Thursday 6th Dec: A.R.E Weapons

My friends Matt and Brain are currently over from NYC for a few gigs. I caught them at Madame JoJo's last night at Electrogogo. This is a flyer from a night when I first met them in 2001 when i was interning in New York .............
They are playing again on Saturday at RichMix, check their website for details

Wednesday 5th Dec: Black Balloon

Here is a recent acquaintance of mine called Bethan. I love her makeup and it fits quite well with the cheeky little character in Scotts
embroidery from the last post. She has just started an M.A at the Royal
College in product design but also runs her own successfuljewellery line. She makes necklaces from a design of tessellating pieces of wood so that there is no waste in the manufacture.................

Tues 4th Dec: Scott Ramsay Kyle loan

This is the work of the embroiderer extraordinaire Scott Ramsay Kyle. For fashion week in September he lent me a dream dress with rainbow metallic fringing which was the most cosmic thing I have ever worn. Unfortunately for me these pieces are out on shoots at the moment so i couldn't borrow another one for the Burberry party. But he did lend me this incredible piece of art! I dread to think how many hours of thumb gruelling stitching went into this. I Love it so much!

Monday 3rd December: Burberry Fragrance Launch

The exterior of Koko was decorated with Burberry umbrellas and the interior was walled with a mirror panelled tunnel. 3 gigantic screens covered the main auditorium with a looped projection of Agyness Deyn dancing. A chandelier of perfume bottles sparkled above our heads as a reminder of the reason behind this elaborate event. Boombox kids instigated an impromptu vogue dance-off which gave a refreshing spectacle to the otherwise corporate atmosphere of the very British Burberry tone. London is definitely kicking again.............literally.

Monday 3rd December: Dai Rees

Whilst outside LCF I bumped into Dai Rees who I interned for in 2001 and haven't seen for years. He has been a real inspiration to me in his creativity from found materials and also for being just a generally gorgeous sole. Here is an example of his millinery from the collection that I worked on in which he used goose plumes...............he first experimented with these feathers from collecting them whilst walking his German shepherd on Finsbury Park................he stripped them down to the spine to make the glittery spiky head cages for the early MQueen show pieces.................

Monday 3rd December Chris Moore: A Catwalk Retrospective

Holly and I had some books to return to LCF library so stalled by the retrospective exhibition of Chris Moore. A well edited selection of images from early black & white shots of house models holding number cards to current couture shows with the elaborate fantasy world sets. A fantastic memory jolt of collections that you might have forgotten about and insight to the original artist of the press pit.

Sunday 2nd Dec BoomBox

Here we are.........the green team......... Neel and his boyfriend John at one of the last ever nights of BoomBox................so much fun and a complete coincidence that I was in green to match my friends who travelled from Brighton ..............and carried their costumes (dustbin lid et all) around Madame Tussards before getting ready to come to the club...............

Saturday 1st December Making Thank you cards

Friday 30 November Dinner at Zandra Rhodes

I am so grateful to Bishi for taking me as her special guest to a dinner at Zandra Rhodes penthouse in Bermondsey. Not only was it a privilege to meet Zandra and Andrew Logan but also to witness the spectrum space which is dripping with both of their artwork. Zandra prepared the meal herself and served it on a selection of her own trademark crockery. I was very restrained and didn't slip the beautiful screen print napkin into my hand bag! The theme was to wear red which of course was a dream for me and made such a nice dinning experience set against the backdrop of the primary painted walls.

Friday 30 November The Loose Salute

Holly and I have been at Street studios doing the 'art department' for a shoot with the lovely photographer Tara Darby. We were taking press shots for a band called The Loose Salute who have a rainbow illustration on their album cover...............nice to know that my rainbow infatuation is now actually bringing me such specific work! From starting the day painting rainbows I finished the day sitting in a room painted as a spectrum..............bizarre but satisfyingly coincidental turn of events..............

