LDN - SYD

Things have been so hectic (an exciting whirlwind trip to Guatemala and Peru that we have to keep under wraps until later in the year) that I've only just been able to sit down and get stuck into blogging again. Ca was about to kick my ass for being so tardy with this "Last week in London" post, so much to cover so be prepared for a pretty long post!

Back in February I was lucky to spend almost a month back in London, to be honest I was missing it heaps since returning home to Sydney. Staying with friends in East London it was almost like I was living back in the old neighborhood spending Saturday afternoons at Broadway Market, strolling through London Fields for my morning coffee at Climpson & Sons, the Sunday guantlet that is Columbia Road Flower Markets...

In my last week I squeezed in a couple of exhibitions, hunted down some printed ephemera, caught up with the hugely talented Hattie Newman over cake and tea, had drinks in an East London secret bar and created my first ever chalk mural for HiRes! London. It was an awesome trip and I can't wait until I can go back again.

David Drummond at Cecil Court
For any lovers of printed ephemera Cecil Court (Leicester Square Tube) is a place you must head down to. The street is lined with various shops each with their own specialty but for theatre lovers David Drummond is the store to visit.
I was hoping I could catch an Ephemera Society Bazaar while I was in London but unfortunately the dates didn't line up. But we got a tip to check out Cecil Court and oh-my how I wish I had made the trip earlier. The store is filled to the brim with all sorts of theatre ephemera, their selection of play bills is vast and ranges from the earlier black and white prints from the 1800s to the bold coloured bills from the 1950s.

Fail Better Chalk Mural

As part of their "Live From The Kitchen" series HiRes! London invited me to create a chalk illustration which would be live streamed on their site.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
The above quote hangs in every HiRes! office so I've been told. Never having done a mural before I was a little nervous about how it would turn out but I think the end result was fantastic (especially considering the light projector failed I had to measure it all up by hand). At a whopping 3metres x 4metres it's the largest MaricorMaricar artwork to date. Below are some process pictures but check out the HiRes! site to see it come to life.

We have also printed a limited edition series of screen prints which will be available soon from our store. Out of an edition of 100 only 20 are available for sale, please get in touch if you are interested in a print.

Some exciting news...

Hello! I've finished my latest little project. It's a knitted pompom beanie that i've fit in whilst waiting for feedback from clients or fabric to dry (and when I needed a break from embroidery!). The reason for the beanie is my boyfriend and I are going to have a baby. Wowser! We're actually almost 7 months along and i've wanted to share the news here for a while but things were a bit hectic with the move back from London, my sister's wedding and just general new years and Christmas stuff.

Maricor and I are going to see how things go once the baby arrives. BUT MaricorMaricar is definitely going to get bigger and better this year! We have a few exciting projects under our belt that we can't wait to share and a couple of commissions pencilled in. We're also going to venture into customised short run textiles. Still only in very early planning and dreaming phase but this is the year we're going to make it happen. I'm so excited, this year is going to be crazay :)

1. I based the beanie on this pattern I found online. I made a few adjustments to it to make it a bit larger and added the pompom.

London Wrap Up - Second helpings

As Ca mentioned in the previous post I'm in London! Partly a holiday, partly to scope out the possibility of having an exhibition (any tips/leads on venues would be great!) and mostly to revisit the old neighbourhood/weekend markets and say hi to old and new friends. As a post script to Ca's wrap up of London I have a few more entries to add:

Make Lounge
All the stores we found in London stocked Anchor threads so we had to replenish our dwindling DMC supplies online (Cross Stitch Centre). This worked fine most of the time since we had swatches of our threads from Sydney to select colours from. But for projects where we needed new specific colours it was a bit problematic (website swatches not being an exact indication of colour) so we'd always want to choose them instore. Anchor have a great selection of threads (we've listed in our previous posts where to find them in London) and are actually wonderful for finding tints of the one colour but our thread of choice to be honest is DMC. DMC seem to have a tighter twist which holds up better for our colour mixing. I'm kicking myself that I only just organised myself properly to visit the Make Lounge in Highbury Islington during this trip. A wonderful concept for a store and workshop space, they have a range of craft tools from cake decoration to candle making and everything in between, check out their great line-up of workshops.

Tate Modern
Even if you've visited before, their series of free public exhibitions in their Turbine Hall is always worth a look see. For any of their major exhibitions take heed of their recommendation and book your tickets! First attempt to see the Yayoi Kasuma exhibition was a fail so don't be like me, plan ahead and book online.

