slide on slide off.

Slide these on - Slides made by Lauren avalible at the 72 Rivington Street as part of our Magpie Collection. Get it while it's hot!


Slide these off! - Cracking delight straight from a cracker!

SELL SELL SELL!!!! BUY BUY BUY!!!!

Our Magpie Collection at 72 Rivington street is a glittery shiny

treat for the present hunter. To be quite honest it was rather hard

to part with some of these. This is my top three of what is on offer.

Two Partying Partridges in a Pear Tree

Glitter Tits

And sold TODAY - The Office. It's all singing and all dancing

and I'm actually a little sad it's gone from my life. I hope the

buyer treasures this one as it is a one off and I don't think I'll

ever find anything quite as fabulous.

I suggest you get down there sharpish to bag a delight for you

mantel piece.

Grafik

Thanks to Dan Rolfe Johnson @ Grafik Mag for his blog about My Two Front Teeth which you can see here.

My Two Front Teeth

Sooooo we have been busy little beavers preparing for the launch of YCN's Christmas shop at 72 Rivington Street in Shoreditch. We have collaborated with YCN to produce the Christmas shop named 'My Two Front Teeth' which includes a glittery window display, a sparkly sequin makeover on the exterior of the building, a rainbow-themed Christmas tree and the Jiggery Pokery Magpie collection made up of various twinkly, shiny bits and bobs which we have made, found and customised. The magpie collection is all for sale. Some bits are one-offs and others can be made to order. We have also directed a project called Odd-Stockings where we have invited various designers, artists and others to create one-off stockings which will be sold to raise money for a charity of their choice. Participants include Mother, Donna Wilson, SCP, Johnny Kelly, Ritta Ikkonen, Kate Moross & Danny Sangra amongst others and they will be popping up at various dates throughout December. There is also a plethora of hand-printed wrapping paper, limited edition Christmas cards and other pretty design objects for sale in the shop so go down and check it out for yourselves. x



The concept of My Two Front Teeth comes from the song by Donald Yetter Gardner which you can read more about here. These are the lyrics of the song. It's DEFINITELY mine and Anna's Christmas Banger this year:

Every body Pauses and stares at me
These two teeth are gone as you can see
I don't know just who to blame for this catastrophe!
But my one wish on Christmas Eve is as plain as it can be!

All I want for Christmas
is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth!

Gee, if I could only
have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you
"Merry Christmas."

It seems so long since I could say,
"Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!"
Gosh oh gee, how happy I'd be,
if I could only whistle (thhhh, thhhh)

All I want for Christmas
is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth.

Gee, if I could only
have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you
"Merry Christmas!"

Tantalizer

Well four long long days of sewing, surrounded in gold, listening to

bashment, not seeing the outside world and finally I have made my

piece for the lot 78 show, privet view on tomorrow 5.30-9pm and runs

until sunday it is at the Red Lion Pub on Waverton street W1. Invite

is strict to the privet view but please come and have look over the

weekend.

I was inspired by my love of antiques and a piece called a Tantalizer, it

was used in the Victorian days and was a way of keeping people from

drinking your precious booze. A wooden contraption the showed you the cut

glass decanters for the spirits but you had to have a key to gain access to

them.

Obsessive Optimism

Here are a couple of shots from our show that opened last Friday. It is on for another month or so. If you are in the area pop and want to brighten up your day, pop in and have a look it's a the Nook Gallery, Dare Digital on Margret Street near Oxford Circus. ( just behind Topshop.)

Big thanks to everyone that came down on the night. It was lovely to see so many friendly faces

there.

Psychologist

Last night I came across some photos from the shoot I worked on with photographer Isla McLeod. I LOVE them. It was a really long but fun day in an amazing location, with beautiful light and lovely people who had inspired ideas that got mixed up with happy accidents. My favourite kind of day. Annie Love has written a great article about the super-talented Iain Woods and his band 'Psychologist' that you can read HERE. Enjoy.

PLEASE VOTE FOR US!

Mr Crayon has entered us Pirates into a competition with our 'We Like Colour' film (below). Please vote for us so that we have a chance of grabbing a cash prize and the chance to show the film in Times Squre!! We will pump the money back into Pirates enabling us to tantalize your tastebuds with more visual delights: http://www.babelgum.com/4006107/pirates-cia-timelapse-graffiti-mural.html

Please re-post the link to the competition wherever possible too! THANKS!! X

PIRATES!

