Good Design= Good Karma

My Christmas Tree

2011-12-25T23:13:00.000-08:00

I just love it. There's something about miniature things that drives most folks I know batty with love. This, here is my particular crush for the christmas season. Now with Christmas gone, I'm transferring it to my car dashboard, where it will remind me of my favourite time of the year. Adios and a very happy new year to you all.

In Love

2011-12-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

(I'm in love with my Bamboo pen. Teaching myself how to use it. Later.

And that adorable mouse pad is from Chumbak, in case you were wondering)

Auto Raja says 'Mind it!'

2011-12-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

(Chumbak bobblehead. Note: not removed his styrofoam scarf yet)

Auto Raja says, 'Mind it!'

Actually he doesn't say anything at all. But it was a good gift idea for Husband who initially grumbled that he spent a considerable time being irritated with auto drivers and here I was suggesting that he honour them with a place on the dashboard. Its a valid argument but he didn't fancy returning it, either.

The season of lights

2011-12-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

The Diwali terrace lamp that stayed happily ever after, way after the festival. Christmas beckons now.

Good Weekends are Made of These

2011-12-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

And capitalised headlines work, I see....

(That's called an Ice-breaker, by the way)

(Mmmmm, pink enough to eat..)

(And then munch break happened)

Friday Find: Get your Daily Monster here

2011-07-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have more time than ever nowadays for my random online meanderings so I thought its a good time to share my Friday Find. In case you've already heard of the Daily Monster, stop reading at once. *pause* Oh, never mind, read on.

Stefan G Bucher has been making these monsters for a while now and he's currently at monster no... (I've lost count) Suffice to say, Mr Bucher has been keeping them monsters coming. Aren't they quirky,wonderful fun?

Here's to the weekend

2011-06-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Until I buy that Canon camera that's been waiting patiently in my wish list (sometime middle of the month), you'll have to excuse the quality of my photographs. I painted this on fabric and haven't quite finished it- need to finish her neck down. This pretty much occupied my weekend. This and a full-day shopping expedition on Saturday with my best bud. We finished off the day with a well deserved foot massage so you can imagine how vigorously we shopped:)

What inspires you?

2011-06-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

What inspires you? Here's my list.

- Bright paint (rani pink, Persian blue and parrot green are good ice-breakers in case we are being specific)

- Good music (Alice Russell, Maroon5, The Beatles, Alexi Murdoch- not strictly in that order but they are on my playlist right now so maybe this is an unfair moment to judge. or not)

- The rains

- My dear departed camera (belonged to my last place of employment- I'm being soooo polite)- looking to buy one again

- My parent’s home in Kerala (holidays spent at home always give me the chance to hear myself think- and that’s usually a good thing)

(er, that's just the view and not the house)

I’d wanted to experiment a bit with my house, change things around, introduce a few new elements, nothing major just a few pieces of furniture here and there. I took these pictures to document this look- book that I was trying to create, with bits and pieces of things that inspired me and which I wanted to include in my home-décor experiment. I ended up taking more pictures than I expected to. Its only after I checked the pictures that I realized that we don’t always appreciate the beauty of the mundane around us.

My room isn't half as bad as I originally thought it was. It was almost....beautiful. I just needed to see it from the antiseptic lens of my camera to appreciate it. So nothing changes. For now.

Cheap Jack- Cheap thrills

2011-06-04T00:57:00.000-07:00

I've said this before but I say it again today- Cheap Jack is my all-time favourite Saturday dawdle stop. They have everything possible under the sun and even though its a little more expensive, its worth not having to run around to five different places for that one specific thing that you're looking for. I went there to buy some doyleys to use as stencils for some fabric art I had in mind, and I found these beautiful wooden cloth pegs. I've been looking for these forever for a picture hanger I wanted to create.

Red faced and getting older

2011-06-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This isn't an original illustration idea. Just so you know.

Friday night+ rain+ Edith Piaf + red fabric+ blue paint= a good enough reason to try fabric painting= I'm getting really old.

Yes, judge me. I'd still pick paint over going out. Anyway, we digress. I enjoyed this splash in red and I've only just started. I'm not very happy with how the fabric paint spreads on the cloth, need to work on the strokes. But then, that's why God made Saturdays. See you in a bit.

