Saturday, January 31, 2009

Collective thoughts



HumanBean sent me a link to this wonderful list of breeze/wind names with lots of great ideas for the collective name for a group of Fan Flowers. Here are some of my favourites and for the whole list and credits go here

Barber A strong wind carrying damp snow or sleet and spray that freezes upon contact with objects, especially the beard and hair.
Brickfielder: A wind from the desert in Southern Australia. Precedes the passage of a frontal zone of a low passing by. Has the same dusty character as the Harmattan.
Elephanta A strong southerly or southeasterly wind which blows on the Malabar coast of India during the months of September and October and marks the end of the southwest monsoon.
Euros The Greek name for the rainy, stormy southeast wind.
Foehn A warm dry wind on the lee side of a mountain range, whose temperature is increased as the wind descends down the slope. It is created when air flows downhill from a high elevation, raising the temperature by adiabatic compression. Examples include the Chinook wind and the Santa Ana wind.
Fremantle Doctor A cooling seabreeze in Western Australia,often made note of during hot summer-time cricket matches.
Haboob A strong wind and sandstorm (or duststorm) in the northern and central Sudan, especially around Khartum, where the average number is about 24 per year. The name come from the Arabic word, "habb", meaning wind.
Matanuska Wind A strong, gusty, northeast wind which occasionally occurs during the winter in the vicinity of Palmer, Alaska.
Mistral A cold, dry wind blowing from the north over the northwest coast of the Mediterranean Sea, particularly over the Gulf of Lions.
Nashi, N'aschi A northeast wind which occurs in winter on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf, especially near the entrance to the gulf, and also on the Makran coast. It is probably associated with an outflow from the central Asiatic anticyclone which extends over the high land of Iran. Sharki A southeasterly wind which sometimes blows in the Persian Gulf.
Sirocco A warm wind of the Mediterranean area, either a foehn or a hot southerly wind in advance of a low pressure area moving from the Sahara or Arabian deserts.
Sundowner Warm downslope winds that periodically occur along a short segment of the Warm Braw A foehn wind in the Schouten Islands north of New Guinea.
Willy-willy A tropical cyclone (with winds 33 knots or greater) in Australia, especially in the southwest. More recent common usage is for dust-devils.
Zephyr The ancient Greek name for the west wind, which generally light and beneficial. It has evolved into "zephyr" which denotes a soft gentle breeze.

I loved all of your suggestions but my favourites are still
A flutter of Fan Flowers (suggested by Julie, QLD)
A flourish of Fan Flowers (suggested by Julie, SA)
A zephyr of Fan Flowers (suggested by way of Human Bean's wind list- no fart jokes please!)

The choice is so hard I have returned to my dictionary to see if that helps (yah nerd!). Whilst loving a flutter, the word describes a certain level of agitation or nervousness, so its down to flourish and zephyr.

Flourish as a word has a number of interesting meanings more flamboyant than I at first thought; it describes growth and also the embellishment of handwriting which suits the fact that the Fan Flower came straight from a hand drawing.

Zephyr is considered one of the most beautiful types of breezes. So difficult to choose between them, but my final choice will be:

a flourish of Fan Flowers
and because the others are too good to waste......
a flourish of Fan Flowers floats on a zephyr; if you cut them up or mix them, or dry them then that's a spell; if you pick a flourish of Fan Flowers and then arrange them then that's your posy (Pip) for you. If you put just two together then you have a heart. If you tread on them or get them excited then they will flutter in an agitated manner and may release barbed loops. If you love them then they purr with delight and shimmer!
heatwave melting my brain

Friday, January 30, 2009

melt


There is a different type of melt than the heat melt and that is the heart melt. I got married in this church and now its for sale! It was a dream venue, took ages to find, had the history and presence of a church without actually being one any longer. We were married and stayed the night in the room upstairs. It was heaven!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

think crystals

It is so hot Im afraid I will vapourise if I run to the car thus G and I are housebound and living on couscous. Here are some nice cool crystal images (thanks Sarah)-they are photographs by scientist dude Kenneth G. Libbrecht . Aren't they beautiful? Sit back relax and think of lovely cold, frosty things...





