Object language III

I found this on the kitchen counter at work yesterday. I've no idea what it's for, which makes it even better.

New Etsy listings

You'll find teatowels and a new magnet in my etsy shop.

Suddenly, sales!

Whee! Four sales in a day! I reckon my Etsy shop can truly be said to be up and running now. Thanks to all visitors and especially to people who have bought my things. It's really awfully exciting.

Thanks, also, to Holly at Decor8 for posting about my magnets. One of the sales came straight from one of her readers. And while I'm saying thanks, more must go to Dear Ada , Bloesem Grijs , Jesse ... hells bells, the whole dang lot of you. Thanks.

Campana Frame

Well, after all my sales, I've got big holes in my stock , so here's a new magnet I listed today.

I called this one Campana Frame because it reminds me of the Campana Brothers' Favela chair.




Anyway, as discerning viewers, I'm sure you realise that the important part about this pic is the photo of our skinny little kitty being held in place on my fridge. Isn't she lovely? No longer so skinny, but as dear as ever.

Mag hag

I've got a couple of my things in magazines this month.

There's this silkscreened cloth in Elle Decoration...

A couple of my cushions on a chair in my friend Lola's house, also in Elle Decoration...

And one of my magnets in the House & Leisure magazine.

There's loads of Jesse's stuff in this shoot too. Check out her cute dolls! She's opening her Etsy shop soon!

Thanks!

Loads of thanks is due to some of the encouraging people I've met out there in blogland.

First, thanks to Stephanie of SumThings for all her comments and encouragement, and also for putting me onto her blog. Your support is really appreciated! Take a visit to Stephanie's etsy shop to see her cards for sale, as well as this cute felted bunny.

More thanks to homegrownskinny, who I met throught Etsy. She's also just starting out with her Etsy shop, selling aprons, purses and vintage patterns so why not pop in. Here's the design on one of her purses.

Sorted out

Friday's glitch with the selling tools in my Etsy shop has been sorted out, thanks to sage advice on the Etsy forum. It wasn't a glitch, just me being a bit thick. Thanks for the help!

New etsy listings

NOTE: I'm currently experiencing temporary difficulties with accepting payments. Nobody's bought anything yet, but please don't until my shop says you can! Sorry 'bout this.

I'm listing up a storm in my etsy shop at the moment!

Here's a sweet birdie magnet...

... and some more baby shirts.

Happy weekend, everyone! And thanks so much for all the kind comments and encouragement.

What's for supper?

I'm illustrating FairLady's new one-page recipe feature called "What's for supper?" that features four quick recipes. This was the first one I did, published in the March issue.

I'm really happy with these. They remind me of 70s teatowel designs, and I do like a good teatowel! This afternoon I must finish off the next in the series.

Tech: For a change, no cutting was involved! This time around, I drew in pen, scanned and coloured, then removed the lines, leaving white spaces.

Tshirts on Etsy

I've got some of my baby tshirts for sale in my Etsy shop today.

Tree row

Here's a row of magnet trees that I made on Friday.

I've got this one on my fridge at the moment. It's for sale in my Etsy shop, but I like it so much, I'm half-hoping nobody will buy it, actually.

Skinny laMinx on Etsy

Ahem. My Etsy shop is finally open. It's a little sparsely furnished as yet, but I'll be putting new things up in the shop all week. Please take a visit sometime.

Horoscopes on Warm Toast?

Ok, so shoot me for posting twice about these illustrations for the FairLady 2007 horoscope special. I put this page together for my online portfolio. , at Warm Toast Cafe , and they looked so pretty all together like this, I just couldn't resist.

Take a visit to Warm Toast Cafe sometime. I've been using this free online portfolio for illustrators for a few months now, which has led to a couple of work nibbles so far.

And even if it doesn't bring in the work, it's great to have an online porty to which I can send people.

Coverings

While in Johannesburg for Paul's exhibition opening, I spent most of the day at 44 Stanley Avenue in Milpark, where there's a shop called Decade, stuffed with the most glorious mid-century furniture and ceramics.

Paul spotted this fabric there...



... and bought us a few metres ...