Hello, goodbye!

2011-06-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I had an open-air studio. It was bright lime green, painted by yours truly and rescued from an absolutely hell-hole existence. Actually we rescued each other- me and the studio in case you lost 'us' there. I needed the studio as much as the studio needed me. It was the lowest point in my life, at least one of them and my time at the studio gave me an escape I direly needed. And then as such relationships go, the monsoons happened, and we forgot each other. I got busy with work and neglected my studio space. As months passed, all the junk that I had so meticulously cleaned out crept right back in- forgotten marble countertops which no one has any use for (and yet no one will throw), old magazines, beer bottles, moss, lizards.

I don't think I can revive the space again- the monsoons are almost here but I do want to rent a studio space somewhere. In a space crunched city like Bombay, its hard to not judge someone who wants a space to "just paint." But the more I think about it, the more it consumes me. I don't have a massive bank balance but I think I could manage to rent a place somewhere far away for the peace and quiet it would bring. Looking for spaces and suggestions if anyone has any.

Tweet, you fool

2011-05-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm just feeling unduly chatty today which is why you have the honour of not one, not two but three blog posts (ok, so the third is sitting pretty in the Draft folder but it will get published one day)

I bought this beautiful handmade paper journal from a bookstore the other day, Its manufactured by Auroville Papers and they have the kind of dreamy journals available that convince you its ok to buy five copies even though you would be forgiven for thinking its criminal to write ANYTHING in even one of these. So I've made it my once-in-a-saturday journal.

Make me a snow globe

2011-05-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

What are we if not a sum of all the experiences and travels and snow globes from our lives?

Yes. I did say snow globes. No, I am not smoking.

I made a hasty promise to myself, in a vain attempt to document my travels to my older, retired self one day, that I would collect a snow globe from every city in the world that I visited. Not an original idea. There are far too many snow globes available at all duty free airport shops around the world for me to be the first person on earth to have thought of this. Clearly someone else has a head start. And I am only at snow globe number two.

At one point, I did get greedy and wonder if I should change the qualifying parameters a bit and ask friends to get me snow globes from their travels from more exotic lands.

But that wouldn't be in keeping with the spirit of the exercise now, would it? Now if Indian airports had snow globes for every city that I visited, I might start having a better day.

Keeping a journal

2011-05-15T01:22:00.001-07:00

I've spoken earlier about keeping a journal. I started one but never got around to updating it much. Nothing like a sabbatical to keep those journal juices flowing. Well, not technically a sabbatical but you get the drift...

I was in Kerala making the most of a 15 day break between my old job and the new one and found enough time to fill up the pages. I got inspired to start a journal after buying this book. Its filled with pages from illustrators and artists from around the world (well, mostly the US of A but never mind....) The best advice for me was the understanding that not every image has to be perfect, when you start out filling up your journal. Loosen up and enjoy the process. And that's exactly what I did.

Postcards from France

2011-04-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

My newest obsession- Postcards!! I bought them while wandering around the streets of Cannes last year. They were pretty much all I could afford:) Besides lunch, of course!

Yea! New Header Alert!

2011-03-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

New header alert, folks! I've sort of disliked my last blog header for the longest time, and finally found time for a change. Clicked a new picture, tinkered about on Photoshop and voila! here you go!
What do you think?

Christmas may be gone, folks but the feeling remains...

2010-12-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

I have had a really mind-numbingly, tiring christmas hangover after hosting a terrace-do for close family (plus one friend) on christmas night. Its the first time we've used the terrace since my husband & me got married (thats five years too late). Its the sort of thing we always spoke about but never got around to doing. This Diwali, however, I took up the task of re-painting the terrace all on my own. It took me about a week to finish the terrace (plus lots of paint smudged t-shirts and house gloves) but it was a lot of fun. Painting is a great stress buster, I loved it. I'm posting some pictures here of the terrace itself and after that of the christmas dinner table. Do tell me what you think, its quite a labour of love:)

Etsy hopping Continued....

2010-06-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

And while I'm browsing, here is another lovely little DIY project. It's the sweetest project, ever and one that I'm definitely going to tutor my little niece and nephew on.

