Oh I’ve been dying to tell you this news for so long, and the moment has finally arrived. To say I’m excited, or ecstatic, or even ‘over the moon’ would all be understatements.

As most of you already know, I love Canada – I love the land, I adore the people, culture and history. So when Angela from Ace Camps asked if I’d like to lead a workshop and if so, where in the world would I like to be while leading this workshop, I said Vancouver…

This workshop will be about finding inspiration in the everyday through styling and photography, and I’ll be sharing with you how I go about my work and life, doing just that:

“The core of the workshop will be about enhancing your everyday; finding beauty in the ordinary; learning to see your surroundings in a new light and being uplifted by the simple things in life.”

You will not need the best or latest camera gear, instead I will teach you how to get the best out of what you have. We’ll be doing some mini photo shoots around the city at some amazing locations (including some of the local boutiques of course), and we’ll learn how to create beautiful images as well as get more out of our everyday. Ace Camps are workshop-holidays, so during the days together we will get a chance to roam the surrounding land on our own, perhaps head to Whistler for the day and get some mountain air…

…Then we’ll head to Granville Island, and check out the incredible farmers markets, artisan studios and Emily Carr Institute…

We’ll wander, we’ll chat, and we’ll gather some of our found treasures and learn how to create some magical images…

Oh, this is going to be so. much. fun. I do hope you can join me! The workshop will be from September 22 – 27, and all the details including itinerary and travel information are right here. These are intimate workshops and places are limited, so please make sure you follow the steps and register as soon as possible if you would like to secure your place. Boy oh boy oh boy, I can’t believe I’ll be in Vancouver in less that 4 months time…

wandering around Yaletown, care to join me?

I took these photos on my old canon AE-1 film camera about 7 years ago while wandering around granville island, I love the softness of the light and that beautiful tree
………………………………

Thank you Angela from Ace Camps for asking me to be one of your workshop instructors, it’s such a privilege to be part of an incredible bunch of creative people, all of whom I admire.

xx

Workshop details:

+click here for trip details
+click here for itinerary
+click here for travel info + payment
+click here to register

+and click here to learn more about Ace Camps.

gathering my supplies for the window displays

It’s been a lot of fun gathering leaves and tree branches from parks and the side of the road, then installing all this found nature into shop windows. It’s incredibly satisfying, especially when I see people stop on the street and take a look – taking a moment out of their busy day to see something a little unusual, hopefully capturing their hearts and imaginations.

The first window in Sydney I installed was at the bustling Better Read Than Dead on King St, Newtown. This was one of my favourites to install, I think because I had the chance to incorporate some of Tracey Deep‘s incredible floral sculptures…

Tracey let me choose a number of pieces in her studio. I settled on these marvelous sphere sculptures, and some delightful dried banksia branches. I thought they might just work perfectly hanging from the ceiling next to my old chair, to create a kind of dream-like forest scene – a place to sit quietly and read a chapter or two from your favourite book. I used the packing paper flowers as well, and cut out some of my butterfly illustrations…

The cushion is something I’d made years ago with some left over sample fabric from Signature Prints. The backdrop comprises of linen strips that I’d used in the houseboat for curtains, and the leaves I found at Callan Park…

The next window I created was at sweet Oscar & Friends in Surry Hills. This window had quite different dimensions – it was tall and skinny, with only a small ledge for sitting props. So for this window I decided to focus on the glass itself and print then trace an entire passage from within the book…

Once I put the text up on the window to trace, I loved its roughness and was tempted to leave the strips of printed text as is…

Above is my little work station while creating the window.

It started to get dark rather quickly and I needed the outside light to be able to trace the text, so I had to stop taking photos of it and focus.  It was labour intensive, but once I finished and stripped the paper off, I loved the results. Then I wondered, what to do with the rest of the window? And how to draw the eye to the text? Well, I just happened to have found a huge eucalyptus branch the day before which had fallen from a tree in a car park. So I installed that up against the side of the window – I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was an ideal fit. Then to create an autumn tree effect, I attached branches of dried leaves along with some ribbon from the top of the window…

While I was searching for which passage of text to use a few days prior to installing the display, I opened the book and unexpectedly, it flopped open to one of the beginning pages that talks about how my trip to Paris came about. In it I mention that I was having an after-shoot drink with an art director friend – that after-shoot drink just happened to be around the corner from Oscar & Friends, at a neighbouring bar. So now here I was just around the corner but 4 years on, making a window display about the book that I wrote based on the journey I took that stemmed from that very conversation. I find that amazing. Anyway, back to the window display: It was pitch black outside by the time I finished the window, but I took a photo regardless of the lack of light…

And then before I headed off to Brisbane the next day, I took a quick detour back to Oscar & Friends to take a photo of it in the daylight…

The beauty of doing window displays is that they are so much about being there, in the moment – you have to be there to really see it, as windows are not easy to photograph with reflections and all. There are always lots of textures and layers which is what makes them wonderful, 3d forms of art.

