Joe-the-polar-bear bookshelf

Lovely this.
Designed and manufactured by Ibride. They also have some other interesting projects such as dog seats and an ostrich table...
Images via Made in Design

Merry Christmas!

Made this today, partly to compensate for my total disorganisation in actually sending cards this year...

Lomo lomo

Goodness, it's addictive that Lomo effect (previous post)...
here's some more summer shots.

Lomo dog

Ha. Just had to post this. I borrowed a free Lomo-effect Photoshop script from Flickr, and used it on a random photo I took of a dog in Berlin last June. I rather like the result.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Here's what The Guardian online has to say:
"Take a peek at theatre company 1927's acclaimed stage show, which weaves together a series of vignettes inspired by fairytales and silent cinema. The show has been on tour around the world and is at Battersea Arts Centre until January 3 2009."
And I must say it looks very intriguing indeed! I love the lo-tech use of a projector mixed with live acting to tell their stories.

Book tickets through Battersea Arts Centre.

Guy Bourdin

A few of my favourite Bourdin photographs from his site.

Sarah Wilmer photographer

I am stunned by this beautiful photography by Sarah Wilmer. Each photograph seems so mysterious and intriguing, so that they cannot help but involve you in creating surprising, sinister, beautiful and dreamlike stories to go with them. They seem to me to be in the spirit of photographer Guy Bourdin, and reminded me to revisit his work.
Sarah also has a book out named "Spiderchest." It has it's own section on her website, and the juxtaposition of various photographs from her daily life makes for fascinating and endless possibilities of interpretations of the events that they document.

Dr. Marten's

And while I'm doing shoes...
Dr. Martens are doing the "white-shoe" thing this winter as well. A pair of these would go nicely in the snow, I think.

Melissa X Vivienne Westwood

Mmmm..must have these shoes.
Sustainable shoe brand Melissa team up with Westwood and made these!

Also available in royal blue, fire-engine red, hot pink, black, white and a sort of champagne yellow.

Christmas critters...

How cute! This is just about the sweetest thing I've seen lately...
British wildlife gets together to sing a Christmas jingle.

All that glitters...

Beautiful snowflakes drawings by Marian Bantjes for Saks on Fifth Ave. NYC. And they were then interpreted as jewellery by a selection of deisgners. My favourites below.

Laura Marling

love love
Here is her website and more songs

Paper crafts...

Mmm, some of my favourite paper crafts...
These first by my very talented friend Ceal Warnants. They are beautifully constructed entirely from paper which has been printed with images of wood veneer. I believe she is also available for commissions.



And these next via Ffffound, by Kaka Ueda who makes rather lovely papercuts.

Some new bits...

Just some things I've been experimenting with this week. They are inspired and influenced by some of the characters in Haruki Murakami novels...

Alan Aldridge...

Few pics from the brilliant exhibition of works by Alan Aldridge currently on at the Design Museum, London.
Well worth a visit! The exhibition is choc-full of Aldridge's book jacket designs, record sleeves and children's book illustration including an installation of enormous cardboard cut-outs of characters from his book "The Butterfly Ball".

Kate Slater

Ooh, lovely collage from Kate Slater, I love how the suspended paper elements really give the impression of depth and ripples in water.
Illustrationmundo has an interview.

Haruki Murakami

Oh how I do like a Haruki Murakami novel...
I just finished reading his "Dance, Dance, Dance", and it was wonderful, as dreamy as ever... Maybe think about Gabriel Garcia Marquez set in contemporary Japan...
Here is an article with "Ten facts you need to know about Murakami"
And here is an ooolld article about his book Kafka on the Shore from The New Yorker.
And if you like the idea of reading some of his stuff, but are feeling the pinch from the current economic situations, you could try Read It, Swap it... a website which allows users to search and swap books they fancy reading for only a postage fee.

Moscow metro...

Old news, but I was going to post this ages ago...
I rather like the Moscow Metro map as a piece of design. The city itself is arranged roughly in districts in concentric circles, with the central point being marked by a plaque outside of Red Square, from where all roads are said to originate...

Moomins!

Wow, forgot how great The Moomins were!
Brilliantly creepy for a children's cartoon


I'm also meaning to track down some of the illustrated books by Tove Jansson, as described here

Waltz With Bashir

On my list to go see...
Looks a very stylish animation!

Mission Abandoned...

I stumbled across this site today, which is a project called Mission Abandoned. They have a nice line in atmospheric photographs of abandoned derelict places, including a set taken inside Robins Cinema, where I used to watch films when I was a kid.

Vintage dresses...

love love...





via Dorothea's Closet Vintage

Russian borscht...

Made some borscht (beetroot soup) after my visit to Moscow. There is a recipe here, although I prefer to just use that as a loose guide and chuck things in. I put beef steak in mine (it's meant to have beef in it, or can be only vegetable depending on preference) and stirred in some sour cream!

From Russia with love...

Photos from my trip to Moscow!