Origami Waterballs courtesy the Hurried Homemaker. You can add tea lights through the string.

Image Courtesy: Hurried Homemaker

Etsy hopping

2010-06-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

So yes, I've been guilty of Etsy hopping during my work hours. Absolutely not recommended. I tend to lose track of time and my to-do list wilts away in neglect. Etsy always manages to get me into such an inspired get-to-it-now craft mood, very ill advised for work hours. Anyway, since I've already admitted my folly, no harm in sharing these links with you. I got here through a fellow Etsy-ian who blogged about the stuff that she makes.

Check out the how to guide here for making the paper shirts & here for the wallets. That's what's so beautiful about the fellow craft community online, always so willing to share what they know.

Aren't these yummy? Courtesy Martha Stewart.com

And these, too! Courtesy Lola Nova on Etsy.com

I love hairbands, how did you know?

2010-05-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

I made these over the last few days, with ribbon and a few shell buttons. Like? There's more from where that came...

Platter, Platter burning bright...

2010-05-05T06:43:00.001-07:00

Coming back from the woods

2010-05-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

The only downside to having lots of ideas that you can't wait to get cracking on, is not having the time to see them to completion. That's mostly when mundane things like one's day job gets in the way of one's love affair with one's studio (as I am prone to snobbishly refer to my 2 cmsX 2cms terrace space)
So I've been toying with a number of different things over the last few weeks. I've tried my hand at creating hair bands (some fancy, some sloppy), cloth bags with some element of drama and of course, my little platters that I've posted on, before. Besides these, there are a gazillion ideas in my head, that I need to find time to jot down and ensure that they're fulfilled.

Tiny thrills

2010-04-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

I love miniature things, and many of my girlfriends confess to sharing that weakness for tiny, objects that you can do nothing particularly fascinating with, but you still want to own. I bought these miniature little ceramic platters without a clue as to what I would eventually do with them, at a local exhibition recently. I bought 12 and finished painting all of them in one sitting.

Here's the first five that I liked. One slipped and broke (after I finished painting it) and I experimented with the other six. Now, what would you use these for

Plain Vanilla Design is on Etsy!

2010-03-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

Plain Vanilla is on Etsy (yay! *little jig*) I've been wanting to set up shop on Etsy simply because I love the site and the spirit behind having such an encouraging and inspiring community. I can spend hours poring over all the lovely stuff you can buy. I'm still trying to work out shipping costs, though. They are quite a deterrent. Maybe that's why I haven't seen too many Indians on Etsy. Does anyone know how to get around to cheaper shipping rates to countries like USA etc? Would love to hear some good news there!

Meanwhile, here's a link to my Etsy page. Do drop by, whether you're just curious or happen to be a friend who got coaxed into checking out this link:)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlainVanillaDesign

I heart watercolors...

2010-03-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

It's back to watercolors for me. It was triggered by this book 'The Illustrated Life' that I ordered on flipkart recently, which features interviews with artists, graphic designers and illustrators who have shared their journals in the book. It's a snapshot of their personal world which they've sketched over a period of a few years. I loved dipping into the book and seeing each of the artist's personal take on events that take place in their daily life.

Been a while

2010-03-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, how have you been? I've been guilty of neglecting this blog for a long time now and I plan to make amends. I've been busy with back-to-back work and during long periods in office, was toying with the idea of turning a waste corner on my terrace into a studio space for me.
So I started Project Makeover (very original!) a week back. The corner isn't done, there's a lot left to convert it into what I have planned but I couldn't wait to share these pictures. Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm to get started, I forgot to take a picture of what the corner originally used to look like, before I began painting it. Suffice to say it was terrible. What do you think?

Holidays

2009-10-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Let not anyone say I was idle hands during the holidays. Actually, a lot of my friends have well meaningly given me an earful about letting my blog flounder like this while life goes on. True, true, I have been a bad, bad blogger, not posted anything for days now. I was traveling first and then painters block (hereon, to be known as P.B) took over.
I have spent the last few days of the Diwali weekend well and have some progress in ridding myself of P.B.
Here's some of the work.

Sold my First piece!

2009-10-12T22:33:00.001-07:00

Hello, hello, I've sold my first piece, the tissue box below. I have never repeated any designs, but in this case I might make an exception. I am working on a new colour combination for the same design. Will keep you posted.

