Lisa Jones Studio

Backstamps

2012-01-27T09:15:00.000Z

When I was young the mug making game was pretty much nailed down by KilnKraft, they'd brand the base of the piece in relief and the artwork would incorporate a separate credit elsewhere (usually near the handle on the far side of a right-handed drinker). Maybe that's why we weren't so bothered about having a backstamp of our own, despite everyone's protestations.

Now we're changing suppliers it seems a good time to capitulate, we've spent all week sketching different designs until forced to surrender, letting the mind go blank and willing the right idea to announce itself sometime soon. It's uncanny how many times you want to use the Dover Street Market or Ordning & Reda logos without thinking. In the meantime, we'll probably go for some pedestrian button motif.

I still couldn't help doing a little research though, up-ending everything I laid hands on. My favourite things were these scrappy little drawings in a pocket-sized antiques guide. Sketched like occultish glyphs by Stanley Fisher, they have the all the scratchy symbolism of silvery tattoos from the bodies of sailors and convicts in early photography.

• English Pottery & Porcelain Marks, W. Foulsham & Co. Ltd, 1970

From Behind

2012-01-13T11:46:00.002Z

I've had this folksy little glass painting for years, although I've always hated the frame. This week I salvaged some beading to make another, revealing the simple technique in the process. Built up in layers like old cell animation, the rear reminds me of Color Field abstraction.

2012-01-08T20:24:00.008Z

Spent the first week of the year in London catching up with the friends we've missed so desperately since moving to Sussex*. Nice as it was, it wasn't all bad coming back to our little house (and Pocket, the cat, was certainly pleased to see us), but I still can't help wishing the tube stopped somewhere nearer the foot of our hill.

* Our thoughts are with one friend in particular right now, whose family last week began to realise their 19 year struggle for justice over the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

2012-01-01T12:03:00.002Z

Hello and Happy New Year! This festive season I learned that Judy Garland's later, faltering rendition of 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' can make a lot of tears from only a little alcohol; that a wreath on the door scratches like a hungry monster once the wind picks up; and that spontaneous applause, such as greeted Vaclev Havel's casket, is the finest eulogy a person can hope for.

The annual visit to the UK high street also taught me that Navajo prints are just about everywhere. I guess that means a cherished tablecloth (actually Scandinavian) and the cat's favourite throw (acid dyed blue in the bath) will soon seem passé to those in-the-know. If I could have anything genuinely Navajo though, irrespective of trend, it'd be the 1930s monogrammed rug gifted to George Herriman, creator of Krazy Kat (I've been saving a picture of this for years, only right now I can't find it).

Robin Recital

2011-12-22T19:19:00.006Z

Festive feathered felicitations, fellows!
—
Warm wishes for the holiday season and all-the-best for 2012.

Old Bag

2011-12-17T12:17:00.002Z

• Scratchy cycling Santa sketches (illustrator unknown)

2011-12-13T11:37:00.011Z

Once upon a time I'm sure that setting fire to stuff was the great skill people still pretend. Truth is, matches and fire-lighters have made the process pretty straight forward. This week I've found out all efforts are futile when the wind's heaving right down the chimney. But then who in their right mind would want a cosy fire during a storm?

City life: 1, Country life: 0

2011-12-05T23:00:00.001Z

Coming soon... The Poundshop 5 from Household on Vimeo.

Kiln Cat

2011-12-02T19:18:00.014Z

Although throwing pots was much more fun, I spent a fair amount of last year slip-casting too. Regrettably we had to stop wholesaling our owl figurine when demand outstripped production and enquiries for outsourcing came to nil (I'd love to transcribe the conversations, but let's just say the death of UK industry is sometimes no surprise).

This weekend I'll be selling some of the quality seconds beneath the Westway at Great Western's Open Studio event. The remaining stock proper will be available at Elphick's or via us online soon. This cat was set to be our next figurine but we only got as far as the prototype. I'd really love a kiln... but where to put it?

Christmas Open Studios 2011, Great Western Studios
65 Alfred Road, London W2 5EU
Sat 3rd & Sun 4th December, 12 noon - 6pm both days
Café open both days, Admission free

Geek of the Week

2011-11-24T21:04:00.007Z

Barcelona based illustrator Kavel Rafferty often makes sketches in series, finding meaning through difference, repetition and the accumulation of objects. While shoes, records, cranes and signage are all charmingly collated and catalogued in her work, it's the images of childhood and nostalgia that are somehow more telling.

Freud would reckon on the collector's indexical drive arising from the need to find order in chaos, abate the passage of time and guard against loss. Or maybe collecting stuff is just good ol' geeky fun. Either way, you can decide for yourself as Kavel spreads her archive fever to East London, curating an exhibition of Risographic prints by collectors, artists, photographers and designers at East London's Mill Co. Project. With all the work up for grabs, they may start collecting your pennies too!

• Images courtesy of another of Kavel's exhaustive side projects, Record Envelope.

Collectionistas, 26 Nov, 12 noon-7pm
The Mill Co. Project, Lime Wharf
Vyner Street, London E2

2011-11-19T21:23:00.011Z

Ladybirds are something I'd usually associate with high-summer but it's been a bumper year for these beguiling little bugs and they're still hanging around now, thrown into relief on the black wood of our garden studio, deep into November.