Thursday 29th Nov CDG Fragrance Launch

By the evening I was becoming anguished that I didn't have anything to blog for the day...............until my studio mate Andy Mcgregor sidled in after a day's moonlighting in one of his secret string of dalliances with the modelling world..............he had spent the day dressed as a lab technician in Michael Howells installation at the press launch for 8 88. Here is the new scent packaging and the gold goggles that were made for his outfit...............

Wednesday 28 November CDG Festivities

After delivering pieces to Vogue house, Alex Hannah and I nipped round the corner to Dover Street to see the new Comme window display. Gary card has made his version of a santas grotto out of gaffa tape with intricate layers of strange beasties and and comic characters. It appears as one sculpture from the outside but on closer inspection of the cavenous artwork is another narrative of creatures inside the walls.
We tucked into our first mulled wine and mince pies of the season before wandering the floors to ogle over the incredible collections housed under this one roof. Thankyou CDG for the open house event, it was lovely!

Tuesday 27th November NOV27

Nova Dando invited me to her knitwear show at the Hoxton Boutique this evening. The shop has been transformed
and turned over to a great showcase of different fresh talents. The
flashing light cage dress here is Nova's and the pom pom ribbon dress
is that of Craig Lawrence. So exciting to see the new generation of
designers and their innovative raw talent. They have even made a
website especially for the event..........although I have to confess
that in mydyslexic mind I thought it was referencing her name when in fact of course it is the date!

Monday 26th Hannahs Dress

Hannah Wood has come in today in this dazzling vintage print dress from Snoopers Paradise in Brighton...............rather fitting after the previous entry...........

Sunday 25th Fashion East Sample Sale

I have been coveting this Emma Cook print in Liberty's for a whole season.................

Saturday 24th November Studio Seulement

Ive managed to distract myself from heading to the Fashion East sample sale by having fun painting in the studio. I love these angels which turned up on my sandwich bag today .............but not loving the fact that its only a month till Christmas eve.................

Friday 23 November: Production Line

In order to start a production line of pieces as a new range, I'm reinterpreting archive samples.  In the process I'm sharing my craft and teaching Holly tricks of the trade as part of her work experience.  This is her growing stock of replicants which she is guarding closely as I have a weakness of giving new pieces away to friends.  I successfully managed to snaffle two iridescent origami balls from her stash to send as a thankyou gift............

Thursday 22nd November Aida @ The London Coliseum

Bethany luckily got last minute tickets for the current ENO production of Aida. I have never been tempted by opera before but I was drawn to this performance as a Zandra Rhodes fan. She has designed both the set and costumes which are spectacular. Particularly the Egyptian God Animal heads being my favourite. The headdress of Amnemis is also beautiful and very reminiscent of this headdress from a vintage Zandra Rhodes fashion show invite. We got our £10 tickets by ringing at 12:30 for balcony seats that the box office hold for on the day sales............ so give it a go..........

Wednesday 21 Nov "Good Shoes" @ The Astoria

Maki took me to see her boyfriend perform at the legendary Astoria venue. Good Shoes do their own fantastic artwork so here is a cheeky snapshot to show their logo T-Shirt on a post-gig fan (look at their rainbowlicious website). The other picture here is of course Steve's shoe. Last time I posted an entry on him was for his tap shoes. This time it is another shoe related commentry. A fan stole his shoe when he got in a 'comprimising position' in the crowd. So Maki did her best prop styling to give him a new shoe for the journey home. What will be the next Good Shoe Shoe installment?......................

Wednesday 21 Nov The Approach W1

I went to the private view for the new exhibit in town by John Stezaker. The photomontages of "Masks" look like old studio black & white portraits with a random vintage postcard cleverly postitioned to substitue part of the face. They were very nice but I actually discovered something else whilst there.............downstairs was this sculpture by Gary Webb..........I am not familiar with his work so this is going to be a new investigation...........

Wedneday 21 Nov "Object & Subject"

I nipped into the exhibition currently showing in my block of studios. I love this one exhibit which is very much in the vein of how I work using everyday materials to make new objects. The artist is Jung Ju Rahbari who questions the existence of aestheticly low-value goods by giving them different lives.

