Posts Tagged ‘books’

« Older Entries

new work for justine clarke + giveaway

Friday, December 14th, 2012

one of the perks of my job is i’m never quite sure what i will be asked to do next. so when justine clarke and her team asked me to design a 3mt high inflatable dinosaur, some giant letters and some giant books to be stage props for her current “pop-up” tour - i was only a little bit surprised. it did take a minute to get my head around – i’m more used to designing in the A3-size realm. but it was great to stretch out onto large scale. i commissioned my dad to build the books. he used to make props for the melbourne theatre company so he whipped them up in no time. and everything else fell into place from there. here are some pics of the making and on set:

jc_4jc_5jc_1jc_2jc_3

i also designed the ginormous bookcase backdrop and all the visuals too. as per usual justine was an absolute champ to work with. fun times all round. justine’s ”pop-up” tour finishes this weekend in melbourne and perth. some tickets are still available (from here).

and now for a giveaway: justine’s tour was book-themed as she has just released her own book through penguin! it’s titled “the gobbledegook is eating a book”, and is written by justine and arthur baysting and illustrated by tom jellet.

GOB-Image

i have 5 copies of ‘the gobblydegook‘ to giveaway. if you would like to be in the running, please leave a comment before 5pm (EST) tomorrow (saturday 15th). winners will be notifyed on sunday.

oh and if you are yet to see my urban outfitter’s colab stuff  you can see some of it here or here!  M E G A  giveaway  involving many of those items (!!!!) coming up early next week.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in General | 19 Comments »

DIY urges

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

all this talk about my book and i don’t believe i have exactly explained what it  is about? well – it is titled “find and keep“, and it’s loosely about finding ideas and inspiration, and then what to do with them – how to put them into action. it also shows my working process – how i find inspiration and what i do with it. also, as part of this there are some DIY projects in the book. 26 of them in fact!

admittedly, the projects section was the publishers idea. it never dawned on me to do something like this, and when they suggested it, i was like – “oh yeah, i guess i could do that”. and honestly, i’ve never thought as myself as the crafty type (although a lot of people do).

i have absolutely nothing against crafters – the opposite infact, i envy their skills. but here’s the truth about my craft skills – i can’t sew to save myself, i knew how to knit once but promptly forgot and would not have the faintest idea what to do with a crochet hook. but the more i thought about it, the more i saw how my work did fit into the “handmade” (or craft) category. and then putting the projects together didn’t feel as foreign as i thought. infact, it actually became my most favourite part of the book.

now, i’m back to my normal working life – some commercial illustration here, few exhibition pieces there (more on that soon), and what i’m fast discovering, is that all i want to do is go back to making things with my hands. pinterest has definitely helped fuel this fire (i’m addicted – I’ve had to limit myself to looking at it once a day otherwise i suffer from complete visual overload!). some images i have found which have encouraged me plan some projects:

blog_beadingblog_headbandblog_chairblog_brading

on my list: a bit of beading (image from here), a bit of braiding (fred butler head band, image from here; mato creative bag at totokaelo-art-object) and some site specific embroidery (chair by the amazing duo peter and sally necini).

i have put some of this craft urge into action recently. last week i made some cushions for mr.kitly which will be part of the “this space” installation which bree has put together at perimeter books. there are only 6 cushions in total –  2 which i dip-dyed and the others are one-off made from fabric i’ve collect from around the place. i think they turned out pretty:

photo1photo3

the installation runs until august 11, and any cushions not sold there will be sold at mr.kitly after that.

if you have any good DIY inspiration links please feel free to send my way – i simply can’t get enough. enjoy your weekend x

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in General | 6 Comments »

ari makes nice faces

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

it’s tricky getting back into this blogging business. there has been so many things happening the past few days/weeks/months. the obvious thing – finishing my book (champagne all round!), but other things too. i’m just not sure where to start with it all. so i’ve decided to start with something completely un-work related. some things ari and i have been making together. he decides what we are to make, i do the cutting, we both do the constructing and he finishes it off with drawing the faces. i think he does pretty good ones too.

ari_octopussari_catari_owl

the owl was inspired by our current favourite book: ‘owl know how‘ (you can download the pattern for it here). the animation by these talented ladies is pretty great as well. we are also looking forward to getting our hands on this book by another particularly talented lady too.

ok. blog drought officially over. prepare for a flood of posts over the coming weeks. thanks for sticking with me.

