Automated Daydreaming

Plants on the Brain

Hilda,

Just look at this wonderful plant pot I bought, her name is Hilda and she has a succulent brain indeed. I love her blue hair and large eyelashes.
Handmade by clayflower22 at Etsy.com

Some Splendid new items

Tagged for 6

I have been tagged by ZudaGay to list 6 weird and wondrous things about myself.

6 Things about Tilly

* My favorite way to make cookies -  half-bake them and spoon the hot, part crisp, part chewy, part slimy chocolate chip cookie substance onto vanilla ice cream. Yum!

* The only magazine I read is the NewScientist. 'Tis the best subway reading material in all the land, particularly if, like me, you cannot concentrate on 'real' books in the subway. 

* I prefer to take photos of people looking at <insert monument, artwork, zoo animal, etc here>, rather than the thing its self.

* I have an enormous collection of arms and and legs. (Antique porcelain doll ones, not humans ones)

* I don't understand peanut butter.

* My favorite opera is  Die Zauberflöte

 

 

Two New Prints

Pacifist, originally uploaded by Tilly Bloom.

I'm quite pleased with how these prints turned out, particularly the composition of 'Smoked Fish and Caviar' and the Chinese text background of 'Pacifist'.

Limited Edition Prints @ TillyBloom.Etsy.com $10 - $12

The Question of The Kettle

My poor old electric kettle, my simple black Ibis, my companion and boiler of tea water for these past 4.5 years has died.

In his old age he had become grumpy and reluctant, requiring one day a spanner on his lid, the next a paint brush tilting him back. Yesterday he boiled his last boil,  an unpleasant whiff of burning plastic and a wheezy death-rattle signaled the end. It was quiet and dignified, and as I drank my coffee I bade him farewell.

Now comes the task of finding a new kettle. A breif search on Amazon did not inspire me as far as electric kettles go. There are few to choose from, and of those many are small, ugly or badly reviewed. So I'll turn away from those, and focus on stove-top ones.

A brand named Copco seems to have a wide variety in attractive designs and shades, and at resonable prices. Here is my shortlist:

This Michael Graves Design in pale yellow is quite pretty, but it doesn't seem very ergonomic and I've heard bad things about the quality of his tea kettles. $25 @ Target

The Bellini Teakettle in Robin’s Egg Blue is a lovely shade, with happy curves. $20 @ Target

I like the old-fashion shape of this Copco Cambridge Stainless-Steel one, it's elegant but not at all fussy. It looks like it would do its duty for many years without complaint. $30 at Amazon.com

This charming Red Delicious apple kettle has a 2.5qt capacity, which is great as I drink lots of tea. I love the 'stem' on top. $26 @ Amazon.com

This brings to mind tea and buttered toast. The Copco Bristol. $30 @ Amazon.com

I particularly like the simple design on this one, and it comes in lovely shades of pale green, blue and red. The Copco Midori Enamel $20 @ Amazon.com

The Copco Avanti, a bold, modern design. $25 @ Amazon.com

 

Well. I have no idea. I'm going to boil some water (in a pot) make some coffee, and have a thing about it. Do share your opinions!

Best,Tilly 

Disembodied

Eliza & Eye,

I've had an obsession of sorts, for many a year, with body parts. Not the body in whole, but it's parts, be they inside or out. The lungs, a spine, an arm.
Disembodied.
It was the original inspiration for my illustration jewelry, the fist thing I created, a year ago, was a Brain necklace.
Before then I had been making little "scenes" using dolls arms and heads and eyeballs.  This was back in autumn 2001 when 'body parts' and 'human remains' where words you couldn't escape.
It's time to go back there, to those arms and legs. They'll always have that dark connotation lingering in the background, but it's time to use them in a new way. In light-hearted, witty manner, with references to the absurdists and surrealists.

Eliza and Eye, $38

A Splendid Sale!

Sale

Time to make way for all of the wonderful new bracelets I've been working on. In with in the New, and that sort of thing.
The sale section of my shop now has bracelets at 50% off, only $10 (yes, ten bobs!) each. I will be sad to see them go, particularly the bright, happy 'Summer Corn' one, the peculiar 'Long View' one and the charming 'Audubon Dreaming' one.

Do take a peep, One-of-a-kind bracelets, $10 at TillyBloom.Etsy.com

My New Gocco Printed Business Cards

My New Gocco Printed Business Cards, originally uploaded by Tilly Bloom.

I printed this on lovely card stock in deep blood red, gold, lilac, avocado green and yellow. I think I like the gold (middle) one the most, though I'm partial to anything red. I like the lack of contract in the the red ones, your eyes glide over them and the 'hiddenness' of the image make you look back, more closely.

