If you've been paying attention to all my gushing about various Dutch designers over the last year or so, you will know that my longest-standing professional design crush is for Dutch 'Eating Designer' Marije Vogelzang, and her incredible food design business Proef. Ahhhh I just can't get enough of her amazing work... from sugar crockery to food printed with messages in edible ink, to marshmallow installations, and cucumber 'pomkommers'... it's all too wonderful for words. :)


SO I was SUPER EXCITED to learn that Marije has a book coming out very soon... Eat Love is published by Bis Publishers and designed by Studio Kluif. It's available for pre-order here. (and of course I have pre-ordered...! Hope it's in English and well as Dutch...?).


Some page spreads below... can hardly wait to receive my copy!



Ps) if, like me, you were DEVASTATED to see that Marije's blog is no longer in existence, don't despair... I emailed Proef and allegedly their entire website is undergoing an overhaul... The new 'News' section will act as a kind of blog about Marije's latest news and projects. I will still miss the old blog though... :( All those great reference shots! Wish I had cut and pasted every single one....

Last week you might have noticed a new addition to the column on the right hand side - so I thought I'd take a moment today to introduce you to my newest sponsors! Oye Modern is an Australian online jewellery store based in NSW, with a fantastic selection of jewellery handmade by independent Australian designers. They ship almost anywhere in the world and take pride in offering a lot of limited edition and one-off designs, so you won't see anyone else wearing the same piece as you!

I love the Camera lens cuffs (above) by Re:Vision, handmade in Adelaide from discarded camera components, and exclusive to Oye Modern. Such a unique idea, and would look great on boys too!

Flamenco pendant necklaces from Sydney designer Melinda Young. Cute shapes inspired the ruffles of a flamenco dancer's skirt! I also really like this in cream.

More from Melinda Young - these stacking Bubble rings are so much fun! They also come in colourway 'fresh' (green/blue) and 'greyscale'.

A familiar favourite! - the pencil shaving necklace by gorgeous Melbourne jeweller Victoria Mason (long-standing readers would remember my interview with Victoria way back in February!).

Couldn't resist this gorgeous shot! How cute is the red/white bubble skirt... and those 50's seamed stockings? Best dressed at the market in my humble opinion. Fashion students perhaps?

Australia may be on the brink of recession there certainly was no sign of an economic downturn at the Melbourne Design Market on Sunday! As always, the turnout was incredible.... this has surely got to be the most popular design event in Melbourne.

Lots to see and buy, and its just so encouraging to see so many people out in force supporting local independent designers. Highlights above and below:


Lovely crocheted Christmas baubles from Ella Sanders (formerly Ellka, who I've featured here a couple of times...)

Great to see Ink and Spindle so busy! It was also lovely to finally meet the gorgeous Lara Cameron for the first time, after interviewing her by email earlier this year. The Ink and Spindle girls must have been so busy setting up their studio and preparing for the market... Do check out their website for more info and for some gorgeous shots of their stall before the crowds set in!

Lara Cameron's lamps, and the lovely lady herself on the right - LOVE her gorgeous skirt, made from her own fabric.

Was lovely also to meet Kate Bezar from Dumbo Feather... albeit very briefly :) Actually an interview is in the works so stay tuned ... :) She's one inspiring lady!


Graphic Design Studio Pip and Co were selling all manner of printed matter... postcards, notebooks etc... and I loved those mini tiny notebooks above! They do some really fantastic, interesting graphic work. Andrew Ashton from Pip and Co also was telling me about his blog.


Great handmade necklaces from Mucke, made from recycled and screenprinted T shirts (also available at Craft Victoria).




The incredible crafting-whirlwind Pene Durston was helping out at lighting designer Gregory Bonasera's stall (that's both of them chatting to a customer in the top image). How does she find the time? Below - one of Gregory Bonsera's latest ceramic designs.

Willy Karl Beecher is an incredibly talented Melbourne designer, and also a great friend of my partner Gordon. If you live in Australia and own a TV, it's more than likely that you've seen Willy's incredible work at some point... but you probably haven't spared a thought for the process and expertise required to create the stunning motion graphics he is responsible for!

Willy is a design director whose varied portfolio of work includes branding, art direction, graphic design and motion graphics for film, TV and commercials. Amongst other things, he designs and creates the superimposed graphics and effects you see in so many commercials and title sequences. It's work that often blends so seamlessly into the viewing experience, that you mightn't always notice just how involved this design process is!