So a while back I mentioned an exciting collective us gals have formed with Jimi Crayon, Jamie Brown, Josh Howard, MR P, Alfa, Teck and Will Robson-Scott. Well this is the opening project and it is all a bit nice. After a good write-up on the Creative Review blog and numerous other blogs there is definitely a buzz in the air. The most exciting news came today but I must wait to reveal all.

The Nook

Anna and I are having our first little exhibition. It starts this Friday. Please come down.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...

Its that time again and how quickly it has come around. The RCA secret postcard exhibition has a timely appearance, what with the post strike. It only seems like yesterday that I had to do this last year and now all the more important because it gives us money for our final show, can't say fairer than that!

Also while Lauren eagerly got her nails did (and they look so buff) I was sitting excitedly in the next chair getting my hands adorned in a more 'birds of a feather' come 80's wild night out style! They are so damn hot.

Best salon in town and believe me as I have visited a few!

NOS in the Guardian Guide.

So our opening window for Nation of Shopekeepers in Leeds is featured in the Food and Drink section of this week's Guide. Little pic but nice surprise!

125 Magazine

So The Heroes issue of 125 Magazine is about to hit the shops. We were honored to be asked to contribute to this issue and are very much looking forward to seeing our Totem Poles in print. It is a truly stunning Magazine.

WAH Nails (oh and Zoo Art Fair)

So I forgot to mention that I FINALLY made it down to the WAH nail salon on Friday too. My nails had got to a good length at last without breaking so it was about time I treated myself to a makeover. Meghan realised my 70's psychedelic curtain idea amazingly well and we added some gold glitter tips for a little glam touch. They look like a Mexican Sunrise mixed with 70'S fairground carousel. I am WELL pleased with them and planning my next paint-up session already. WAH Nails also sells vintage clothes, jewellery, snacks and drinks amongst other bits and bobs. It is the perfect east london hang out where you can go and get pampered and inspired at the same time. With good music, juicy coffee table books and a whole host of interesting characters popping in and out it is no wonder that it had a lovely little write up in Timeout the other day (as well as Sharmadein being featured in Grazia recently). Our blog on the WAH site still isn't working but as it has all been a bit of an exciting, busy and stressful last six months for the WAH crew we can understand why. With a pop-up shop coming up in Selfridges and having just done nails for the PPQ show at London Fashion Week, these gals are definitely smashing it.




Oh and I was very excited about my Sunday date to the Zoo Art Fair yesterday. Unfortunately I could have found a thousand better ways to spend the hefty £15 door tax. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, I was in great company and I would have regretted not going but sadly the best thing in there was the Bistroteque pop-up cafe. I was particularly disappointed by Rob Tufnell's curated Exhibition 'Althogether Elsewhere'. Excuse my language but what a pile of s**t. The legendary 'magic carpet' theme promised all sorts of psychedelic wonderment but seruiously failed to deliver. We agreed that the building was far more interesting than the exhibiton. I don't think that Frieze's new and well reviewed 'Frieze Frame' addition helped their case as it was major competition . However, they are going to need to really step up to the plate and switch things up next year if they want to survive in the art (meat) market.

The Museum of Everything

Last night Anna and I forfitted a night out on the tiles in order to visit The Museum of Everything. Newly opened and with three stars from the Evening Standard amongst other press, this tucked-away gem is the most exciting thing to hit London in a while. Cleverly timed to coincide with the highbrow Frieze Art Fair in nearby Regents Park, the opening exhibition of Folk/Outsider Art is quirky, heart-warming and totally inspiring. Brimming from top to bottom, this unsusual gallery space is the perfect location for the largest collection of this type of art that I have ever seen.

I was lucky enough to catch some of Henry Darger's work in his show 'In the Realms of the Unreal' in San Francisco whilst on a Uni trip a few years back. His beautiful fairy tale-esque landscapes in watery colours blew me away at the time and the Museum of Everything have a large collection of his. On the same trip, a friend and I came across Creativity Explored in the Mission District of SF and spent some time with the artists there. Creativity Explored is a 'nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art'. I was so inspired by the incredible people I met and the artwork. Two artists who I loved were Michael Bernard whose book 'Fears of Your Life' I bought and John Patrick McKenzie who compiles written list-style artworks that vary depending on whether he is in a good or bad mood. I am lucky enough to own an original of his.

