new old books

This weekend we went to one of my fave 2nd hand spots, a house-clearance yard in croydon. originally looking for some furniture, nothing was quite right so we had a trawl through the books instead. they have probably the best selection of vintage books you have ever seen! (and they price things by eying up the armful you bring up to the cash-desk!)

above: 1960 card trick book
above: 1952 penguin handbook
above: Nurses' exercise book from 1965. i found this so intriguing- the content is all like the below image; annotated pictures for different types of equipment setups. Many of them are pretty gross which probably arent used anymore!! (i'll leave it to your imagination!)

More books

Just a few more lovely book covers. Mum and dad were having a clear out and offered them to me before they went to the charity shop
Above: 1966 Guinness World Record book. I was really hoping it would be full of awesome colour plates of mad stuff, but its just chocka block with tiny writing and facts- lol. Cool cover design tho.
Below: My recorder book from when I was a kid! It's a handmedown from a family friend. Published 1950

Penguin book of Kites- 1976. Love everything about this- even the unusual square format.
Below: mad ~Canals Book~ from 1975! Who knows why my parents had this little treasure!
Lastly, here's some pretty flowers

Sunday inspiration

Just a few things that have been mulling around in my brain this week

lovely Matisse papercut, above. It's all about drawing with scissors. Stunning.
Below: painter Elaine Pamphilon, who I stumbled upon through her commissioned pin badges at the Tate. I suppose her style is 'naive', mainly still lives of flat pots and objects. I really picked up on her use of textures, typography and pattern. It's also nice sometimes to be reminded that you can loosen up a bit in regards to the depiction of reality... :) The below image is slightly different from her usual 'safe' still lives (slightly more illustrative- i suppose that's why i like it!)

Above and below: Bit of a different choice from the previous images, but Maurizio Anzeri's work caught me off guard whilst browsing the internet... evokes so many ideas of shrouds & fashion.. The intricate and precise embroidery also reminds me of spirographs... I love the below Dazed and Confused commission, pushing the contrast of his precise patterns against the wild loose ends of thread... makes me shudder.

The Formal Exercises of Karate

Found this little gem in our local charity shop. The official manual of the Japan Karate Association! printed 1973. I'm obsessed and fascinated with the use of limited colour in print. Black and orange are used to great effect in the instructions, using photographs, illustrations and arrows.

"Ki-ai!"

Over The Rainbow

Had some fun with some collage and felt tips last night! Have been desperate to do some art recently, so I'm super pleased with this. next time i get some printing done, i might get some of these on a postcard. must find out if the phrase is copyrighted... (?)


I completed the first "spread out" version, but as i was arranging the elements, i loved how the colours layered. and voila!

Below is a poster for the science club at school. bit too cartoony for my liking, but it was a quick project. would prefer there to be some more textures going on!

Red and Black

Was gonna upload a couple of these pics, but realised I had a few more combos of red and black to add to them :)

Above: Snippets from Le Silifer magazine, I assume from 1968 from the dates in the mag. it's about architecture but can't find anything about the publication online.
Above: 1967 instruction book from my Spirograph set.
Above: A projector lamp box from 1977 (found in a stock cupboard in the science department at school)
The Studio art magazine cover from 1951

It's all about limited colour and half tone!