Monday, January 26, 2009

looking up

The sky today.

This week Umbrella Prints


A bountiful, bright and colourful shop is Ikeguchi we are happy to make up a part of their ever-changing gorgeous displays. Here is a snap.

Also, a big wow thankyou to Steph Bond of the blogalicious Australian design proud Bondville for her ego-boosting (!) writeup this week here.

Happy Days

Cake and 7 spoons

Little Bird at Port Elliot

Granite Island

Victor Harbour- G giving floaties a go for the first time
Had a full-on, sunny, hard working, lazing, busy kind of long weekend.
Happy public holiday to all Aussies.
:-)

Friday, January 23, 2009

Parade of Silver Elephants

One of the collective nouns used to describe a group of Elephants is 'a parade of elephants'- I just learnt that.
Carly and I (Umbrella Prints) have just put Mumma and Baby Elephant charms up on Etsy for international people who are interested (ie Etsy sells in US dollars).

This is part of our Tandem #3; a collaboration with amazing Sydney silversmith Ceeb Wassermann. Big Thankyou to those people in Australia who already bought one (or a Mumma and matching Baby) last week they are well on the way to you.

Together with Ceeb we took one of Carly's Elephants from her Elephant fabric (for Umbrella Prints) and turned it to silver and then it had a baby. As cute as hell I reckon and kind of sweet and stylish at the same time. They look good on boys too.

And Elephants are beautiful creatures.

Can anyone suggest a collective noun for Fan Flowers they will be up on Etsy next week ???
The best I could come up with is 'a flock of Fan Flowers' .............'a swish'.........'a float.......?

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Feels like Forever

A poignant moment at the park today....Poor G is just aching to go to kindy, actually she'd give school a go too of she could. The wait is long, the summer hot....argh now Im just being melodramatic and all haiku-like but this photo just gets me....aaawwwwww the poor wee bairn

begin here


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Waiting for THIS BOOK!


It is so exciting to see a few photos of soon-to-be-revealed-in-full-and-on-shelf craft book Meet Me At Mike's and a snip of 'Hearts' fabric by Carly for Umbrella Prints on the cover!
Carly is one of the 25 hand-picked Australian craft stars brought together in this book by owner of Melbourne's craft central Meet Me At Mikes's- Pip Lincolne. It looks so juicy I can't wait to see it and all the projects to make in it.
Fortuitously (having just seen the gorgeous cover of this book) , 'Hearts' is one of the fabrics coming next as meterage for Umbrella Prints. Now, something much less glamorous; more freakin dishes.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

nobody puts baby in the corner (even us)

We moved Umbrella Prints back to the front of Nest Studio where there is more light and
where it seems much happier as a collection. Carly and I decided to move everything right in the middle of Friday trading which meant some confusion for customers who seem to appear just as everything is in flux!

Still Life with dishes #1 aka reality check

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Crying

Do you think crying is contagious? I mean do you think that once you have opened the flood gates that there is just no stopping the tears or the episodes of tears? I have cried so much recently and yet I've been having such a great time?!.

I cried through the episode of Choir of Hard Knocks the other night on TV. S cried watching Matthew whats-his-name cry whilst retiring from cricket last night. I cried watching secret millionaire the tv programme where someone really rich gives money away to community members in need of a break and they are so grateful. I feel manipulated! No more TV!

I cried at Nest Studio today watching G do the children's relaxation class there and then I cried when Carly showed me the booklet she had made for the summer school because it was so adorable. And that made Carly cry like two tears I saw them!

I cried when my neighbours moved away today- seriously our daughters were born 2 days apart and my neighbour used to bring me Turkish food because that's what neighbours do she said and our daughters used to shout to each other through the grating of their respective front doors in a garbled 3 year old mixture of English, Turkish and Kurdish. I'm going to miss them.

