Mine Eyes

DARKLE BRIGHT

2011-10-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

If I may, if i might, darkle bright for you tonight...

here is my latest illustration entitled

now on sale exclusively at the wonderful

F&F is a unique online store based in Brooklyn NYC which houses a beautiful selection of womenswear designers and artists prints. In the gallery you can also SHOP ART with works by friends Marie Molterer and Phil Smiley. Be sure to check them out.

As for Mine, this drawing is available as a limited edition of 10...

and with one down, there are 9 more to go!

foundersandfollowers.com/shop/artists/katherine-pont

Big thanks Aurelia & Alicia x

Mine at The Big Fashion Sale in Sydney

2011-08-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

The i (heart) secret suit and other gems await at the BIG fashion sale this very weekend! One for my antipodeans...

xxx

www.facebook.com/bigfashionsale

I wish...

2011-07-31T04:48:00.000-07:00

... i could go for a shopping trip in my dream last night. Just tried to do some sketches to remember, but there were elements of a new collection in there. Was a beautiful dream... i could fly and i was recording the golden hour, panning the countryside with my camera eyes, tracing architecture from the primitive to the now on a long windy horizon line, grass thatched huts to sky scrapers. Was nuts. This futurism you speak of, well I wish they made a gadget to record your dreams. The dresses were futurist folk, some quite couture and sculpted, others more loose and voluminous with elaborate embroidery in panels and cut-out shapes forming patterns on the skin. It wouldn't be the first time I've dreamed about clothes then used it as inspiration for a collection. 'I gave my love a papercut' began as a dream.

Until they invent a contraption to permeate our dreams and document them ( stranger things have happened, the Jetsons was not that far off huh? ) this blog entry will remain without pictures, just fading imagery that pop back to haunt me, in a nice way... x

The palace for tuna

2011-07-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

On a recent holiday to Venice, to feast on art and pesce, our friend Guize suggested we go to the Palazzo Fortuny. I imagined a palace like a huge fish tank with glass sealed windows and doors, every level filled with water and tuna swimming freely. Not so…

Unfor’tuna’tely when we got there the gothic palazzo was hiding behind scaffolding... but it was a welcome change from the predominantly white gallery walls of the Bienalle. Once inside, the mix of elegance and decay makes you feel like your privy to a private world. It invites you to explore someone else's treasures, and shows how their work is inspired by the Things they surround themselves with. This is what i think was clever about this exhibition entitled 'TRA' (art spelt backwards) the 'Edge of Becoming'.

The show is in homage to the palazzo's namesake, Mariano Fortuny, who was quite the renaissance man. Painter, photographer & inventor, fashion, textile and lighting designer, the theatrical element of his creations also informs the selection of other artists and the palace offers a stage. Combining work of both the unknown and the revered... the scope is boundless, with art objects guesstimated to have been made centuries BC, mixed with modern day light works that defy your sense of perspective like James Turrels 'Red Shift'.

my little scarecrow amongst the zen by Pascale Marthine Tayou

Wassily Kandinsky does primitivo 1940

Many of the walls were covered with Fortuny's printed textiles hung elegantly from the ceiling in ocean blues and teal greens that moved slightly with the wind, and I got the feeling of

being underwater... for a second.

www.tra-expo.com

Mine X HOBO II

2011-03-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

Craft or fine heART... Izzy wears one of the printed tee's i designed for Hoxton Boutique's inhouse label HOBO. This series was made mention of in Timeout Magazine just a while ago. Missed a few heart beats till I posted, but woop there it is xxx

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me…

2011-03-19T03:44:00.000-07:00

My flatmate Marie was humming Norwegian Wood by the beatles the other day and I asked her if she had seen the film yet. I’d been humming the same in anticipation of seeing director Anh Hung Tran’s adaptation of the book by Haruki Murakami… and for pure aestheticism it did not disappoint. Having not read the book, I did not have the comparisons to the novel running through my head whilst watching. Instead this film for me was about the colours, nature playing the most important part.

The story is a melancholic tale of young love and teenage suicide. Toru, who has lost his best friend, and Naoko, her childhood sweetheart, are united by their mutual loss and a confusing bond is formed. For him it is his first love, for her it is more the need to be loved. She freaks out and heads for the hills, whilst he is left in Tokyo in wanting, and from this entanglement the plot develops. Everything seems so unreal that it makes perfect sense for the film to adapt a dreamlike quality, and the scenery is awe inspiring.

