our love of yummy meals that means food is always on the mind :)

And here is LD's hand painted fabric that has a more tea towel feel about it.

With travel being a part of our lives at the moment we thought we might use our prints to make passport/itinerary wallets - we'll see how we go.

Pay It Forward

At the beginning of the year, LD decided to participate in a Pay It Forward project on Facebook. The rules were to post the following as your status: 

Pay It Forward for Creative People: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment to this update. They must in turn, promise to post this and send something they made to the first 5 posters on their status. It must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011

 Only three people responded to LD's post and hopefully at least one of them will pay it forward as agreed. The following is one of the gifts passed on.

A handmade rubber stamp, carved from Renoir Ezy Carve which, as the name suggests is beautiful to carve and gives some great results. The stamp was finished off with clay (hand rolled and cut to size) and painted in enamel, and a laminated picture of the stamp glued on top.

Fingers crossed the person who received it loved it as much as LD enjoyed making it xx

Knit Wear

Oooh! We've been a little quiet lately and didn't provide a post last week - sorry. Last Sunday we were off gallivanting with friends and stuffing ourselves silly on all you can eat buffet breakfasts in South Perth, so the crafting together was postponed to the following Sunday.

Although LD & Veeni didn't get their craft on together, LD did do some solo projects to make up for it. LD had previously come across a bracelet made out of a knitting needle and wanted to give it a go. After some research this How-To looked to be the easiest. Easy, however was not what LD discovered. The thickness of the knitting needles may have been the issue, as they never became malleable enough to bend and stay in shape. After multiple attempts and longer times in the boiling water, LD tossed in the towel.

LD is one stubborn mule though and wasn't willing to be defeated by a few knitting needles, so a couple of days later she went back to the mission. Rather than boiling the needles another time around though, the microwave looked to be a much more pro-active option. Firstly, baking paper was placed in the microwave and the needles placed on top (if those buggers were going to melt to a crisp, there was no way they were taking the microwave with them). After a minute or so you could see that the needles were becoming very bendy, so out they came and they were wrapped around an empty beer bottle (label removed) - Voila! it worked!

Another attempt was made with some children's needles but they didn't look so happy afterwards. The key is definitely to monitor the time and check on them regularly - oops!

Although the boiling water has worked for many people, the microwave seemed much quicker and also prevented the risk of the ends of the needle touching the edge of the pot and melting (as occurred with one of the needles). Another thing to note is that the boiling of the needles appeared to fatten and shorten the needle, as well as discolour them slightly. The microwave however did not do this.