Exhibitions...Exhibitions...Exhibitions...

My Favourite Toy: Hove Museum & Art Gallery

'My Favourite Toy'... instantly the name appeals to me and my little world of quirky creations. . I went to see this at the beginning of this week (the exhibitions ends on the 6th of november 2012)

Its so true, our toys from our childhood, do inspire our imagination, I remember my favourite toy was a hand puppet, that was a hedgehog character, and I cherished and adored her, she went everywhere with me, so much so that she was unrecognisable as a hedgehog after lasting a whole childhood with me, with many bald patches and worn trims! My aunt even knitted her a little blue scarf and hat one Christmas.

This exhibition, will re-ignite the nostalgia and cherished memories of your favourite toy.

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/whatson/pages/myfavouritetoy.aspx

Make Believe Land

Toy Thetare

 Punch &Judy at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

 Burma Puppet

 My little Theatre: the Owl and Kitty Cat..

...and their friend Cerius the Centipede...

The Imagination: the most bespoke and tailor made theatre you will ever experience…

I love the Theatre; I find it the one place I can dissolve and become anonymous and yet able to watch an incredible story come to life before my very eyes.

The thought of being able to recreate any dream, thought or story to life though props, and a theatre set sends the mind into array.

It is such a beautiful make-believe land, in winter and on most rainy days I like to spend my time wandering through the second floor of Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

The Performance Gallery is a place where your imagination can really come to life, it’s as if life is still breathed into these puppets, the water puppets are amongst one of my favourites. But the richness of the round the world culture in the array of puppets is truly astounding, Punch and Judy have some great friends in this galley!

And who could ever forget Pinocchio?

So a few weekends ago, I made my own maquettes for my own Make-Believe Land and theatre and these were the results, its work in progress, but ignited the imagination…so watch out for puppet posts soon…

Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations

"Tear" dress

Skeleton Dress for the Circus collection

 "Bug" necklace

Café Society

What a beautiful whimsical era…the café society. How decadent and carefree the 1930s were.

I wish I could visit The Met's Spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, gives a superb insight into this, I feel like I’ve been transported into one of the most superb and magical eras of all time…

Fair enough the Italian designers are both from different eras, but truly their work is breathtaking! Simply breathtaking…

I love the fact that the galleries are set out into 7 themed sections/galleries: "Waist Up/Waist Down," "Ugly Chic," "Hard Chic," "Naïf Chic," "The Classical Body," "The Exotic Body," and "The Surreal Body.

Ever since I first saw a piece of Schiaparelli’s craftsmanship in a fashion design book in the library many many years ago, I have adored Schiaparelli (with my love of all things Parisian, she worked in Paris from I think the 1920s until the fashion house closed in the 1950’s)

What I love the most and find the most inspiring is that her work was closely associated with the Surrealist movement, my favorite piece being the "Tear" dress, the Skeleton Dress for the Circus collection  and "Bug" necklace she created in 1938…stunning…simply stunning…

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/impossible-conversations/about-the-exhibition

Hugo

I had the privilege at the weekend of being introduced to the film Hugo by my twin…it is amazing!!!

Truly one of the most inspiring and intriguing films I have watched. (Probably also something to do with my undying love of Paris and all things Parisian)

So much so it has inspired my latest collection of collages…. coming soon… these are my favourite images of Georges Méliès Work, so beautiful...so, so beautiful

A cottage industry in the making...

My Little Cottage Industry

Having researched, pondered, tried and tested many different approaches to getting my little toy factory off the ground, and boring my poor dad, child and partner (and anyone that came in a mile radius of me) senseless about how frustrating it all was, my lovely dad mentioned the phrase Cottage Industry, which pretty much sums it up!

A Cottage Industry is where products are made at home rather than in a factory, thus allowing them to be more bespoke and not mass-produced on such a high volume, as it literally is handmade at home.

And with that in mind, I would like to proudly launch my (revamped, renamed, restructured) Cottage Industry!!! Allow me to introduce Polka Dot Cloud!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Polka-Dot-Cloud/352438334831992 

Fairytales how I always dreamt they would be...

Oh my goodness, how stunning are these visually! My love of fables and Fairytales by Fashion designers has been growing at an alarming rate recently...this book; Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of Christian Lacroix is beautifully illustrated with kistch collages and exquisite composition.... I love it!

But wait there is more! My all time favorite fairy tale...The Elves and The Shoemaker illustrated by none other than Manolo Blahnik....simply DIVINE!!!

Happy bedtime stories...

Harlequin Gems

Harlequin Gems

Today I have been experimenting with two of my favourite things, lino printing and kitsch imagery. I have a huge love of quirky simplistic illustrations of gemstones and decided to create my own. Im really excited to develop this further into fabric lengths and kitsch stock for my stall! watch this space...

Harlequin inspired jewels (lino print and marker pens)

Rubies are red.... (lino print with marker pen)

...and blue too! (lino print with marker pen)