When there is little dialogue, the wind whispers & blows, tugging at their clothes and hair, and rushing through the tall grass, trees sway, leaves rustle and crunch under toe, snow falls, shadows roll & water trickles. When there is a stillness between the characters, their emotions are personified by the elements & mother nature is scripted in to make some noise. Else Jonny Greenwood does an amazing job of the scoring too.

Aside from the wonder of nature, the styling of interiors is also stunning, colours merging from outside to in. Creating some drama to a scene, a curtain blows inside it’s window frame as the boy walks down his dormitory corridor, the rain is so loud you can sense an open door, and you almost feel the sun. Lemon is the light shining through the windows and jumping off glass objects in the room, sky blue her knitted hat, peach are the blossoms embroidered onto her cushion before young lovers lay on the carpet, and green, so much green.

If I were to talk about the fashion in this feature film, it would be about pristinely placed pastel knits, pointed collars and polo necks for boys, peter pan for girls & neatly matched skirts, lumber jackets in the wintry woods paired with hand knitted scarves, fabric patterns mimicking their almost garish decorative wallpapers.

For me, this film is more about the fashioning of the light, brilliant reflections and languid shadows. Even a plastic bowl has a heightened sense of beauty… like a Wolfgang Tillmans still life elevating the everyday, the placement of objects within the frame as well as their colour in relation to the characters outfits is very deliberate.

One of my favourite films ever is “In the Mood for love” directed by Wong Kar-Wai. The person tying these two films together is cinematographer Mark Ping Bin Lee. Carefully choreographed, the camera moves with the characters like a slow motion dance of longing looks and inhibited gestures between two characters drawn to eachother… yet not able to allow themselves to just fall in love. Meanwhile, their respective partners… their infidels… remain faceless, the only hint of them you get is his hand putting down the phone on the receiver, or the swish of her skirt passing by a tiled corridor.

Again, in this film the elements play a big part, and nature creeps in at any opportunity. There is a constant merging of the inside and outside, the camera breaking these boundaries by clever framing of scenes weaving in and out through doors and windows. In this image below, a vine creeps through Su’s open window, her daffodil print dress and floral curtains creating a carefully styled synergy with the nature knocking at her door.

Cheating hearts or cheated by the loss of a loved one, both movies swing between the melancholic and the magical, are stunning visually and have beautiful soundtracks. This speil is almost as epic as these films, so I’m going to wrap this blog up with a musical scoring from ‘In the mood for love’ by Shigeru Umebayashi called ‘Yumeji’s theme’...

...and meanwhile I will go back to humming norwegian wood

x

Nouveau Mine x

2011-03-04T03:40:00.000-08:00

Limited edition but not out of reach... a small selection of

"The Tear Drop Story" is featured online at

mine.yokaboo.com

If you wish to make one of these MINE and cannot find the style you like on the web store, please contact me here

mine.yokaboo.com/pages/contact

Styling by Milena Silvano, photography by Poppy French

& modelled by Christina xxx

Half Moon Dress

2011-02-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

Young actress Yasmin Paige snapped in her Mine 'half moon' dress with co-star Craig Roberts at the Dublin Film Premiere of 'SUBMARINE'...
cutie x

Mine X Lily Vanilli

2011-02-17T11:29:00.001-08:00

Hint of deco, pinch of 50s diner and a sprinkle of 80s pastel... I recently made this invite for Lily Vanilli's upcoming pop-up venture '180 at 98' promising an evening of cakes and cocktails. Reminds me of the the speakeasy style sundays when Swanfield first popped...

cake

fight...

cake fright !

Lily Vanilli's Bloody Valentine from Alex Turvey on Vimeo.

and amidst these theatrics, her cupcakes and brownies can be found at Harrods, there is another book on the way... and I will continue lending Mine eyes to Lily V on upcoming projects
x x x

Bee line woman

2011-02-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

The bluesy woozy beauty, lady bee Jess wearing her
Mine 'tear drop top' on stage at the Brooklyn Bowl in NY this month.
Big heart and a HUGE voice.

Make sure you see the She Keeps Bees play this month!
Due to hit London February 24th at the windmill...

Youch
x

Summer dreaming on a grey day...

2011-01-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

Styled by Milena Silvano and photography by Gemma Booth, the lovely Ayesha wears the Mine Dizzy Heights Halter 'Kini in crimson and bronze silk, with chevron detailing in black leatherette.

