Inspired, but cranky

[inspired]

Once again I am lacking in original content but totally full of ideas. Today was another design festival adventure. This time it was the Young Blood Designer Markets, again at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo. Having attended back in 2006 I was looking forward to a sprawling maze of stalls and creative people selling their creations to other creative people – how things have changed. This time the market was constrained to a small area on level one and you spent your time waddling like a penguin, peering over the shoulders of other penguins while they searched for fish.

Even though the space was small and there weren't as many stalls as I had envisaged they were all great. Fantastic designs, fresh ideas or at least fresh interpretations and friendly designers. All well worth the wait in line to get in.

My highlight was the stall of Bespoke Press (who I have been following the blog of) with their collection of prints. I won't provide a photo of the print I purchased, but will link to it once it has been put up on their website. All I can say is wow, their prints are amazing, the indentation and the attention to detail and quality make it worth every cent.

I may have to make my next project to print from the printing block I picked up in London. From their maybe digitise it to keep the letter forms alive.

[cranky]

With a design market under the belt we added a trip through Omnibus lane to see how it had evolved but sadly the idiots of this world had taken it upon themselves to tear down posters, deface art and destroy the perspex piggy bank (to steal the donations inside) among other things. It was supposed to be a exhibition about real social issues, apparently it was the target of some of the problems it was trying to address.

[inspired again]

To right my mistake from last Sunday we strolled up to Gaffa in Surry Hills to see the Alter Ego exhibition which turned out to be well worth the second trip back. My favourite being the everyday items moulded from soap and accompanied by an anecdote from the artists alter ego's life. There were lots of really interesting pieces, though I would have loved to compare the artists work to that of their alter ego ... what do you think?

Lastly to add another passion to the day we passed Deus ex Machina, who had a swap meet happening in the vacant block across the road. So many beautiful bikes. Definitely inspiration to keep working on my project bikes, despite one being too small and the other very hard to fine a new spoke for. Oh well continue the search.

Finishing the day with ice cream it is time to take the inspiration forward and see if I can get something original on here this week. Watch this space.

tiny tiny chairs

As part of Saturday in Design, Chandon and Living Edge in Surry Hills ran a miniature chair competition. They supplied you with a kit containing 2 champagne corks (pre distorted by bottle), 2 foil sleeves, 2 wire cages and 2 caps. The concept was to create a miniature chair from these materials and a little glue if you needed it.

Having been given one of these kits I set about procrastinating right up until the night before. Slammed a few ideas onto paper then set about with scalpel and sandpaper to create my lucky chair. The '7'. I managed to drop it off on the due date and then waited patiently until Saturday to find out how I went.

I was excited to just have a piece in the exhibition, but to find out it had made the cut when it went from over 250 down to 60 was awesome. Apparently I should turn my hand to 3D more often than I do.

In the end I didn't win, but the free beer and a day out was what it was really all about.

For all you miniature chair enthusiasts here is a link to Living Edge's blog with some more photos of the tiny tiny chairs.