Olympia Le-Tan Pre-Fall 2012

While I know I should be really saving my pennies for things such as concert tickets, memberships of clubs as well as the university gym I really want to get my hands on a book clutch with Olympia Le-Tan. She's currently releasing tidbits as well as teaser photographs of her new pieces for the Pre-Fall 2012 collection and has even mentioned that a few clothes will be released as well, though nothing in the way of a runway collection. It must be her work with Chanel at the tender age of nineteen finally sinking in. To think, at that age I'll be studying rocks and evolution and she'll have been working for Chanel and France. It's enough to make an aspiring youth weep with a mixture of conflicting joy and jealousy.

There's a lot more pink covers as well as floral motifs and delicately stitched titles than her previous book clutches so I'm clamouring to get in touch with my inner princess and make one of these coveted treasures mine. While it may not be the most inexpensive of pieces I love the quirk and combination of good literature and books, finally married together. As well as classic cult hits there's a lot more classic French titles with exotic sounding names for this new collection too- sounds like a cultural experience for my eyes and ears alike.

This new Pre-Fall collection for 2012 promises more of meticulous detail including the shading and thin lines of this red curtain and the rich embroidered stitching on the titles. Although this design shown above is very basic and minimalist when drawn, there's so much more detail to consider when bringing the creation to life using arts and crafts as well as making the piece look beautiful inside and out using French seams. On a book clutch produced by Olympia Le-Tan, you will never find a messy seam of rough end of thread anywhere unless you are so foolish you feel compelled to take the damn thing apart. 

My favourite of all the little sneak previews is this hot pink beauty- shown on a shelf of penguin classic books both old and new and what looks to be a black and white photograph of Andy Warhol or his look-a-like on a row boat. Something about the French script as well as the renaissance image of a man dressed in pink as well as striped pants and pointy hat courting a fair dame seems to right. There's a wonderful array of patterns created by stitching and contrasting black and pink felt and I vow I will own one of these one day- mark my words. 

Another favourite in the collection is this comical looking figure in similarly flavoured renaissance clothes complete with a feather plume hat on a bright red background. It's not often you see primary colours used in felt and the title of a French book all mashed together by the mind and hands of a creative genius, so enjoy it while you can.

Artist: Sashiko Yuen

Yet again I find myself admiring the illustrative qualities and imagination lying behind such works which feature girls with wildly coloured hair as well as neatly penned and sketched bodies. Sashiko Yuen is yet another artist whose style I admire but there's definitely a bit more edge and malice about their work compared to that of Ann Muddy, another artist I have recently discussed on this blog. The main difference in their styles is that Yuen seems to favour portrait shots of cute and colourful girls with an innate darkness about them and there's a softer type of pastel shading and blending between colours in these drawings.

Anything that features a Disneyland souvenir cap in their work or online store wins a lot of acclaim with me, especially at this time of year when in 2011 I had just returned from a twenty day exchange to America and bought my own Mickey Mouse cap. Similarities between Muddy and Yuen is their knack for capturing luscious curves and also their prowess for drawing women with fantastically coloured hair as well as dress sense.

I'm not a large fan of rockabilly style myself, but I do like the curls tinted with pink hues for this girls hair as well as her rose bustier top. A lot of the drawn women feature wild tattoos full of colour that are added for decoration and colour such as the skulls and hearts but I think that without them and keeping the ribbon scripture tattoo would be a little more powerful in terms of design and colour. I love the whimsy of the hair and how unrealistic it is- if you ever did try to create such a look for yourself in real life I think that it would fail abysmally unless you had a runway class hairdresser controlling the colour and style of your hair. That's what's great about drawing and imagination though, you can create unrealistic things and make them beautiful.

I love the control of the lines for the eyebrows as well as the different texture of the hair drawn for Sashiko Yuen's work- it makes me want to fill my 2012 personal diary full of whimsical drawings in a similar manner. Also the oriental style of the eyes makes me want to go out a little more and perfect the use of my new liquid eyeliner, although it will be quite a long time before you catch my using pastel colours for eyeshadow. While I'm still discussing the face, I've always had a personal struggle when drawing noses from the front-on profile but Yuen's really nailed it for this drawing with carefully placed lines that aren't too fussy. I love the eyeball collar of her outfit, I wonder if it was inspired from a real collared shirt...

Artist: Ann Muddy

You wouldn't be able to tell now by my horrible illustrations, but when I was a child I loved nothing more than having time on my hands as well as large stacks of paper and anything to draw with including pencils, textas and crayons. I still have a few pencil cases full of my old tools in my room including those Korean crayons that are much like mechanical pencils. So it's been a while since I've been up to drawing but I wish I could still draw the same way I used to; or in the style of artist Ann Muddy!

 

I came across one of her images and just had to find more and dig up a little bit about her; all the images shown in this post can be found on her Flickr where you can also find the means to contact her should you be interested in presenting her work. While laying about in bed this morning I got to think about what I need to get back doing; i.e. playing guitar, drawing and reading. I read a little bit this morning and yesterday broke the proverbial drought between guitar playing but I feel somewhat intimidated by a blank page. As a perfectionist I thrive on doing something 100% correct and hate mistakes- I know that if I begin to draw I'll hate what I see but without practice, I will never improve!