• Illustrations are by Ed Emberley from Judy Hawes' embarrassingly good Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1967/1970)

2011-11-14T08:44:00.005Z

Mori Yamauchi • Hiromi Tsuha • Makiko Kobayashi

2011-11-11T08:35:00.008Z

Around this time of year I just can't help thinking of Josef Sudek's spectacularly miserable mid-1950s studies, 'From the Window of my Studio'. Maybe that's why I'm especially happy taking a working break this weekend and joining the irrepressible Alice Tait alongside another 30-odd vendors at the Hampstead Holiday Market. If you're the tombola type, find raffles just-the-ticket or are simply in the market for some bargains... come along!

12 noon until 5pm
Saturday 12 November 2011
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel
Hampstead High Street, London

Haus Proud

2011-11-04T10:26:00.006Z

There's no such thing as a bad stockist, some fire-off automated orders while others become friends, some places I've known for years while others I'll likely never visit. One place I'd love to go is also our latest stockist, The VitraHaus shop of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

Depending on how you view it, Vitra Campus is either the Disneyland of architectural design or a town planner's nightmare: with a Buckminster Fuller dome; Jean Prouvé petrol station; Zaha Hadid fire station; Jasper Morrison bus shelter and Nicholas Grimshaw factory, but no Waitrose.

Showing recently at the gallery annexe of the Vitra Design Museum was the enamel work of Post Modern polymath, Ettore Sottsass. Vitra Campus is also, curiously, the resting place of the original Eames office. Now, ready to book that trip?

• VitraHaus, Herzog & de Meuron, 2006
• Vitra Design Museum, Frank Gehry, 1989
• Ettore Sottsass, Enamelled copper vases on wooden bases

Clocks

2011-10-28T08:40:00.004+01:00

In the city I never needed an alarm clock, of course I had one but the neighbourhood noise would usually get me first. These days I need a battery of them and they'll all need changing come Sunday when BST (British Summer Time) or DST (Daylight Saving Time) ends and the clocks go back. Here ends the public service announcement.

• Braun Type: 4746/AB1
• Braun Type: 4761/AB2

More Mugs

2011-10-21T08:35:00.007+01:00

Meet our two new mug designs, Sausage Dog and Tiger. (Actually, we took delivery of these a few weeks ago now and have only just got around to photographing 'em!)

Worms

2011-10-14T08:54:00.007+01:00

It's true, I've got worms. They arrived in a box marked 'Frazzles' last week and are at work already, wriggling out Black Gold in the big wormery I found once on a West London street.

RIG

2011-10-11T19:47:00.005+01:00

Popped into Hauser & Wirth, Piccadilly, to see Phyllida Barlow's RIG last week. Always an interesting space to visit with those beautiful oval and circular windows in the stairwell but, for me, the show's strongest pieces glower in the gloom of the gallery's basement bank vault.

• RIG: untitled; hoops, 2011, plywood, cement, paint. Photos: Peter Mallet

2011-10-07T08:09:00.005+01:00

2011-10-01T10:35:00.004+01:00

• Sylvia Robinson, 1936-2011 (12": We Got the Funk, Positive Force, 1979)

Them Apples

2011-09-30T10:49:00.005+01:00

One season is certainly insufficient for transformation into domestic gods and goddesses. I'm used to toil on the allotment so the unchecked plenitude of fruit trees was overwhelming. Too busy to bake, most of the apples rotted on the ground and gave my guilt a vinegary piquance.

Odds Off

2011-09-27T20:02:00.012+01:00

With 10 thousand of the UK's 61.838 million living in Ludlow, chances are you'll not be in Shropshire's beautiful market town this coming month. But, if you are, don't be surprised to feel the effects of some Unplanned Magic as Kate Gibb and Marcus Walters get together for twinned exhibitions at dual venues, Black Bough and Material.

Unplanned Magic, 8th Oct-5th Nov
Black Bough, 2 Market Street, Ludlow SY8 1BP
Material, 131 Corve Street, Ludlow SY8 2PG

Zzzz

2011-09-23T08:53:00.003+01:00

Given our sitter's wakefulness, I hesitated to name our new print Catnap, then I figured an immutable feline essence means all cats are only ever seconds from a snooze.

No. 4

2011-09-17T15:26:00.006+01:00

Not only have the folk at Poundshop launched their online pop-up shop (i.e. it ain't there forever), during London Design Week they'll be filling a physical space with retail goodies too. Divided into £1, £5 and £10 categories from a host of top designers (including yours truly in the 'Liberty Picks'), it's worth braving the British weather for.

Alma Showroom
12-14 Greatorex Street
London E1 5NF
16th-19th Sept, 12-6pm

2011-09-16T19:56:00.001+01:00

• Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) with Epiphany, 1964

TD11

2011-09-15T23:31:00.009+01:00

Trade fairs tend not to be the most exciting venues but this week's Top Drawer came pretty close to fun; catching up with our favourite stockists and making a few friends. Our new print was well received too, especially by cat-crazy folk like the excellent illustrator, Helen Hancocks (evidenced below). Thanks to everyone who dropped by!

Autumn / Winter

2011-09-08T19:25:00.004+01:00

Forget hibernation, they'll bearly be time for a sandwich this weekend as we prepare for Top Drawer Autumn trade fair. Do come and visit if you can bear it, but look out for your lunch... hard work makes us extra-hungry!

Top Drawer Autumn/Winter
11-13 Sep 2011
Olympia
Hammersmith Road
London W14 8UX

This Lisa

2011-09-01T09:12:00.015+01:00

Last week the British Library got in touch for a small biog, something to differentiate this Lisa Jones from all the others catalogued in their system. Seems they have copies of the books we illustrated for Joanna Skipwith's Silver Jungle, I Choose You! and I'd Chew You!

Above is a cheesy spread that never matured to selection.

