Dream Weavers

It's been a while since we've posted process but an embroidery project we completed earlier in the year has gone live so I thought now would be a great time to go through a project from sketch to final embroidery. The project was for SHOP magazine and their Madrid and Barcelona shopping guide, which came to us through UK based studio Design by St and our UK illustration agency Handsome Frank. The brief was to create a patterned graphic inspired by the contemporary rug designers based in Madrid and Barcelona that are featured in the issue.

It was a wonderful project that allowed us to play with patterns but was also a little tricky. We knew we had to somehow work the title Dream Weavers into the pattern but we weren't sure how obscure the text could be. The first briefing mentioned perhaps hiding the title within the pattern which we tried to push in some of our earlier concepts but had to bring that back a bit for legibility. In the final design we opted for a traditional sans serif font but used contrasting colours in the stripe design to suggest the type being woven back into the pattern.

You can see two of our first round ideas in the top image, a very rough preliminary sketch next to the final design chosen and lastly the final embroidery. With this project most of the design was worked up in Illustrator with just that rough sketch as guidance for some pattern structures and you might notice a minor difference between the final digital version of the design and the embroidery. We had to undo one panel to help with the legibility of the subline. It was a minor change so no biggie but still makes you wish there was a control Z embroidery equivalent handy!

So that was that project, I hope seeing some of our process is helpful, I know I personally find it fascinating to glimpse into other illustrators/designers/artists/makers process. If you follow us on instagram (maricormaricar) we post up some process/wips/inspiration, much more regularly than we update this blog (sorry it's not as often as we'd like). And i'm also very please to share that Maricor and I are taking part in Studio Pop Ups which is being presented by the Powerhouse Museum as part of Sydney Design 2013. We're not used to holding market type stalls but we'll have a mini version of our studio space set up with some originals and prints on display and for sale. We also have a few bits and bobs we're making for the pop up - some pin cushions made with fabric remnants from our Maps series of patchworks as well as some tote bags we're embellishing with hand embroidery.

There will be pop ups hosted by a nice mix of designers such as Emily Green and Limedrop. More information is up on the Pop Ups page here and it will run from the 15th - 18th August 10am-5pm. We'll have some current projects that we'll work on during the pop up so if you're interested in learning more please pop down for a chat!

MAPS opening

Pheew I'm very pleased to say that our MAPS show is now up at Koskela. True to form there was some last minute up all night nimble needle work to get the last piece finished but it was all worth it. The opening was last weekend but the exhibition runs until August so there's still plenty of time to see it if you're Sydney based. Unfortunately I was in a rush and arrived late to the opening, so was a little frazzled and didn't take any photos on the day. But we did take some photos during the install and will try to get some pics of the show before we take it down. Many thanks to Kate at Koskela and M for all their help measuring out positions, hammering and ladder climbing. Below are the main patchworked wall hangings and the one we've nicknamed the long sock.

There is also a little extra side show in the nook with some of the pieces we created for Pick Me Up earlier in the year. You can see some of the Epic Battles and our Aim to Misbehave piece.

We also had some great write ups on the show on Inside Out magazine's blog, Desktop and Broadsheet Sydney.
PS You can see some more of our workspace ie my lounge room in the Broadsheet Sydney feature.

Maps solo show

We're very excited to invite you to our solo show which is being held at Koskela in July. It will be a little different to the works we've exhibited recently since we wanted to work with new techniques and at a larger scale. The pieces are abstract embroideries and patchworks inspired by our stay in London in 2011. We were fortunate to live just near London Fields park so there were no other high rise buildings for a good distance and living on the 10th floor gave us an amazing panaromic view of London (we were extremely lucky to find that apartment the universe must have thought we were due a break!). Each day and night we were treated to an amazing study of colour through our windows. We tried to document the different coloured skies and the palettes chosen for these new works are based on those photographs. The show opens at Koskela 6 July from 2-3.30pm and runs until the 18th August Koskela // 85 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery, NSW 2018 // 9280 0999. There will be some refreshments and nibbles kindly provided by Koskela/Kitchen by Mike so hope to see you there!

