lucienne day (1917-2010)

I read today via Red Ruby Rose's beautiful blog about the passing of Lucienne Day the influential 20th century pattern designer. While you might not recognise the name I'm sure you would recognise her iconic designs.

(This piece from the Guardian gives a lovely insight into Lucienne and her achievements.)
Jonathan Glancy says of her:
"... most of Lucienne's designs held a wide appeal, and sold well – something that mattered very much to her and her husband [furniture designer Robin Day]. Both came from the "nothing is too good for ordinary people" tradition. The idea was that good, intelligent design should be part, parcel and fabric of everyday life."

A woman after my own heart! See below one of her tea towel designs ;-)



Happy weekend everyone, my little sister arrives tomorrow for a flying visit from her home in Vietnam, I haven't seen her for over a year so I can't wait! Coincidentally my English Uncle passes through Sydney at the same time so it will be fun.

See you next week (p.s. I've signed up a couple of really interesting, and lovely, guinea pigs to feature on my Aussie blogging segment, so its really going to happen... can't wait!)

rose cuttings part two

Do you remember my rose cuttings? I took them back in December and posted a tutorial at the time on growing roses from cuttings. I'm afraid the poor things have done it hard since then. Overcrowded to start with then left to bake in the hot sun on my kitchen windowsill while I went on holidays for a month.

Before I left the few that browned off straight away were removed as soon as I noticed, fungal problems are common with rose cuttings and its good to weed them out before it spreads. Stems go brown at the top or bottom and this means the cuttings are goners (see cutting on the right of the pot, below). On the other hand its common for existing leaves to brown and drop off, make sure you remove these occasionally to keep things happy, but if the stem's still green leave it there.


When I got back from holidays I pulled out more dead stems and put this pot which I didn't hold much hope for, still in its plastic bag/greenhouse out in a shadier spot. And then I promptly forgot about it again.

Today when I remembered it again, I noticed a green leaf through the bag and when I took it off here is what I found. One dead stem but also one live cutting, healthy roots appearing from the bottom of the pot, new leaves appearing at three growth tips.

This time of year is great for cuttings, I noticed May's rose (above) is covered in flowers. If these had failed I still have another chance to try again this summer.

If you get this far be gentle on your cutting, don't pull it out of its sheltered world too quickly, keep the bag over it but slowly introduce more air, keep it in the shade.

This poor thing will be looked after from here on in. I'm feeling like a bad parent and I plan to overcompensate with lots of attention and love. Until I get distracted again!

aussie bloggers feature

I love it when you look around a corner on the web and find a whole community of bloggers that you somehow haven't run into. And its even more exciting when they're local craft bloggers full of humour and inspiration, great photos, great ideas and cool crafting.

Just lately that seems to be happening to me a lot. Almost every week I've been adding great new blogs to my already groaning google reader roll.

Which got me to thinking it might be nice to have a regular feature on local bloggers on flower press. To learn more about these talented people, share some of their images and ideas. Of course I'd love to feature the whole world and all the fabulous international bloggers I love, but I thought an Aussie list would be an interesting perspective and make it a more manageable project!

As usual life is way beyond busy at present so it might take a little while to get off the ground. But I'm excited about it, the idea has been rolling around in my head for quite a while, and I couldn't wait any longer to share it!

I'd love input from everyone (not just australians) about questions I should ask, or people to feature (I already have a long list off the top of my head!) a name to call it or any other ideas. I'd love it if you left a comment or emailled me - (see my profile for my email address, I hesitate to put it here in case I'm offered even more Viagra!)

I'm not neccessarily looking for established bloggers or people with shops, I'm open to all suggestions. Exciting!

For something else exciting, have a look at Jesse's new Print Specs blog, where she's asking printmakers to share their secrets about tools and inks etc. It makes fascinating reading for new, experienced and aspiring printmakers. I'm going to write up my Gocco and fabric printing resources (such as they are!) soon. Come and join us.

Image from here.