3 Cheers

2011-08-27T12:02:00.007+01:00

London's N16 rang with the raising of glasses this week, toasting many happy anniversaries for Malissa Jones and (the other) James Brown.

• The kitsch old card is by Hallmark but special credits should also go to Ben, Irene, Zack & Coco for making space for us in the family home!

Crazy Legs

2011-08-19T08:50:00.005+01:00

Better than finding folding cash in an old coat pocket, searching for something unrelated this week I turned up a discarded illustration. Clearly dissatisfied with this fella when I filed him away, I'm quite keen now... mix some inks and tweak some colours and I may even have a new card design!

Clean Sweep

2011-08-12T19:52:00.008+01:00

Seeing press shots of the post-riot clean-up campaign in London this week, it was great to see the broom brandished by crowds as symbol of repair and weapon of resistance against further social decay. I'm put in mind of the arch social sculptor himself, Joseph Beuys.

• Joseph Beuys, Silberbesen und Besen ohne Haare (Silver Broom and Brush with no Hair), 1972
• Joseph Beuys, Ausfegen (Sweeping Up), 1972

2011-08-05T14:10:00.019+01:00

E9 BYE

2011-07-29T18:48:00.020+01:00

Topographically speaking Hackney Wick is no island, though, sandwiched between the A12 and the River Lea, it often feels like one. This week we finalised our tactical retreat from London and broke down the print studio... just as everybody else was setting up the weekend's Hackney WickED Festival. We've met more great people in the final few weeks than we did during the two years prior, making it especially difficult to leave.

Occasionally popping to the Pearl for refreshments, we picked up some free papers as keepsakes. Issue 1 of The Hackney Wick skits on the vagaries of the area with cultural assessment from Iain Sinclair and local teens alike. The Cut is part of a broader project which takes an archival approach in mapping the area's socio-economic history (including Speedway, a few failed visions for the future and, ironically, Class War's resistance to gentrification) while simultaneously putting paid to the notion that successive generations obliterate the memory of their forebears.

Objecthood

2011-07-22T08:07:00.007+01:00

You don't need to visit a museum to see the way humans invest objects with symbolic currency. An incorrigible hoarder, I've lately tried to penetrate layers of sentiment and see the useless tat beneath. The process puts me in mind of a 36-panel Chris Ware piece which tells the episodic, cyclical tale of a table lamp.

In the 18th century a literary style sprang up around this approach to objecthood, called It-Narratives. Anthropomorphic versions of these narratives tell the fiction "from the perspective of the objects themselves, others use them as hubs around which other characters’ stories are spun."[1].

• Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #2, summer 1994

2011-07-21T22:49:00.002+01:00

• Clifford Still, Lucian Freud (1922-2011), British Vogue 1948

Wishful Living

2011-07-13T08:18:00.016+01:00

We were quite happy to be moving to an old paper mill until a friend lent us the fantastic Converted Into Houses (Charles A. Fracchia, Thames & Hudson, 1977). Not only did we have to pack and shift it, it brought on a profound bout of space envy too. It consoles me that, almost like savages, none of these homes had an internet connection.

• Cigar Factory, New York (x2)
• Lumberyard, California
• Industrial Building, Paris
• Icehouse, Connecticut (x2)
• Cannery, Monterey
• Butterscotch Factory, London

Going, Going, Gone

2011-06-28T10:53:00.011+01:00

We may have mentioned it a million times already but, hey, this is a web-log after all! Not much in the way of idle chit-chat this week, just the hard graft and residual doubts* of imminent relocation.

* Actually, this is a crass understatement, we're both completely incapacitated and Edward —a born Londoner— is queazy green with fear.

So Long, Stuff

2011-06-17T10:53:00.009+01:00

This week we began dismantling our lives in the promise of reconstructing them elsewhere afresh. Obviously this starts with a radical de-clutter on that latterday Bonfire of the Vanities, eBay. A Maclamp gave good return alongside an old Routemaster destination blind, but David Hicks books got a huge consumer thumbs-down.

Of all the lots though, I was especially sorry to say so long to a cache of posters (mostly travel & tourism from the 1960s but also this WVS public information number from 1956), a totally 80s Janette Beckman photographic print I found on the street, and a heap of wonderfully pretentious art books we'll realistically never read.

• Janette Beckman, Rosemarie, LA 1981

• The Women’s Voluntary Service was set up in 1938 to augment the work of the ARP. This campaign dates from the early years of the Cold War and was instigated ‘to inform one in five of the women between the ages of 16 and 70 in Great Britain of the simple things they could do to protect their homes and families in the event of nuclear attack – should it ever come.’ [Source: District Nursing Archive]

• Richard Hamilton's typographic version of Marcel Duchamp's The Green Box (1934), 1975 (3rd edition of 2500)

Couch Potato

2011-06-08T08:16:00.017+01:00

Don't tell the Tories, but I'd pay my TV licence for radio content alone. A bonus then, that Adam Curtis's All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace has been showing these past three weeks on BBC2. If there's an equally compelling counter-thesis, it couldn't be put together with the same abstract, awkward elegance.

Neither did the series culminate in one catch-all, cosy conclusion, it simply finished... with everything still in chaos and the viewer all-at-sea. Luckily there's local hero Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle too, which has been like some acerbic kind of antidote; I can pat myself on the back and laugh at the same time.

Bawden Abroad

2011-06-03T13:20:00.006+01:00

Here's some mid/late-period Edward Bawden. Stylistically, they're bolder and more decorative than the studies popularised today. Also altered by the intervening years is their subject, Portugal. The target of violent gangs, visiting Brits were this week urged vigilance.