And a few previews..

New prints on etsy

Hulllooo, just updated our etsy site with some new giclee prints of our Pick Me Up artworks and newly released prints of some oldies but goodies - 'Head Collapse' and 'Macho Distrust'. We're winding down our bigcartel shopfront so please go to our etsy site if you're interested in picking up some prints and original embroideries. We'll have prints of 'Aim to misbehave', 'Stay Golden' plus all the originals soon!

Prick show

Last weekend with much excitement we headed to a cactus and succulent show. A good friend has gifted us most of our cacti and succulents and got us hooked on them and we were keen to add to our collection. This was our first time going to the show though so we weren't prepared for the awesome amount of weird, spiky, hairy, bulbous specimens on display. I forgot to take the camera so these are just iPhone pics but look at those textures! We also walked around Eden Gardens which hosted the show. It's huuuge and a little overwhelming so I didn't get to look at it all properly but I spotted some lovely patterned leaves.

Twins and needles

If you're based in Australia you may have noticed a pair of similar looking faces peering at you from the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend, and that would have been us! There was a bit of a write up on us ahead of the West Elm Australian launch this week.

We designed a limited edition tote bag to help celebrate the opening of West Elm along with Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids at a custom built space in Bondi Junction. The design will be translated to a limited run of tote bags that will be given away during their grand opening. We're very excited to be involved and were over the moon when the lovely ladies at Baker asked us if we'd like to collaborate on a custom embroidery, not only because it was an exciting project but also because yay West Elm was coming to Australia. The grand opening is this Thursday. We moved house last year and i've been in major nesting mode since so this could be dangerous!

You can read the article online here

It's not always sunny, sunny side up.

Hello! We mentioned earlier that we have some new work showing at Pick Me Up London. It's on now at Somerset House and runs until this Sunday the 28th. We really recommend you go visit if you're in London. Not because of us (that would be a bit up ourselves!) but because of all the other great things happening over the three floors. There are live demonstrations and free workshops, fun stalls such as Human After All's "Face Stamp!", an 'ink-teractive' are where you have the opportunity to create your own print using stamps designed by illustrators such as Craig & Karl, Emily Forgot, Malika Favre, Jean Jullien, Supermundane and Hattie Stewart.

More details can be found at Pick Me Up. If you do go and happen to take snaps of our stall we'd love to see them and would be eternally grateful! Unfortunately we couldn't make it so have been suffering from serious FOMO seeing all the amazing pics posted on our twitter and instagram feed.

But just in case you can't get to PMU we created a mini site of the new work. Originals and giclee prints are for sale at Pick Me Up, and will be in our store after the fair wraps up. Please email us if you're interested! Pictured above is Epic Battle #3: Egg vs Baked Beans (It's not always sunny, sunny side up).

Corn Cobbed

Woooo we finished our artworks for the Pick Me Up show and have popped them in the post. Fingers crossed they make the journey to London safe and sound! Before we mailed them we took some snaps and have a sneak peek below of one of the works. It's technically not an Epic Battle but we couldn't resist including this blushing pantless Corn. I imagine he came out second best in his stoush and was pants'ed in the process.

How do you eat your corn? We like to eat ours by picking off the kernels since we hate having corn bits stuck in our teeth!

If you're on instagram we've been posting wips of some of the works there, you can find us here.

Pick Me Up

We've been busy for the last few months planning and creating some new work for Pick Me Up 2013. It's a contemporary graphic art fair held at the Somerset House in London. We've very chuffed to be part of the Selects program alongside exciting artists such as Malarky, Jean Jullien and Malika Favre (both fellow Handsome Frank'ers).

We were hoping we could go back for a visit during the fair. We could show Ava our old stomping grounds and visit with friends but unfortunately we didn't get our arses into gear fast enough so we'll be sending our work through the post with fingers and toes crossed that they arrive safe and sound.

