Greenhouse By Joost.

Over the past months we've had the pleasure of sharing some ideas with the lovely Joost in the lead up to his great embarkment on the Sydney Greenhouse at The Rocks, Sydney Harbour.

He came to us with a concept for a duel purpose 'T-Bag'; a sturdy T-shirt that can also zip-up at the base for use as a bag.

We puzzled with the idea, until finally settling on the solution to re-use castaway print t-shirts, the kind made for one off community marathons or school fundraisers and never seen again.

Joost wrote us some cheesy down-to-earth puns for the re-print and we got to work. It's brilliant working with someone who in essence is so experimental with sustainable design.

Our inks are as ecologically neutral as possible, but demand for coal and root based pigments doesn't come by often enough in the industry.

Definitely recommend a look at the 360 degree view of the Greenhouse on Joost's site, Fantastic, just love the reused tyre parquetry floor.

Patchwork cushions

Ends of fabric rolls have been encroaching the corners of the studio and getting underfoot, so we've laid out these small yards of linen, cotton and damask to be used for patchwork cushions and quilts.

Close to our heart is the task of cherishing any piece of fabric possible, offcuts, remnants, samples and backing cloths have all found their way back into the day's design work. So often designs and new colour ways begin with some chance beauty found at the overlap of a print or the little stacks of edges left after cutting patterns.

Jeannette Mayne, began with Spacecraft years ago working her patch-working wonders into our studio offcuts to make the patchwork cushion one of our favourite objects.

studio - the angels coming together

I've been working with images of angels found in Melbourne, creating a set of twelve angels that will go into the stores first week in December. Although some have already found homes we'll show all twelve together before they go their separate ways.

I took the photographs after I found an idea in an old sketch book. I still can't figure out exactly what I was proposing to make, but I had a very enjoyable couple of hours re-reading the notes from Walter Benjamin's critique of a Paul Klee drawing of an angel and my thoughts on seeing the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire. That probably places the sketch book at around 1986 or 87.

Anyway, we're feeling very well looked after at the studio.

Melbourne Artplay 3D in Vogue

So nice to see the lovely people at Vogue Living enjoying our brand new Artplay 3D Edition of Melbourne. We hunted through some brilliant archives of major architectural feats in melbourne's early days to put together this little collection, from the experimental Exhibition building to the magnificent Harry Seidler.

The printed blocks are made from select pieces of door salvage, sanded and polished to reveal some extraordinary old growth timbers from British Columbia to Tasmania.

The Artplay 3D sets come in two sizes one with 20 blocks and the other with 10, they've become an obsession on the mantle of constant sculptural and architectural challenge that only lasts as long as the next visitor, one of our new favourite projects.

Prahran Market

Christian Wagstaff came up with an interesting idea for the spacecraft to create a kilometre of printed bunting to celebrate the end of winter / arrival of Spring at Prahran Market.

The Prahran Market has a great history and we've been working with some fabulous old images. The extensive lattice work ceiling is a perfect structure to weave the 1km of flags.

I'll post more images during the sewing and trial installations at the studio.

Backing Cloth Artwork / Basil Sellers Art Prize

Still a great feeling to get a new set of backing cloth paintings into store on a Friday evening.

It's been a big week, Jon Campbell at the Art Fair on Wednesday then Basil Sellers Art Prize kicked off at Melbourne University on Thursday. Kate Daw and I are off to Yuendumu very soon as part of our residency at the MCG which is also funded by Basil Sellers.Picture above of Cecily and Elsie Granites at the MCG last month.

( see earlier post )

You sense some people from the art community don't like the "winner" format but I love the competitive nature of this prize. It creates a very different dynamic for the evening, something genuinely akin to a sporting event. Kate and I caught up with Basil, Stephen Gough from the MCC and Chris McCauliffe from Melbourne Uni. who've been the key people involved from the start of this ambitious idea.

Basil's aim is to attract ideas and new work discussing contemporary Australian society using sport as a starting point. Speaking to people on the night you begin to realise it's going to be amazingly significant legacy.

I'll post a blog from Yuendumu and discuss the development of project in more detail.

exhibition continues until Sunday 18th August

Finally photographs of the Aesthetics of Saving exhibition installed. These images by Melbourne photographer John Laurie.

We were planning to bring down this exhibition on Monday 9th August, after the Art Fair and Saturday in Design. But we have some visitors coming over, so will now stay up until Sunday 18th August.

Thanks to everyone who has made to the show, great feed-back.

Could have sold the transformed chairs three times over but have now definitely decided to hold on to them, sorry.

We've decided to continue in the backroom and the billboard with a programme of exhibitions and events. We need a name for the backroom space and billboard combination, I've come up with nothing, so any good ideas would be appreciated.

If you haven't had a chance to get to the show it's on at spacecraft store south,

572 Malvern Road, open 7 days, Mon - Sat 9.30 - 5.00, Sunday 10 - 4.00 till Sun 18th August.