The technique of this self-portrait of Ann Muddy absolutely took my breath away- I couldn't believe the movement of the small lines contributing to something greater than themselves as well as the tinted texture and shading on the face and hair. Realistically I will never achieve anything this awe-inspiring in art but if I could maybe achieve something equally as great in my chosen field I would feel a little satisfied. This is the type of thing I would love to fill my diary pages with but without formal training, how can I hope to fill an empty page with so much colour as well as spiritual depth?

I know it's morally wrong to imitate someone else's work, presenting something you don't own as your own and the like but I find it hard to find my own voice and expression when it comes to drawing. When I read a book, I absorb some of the words used in the passages with unconscious effort and my style of writing changes too; isn't it normal to try to imitate something you admire? They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery and I wouldn't mind being able to master curvaceous lines like the figure above. Although the hips of the woman above are small, something has to be said about those sizable thighs. I do like the way the face is drawn, those are what I struggle with the most and the lines and design are simple but also feminine.

I mainly stick to using pencils and shading- that's my main squeeze at the moment but I've also been tyring to create movement with lines. I've never worked with proper artistic markers but I would love to see the process undertaken to create this piece. I admire the stick thin and bony figures of the lady above, as well as the red and white polka dot dress reminiscent of Minnie Mouse in contrast with blue hair. I love the way the face is done, the lines around the eyes as well as nose and shading in water colour.

Here we can see Beauty on the left and her sister Envy with adequately coloured green hair breathing in her fume like hair with sunburnt shoulders (something I suffered yesterday). One thing that's great about art and drawing is that you can colour things the way you choose as well as constructing images from your own imagination onto paper and letting other people see your vision. I have a rather large love affair with hair in unnatural shades so that's probably a contributing factor into my love for Ann Muddy's work. Perhaps it's healthier that I love drawing weird coloured hair than turning myself into a girl with extraordinarily coloured hair.

Occasionally you'll see something unlike any of Ann Muddy's other work, like this piece simply named 'Watermelon'. I've drawn with rainbow coloured pencils before and things turned out sick and vomit looking but maybe there's something about Muddy's technique that I have yet to gain an insight into. 

For a shape that in real-life may be labelled as 'unattractive', for some strange reason I find the colour pallet used including the mint green hair as well as nude skin and blossoming pink cheeks to be somehow satisfying. I think it reminds me of gelati and ice-cream and the hot weather is frying my brain a little.

Last, but certainly not least is the drawing that led me to discover this artist! It was a drawing done to express the artist's wishes to own these pieces of clothing and I strongly identified with her style including the heart framed glasses, bone bow tie, alphabet skirt and cat tights. The handbag with the cover 'Lolitta' looks like something from Olympia Le-Tan who I have a mild obsession with so I'm more than happy to see a drawing combining so many trendy things all at once. This is the beginning of yet another brilliant fascination and obsession of mine.

A Crochet Eskimo

Despite having lived in this city all my life, the unpredictable weather still gets me; yesterday was perfect picnic weather and just a little on the hot side and today I washugging my arms and trying to bundle up in a thin shirt and jeans. All the while I was thinking how much better my life would be if I had an amazing vintage crochet blanket to wrap around me and something clever to keep out the cold. Yesterday I spotted this gorgeous crochet square coat with a hood and I'm glad I don't own a duffel coat, although that may be more practical and good for keeping out the cold Australian Winter is never that harsh and I need something cute to brighten up my day when it's grey outside.

I was captivated by this pose of the arms out at the side as well as the hood pulled up and all buttons done up, there's three red buttons and one pink button but that quirk only makes me covet this piece more! I love the predominant white colour as well as the thick squares all together- I'd love to wear something this dorky and garish to my local library while wearing some fake glasses. I think I might get some lovely and even appreciable reactions there.

Even unbuttoned there's a certain charm about the crochet squares pulled together and how this creates a rough scalloped edge around the hem and sleeves. A basic black shirt underneath as well as denim shorts is a nice way to wear such a bold and colourful coat but at the same time the Mary Jane platforms and brightly coloured tights show off a attention-grabbing side to this piece as well. Things could only be better if I managed to make myself a coat in this style but since that won't happen for another couple of years I'll happily pay the cost of it when I scrap together some more cash.

I firmly believe my life will be complete when I can wear thiscoat around with pride and not care about being judged with my plastic rosary necklaces in pink and purple. I love vintage clothing but hate that they've been popularised so much the price tag has been driven up so marginally. Just you wait till I have a proper job- then we'll see who's fashionable! If only a library would hire me, then maybe my life would be complete and I wouldn't have to wear a uniform and I could be zany and interesting and not have to talk to people in low hushed voices and enjoy wearing crochet coats and fake glasses.