If you're in town I hope you can go and visit. There will be workshops and I hear that the amazing Damien Florébert Cuypers will be in residence on select days to do One Minute Portraits...Dang would have loved a family portrait with M and Ava!

Here's a little sneak peek at one of the new pieces we've created. Also we've just put up a huuuuge update to our website. It's been at least half a year since we last updated so there's a lot of projects, some that couldn't fit on the home page but can be found on the separate Tactiles page.

Drifters

We went on a camping trip last week to Myall Lakes, north of Sydney and pitched our tents in a beautiful spot right between beaches and the lake. We're in the height of summer and bushfire season in Australia so we had to make do without a campfire. Luckily we had cooking facilities not to mention eco toilets so while we weren't entirely glamping we did have some home comforts (we also brought our stove top coffee maker and an air bed...) For my second camping attempt I think we did pretty well although we completely overestimated how much food we'd need and as a result have half a years worth of Spam and canned meals to go through. It was a great holiday spent with some of our closest friends (thank you G for battling gastro to make it). I hope it becomes more of a tradition and that next time we'll be able to take Ava along. Would love for her to enjoy growing up with summers swimming in the lake, climbing trees and sleeping under the stars. Below are some rock and shell textures i've been collecting over the summer. I call them drifters.. maybe that's the theme for this year? I've always liked planning and timing things. That all sort of flew out the window when Ava surprised us, maybe drifting is something I should try to embrace more, even for just a little while.

PS and just for fun some light painting photos we took on the first night..

New year freak out

Hello! New year and new blog post. I remember when I was younger the time between the end of the year and the start of the next felt a lot longer with enough time for me to get used to the idea that a new year was about to begin and be comfortable with the new starts that it would bring. Now it feels like I only have a few days to celebrate the end of the year and all things that have happened before the freak out of realising that holy moly what will I do, the new year is here and it's time to start all over again. I'm pretty sure i'm not the only person who sometimes feels overwhelmed at the possibilities of a blank page, the feeling I get at this time of year is like that just about a thousand times stronger.

At the end of last year I started to worry about how we could develop our work. My boyfriend will be the first to tell you that one of my favourite past times is to worry so I didn't turn away from these thoughts. Instead I thought about why I was feeling that way. I think it's healthy to reflect and analyse what you're doing, explore change and develop so that's what we'll be doing, starting now.

This year has the potential to be a lot of things, whether we're ready for it or not. So maybe, just like the first beach swim of the season, we just need to jump in!

1. Christmas is a lot more exciting when children are involved. I was never really into the whole Christmas build up - decorations, trees and lights until this year. I went a little decorating mad making pop pom and streamer garlands, painting ornaments, a wreath and also pimping dollar store bon bon crackers with new gifts, confetti and jokes. This is the finished wreath. I used left over acrylic paint so unfortunately it wasn't water proof and had to be taken down whenever the rains came. Next time i'll make some with waterproof paint!

2. I was in a budget saving mode this year so also hand painted some wrapping paper. 

3. We had a mixture of old ornaments for our first tree borrowed from M's parents and my own. We did splurge a little though on three owls that we hid amongst the pine needles.

4. For family Christmas lunch we continued M's family's tradition of paper hats and added some fun variations from TMod, masks too!

5. Bon bon aftermath. I replaced the novelty gifts with some amazing Japanese wooden spinning tops from Poketo, mini 3D wooden puzzles and some woven bangles from Leif that I was almost tempted to keep for myself.

7 - 10 We've been spending a lot of time at our favourite beach. Ava's slowly getting used to the open water, she loves digging her hands through the sand. Hopefully she'll take after M's side of the family and be a natural swimmer.

Happy Merry Christmas

Woah how can it already be the end of the year? I feel like the whole year has whizzed past and I was constantly trying to catch up. It feels like only last week that we were making our way back to Sydney but other moments our time in London feels like a dream. In any case this year has been full of radness, topped with the arrival of my cheeky monkey aka Ava baby aka hungry slug aka the Big Cheese.