Hitchcock Bracelets

Hitchcock Bracelets,

Just finished a very nice batch of Hitchcock bracelets. I love the bright blue behind the black and white stills, one is backed in dark Walnut woodgrain, which also looks great, but I think I like the red ones the most.
I will be doing many more movie bracelets, including a series on film from the '70s. After that, I plan on doing movies from the golden age of Hollywood in the '40s & '50s. I'd love to do a series on silent movies, but I'm afraid they sadly wouldn't have much appeal.

Hitchcock bracelets on sale at TillyBloom.Etsy.com

My Poor Digits

My Fine Fellows,
Due to a hand injury, the hand-drawn jewelry isn't on sale at the moment. It will be back soon, when my hand is better or when I'm fitted with a splendid bionic arm, whichever comes first.

Sometimes I wish I were a cyborg.

In the meantime do have a look at my splendid prints & bracelets.

Making many bracelets...

Making many bracelets,

I'm working on many new bracelets which will be up on my Etsy shop soon.
This one is 'Wispy Blue Alien Girls of Venus'...

Fresh Batch of Necklaces

Typewriter,

  A Black Swan, a Chest X-ray, another Brain... these are a few of the new necklace designs now on sale in my Etsy shop.
I'm particularly fond of the 'Fellow in the Stocks' necklace, nothing like adorning yourself with a bit of medieval public humiliation!

See them at TillyBloom.Etsy.com

Basil the Hound Dog

Basil,

I bought this chubby hound not long ago, isn't he wonderful? I love the shape of his belly , his spindly legs. and doleful painted-on eyes.
He was made by a talented Etsyian in Maine, you can see more of  her wonderful folk art creations at Backwoodscreations.etsy.com.

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea, originally uploaded by Tilly Bloom.

Every day I take a break from making things, to rest my poor fingers and enjoy a pot of green tea. Today I had some Chinese cakes with my tea; they were quite similar to Fig Newtons, only with pineapple-like goo in the middle.
After eating the first one I still wasn't sure whether I particularly liked it or not, so I ate another.
Four cakes later... I still haven't decided.

Buddha and Rose Ring

Buddha and Rose Ring

I love this tiny silver ring with rose and leaves, it looks so dainty on my little finger.  It was made in a place named Wenatchee, by a talented jewelry maker, whose shop is awsomesilverjewelry.etsy.com

Mythology of Beauty

Mythology of Beauty,

Bella as a chimera, two-headed and griffin-like. She holds in her claws a scepter and shapes, her mien and expression noble....

I'm dead chuffed with this print, I love the symmetry of Bella's feathered body and the asymmetry of the symbolic items she hold in her claws. I'm still most attracted to the black and white, with just a suggestion of red in the seal.

I also printed this illustration on pages of an antique book in German, which came out splendidly.

Mythology of Beauty Print, $12
Chimera Print, $10

Cutie Snacks

Chocolate filled bears

 

Mmm... I love these chocolate filled bears, I turn into something of a cookie monster in their presence...

Hamlet in Japanese

Hamlet in Japanese
 

I visited a wonderful bookshop yesterday and picked up a copy of Hamlet in Japanese, the typeface is beautiful, as is the page layout; which is perfect for my planned use of the pages as a canvas for my black, Japanese-inspired prints. I think the mixture of great Western literature in elegant Japanese characters is quite appropriate.
I also found some old Japanese vocabulary workbooks to make mini-envelopes from.

Beautiful Handmade Aprons

Hello Splendid Peoples, did you enjoy your weekend?

This morning I'd  like to show off my new aprons, custom-made by a fabulous Etsy seller named Perdoozy. I picked out the fabric, a thick drapery one with stripes and dots, in 4 shades. Portia of Perdoozy sewed them up beautifully and professionally, using coordinating ribbon at the neck and back and lining it in white cotton. My clothing is no longer at risk from all the glue and ink which comes my way! The cut is wonderful, elegant and flirty, in fact, they bring to mind a '50's cocktail dress. These aprons are anything but dowdy.

Stylish handmade aprons, $22-$30 at Perdoozy.Etsy.com

 

Bird Nest Bella - My first gocco print!

A family of Chickadee birds have made the home in poor, bewildered Bella's hair. A mama tends her 3 tiny chicks and the noble papa looks on.
Bella's Mona Lisa smile is ambiguous, is she amused, annoyed, proud?

I created this image in a mixture of hand drawing by pencil and digital fussing; to bring together multiple antique illustrations, creating something new, charming and slightly odd.

This print, which is a limited edition of 200, is signed and numbered on the back.

Look out for Bella in many more strange and charming art prints to come.

$12 at TillyBloom.etsy.com