Infinite quest

Those of you who are converts to David Foster Wallace's behemoth opus Infinite Jest - which I wrote about earlier this year, and which if you haven't read it yet, get on that - will respect how hard it must have been to reduce a 1000-odd page novel to a single infographic. But it has been done.

Warning: SPOILERS

Stamp duty

One of the most exciting things about starting a real job, at least for a stationery-fetishising nerd like yours truly, was getting my paws on my first business cards. Clearly the excitement of seeing your name in print needn't be limited to bylines!

I always feel there's a small glamour to being able to dole out your details to those deemed deserving... Perhaps the impulse of some of my dormitory contemporaries to write their number on clothes pegs and pin them to suitors at school socials, was not so far removed from Dickensian and Austen-tatious ladies leaving calling cards when making visits in society?

Anyway. I didn't want to give up the idea of business cards just because I'm currently between businesses! I needed something flexible and a bit different. So... until my situation is permanent enough to justify some gorgeous old-fashioned letterpress on gorgeous paper, I'll be making my stamp on whatever works - calling cards, stationery, prints of my photos, new acquaintances' wrists... I'll be like a roaming door bitch...

S.W.A.L.K.

Found this amazing ring for ten bucks at the Bondi markets today. Not only is it a little envelope..

...it even opens! So I put a little good luck note inside.

This weekend's just been all win.

Frock n roll

Powerhouse Museum is all about fashion at the moment. The "Frockstars" exhibition takes you behind the scenes of Australian Fashion Week, from the designer's studio to the make-up mirrors to a front-row seat just a few claws away from the catwalk. As per the Powerhouse's usual excellent curation, it's all very interactive - you can choose to sit in a fashion buyer or magazine editor's seat in the front row, pop on some headphones and hear anecdotes from the real fashionistas. Or make Easton Pearson paper dolls, or peruse Nicola Finetti pattern pieces, or test out hair and make-up techniques.

Up a level, things get a little more historical with a stunning collection of fashion photography by Bruno Benini. Again, the museum's presentation really brings the photography to life - you can go into Benini's darkroom, snap your friends in a replica studio, and get an up-close view of his negatives with a magnifying glass and lightbox.

Perhaps most fabulous of all is an installation of projected images in a room of mirrors that seems to go on forever. You can lose yourself in the prismatic refracted light, as classic black and white images loop through a sequence that goes for eight or nine minutes in full.

Road less travelled

I Ran The Wrong Way is one of the Surry Hills shops we visited as part of Small Stories Big Picture on the weekend. I figured it deserved its own post since it's such a treasure trove of random goodness - or, as it describes itself, "a trader of good finds".


The owner, Mel, describes herself as a "professional fossicker". She loves nothing more than hunting high and low for special, storied items for the shop. And ain't that the dream - making a living from doing the thing you love most?! From handmade pencils and stationary, to vintage suitcases, old cameras, organic skincare, niche books and wooden toys - you could find anything here, so long as its origins are ethical, sustainable and locally created or free trade.

Mel was also one of the organisers of Small Stories Big Picture - I tip my hat to you, ma'm. When I emailed to apply to take part, and asked if I could blog about it, she not only said yes - she had actually heard of the blog!

When I asked where the shop's name came from, Mel said it came from the way she approaches life. Less about wilfully going the wrong way, than being open to different ways of reaching your destination. Not unlike a certain great poem....

I Ran The Wrong Way is at 378 Cleveland Street, and well worth a visit...

Small stories, big picture

A couple weeks ago, Alison and I applied to be part of Small Stories Big Picture - an initiative as part of Sydney Design to encourage people to explore the hidden design gems of Surry Hills. Over 250 people applied to spend a Saturday with a bike, a LOMO camera and a passport of destinations to visit. We were lucky enough to make the cut, and BYO'd bikes and got a fish-eye camera to share for the day. It was so pretty, and I love that it has a fish on it:


Our journey started at Metalab, a gallery and workshop tucked in Fitzroy Place, a laneway off Crown Street just opposite Bill's. As the name suggests, the focus is on all things metallic, and they even run classes where you can learn to make jewellery.


Object Gallery on Bourke Street has a very colourful shop on the ground floor, and some really interesting exhibitions upstairs. First you hit an exhibition where nine different artists had to create something around theme "blue". Blue the colour, blue the feeling, something borrowed something blue, etc. Then up another level, were these amazing little magnifying viewers you could look through to see a tiny photo of an artist's workspace.


Reverse Garbage is a Sydney institution, making bulk industrial refuse available for artists to play with and students to decorate their sharehouses. RG now lives in Taylor Square.


Koskela was tucked away upstairs on Campbell Street, a place we'd never have found ourselves. It's a gorgeous space full of covetable furniture, homewares, light fittings, books, gardening bits and bobs and kids' toys. The emphasis is on sustainability, often reclaimed materials and Australian-designed and made products.