Third Eye Surfer from Gemma Booth on Vimeo.

Some escapism for you...
x x x

X

For the lovers of things...

2011-01-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

And of all things MINE... I have a new year wish to find wardrobes for the last of the "tick tock order" collection so steal a glimpse here, and window shop to your hearts content. Shipping is FREE!

MINE ONLINE SALE....
STARTS....
NOW!

tick tock x

Mine X HOBO

2010-11-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

A dappled horse knight, a Bowie-esque harlequin king and his ballerina queen flipped from a deck of bahaus inspired playing cards... some artwork for the lovely Alison Whalley at Hoxton Boutique for her inhouse label HOBO. New prints instore soon... x

Mexico oh oh

2010-11-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

Bubble gum tree trunks in Morelia & cactus hands saluting from the cliffs of Playa de Los Muertos, morning mud packs for your toes & evening rainbows after the monsoonal showers, beaches with more bird prints then human feet & wind swept rocks... mariachi serenaders & lycra clad luchadores, kids napping on their parents shoulders & gypsy girls ready to attack with heart shaped stickers... hand painted tiles & streets lined with colourful houses & doorways, elaborately decorated ceramics & skeletal tin toy puppets, embroidered necklines & cross stitched shawls, illustrated offerings to the virgin mary & playful piñatas waiting to be smashed open...

My friend Angie and I used to play a game where we would blink for a moment and our eyes would commit an image to memory when you wished you had a camera to hand. Like when I saw the silver tashed cowboy in Tonala, Guadalajara, with his buttoned up denim shirt tucked neatly into his big buckled belt, all machismo except for a little rainbow neatly embroidered on his pocket. Found myself doing that alot on our travels... but here are some that I did capture...
some random snap shots of Mexico.

The rest I hope to keep for me.
Big thanks to Mister Oh for taking me there...
hope to go back someday
x

K.P 4 L.B

2010-10-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

Fell in love harder than ever for the work of Louise Bourgeois today. Fabric drawings of patchworked webs, where you can see the tension softly pull on every stitch, and roses trapped lovingly in the heart of each vortex of mattress ticking and stripe. These lines accurately joining at pinpoints to create subtle optical illusions, yet clumsy enough to show they are crafted by hand. Two of my favourites... a colour field of inky blues cross hatched like children's paper games of woven strips... the transparent nature of silk giving the effect of a watercolour...

and this series entitled 'The Waiting Hours' ( 2007 ) where the web is like a moon or sun, the light refracting into a web of night/day over an infinity of ocean, or an infinity of sky.

I posted about LB once before... http://eyes-of-mine.blogspot.com/2010/06/rip-louise-bourgeois.html
... shortly after she passed away and was envious of friends Millie and Kerry who went to see these fabric works in Venice.

Now they are in London, & the show is on now at Hauser & Wirth on Saville Row, Soho...
http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/743/louise-bourgeois-the-fabric-works/view/

Worth killing some time for xxx

Starring...

2010-09-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Icelandic beauty Sif Agustsdottir wearing the Dizzy heights halter 'kini… before getting snapped up by K.Kong

Femme fatale.... x

Cry me a rainbow

2010-09-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW NIGHT AT SWANFIELD ON TOUR!
Come by to see the new collection of tear drop crops & dresses by Mine.

These are limited edition pieces and will be made locally by the hands of friend and collaborator Nicola De Main. There are only 25 to be made, and so I am offering a bespoke service to Mine Eyes and my mailing list, so you can select the colour you love the most... an envelope will be made up there and then with your name and address, and when your order is sewn up stitch by stitch, your dress will arrive in the post within the month. This will be the last hurrah as I away to Mexico for some sun, colour & inspiration, so I'm crying you a rainbow as a little goodbye...

Much love from Mine and the swans
x

Time: 6-8pm
Date: Thursday 9th September
Venue: Swanfield on Tour
Address: 1.2 Kingly Court, Soho

swanfield.blogspot.com

Colour as an afterthought... PART I

2010-08-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

Feel like I am opening the door to an abandoned room, & Mine Eyes are squinting, trying to re-adjust to the light. Sorry for neglecting you blogdom, our travelling boutique 'Swanfield on Tour' has been keeping me busy. Loie Fuller can scare away the dust with her "Serpentine Dance".

