Festival of creativity!

I hate summer. Mainly the heat. The hot hot hot heat. The burning, boiling brutal heat. But there’s one thing about summer that I look forward to every year - festival season! January and February are the months for Perth Fringe Festival and Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF), and I love it! There’s always so much on and such strange and usual, interesting, different, fun and exciting events. It’s non-stop!

For one weekend during PIAF it’s the Perth Writers Festival and this year there were two special crafty guests - Pip Lincolne, the crafting queen, and Beci Orpin, an illustrator, designer and author. I booked in for a Creativity Shake Up workshop with Pip (which was unfortunately on at the same time as Beci’s workshop - I wanted to do both!!) and joined a bunch of creative ladies to hear about Pip’s path to creativity. I was pleasantly surprised to find Davina from Fluid Ink Letterpress and Nicole from House of Nicnax were also there and enjoyed hanging out with them for the morning.

In the first part of the workshop, Pip the crafting queen gave us some exercises to evaluate our own creativity and expectations and tips on the importance of making time to be creative. She gets up at 5:30(!) every morning so she can get things done before the busyness of the day takes over. I don’t think I could manage that as I’m more of a night owl but I can definitely see the benefit to it. I might even try getting up a bit earlier and see how it works...

After a short break, it was time to get creatively crafty with pompoms and ponies! My pony magically turned into a unicorn. It would have been a pegasus but time was not on its side! By the end of our hands-on making frenzy, the tables were covered in bits of wool, glitter, beads, felt cuttings and threads - it already felt more creative! But it was time to go home… I did enjoy creating something with my hands which I haven’t done for a few months so thanks to Pip for bringing some creative fairy dust and sprinkling it over Perth!

Pip was back again in the afternoon for a panel discussion called “The Creatives” with her crafty friend, Beci Orpin. They both lead very creative lives and have become quite well known for it. I really like Beci’s illustration style. In fact, I had a patch designed by her on my bag that day! Pip and Beci both make a living out of being creative so I was interested to hear what they would say about it. They both thought it was important to prioritise time for creativity and leave “empty” time for ideas to come. Their number one advice was to ‘be nice and work hard” and, after meeting them both, it’s something which they both seem to follow which made me admire them even more.

I really enjoyed my creativity focussed day. It’s not every day you get told to just think and explore and come home with a unicorn. I hope there are lots more days like that.

Tall Rabbit in November

I've got a few markets coming up in November, it's going to be a busy month!

You'll be able to find me at:

Beaufort Street Festival
Saturday 14th November, 12pm - 9pm in the Psaros Business Incubator marquee which will be in the carpark next to Ace Pizza, 448 Beaufort St, Highgate.

Made on the Left Christmas markets
Sat 21st & Sun 22nd November, 10am - 5:30pm in Forrest Place, Perth. I'll be there both days!

Etsy Made Local Perth
Saturday 28th November, 10am - 4pm in the State Theatre Centre of WA Courtyard, cnr William St and James St, Northbridge

Uppercase lowdown

One of my favourite magazines is Uppercase from Canada and I was very excited to find out that the creator/designer/editor, Janine Vangool was coming to the Perth Writers Festival! She was on a few panels speaking about magazines with people from Dumbo Feather, Kinfolk, Smith Journal and Alphabet Family Journal. I was impressed to hear how she can produce a whole magazine by herself every few months and still have time to spend with her family and to sleep! After the talks, I got to meet her and she is a very nice lady :) She even wrote a lovely message in my copy of the latest Uppercase. Such a happy fangirl moment!

Postcards from the past (and the Giants)

I've been featuring postcards a lot lately so it's on theme to mention the postcards I got from the Giants' farewell performance. The Giants arrived in Perth with a matching amount of hype and took over the city for three days. I went along on the Saturday and Sunday and it was mayhem! I did get to see the Giants up close on Saturday and from a distance on Sunday when they left via the Swan River. 

Part of the procession involved postcards shooting from cannons which I collected a few of. From what I can gather, they were reproductions of old postcards from war times and some were from the Postcards from Home project. This project involved people writing messages to Anzac soldiers who inspired them. There are some great images of Perth in the early 1900s with trams and horse drawn carts and wide streets (some buildings are still recognisable!). There were also reproductions of postcards sent home by the soldiers showing places they'd been such as Egypt and France and also one showing a burial on the battlefield. The postcards were linked to the Giants' story by a young girl in Albany who sent morse code messages to soldiers as they sailed away to war. Her story was featured in a giant book read to the Girl Giant who then got the idea to send morse code messages to the Diver Giant at the bottom of the sea by blowing bubbles into the ocean with a didgeridoo. At  least, I think this is what happened!

Two arts, please!

It's festival season again! And, as usual, there is a great visual arts program to go with the Perth International Arts Festival, starting with Paramodelic-Graffiti by Paramodel and The Tenth Sentiment by Ryota Kuwakubo, both at John Curtin Gallery.

Paramodel is two Japanese artists, Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano, who create large-scale art installations and travel around the world to install them. Their latest work is their largest yet and uses blue toy train tracks, foam mountains, paper, sand, toy animals and model construction equipment. Despite these simple components, the patterns and worlds they create are quite complex. Each installation is designed specifically for its location. The artists use computer programs to help map out the intricate paths of the train tracks, with areas of symmetry. Yasuhiko Hayashi, 2 assistants and a team of helpers worked for a month from 8am to 8pm every day to get the installation ready for opening night. They bring the "Plarail" train tracks from Japan and then try to get all other materials locally. They like to add a few local fauna, which is why you will find kangaroos, echidnas, wombats and cockatoos in the landscape.