Motif 9 (1962, Shenval Press) is one of so many wonderful books I nabbed from Griffith & Partners on Great Ormond Street. For years I'd tweak my cycle route to take in their curb-side curios. The owners disavowed the internet age as a torment of listings, trips to the post office and 'customer service'. Now it's an espresso bar.

33.3%

2011-05-27T08:08:00.005+01:00

We've been searching frantically for a home these last few months, our rent was rising by a third! Fingers crossed, yesterday we got something. Very expensive, very small and very far away.

2011-05-20T10:23:00.005+01:00

I recently got caught in the sights of a local woman who loves nothing better than bawling at total strangers. Her insults can be pretty painful sometimes so I did my best to avoid eye contact. Strange then, that I should've noticed the her spectacular collection of brooches (worn all-at-once on the same jumper). Maybe we're not so different after all.

Unlike the work of Lea Stein, my favourite brooch is not in the least collectable. Originating from a small fishing town in Denmark, Buch & Deichmann’s founder took inspiration from the ‘shiny rings of the moors’ to make bracelets, expanding the full line of accessories in the plastic-loving 80s. These days they make frames for glasses.

Early Bird

2011-05-14T08:43:00.005+01:00

I gave up on milk the day a Japanese friend explained that westerners famously smell of cheese! So, although those beautifully blank bottles no longer figure in my fridge, they do feature on the doorstep of Early Bird, our latest print.

With a lingering whiff of nostalgia, the traditional milk bottle has a look I still enjoy in umpteen applications, from the cast concrete bollards outside a dairy to the roughly drawn outlines emptied on Tom & Jerry. So ubiquitous is the symbol that it occasionally jolts my reality when I see one filled with orange juice!

Pound, Shillings, Pence

2011-05-06T08:00:00.003+01:00

They're a highbrow bunch up in Shropshire. Our latest stockists, Black Bough, take their name from the Ezra Pound poem, In a Station of the Metro. Run by Adam Withington, the go-to guy during our stint at Great Western Studios, Black Bough takes its cue from the eerier elements of British Modernism. Can't wait for the shop to go online... just check out those bowls!

Similarly, a current group show at Clerkenwell's Rob Tufnell Gallery focuses on the activities and ongoing influence of Vorticism, a term coined by Pound for the British movement quashed at the outbreak of WWI. Under the title of Ken Russell's 1972 biopic of group member, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Savage Messiah exhibits a range of art and artefact (from publishing, periodicals and posters to sculpture, relief and film) spanning the entire tumultuous century.

• Karin Ruggaber, Relief(s) #67, #89, #94, 2008-2010

Savage Messiah
Rob Tufnell at
1 Sutton Lane EC1M 5PU
Wed-Sat, 12-6pm
23 April-23 May 2011

Chewed Toggles

2011-04-29T09:10:00.005+01:00

This week Edward suffered a —shall we say— milestone birthday. What with the brown 70s anorak, you needn't be a time detective to work out which one. This look of abject terror on his face always makes me smile, though I'm glad there's no lingering phobia... he draws all the animals!

Age anxiety aside, we had a good night's eating, killing brain-cells and dancing. Thanks to Hannah, the hard-disc jockey; so many good tracks, shame I can only remember the first and last.

Bunte Eier

2011-04-21T07:51:00.003+01:00

• Spine-breaking scans from Bunte Eier aus aller Welt [Colourful Eggs from around the World], Eduard Polak, Harenberg, 1980
N.B. Other religious festivals are available

TGWWGB

2011-04-18T09:00:00.007+01:00

I've not been to an opening for a while and when everyone piled into a darkened space for the screening/performance at Saturday's The Great White Way Goes Black, I realised not only how unaccustomed to crowds I've become but how uncommitted to art. Luckily, the 2/3-dimensional pieces from Vilma Gold's all-female hang were easy to view, and included our friend, Hannah Sawtell, Czech-born German artist, Katharina Sieverding (whose four-part photo supplied the show's title) and the criminally underrepresented work of Julia Wachtel.

17 Apr - 29 May
Vilma Gold
6 Minerva Street
London E2 9EH

• Julia Wachtel, Stripes, 2002 (not actually in the show, I just like it).

Enormous Room

2011-04-15T19:58:00.007+01:00

Inoculated, collared and neutered, the cat's finally got to venture outside this week. So far it's like she's on a sponsored sniff of one especially enormous room.

• Illustrations: Bartram for S. Carmiggelt's Poespas, 1953

1961... and all that

2011-04-08T21:02:00.018+01:00

I've been reading (in the latest edition of Frieze) about the creative explosion in Milanese design and the birth of Domus and Abitare in 1961. Also celebrating its 50th year is the Salone del Mobile where Daniel Rybakken will present an installation of his understated ideas. Pictured is Counterbalance, a responsive, repositionable lamp where cogwheels allow the head and counterweight to occupy the same space.

SaloneSatellite
Spazio Rossana Orlandi
at the 50th
Salone de Mobile, Milan
12-17th April 2011

2011-04-01T11:10:00.004+01:00

At some stage during the 1980s my mum's boyfriend switched careers from driving instructor to bus driver. One day I found him re-viewing the same videoed scene from some Ealing comedy, transfixed by the black and white trickle of traffic through London's old West End.