Scrapbook Mad

I'm on one of those weird moods again, today has been spent drinking coffee and being motivated by the ticking of my wind-up watch to type blog posts and I've been cutting out Miu Miu style cats in cardboard which I'll later glue to a thin and pastel coloured exercise book I'll get sometime this week. I'm happy with what I've been doing online but it feels like I need to get back to the old methods of publishing and I want to scrapbook things together from Vogue and try writing that way a little bit before I completely revert back to solely relying on technology. I won't have so much time to enjoy doing arts and crafts activity when I'm in my first year of university so I think I'll take my time and enjoy what I have left of a very hot and sweaty holiday. The Melbourne heat is coming back and is as strong as ever.

The inner-conflict of my head can be easily represented by this picture: I want to sleep but also get out of bed and have a cup of coffee to start blogging; but at the same time I know I should make use of my camera (sparked by seeing the black case next to the sleeping woman) the Lomo LCA+ something I may well bring to the university information session this Friday. There's also my obligation to keep in contact with my friends from high school and have a proper conversation over the phone, trying to read books I've borrowed from the library and I've already got Valentine's Day on my mind. Sometime I wish I wasn't so all over the place and I had the focus of a robot.

At the moment I'm trying to sever a few Vogue extracts from another but I can't do it without cutting something off or there being awkward angles involved. I'm sort of in a half-hearted scrap booking frenzy and I've cut out about six cats in paper cardboard as well as a poorly hand drawn skull and some bones and I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but I do know where to get lovely cheap books in pastel colours for $1.50. so I should try and take care of that tomorrow. I may even attempt to insert extracts of hand written notes too to add a personal touch, I've also got a can of cherry flavoured Cocoa-Cola that I want to take a self-portrait of me drinking and a whole lot of other blog ideas but at the moment I just want to bask in the glorious air-conditioned lounge room and listen to the tennis from the television.

Handmade books

For the first time in my life I have a very cool diary but I haven't really used it at all and that's sort of depressing really. I've been very busy typing at the speed of light as my mother would say and cataloguing gorgeous brands, jewellery and fashion on my blog to fully take up the written arts again. Occasionally when suffering writer's block I'll set about scrawling notes in a book given to me on my birthday last year and then type those up properly but that's as far as things have gotten when it comes to writing things out.

Still, it would be nice to be able to write things out in my own hand writing and put together clippings from magazines as well as photographs. For my boyfriend, I filled in a book from Listography, 'My Love Life in Lists' and that was about one hundred and fifty pages to fill out but some of them weren't applicable. I have to fill in some more the next time I see him but I should write down some vague notes in my diary to jog my memory when I do have the chance to write in his book for him. That's about the most writing I've done this Summer, neatly and with effort.

I had aimed to accomplish so much this Summer as I do every year and though I always fall short, I accomplish something in some small way. I had meant to learn to roughly do water colour and write in cool fonts but that had never come to fruition really. There's still time though and not all hope has been lost. It will just be a little more difficult since I'll now be preparing to head off to university in the next few weeks as well.

The diary I had purchased for this year was from a company called Rebound books and they take old Little Golden books and splice them open, insert diary dates and spiral bound them to make into diaries. I got one mainly to keep up to date with university and since nothing really spectacular has happened this year so far I haven't had much to write in it sadly. There's quite a few blank pages so I suppose I should do rough drawings and sketches of things I blogged about during the week, or print out excerpts of my blog and stick it in with the date. I'm not too sure how much effort I can be bothered with writing the same things out twice, but at least it might give a little flavour to my diary and make it special. I want it to be thick and jam-packed full of stuff. If I had any sense, I would lock myself in my room and read through magazines and clip stuff out of them as well as try badly to draw things from my blog from a frozen screen.

I'm very tempted to turn the blank pages of my diary into something like this- while I doubt I will be graced with the good luck to find as many lovely looking magazine clippings as this if my family were to finally upgrade to a better printer than I could print out extracts here and there of this blog and do up the pages myself. I'm digging the pink and purple painted pages and the rough hand drawn borders, it's all very home made and sweet. I have been dedicating a lot of my time to writing online so I can share it with others who have the same opinion as me, but I can't help but feel that I'm missing the all important process of writing things for myself and in secret and getting to hug a diary close to my chest at night. I was never the kind of girly girl who wrote all her thoughts in secret under the torch of her bed sheets and the crushes of her names and what happened daily, but I wish I had been. Or that I could become that girl now.

While writing in three-dimensional clunky blocks isn't difficult, I can never really bring myself to finish writing say, a diary or writing in a notebook. I always give up halfway through because I have a change of heart and no longer agree with my ideas in it anymore or I hate my handwriting. When I first write in a book everything looks so neat and cute but as I get further into it I get lazy and careless. At least with an online journal the presentation is the same and remains in the same, neat font all the way through no matter how tired and worn out I feel.

This year I'm in half the mind to take on an additional TAFE course or an adult learning class on either an Asian language, Japanese perhaps or a photography course so I can actually hone my craft. It would be a lot of fun to learn how to write characters in an Asian language and when I see the advertisement for Apple iPads I always feel a pang of poverty. I would love to learn things as I go through the year and devote my spare diary pages to learning a foreign language. I think that should be my next task when I next go to the library.

YSL Arty Ovale rings.