Vision & Inspiration
Photography : Pamela Pianezza
Pamela Pianezza dreams about pictures. The pictures she's done and could have done better, the pictures she couldn’t do, because she didn't have her camera, and pictures that obsess her so much that at some point she knows she'll have to go back to that place and try...
The crafted object : MarDeColorRosa {jewellery}
A long time ago, Montserrat Lacomba visited an island called Formantera, where she saw a pink sea. She called it "MarDeColorRosa". Now, she shares her time between her home and workshop in Girona, Spain, and the island, surrounded by her beloved...
Surface design : The Fabric Drawer {aka Rebecca Ng}
Once upon a time, while Rebecca Ng was living in London, she had a dream of returning to Melbourne and starting her own shop called ‘Fabric Drawer’. "I’d source beautiful fabrics from around the world (and so would be able to continue travelling — another great love)...
The crafted object : Kelly Darke (textiles)
Kelly Darke works full time as an art therapist. "Creating art has always been a personal source of comfort for me and when I learned about art therapy I actually didn't believe it was a real thing - art and psychology? That seemed like a perfect combination. I love...
Photography : Baptiste Riethmann {TheDarkSideOfTheRoom}
Baptiste Riethmann is a Swiss-born, French-speaking photographer who has travelled the world and is currently living in Mexico City. There, he runs a small coffee shop and cafe, where occasionally he exhibits his collected images on the walls. And he admits he's...
Surface design : Maria Speyer
"It took many years, decades, for me to muster up the courage to call myself an artist, let alone attempt to make a living out of it, so my business has emerged and developed very slowly indeed." So says Danish-born Maria Speyer, former architect, and now artist,...
Photography : Caryn Drexl
Caryn Drexl has two lives. During the day, she describes herself like this : "While my images might tend to create a specific image of the type of person I might be, I'm actually pretty bubbly and light-hearted. Goofy even. I'm always trying to make people laugh."...
Surface design : Lisa Barbero
Lisa Barbero's small scale repeats are constructed from simple graphic elements, in a palette of soft pink, grey and mustard, often with lots of bright, lemony yellow brightening and bringing it all together. It's clean and simple and happy; there's a lovely sense of...
The crafted object : Maria Queen Maria {clothing}
The clothing of Maria Queen Maria is a wild hybrid of unstructured yardage and tailored forms, influenced by everything from Vivienne Westwood to Issey Miyake and Moschino with steampunk and pirate thrown in for good measure. Sometimes it simply borders on the...
Surface design : Stoflab
Influenced by the fabulous minimalism of iconic author and illustrator Dick Bruna, Stoflab is happiest of all with few colours, and even fewer forms to create his boldly striking repeats. Occasionally, intentionally, he includes noise - a bit of grain...
The crafted object : Boo and Boo Factory (jewellery)
Neon-vibrant and fearlessly wild are just a few of the words I would use when describing the work of Christina Anton, the maker behind Boo and Boo Factory. Her earrings, necklaces and other accessories are vividly unmistakable in their flamboyant combinations of...
Photography : PhotoGrunt
Steve Raley's first camera was given to him at around age 2 or 3, but it wasn't an encouraging experience. "I was given what was supposedly a “toy” camera but it was actually a working model. It was taken away from me shortly after I received it because I kept taking...
The crafted object : Irregular Expressions (textile jewellery)
When I first saw the freeform crochet of Irregular Expressions, I was hooked, so to speak. It is an intriguing mix of traditional stitch, rich colours and lush, organic form that is folk craft with a large slice of edge. But when I approached the family team that form...
Photography : Kim Hayes
Inspired by light first and foremost, the images of Kim Hayes are dramatic and beautiful. Strong compositions with graceful lines evoke a sense of peace and expansive space. Landscape and travel photography are her first loves, but it is her day job as a...
Surface design : Melissa Kelman
Melissa Kelman creates sweet, bright florals for surface design and stationery from her small loft that she shares with her husband in Brooklyn, and told me she had been making cards for friends and family ever since she was small. "Sometimes I work from...
