stick meon, Australia

Having born in the year of Rabbit, I can't resist to post this after I found it at Lara's blog. Made & designed in Melbourne, Australia, here are some adorable removable wall decals, Sir Rabbits by stick meon. Psst, they love squirrel, too. :)


(via Kirin Notebook)

PUDDINGTOWN, Germany

I almost fell off my chair when I first saw this picture.

PUDDINGTOWN is a German apparel shop making skirts, dresses, and shawls using retro/vintage fabrics/scarfs in a very delicious way. :) The website is in German, so I can't tell you much. But by seeing the "sold out" marks, you'll know that everything must come in limited pieces only.

And I like their tag line, too, "100% manufactured to make you happy". Oh yes.., I'd be soooo happy if I could find those dresses (shown right) in their shop again.

Click here to be happy. :)

Tableaux Cloths by Mark Cutler

Mark emailed me on his series of tables that were designed to fill the need of low cost, yet stylish covered table. They are called Tableaux Cloths. The fact that the image on the cloth can be custom colored(!), for just a little bit more, makes them even more fun! I'd say, it's a clever and playful take on his whimsical blend of antique and modern. Wouldn't you agree? :)


They are now available at Colburn Sassaman, and guess what..., they do international shipping(!). And they are onstantly looking for representation in other markets too. So you could ring the shop, or drop Mark a line to find out more about Tableaux Cloths.


Thanks, Mark!

more mina perhonen?

Seeing Lena's and Abigail's posts on mina perhonen reminded me of the YouTube video clip I bookmarked sometime last year. It's an interview with Akira Minagawa, the designer, on his mina perhonen collection, conducted by NHK.





Too bad it's only in Japanese and no English subtitles given. The 9min20sec clip is not the complete version of the TV interview, but nonetheless, it's always inspiring to see his work. For those who understand Japanese, please feel free to leave comments and fill in some blanks for us. Thanks beforehand! :) Please enjoy!

Curiosities

Below are few curiosities I had lately. The first image is a hand-colored photograph. Do you remember the latest MAAD's newsletter I posted not too long ago?


It was the Painting a Photograph workshop by The Meeting Point that brought me to MAAD. It sounded too exciting to be missed. :) The photograph, dyes, and brushes were provided by The Meeting Point. With just S$8, I got to learn how to color a photograph and bring the colored-photograph home. I felt like I had scored the best deal ever(!). Seriously. I was a bit puzzled when Gwen of The Meeting Point asked me to sign on the photograph and bring it home. The first thing came to mind was "what??", then "why??". But of course, it'd be silly to ask her those, so I just gladly obeyed. :-)

The other curiosity I had was a furniture design workshop at Raffles Design Institute. Not exactly an interest of mine, I just wanted to know and understand the process of designing a chair and making a scaled model using balsa wood.


The above left picture was taken by the lecturer, Eric Lim *thanks, Eric!*. I'm at the far left on the pic, and yes, I think I was the oooooldest participant there. *haha*. There were a nice young couple and two newly-graduated high school students participated in the workshop as well. The above right picture is the scaled model I did. It's not exactly turned out like I wanted it to be, but hey, it's the perfect size for my origami papers! *another haha*. And... believe it or not, the best design from that workshop was produced by one of the newly-graduated high school students. Which made me wonder... what kind of things they teach in high school nowadays? :-)

The Etching Process

Mariann posted a short movie on how an etching is made and printed yesterday. For those who are keen to know what etching is, please click here. Enjoy the movie!


Thanks, Mariann!

New from BG SHOP, Japan

I blogged about BG SHOP before, but only on their recent newsletter that I found out about their new products, like Sori Yanagi Fabrics, Plywood Wine Rack, or that clever display pockets, or those adorable cookie cutters (not shown here). And not to be missed, their gorgeous retro pouches. Click here to see them all. Enjoy!

cocca, Japan

cocca is a japanese shop selling printed textiles and crafts materials. But those are not the only things you'd find at cocca. They stock some chairs, pendant lamps and accessories holder & coat racks, too. And that holland fabric is my top fave. Love the embroidery.

bonluxat

I stumbled upon bonluxat not too long ago while searching for chairs. And it look like a directory of furniture and furnishings to me. It has everything(!) from sofas to rugs to lamps. It has product descriptions, pictures, names of the designers and manufacturers of every single item.