From outside the gallery, you will see the blue train tracks 'escaping' the building. Stepping inside, you will see more tracks, travelling around the walls and ceiling with little cranes interspersed but when you enter the gallery, you will become immersed into a world of blue and white, with the walls, floor and ceiling engulfed in paramodelic graffiti!

The Tenth Sentiment will also engulf you as you walk into a dark room lit only by the headlight of a model train moving slowly along the track, alongside which are various objects casting changing shadows on the walls. As the different shadows loom out of the darkness, you are taken on a journey through space and time...

These exhibitions have to be experienced to fully appreciate the work so I recommend you get there before they close in April. There are plenty more interesting and unusual arts events coming up, such as an inflatable Stonehenge, and I'm looking forward to seeing them soon. Yay for festival season!

Art & Markets

Perth Upmarket was on the 4th March at UWA and I had a stall outside for the first time. It was a devil of a hot day but I had the pleasure of overlooking Choi Jeong Hwa's Breathing Flower installation which distracted me a little from the heat. The giant petals lifted up and then deflated as the flower 'exhaled'. Sometimes the wind gave the petals a little extra lift (at one point I thought the whole flower was going to take flight!) and the ducks didn't seem to mind their bright red pond-mate. Choi Jeong Hwa is the same artist who created the giant triangular structures in Stirling Gardens and filled up Central Gallery with balloons, both which I mentioned in a previous post and was also part of Perth Festival (which is now sadly over boo hoo!).

I'm also doing two other markets this month - The William Street Festival in Northbridge on Sunday 18th March and Unwrapped in South Perth on Sunday 25th March. I'll be sharing a stall with Anna Hadwin Crochet Toys so it will be doubly cute - you have been warned!
There will also be lots of things to do and see at the William Street Festival including origami workshops, a sneaker swapmeet, gogo dancing and yummy foods. I can't wait! I hope to see you there - 10am to 4pm, Sunday 18th March on William Street Northbridge (between Francis and Newcastle Streets).

The Madness!

There's a lot going on in Perth at the moment, in fact there's almost too much! It could quite possibly blow your little minds and give you a severe case of the Madness! 
To start with, the Fringe Festival has the number one spot to hang out with its awesome Fringe World  - a magical oasis of coolness in the middle of the city at the Old Treasury (and the place to spot Barry Morgan after his World of Organ shows). You will also find roving carny folk (beware!), lots of astro turf and palette seating and even a tank with mermaids! And I haven't even mentioned all the shows you can go to or the Spiegeltent!
The Perth International Arts Festival burst into town on Saturday night with Place des Anges. There were feathers raining down on the city of Perth, crazy French performers, Les Studios de Cirque, zooming down wires from the tops of buildings and a giant inflatable angel flying down St George's Terrace!
On the other side of town there is the more 'grown-up' Festival Gardens (also making use of plenty of astro turf) with pretty lanterns and bars made out of huge pipes from the C.Y. O'Connor pipeline! 
Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa has been getting around town too, leaving his mark in Stirling Gardens with Air/Air, his giant pink and green triangular constructions made out of plastic baskets and he's also filled up Gallery Central with wriggly balloons for his exhibition Life/Life and you can also see his giant inflatable lotus at UWA.
I'm pooped just thinking about it! I guess I will have a case of the Madness for another few weeks at least! Yippee!


Image (clockwise from top left): Fringe World, mermaids, Air/Air, Place des Anges, Life/Life and PIAF Festival Gardens

Tall Rabbit goes to Northbridge!

Yes, Tall Rabbit is going to Northbridge for the William Street Festival! It's on Sunday 20th March from 10am - 4pm between Brisbane and Newcastle Streets. There will be lots of fun stuff going on as well as the markets where Tall Rabbit will be set up to provide a bit of cuteness. Yay! 

Hop up to Pop-up!

* ATTENTION! * The Pop-up market has been rescheduled for Sunday 20th February! Yay! 

It's that time already - the first market of the year! This time, it's a very special one - the Made on the Left Pop-up Market in Northbridge, part of the Perth Cultural Centre O'Day! The Pop-up Market will be from 10am - 4pm in the area in front of the museum and there will be lots of other exciting stuff going on in the surrounds, including the opening of the State Theatre Centre, the last day of the Peggy Guggenheim exhibition, a carousel(!) and you’ll be able to see the newly erected Spiegeltent too! So bring your family, friends, relatives and pets (especially chihuahuas! maybe not goldfish) to the Perth Cultural Centre on Sunday 30^th January and check out everything (but especially the Pop-up Market :)! In the meantime, feel free to admire the lovely poster for the market, designed by me!

Festival fun!

It's Perth Festival time again and there have been a huge variety of acts from around the world. It's a great time of year but also an extremely busy and expensive one! My highlights so far have been Wunderschön with Meow Meow and Die Roten Punkte. I have their super hit songs Ich bin Nicht ein Roboter (I am a Lion) and Super Musikant stuck in my head! Those crazy Germans! And I cannot forget to mention the photo booth at Beck's Box - such fun!