We were drawn to the film 'Make' (blurb below) that was showing last night as it followed four artists with similar disabilities. The most moving part of the film for me was the relationships between each individual where their artwork portrayed a clear longing to connect with something/someone they had loved and in most cases lost because of their disability or soon after being diagnosed. Judith Scott, one of the artists featured (who also has work in The Museum of Everything) had spent the last part of her life visiting a similar centre art centre in Oakland called Creative Growth. The Bay area of California seems to be a really progressive area for this type of creative exploration and therapy. I am now inspired to discover similar places in London.



Anna and I went along thinking this was a new permanent space in London but later found out that it is only scheduled to be open for two weeks. The organisers are desperately trying to push it to be open for longer but just in case this doesn't happen I urge EVERYBODY to make a visit. As we walked out into the freezing night both of us had to pinch ourselves to remind us that we weren't back in California. It really felt like we could have been because places like this just don't exist in London, especially in Primrose Hill, which is not a place I visit much.

Homemade Dens

When I was little I used to get all my Mum and Dads' Indian drapes, crochet blankets, sheets and throws and make amazing dens in the living room and garden and sit in them and eat Dolly Mixture out of my favourite little yellow plastic bowl with red hearts on it. I was thinking about starting to make dens again (especially after seeing Jurgen Bey's 'Linen-Cupboard-House' in Telling Tales at the V&A). Today I noticed on Facebook that Booooooom.com has an ongoing project called Wild Things Forts. Inspired by the eagerly awaited film Where the Wild Things Are Booooooom.com has asked people to create their own dens, fill them with things they love and send in a snapshot to be featured online. The deadline was October 12th for Wild Things Forts IV so unfortunately I missed it :(. Ahhh well, might make one anyway - just for fun.

Ulrika Kestere







Jamie Shaw

Brighton Show

Soooo unfortuantely we had to postpone our Brighton Show for various reasons. We will still be having one in London and hopefully re-arranging the one in Brighton for sometime soon so please watch this space.

Disappointed about the lack of show, I decided to go back down to Brighton on Saturday night anyway. Managed to blag two last minute guestlists for The Blind Tiger Club's fabulous Speakeasy which happened to be going on in a very beautiful, grand and fitting building opposite the Corn Exchange. Walked in on my friend Cordelia Fellowes and her band Gypsy Squat Pop Project playing in the basement-great surprise. The Correspondents (thanks for the tickets Ian!) were AMAZINGLY fun too. (Sweaty) dancing and drinking and lying on the beach chatting in the early hours. Perfect Brighton night. If only I had known it was 1920's affair... A bit out of place in my 70's psychedelic dress.

I also found a great wooden vintage shield/crest thingy in the Sunday Market (which was much better when it was in the train station car park. Boo hoo), got muddled up amongst a Bikers convention, ate the world's best roast at the Yeoman on Guildford Road AND ate frozen yogurt from the Lick on Gardner street which reminded me of L.A. YUM. Best fun EVER.

Fantastic Funfairs

The National Fairground Archive is one of the bestest websites ever. It has lead me on a magical adventure through the history of fairgrounds. If you are a fan of typography, sign writing, psychedelia, victorian ornamental design, colourful bright lights or simply a good ol' cheap funfair thrill check this AMAZING resource:

http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/societies/index.html

and scroll down to the 'fairground art - specialist sites' which led me to this:

http://www.fairart.co.uk/galleryindex.htm

I am wellll distracted from what I am supposed to be doing.

The Laughter.

My house is full of laughter. Today I was reminiscing the summer with my sister and the thing that stood out was the constant laughter. I just stumbled across this quote:

'Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.' ~Victor Hugo

It is going to be a sunny winter.

Hanky-Panky

Anna and I are having our first exhibition, in Brighton. We are also bringing it to London at the end of October but we felt it was fitting to have the first one in the birthplace of Jiggery Pokery. It opens on 10th October which is very very soon and is at the Artist Residence Hotel Gallery. It is called Hanky-Panky and we are très excited about it. It will be a somewhat mischievous visual feast for the eyes. Watch this space for more. You can see some of the recent exhibitions at the Artist Residence Gallery here on Luke Tudor Griffiths' blog Wish we had made it down to Pinky's show. His stuff is Maravilloso:



Now I must get on with the Stencil for our 'Rest is Noise' Brixton pub window display extravaganza. I am quite scared about this possible post strike today as I am waiting in for important stuff that might not arrive on time. Bah humbug.

