Urban Walkabout Launch Their Pop Up for Christmas…

Tags

Accessories, Australia Design, Australia Made, Christmas Shopping, Homewares, Jewellery, Local Artisan Shopping, Melbourne, Online Shopping, Perth, Scarves, Softies, Sydney, Urban Walkabout

(Image from here)

So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said ‘Is that the local swimming baths?’ He said ‘It depends where you’re calling from. (Tim Vine)

There’s a great little group of passionate locals who established the very useful Urban Walkabout back in 2006.  They publish a series of free lifestyle guides featuring fashion, food and design destinations in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

Their printed guides are a great way for locals and visitors alike to discover the best places to eat, drink, shop and more within a given area.

Urban Walkabout say it best: “Our printed guides include an illustrated map and business images and reviews that help direct readers to a carefully curated selection of boutiques, local artisans, galleries, designers, cafes, bars and restaurants in each location.”

And, best of all – you can pick them up for free.

This year, for the first time, Urban Walkabout have launched a new online pop up shop.   It’s a curated collection of unique product from local producers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth – and, I think they’ve got some very cool wares on offer.

Wanna’ see some of my favourites?

‘Clem’ The Herringbone Koala
Born and raised in Creswick, Victoria.
Clem is double stitched and lovingly constructed from offcuts salvaged from the local wool mill by the delightful toy maker, Robyn from Sillee Billee. He stands 23cm tall.
$40
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

Rosso Forte Scarf ‘Spremuta’
I love me a scarf… This one is a rustic still life of fruit and assorted produce laid out in preparation. Bold citrus colours are contrasted with light and dark accents. Billowy, lightweight washed silk. Designed and handmade in Italy. It measures 140cm x 160 cm. GORGEOUS!
$229.00
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

Baked Optimism Tin
Created by artist Tara Daniel, this tin of Baked Optimism contains exceptionally cheerful baked beans. You can never have too much optimism. Or too many baked beans. I know a girl who loves her baked beans…
Also available in ‘Sliced Pessimism’ variety.
$20
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

L’ascari Man Candle
Mancandle is for every man. They apparently allow any man to be able to enhance his space be it at work or at home by being able to customise the scent of his environment with one or a combination of up to four sophisticated fragrances.
With a 27 hour burn time they come beautifully presented in a glass amber jar (height 6.5cm) with screw top lid and packaged in a rigid sliding box.
Fragrances available:
Sawdust – cedar wood & sandalwood paired with patchouli & musk.
Open field – think freshly cut grass & green leaves teamed perfectly with Australian fauna. Fresh just doesn’t cover it!
Old oak tree – a deep earthy fragrance combining oak, woods, amber & citrus fruit. “Smells like a hot man” – as overheard in the Urban Walkabout office.
Espresso – dark roasted coffee beans
$29.00
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

InSync Roost Earrings
These earrings by InSync are made from hypoallergenic stainless steel plated with 22 carat yellow matte gold. Each set comes boxed with details about the artist.
Iris Saar Isaacs is a Melbourne based design studio. InSync design studio maintains an independent approach to contemporary jewellery, whilst marrying industrial methods and materials.
$100
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

Vintage Rubber Stamp Set from High Tea with Mrs Woo
Make your Christmas cards stand out this year! A great box set of vintage-style alphabet and number rubber stamps which make beautiful labels and gift tags. Buy them as a gift or use them to decorate your own. Includes a set of 20 blank gift tags.
Made in Korea (so not strictly local!). They make my ‘haberdashery’ tendencies go bananas!
$50
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

Paper Potter Kit With Heirloom Seed Packs
I adore this concept! A clever and everlasting tool for pressing biodegradable seedling pots with newspaper. When seedlings are ready, plant them complete with the pot into the ground to avoid disturbing the roots. This beautiful kit includes heirloom seeds of beetroot and cauliflower varieties and paper strips so you are ready to get started straight away! This potter makes approximately 6 x 4.5cm pots.
$38
(Image from Urban Walkabout)

Do go and check out all the offerings at the Urban Walkabout Pop Up here. Unfortunately, shipping is only available within Australia BUT, if you’re planning a visit to Sydney, Melbourne or Perth there’s also the free Urban Walkabout App which brings you a mobile version of the well-known and loved pocket-sized Urban Walkabout guides, to allow you to curate the city your way.