Remnants of a holiday

2009-09-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Meet Joe and Oe

2009-09-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

As promised, the octopus family got their colours back and were re-united with each other. Which one do you like better? Joe or Oe?

Drowning in a sea of transcripts...

2009-09-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

I am drowning in a sea of transcripts; seven of them & all need to be decoded for this B-I-G feature that I am writing. My deadline is tomorrow. And all I can think of doing right now is Paint. (*sigh*) Its a cruel world. Of course, its my own propensity to push articles till the absolute last minute that has created this chaos. I doodled this octopus from a watercolour sketch that I made a year back. and it takes all my latent will power to tell him to wait for his moment- it will come, octopus. tuesday follows monday. I am munching pakoras and listening to prose about the advertising business and ferociously tapping away at the keyboard.

From Amsterdam with love

2009-09-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

I picked up this tin doll on a trip to Amsterdam last year. I love the details; the earmuffs, the fur pom-pom and the skates... When you are paying for things in Euros, you pretty much assess everything from a need- or-not point of view. She was just so adorable that even though I had no particular use of her, I just had to buy her.

Pink is a four letter word

2009-08-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Sundays are for sketches

2009-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've fallen back into love with watercolours...Its incomplete, I still need to work on the outlines and some of the white edges

Dragonfly Reality

2009-08-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I don't particularly like dragonflies in real life but I love drawing them

Marigolds and Moi

2009-08-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

There is just something deliciously decadent about marigolds. I just got back from a trip to Kerala for a family do and one of the most important tasks that my mum put me up to, to keep me busy, was to delegate the task of buying the flowers for the function. My driver, knowledgeable about most things in the city (I swear, he had a friend at each of the shops that we went to), promptly took me to THE place for flower shopping in Palakkad. Hidden away in an unremarkable part of the city, the flower market was a matter of fact and business-like kinda place. The marigolds were just strewn around. They were beautiful, of course, its just that it was obvious that by the end of the day, they would pretty much be lying in the dump, a few yards away.

The flowers above are lotus pods, they are called taamara in Malayalam. The flowers were beautiful, yet the place itself was the grubbiest that I have seen for a while. Says something about beauty and ugliness co-existing all around us, I guess.
The lotus pods were gorgeous, and I picked up a couple, though, I had no particular use of them. I just felt happy having them to keep with me.

Doodle & Three

2009-08-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

I carry a doodle book around sometimes. And these were a result of sitting through some exceptionally boring seminars that I just could not get out of. Time well spent. I started doodling in the notebook initially because I happened to like the feeling of sinking the rich black ink of this signature pen into the checked, clean white pages of the Rubberband notepad.

(Please click on the images, if you are not able to read the text)

When black & blue isnt such bad news...

2009-08-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

I made these yesterday and have decided I am going to make some more in this series by experimenting with other colour combinations. Brown and pink is a set I adore using, as is blue & orange, perhaps? White & Red?

Watercolours

2009-08-26T03:04:00.000-07:00

These are some of my early water colour prints, I made these before I started painting with acrylic. Thought would share some of them here.

And some more....

The idea was to use these as framed art, besides photo-transferring them on to fabric for other purposes.

ps: on holiday in kerala

2009-08-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to upload posts from my CrackBerry, but for some reason it is not working. No idea why, though i've tried figuring this out with help from other friends. Think Wordpress works better on the berry.

I've left my suitcase containing my paints and art material back in bombay (long story...), left my books back at home and now all I have is the most awesome view and zero stuff to do. not complaining though...its not everyday that you get to sit at a window, doing nothing but staring out at an enormous mountain in front. shall post pics soon...

Meet The Coaster Family

2009-08-18T09:11:00.001-07:00

I made this set of three coasters, but the third one didn't quite live up to expectations so I haven't included that one here. Coasters are time consuming because they require so much detailing but I enjoyed making this particular set. I have realised that on days that I don't have much patience with detailing (and there are days such as those...), I stick to quickies such as the one below. On second thoughts, I think this one is little sloppy because the rings don't fall in a symmetrical number. I don't think the pictures do the coasters above justice, but until I get a cooler camera, I am afraid this will have to do...