Willy's clients over the years have included Adidas, the AFI awards, Herald and Weekly Times, Nissan, Mio and Village Cinemas. Willy also lectures in Illustration, Design and Motion Graphics at RMIT in Melbourne.

Please take a moment to watch Willy's incredible showreel below... Its like, WOW!

Bald Bowls by graduate Ben Landau is an interactive design project in which bald men cast each other’s heads in plaster, and then slip cast them to create bowls. The event grew from therapeutic sessions of bald support groups and includes art therapy theories. By creating something together, bald men can connect with each other through a unique process, and have an artefact to show for it in the end, which represents their acceptance of balding.

NOOK by Industrial Design graduate Henry Sgourakis is an exploration of knits and weaves from the ‘arts and crafts’ movements of the past 150 years, and is inspired by detailed lace work in original handcrafted doilies - henry@sgourakisarchitect.com.au

I have not yet been to see the RMIT Industrial Design grad show, but it's only on for three more days (ie this Friday - Sunday)... so I thought best to pop something up before the weekend so you have time to check it out!

The show is called Parting Line, and includes the work of 20 gradating students. The photos above were kindly provided by one of the exhibiting students, Liam Prescott.

The exhibition is at the gorgeous Guildford Lane Gallery which I wrote about recently... it's a beautiful space, so if you get the chance do take a moment to support these emerging designers and discover a lovely new gallery in the CBD this weekend!

The Guildford Lane Gallery
20-24 Guildford Lane
Melbourne 3000

Open Wed-Fri 12-9 / Sat-Sun 12-5

Pssst. Everyone's talking about it, so I'm sure I don't need to remind you, but the Melbourne Design Market is on again this weekend, just in time for all your Christmas shopping! (in case you need reminding what's on offer, my coverage of the last design market is here)

I'll be there, camera in hand...

Melbourne Design Market
Federation Square undercover carpark
(enter via Russell st extension)

10-5pm this Sunday Nov 30th
entry is free

I know I shouldn't play favourites but.... Kaori Katos' large scale folded paper sculpture entitled Nostalgic Memories really blew me away. Just look at that incredible folded geometric pattern. Beautiful.

Still on the end-of-year student exhibition trail, this week I visited the mammoth Victorian College of the Arts graduate show... that's photography, drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture and spatial practice, all under one roof (well, not strictly one roof, but all at the one campus!).

There is honestly so much to see, so if you're only going to get to one graduate show this year, this is the one to see. It's a real mixed bag, and not everything won me over - but amongst the mass of obtuse video art and various renderings of naked female bodyparts, there were some absolute gems. Much of the work is for sale, with price tags mostly between $100-$500 - money well spent if you consider that some of these graduates will be the Ricky Swallows and Patricia Piccininis of tomorrow!

Highlights above and below.

These delicious photorealistic oil paintings by Adrian Stojkovoch were so full of depth and rich colour. My surreptitious photo-taking really doesn't do them justice.... Up close those raspberries are just lush, thick strokes of colour! Amazing. Top - My most inspiring book, Bottom left - Beginning to colour (fish).

More from Adrian Stojkovoch - top left beetroot and endive salad (I think?), and on the right the stunning My Scottish mother's kitchen.

Memorial Projection mixed media and projection by Peter Thomas was one of the more memorable video art exhibits. The scale was grandiose, and I like the combination of projection and collage/mixed media.

Heavily politicised but lighthearted and almost comical in its aesthetic, Rachel Joy's works were the highlight of the Sculpture exhibition. Top - Rachel Joy's cardboard sheep (cannot find the name of this piece I'm so sorry!), and bottom A hard day at the office.

More political commentary from Rachel Joy - this is a handscrawled and almost illegible transcript of Kevin Rudd's apology to Indigeous Australians.


Interesting textured prints referencing motherhood and family by Glenn Dalton - top - imprints of baby clothes on textured printing paper. Bottom - nests of varying sizes rest alongside Dalton's prints. (must apologise again I have misplaced some notes with these titles).


I was pleasantly surprised to see the work of previous Design Files interviewee Amber Wallis on display! I love this layered paper collage.... again not done any justice by my swift and sneaky photo taking. I think its called Hauraki Gulf/Sing for my life ...?