Friday 30 January 2009

Ouch!

Was trawling through the dark resesses of my hard drive and found these t-shirts I did at Betty's back in 2004.

Crumbs.

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Torero

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Thursday 29 January 2009

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Biospherotic

These things are pretty dope (with I think is the correct yoot parlence).

Completely self contained biospheres, endorsed by NASA.
Each has some twig affair ans little shrimps swimming about in it.
They do remind me a bit of the gardens in a jar that were abiut when I was a nipper, but no doubt significantly pricier.
I think the little one comes in abiut €150.....

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Tuesday 27 January 2009

A Room With A View

Off to Milan next week.
I was reminded of the last time I was there in September.
Staying in the Hilton for the first time I was expecting views of roaming wilderbeast, or the hanging gardens of Babylon.
This is what I got instead:

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Animal Crackers

A quick project I polished off last night.

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Monday 26 January 2009

Bird Blog

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The amazing An Experiment On A Bird In The Airpump have a blog I have just stumbeled upon, with free remixes to download.

I advise you to check it out post haste.

Portion Control

Thalys Trains seem to have mastered the art of pleasing both the eye and the stomach with their ever so chi-chi on board snacks:

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No, not a stool sample. It's a lovely bit of candied peel and a pretty good approximation of a Tunnocks tea cake.

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The 'evening salad' option.

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Chocolate donut with a filled chocolate cup. Who could resist?

Amsterdamage

Popped up to see Markus Aurielius Smith in Amsterdam over the weekend.

I have drawn various conclusions:

1, It is rediculously hard to wander absent mindedly across the street, due to rediculous amounts of unannounced cyclists.
2, Customer service is not high on the Dutch pirority scale.
3, Never go through a turning door should a woman with a bag made from old bits of carpet be approaching from the other side. The fact she owns such a monstrasity is indication enough that all will not go well.

Below are various bits and bobs I found pleasant.

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Some nice pseudo Roman / Facist fontage.

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Amazing oliphent (my one word of Dutch) railing / balistrade.

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More animals as street furniture. A key decorating theme for 2009 in my view.

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Brilliant stripey building (a personal favourite architecture wise).

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Proof, should it be needed, that the Dutch should be expelled from the EU for crimes against humanity for forcing kiddies onto bikes below the age of 18. The worst of hate crimes to my mind.

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Mark droping me off / making sure he has got rid off me at the station after the best weekend.

'I said juice, not Jews'.

Friday 16 January 2009

Paris - so gay even the bread sticks are getting in on the act.

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Health and Safety? Not for us love.

The French don't seem overly concerned by EU health and safety directives.
As this photo of a pensioner picking her way through steaming hot tarmac at the end of my road goes to show.

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God only knows...

...what I had been up to just before this photo was taken.
I have a sneaky suspiscion it is still illeagal in several US states.

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Nicked from Roys photo blog. Link on his page should you be so inclined.

PETA fools g for the kiddie vote

I'm not PETA's biggest fan.
No suprise there.
But their latest roose to drawn in the yoot with the 'let's rename fish sea kittens, cos kittens are cute innit' make both my bile and hackles rise.

Here is my own sea kitten, Agatha Honk-McJefry.

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Wednesday 14 January 2009

Up Yours Jim Morrison

Having wondered around the frankly gargantuan Pere Le Chaisse cemetry a couple of times with chums over for the weekend I've been up to see Jim Morrisons grave each time.

Frankly it is some what bland and unimpressive. Despite the hoards of Amercian teenagers pressed up against the crash barriers. They say 'cool' and 'man' a lot.

Just accross from the man famouse for dying is this little piece of lovliness.

Made with love, and possibly a potato peeler.

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Mostachioed Girls.

Ever so slightly perturbed that all it takes is a stick on mostache to make me consider jumping to the other side of the proverbial fence.

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Ah, the innocence of Illy

No one else in Charles de Gaulle airport seemed to share my mirth filled giggles when I spotted this acidiental almost porn site.

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Les mots justes...