My Dissertation

Ok so I have been in hibernation for two weeks doing my "bloody dissertation" while trying to find articles on the poundshop and it's relevance within popular culture I came across myself and Lauren pg two on google answering questions for a WAH interview. Great helpful stuff, can I interview myself or is that cheating?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=poundshop+popular+culture&start=10&sa=N

Haha.

My weekend has been...

...productive on a hangover. I was feeling reaaal ropey on Saturday but I still made it to Kilburn car boot and picked up some serious starting points for our upcoming exhibition in Brighton. Even made it to Little Venice for a walk along the canal. I also checked out an exhibition at Milagros on Columbia Road by an amazing artist called Stephen Wright. He's my new fave. Anna and I are literally soooo obsessed with outsider artists and people who make folkey type art out of throwaway items and junk. It was one of those experiences where I didn't really want to leave because I didn't want it to be over. Last time that happened was the Peter Doig at the Tate Britain.

Today. Back to Columbia Road for Oliver's prawns and onto Brick Lane for more exhibition stuff hunting. Instead I bought clothes and a present for Anna to say well done for finishing her dissertation. It's top secret. Photos to be uploaded after I give it to her- She's going to wee herself. Escaping to the back streets near Brick Lane, Annie and I discovered Spitalfields City Farm; a colourful, wild, hippy-type farm with the coolest plate wall, a goat in a phone box and a hut with a very strange-shaped roof. How have I always missed this?!
















Oh yeah and someone knocked on my door the other day and asked if they could take the rainbow sparkly pyramid I had left in my front garden. Gutted I couldn't find a use for it but space is getting tight these days! Spotted it on my way home from Columbia Road though- love it!

Anna Piaggi

what a lady:

Design Week Today

Round two. This time with Anna, as a momentary inspiration break from her dreaded dissertation. First stop Brixton for a meeting about our opening window and interior installation at the new Brixton hotspot 'Rest is Noise' (formerly Ivan's Retreat). Forgetting the steel-capped toe boots meant we weren't allowed on site for any length of time... Doh! Onto the V&A for Telling Tales. I twittered the fact that I would be paying the exhibition a visit and had a reply twitter from the V&A asking what I thought of it! Service with a smile... I twittered back: '@V_and_A Telling Tales- brilliantly creepy show! 'Linen-Cupboard-House' by Jurgen Bey was my favourite. Oh to be a child again'. So that is Telling Tales summarised up in less than 140 words (Twitter does wonders for my incessant rambling...)

We then hopped on the tube, via the best window display in a while and a cupcake pit stop:





to visit Tom Dixon's 'The Dock' an exhibition showcasing himself and other contemporary designers. It gave us the chance to check out the amazing 'Hatch' by Studio Toogood:



These very, very sexual gloss-dipped logs by someone in the Vorboten : 7 Studios from Berlin exhibition organised by Studio Hausen (but either it is very poorly documented online as to exactly who did what, or I am just being rubbish at researching... And writing down a name when I see something I like. If you know - answers on a postcard please!):



and fiiiinally catch up with Will from www.itsnicethat.com. Their second book is unbelievably inspiring; full to the brim with colourful, witty, dreamy work. It also gives further insight into the brains of some of the most exciting designers out there doing their thing. I recommend. We were talking about how some people were really disappointed that The London Design Festival had been spread out across London this year rather than being contained in the exhibtion space at Earls Court. If you only have a couple of days in London I can see how this might be frustrating but personally I haven't ever visited the festival before for the precise reason that it was all in one place. To me, big exhibition space= intimidating and stale. This way you make the effort to check out exactly what you wish to see and stumble across other things on the way whether they are part of design week or just little parts of London you wouldn't usually explore. It also allows others to get involved and open up spaces (almost like open-house) for us all to learn more than normal from this crazy and wonderful city we call London. Itsawinner. We also talked about the future of publications; online versus print etc and Anna decided that the future is most likely to be bicycle-powered Batman style visions that appear up in the sky. Thatasawinnertoo.