This is the most beautiful footage, and I could hardly believe it was made as early as 1896. It kind of pre-empts the rise of fashion film today over the frozen image, and shows a hyper real quality given to film by early colour tinting. The inky lilac blending to pink as she lifts her arms, constantly weaving new shapes which burn into acidic yellow & banging orange... it's mesmerizing to watch. The movement of her dress as she dances suggests a continuing metamorphosis, as if she is turning into a butterfly.

Pinched cheeks, cherry stained lips and eyes like crystal pools… when black and white photographs were hand-coloured, part of their charm is when they went outside the lines… Not an exact science, portrait artists paid attention to heightening their subjects features, yet in doing so, create a somewhat warped sense of colour. This is what I find most alluring about these tinted postcards.

Here is a postcard of twenties film star, Lilian Gish who was the muse for my AW08 collection “Elsie Moved in Circles”. One of the pretty young things emerging from the jazz era, she fared better than some male actors who were also attacked by the paint box.

For sometime I've been interested in the idea of "colour as an afterthought" and so I dabbled with this mode of colour in my drawing of Lilian Gish, her hairline merging into the city lights of skyscrapers and refracting into kaleidoscopic shapes. This was the key digital print for AW08 which is still one of my favourite collections.

Judy Garland sang wistfully “Somewhere over a rainbow"... and when she stepped from the grey scales of Kansas into the colourful canvas of Oz, the rainbow came and Dorothy's shoes got their magic.

The symbolism of colour appearing within a black and white film makes for some poignant moments, like the red that appears on the lips of a fifties housewife in 'Pleasantville' when she rediscovers love, or the red coat in 'Schindler's list', or the red and green siamese fighting fish in 'Rumble Fish'...

... oh k, time to close Mine eyes, and click my heels. There's no place like home x

Mine featured on A R C A D E M I x

2010-07-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

For those yet to discover this blog, Arcademi is a nice one to get lost in. Loads of great designers & artists... & as of yesterday, Mine.

Thanks to Ina at Arcademi, might have to borrow your words x

M O O N

2010-06-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

There is something so seductive about a perfect circle. It makes me think of the moon, and when my eyes rest on this shape, I get momentarily transfixed. It is no wonder that so many musicians, artists & writers are woo’ed by the moon and the ideal of being lost for a second into it’s perfect glow, to forget reality & remember all the fairytale surrounding this majestic night light.

Perhaps we have been brainwashed,
but such a perfect fiction to get lost in.

x

Eliza in Mine x

2010-06-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

The lovely long locked Eliza in a signature Mine piece,
the 'metronome stripe necklace'

x

BAU to the HAUS of Oh Ruin

2010-06-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

Here is my artwork for the first ever Oh Ruin Release, a shiny 7" of wax and shellac with a leathery look cover, not quite small enough to fit into your back pocket, but a nice new one to gather dust
by yee olde record player.

The wheel is turning for Oh Ruin, as do the grooves spelling out his best songs yet to be recorded. 'The pillow where your head does lay' and 'Ringsend' are the darkest from the Oh rainbow, and my personal favourites so have a listen.

In the days where buying vinyl is a dying hobby, the cover art is usually reserved for a glowing thumbnail on itunes... you can indeed buy it there... but for those wishing to keep the object alive, the ship has almost docked and this limited edition record can be pre-ordered at Static Caravan, Rough Trade and all good record stores.

Here is one image from my Oh Ruin inspiration manifest'oh called...

"The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" Marcel Duchamp

...& I've been looking at Bahaus design, some Wiener Werkstatte, & russian constructivist posters. For upcoming releases we will stick to a folky bahaus aesthetic, mixing craft with crisp lines, for the rough around the edges clarity mister Oh is good at.

www.myspace.com/ohruin

and to book him
X

Goodbye L.B

2010-06-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

This embroidery sampler is my favourite of Louise Bourgeois works. Her art was about exorcising her demons... so the message lovingly embroidered on this handkerchief is bitter sweet. 'I have been to hell and back, and let me tell you it was wonderful'. In Louise’s appropriation of this needlework tradition, darkness is a part of her celebration of life. Blessed are the cracks coz they let the light in…

R.I.P Louise Bourgeois,
25 Dec 1911 to 31 May to 2010

LB in New York, circa 1946, Photo: Louise Bourgeois Archive.

