Note from HQ

I have a lovely friend named Sid, who likes to put on exhibitions and hunt me down at the Salamanca Market when he's bored as a game.  Sid has decided to put on an exhibition 'We are the Machine', all about Robots and who best to ask to be in on this great theme?! Me!!!! So I have had a busy couple of weeks putting together a piece for the exhibition that opens on Friday at Jimmy's Street and Skate (in the bit out the back).  I have to admit that I am loving it because I've had an idea for ages about making my robots more.... 'robotic' I guess is the only word for it, so I've been having a bit of a play.  Anyway here is a sneak preview of some of my stuff (I'm afraid I got a little bit carried away...)

Yep, that's my work space...I'm either an artist or a bomb builder...Did I just say that?! Cue: ASIO crashing down my door in about 1 minute.

mmmmm...wires good......40 seconds to ASIO

30 seconds....

20 seconds....

10 seconds...

actually, I'm guessing that if they didn't find me after declaring I'm building a secret death ray (which is coming along swimmingly) maybe they won't come after all...Hmmmm....I dunno....

Etsy find: Crafty Folk

I don't actually spend alot of time on Etsy, it tends to do my head in.  But I recently  found Crafty Folk this great site by Sarah Golden, an illustrator/surface pattern designer. She makes great brooches and stickers and stuff and loves sushi, wine and movies, I like her even more now...Anyway she's from California and being a bit of an analogue lover, her polaroid brooch spoke to me:

How awesome is that?  But wait! Is that a synthesiser I see before me?!

How cute is that?  And it just isn't Etsy without a cute animal girlie thingy...

Nice hey?! 

The Barn Market

The Barn Market was on Friday and Saturday with a good turnout despite the weather with HiiRagi taking over the bottom corner, and kept under close watch for any trouble...

Here we are ready and able to dress and accessories minions to an inch of their lives!!!!! The hoodies were a success and there was much ooohhhhing and aaahhhhhhing over them much to my gloated egos joy.

I also managed to finish off a lovely Geisha commission for a lovely lady...

Ooohhh, lovely geisha lady.....but wait...wait til she turns around....

Mmmmm, tassles and bows and flowers...She is truly a beautiful geisha straight from the Gion district.  If you are lucky, she may show you her wrist and sing a funny Japanese style song that sounds off tune....

Mmmmmm....

HiiRagi Market Highlight: Emily's bird with no beak. I love mutants....

HiiRagi Hoodies!!!

Now being all domineering and controlling,  I screen print all HiiRagi clothing myself, using environmentally friendly inks, and I am very please to announce that the Hoodies (and t-shirts)  I have been promising people have finally come to fruition!  They will make their debut at the Barn Market this Friday night (6pm-8pm) and Saturday (10am-3pm) and will be $70 for a hoodie or $30 for a tee (however if I get stuck into the mulled wine available on the Friday night who knows what I will charge..."Take it...hic...it'sh freee...I jush want you to have it....").  Anyhoo, this is how I spent my Wednesday...

Ok, here is the exciting set up, ready to go with my previous successes in the background.

Place screen onto t-shirt, preferable where you actually want the image.

Squeegee (sp?!) the ink onto the screen, lift and hurrah!!! Success!!!!! Now all it needs is an iron:

Yes, even Evil Overlords need to learn basic household duties...

And YAY! Hoodies all packed up and ready to go to Market!!!!

You know you want one.

Star Wars invades Adidas

What every World Domination Expert needs in their wardrobe.  Hands Down.

Yup, that's right!  A pair of Tie Fighter Hi Tops.  How good are these?!  I actually came across them a couple of months ago but with the release of the second collection, I have decided to share them with all my minions!!!  The collections are in three packs: The Characters Pack, the Vehicles Pack and the Direct Pack. Each pack take inspiration from Star Wars legendary characters (Han, Luke, Darth, see how I'm on first name terms with them all?) and crafts and fuses them with adidas Originals. Here are a few more of my favourites:

AT-AT, perhaps one of the greatest bits of machinery created...could squash 40 Ewoks with a single step (actaully I made that bit up but I bet it could!)

Luke Skywalker. 'Luke, join me, I'm your father...' but my name's HiiRagi?!

The Storm Trooper.  Oh yeeeaaaahhhh...I'm well impressed with the back of the trainer being a Strom Trooper face.  In fact the only real stuff up is the yoda shoe:

I mean seriously, what is that?! Looks like a boat shoe...There was no feelin' of the 'Force' with this one.  Oh well, I guess they can't be all cool, I mean just look at the new Star Wars films....

By the way, I am actually doing stuff, stay tuned for some new things soon....like hoodies...mmmmmm, hoodies.....

HiiRagi worships Jamie Hewlett

Now, it's is not really like me make such a statement, but I really do get a bit hot under the old military collar when I see Jamie Hewletts work.  It's not a new Gorillaz infatuation, I've been a loyal supporter since I discovered Dealine magazine (is that still around?! I must put that on the list to find out, if anyone knows please tell me.).  You see it all started with Tank Girl, not the film or the Hollywood crap they came up with (as Alan Martin stated in his book 'The Cream of Tank Girl': "You stole my lovely") but the original stuff that was illustrating a nearly incomprehensible story line with just a smattering of psychadelia....quite like my own ranting if I'm honest...Anyway, I digress.  This is the Tank Girl I love:

and then, of course he went on to do Gorillaz with Damon Albarn, another ghost of my Brit Pop past:

Noodle is my personal favourite, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact she is Japanese or lives on a windmill in the sky...

So where does he go from here?!  He decides what a great idea it would be to make an opera out of Monkey : Journey to the West. 

The website is amazing, check out the downloads page for heaps of great images but what I love best is:

Jamie Hewlett made Sandi COOL!!!!!!  I was always a bit of a Pigsy fan myself, all that food, womanising, hitting people with a rake (I thought it was a much more effective weapon to be honest).  But Sandi, who cried all the time and was a complete wuss despite wearing the skulls of dead children around his neck!

Jamie Hewlett, I am not worthy.

This post goes out to Duncan, if he's humping one of Jamie's legs, I'm on the other and it isn't often I say that being all world domineering and stuff.....I now need to hurt something to deal with this weakness...