• Daniel Buren, Photo/Souvenier, London, 1972

Tea Pottery

2011-03-25T07:31:00.003Z

My neighbour caught me on the way home from pottery the other night so I showed her my new teapot... she said it looked like a prop from The Flintstones! Admittedly it's a bit brutal and the glaze took on a touch more texture than I would've preferred but I'm still pleased. You can be sure I'll christen it this weekend with a brew.

50th

2011-03-19T13:24:00.003Z

Good to see Janet Charters' The General (1961) in a handsome new 50th anniversary edition, our grotty 1968 reprint does Michael Foreman's gorgeous illustrations a great disservice. What The General does to promote pacifism during the Cold War, Foreman later does for environmental issues in the prescient, Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish (1972).

Red Legs

2011-03-12T09:09:00.010Z

It's a while ago now that we submitted the artwork for Go Red, a charity fundraiser for the unspeakably good work of east London childrens' hospice, Richard House. Initially devised as an auction event, the project was thoroughly rethought in the light of global downturn. Now these mix'n'match 3-part portraits are available online as 50 x 70cm giclée prints. Other contributors include 60 actual/proper illustrators/makers such as Adrian Johnson, Jody Barton, Jeffrey Bowman, Jean Jullien, Tom Gauld and Mike Perry.

2011-03-08T08:09:00.002Z

For a portion of the planet's populace, it's that ultimate festival of flat food, Pancake Day. Bon Appetit!

• Martin Mayhew, endpaper illustration from Ursula Sedgwick's My Fun to Cook, Hamlyn, 1969

More Milly

2011-03-06T20:17:00.005Z

If green's the colour of money, then Milly Freeman is definitely moving on to greener pastures. Her assistance of the past few weeks has been invaluable but, even more than that, we'll miss her company. Luckily there's a good chance to see her work this week with The W Project, an exhibition at east London's Russian Club Gallery in commemoration of the 100th International Women's Day. A series of events (talks, screenings, music and workshops) will run concurrently.

The Russian Club Gallery, London E8 4DA
Private view: 8 Mar, 6.30—9pm
Exhibition continues: 9—11 Mar, 10am – 6pm

W.B.N.

2011-03-05T19:16:00.009Z

Tonight is World Book Night, when evangelical readers gift their inspirational books. Although I'd never have the confidence to choose a single volume, in the brief moments between going to bed and properly passing out, I've recently quite enjoyed these two.

Just Kids

2011-02-26T11:53:00.003Z

Long after the critical chatter, recommendations from friends and a paperback edition, I finally read Patti Smith's biographical account of her complex relationship with Mapplethorpe. Boundless energy and the youthful struggle for creative expression are conveyed so well it's contagious. Effortlessly inspirational, it's funny how mature reflection makes reactionary counter-culture seem so fragile and pretty.

Keyhole

2011-02-21T23:38:00.007Z

I can't believe my little tattooed nephew turns 21 this week. This year I'll urge him to forget the Key to Life and contemplate the void with my singularly downbeat cut-out card. Next stop 30, kid!

2011-02-14T08:34:00.007Z

• Raymond Peynet, Persia, 1955 (from L'Amour, Penguin Books, 1964)

Swallow

2011-02-11T07:55:00.005Z

I love that galleries are drifting back to the West End a decade-or-so after the exodus east. Curious to chart the progress of LA based artist, Ricky Swallow, I passed by the window of Modern Art the other evening where, surprisingly, the show was still open.

Drawing openly on themes from Lucie Rie to Lucio Fontana, these pieces mimic the vernacular of mid-C20 modernism. Here, however, the 'Truth to Materials' mantra is entirely up-ended; what appeared to be makeshift maquettes of corrugated card and paint-sprayed glazes are, on closer inspection, high-spec bronzes.

In a further classicist twist, the works are cast from archer's targets, literally shot-through with arrows. The objects and panels then affect a fragile museological aspect, as though reconstructed from antiquity. With interpretation in tangles, this was one reference too many for me. There's still a little time to decide for yourself though, this handsome show runs until the 19th.

Ricky Swallow
Modern Art
14 Jan - 19 Feb
Tue - Sat, 11:00 - 18:00
23/25 Eastcastle Street
London W1W 8DF

• Make-do Suite, bronze elements, oak table, 2010
• Make-do Suite (detail), bronze, 2010
• Plate 21 (triangle, iron), patinated bronze, 2010

In the Pink

2011-02-05T08:40:00.009Z

This year we made a 'Valentine Edition' of our Lovebirds print in a deliberately dirty pink. The posy of Ranunculus in the picture put me in mind of Barney Bubbles consciously kitsch artwork for 1979's Do-it-Yourself. So I put it on. Apparently Stiff records released the LP with 30-or-so designs from the Crown Wallpaper Archive. A lurching Dickensian figure barking risqué lyrics over an impeccable Jazz-Funk soundtrack still sounds pretty odd today.

• Colin Fulcher (aka Barney Bubbles, 30/06/42 - 14/11/83) and Crown's X36434

2011-01-31T14:33:00.015Z

• John Barry (1933-2011), Theme from Midnight Cowboy, 1969

255 Today

2011-01-27T09:52:00.003Z

I've got two prosaic names, with nothing in between. I'll never know if grandiose titles safeguard against underachievement. But, then, how could Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, with a whole sentence of his own, be anything less than prolific?

Pocket

2011-01-21T10:28:00.004Z

We cat-sat for some friends a while back, now an 'unforeseen series of events' means we may have her indefinitely... whoops!

Malicious Damage

2011-01-14T13:08:00.014Z

Charged with 'malicious damage', Orton & Halliwell were famously sentenced to six months for borrowing, bastardising and bringing-back a selection of library books. Once evidence but now artefact, these pieces are purile; hilarious and disturbing by turns. Mixing surrealist collage with a healthy literary irreverence, they also seem to pre-empt a subversive humour that later pervades the decade.

