First image (3d objects) by Cybele Young, second image (mobile) created by Genevieve Jodouin

While waiting for the Jeannie Thib talk to begin at The Japanese Paper Place, I took a lot of photographs in their gallery. It is completely amazing what these artists have accomplished, many of which using washi.

During the talk, Jeannie Thib shared with us her work, mostly black and white, and a number of pieces which were created during various artist residencies. The stories of these international residencies sound amazing and romantic and possibly altogether much different than they are in reality – or so I imagine.

The first image below is from a series Jeannie generated through dissecting damask prints. She pulled sections out of a larger repeat print and isolated them. Kind of fantastic. The second image is from a series of hands she carved out of lino blocks. Some of the hands have pattern on them, and others contain words and shapes and read like an aerial map. Also amazing.

Since moving from their prominent retail space of 23  years on Queen Street across from Trinity Bellwoods park, the Japanese Paper Place has been located at Brock and Queen since 2005. Now a wholesale supplier of Japanese paper, they regularly host events and workshops and are definitely worth connecting with – you can even check them out on facebook or follow them on twitter. And they have been known to serve tea and Portuguese egg tarts after lectures. Just sayin.

While helping out with visual merchandising in a shop the other night, I stopped by a rack holding a white cotton shirt with cream stripes and little black dots, and said to the girl steaming it, “I really like that shirt!” She responded, “That’s so funny, because when I was pulling this look, I totally thought that Ayalah would like this.”

Am I so clearly defined that others could pick out what I would wear? Or are the people I surround myself with simply very acute visually in the fashion realm? Or, am I just like everybody else?

Recently I joined Pinterest, after a friend was raving about it, and so far so good. It’s a great space in which to post (or “pin”) images you find online in a bit of a categorized collage format of boards, where you link directly to the source without having to remember where you found it. I am constantly pulling pictures from magazines and storing inspiring images and interesting interview and videos in a number of formats, but Pinterest is a nice and easy way to quickly have a overview of your finds.

The site is new, so its relatively few participants are having a large say as to how the site will shape and develop. One interesting thing I noticed at a quick glance, was that the people who have joined thus far appear to be quite similar. Or, visually they seem to share quite a specific aesthetic, not only in regards to the images they select to “pin” in terms of content, but also in the style of photograph, and even the categories which they create in which to post said pins. That said, there are a few generic categories that the site has set up as default boards for posting, however, even the category titles people edit and create are very similar. On this site you will find a lot of girls who like pretty things, textiles, pattern, crafting, home dec, interiors, baking, a particular fashion of dress – there is a definite type. So, are we all the same girl?

Have a look. I am curious to see if more diversity is introduced as the site grows and evolves. In the meantime, I’ll marvel at how I could have posted any number of images that are pinned to the boards of others, and just enjoy all the pretty pictures that we collectively love.

In the spring, my friend Sonya encouraged me to submit an illustration to 3×3 magazine’s seventh annual professional show. Here it appears in the new annual.

Today’s Metro Globe and Mail should contain a supplement featuring this new illustration I created for Paws for the Cause, a dog fashion show and cocktail party benefiting the SPCA. Pick up a copy and find out how you can support!

This  week I did  a drawing of Leith Clark for her Style Notebook interview. She is the founder Lula magazine, a superstar stylist (um, Chanel?) and overall seems way cool. Read the interview here!

This week I picked up some sample t-shirts from Mercy (one of my favorite Toronto labels!)

Jennifer Halchuk and Richard Lyle, the label’s designers, produce a t-shirt line exclusively for a shop in Japan, and I created these pen and ink illustrations for their current collection. After providing them with the illustrations, they added pieces of Liberty in fun shapes and along the neckline of the shirts, and then had the illustrations silkscreened on top. (You can click each image to view it larger)

I have to say it was really a dream project for me. Working with people whose work you completely admire, and working by hand, is all so gratifying.

The t-shirts are available at Usagi Pour Toi in Japan.

Since the weather has gotten a bit cooler recently, it is officially Autumn now and all, I’ve been revisiting my tea stash and thought I’d share some of my favorites. Which also just happen to be from my favorite city.