Oh and aren't these the most amazing roses ever?!! Fade from pink to coral to peach. Yes please.



I also want this for my dining room:



and am keeping fingers crossed that two of these will be mine for my living room:

Design Week Yesterday

So it being The London Design Festival and all, yesterday, I decided that it was imperative to escape the studio/office/house to see what is happening in the real world. Soooo out of the loop that I went for showSTUDIO's 'Fashion Revolution' at Somerset House thinking it would be a bit quieter than the V&A considering it was Fashion Week etc. Low and Behold the trendy pvc jegging clad crew were swarming the place. Oh right, London Fashion Week moved to Somerset house and it appears I was the last to realise. So after tripping over glittery loafers galore I made it in alive. A few of the best: HUGE, towering statues of Naomi Campbell that you could decorate via an interactive stylus type thingy, a BRILLIANT video piece by Gareth Pugh, a lovely collaboration between Nick Knight and Jane How called 'Sweet' with a twinkly soundtrack by Kieran Hebden (aka Fourtet). My favourite though was a video called 'Vox Humana (Part of Future Tense 2008) by Rodarte:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6vXbFNWJt0

Pop-up shops have been popping up all over London for Design/Fashion Week. I opted for a trip East to the Dr. Martens Shop in Spitalfields Market rather than the Emporio Armani Caffè (bit more fashion week location warning and I might have thought otherwise). The interior of the DMs pop-up shop was based on a shoe shop stockroom and had a nice feel, if a little similar to the late Footpatrol (R.I.P) store on St Anne's Court in Soho. I can see why people are going a bit barmy for those super shiny, candy coloured boots... Although they'll most probably be highly un-trendy again before I decide to don a pair.





I then wandered up to Redchurch Street to check out Caravan's miniature wallpaper window display by Deborah Bowness but hadn't read the smallprint. So it starts tomorrow (or today by the time this blog is finished... Thursday 24th) I shall return. On the way home I chanced upon another Pop-Up Shop with Eclectcollect at Studio1.1 (57a Redchurch Street, London E2 7JD) and bought the first book I have bought in ages, 'Society' by Bridget Smith:

I also acquired Corrine Day's 'Diary' via a package in the post from my flatmate's Dad the other day which was a lovely surprise. Two Books in one week... Wow.

The evening was filled by a visit to the launch party of new conceptual workspace and network, THECUBE on Commercial Street. We are working on an exciting new promotional project for them which will launch later this year. We also bumped into Iain Whiteley from the Guardian and finally got to meet his partner in crime Anna Tozer. LOVE their work.

WOWZA!!! What a three months!

So we have been working our little cotton socks off, so much so that I'm ill and after Sunday I am retreating to a darkened room to assess the damage and sleep!

We have been juggling a few jobs at once so it's pretty hard to know where to start really. I guess a list is appropriate;

First things first the art direction for Vauxhall Skate. We totally transformed the Village Underground with a gold lamé inflatable entrance, giant tents, rotating all-seeing eyes, prisms, rainbows, UV Tron style cars, a madness reflective car by Jamie Brown and a whole lot more. Here is the logo Kate Moross designed and a little selection of photos that Jamie took on the night:

We then did Lauren's Dad's opticians windows (got to keep the fam sweet) with the perfectly coincidental left over eyes. It certainly stands out down in Crouch End!

So we have already posted about Tip-Top but we went on to make our giant car souvenir which we can't show off just yet but it here are some of the delights that we collected. My faves were these bad boy Cliff salt and pepper numbers, they didn't get used so I get to keep them (yay) Lauren's most prized were the toadstools and swan egg-cups so buff.

Oh and here is a little photo that got away from the trip.

Right, next we collaborated with Jamie Brown on a commission by Becks to give the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch a makeover related to a song for 'Becks Futures'. We chose Love Cats by The Cure. It will be up for a month so go and have a look if you're in East.

Wednesday saw the annual YCN LIVE event in which we collaborated with our good friend Bryony Birkbeck to make a massive snow dome with a summer theme. We got the guests dressed up in inside to be shot by Jess Bonham for the YCN site.

We have been making a series of work for 125 Magazine that will be shot on Sunday. We are very excited about this so keep an eye out for the up coming issue.

Not forgetting to party, we also went to Carnival and Green Man festival!! No wonder I'm coughing an sneezing like mad!!