It's been a tough but amazing year and there a lot of things to be thankful for, a lot of people that have helped us this year, given us inspiration, a kick up the but and last but not least things to smile about. I hope that this year has been good for you as well.

Thank you for coming and visiting us here on our blog. I hope that next year we're back to posting more regularly, although I know i've been saying that for a while now ;)

Here's to a lot of feasting and merry making good times!
See you next year!

ADC Young Guns X

Maricor and I were selected for this years Young Guns award which were announced earlier this month. The Young Guns is an international portfolio based award presented annually by the Art Directors Club and is open to creatives under the age of thirty. This year 34 were given and we're beyond happy to join alumni we very much admire and are inspired by such as Kyle Bean, Deanne Cheuk, Johnny Kelly and Alex Trochut to name just a few.

We weren't able to make it to the awards night that were held in New York earlier this month but our friend Matt was kind enough to snap some pics of our work on display.

Field Trip Sydney

We've mentioned it on twitter but not on our blog yet but Maricar and I will be speaking at the Sydney instalment of Field Trip this December. It's a creative conference presented by our Australian agents Jacky Winter and Australian Infront. They held the first in Melbourne earlier this year with Beci Orpin, Jeremy Ley, Tin and Ed amongst the stellar line up so we're pretty proud to be asked to speak in Sydney.

Field Trip is a little different to the usual conference, speakers are encouraged to think of it as more of a performance rather than a talk, as we'll go through the nitty gritty process of creating work, live on stage with a lot of tips shared. Both creative tips as well as technical short cuts. For Sydney there is a great variety of skills represented by the speakers: the highly respected traditional illustrator Nigel Buchanan, paper engineer Benja Harney of Paperform fame, letterist Gemma O'Brien aka Mrs Eaves, 3D digital wizards Forge & Morrow, infographics designer Anthony Calvert and the motion gurus from Flutter. Hopefully we won't be too nervous on stage but I'm slightly freaking out about the prospect of presenting in front of a big crowd. But it's a interesting format for a conference and one which we would have enjoyed going to as a student and young designer to get an insight into the creative processes of some of our creative heroes so we're glad to be involved and I hope what we have to share will be interesting.

We'll be going through a brief from start to finish, discussing the ways we tailor our work flow to working with such a labour intensive medium as embroidery. We'll share some of the digital techniques we use, but most importantly we'll be doing some live embroidery on stage.  If we have any regular visitors to the blog I hope we see you there, please say hi :)

And also if anyone wants to ask us a question about how we work please leave them in the comments section of this post and we'll try to go through them during our talk.

Field Trip Sydney takes place on the 7th of December at the Seymour Centre. Tickets are still available through Australian Infront, details are all on their site. But if you do a bit of sleuthing on the Desktop magazine website I think they're offering a reader discount!

Hope Shines Here

Earlier this year I had an incredible experience travelling with TOMS on one of their Giving trips to Peru and Guatemala visiting schools, clinics and orphanages. There is more info at the TOMS site on their One For One movement and here are some videos from the trip.

I spent a couple of days with Visualiza in Guatemala, their aim is to provide "quality eye service to everyone", their private practice helps to fund their outreach clinics and the treatments they provide to patients who are less able to afford quality ophthalmological care. I had the opportunity to see the great work they do in providing access to eye care to remote parts of the community and also to sight saving surgery. With the the support TOMS provides with its One For One movement they were able to pay for more surgeries and operate more out reach clinics.

The rest of the trip was spent in Peru helping to distribute shoes with Buckner International. We met a lot of incredible people who are there helping the community day to day. Seeing first hand the difference they make was a humbling experience. I also had the opportunity to design a mural which we painted with the help of the children in the community. The text translates to Hope Shines Here which we painted on one of the community halls Buckner has helped to establish in Lima. It was nice to be able to do something fun with the children, we all enjoyed ourselves and while we all got pretty messy and dived into the paint the mural turned out beautiful.

Photos courtesy of TOMS Shoes