... as a 6th anniversary present! It's going to be our new sofa covering!

I couldn't resist posting this pic of the fabric previously on the sofa, just visible under Paul and the cats!

I found it being used as a tablecloth on a market stall selling dented cans of beans and talked the stallholder into selling it to me.

We've used it for years, so it's a bit ratty now, but I once made big bucks out of it by selling an offcut to a Japanese pattern buyer who was after vintage fabrics!

Dankie, Grijs

I'm most flattered to be taken note of in the beautiful blog, Grijs. This is definitely one of my must-reads daily. Baie dankie!

And while I'm talking about other blogs, take a visit to Eclectic Detective, where somebody's going to win some really nice books by designing the logo that gets picked for this site. I'm going to make one!

Aries

The April issue of FairLady magazine is out, and here's the latest horoscope illustration.


Cut vinyl, scanned and then coloured in Photoshop.

Skinny laMinx goes to Oz.

My brother and his family arrive in Brisbane today and will start the exciting process of making that lovely city home. Little E will soon have a little Aussie twang.

Anyway, little E and littler A have their bags stuffed with all the hottest new Skinny laMinx gear, just to let those Aussie kids will know South African tots are the coolest!

Be nice to them, please!

Modular tree and Chris Ware

Another new fridge magnet.

The outline is an idea I got from Jesse's silhouetted trees, which she made as a tribute to Chris Ware (see snippet below).

In case you haven't encountered this storytelling genius before, you simply have to see Chris Ware's work, here too. He's truly astonishing.

Summer weekend

Nice way to spend an early Saturday evening, watching the clouds turn pink.

Valentine

Last year, I had some cushions in the window of MeMeMe in Long Street. In a shamelessly commercial move, I put this one in just before Valentine's Day, thinking it would get snapped up.

It did get bought, eventually, but looong after Valentine's Day. So much for my canny business sense, eh?

Have a good weekend, bloggers.

Bingo!

I knew my archive couldn't have run totally dry!

I sold this cushion from the HandMade Now! stall at the Neighbour Goods Market a few months ago.

I cut paper stencils and silkscreened the colours, and stitched the stems and outlines with my sewing machine.

I want to make more of these!

David Southwood

NB: All the photos in this post are copyright protected. Please contact David Southwood through his website if you wish to publish any of his photos on your blog or anywhere else.

Photo © David Southwood

Dave Southwood is an old friend and an excellent photographer.

His work has been published in all the biggies (Colors, Wallpaper, and other fancy mags), and he also exhibits his work, having held a number of solo exhibitions.

Photo © David Southwood

In the last few years, he's been making a name as a photographer of architecture, with his pics of the Red Location Museum currently getting loads of press.

I've finally got around to getting one of Dave's pics for our wall. This is what I've chosen.

Photo © David Southwood

Take the time to check out more of Dave's work here.

Green bird, resting

A new fridge magnet. It's a little like the green bird of bliss that I made a while ago.


Tech: Green linen-texture paper stuck to adhesive-backed magnetic sheeting, cut with my NT cutter.

Object Language II

More objects found on my kitchen counter, spelling out a message I just can't read. Is somebody trying to tell me something?

I had a very glamorous weekend.

Heartworks

Heartworks is a store run by Margaret Woermann, selling things handmade, largely from disadvantaged communities, from all over South Africa. They don't have much web presence, which is a pity, but perhaps I'll take some pics of their shop and post them some time.

Anyway, I made a businesscard for Heartworks (in about 2 minutes flat) to hand out at the Design Indaba Expo last weekend.



It's printed in raised whitish ink on white paper, evoking the texture of the beautiful embroidered teddy bears made by Heartworks.

PS: This weekend, check out the lovely grijs, found via Bloesem.

Array

Sometimes I'm so slow. Last night I finally realised I'd be crazy not to see Paul's show (called Array) at Art on Paper gallery, so I booked a last-minute air ticket to Johannesburg on Saturday morning to make the 3pm opening. Yippee!

He'll be showing this large-scale linocut called Fan, along with an embossing and three large sculptures.

Look out for the cover story on Paul in the March issue of Art South Africa magazine.