Keeping art fresh

The joy of tupa ware. 
The equal joy of slip cast porcelain.
And finally, the joy of art!

The weight of creativity

Once it could said that Redfern Street in inner Sydney was always a little on the thin side 

for a place to take a coffee and have a chat with friends or locals. 

And then a shift occurred in the hood.

An explosion of cafes, restaurants, and wonderful new stores full of beautiful pre loved things appeared.

The cafe COFFEE, TEA & ME opened in 2011, helped changed the sense of the hood for the good, better, best.

The first inventive cafe furniture of Coffe,Tea and Me, was a delight. 

Interesting people taking theircoffees, sitting on the most charming pre loved, pre used objects that work very well _
An old wooden ironing board serves as a table for four, bicycle seats that have been placed on top of stools, kindergarten tables and chairs
all offer you a place to sit and watch the hustle and bustle of the street. 

Now one can find small tables made of old bathroom scales anchored securely to metal legs.
Yet another charming, witty simple idea. 

Coffee, Tea & Me 93B Redfern Street, Redfern Sydney.

e:www.coffeeteaandme.com.au  t:02 9008 7121

Why make it straight?

Walking through the back door of this unloved 1940’s dark brick block of flats we find ourselves in a calm serene nest.  

Is this the space of a bower? Full of shells, flowers and feathers, discarded plastic items, lamps, chairs of an eclectic nature and a beautiful piece of Murano glass.

Melissa’s holds the ability to turn negative into a positive or less than ordinary into extraordinary.

As long as we’ve known Melissa, and we’re known her for a long time, she’s always had ‘An eye’ for detail. 

For those beautiful things that others would look past. 

Each room has emerged from an unloved or discarded piece that she found, felt and fitted. 

Its about the landscape of the room which captures our delight and interest, rather than the outlook from the windows, as most rooms look onto a mirror image block of flats.    

So the afternoon we visited the winter’s sun was filtering through the windows filling the space with a sweet calm light. 

In the kitchen calico white curtains cut uneven like a cityscape framed the succulents that sit on the window-sill. 

The main bedroom had the most captivating solution to a broken fly screen – with inexpensive nylon black lace stitched onto it.  The effect was seductive.

When we enquired about the interesting, inventive window treatments Mel had created, her response was “Why make it straight?”

She is absolute correct.

Good Vibrations : Harmonious Orange

A ubiquitous colour in interior design and homewares of the 1960s,

orange is a colour that divides the world, 

ironically as it is the symbolic colour of unity and harmony.

Invite orange into your every day.

Tarlo and Graham : A Rosie Touch

Shiftazine loves Melbourne…especially Fitzroy. When Shiftazine’s feet hit the pavement of Gertrude Street after a too long an interval, it was like being home.

The store fronts, the contents inside the store fronts, the ‘too many things to love’ stuff that jammed the fashion stores, let alone the galleries,
the cafes, object’art and tat stores, all filled shiftazine’s giddy glaze.

It was like wearing rose tinted glasses, as even the posters on walls, the wallisms, and the graffiti are all worthy of a gallery exhibition.

There is one store amongst the kaleidoscope of this area that stands alone in its sense of style and curation.

Tarlo and Graham sits closer to Smith Street than Brunswick Street. 
It occupies a fine Victorian building, which has seen better days, but still generates a sense of grandeur.
It is what is within the ever-changing landscape of this establishment that excites and inspires.

Behind the counter a delightful rosy haired woman, called Rosie greets you.

It is her eye and deft touch that takes these disparate pieces from past times

and combines them into a tableau of the contemporary.

It is not just the object, full of its own history, that will bring the ambience to a space, it's the way one creates a dialogue between the arrangements of objects and furnishings,
and Rosie has that touch.  

Tarlo and Graham 202 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065 Phone:(03) 9417 7773

International Womens day : She always felt safe

In 2018 women all around the world are still striving to ensure that this statement will be a matter of fact rather than a shared wish.

It is up to us, the women of this world, to make this so.
But we look to the males of this world to make our task easier by becoming our partners in this incredibly important, essential shift in attitude.

Happy International Women’s Day sisters and brothers.
Peace, respect and love to all of us.

The beautiful ceramic featured in this article and the inspiration for it was created by Myfanny Gullifer.

You can see more of Myfanny’s wonderful work at King Street Gallery, Sydney.

Life is a series of moments embedded with Joy

Our lives are a series of moments which turn into memories and lessons and insights that become embedded within us. Joy is spread through those memories. 

Celebrate the tiny things that bring you Joy on 25th November every year.
But maybe it would be cool to celebrate Joy whenever we think about it or experience it.

"old school" is not a crime

There is something about a lovely, ‘old school’ sink and tiles that speak to me on a hot, hot day. ‘
'Old school’ anything can possess a charm that simply cannot be reproduced.

It saddens me greatly to see these beautiful domestic objects get ripped mercilessly out of houses during renovations, and just thrown into skips.
Never or rarely given a chance to live on, functioning as they were designed to.
‘Old’ is not a crime.

Just can't forget Berlin: Colours of Berlin No.6

It is impossible to forget Berlin.
The constant kaleidoscope of details one observes makes me think that Berlin is more like the Solar System than a city.

And just like the Solar System, there are different culture planets that all orbit around the heart of this amazing place.

Each culture planet is a world unto itself and thus, there are many ways

one can perceive a ‘treat’.

Take for an example, both bubble gum from some slightly worn gum dispenser marked with the going dialogue of the street all over it,

or a selection of delicate, old school sugary hits, served up in a refined tea room or café, deliver the same desired effect of reward and treat,
depending on the culture planet one is from.

The most amazing thing about Berlin is that these culture planets live side by side, cheek by jowl, overlapping forever.