I cried when I saw a lady that looked like my mum fall over on Rundle Mall and she sat on the ground sort of stunned and people just stood around her and nobody bloody helped her get off the friggen ground for ages.

I cried out when the back of my legs stuck to the vinyl chair I was sitting on last night in 41 degrees and I got up too quickly and it ripped my SKIN oFF!

NB When I say 'cry' I mean a tear in the eye and that lump in you throat feeling, not a full on sob or anything no shuddering and breathing problems or anything!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tandem #3 Umbrella Prints X Ceeb Wassermann

Mumma Elephant charm (there is a baby one too)

Fan Flower charm

Over the past couple of months we have been working with the lovely and amazing Sydney silversmith Ceeb Wassermann to bring our Elephants and Fan Flowers to life in sterling silver.
Ceeb's beautiful jewelery is delicate yet bold and so patiently hand cut (sawpierced actually) from fine sterling silver my mind boggles.

We share a similar passion for natural shapes and strong forms as well as a love of Japanese design. Carly and I (Umbrella Prints) really believed no one else could collaborate with us better in producing these beautiful charms from the elements within our fabrics.

The sterling silver charms are in 3 designs (Baby Elephant, Mumma Elephant and FanFlower) come with quality sterling silver necklaces and will be available to order on Etsy this week :-)

They may also be ordered in Australian dollars now by emailing me amyprior@hotmail.com ; so let me know if you must have one or one of each!

A massive ongoing thankyou to Ceeb and to Ellie for posing unannounced for these pics

Apartment Therapy montage

Astonished to find us (via Carly via her friend) featured on Apartment Therapy (USA) this week along with fellow Australian fabric designers Hollabee and Of Paper and Thread. Hello Elephants in pink moon.

Hello sister #3

Hi sis when I pictured you in Berlin I didn't picture you like this!!! Amazing footwork and sneakers- I love how everyone is desperately ignoring you two xoxox!

Friday, January 9, 2009

colouring in




The last couple of days have been a total colourfest- actually since we came home from the Flinders my world seems to have intensified. Spent the day in Nest Studio yesterday and every other spare second with G collecting flowers-these ones are blooming in Adelaide at the moment . One of our new colours for Umbrella Prints is 'momo' and is named after my daughter's middle name Momo (momo means peach in Japanese and we lived there for a while).

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

On a Roll- Umbrella Prints


In one big breathe-- momo peach, starfruit, kimono red, pink moon, sumi black, olive and sea glass in Elephants and in Fan Flowers on beautiful mid-weight soft organic hemp/cotton.
Available now online here.......zzzzzz

Sunday, January 4, 2009

A Bit of Clarity Memo

Just a little note to clear any confusion!

To politely correct Sunday Mail issued today I am not the owner of Nest Studio and am I'm not the co-owner of Nest Studio (as per a few months ago)- Carly is! NB We are still happy to be included though!
(5 years ago I ran a shop selling my printed fabric where Nest is now-which probably accounts for the confusion; but really it's just a lovely ironic part of the history)

But I am co-designer (with Carly) of Umbrella Prints which is our little brand that is represented there.
We can often be found working on Umbrella Prints there at the studio.... doing things like screenprinting/designing/packaging/cutting of fabric/drawing/planning and drinking cups of coffee.
I also love doing a lot of the merchandising and windows etc. for Nest Studio and have been known to stick my beak in at various times to suggest ideas.
Additionally Carly and I work together on lots of things like the Modern Australian Textiles show we curated last year.

That's all ma friends :-)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

More and Less


This year 2009.....more dancing, more looking, less sitting, more hugs, more S @ G, more calling, more Talking , less talking, more colour, less thinking, more doing, less eating, more music, less ads, more reading, less worrying, more rain, more pattern, less doodling, more exhibition, more collaboration, more life, less death, more laughing, less closed doors, more open doors!, less shut people, more friend, less comparison, more jigs, more butterfly kisses, less washing, more goofy grinning, more silliness

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