Spring Court is a teeny little shop that sells French sneakers and rad desert boots.

We stopped for a much needed coffee and late breakfast at Bang Bang cafe on Reservoir St... Owner Alan is an ex-DJ, and his background shows through in both the design (giant illustrations of headphones on the white walls) and a Brit-influenced menu that includes the likes of bacon butties and black puddings. Some bastard just beat me to the last rosti-filled, pancetta-topped breakfast stack, but my avocado, tomato and basil on toast was simple but deliciously tasty, and by all accounts the buttie is a beauty.


At this point we realised getting to all 24 destinations was going to be an epic mission, so we narrowed it down to the places we just had to see. Published Art on Mary Street has an eye-popping selection of art and design related books... I'd barely walked in the door before I found a book just about bike culture and design. Heaven!


We looped around Elizabeth Street and came up Cleveland to I Ran The Wrong Way (which is getting a post all its own) and Bird Textile. Bird is one of those places I've been passing on the bus for three years; always intrigued by the well-dressed bike they keep outside on the pavement, but never managed to actually go into the shop. They have a lovely range of eco-friendly fabrics and buttons (and clothes, bags, upholstery) in earthy greens and reds, with bold prints I'd say are a bit Japanese-influenced.


After Bird we went off map to David Met Nicole (another post in itself) then back up to Crown Street to Collector (clothes, homewares) and Paper2 (which titillated my current fetish for rubber stamps - and can you imagine anything more luxurious than having personalised stationery printed?).


We handed in our camera and finished the day with a cheeky pint amid the beer-garden plantlife and paper lanterns of the Beresford. It was the kind of sunbright, balmy Sydney winter Saturday that leaves you wondering why anyone would want to live anywhere else. It was so fun to be part of Small Stories Big Picture, but it's not over yet! There will be two more Saturdays of people shooting on LOMOs, and the resulting images will be on show at the Beresford over the coming weeks. There will be a party there to celebrate the full installation on August 18. See you there?

Fair leather friends

Working a job where I trade in words all day, I have this vicarious obsession with people who do and make things with their hands. Via DoubleOhTwo, today I found Secret Forts' fantastic photo feature on the workspace of a couple of American brothers who turn out handmade leather products under the moniker BillyKirk.

Chris and Kirk Bray are the brothers, and their site includes a great interview that sets out how they got started, the design and business ethos of the brand. They only use the best leather and highest quality hardware… There’s a clear and understated design signature, and their emphasis on quality materials and functional simplicity lends a consistent industrial elegance to all their products. They use a lot of antique leatherworking machines, and initially learned the trade from a "third generation leatherworker" still using his grandfather's tools. As the brand has grown, now much of the manufacturing work is actually done by a group of Amish leather workers in Pennsylvania.

This photo (from Secret Forts) shows a BillyKirk shoulder satchel they designed based on "a World War II Belgian map case".

At the risk of sounding kinky, there’s something I find seductive about leather. It’s an inherently masculine material; in its rawest state it retains something of the scent of the beast that is its origin. With time its patina showcases all the stories that leather has seen, whether burnished to radiance or scuffed to graffiti; marks of age like wrinkles on a well-loved face, or the rings of trees in cross section. One of the world’s oldest materials, it has cultural and historical associations with pioneers, cowboys and tribal artefacts. Yet it can also be incredibly delicate, like buttery soft kid gloves, an exquisitely tooled handbag, or the earliest form of paper, vellum.

Unlike so many products today, leather rewards loyalty. Leather grows with you. A sturdy pair of leather boots mould themselves to your foot. A leather wallet, once it makes its home in your back pocket, cups your bum like an overfamiliar friend. Leather, like a hot dude, looks even better with a few scars and imperfections. Because they’re the marks of character, a life lived unreservedly.


I’m by no means into high fashion or “it bags”, but I’ve always fantasised about letting loose in the Hermes store. Their bags and goods just seem so beautifully made, the immaculate waxed-thread stitching and attention to detail. Luxurious and gorgeous as Hermes bags obviously are, it’s the traditional saddlery skill and functionality echoing through their design that captivates me.

An overpriced brand is an overpriced brand; but something hand-made just for you, tailored and customised and cut just right, that’s true luxury. Be it a suit, a pair of shoes, a chair or a bicycle pannier: bespoke is the ultimate in style because it silently affirms its owner’s taste, respect for craftsmanship and design, and confident individuality.

On that rambling note, and pertinent to skills like leatherwork that seem like they belong to another time: found a gorgeous book today that I wish I’d discovered sooner; hell, I wish I’d thought of writing it! It’s a large format hardcover book by Leta Keens called Shoes For The Moscow Circus: Scenes from a hidden world (published by Pier 9).