Schoolyard at Broadway Market - Yum Buns, Homeslice Pizza
We first came across Homeslice Pizza during the Wilton Way street party and dog show. Tucked around a side street we were lured by the aroma of woodfired pizza. I don't know how they manage a pop up stall with their custom built oven but they do! Now it looks like they've got a more permanent home at the School Yard market just around the corner from the Saturday Broadway Markets. And right next door is Yum Buns, recommended by our friends it is well worth a visit. Their roast pork buns are kind of a souped up pork version of a peking duck roll. Imagine thick slices of roast pork, cucumber and shallot on a steamed flat bun with a drizzling of hoisin sauce.

Coco&Me
So happy I've found the food blog of Coco&Me a regular stall holder at Broadway Market. For some reason it wasn't part of my weekly market ritual when Ca and I were living just down the road and I can't figure out why. I remember having her fruit tart a few times and really enjoying it but I always zoomed straight to the savoury stalls each Saturday. This weekend I had a craving for something sweet and had one of her tarts again and oh my I can't stop thinking about it! I have one more Saturday before I fly back to Sydney and I know definitely where I'll be next weekend. It's nice to know that although I'll be on the other side of the world I can still indugle in my fruit tart cravings as she's lovely enough to share some of her recipes. But nothing beats the real thing so if you find yourself in London make sure you visit her stall, she also has a selection of chocolate treats that I'll be sampling next Saturday too.

1. YumBuns at the Schoolyard at BroadwY Markets
2. Homeslice Pizza, that oven in the back moves around to each pop-up location
3. Pie stall at Broadway Markets
4. Pork and crab rolls at Banhmi11 at Broadway Markets

London - What we did and what we ate - part 2

Part 2 of our London wrap up. Maricor is actually there right now for a couple of weeks. Totally jealous!

- Old Spitalfields on Thursdays and Ephemera Fairs: For your antique and vintage fix Thursdays for Old Spitalfields market is the day to go. Also a must visit for designers/fans of antique printed matter are the Ephemera Society's London fairs and bazaars. You can pick up Victorian theatre handbills, antique trading/advertising cards and all other manner of amazing printed goodness. The large fairs that attract vendors from overseas happen twice a year (27th May, 2nd Dec 2012) whilst their are also smaller bazaars during the year.

- Nobrow Independent publisher: their shop/gallery in Shoreditch is an amazing source for books, posters, original art and handmade goods. They also have their own screenprinting studio and work with an amazing group of artists on self published short and long run books. We blogged about them previously and are relieved to find out they are now stocked at Kinokuniya here in Sydney so we don't have to travel halfway round the world for our next Nobrow fix. But nothing beats going to their shop!

- London Graphics Centre, Cowling and Wilcox, Jackson's Art Supplies: our go to places for art supplies whilst we were in London. Between the three we were able to pick up square frames for our embroideries (surprisingly very hard to find off the shelf square frames back home so this was a revelation), calligraphy supplies, poster tubes and the usual paints, art paper and inks.

- Cloth House, MacCulloch & Wallis, Ray Stitch: If you need any embroidery/fabric supplies whilst in town try these stores. John Lewis also turned out to be pretty handy for embroidery thread.

- The Shop on Cheshire St: the streets on and off Brick Lane are choccas with vintage stores but we loved The Shop for it's stash of affordable vintage scarves, aprons and tablecloths. Here's a nice write up on Style Bubble that does The Shop more justice.

- Pimps and Pinups: In need of a hair cut? We were referred to Pimps and Pinups by a friend who'd been living in London for a few years and were pleased to to find out that they have a sort of brother/sister relationship with our regular hairdressers in Newtown, Scissorhands.

- St Brides Library: tucked away in a peculiar spot in Fleet Street is this amazing library dealing mainly with printing, typography and graphic arts, a must visit for any travelling designer in town. They also offer letterpress printing workshops and a host of other events. Looking at their site now they look to be temporarily closed but are still taking research enquiries and their events and workshops are unaffected.

- Bus 55 and 48: we lived in London Fields, Hackney so our way into the city was pretty flexible. We could take the National Express from London Fields Station which was only 3 stops away from Liverpool Street station or as I liked to do, you could take the bus in. Bus 55 and 48 winds it's way down Mare St through Hackney Road finally meeting up with Shoreditch. I loved the buses in London - the convenience of the signage systems, the simple and cheap fares as well as the fact you could pretty much get a bus door to door wherever you needed. Most of the things and places we needed were in East London and the buses allowed us to get there fast and cheaply. Also I liked taking the bus to figure out in my head where everything in the city was in relation to each other. It's a great way to acclimatise yourself in a new city, and the buses in London make it so much easier for you than any other bus system i've tried before.

