NEW - Winkelen Magazine is out today!

Today is the launch of the seriously gorgeous Winkelen Magazine! Check out the Elephant & Rose tea towels featured within it's lovely pages! If you love beautifully designed, local and handmade furniture, art and home wares then this is definitely for you!

I'm very please to be featured in with such a lovely bunch of designers. Might I add right next to one of my local heroes Rachel Castle!

Artist Crush - Lisa Lapointe

I just can't get enough of these beautiful drawings by Sydney artist Lisa Lapointe! After studying painting at the College of Fine Arts in Paddington and working in textile and interior design, Lisa now works exclusively with coloured pencils, creating large and very time consuming works on paper (Each piece can take months to complete). I find her use of colour and shapes absolutely mesmerising. 

 

'Under the Sea' 2014

Collaboration with Mitchell Connely

 

'Boundary Line' 2013 by Lisa Lapointe

New Prints

I've been creating a whole lot of fresh new prints lately which I hope to be making into new products very soon. Watch this space! Today though,  I wanted to share three prints that I designed specifically for a competition being run by Digital Print, a company in Sydney. The theme was 'Botanical Extract' and the brief was to design up to three prints with a botanical theme using hand drawn or painted elements. It sounded like just my thing! We were restricted to a palette of colours which was a little challenging as I love my colours clear and bright and these were mostly quite muted and earthy. I think it's good to be restricted with choice though because it pushes you to make the best work you can with what you've got and there will almost always be restrictions placed on you when working with a client. So here are my three designs and some of the preparatory sketches. If you'd like to vote on my design then please visit either the facebook page or Pinterest board and leave a comment on one of my designs. Fingers crossed!

An Elephant & Rose Mothers Day Giveaway!

To celebrate Mothers Day 2014 Elephant & Rose is giving away three prize packs to three lucky people. Each prize is one Elephant & Rose product of your choice (Tote, Tea towel or scarf) and one greeting card in the design of your choice. That's Mothers Day sorted! 

There are three easy ways to enter

#1 - Right here on this blog!

Simply have a look at the Elephant and Rose shop here, decide which product you like best and tell me in the comments below. Don't forget to leave your email address. This gets you 1 entry.

#2 - Instagram

Follow @elephantandrose on instagram and get 1 entry. Regram or screenshot the giveaway image with the tag #elephantandrose and receive 1 entry. 

#3 - Facebook

Follow Elephant & Rose on Facebook and receive 1 entry. Share the above image with your friends and receive another entry! I think you're definitely getting the hang of this : )

Time to get started!

Terms and Conditions

-Open to Australian and New Zealand residents only.

-This give away is not endorsed by Facebook, Instagram or blogger. 

-Entries are limited to one of each option given above per person per day. 

-Winners will be contacted via email or private message.

-Three winners will be selected at random. Decisions are final.

-Entries close Friday 2nd May 2014 at 11:59 AEST.

-Each individual prize is valued at up to $59.95 AUD and can not be redeemed for cash.

Artist Crush - Jason Woodside

 The internet is an amazing tool! When I was at Art School we had access to a state of the art library that I would spend hours upon hours in poring over beautiful artist books (oh yeah and studying). While there is nothing like the tactile experience of picking up a real book, I don't think I would have been exposed to as much amazing art and design as I am while perusing the internet. I discover a lot of artists and designers that I admire on websites, blogs, instagram and pinterest but every now and then I come across something that makes my heart feel like it's going to jump out of my chest and I start to hyperventilate (just a little bit). Jason Woodside is one such artist. His work is pure joy! I don't even know what else to say. The pictures speak for themselves. 

Hello Beth Ditto!

2013 was just about the biggest year of my life. The birth of my daughter Eden, running a pop up shop with a tiny baby and then a big interstate move threw my life into momentary chaos until I was left blinking in the sun in country Victoria. The last half of the year flew by in a whirlwind of baby bliss and it was probably just about the happiest I've ever been.

So after a fairly long break, Elephant and Rose is back up and running! I have an order to send off to Sturt Gallery in Mittagong shortly and there will be more stockists announced throughout the year.

I also just finished making a doll to enter in the Reginald CAE Portrait Prize. The brief was to design and make a plush portrait of a pet or person that you admire. I had a pretty long list of potential candidates including Jenny Kee, Twiggy, Clare Bowditch, Katie Noonan, Margaret Pomeranz but I finally settled on Beth Ditto (lead singer of band The Gossip) and I'm glad I did because she makes up into a rather gorgeous doll! The photo I chose was of her modelling some Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture. Making her tiny little dress was the most fun and my years of dress making really paid off. I'm sure I've made quite a few adult sized dresses that took way less time to make than this one! I had to take a bit of artistic licence with it because it was a very detailed dress that was hard to make out in photos, I also had to work with what I had on hand so it is made from a mix of a dyed petticoat, a floral bed sheet, tulle from underskirts and an enamel brooch. Her body was cut from a beautiful old linen table cloth. She is made entirely from materials that I have collected from op-shops. See! I knew all that stuff would come in handy one day.

I made the pattern for her body out of my head and sketched her face and tattoos directly onto the fabric which I then meticulously embroidered. I would estimate that she took me about thirty hours to complete. I just had to steal moments while Eden was asleep or busy with her toys. 

I just received an email from Ararat Regional Gallery confirming an exhibition I will be involved in for May so it's on to the next project for me and fingers crossed that Miss Ditto will make it into the exhibition at the CAE. If not, I know a certain little lady that has been eyeing her off big time!

A Big Move!

We have finally settled from a big interstate move and Miss Eden is not so new born any more so I have (slightly) more time on my hands. Yes, I moved interstate with a tiny baby! Oh and did I mention that I ran a pop up shop for two weeks before that! Apparently I think I'm Super Woman.

This is me running a shop with baby attached!

Gorgeous products in the shop by Elephant & Rose and the lovely Deirdre from Third Bird

It was so much fun and such a success but I won't be doing it again anytime too soon. For now I would just like to settle into my new home, spend time with my little family and create some fresh new designs.