“Tucked away above a nondescript shopfront in suburban Sydney there is a workshop where dance shoes are made the way they have always been made – by hand. This workshop makes shoes that are worn by can-can dancers in France and by the acrobats of the Moscow Circus.”

The book basically explores small industries, specialist manufacturers and artisan craftsmen. Leta looks at 28 different hidden worlds with an inquiring yet lyrical style – discovering what drives the people who make bicycles, cricket bats, flags, umbrellas, taxidermy….

The design of the book is a lovely complement to its material – it’s luxurious and beautiful, but not in an obvious or ostentatious way. The book is generous in size and in its use of photography by Oliver Strewe; but the pages are matte rather than gloss, black and white with an occasional splash of red. The book is clothbound with no slipcase and the titles on the cover appear screen-printed by hand.

Anyone on two wheels is a friend

Checked out the Woolloomooloo Festival on Wheels yesterday - well, mainly the sausage sizzle at Sable and Argent, an amazing bike shop down Bourke St. Had a quick chat to the owner, a lanky bloke called Boris who affects a tres cute cycle cap. Boris' background is in commercial fit-outs, so it's no surprise S+A is almost as much a gallery as it is a shop. The theme is cool black and white, with industrial touches and graphic artwork, and there's even a tree growing inside. Then there are vintage style Rapha cycling jerseys, whole walls hung with brightly coloured caps, MOMO helmets and of course racks and racks of delectable bikes. Even the mechanics' workspace becomes a design feature, visible through clear plastic in the centre of the store with walls proclaiming anyone on two wheels is a friend.

Handlebar grips and bike chains and spoke cards, oh my! It was like a candy store! You can get little ears or horn adornments for your helmet, ipod speakers for your handlebars, and heaps of other beautifully designed accessories. I got a much needed new light for Big Red, which wraps easily on and off the handlebars so it's not at risk of being stolen because it must be left on the bike. And they even make coffee at the store!

The Bourke Street cycleway has been pretty contentious of late - there are threats of a class action over the way its construction is messing with parking and access to businesses in Surry Hills. Hopefully once it's complete things will run more smoothly, business will pick up again and it will become a model for better cycleways through the inner city. It's my favourite street in Sydney, arched with beautiful trees, generally hushed and with little traffic, and home to parks and boutiques and little terrace houses... and of course Bourke St Bakery! (had the ham and fennel pizza yesterday - so good) The trail goes all the way down to the harbour at Woolloomooloo, and you can ride right up to the water...

It's a sign...

State of Design is happening right now in Melbourne, and there are a couple of interesting bike-related tidbits to be had. Mikael Colville-Andersen, the Danish film-maker, photographer and bike fetishist best known from the Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize blogs is the special guest at a cycling celebration at Denmark House on Friday (would love to be a fly on that wall).

The Design Files did a great wrap of the festival's trade show, and something in particular that caught my eye was Trent Jansen's Cycle Signs. Jansen is an Aussie object designer with a keen interest in sustainable design; as such he has a rich history of recycling and reinterpreting pre-used materials. For example, he makes beautiful stools from old road signs. With offcuts from the signs and their reflective vinyl lettering, Jansen has created these reflective buttons for bikes, which either attach via a clamp to the wheel spokes, or strap onto the body of the bike. Even the straps are made from old bicycle tubes, so the materials are almost all recycled.


They're so simple and practical, yet visually they add something special to a bike. I'm hoping to pick up a few this weekend - Trent says they're available in Sydney at Deus Ex Machina, Tokyo Bike, Cheeky Transport and Chee Soon & Fitzgerald. If you're in Melbourne, try "Saint Cloud on Gertrude Street, and Eco Innovators on the corner of Little Collins and Swanston Streets". (photos courtesy of Trent Jansen - and be sure to check out this great interview with him, which has images of the amazing Pregnant Chair he designed)


If you're in Sydney this weekend there's a bit of a bike bonanza happening at the Woolloomooloo Festival On Wheels. Sable & Argent will play host to a swapmeet, there will be a BBQ and beers and bands and DJs and all manner of cool kids. Will do my best to check it out but I always feel like the school nerd at these kinds of gatherings of chic fixie aficionados. Not unlike when I took my first bike to St Pat's Primary School, proud as punch of my little pink treadly. Ended up in tears at the bike rack when some older boys informed me that my spokey dokes were not nearly as cool as I thought. Their every pling and plong on the long journey home was like an accusation of my dagginess, and I made my dad take them off that night, burning with shame. Never again! Bike pride!

One last thing. A bike just ain't a bike without a bell - but these are some amazing bells. The cupcake bell would be just perfect on Baby Blue, but Big Red would suit the ladybugs, I think. And the turtles are so cute!