Talented papersmith Rob Ryan has produced an exclusive skirt design for Clothkits. It's a little out of my league, at £46.00, but I might add one of the £25 tiles from Rob Ryan's Etsy shop to my birthday list, along with his gorgeous book This Is For You.
via YouTube.com
One of the music channels was showing the video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love the other day and I found it really moving.
First, there's Holly Johnson's beautiful voice, and the tender lyrics, along with Godley and Creme's nativity-themed video, which (references to vampires and the Hooded Claw aside!) changed the meaning of the lyrics for me from a simple 'human to human' love song to one which speaks about God's 'undying, death-defying' love for mankind:
Feels like fire
I'm so in love with you
Dreams are like angels
They keep bad at bay - bad at bay
Love is the light
Scaring darkness away - yeahI'm so in love with you
Purge the soul
Make love your goalThe power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
Flame on burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goalI'll protect you from the Hooded Claw
Keep the vampires from your door
When the chips are down I'll be around
With my undying, death-defying
Love for youEnvy will hurt itself
Let yourself be beautiful
Sparkling love, flowers
And pearls and pretty girls
Love is like an energy
Rushin' rushin' inside of meThis time we go sublime
Lovers entwine - divine divine
Love is danger, love is pleasure
Love is pure - the only treasureI'm so in love with you
Purge the soul
Make love your goalThe power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
The power of love
A force from above
A sky-scraping doveFlame on burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goal
YouTube: Holly Johnson sings The Power of Love on Later...with Jools Holland
Official Frankie Goes To Hollywood Website
Official Holly Johnson Website
BBC2 Christmas ident, 2007. Via YouTube
I love the new papercut / pop-up book idents for BBC Two this Christmas - sort of Tord Boontje meets Rob Ryan. Intricate and atmospheric - beautiful.
See also:
Idents.tv: Cutting up Christmas on BBC Two
BBC: BBC Two Idents and Classic TV - BBC Two Ident Videos
BBC: In pictures: BBC Two's distinctive style
BBC: BBC Two Citizen Idents
BBC: BBC Two Idents Wallchart (pdf)
BBC2 Christmas ident, 2007. Via YouTube
Here, finally, is the special card/bookform I made my cousin for her 30th birthday. Yes, finished way behind schedule - she turned 30 in June - but leave me alone, I'm not well!
Lisa's my cousin, but she's also been a close friend. We were penpals from the ages of 12 and 10 - you know, back when folk used to write on paper, with a pen - and worked through a lot of teenage (and twenties!) angst together. Our correspondance went on for almost fifteen years, and is now meticulously archived in a series of shoeboxes kept on the tops of wardrobes in Galway City and Brighton.
Over the years she's acquired a husband, a house and a daughter, which I still can't quite get my head around... they grow up so fast, don't they? She's also a very busy wedding photographer, which I'm dead proud of.
These days we don't write letters to each other, just the occasional email or text. Sometimes one of us rings the other to note how crap we are at keeping in touch. But mainly we keep up with each other's news via my mum and her dad!
Dearest Lill, we are crap at keeping in touch...
Bierbergen Oedelum Black (c) Ian Hundley, 2006
| Ian Hundley is a Brooklyn-based artist who transforms maps into amazing large-scale quilts. Watch this video from Cool Hunting, where they meet with Ian to discuss his inspirations and capture his process. |  |
Bulldog light by Elaine Sheldon (c) Sheldon Cooney
I just love this handblown glass pendant lamp by Sheldon Cooney (designer Elaine Sheldon and glassmaker Dominic Cooney). What a great idea to use a bulldog clip like that!
I'd like one in turquoise of course - so it's a good job they don't come in turquoise, cos I don't have the spare £350. A thing of great beauty...
Tudor tea towel (c) www.historicroyalpalaces.com
I love my job. Especially when I get to spend hours wandering round a magnificent Tudor palace then enthuse about it on 24 Hour Museum. Read all about it: The Young Henry VIII Revealed At Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace blew me away. It gave me goosebumps to be walking through the courtyards and corridors the Tudor court would have bustled about in. AND I got this groovy teatowel - a fantastic piece of graphic design illustrating the quantity of food consumed by the Court in a year.
Made in England mosaic by Emma Biggs
Click on the pic for a larger view of this beautiful mosaic, put together by professional mosaicist, teacher and author Emma Biggs in celebration of the pottery and ceramics which have been made in Stoke-on-Trent for hundreds of years:
"There have been over 1,500 potters in Stoke-on-Trent and most of them used a back-stamp to identify their ware, often bearing the words 'ENGLAND' or 'MADE IN ENGLAND'.Each back-stamp is a story - a story of the company (which may have lasted for two years or hundreds of years), the smoking - fire belching bottle kilns, the child labour and sometimes appalling working conditions. It is also a story of beauty, workmanship, improvement and camaraderie."
You can find out more about the project here, and more about Emma Bigg's mosaic work on her website.
Artwork by Karen Storr (c) www.ciota.ac.uk
Loving this technicolour shed by Karen Storr, entirely covered in cuddly toys (spotted in an's degree show round-up) - I bet that involved a few trawls round the charity shops!
Karen's an MA Fine Art student at Cumbria Institute of the Arts AND a DJ.
This is Sharifa Rajab Ali, who lives and works in Kabul, Afghanistan.
I've just lent her a few quid so she can buy materials for her beadwork business and use her creative skills to support her family. She needs more than I'm able to lend her at the moment, but once a few other people have chipped in with their loans, Sharifa will be able to stock up.
Kiva.org came to my attention via Miss Malaprop and Crafty World. It's a simple and effective - Kiva enable you to loan your money (as little as $25 - currently less than £13 in sterling) to the working poor:
"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified borrowers. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva.org, our partners upload their borrower profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them."
| It gave me particular pleasure to be able to help a creative person like Sharifa - you can search the site by category to find people working in your area of interest - so I've loaned some money to Lolofa, a Samoan lady, to help her build up her mat weaving business. |  |
Recent Comments