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Scale Model Heaven

I don't know what it is about scale models that give me such a mental hard on.
Perhaps all those enforced childhood hours spent on airfix have finally sunk in.

Here are a couple of faves I spotted at the Design Musem and one from the Musee D'Orsay.

Hot.

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Tuesday 13 January 2009

Land of Leather Goes Up Shit Creek

With total year on year losses of 47% the furniture suppliers to the sovereign ring wearing, alsatian owning under classes have called it a day.

Perhaps trying to sell something at full price once in a while does have it's merits after all.

Piggie Hand Shakes

Toilet door handel from 'Au Pied de Conchon' just by Les Halles.

You can tuck into a lovely plate of ears, snout, tail and trotter, then show your manual thanks to the little piggies who supplied it after taking a piss.

What more could you ask for from a lunch break?

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Cumbrian Rent Boy Hypermarket

Finally!
On Kendal High Street.

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Indigo - my new lover

Having ratteled on about soil dyed organic cotton, here's what I'm really loving.

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A group of sweatty shepard boys from Iran, all wearing natural indigo dyed cotton.

If I thought I had either the legs for a sarong, or could carry off a hat made from leave I would never wear anything else.

Genius.

Organic Cotton

Okay, so we all know organic cotton is going to be the new bog thing in fabrics this coming year.

And fair enough. Seeing as the textile industry is one of the most polluting about, we should really be making an effort to do our bit.

The problem is that a lot of cottons that are marked as organic us organic yarns, but then use chemical dyes. SO whilst the substance of the fabric is organic the processes used to make it wearable are anything but.
In the current market where pervieced long trm value is the main concern it is felt that comsumer won't accept a fabric that will loose it's colour over time. The truth of the matter is it is virtually impossible to use a natural dye that will not fade from washing or light exposure.

The only sure fire way I have seen of producing a truely organic cotton is from one Italian supplier who have sourced a super fine, high quality raw product, but different fields of cotton are made up of varying acidities of soil.

The changes in acidity cause the fluff that forms in the seed pod (this is the raw yarn fillaments that is spun to make cotton yarn) to grow in varying shades of biege.

Here's what a bundel of this fluff looks like raw:

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It reminds me of a cake made from rotten bacon. But this is the most environmentally friendly thing you can have on your back.

Archieve Rummagings

I found this last night whilst having a rummage through my old drawings.

It's the first thing I had published, back on 2002 for some awful and now defuct fashion mag.

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Monday 12 January 2009

An Expieriment on a Bird in the Airpump

Well, the girls seem to be going from strength to strength.
With a live review in the Independant yesterday.
Check them.
The new EP 'These Sins' is typically haunting and amazing.
I urge you to get your hands on it at the earliest opportuntiy.
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And it's so nice to know Dee has managed to fill the Decasia shaped hole I left behind when I legged it to Paris. :-P

Pulling My Finger Out

I'm a rediculously behind in updating my portfolio.
Need to do some more composed full colour studies. With backgrounds! Crumbs.
Quite fancy doing something with Pelham Puppets:

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I have a few as a child, and love the proportions.
I may have to see if I can wrestle them from my father's study wall on the next trip to Y-shire.

The Japanese Sweet Quandry

Why do Japanese sweets tend to look like soap yet taste like feet?

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Textural Studies

A couple of interesting texture / colour samples I found on my weekend wanderings:

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Chu's Birththday Trippings

Had Tranny Chu over this weekend for his birthday.
A flying visit with Nick and Alex, but lots of fun.
Although judging by the look on his face when presented with his birthday flan, I'm nit sure Thanh agreed!
Did a whistle stop tour of Paris, managing to squeeze in Notre Dame, Louvre, Champs Elysees, l'Arc de Triumph and Tour d'Eiffel in a four hour stint.
Not bad going considering it was beyond brass monkeys.

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Thanh's disapointment that there was no way hig birthday flan could have hidden a well put together stripper.

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How everyone should be wearing their hats about town this season.

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Some Hitchcock style ariel bombardment.

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A brief concession to tourist photography.