Tuesday 20th November Studio chairs

I thought i had better document our chairs before the decorations get worn off from our fidgety derriers. I picked the chairs up from a house clearence for 50p each and Holly & I painted them with Mexican embroidery inspired patterns............

Monday 19th Nov Patrick Wolf @ The Cafe Royal

This is Patrick's stylist Susie Lloyd at the beautiful Cafe Royal on Regent Street. Last night was a small intimate performance with a grand piano which Patrick had decorated with little mascots nesting in the strings. The drinks coasters (as seen here) were photos from his American tour blog and in this picture he is wearing the gold necklace I gave him...............

Sunday 18th Nov Champagne at St Pancreas

I met up with Dawn Mcleod today to check out the newly opened St Pancreas station. It was quite cold for a glass of fizz at "Europes longest Champagne bar" but quite fun none the less. She told me that the paint colour had some significance in the renovation and has perhaps become its own Pantone?! So after a quick web search I have found out the following: 18 coats of paint have been stripped in cleaning the soot from the former train shed including red, green and yellow. A pale blue was discovered underneath. This was not a primer but the colour chosen by the original designer who wanted the ironwork and sky to be seen as one of the same thing. A ha............

Saturday 17th November

This chap was so irresistibly hilarious I just couldn't hold back in papping him. It was either that or flinging my arms around him for a bear hug. I took the safer option! You can tell the sheer size of the beast by looking at the reflection of me as a gage for proportion.

Friday 16th November Stephen Jones @ the V&A

Stephen Jones is currently helping curate a hat anthology exhibition
for the museum. He has just returned from L.A researching the CecilBeaton hats from the archives of "My Fair Lady". This evening he gave a fascinating lecture on the history of his career and his numerous collaborations. Stephen endearingly littered explanations with insightful humorous anecdotes. Equally endearing was the audience of fans each with there tribute head wear!

Thursday 15th November Dazed Exhibition

Kim Howells invited me to the private view of an exhibition of the latest cover story shoot for Dazed & Confused Magazine. I think that the gallery space was formerly Primary colour which made me a bit sad. Another printworks that has closed in London due to the digital age. However, it was exciting on a personal note as one of the prints features a necklace that I made on commission for the shoot...............see cross necklace teamed with Burberry look below

Annalisa Dunn shot by Amy Gwatkin

I saw my lovely friend Amy Gwatkin last night which reminded me to show her fantastic photography. This is her latest collaboration with knitwear designer Annalisa Dunn. Yummy!

Wednesday 14th Nov Bishi @ The Magpies Nest

Bishi invited me to see her perform at a folk night in Angel which was a pleasure to attend . We sat on a cushioned floor In a cosy room with bunting hanging and fairy lights glowing beneath her sitar. She also played a mini harp on her lap which ive never seen before. Without a musical bone in my body, im astounded to see someone master an instrument.................. let alone switch between an array of bizarre unrecognisable objects. Not to mention the spine tingling voice..................

Tues 13th November Flees and Bees

My best friend Vicky is experimenting with etching techniques at the moment and I love her print from yesterday intilted "Flees and Bees".............more please............

Tues 13th November ThreeAsFOUR in my hair

Here is my newest cosmic present from ThreeAsFOUR...............a neon live-edge plastic cut out ..............which ive strapped into my hair to partner my usual neon comb............bliss for a pink day

Moday 12th November

Holly camoflaged in to my noah's ark poster wearing Maki's Tiger head which we rightly predicted would turn up today when she came to visit..............

Sunday 11th November "Cat"

I was woken up by my 2.5 yr old nephew brandishing the Cat I have to fix every time I see him. I got this toy for him when he was born and the two are inseperable. Despite the unquestionable devotion, he can't help but pick away a hole in "Cat's" tummy.............here is the before shot but I don't have an after shot as he got whisked away after regular impatient "is he finished yet?"

Sat 10th November Paperwork