Tags: , ,
Posted in General | 2 Comments »

home stretch

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

bloggy_4bloggybloggy_3

i’m approaching the finish line with my book. i’m so glad to have it in my sights. it has still been taking up all my living and breathing moments, but all worth it. in between worrying about deadlines it has been nothing short of amazing – a completely different experience than what i thought. one of the best parts has been working with ms.michlle mackintosh. she is very talented and rare gem of a lady – part book-designer extraordinaire, part design-process councillor. plus she makes a very tasty lunch and an excellent cup of tea.

i am very much looking forward to life being normal again. in particular: wasting time on the internet, watching TV, going to bed before midnight, seeing my friends (i’ve missed you guys!), having a few drinks (probably more) and not having one thousand million things going through my head at any given moment.

thanks for bearing with with me. i’ll be back in full blog mode soon x

Tags: ,
Posted in General | 7 Comments »

lately + some big news

Monday, April 16th, 2012

lately_1lately_2lately_3lately_4lately_5lately_6lately_7lately_8lately_9lately_10lately_11

… shit has been busy. yes, i know i proclaimed back here that year was going to be less busy, but at the moment it’s not working out like that. for good reason too. some things i’ve been up to:

* my trip to sydney for the opening of megan morton’s ‘the school‘. we were treated to a class on how to make flowerbombs with hollie hipwell. as you would expect from MM the school is nothing short of perfect, and the class was super dooper fun (and pretty). i got to meet lexi there too which was equally as fun. also in sydney, i also visited my friend Di’s beautiful place for breakfast (teal wall, cerise couch – how could i not take a sneaky photo?).

* it was easter and school holidays. i failed miserably at holidays this time. yes we did a few things: attending sebo’s annual easter egg hunt was one, but i was light-on with the organisation of playdates and other activities to amuse tyke. he would have happily spent his whole holidays on his ipod and playing minecraft, and even though this was a tempting solution for me too, i just could not watch that happen (much), so spent a lot of my time throwing non-screen suggestions his way while i madly wrote emails and scrambled through deadlines. not fun, for either of us.

* raph was on the circle! although this will come as no surprise to some – raph has been getting press left right and centre lately. between the melbourne magazine’s top 100, articles in the finincial review and pretty much any other type of printed matter he has been a downright media whore in the past 12 months. thank-god he works hard and his food is delicious and all the hype is well-deserved.

* new tee-shirt samples of prints i made for irony summer collection arrived. they look so nice. i love japanese printing so much.

* massive amounts of activity in the studio – cleaning, organising, cutting, painting, photographing.. all for the good reason i was talking of above. my big news (drumroll) - i’m working on a book! a big book. not just showing my work, more showing how i work, and other things too. it’s exciting/stressful/amazing/overwhelming all at once, and needless to say taking up a lot of my time, so please do excuse me if blog posts are few and far between the next few months. i’ll try and keep updated as much as possible (and if not, there’s always my instagrid. apparently instagram is the new blog anyway)

one more thing: i’m speaking at field trip on friday. as per usual, the thought of public speaking is making me want to vomit, and i’m kicking myself for agreeing to do it, but even if i suck the i the conference will be amazing. tickets available here.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General | 12 Comments »

friends for christmas

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

i have some pretty clever friends making some pretty lovely things at the moment. things that could make perfect christmas presents in fact:

1. beneath the sun: the long-awaited goodies from my dearly missed previous assistant leah bartholomew. heavily influenced by her beachy surrounds, leah’s first range consists of cushions, stationary, art prints and lots of other things too – all adorned with leah’s beautiful illustrations. leah is doing the round of markets (her debut was at brisbane finders keepers) and has an online shop as well – check it out here (free shipping for xmas!). i have a long list of beneath the sun wants, at the top of it is: shapes cushions and colour my day notepad.

