Military Inspiration and HiiRagi Randomness...

I love vintage military documents.  I sure do.  I love the colour of the paper, the tatty edges, the writing, the stamps and the style.  I also love the hidden stories, the sadness, despair and hope contained within their fibres.  And such record keeping!  My great Grandfather was in the 3rd regiment Lighthorse and within the records at the War Memorial there are details of when he was sick, promoted, on leave and wounded (poor thing was wounded 3 times in two years and sent back to the field every time, his even poorer brother was killed the week before the War ended...what a waste...).  Where am I going with this?!  I've been working on my website actually (how's that for a segue) and it has been heavily influenced by (you guessed it) Military documents:

Mmmm...stamps and serial numbers....

More stamps....I must admit there are alot of Ration stamps here, if it was my book, I would have used them all up, probably in one day knowing me (no disrespect intended).

photos from here

Just so many stamps...and so officious...the colour and texture of the paper is just beautiful, you can't fake that unfortunately...Believe me I've tried...
Anyway, stay tuned for the website, it's happening over the next couple of weeks....Hurrah!

Market Weekend and Christmas Cards

Ok. I have two markets this weekend, so two chances to visit me and see what the HiiRagi Army has been up to!  I'm going to tell you anyway but hey, I still like it when you come and say 'Hello' to me.  So we have Salamanca Makret first up with a new look stall (which means I made a new tablecloth and bought some army 'scrimping' (?!)).  (I think that's how you spell it...) AND I have made a new name banner which will be unveiled tomorrow.  Also being revealed tomorrow, and getting into the spirit of the whole Christmas thing will be some little Christmas cards I drew and watercoloured.  Two designs are up for sale tomorrow and at the Market (the one in the Masonic Hall) on Sunday. Here's a little preview of them:

I quite like the bottom one, where the Recon Unit is pushing the other one forward to give the Berserker a present.  I actually coined this one with 'Have a Berserker Christmas' which will be my goal for Chrissie this year.  I always go beserk...it's a big deal in our family, I mean my Mum has already had two Christmas trees THIS YEAR...I'm just impressed that I've started thinking about presents...Anyway, as usual I digress...
Here are some process photos of the watercolours, it's funny you get half way through and think that it's not going to work but once I put that outline in, they just come back to life...I love a good outline.

Yep, it does look like colour by numbers....

Drying, drying, drying...actually watercolours are good for impatient people like me, they dry really fast.

Yay!!! See what I mean about the outlines?  Have a good weekend!

New T-shirts Available

I'm am happy to annouce that I have screen printed new t-shirts for my stall at Salamanca this weekend, so come on over to the Market.  I will be halfway up the hill on the Davey St end, park side.  And yes, to all those waiting I have the Resistance is Futile in charcoal...Hurrah!!!!

Yep, this one, now available in white, charcoal and grey marle.  Gobble them up now!
And stay tuned, I have a new deisgn coming hopefully next Saturday at Salamanca and the Market at the Masonic Hall.  Phew.

Drainspotting...

Recently in a bookshop where I love to waste time flicking through and getting ideas, it's just like a library to me (especially when they provide comfy chairs), I came across this book:

My whole time in Japan I never really looked down, you kind of get distracted by the dazzling lightshows happening above you and yet, here was a book by Remo Camerota (who wrote the book Grafitti Japan)dedicated to the manhole covers of Japan.  He even has a blog updating new covers.  I am constantly amazed at the Japanese aesthetic sensibility, each cover is made by the local municipality to reflect their local environment and some of them are just stunning (and amusing):

Rwoar!!!! I love Dinosaurs.  The little logo also looks a bit like Astro Boy too....

Mmmmm...Pretty lady....

How can you not add this one?  Look it's a panda and a koala! Who would've thought?! They both looked a little shocked though if you ask me, maybe they can see a car coming....

Aren't they just great?!  There is no excuse to not be able to make everything beautiful, I mean most of these are linked to sewerage pipelines.  Looks like I'm just going to have to go back to Japan to suss this all out...what a shame....