LB in 1991, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Like the spider scupltures she is famous for, LB was like a weaver, and with a family tradition in tapestry restoration, she seemed to be mending her memories and relationships. There is always a sense of aggression behind these works. Louise did not claim to be feminist, but her work relates to a tradition of feminine crafts. Louise created huge spider sculptures entitled ‘maman’ in remembrance of her mother, the web symbolic of her mother weaving yarn.

From her installation The Red Room, Je’taime is embroidered on the parental pillow and a pricked finger with the remaining thread lies on the bed. It evokes the tale of sleeping beauty, and a hundred years of slumber awaiting a prince to wake her from the spell of the spinning wheel.

In the Victorian age, sewing was a common past time amongst women and girls were taught from an early age. The messages in these samplers were often religious, poetic and quite moving. I’ve always been intrigued by these decorative artefacts, and their perfect imperfections.

Some of L.B’s latest work is currently on show in Venice… the show entitled “The Fabric Works”, and they seem much more delicate. Her spiders will no doubt continue to roam the art world for an eternity.

Drifting into the +HOBO+ life…

2010-06-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

My pencil has been wandering the page since meeting with fashion designer Alison Whalley, the woman behind cult store Hoxton Boutique. Very excited to be working on graphics and textile design for her instore label +HOBO+

a wink to the vagabond...

x

Birthday Suit

2010-05-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

actress, poet and minx... Maya Lubinsky in her birthday Mine
the zigzag railroad dress

and a crown of candles x

greyscale

2010-05-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

...little eyes refracting light and static lines like an old tee vue

...before my sketch book rubs them away

PS. been watching Treme on the Tee Vue about New Orleans post Katrina, and the water marks left by the flood collaged in the opening credits remind me of the impression a lead pencil drawing leaves behind on the facing page.

pencil ghosts

x

Woman who play shop... x

2010-05-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

In homage to the girls who took the fun of dress ups a little further,
here are some of the woman behind the wardrobe door,

and their favourite Mine pieces sold instore.

One of the first patrons of Mine,
Teresa Skrgatic at NO.ONE boutique in Shoreditch

'Hi-wire skorts' & 'Endless afternoon cami'

x

Kate Bonhôte & Kristjana Williams at
BEYOND THE VALLEY
x Soho x

'Grandfather clock jacket' & 'Drummer girl shorts'

x

Francesca Francolini of
LABOUR OF LOVE
x Islington x

"Tight Rope Romper"
silk playsuits with circus collar and innovative button gusset,
so you are not trapped in your outfit.

x

Luna & Curious

Rheanna Lingham, Polly George, Grace Wilson, Kaoru parry
& lil' Mabel... A collective run space on
x Brick Lane x

Always Late Cape

x

And for nostalgia sake, here is a snap of myself & designer friend Cecilia Hammarborg playing shop at our traveling store
'Swanfield on Tour' in Soho last summer.

Photo by Sam Peach

Never know when we might pop-up again!
x

Snap x

2010-05-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Songstress, jewellery designer and dear friend 'Alma no fear'
spotted in her playsuit... the 'tight rope romper'

x

Rapture ( silent anthem )

2010-05-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Blondie w'rapped it, and now so to does video artist Angelica Mesiti... but with the sound on mute so we can see the blissful expressions of young believers transported to a heavenly place by the new deity, their rock idols. This piece was filmed at the Big Day Out
festival in Sydney, and for a glimpse...

Two blog winks in quick succession for lady Gel, but exciting news from the land of Oz. Her video piece "Rapture" will be screening this weekend at the Tate Modern as part of an exhibition called
'No Soul For Sale'.

Submitted by Loop Gallery from Seoul, to find her work look for the "Move On Asia" screening. This show from the Tate is in celebration of it's 10th birthday, and is all about artists run spaces and independent collectives, and from those involved I hope to seek out the
"Museum of Everything" contribribution too.

This weekend only, from TODAY...
14 - 16 May, 2010 Tate

Mine eyes will be there x

Eye spy

2010-05-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Flying south to see Pavement play this eve & just found these comic blinkers. One for the scrap book, coz for a patternity I been winking at hand drawn eyes, and thinking they should make it to print soon. All eyes on malky'mus tonite.

INSPIRATION... "Repent Harlequin!" said the Tick Tock Man

2010-05-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

The clock and I have never seen eye to eye, so this story has special meaning to me and was an inspiration for "Tick Tock Order". Written by Harlan Ellison, ‘Repent Harlequin!’ said the ticktockman’ is a sci-fi short story from the 1960’s about a future in which time is regulated, and the harlequin is late for everything and punished for his tardy ways.