1. Mariage Frères

Really the most amazing tea shop. The staff (all men?) meticulously dressed, black canisters fill the walls up to the ceiling; the selection is unmatched. The last time I visited, I picked up some green tea with cherry blossoms, and a little white tin to store my jasmine pearls. A friend of mine came over once and thought the tea container was a perfume bottle! Their packaging truly superb. And the cherry blossom tea smells like candy. So good. In the summer, I often make iced tea with it and it is amazing. Amazing.

2. Kusmi

My mom and I visited here together and I think this might have been her favorite. Much more casual, Kusmi has a colourful tea shop in Paris, though the company originated in St Petersburg. Though I got their green tea sampler some time ago, I am still slowly working my way through it. There is such a great variation among green teas – I was surprised at their selection, which includes an Almond green tea, as well as a Buffalo Grass green tea. I also picked up a pink anniversary London tin filled with their Anastasia tea: Earl Grey, Lemon, and orange blossom. It was my go-to tea last winter.

The clerk in the shop was very nice. When he found out we were visiting from Canada, he gave us a few I heart Kusmi buttons – mine currently lives here.

3. Le Palais des Thés

I did not visit in person, though we did walk by it in Paris. Truth be told, I had already amassed a large quantity of tea, and could not face going into another shop! Months later, back in Toronto, I bought the lovely Thé du Hammam at La Merceria as a gift. It is a green tea with flower petals in it (rose, sunflower, mallow). It smells beautiful, tastes great, and comes in a special blue tin.

These last two shops are more bakery than exclusively tea, but they do have lovely tea and so I’ve included them.

4. Fauchon

Airport security didn’t love this loose tea so much, but did let me through after examining the sealed hot pink tin to establish that it was indeed just tea – thanks! The suspect was Célébration (Birthday) tea, which is a black tea, with vanilla, orange, and mandarin. It will be perfect for this winter – with cake, as recommended (by them – not just me!).

5. Ladurée

Ladurée is a completely beautiful and very French place to go for tea while in Paris – a definite must! I am still working my way through their trio of cocoa, herbal tea, and special blend (earl grey with orange, cinnamon, caramel, blackcurrent, bramble leaves, rose, bergamot, and vanilla) – all so good! I am very curious to try the Thé Marie Antoinette. If you happen to be visiting anytime soon, let me know so I can put in an order! xo

I had to hold off on posting this until I finally picked up a pillow form this weekend.
(If you’re curious, the back looks like this)

Not to be extreme or anything, but since the pillow was hand-pieced and hand-quilted, I decided the entire operation should be free of any machine work, so I hand-stitched the zipper in place, and backstitched the whole thing together, by hand.

A second pillow is almost finished too, but it might be a gift, so I haven’t decided whether or not to post it yet…we’ll see!

This is the last weekend of TIFF 2010 – which means the neighborhood will be getting back to normal soon. Normally I’m really into TIFF one year, and the next generally do not get involved at all. This year was pretty exciting – for the first time I was able to contribute some illustrations – and even some writing on the topic!

This portrait of Nadia Litz is up today on The Style Notebook. It was the first TIFF-related illustration I did this year and was published last. Go figure. Nadia is a Canadian actress who directed the short film, How to Rid your Lover of a Negative Emotion Caused by You!, that debuted at TIFF this year. I didn’t get a chance to see it, but it sounds amazing, doesn’t it? She talks about the film and about her experience directing for the first time here in her interview!

This week I finally saw Black Swan! Well, it’s only been playing at film festivals for a couple of weeks but it feels like forever! It’s been months if not years since they announced that Rodarte was doing the costumes, and then recently the trailer came out – so good!

The movie is sooo Darren Aronofsky, and if you like him, you’ll like the movie, and if you don’t, you won’t. BUT if you love Rodarte and ballet and Darren Aronofsky, then you will feel as do I about the film!

My second attempt at writing has now been published on The Style Notebook – I did a movie review! Pretty crazy. There is a bit of a synopsis, and a bit of fashion. And of course an illustration! Since it was pretty detailed, I decided to post a little cropped piece of it here on the blog. The composition is pretty sparse here, but to see the rest, check it out on The Style Notebook, or on my Flickr.