I planned to include a selection in a group exhibition at Islington Museum in 2005. It turned out not to be such a huge cultural coup, Peter Blake had long since trumped us with About Collage at the Tate Liverpool in 2000. While, more devastatingly, low-level insurance/security saw that we eventually hung only high-res scans.

Luckily there's a far better opportunity to view these minor treasures along side the sculptural responses of artist, Adam Gillam, at east London's Ancient & Modern, 13 Jan - 26 Feb 2011.

Ancient & Modern, 201 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8QP
Wed-Sat, 12pm-6pm • +44 (0)20 7253 4550

Milly Freeman

2011-01-07T23:53:00.011Z

Still in the mood for celebration? I thought not. Exuberantly poised somewhere between Niki de Saint Phalle and H. N. Werkman, it's still well-worth checking-out the work of young illustrator (and assistant extraordinaire), Milly Freeman.

2011-01-01T10:26:00.004Z

Merry Chrsitmas!

2010-12-24T12:04:00.008Z

The common image of the Robin as the festive gardener's friend — perched on the handle of a snowy shovel — sometimes rings pretty true; even our local plot has its own red-breasted resident. Last time I saw him he came especially close, blinking his eyes and opening his beak, not to chirp out some message of universal understanding but to chuck-up the best part of a slimy black slug.

Melt Chocolates

2010-12-17T16:47:00.009Z

I shouldn't really urge you to try anything from west London's award winning Melt, it'll ruin the pleasure of regular chocolate forever. I love the antiqued blue they've achieved on this, our second seasonally themed collaborative mug. And we're in good company too, there's Dinky and Beau, gorgeous chocolate lollipops from the wonderful Celia Birtwell.

Barbara Fürstenhöfer

2010-12-17T10:34:00.005Z

After featuring a 6" Barbara Fürstenhöfer plate for Poole back in 2009 a good friend found me a festive one, snappily titled 438 Scene VIII. Thanks Kate!

25

2010-12-10T08:44:00.008Z

I laughed out loud when Edward brought home this old red gillet. When he said it reminded him of Marty McFly's 'life preserver', I laughed even harder. Celebrating its 25th birthday this year, I had no idea Back to the Future began shooting with Eric Stoltz as the lead; it's as though the film has one its own alternative futures already written through it. Our studio takes an age to heat up each morning, so he'll have the last laugh come Monday.

Seasonal Sales

2010-12-03T13:51:00.009Z

With the advent of December, so comes seasonal sales; we've got a few pencilled in these next few weeks. First up it's...

Great Western Studios
12-6pm, Sat 4th & Sun 5th December
65 Alfred Road, London W2 5EU

followed by...

Our Christmas Pop-up Market
1-9pm, Thurs 9th & Fri 10th December
Railway Arch 897, Holyrood St
London Bridge, London SE1 2EL

which dovetails neatly with Poundshop's contribution to the...

Super Christmas Market
6-9pm, Fri 10 Dec
11am-7pm, Sat 11 & Sun 12 Dec
The Studio, South Wing, Somerset House
The Strand, London WC2R 1LA

I'll be manning the first and second, and visiting the latter. Hope to see you there... somewhere!

Elphick's

2010-12-01T22:06:00.008Z

It's sort of a shame that Sharon runs Elphick's, one of the best shops in London, otherwise she could focus more on the prints, collages and sketches that first made her name. There's a host of interesting outlets along Columbia Road and now even more occasion to check them out; late-night shopping began this evening and will continue every Wednesday until Christmas... that's 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd of December, 5 until 9pm.

• Sketch, 2008, Sharon Elphick

Lots of Pots

2010-11-25T23:42:00.006Z

Venturing westward last weekend we visited the sale preview of ceramics by the gorgeous and gifted, Laura Carlin. The application of her illustrative aesthetic to a beautifully hand-worked collection of objects was seamless. This weekend the ceramics are a little closer to home; Church Street Workshop's Open Studio will feature pieces from the exceptionally talented, Moriaki Yamauchi, and Queen of the Kiln, Lesley McShea.

Open Studio: Sat 27/Sun 28 Nov, 10-6pm and Sat 04/Sun 05 Dec, 10-6pm

Unit 8, Church Street Workshops, Gutteridges Yard
172 S. Newignton Church St., London N16 0JL

• Images: 1x Laura Carlin; 2x Moriaki Yamauchi

2010-11-20T20:26:00.005Z

There's an allure in the alliterated naming of anti-heroes like Nabakov's Humbert Humbert. This being said; happy birthday Becky Beasley... sorry I couldn't make it after all. You can see more of her ruminative work online or corporally at the touring British Art Show 7

• Trap, 2006, matt gelatin silver print
• As I Lay Dying, 2006, matt gelatin silver print

First and Last

2010-11-12T12:42:00.017Z

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Peanut's creator's death, Radio 4's documentary on Schulz had me scouring the shelves for some remembered illustrations. The first is a school project (kept by a teacher and forwarded years later), the second a late preliminary sketch. Ironically, the weak line of the latter doesn't betray infirmity, Schulz (Sparky to friends and family) liked to keep sketches vague, ensuring spontaneity in the final inking.

• from Peanuts Jubilee (Allen Lane, 1976), McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 (Hamish Hamilton, 2004).