Angus & Celeste – Made in Australia for Kiwis Who Love Pohutukawas

Tags

Angus & Celeste, Artisan, Arts & Crafts, Australia, Ceramics, Dandenong Ranges, Flora and Fauna, Flower, Garden, Jewellery, Melbourne, Pohutukawa, Victoria

Botanic Vases by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

I have a wee Angus & Celeste botanic bottle which puts a smile on my face when I look at it. I choose to think it has pohutukawa flowers on the front. The reality is that they are actually flowering gum (native to Australia, not NZ). But, it is my vase. So, they are pohutukawa flowers…

Just as the Angus & Celeste team suggests, it is perfect for a small bunch of flowers picked from my garden, especially when my pohutukawa is in bloom.*

Pohutukawa Botanic Bottle by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

Angus & Celeste are a design partnership from Melbourne Australia. Keir Angus MacDonald and Asha Celeste Cato met in 1997 while studying Fine Arts at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. With backgrounds in ceramics, printmaking and sculpture the designers began collaborating and by 2005 Angus & Celeste was born.

The duo are based in the lush Dandenong Ranges in hilly outer Melbourne, which is described on the Angus & Celeste website as “a fertile and picturesque area surrounded by tall gum trees, ancient tree ferns, and flower producing market gardeners. Winter engulfs the hillside in thick clouds that bring some of the best rain in Victoria. Spring is heralded in by shocks of yellow wattle and striking red Grevilleas. Wild flowers grow along the road side and rhododendrons are in full bloom. With the heat of summer there is a constant awareness of the possibility of bush fire.

The changing seasons and moods serve as constant inspiration and are reflected in many of the designs. Their creations meld art practices, traditional craft techniques and modern design principles into a unique fusion. The end result is a timeless but recognisably modern product range, with a distinctly Australian feel.”

Banksia Petit Vase by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

Hanging Gum Botanic Vase by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

Magnolia Bulb Vase by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

In addition to their lovely vases and bottles, Angus & Celeste also have a range of ceramic jewellery and hanging planters for your garden…

Ceramic Rings by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

Hanging Garden by Angus & Celeste
(Image from here)

Angus & Celeste ship all around the world. With Christmas just around the corner (I know – but, it is!) you may like to check out their website here.

*I was going to take a happy snap for you, but my camera didn’t want to oblige. Sorry.

Kelly McCallum Has a Thing For Victorian Taxidermy

Tags

animals, Art, Birds, Canada, culture, Design, Ephemera, Jewellery, Kelly McCallum, London, Precious Metals, Taxidermy

Art is far too important to be taken seriously

When you see a quote like this on an artist’s website, you know you are in for something, although perhaps just not what that something may be.

Welcome to the slightly macabre world of Kelly McCallum…

A Canadian by birth, Kelly McCallum is currently based in London. She is celebrated for combining her fine goldsmithing skills (focusing on scale and incredible attention to the most minute detailing) with a keen interest in Victorian taxidermy. Her pieces embody her interests in story-telling, natural history, taxidermy, insects, precious metals and other treasures from her carefully curated collection of oddities and natural wonders. And, as you will soon see, her work typically explores dark themes of death, decadence, decay and rebirth as well as challenging perceptions of preservation and disintegration.

According to Kelly, herself, “I am interested in the stories of how things age, how they decay or are preserved, are forgotten, covered in shrouds of grime, only to be found again and given new meanings by our own sentimentality. Taxidermy seeks to preserve life by celebrating death: it is a strange half-live, a suspension, an illusion. Insects on the other hand, through their lives, destroy this illusion: they feed on death, breaking down, demolishing, creating movement from a silent tableau, forcing change and action.”

Kelly McCallum’s work is a bit like a car accident for me… I know I shouldn’t look, but I really want to. What do you think?