Next up was the fabulous Shearers in Leichhardt… hello Norton St…

This time Ashlea and Romain were there to help (merci beaucoup mes amis!), so we got the window installed in next to no time. I love that all the props I’ve used in all these windows have been found, salvaged or handmade. For this window, I found a lovely branch the day before while driving through the residential streets of Bondi Beach. We attached it with fishing line, and then attached the paper flowers and scattered the leaves around the base, along with copies of the book…

Thank you Shearers, Oscar & Friends, and Better Read Than Dead for your continued support, and for letting me play in your beautiful windows. And a big hug and thank you to Tracey Deep for lending me some of her floral sculptures.

Last weekend Stef from Newspaper Taxi and I created a window display in her gorgeous store in Newtown (and had a party to celebrate it!), here is a sneak peek of the display…

…but more about that soon. For now, be sure to check out the window at Newspaper Taxi –  there is something you can add to it too (I’ll let Stef tell you about it when you go and visit).

This Saturday will be the very last window display event in Sydney to celebrate the launch of the book.  It will be at Little Paper Lane in Mona Vale. It’s exciting to wrap this month of events up on the Northern Beaches – my old stomping ground. On Thursday night I’ll be talking at Mona Vale Library – the very place I used to go to almost every afternoon after high school. And then Saturday we’ll have a party at Little Paper Lane– I’m so looking forward to being surrounded by family and locals, new friends and old – I hope you can come along! Check out the details right here. I wonder what I’ll create in Jayde’s window? I think since it’s my last, I’m going to go all out – Mona Vale, here I come!

a jumble of words, a jumble of thoughts and ideas…

PS a few people have asked what I use to write on the windows – I’m using posca pens in white, in different sizes, and I bought them at modern times on king st, newtown.You just need a bit of water and a rag to wipe them off glass. I find the pens are much easier to use than paint and a paint brush. Have fun!

what: tea cup & saucer where: revolver cafe, annandale why: delicious tea.

the first wandering window display: Coventry Bookstore in Melbourne

Many many months ago, way back when I was writing My Heart Wanders, I thought about what it would be like to finish the book, and what I’d like to do to celebrate the book’s release into the big wide world.  I dreamed up a rather wild idea – I wanted to go and visit various boutiques and bookstores, creating a ‘wandering window display’ in their windows, inspired by the fun I had making the window displays in Paris and Amsterdam. I liked the idea of these window displays just popping up around the city, randomly, with quotes from within my book, with images and ideas that I explore in the book taking form in ‘3d’ within a shop window. I thought that I’d get a resounding ‘no’ from my publisher when I proposed my wild idea during a meeting earlier this year. Instead, I received a booming ‘yes!‘ from everyone in the conference room, I couldn’t quite believe it. Then I was lucky enough to be teamed up with book publicist Ashlea Wallington, who  – as I mentioned in my Melbourne post – loves getting crafty, and doesn’t mind the challenge of an untraditional author like myself.

To Ashlea and my delight, lots of boutiques and bookstores put up their hands for a wandering display, and so I’ve been busy every week throughout the month of May, creating my wandering displays. The first window I created was on May 1st in Melbourne, at Coventry Bookstore…

me having fun making the display, photos by ashlea wallington

Would you like to know a little of the process of making the displays? As you guys already know, I like to use what I have. So it’s probably no surprise that my inspiration for the window displays came when I was unpacking the boxes that arrived from Amsterdam a month ago. Everything in the boxes was wrapped in recycled packing paper. It was not too thick but not too thin. It was pliable and looked as good all scrunched up as it did all smooth and flat. Without thinking much about it, I’d begun collecting the paper – flattening out each sheet and putting it in a pile on the lounge room floor. Soon there was a huge stack of paper, and I was inspired by the layered edges. They reminded me, somehow, of flowers. And then I thought, perhaps I can make paper flowers? So that’s what I did – I began making paper flowers by tightly gathering small pieces of the paper, bundling them together and tying them with string. I loved the effect, so over many days and nights, I made hundreds of paper flowers for the window displays…

I made this origami boat out of brown paper gift wrap, a diary page from My Heart Wanders as the sail, paper flowers and some ribbon with my name on it

Then, because my journey in the book begins in autumn of 2006, I wanted to create autumnal scenes for the displays. So with this in mind I began forming my ideas, while looking around my surroundings for inspiration & things I could use. My friend Jenni came over one day and made a beautiful brown paper wreath using a big roll of brown paper I’d kept from my shop days. You can see the wreath in its full glory in that first photo in the window of Coventry Bookstore. Jenni also made the heart garlands and gorgeous little paper books which I combined with some of favourite spreads from within My Heart Wanders…

(Click here to read more…)

A couple of months ago, Parisian bag designer Alexia Hollinger (who you may recall I wrote about in  Paris: Made by Hand) emailed me to say she had created a new collection of bags in my name. I couldn’t quite believe it.  I received one of my very own just the other day, in gold linen or lin doré as they say in French. Here it is above, hanging from my studio doorknob. I adore it – it’s light, it’s big, it’s incredibly practical but stylish and sophisticated. It has a pocket especially for one’s phone, and a zipped pocket for other things, it even has a key holder.

I love it in every way, and I feel incredibly honoured that Alexia named this bag after me. It’s now available for purchase in Alexia’s shop in Paris, but also online right here. It comes in four styles including Toile de Jouy and Lin argenté (silver linen). Merci beaucoup Alexia, je suis très touchée. xx