Bonfire Night

2010-11-05T12:42:00.017Z

These last few days of autumn's spectacular unblossoming have been perfect for pedalling to and from the studio. Muddy patches of redevelopment here and there have forced me onto an even more remote route.

In the evening, pairs of startled eyes beam back my bicycle light from the path ahead and I wonder how wild animals fare at Guy Fawkes. I'm hoping to catch the display at Victoria Park on Sunday, when pampered and petrified pets should stay indoors, paws pressed firmly over their ears.

Before that, on Saturday, I'll be tending my stall of framed prints, tea towels, mugs and other goodies alongside the likes of James Brown and Alice Tait at HWC Holiday Marketplace. If you're in that neck of the woods come down for a bumper bargain bonanza!

HWC Holiday Market Place
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel
3 Pilgrim's Place
(off Hampstead High St)
London NW3 1NG
Saturday Nov 6
12 noon—5pm

Halowe'en

2010-10-31T08:31:00.008Z

• Foldout poster from Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson, 1972, featuring the inimitable I'd Rather Be Dead.

Animal Collective

2010-10-28T17:11:00.008+01:00

Even though our bone china mugs arrived a few weeks ago now, we've just got around to taking snaps. Made by a reputable Staffordshire pottery, I'm so pleased with them that, for the time being, they've even usurped Arabia as my morning mug of choice!

Atypical Girls

2010-10-22T10:45:00.012+01:00

One journalistic theory suggests that music's most exciting when performed slightly out of time. While that's true of The Slits' shambolic approach to reggae, the excitement of their angular assault can certainly ebb after a couple of tracks. Longer lasting for me were the effects of their iconic shoot for the LP, Cut, which eschewed the Feminist agenda of the day for a form of feral sorority. It also looked like a heap of fun.

• The Slits' Arianna Forster (Ari Up), 1962-2010

Printed Packaging

2010-10-09T12:26:00.007+01:00

Most weeks we're busy scheming about how to do less work, then some quotes arrive (plus carriage, plus VAT) and it's straight back to the in-house aesthetic. Most recently we've been printing our own ceramics packaging. Maybe a bit crude but not entirely without charm... I hope.

Cat Ramp

2010-10-02T13:48:00.013+01:00

I've checked the giant to-do list on the on the rear of 1976's Self Sufficiency bible and there's definitely no mention of theft prevention. Then again, after all your time, toil, care and cost, why would you rationally expect anyone to steal your veg? This week, organic leeks, onions, beans, squash, cauliflower, sweetcorn, courgettes and a decorative pumpkin for Edward to carve (an experience he skipped in boyhood), join the list of produce purloined from the allotment.

Steadfastly refusing to believe that people need starve in countries with welfare, I'm left pondering the delusional narratives that perpetrators must cook-up in order to make their actions morally palatable. Perhaps that's why I've been a little harsh on this Bosch-like borough lately, although (given the number of 'I Heart Hackney' totes I see daily) there must be some pros bobbing on the sea of cons.

Here's one… my local cat ramp; an ugly, makeshift structure but, spanning three flights, it's also come to symbolise neighbourly acquiescence and, more importantly, it's so cute when the cat comes down it.

Twee Tradition

2010-09-25T19:54:00.005+01:00

Not long finished a trade fair which went pretty well, all told. It's great finding new stockists, catching up with old ones and realising the competition are real humans and not evil super-villains. Thought we'd get out of town for the shortest time before tackling all those orders, taking in Fanny's Farm Shop on route. Our post-fair tradition may be a teeny bit twee but, boy, it beats Hackney hands-down.

Cake Lady

2010-09-19T08:43:00.004+01:00

Not sure how long it'll be before there's any more picture-posts here, my camera bust over the weekend. One way or another I was feeling pretty glum when, somewhere near the centre of the Central Line, a commuter noticed me eyeing her crammed Ottolenghi bags. Turns out she was distributing surplus cake to the homeless on her own way home. As if that wasn't cool enough, she gave us two boxed-up passion fruit tarts for a treat in front of Wallander repeats. A pair of German tourists, with eager eyes like saucers, had blueberry cupcakes too. Danke schön, cake lady!

2010-09-15T14:55:00.004+01:00

London Design Festival has never seemed so frugal as The Poundshop apply their 'Everything for a Quid' ethos to another project. With goodies from (deep breath)...

100s and 1000s, Alexandra Tinning, Alice Tait, Amy Borrell, Anna Lincoln, Annabel Innes, APFEL (A Practice for Everyday Life), BabaAkcja, Cat Davison Jewellery, Charlie Ranscombe, Charlotte Crumbleholme, Claire McManus, Clinuc, Disa Braunerhielm, Emily Chicken, FORAGER, Gosh Darnit, Hannah Waldron, Hannah Whitfield, Happily Ever After, HOTCAKES, Household, Howe Ikonen Seki, Iain Hector, Isabel Greenberg, Jade Folawiyo, Jamie Winder, Jasmine Raznahan, Kaye Blegvad, Kristian Andrews, Linus Kraemer, Lisa Jones Studio, Lottie Crumbleholme, Marc Cowan, Maria Joudina, Marmaduke Marmalade, Meng-chia Lai, Miguel Melgarejo, Molly Khyl, Nadia taylor, Peter Nencini, Philip Dennis, Priscilla Vanilla, Puffin and Pies, Rahel Zoller, Sandra Barth, Sara Ferrari Design, Sara Nunes Fernandes, Sara Melin, Susan Golton, Teresa Mum, Use Development Organisation, We Draw Lines, and William Smith.

Join them 3-9pm this Saturday for live acts (and sponsored drinks) in the Asif Khan designed interior of...