Small biz how to : Getting started in surface design Part 2 – colour and printing
Getting started in surface design Part 2 - Colour and the printing process Welcome to part 2 in this series on getting started in the world of surface design. (You can find the first part here - it's about getting your image files ready for printing). Designing...
Surface design : Zoe Ingram
Zoe Ingram has a thing about circles. They appear, in one form or another, in just about every design she produces. Hand drawn and vector, dots and spots, circles within circles, mandalas and kaleidoscopes, all in gloriously vibrant colour. And it is her skilful use...
The thoughtful photography of Jessica Reiss
Since Jessica Reiss started getting serious about her photography, she has been taken aback by the response. "I honestly never expected to sell anything! My shop has been open for a little under a year now. I have 100 sales, have had my work on several different...
Small biz how to : Getting started in surface design Part 1 – image editing
Getting started in surface design - Part 1 - Editing your images Yes I'm back from holidays, and yes it was wonderful! This year I'm working to give you a bunch more practical and small biz-type information and tutorials, and I'm kicking off with an intro to...
Surface design : Cressida Bell
Cressida Bell is an extraordinary artist for several reasons. A fabulously talented surface designer, she designs, paints and screen prints, producing a wide range of objects for the home, stationery, and accessories for men and women. AND she is also an utterly...
Craft icon : Julie Blyfield {jewellery}
Julie Blyfield's beautiful pieces have been on my radar ever since I came across them in an exhibition of work from the Gray Street Workshop in Brisbane, during the Australian Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group conference in 2000. She spends a lot of time observing and...
Surface design : Ottomanbrim
Tina Vey had been working for her husband, cartoonist P.C. Vey for about 10 years cleaning up his images in Photoshop, but hadn’t done anything creative for herself for a while and was feeling restless. She discovered Spoonflower almost two years ago, and got excited....
The crafted object : Danielle Gori-Montanelli {felt jewellery}
Danielle Gori-Montanelli's glorious felt pieces are vibrant with colour. Handcut and handsewn from felts sourced throughout the US and Europe, they are tactile and chunky, radiating playfulness and whimsy with their licorice allsort layers and their exuberant gardens...
Surface Design : The amazing marbled papers of Renato Crepaldi
It's not often that I introduce an artist's work as 'amazing', but for Renato Crepaldi's marbled papers, the term is well-deserved. The Brazilian artist uses the centuries-old technique to create glorious and deliciously complex patterns. The...
Photography : Carol Fletcher
Carol Fletcher has a vague childhood memory of someone trying to show her how to use a Twin Lens camera. She couldn't understand why, when you look down into the box to focus, that you had to angle the camera to the right in order to get more of the scene on the left....
The crafted object : Nepinka {beading}
In Ukranian, there is no such word as 'Nepinka'. Olya Mytsko chose the name just because it sounded interesting. Olya is pretty interesting herself. She is fascinated by the nexus between old and new, preferring to keep her eyes open to the road in...
Surface design : dotdotdotDESIGN {Kit Davidson}
I love hearing stories from people who are at the beginning of their chosen career. The process of getting started is every bit as fascinating as the process of design: How Did They Do That? Kit Davidson of dotdotdotDESIGN shares her insights on both; she only...
The crafted object : Rosie Perl – Artworker
There are layers and layers and layers to Rosie Perl and her artwork; and it's hard to define exactly what it is that she does. Sometimes she's a surface designer, sometimes a sculptor, sometimes an installation artist; but there is always the thread of craftsmanship...
Surface design : KristopherK
A visit to the Liberty store in central London as a child was a seminal experience for Kris, aka KristopherK, surface pattern designer. It was a wonderland of fabric and pattern, and the romance of being in such a historic, architectural jewel of a building was not...
The crafted object : Susana Teixeira {jewellery}
I was first drawn to Susana Teixeira's jewellery for the little pods of colour in her rings and pendants. Inspired by sponges and corals from the sea, they are tactile and intriguing. And of course, who am I to ignore rich, vibrant colour when I see it? ...