Prince of the Pagodas - Coliseum

I hadn't heard of this ballet before but was hooked in by the striking stripy salamander costume.

The story is only ok. Evil step mum takes charge, prince 'dies' but has actually been turned into a salamander and banished. Evil step mum tries to force princess to marry against her will. Salamander comes to the rescue - princess and salamander travel to pagoda land via the elements (air, water, fire, earth). Salamander tells his story. Princess realises he is her brother and they go home to defeat evil step mum.

Visually though it was so gorgeous. Beautiful dancing. Striking sets and costumes.
The elements were my favourite, particularly air and water. Japanese demons. Seahorses. Giant lush flowers.

I also loved the end, where all is joyful. The people are dressed in pastel blues and pinks and the royalty in bright orange. Mmmm colour combination and dances with umbrellas.

Brat and Suzie

I want this shirt alot. It's red, it has a squirrel on a bike...

Brat and Suzie do lovely illustrated shirts, I spotted them at the Bust Craftacular event in December..so hard to resist spending money. I fell in love with the squirrel, hope I manage to buy it soon!

http://www.bratandsuzie.com/

tales from outer suburbia - shaun tan

I think this is more a book for adults than children, but we sell it from the children's section at work. It's a beautiful illustrated book with odd disjointed little stories mixing imagination with suburban life.

http://www.shauntan.net/

Kuniyoshi @ RA

Caught this on Saturday :) Good. Times. Delicious detailed woodblock prints of epic battles. Many with oversized animals :D

Part of the joy was definitely the descriptions that went with the prints, telling the storys. Example: "He disappeared beneath the sea and reappeared moments later with a crocodile under each arm. An unprecedented feat."

The picture at the top shows a bird that thinks it has landed on a nice branch but in fact, unfortunately, it has landed on giant lobster whisker!

Yay!

Sinister storytelling + beautiful prints = <3

miss pokeno

mmm chairs with stuffed animals. indoors mixed with outdoors. comfort mixed with the discomfort of death. delicious contrast.

http://misspokeno.com/

Amy Kligman

Amy Kligman does these beautiful paintings. I love the simplicity and child like dreaminess :) And they kind of remind me of my Gran's drawings.

domestic life

Some of my drawings...really quite happy with them! :) I used to hate my drawing...it's as if something has clicked!

Brian Dettmer

Mmmmm book art.

Étienne-Jules Marey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne-Jules_Marey

Little Dragon - After the Rain

Hiraki Sawa

Domestic/Fantasy! That's what i'm trying to do! :D

http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/hiraki-sawa/video/hiraki-sawa-views-of-hako-2007/

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell's work is so beautiful and so exactly what I love - storytelling and books come alive. I went to a talk last night with Su Blackwell and the editor of Crafts magazine at Borders. Her work is all based on stories and fragility. Stuff she said that I liked: "books going back to trees" and " half this world half book world".

A week ago...

I found this amazing dress in a charity shop and gave it to my mum :D I love the print :D

Lampshades, Curtains, Atoms and Insects @ Wellcome Collection

Saturday, Stephanie and I had Wellcome Collection fun :) It was their first birthday so there was music and origami glee and mini cakes and lovely goody bags :D Plus the talk we went for in the first place. Twas about science inspiring design starting with Da Vinci, William Morris to Modernism to Timorous Beasties who did a window for Wellcome a while back. It was good hearing about how they designed the window and stories behind some of the prints...with mosquitos and veins etc. Oooh and Christopher Dresser got a mention cuz he started as a botanist. I love him...I don't know why exactly. But I went to the Christopher Dresser exhibition a few years ago at the V&A about 3 times.

http://www.timorousbeasties.com/about/projects/wellcome

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/

Esther Coombs

Just discovered Esther Coombs via Print&Pattern and she has also made cake stands with old crockery :) only hers are actually stuck together and printed :) Her drawing is loveliness. I really want to do more drawing.

Moo and Print&Pattern

I read the Print&Pattern blog and a couple months ish back it mentioned that Moo were having a sticker competition. I entered and was one of the winners :) yaay. So you can buy a sticker book and one of the stickers will be my crocobird. Moo said the winners would get info and a link on their website though and then changed their minds, which is annoying. But yay sticker :) And yay to my sticker being one shown on Print&Pattern.

Villages and Gardens

Last weekend I popped back to the countryside to see my parents :) It was so beautiful! I love spring flowers and their garden was full full full of my very favourite forget-me-nots :D The first 4 photos are the garden. My mum is neatly inside a rectangle on the 4th :) It looks creepy. Much walking was done in nearby villages. The last 3 photos are Castle Combe. The last picture looks like a fairyland :D

The Economist

I've been enjoying this ad for The Economist while waiting for the tube. It's attractive and clever I think.

Oliver Polanski

Oliver Polanski does urban graphic-y, photographic and drawn images. I love the use of line and texture with sillhouette, especially in the cash point one. And that the scenes are everyday life, right now. And I think he is depicting society going downhill - environmental damage, crime, war. His website is here: http://www.oliverpolanski.co.uk/

Colour Your Eggs :D

In a corner shop in Camberwell I found some wonderful things. This retro looking condensed milk with a creepy milk loving child on it (who kind of resembles my dad as a child a little) but even better........powder you boil with your eggs to make your eggs coloured :D This is clearly, CLEARLY genius :D My friend and I had no idea what it was but decided to buy some for the awesome rabbit with eggs packaging...when we asked the shop guy to tell us what it was we were thrilled with the response.

"It's as if someone had eggs and thought, wow, these are really good....but they'd be even better if they were green!" said my friend with glee :)