1. Handbill purchased at an Ephemera Society fair. I love the combination of different typefaces. I wish we'd bought more whilst at the fairs and bazaars, it's just so overwhelming.
2. London Fields in Spring
3. Picnic/working on our balcony over looking the railway line with central London in the distance. We had a pretty amazing view whenever storms rolled in over London but I have to say my favourite memory was during Diwali. The skyline was alight with never-ending fireworks from one side of the city to the other.

London - Where we ate and what we did - part 1

We thought we should do a round up of the other London gems we enjoyed visiting over and over again during our 8 month stay in London last year. Places to grab an excellent coffee, book shops, art supplies stores, cafes, museums, galleries, odds and ends plus more. So this is part 1 of our to do list* next time we're in Old London Town focusing on places to eat, drink and be entertained. Part 2 will be a loose round up of the art and embroidery supply places we found and designer-y based finds and other places of note.

- London Fields Park: Not as large as Hyde Park but definitely not small either. There are huge chestnut trees that are home to a few sometimes friendly squirrels - for those curious folk that find them as cute as my boyfriend does - as well as enough space to fit hundreds of picnic goers on any given sunny day (actually didn't have to be all that sunny for it to be full some weekends). One end lies next to the entrance to Broadway Market whilst the other corner houses a lido (I never felt hot enough during my stay to try out it out which is a bit of a shame as it's meant to be wonderful).

- Broadway Market & it's saturday street market: maybe accounting for how popular the next-door London Fields park is on a weekend is this great little street lined with cosy pubs (Cat and Mutton and The Dove), excellent cafes serving some of the best coffee you can find in London (l'eau à la bouche, Climpson and Sons), book stores selling great design, art books and magazines (Artwords Bookshop) and tons of other great shops that you'll soon discover. On Saturdays one of the best street markets takes over Broadway Market selling a huge variety of food from different cuisines, baked goods, fresh fruit and vegetable, fishmongers, butchers and delis as well as stalls selling vintage goods, clothing and assorted miscellanea. Our favourite stalls that we constantly returned to were the pie shop (our pick is the chilli beef), the stall in the middle selling marinated olives/stuffed peppers and dips, the fruit and veg stall near the end that became our fresh plum supplier and the vietnamese food stand also at the Cambridge Heath end. If you go there try their bbq pork roll with caramelised pork skewer. There's usually a line but please don't let that turn you off. Service is pretty quick and after trying a few other vietnamese pork rolls in London (we like to think we know a good one) this was by far our favourite.

- Hai Ha on Mare Street (if you live locally or are after Vietnamese and in the area this is our pick of the numerous Vietnamese eateries that line Mare Street. We recommend their mixed vermicelli noodle with pork & spring rolls and the crispy pork belly noodle soup (which isn't vietnamese but I tried it on a whim and it was amazing).

- V&A, Natural History Museum, British Museum, Tate Modern: How awesome is free admission to amazing galleries and collections? We spent many a day drooling over amazing ceramics, minerals, antiquities and masterpieces and still only scratched the surface of the permanent free collections on offer.

- Ping Pong: Their all day/night yum cha-ish dumplings are nice if a bit expensive compared to what we're used to in Chinatown but I had to add Ping Pong for their yummo cocktails. Yum cha with asian inspired cocktails is a pretty spectacular combination and i'm hoping someplace similar in Sydney pops up soon (Melbourne already has Golden Monkey)

- The Book Club & The Hackney Pearl, Railroad Cafe, Wilton Way Cafe, Nude Espresso: besides the cafes on Broadway Market already mentioned these cafes were regular coffee stops for us. Railroad Cafe and The Hackney Pearl are a little out of the way but offer quirky settings and great coffee for the former and a pretty mean Corn Fritter for the latter. Oh and the Hackney Pearl don't lie when they say they serve the best Bloody Marys in town (other cocktail to try is the Gem Garden) Wilton Way Cafe is also home to the London Fields Radio

- Hackney Picturehouse: this opened a few weeks before we left and was literally only down the street from our apartment. It is one of our huge regrets that we weren;t able to enjoy the Picturehouse. We watched Ides of March there and it was honestly the best theatre we've ever been in. Full stadium seating with chairs that all recline...sigh. Also for cult classics and themed nights the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square is amazing. They show an ever changing line up of old favourites, themed series as well as new releases. We went there for a screening of Empire Records that featured drinking games, a dress up contest and sing-alongs.