For Mine folklore, this power play has been flipped. The clock face shines like the moon & the harlequin sits on it’s hands in mock salute to time whilst the master time keeper has been turned into a cat who just purrs the seconds away.

'always late' cape dress

This illustration is digitally printed onto silver silk twill and combined with midnight blues, shot silk red and bronze. The zig zag in the kaleidoscopic tree line is echoed throughout the collection... in geometric embroidery, knitted textures, patched on stripe waistbands like arrow ends, & bunting style trims laser-cut in raw silk and leather.

'trapese please blouse' & 'drummer girl shorts'

These triangular shapes and finishings hint to a native American decorative style, and all of the names are like chapters of the Mine mythology... turning a cautionary tale into one where time is not measured. Thanks to Alela Diane for her poetics & helping me name these garments ( many were dreamed up on her tour from London to France last summer ), and to my intern for a short but productive time, Miss Kelly Munnery for pinning the tale on this puddy'kat.

Ok clock, time to press POST.

Music of insects & the open road

2010-05-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Mine eyes stung for a second while I adjusted from the blackness to see a driver’s silhouette appear on the hot horizon. On watching this film, I remembered long road trips to visit our grandparents as kids from Sydney to Temora, in rural NSW.
You can watch it here... X

This post is in recognition of my friend in Oz, artist Angelica Mesiti. Her video work is called “The line of Lode, and the Death of Charlie Day” & tells a story of what she calls “confused histories”.

Turns out Charlie Day is the misnomer for an aboriginal artist by the name of ‘Gordon Waye’… who painted outback vistas on interior walls of a Broken Hill hotel, but in a colonial way. So not only is his name misplaced, but the dreamtime tradition of representation too. These are captured in the film, along with the eerie presence of a goat on the stairwell. This mural was decorated during the boom time brought by the mining era, the dirt mound left behind known as 'the line of lode'.

When the open road leads into town & the hum of gravel subsides, the slow steady panning from the car window traces mans attempt to tame the outback, hinting at how remote these area’s are, and it’s the heat makes you want to drive slow… while you watch the fence move past like a snake.

The images keep coming of man’s dusty trappings of the wild things which once flew the sky, now put on the wall like trophies. A little theatricality sneaks in with elaborate winged costumes worn by the suburban bike bandit kids at the end circling like birds... their metallic triangular feathers reflecting back the sunset.

Makes me wanna go bush!

To see her most recent work, Gallery 9 presents 'Natural History'
...an exhibition by Angelica Mesiti...
Opening Saturday 15th May 6 - 8pm
Exhibition: 12th - 29th May

if in on that side of the world, pop in and say I sent you.

x

Be'spoken for

2010-04-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

In time with my collection "Tick Tock Order", Eoin Oh Ruin
( O' Ruainigh to be precise ) made this guitar for Mine which featured in the spring/summer look book.

The harlequin silhouette is cut out of Holly and set into a Rosewood veneer on the headstock, with shell markers hand carved into tear drops, crying down the fret board... You can spy on Eoin here amongst the Levi Craftworkers, and it will give you a little insight into the craft of a luthier.

The narrative behind this collection is about a naughty harlequin that gets revenge on the master time keeper and turns him into a cat, the laziest and sleepiest of creatures. This immortalised character on the guitar also features within the embroidery on the tick tock collar pictured below.

harlequin side
x

This piece was inspired by vintage, victorian lace collars, & created as a separate so it is adoptable to dress necklines of many outfits. The embroidered harlequin sits in mock salute to time, poking fun at it's monotonous tick, and perches on it's arms. The bow ends are also shaped like the hands of a clock, and the tear shapes form a deco inspired pattern, so that the collar can be worn both ways.

tear drop side
x

To buy a "Tick Tock Collar" today, please visit the Mine web shop, with a choice of white mesh, silver or navy silk with black embroidery. Shipping is free.

A previous design, the Mine bow collar from my AW oh 8 collection
"Elsie Moved in Circles"

This guitar is be'spoken for, but if you wish to contact Eoin to make your very own, you can do so via his myspace, or by sending me a message on the Mine website.

www.mine.uk.com
www.myspace.com/ohruin

TICK TOCK!

Now that the tea party is jumping...