bts_2bts_1

2. poms by adriana giuffrida. in between being a freelance fashion designer, writer and working at the P.A.M store in sydney, adriana somehow finds time to create wonderful rings. all hand-crafted, these little beauties are just genius! i’m wishing for one in every colour (or at the very least the grey and pink ones). available from someday in melbourne, more stockists and info on the poms site.

pomsPoms_2

3. WITU - a project by 2 bright young things natalie turnbull (who you may sometimes find in my studio) and elise wilkens (who you may sometimes find taking photos of things for me). the first thing they are turning their hands to is super cute necklaces. they currently have a window display up at monkhouse design in brunswick east. more info and pics on their site. they also have a pretty cool tumblr to check out.

witu

also… a box of my book “compendium of me” arrived in the studio today. we are having a few hiccups with our online store, but they should be up there soon. in the meantime please email me (hello@beciorpin.com) if you would like to buy a copy. price is $20 plus postage – personal messages and/or signature added for no extra charge!

happy shopping!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in General | 5 Comments »

my book launch – tomorrow night!

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

my very first book “compendium of me” through erm books, will be launched tomorrow night at lamington drive.

this being my first book, it was a bit of a torturous road –  15 years of ideas and only 30 pages to put them in! but i got there in the end, and the result is a group of  illustrations that represent various parts of my life in september 2011 – a little visual time capsule of sorts. initially i had small explanations on each page, but raph cried “too obvious – don’t insult your readers!“, so i took them out (if anyone buys the book and wants the explanations, i’m more than happy to tell you all about it). a little preview:

COM_beciCOM_beci_1COM_beci_2COM_beci_3

limited copies will be available at the launch (i can even sign it for you), and online at erm books after that. it will also be available on my webstore, and through select other awesome stores in the very near future. (NB as with all erm books, this is limited release of 1000 copies – each book is numbered too.)

tomorrow night will be a double event, also launching marc martin’s “Silent Observer”  (also through erm books) at the same time (plus he has a show on at lamington drive! triple bonus!). details of the launch:

lamington drive, 15-25 keele st, collingwood. from 6pm-9pm

delicious rum cocktails will be generously provided by sailor jerry rum

hopefully see you there!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General | 17 Comments »

new books

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

celia_1celia_2celia_3misaki_1miskai_2masks_1masks_2

1. celia bartwell : amazing textile designer, ossie clark’s wife and david hockney’s muse. there are so many things to love in this book! another fantastic suggestion from molly at metropolis

2. misaki kawai zines: yes i am slightly obsessed by her at the moment. and these zines proved to me my obsession is compleltely vailidated. yeti adventure is my most favourite zine ever! sooooo beautiful. from her online shop

3. paper faces: i tracked this down after seeing it here. it’s part horrifying and part amazing. the perfect combination in my eyes. i brought this copy through abe books.

a little voyeuristic peak of something i went to on the weekend here – quite different for me, but was fun. hope you had a nice one x

Tags:
Posted in General | 5 Comments »

this week i…

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

* puppy-sat:

levi

his name is levi and he is a 14 week old italian greyhound. he was a barrel of fun (look – he is smiling for the camera in this shot). the kids were mental for him and even loved his sharp little bites. it’s stirred up my buying-a-new-kitten impulses. i may have even done something about it too. more on that later.

* discovered a new cookbook:

flavour_thesaurus

it was the awesome cover art that coerced my purchase of this from my local bookstore brunswick bound (so obsessed with pie-charts right now). as it turns out the flavour thesaurus is not only an inspiring resource, but also full of the most amusing and clever cookbook writing. author niki segnit is pure genius.

*prepared for markit:

markit_1markit_3markit_2

we are having our third ever market stall at markit at fed square this sunday. we have been making some new products for it too – printed tote bags, painted brooches and some baby quilts made from ‘vintage’ princess tina fabrics (some sneak peeks above – they have come up a treat!). as per usual everything is in limited numbers so we may or may not have them on our webstore afterwards. we will also be selling our existing stock (mobiles, cushion etc) all at special markit prices. plus, there are lots of other great stall holders there too including douglas and hope, michi girl and iggy and lou-lou. more details on the markit website.

and if you needed even more reason to go – due to the NGV 150th anniversary both the taco truck and beatbox kitchen will be at fed square. they actully start tomorrow and will be there all weekend – serving from early til late in the night.

