New Maricor/Maricar website and blog

Hello!

Just a quick post to let you know we've re-launched our website for 2015. We've cleaned out the site so some of the quirks of the old are fixed and it should be a lot easier to find projects.

There is an Archive section for our older projects. Later this week we'll be launching the dedicated shop for our one-off hand embroideries and textile works that available for sale. Our Etsy shop will still be the place to visit for poster and print purchases.

Part of the website launch is also a blog refresh so this will be the last post on this site. We will be leaving this blog up so the old posts can still be accessed. Thank you for the support over the years, Maricor and I hope you come visit the new blog in the future. We'll be using it for more process and behind the scenes insights into what inspires our work. We're just getting the next post ready which will be about the process behind making two of our most recent private commissions, "Love" and another of our painting with thread abstracts.

Smart Made Simple for Weight Watchers

Late last year we worked with our amazing producers at In the Thicket to craft 8 spots for Weight Watchers and their creative team at BMF.

For the campaign we combined a mixture of stop motion and live action using a very stylised and graphic approach to the props and styling. A few of the spots are now live with the rest rolling out through the year.

New embroideries and prints available

We have some new embroideries up on our etsy shop right now, as well as limited editions of a few of our favourite pieces. There are 20 x A3 giclee prints of "Shut Up I'm Dreaming" and "Don't Worry Baby" as well as 10 x A3 giclee prints of "Eye on the Coconut". Details are all on the etsy shop.

The new embroideries we have available are a new "E" in our sweater letter range, a new abstract geo #4 and the original embroidery of "Eye on the Coconut".

New work for Washington Post - Food

We embroidered the opening page graphic for the Washington Post's Food section last Wednesday.
I thought it would be nice to share some of the process from pencil sketch through to digital colour mock up and final embroidery.

Spring II

Today my little one and I spent a nice day playing in the garden, baking and eating. Although I am itching to get back into embroidery. Hopefully sewing up some small pieces in time to pop onto our shop ahead of Christmas - some small geo abstracts and new sweater letters.

Our daily routine now includes going into the garden to admire the aquilegia that's finally in bloom (trying to stop Ava from plucking all the flowers) and most important of all, checking on our strawberry plants. Trying to harvest the tiny alpine strawberries before the bugs get to them. We also watered the sprawling raspberry tangle that's beginning to fruit. I left it to go wild meaning to prune back a few canes but when I eventually got around to doing it I discovered quite a few canes were in bud. I'm not entirely sure how to take care of this plant and i'm not even sure what type of raspberry it since I purchased it at a local nursery. But I think it might be the floricane type since some of the old canes are fruiting again but then again some new canes are fruiting so it's all very confusing!

I hope I can keep it thriving. We all love raspberries at home and it would be amazing to eat our own instead of the often lack lustre tasting ones from the store. We also made some time for blowing bubbles and baking some muffins. This will be the last time we use frozen blueberries though, they are completely tasteless. With a drizzle of maple syrup and butter they're not too bad though!

HOOPLA group show

Hey all! We have a group show coming up curated by He Made She Made at their Sydney gallery. Opening night is next Wednesday night. October 22nd / 18.00 - 21.00 He Made She Made 70 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

Lots of amazing people in the show - Kitiya Palaskas, Adame France, Jordan Clarke, Izziyana Suhaimi, Province, Maria Aparicio Puentes, and Victor Espinoza Aparicio. The hoops were custom made by HMSH and are a whopping 80x80cm. 

We based our work on a piece of lyric by Sunset Rubdown. It's another one of our painting with thread pieces but a bit more fractured and loose. We hope you can make it down if you're based in Sydney!

Net Magazine and AFAR

We had some recent magazine work come out for two great clients through our UK agents Handsome Frank. The first is a cover for the Wordpress 4.0 launch for Net magazine and a spread and drop cap for AFAR magazine's feature on fashion label Suno. We also answered some questions about our embroidery process for Net Magazine over at the Creativ Bloq website.

Thank you - embroidered notes

These are from earlier in the year but just realised we haven't shown them here before. We have a new group show coming up where we've developed a technique of fractured patterns and brush stroke textures that we've played around with in these embroidered sketches. We usually have a heap of tangled orphaned threads after each embroidery project. Which we collect into empty jars to use later for little embroidered sketches/doodles and experiments. These are a couple of thank you embroideries we created using some of these left over threads. Little notes to say thank you to some kind hearted people that have supported us along the way.

Spring I

My lithops seedlings from Dec 13 are finally going through their first regeneration. I didn't use the right soil substrate and generally haven't taken the greatest care of them. They've suffered a few unplanned repottings due to being knocked over thanks to my clumsy positioning of them. But i'm glad to see a few robust looking ones amongst them and it's great to see some of their true colours emerging with the new leaves. The seeds were a mixed lot so it will be interesting trying to identify them! 

Our older lithops are also going through their usual springtime regeneration. Including this Alien lookalike and a pseudotruncatella that's splitting into a double head. Also a cacti and haworthia aristata in different stages of flowering. 

Material Edge at Wangaratta Art Gallery

We're very proud to be part of an exhibition on now at the Wangaratta Art Gallery (Vic, Australia) that has been curated by the wonderful Sally Huguenin. Sally has brought together artists/designers working in contemporary textiles across varying fields such as the visual arts, fashion and graphic design.

 "The exhibition includes work as diverse as Douglas McManus’ laser-engraved textiles with 3d printing; Kathy Temin’s renowned synthetic fur landscapes; and an interactive pompom installation space by Australia’s queen of craft, Pip Lincolne. There will also be four incredibly intricate outfits by Sydney fashion designers Romance Was Born, including a dress famously worn by Cate Blanchett that is on loan from the Powerhouse Museum; knitted self-portraits and photographic imagery by Melbourne-based contemporary artist Kate Just; and colourfully embroidered advertising and typography by twin sisters and graphic designers, Maricor/Maricar."

 The exhibition runs until the 19th October. More details can be found on the gallery website and the flyer is below.

The work we have on display is primarily our commercial work - showing how embroidery is being used by clients in publishing and advertising. We also included some of our personal textile pieces that were created after our time in London ("Maps" wallhangings) as well as two new pieces created specifically for Material Edge. "Don't Worry Baby" hand embroidered lettering and a new patchwork wall hanging, "Neue Folk".