2010-04-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

...with the cake kickin' in, & the sugar is pumpin'
Quick to the oven, to the point of baking
Crafting vanilla icing till it's art she be making

Not burning them, coz Lily is nimble
baking with Bruce, so she Springsteens like a cymbal
If there is a problem, Lil' will solve it
Check out the mixing bowl while Lily V' revolves it

Ice Ice baby... & her tricks of the trade will be to go... to go

...soon with the release of her first recipe book 'A Zombie Ate my Cupcake'. For the month of February, Lily Vanilli was affectionately dubbed my boss whilst I worked on the graphic design & layout of her book along with illustrator Paul Parker. A first for me, & for lady lily too, this recipe book has an amazing selection of her hand crafted art edibles & whacky baked inventions... some dark & a little disturbing, but with just the right mix of unsavoury gore & sweetness.

Some creations are beautiful to look at with bleeding hearts moulded out of fondant, raspberry innards spilling out like blood, & handpainted metallic crabs wanting to climb out of their cupcake shells & into your mouth.

"A.Z.A.M.C" makes you want to play with your food.

If not brave to invite the zombie to your kitchen, it's definitely one for the coffee table so get your orders in while they are hot... X

You ain't seen nothin' yet!

Pathological Makers... Part 1

2010-04-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

This is the life work of outsider artist Calvin Black...
a family of dolls that swing with the wind as found on Folkstream.

x

x

I performed one song with Oh Ruin last night...
so I thought I would post this documentary,
as it inspired a ballad by the same moniker "Possum Trot".

Ghost town Road, thirsty as hell... The front gates clanging... The shutters drawn in... Down at the birdcage there isn’t a sound... As the women stand silent, strike up the band... With curious expression they watch and listen... As the only man in town starts strumming his strings

Standing there waiting... In the desert wind... Someone will pass by... Now and again... You don’t acknowledge me... I’m made out of tin... Possum Trot... The love you give

1954, a village was born... You carved out emotion... and built up a home... Then when you left you took most of me too... Me and the trotters, what are we to do.

x

x

x

x

x

A case of the “I don’t wanna’s”

2010-04-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Victor & Rolf style
NO / AW 0h 8

Welcome to the dollhouse...

2010-04-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Though I was never really into playing with dolls as a child, fashion design is like a game of dress ups. The models are life size, but the garments that clothe them are first drawn in miniature.
This is how a Mine collection is imagined… in paper doll proportions.

My friend and foot soldier in fashion, Dominic Stansfield, is a very talented menswear designer. His obsession with war history,
vintage military and workwear is shared on his blog STANSFIELD
from time to time.

Dom recently quoted me in his blog…. It was something I said in passing about his unhealthy obsession with WAR. It’s quite a world to get lost in, and for many pacifists (like me), one not too often visited in terms of inspiration.

This however is not the case for self trained set designer and dramatist for the 1/6 world of “Marwencol”. This ongoing project is the work of Marc Hogancamp. It is a fictional world made real by Marc’s photography as he documents the scenes inside with a filmic sense of view, giving the dolls a very human quality.

Some of the scenes recreate the madness of war, not unlike the Chapman brothers, with a cast of SA soldiers that Marc readily takes his revenge on with an excess of red nail polish.
You can find some of his story telling here.

Rather than go into too much length about Marc’s past and his reasons for making this escapist theatre of sorts… I just wanted to show a selection of some of the woman characters he has made…

Some of the scenes are quite provocative and voyeuristic,

some of the girls are quite tough,

but also serve to make the men feel heroic, & to be protected,

whilst some have been moulded on past loves and crushes.

And they have quite the ensemble of outfits.
It seems that men play with dolls too…

Mine has arrived...

2010-04-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

and a new wardrobe awaits x

Dip Dyed in Dusk

2010-04-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Elaborate patchworking of geometric shapes,
beautifully hand painted & hand dyed,

there are few fashion designers who make their garments by hand...

Here are some glimpses of a collection by Milena.

Milena's craft is inspired by her love for psychedelic music & seventies style,
yet her patterning reminds me of the symbolist, Gustav Klimt,
who painted in patchwork.

From London to San Fran,
this post is just in time to bid Milena well on her adventure
and hope she finds much inspiration there.

Tonne by Mickey Ashton from Visions on Vimeo.

A short film directed by Mickey Ashton
clothes by Milena...
and a masked me.

x

Spring Summer 2010

2010-03-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Slow down oh' clock...

with your perpetual tick tock...

moments unmeasured are MINE