* went to 2 exhibitions:

bleem

holey hole by misha hollenbach at utopian slumps and bleemweaver by brianna martin at mr kitly. both are completly different – misha with his amazing gigantic photocopy collages, organic ceramics and slices of neon, and brianna with her beautiful hand-woven scarfs and bags (colours so fantastic!) – but both equally great and worth checking out.

holey hole at utopian slumps, ground floor, 33 guilford lane, melbourne. until 18th june

bleem weaver at mr. kitly, 1st floor, 381 sydney road, brunswick. until 8th june

* stayed at the lark house in daylesford:

lark_house_1lark_house_2lark_house_3lark_house_4

technically this was actually last weekend, but i still had to write about it because it was so damn nice. allison from lark has done a stand-out job of setting up a guest house that is cosy, beautifully decorated (gorgeous wallpaper! vintage posters! patchwork quilts!) and kid-friendly. plus it sleeps a lot of peeps and is walking distance to all the good things daylesford township has to offer. i dragged my mum along with us for her outstanding company (and willingness to stop at country opp-shops). it was great to get out of the city and enjoy some country air and the prettiness of daylesford in autumn. you can see lots of pics of the house here, and if you would like to stay in it you can book here.

apart from the above good things, my past 2 weeks have actually been pretty crap. i dont think my planets are aligned at the moment. but things are looking up, and i have many more good things to post about in the near future. til then, enjoy your weekend, might see you at markit!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in General | 10 Comments »

bright!

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

well, its been an interesting time in the studio. my computer just couldn’t cope with the flurry and excitement of my website launching (thanks for all nice comments!) and up and died on tuesday night. yes, i did have pretty much everything backed up on a separate hard drive, but it has still made my life tricky, and also made me strangely emotional. i have had that computer for 7 years and it has served me well.

i knew it was on the way out but it still took me by surprise – especially financially. so while raph and i (who’s computer is also on the brink of death) slowly gather the money to buy 2 new computers, i have been working on leah’s computer and leah has been working from home. although it’s not been that bad, it still feels make-shift and i haven’t been able to settle down actually achieve much at all.

to add to the dysfunctional pain, my phone refused to text or dial anything with the 6 and 9 buttons, and my much-loved coat rack simply fell of the wall. i couldn’t help but feel everything was giving up on me.

feeling pretty sorry for myself, i tried to have a whinge to raph, who promptly snapped me out of it with one of his it’s-just-life/let’s-make-a-plan type talks, and now its all ok. really, he can work wonders. we get new computers on tuesday (YES!), and i checked my phone plan and its up TOMORROW!! (i have resisted for a while, but iphone here i come!)

when i have been managing to get some work done, there have been some pretty great things to put my efforts into – some new projects with GAS (including a cute one for my favourite japanese department store),  poster artwork for an upcoming (very exciting) tour, graphics for another one of raph’s ventures (very soon) and making plans for next year (big changes!). also, our mobiles have been snapped up by lovely stores around the globe (including this one) and are also part of the design files xmas giveaway.

plus i have been distracting myself with lots bright things :

bright_1bright_2bright_3bright_4bright_6bright_7

*composition i photographed as one of my new site backgrounds. i was so happy with it it hung around for few days

* baby beets from my garden and pretty ranunculus

* presents for awesome ladies from a very awesome lady – so 1989! so wild!

* ari making a card for leah (happy birthday leah!)

* another present from another awesome lady (this book is properly mind-blowingly good. pip, you are a legend). NB – fluro yellow nailpolish, thanks lovely bonnie)

* a private commission piece i just finished and is currently in transit to the framers.

PLUS another bit of brightness – my very very very amazing mum has started a blog. tune in for lots of musing on family and life and food and drink (and maybe some more drink). it’s just occured to me that between here, my mum’s blog and my sister’s blog you could pretty much know our entire life stories. how werid. and a little scary. (thank-god my dad doesn’t like computers).

anyway, that’s it for now. i tried really hard not to make this another whingey post. i hope that it wasn’t. you are nice for reading it even if it was. x

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General | 8 Comments »

« Older Entries