(left) Eero Aarnio Tipi Toy from Adelta
(right) Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien Charpoy from Moroso

(left) R'Pure Studio Fiftyfifty Floor Lamp from Gallery R'Pure
(right) Alfredo Häberli Nais Chair from ClassiCon

(left) Alessandro Dubini Le Roi Cabinet from Zanotta
(right) Ed Annink Birds Rug from Driade

Too bad there's no details on the people behind bonluxat. Whoever they are, they sure have done a terrific job. Above are some great items you could find at bonluxat. Happy Browsing!

2008 Chinese New Year Movie: HENG OR HUAT

I know I had never posted anything about the world of entertainment before, and most probably won't post about it again in the future. Unless of course, if there were some special circumtances such as this one. It's mainly because it was produced by ILLUXIONS Pte Ltd, a production house co-founded by a close friend of mine, along with Scorpio East Pictures Pte Ltd and Vividthree Productions Pte Ltd. I just got messaged by him yesterday. I was so thrilled to hear about it, and I asked if I could give a shoutout here in my blog. He said, definitely. :) You rock big time, Gun! So here it goes.

ILLUXIONS's First TeleMovie production <<天降运财>> HENG OR HUAT will be out on DVD or VCD at major DVD/VCD retailers next Thursday. Press release and gala premier were held on Jan 15, 2008, so you should be reading more details/reviews on Chinese publications in this coming week. The DVD/VCD will have English subtitles (yay!). For people of Singapore, please help to spread the words. It's much appreciated!

Meanwhile, you could view HENG OR HUAT on YouTube:

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSARzRuoE0

Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7BGl1Oa4Ag

and the Bloopers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6nyFVuRCgY


Enjoy!


Congratulations, Gun!

Congrats!

I could be the last person to blog about these. Oh yes. Too many things going on lately, and I'm rather slow catching up with great things happening in the blogland. But these ppl deserve another row of applause.

The House that Friendships Built by Crust Station
Babel of Crust Station revealed her collaborated art project with blog friends last December. You can obviously see there were a lot of hours and hard work spent in making one room, making every single room such a precious artwork. Hats off to all the creators of The House that Friendships Built!

Abigail A. Percy's new online shop
Abigail, known for her fine craftmanship(!), launched her new online shop recently, in addition to her etsy shop. You could find all her signature designs (entirely handmade!) in her native currency, British Pound, on this new online shop.

BloesemKids blog by Irene Hoofs
BloesemKids is another great blog specializing in children products, launched last December by the super genius Irene Hoofs of Bloesem. If you know Bloesem and if you love kids products as much as I do, then you'd pretty much want to add BloesemKids into your daily reads. But beware, your reading could end up with a hole in your pocket! :)

Lovely Hearts 2 by artstream
Susan of Art Esprit will be having Lovely Hearts 2 exhibition in February 2008, raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to honor her dear friend Tamara, who's battling against breast cancer. Lovely Hearts 2 exhibition will show artwork which celebrates all that is love (not just hearts), in all its aspects and invites artists around the world to enter. Dateline for submission is Januray 21. Please click here for details.

Friends on blogland
I'd also like to welcome my printmaking instructor, Mariann Johansen-Ellis, and my dear friend, Dhania Ayu Kumara, to the blogland.

Mariann plans to share different kind of printmaking techniques that she has tried on her blog, Art Can Be Fun, and would love to find other printmakers who would like to contribute as well. Click here to welcome her.

Dhania, a graphic designer, is one of our (my husband and I) closest friends. We used to hang out together during our single and early marriage years with bunch of other friends. What a fun time we had. :) But she moved to Canada some years ago, and she's now a mother of an adorable little girl. We never really talked about our work whenever we went out together, so when I saw her portfolio recently, I was so impressed! She designed packaging for some big brands that most indonesians grew up with. *gosh, that Baygon Mosquito Killer spray in our house is actually her design work!* I hope to see more of her great work on her blog, dhania's scribbles. Welcome to blogland, dear. :)

MAAD today!

Well okay, this post comes a bit late, but I've just started checking out my emails today after my return from holiday.

The fact that the newsletter was handwritten really made me Have. To. Share. it here.

It's Market of Artists and Designers (MAAD), and the newsletter shows exactly that! Clever folks.


Welcome to the year 2008! :)