Woohoo! So I won the very very fun contest! Do you know Anorak magazine for cool kids? So they had a contest where you had to draw… a game. This is a piece of my submission. You can see full page here. Or I’ll post it once it is printed. and look at the other winners here.
It was an early (for an artist) morning, I was still sleeping and then the phone rang. Unknown number. I answered. It was Nick from Etiko, who told about how they saw my designs somewhere and got contacts and would like me to make some drawings for thongs. At that time I was still very new to Australia. I am still afraid of speaking with people via phone, because sometimes I just don’t understand. And then. I was still sleeping. What? Why? Thongs? The only thing I could think of was… underwear thongs 
But it was all about Australia’s favorite footwear – flip flops. I had to create few designs each of them represents some organisation or charity project. And everything is fair trade made!
It took me a while to take a picture of finished product but there they are.
See the koala! We were camping, koalas were roaring all night, so I look not very fresh in the morning, but I have nice footwear at least!
There are so many nice blogs and websites with some fun DIY projects. Sometimes it feels that it would be nice to make something. But what and why? And now I had the reason – I made some t-shirts and needed some hang tags.
This is how I did it. First – cut the cardboard.
Put it in a neat pile.
Spray paint the sides. If you try this – don’t forget:
1. to do that in a well ventilated room or outside;
2. cover everything around with newspapers;
3. cover the top card with peace of paper if you don’t want to paint it;
4. put something heavier on top of the pile;
5. spray from +-30cm distance.
When it gets dry, I just stamped both sides. This stamp is laser cut, but you can make a stamp yourself.
I made a hole with a thick needle. It would be nice to use a hole puncher, but this cardboard would kill almost any puncher.
About stamps – I don’t have pictures of smaller stamps now, maybe another day, so there is a big stamp I made for paper bags. Too big for stamp pads, so had to apply paint with that rolling thing. Have no idea of it’s name.
Funny thing – I made tens of these bags with red paint and it didn’t get dry even in a week.
Well good news – paint dries in a sunshine in an hour. S I had to hang all bags on a clothes dryer outside, something like 7 bags at a time. It took a while because we got sun only a few hours in the morning now
One day I received a little parcel. It was a collection of cards made by Blue Island Press – a company printing and selling greeting cards. And they have chosen some of my designs to be printed too.
Now the nice part: they have cool backs.
They are printed on a very nice paper – see the close-ups.
And they will be sold even in Bath, UK.
Bath during winter.
And I got an email from them about my cards being accepted in the shop of Gallery NSW. Oh yeah!
And another good thing – I’m still making and selling my cards myself and in small local boutique shops.
Panelpop is a gallery in Melbourne where they print pictures straight on stone framed in an upcycled timber left from demolishing old buildings and polystyrene (well, this is just for back) frames.
I have some of my works printed there and… shown in the window! It wasn’t a lot of space inside between the window ant the wall, so drawing was even bigger fun and characters came out even more quirky. Like this cat with fat thighs.
I am not a good photographer, especially with all those reflections, so if you come by and get a better shot of it – please send me a picture!
Find Panelpop at 117 Brunswick St., Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065, Australia.