As Promised, my tissue boxes

2009-08-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

As promised, my tissue boxes. I have been building a sizable number so that I can eventually exhibit them. Since each of these take a while and each is unique, (I haven't yet repeated a design), I have been slow. I had exhibited a few pieces at Otters Club last year at the Sunday Bazaar and realised that you need to have a good number before people take this stuff.

Framed and loving it, and other cheesy headlines

2009-08-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

My walls are in danger of being overrun with posters and frames of all kinds. There are movie posters, personal pictures, and very few (fortunately so:) hand painted art.

These prints we picked up on the streets of NYC at a flea market and happen to be current favourites.

Democratic office spaces

2009-08-17T01:28:00.000-07:00

The one thing that has always struck me about offices in India is how bereft of inspiration we seem to be, when it comes to decorating office space. Obviously not many people read the chapter on how office space can boost productivity. Is there an unwritten rule that says space has to be gray, boring and as antiseptic as possible?

On a trip to Amsterdam last year, I was struck by how warm and welcoming ad agencies were. The picture above is the exterior of VBAT, a branding consultancy based in Dam. The interiors are just as striking. So some people may dismiss stuff like this as posturing but I agree with the thought that the posturing is as important as the action itself. And VBAT is well known for their branding work.

The picture below is of Amsterdam Worldwide (formerly strawberryfrog), its their jamming corner.

and of course, the office of Kesselkramer (below) is well known for being radically cool. I thought the fact that they were housed in a church was different, until I found out that Amsterdam has so many abandoned churches that these have been let out for commercial use.

I have favourites, too

2009-08-16T00:45:00.001-07:00

I love this tray, don't think I will ever sell it. Its pink and girly and all that, yet, my husband who generally has an unusually high allergy to anything remotely fuchsia, liked it enough to declare that I must not sell this one "under any circumstances."

Random Inspiration

2009-08-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to write about Plain Vanilla for a while now, and find time to start blogging regularly. I thought that would in turn prod me further on going out there and taking my painting more seriously. But laziness is an all-pervasive disease that takes time to shake off.

I stumbled upon Vineeta's blog by accident and loved pretty much everything in it:) and was inspired enough to mail her and ask her how she manages to find the time between a full-time job and her painting.
She mailed me back promptly to say that my mail reminded her of how she herself was, a few years ago, and proceeded with some sound advice on time-juggling. Thanks Vineeta, plan to put that into practice.

I started by doing illustrations. I didn't do much with those, they are still lying in my big black portfolio jacket. Shall post some of them. The reason I had stopped painting for a long while in between was a mindset (hard to shake off) that said that every painting had to make a point. It couldn't just exist for no reason. I've never trained formally, but always enjoyed doodling.
I started little illustrations to begin with, baby steps. Eventually, I got bored of paper and moved to wood.

Coasters

2009-08-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

No such thing as too many boxes....

2009-08-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

I have been working on these for a long time now, trying to build up a sizable number, but since I generally get down to working on them on weekends, it is taking a while to build up a respectable number. Here are a few from the ones that I have completed so far. These are obviously simpler than my hand-painted stuff, but I enjoy making them, too.

My friends of old

2009-08-15T14:45:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favourites. I do most of my painting on weekends, with the music on ear shattering levels and no one else in the room. Say hello to Sparky 1 and Sparky 2.

Been a while....

2009-08-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

I find inspiration in the most mundane places sometimes. And sometimes I don't get it at days on end. I find it browsing through craft stores, through a two year old magazine, on a random blog I stumbled across, or on some lace that I picked up on a whim, too.
Because of my paranoia that I would throw away a perfectly inspiring image by mistake, I had got used to never throwing away any magazine that I bought. That was a bad idea, of course, because soon I had more magazine than the space to keep them.
So i ended up tearing away precisely those pages that had something special on them and filled these into a folder. Of course, in time, these folders got bigger and bigger and more numerous in number. Until one day in a fit of impatience and a particularly long interval of no inspiration, I threw away the entire folder(s).
I have a particular fascination for shoes, though I admit, I haven't quite mastered the finesse required to paint them. I am trying to use these as inspiration for some of my hand painted tissue boxes. Shall keep you posted.