‘General Eenzo Bianchi’ by Kelly McCallum
(Image © Kelly McCallum)

‘Dutchess Anne Louise Chapman’ by Kelly McCallum
(Image © Kelly McCallum)

‘Contessa isabella Mancini’ by Kelly McCallum
(Image © Kelly McCallum)

‘Gryfalcon’ by Kelly McCallum
(Image © Kelly McCallum)

Kelly has exhibited in many different countries, including Canada, the United States, France, Korea, The United Kingdom, and Poland, and her work has been displayed at The Victoria and Albert Museum and Liberty of London. I have to admit, I quite like the way her work refuses to fit easily into one category, and challenges assumptions and preconceptions.

And, just because I picked some of the less macabre, and more fantastical, images to show you above, check this one out…

‘Do You Hear What I Hear’ by Kelly McCallum
(Image © Kelly McCallum)

Did you have to look twice?

For a more comprehensive selection of Kelly McCallum’s works, you can check out her personal gallery here.

Sophie Digard & Her Creative Crochet

Tags

Arts, brooch, Colour, craft, Crochet, Fashion, Fiber art, French, Jewellery, Knitting and Crochet, Needlework, Shopping, Sophie Digard, style, Textile

French designer Sophie Digard creates the most exquisitely detailed, hand-crocheted, heirloom-quality pieces – scarves, necklaces, brooches, bags, baby clothes and blankets – that have long been treasured by clients and collectors around the world. Her work is so very beautiful.

Seriously, she crochets like nobody I’ve ever seen before and uses the most labour-intensive techniques to create her intricate pieces from fine wool, mohair, velvet, and linen.

Sophie Digard Merino Baby Blanket
(Available from Calico & Ivy)

Sophie Digard Linen 'edelweiss' Scarf
(Available from Calico & Ivy)

Sophie Digard Wool with Velour 'Bobbles' Scarf
(Available from Calico & Ivy)

Sophie Digard Merino 'Tournesol' Necklace
(Available from Calico & Ivy)

Sophie Digard Linen Scarf
(Available from Selvedge)

Sophie Digard 'Alpaca' Brooch
(Available from Selvedge)

Sophie Digard designs are available from selected retailers.  In Sydney, you can find a few pieces at Calico & Ivy (with shops in Sydney and Perth). The very fabulous Selvedge Dry-goods store sells a good range online.

*It is because of the so very talented Sophie Digard that I have booked myself on a crash course in crochet (in May). I seem to be incapable of learning to knit. I’ll keep you posted on whether crochet is a better bet!

Cinnamon Lee Designs Covert Jewels

Tags

Art, Australia, Cinnamon Lee, Contemporary Jewellery, COTA, Covert Jewels, Fashion, Gallery, Jewellery, Metalab, Photos, Shopping, Silver, Strand Arcade, strand arcade sydney, style, Sydney

'Flutter' by Cinnamon Lee

'Turbo' by Cinnamon Lee

I love the work of Cinnamon Lee, a Sydney-based contemporary jewellery and lighting artist.  I particularly love her Covert Jewels range, where she creates beautiful works which conceal intricately worked secrets for the wearer, rather than the viewer.

A recent exhibition of these rings featured an inspired custom-built illuminated display system incorporating pre-programmed LEDs, which was specially designed to light up the detailed interiors of each ring.  How great is that?

Cinnamon is part of the fabulously creative team at Metalab.  Metalab also runs COTA (Courtesy of the Artist) as a side project.  In Sydney you can find Cinnamon’s work at both galleries.

Metalab Studio + Gallery 
10B Fitzroy Place, 
Surry Hills, NSW 2010

COTA (Courtesy of the Artist)
 Level 2, Shop 124, 
The Strand Arcade, Sydney 2000

(All images sourced from Cinnamon Lee’s website here)

Lyndie Dourthe Creates Voodoo Magic…

Tags

Anatomy, Botany, Butterflies, Design, Flora and Fauna, France, Heart, Illustration, Jewellery, Lyndie Dourthe, nature, Paris, Shopping, style, Voodoo

By her own admission, Lyndie Dourthe’s Parisian workshop is a tiny curio cabinet of a little botany, a little voodoo, a little anatomy and a touch of superstition.

She combines paper and fabric to form exquisite and mysterious naturalistic wonders…

I think her work is also achingly beautiful.  What do you think?

(All images sourced from Lyndie Dourthe)