49 Roman Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 0HU

For more info on regular hours, late nights, participants and events, visit Household.

V&A Print

2010-09-11T08:27:00.008+01:00

No hesitation here when the V&A asked us to join their Cherry on the Cake III project. Not only do they provide ceaseless inspiration to great swathes of the world's population through a programme of events, exhibitions and a peerless permanent collection, but the gift shop's pretty good too.

This year Paper forms the broad thematic backdrop on which 12 artists further pursue some museological object or aspect of interest. Our contribution focuses—perhaps predictably—on the newly housed and utterly exhaustive array of Ceramics.

As subtly overlaid halftones can't really be achieved with our current silkscreen set-up, printing was outsourced to Manymono, where Hugh remains confident of the Risograph's creative potential.

Pompom, the Potter's Pet is available in a Risographic edition of 200 via the V&A and can be viewed alongside works from Aardvark, James Brown, Fred Butler, Nina Chakrabarti, D-BROS, Ed Kluz, Angie Lewin, Charlotte Mann, Tom Martin, Rob Ryan and Chisato Tamabayashi at the V&A Shop or, better still, visit the museum!

More... and then some

2010-09-04T23:24:00.006+01:00

Been trying the hatchling in a handful of glazes (Salamander, LR White and another I can't remember). Some are supposedly brush-on, but come out nicely when dipped. Meanwhile my studio's sill looks ever more like Gormley's Field for the British Isles.

2010-08-27T08:21:00.004+01:00

The night after casually dropping 100 or so of this year's Top Drawer Autumn invites into the post box was spent restlessly imagining them wrinkling and ruined in the torrential rain that followed. No complaints to date though!

Super Stockists

2010-08-20T00:13:00.009+01:00

We stock a host of interesting outlets (I should probably spotlight one a week) but it's still nice to be included in Jaeger's current pop-up shop. The space, dedicated to their youthful Boutique by Jaeger collection, can be found on London's Fouberts Place for the next 6 months.

Olaf

2010-08-13T08:54:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure if we're going to run to the umpteenth reprint of the recycled range so it's great that a couple of the designs work so well as cushions. I'm putting feelers out for some quotes, but something tells me we'll be printing them in-house like this, the first sample of Olaf.

New Directions

2010-08-06T11:59:00.008+01:00

Google Maps, schmaps. From now on I'm following all the excellent arrows on my el cheapo dress.

2010-07-28T23:37:00.005+01:00

If you're in the area, eager for bargains, come and visit our studio at Wallis Studios for Hackney Wicked this weekend.

• Mare Street E8, 1986, from Chris Dorley-Brown's amazing Flickr photostream

Accoutrements

2010-07-25T15:04:00.004+01:00

Parmex

2010-07-16T13:24:00.017+01:00

Apparently, the New River was diverted from Herefordshire to supply London with clean water in 1613. Passing clear through to Islington, it filled tanks for Sadler's Wells' patriotic battle re-enactments and populist plays of the 1800s.

My allotment plot follows the riverbed of one section long since routed underground. I could make gargantuan mosaics with the variety and volume of broken pottery I find, but carrots just won't root straight in such craggy soil. Enter the Parmex; a cultivar that strives to regain in girth (and flavour) what it laughably lacks in length. And this is my first 'bumper' crop.

Shoreditch Festival

2010-07-12T09:57:00.014+01:00

I'm hoping to catch the Royal Philharmonic and fireworks at the Shoreditch Festival this Friday, but there's plenty happening across the weekend too. Save your shrapnel for Lisa Jones Studio wares from the excellent Poundshop who'll be hawking everything cheap in the park on Saturday.

• Unrelated illustration: Gerard Hoffnung

Ups and Downs

2010-07-09T19:40:00.009+01:00

We spent the best part of the week in Sussex and the best part of a day walking through the smallest fraction of the South Downs around Ditchling. Plenty of fauna and astonishing flora; through lichen covered woods, across open fields and over scarily steep banks rammed with wild flowers and teeming with bugs. I know it's wrong, but I was still tempted to take cuttings. Thankfully, when I got home the first of my Sweet Peas had bloomed.

Mr. Potts

2010-07-02T10:44:00.011+01:00

David Gentleman is wonderful but whenever I come across his work I have to tell myself no; do I really need a copy of Richard III or an outdated Highway Code? A handful First Day Covers for his stamps recently broke my resolve and, while I was at it, I couldn't resist these either. Hope the irony wasn't lost on original recipient, Mr. Potts.

Philately got an extra stamp of approval in London's east end last night with a new exhibition project for a decommissioned post office. While Posted offers a mix of curios in an equally curious setting, you can't help but wonder if the locals wouldn't simply prefer their old post office back.

2010-06-26T09:03:00.004+01:00

If you're in the vicinity, I can recommend this show from Lothar Hempel at Modern Art. There's still a week left!

• Spiegel (monocomando), 2010, silkscreen on stainless steel

Allotment Excitement

2010-06-25T09:06:00.009+01:00

Ever the city-dweller, Edward finds gardening Sisyphean yet never grumbles about a cache of organic veg. Okay, perhaps the excitement's not exactly instantaneous, but that's probably why I like it. I'm not even sure what goes through my mind when I'm at the allotment. Here's a few things making an appearance and, if they survive the bike journey, there's even some poppies for the home too.

Polke Dots

2010-06-20T09:34:00.005+01:00

• Sigmar Polke (1941-2010), Untitled (dots), watercolour on paper, 1963
• Benjamin Katz, Sigmar Polke