- Drink Shop Do: Part cafe, shop and gallery. Drink Shop Do is craft and board game friendly. A lovely place for a spot of tea and sandwiches or cocktails at night when the cafe switches it's daytime charm into a nice and relaxed bar/lounge.

- Columbia Road flower market: It gets pretty busy here on a Sunday but it's an enjoyable crush. I enjoyed listening to the stall holders advertising their flowers just as much as the flowers themselves. On one of the side streets we spent a nice break from the crush listening to buskers splaying jazz and with a few cafe's lining the road and shops selling home wares and art there's plenty to do if you don't feel like joining the flower buying tide. Most of the shops on Columbia Road though are closed on non-market days so it's best to check ahead.

*in no particular order

1 - 4 Broadway Market Saturday street market
1: Vietnamese food stall at the Cambridge Heath end
2: Outside l'eau à la bouche cafe
4: Violet Cakes

Land Of Nod

One of our favourite pieces from last year was the embroidered winter catalogue cover we created for the Land of Nod. We tried something a little different with the treatment for the embroidery and also a new type of fabric. We had a great time sourcing new types of cottons and linens to embroider with and we were very excited when the client requested a denim like linen twill from the swatches we emailed through. It was a real treat to embroider on and really contrasted well with the colours in the design.

Below are a few process images that we can finally share but for the final cover head over to The Land of Nod's blog (there are a couple bonus images there too including the selection of fabric swatches we collected for the piece).

Pages from my sketch book - ideas for the type treatment

Digital colour rough - this is the step where we set the colour palette and this file becomes our colour reference when we begin sewing

We mix the colours in as we sew, for this piece I had anywhere between 2 to 4 colours going at the one time

...and the completed embroidery!

"Summer" and hello again

Hello! Sorry for the silence around here lately. We've got a lot to catch up on since coming back home. We got through the whirlwind of Christmas and New Years only to get swallowed up by preparations for our sister's wedding last week. It was a beautiful day and all our crossing of fingers seemed to work and the rain went away just in time. A last minute venue change to Vaucluse House also turned out to be a blessing in disguise. All in all it couldn't have gone more smoothly. Surprising since my sister and her fiance were still running around the night before sorting out last minute details and preparations!

Over the summer break we only managed one beach trip (boo) but we did escape up to the Blue Mountains again. From the photos below you can tell I had a lot of fun borrowing my boyfriend's iPhone and macro lens. The scale is hard to translate in these photos as they look just like photos of normal sized flowers but most of these were actually less than 1cm wide.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and New Years!

This year has been a crazy adventure with a lot to be thankful for, luckily the downs were brief and the highs were high! We hope this year has been amazing for you as well and that 2012 is bigger and better! Thanks so much for reading our blog!!

Be Excellent To Each Other + new Sweater Letters (Family Set)

These are some pics of 2 private commissions we recently completed. One a quote from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (we love Keanu so this was a fun one!) and the last a family set of Sweater Letters. As always we love to hear from anyone interested in a personalised embroidery. Email us your quote/initials/favourite colours or even an epic battle you'd like to see illustrated and let's have some fun!

WIRED Magazine 12 11

Hello, we're back! We touched down in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and have since then gorged ourselves on summer fruits and catch ups with friends and family. We're in between studio spaces and rentals but have managed to set up desk spaces at least. It's funny how having even a bit of space to yourself helps you feel settled.

It's been a while since we posted regularly so we have a few projects to share that we'll post about steadily. Firstly we can finally share an embroidery we created for WIRED magazine's December issue which we completed around June. It's for the features introduction page and includes the numbers 12 and 11. For iPad users this embroidery is animated too as a nice little bonus. The piece took about 185 hours to complete. A huge task as the whole surface was covered with needlework and while we were embroidering we were also capturing photographic stills to build the animation.

There were a few changes to the final embroidered piece, colours were changed and tweaked. Once it was completed we realised that the 12 and 11 got a bit too lost in the pattern so we swapped in a few more red tiles into the mix. Normally we would have unpicked the tiles and sewn in the new colour but as we had animated the piece as it progressed this option wasn't feasible. Instead we digitally tweaked the colours frame by frame.

We were lucky our apartment was high up or else neighbours might well have wondered why our windows were boarded up. The makeshift studio we set up at one end of my bedroom needed to be completely blacked out for the photography. A bit of a shame we worked on the piece right in the middle of the London summer, we hardly got a chance to enjoy the sunshine.