Holly Wolfe Designs

Ollie on a paper cup

So as I sit here, in the big linen armchair in my lounge room, I am trying to think of a post title. Silly though, because I suppose, it's the content that matters more than the title. 

My big sister woke me up this morning with one of my belated birthday gifts. My birthday was December last year, so I can tell you all that looking at her through sleep smeared vision as I opened my eyes was entirely unexpected. Its so strange how time seems to accelerate over the summer and before you know it, it's a new year and time for work. 

The present was well worth the wake up call? Its a plastic cover for my phone, and its a BEAR! I think its adorable, and I cant wait to show all my friends just to see the horrified look on their faces. They generally smile and shake their heads (albeit lovingly) at my quirky fancies.

Speaking of gifts, I gave three of my close girlfriends a gift of one of my stitcheries over christmas. I find such peace in pulling a needle through linen and I hope that more people catch on to the soothing process of craft in future! 

 

The past few weeks I learned that all it takes is to get someone started and they will be hooked on sewing! I helped my friend kimmi (one of the gift-ees) press her transfer and fusing onto the linen, and showed her the basic stitches (which she somewhat knew already because she used to longstitch as a little girl) and she was OFF!

 

I recieved a text from her a week ago with this picture saying "lol, cant stop!". Im very excited that she loves it, she is a much faster stitcher than I! I find that I am always agonising over length of stitch, accuracy and regularity because my samples have to go into stores! I should just get back to enjoying the process. This stitchery is called bunnycakes, and comes with a table runner/mat pattern. It's so cute, I cant wait to get mine back so I can use it in my decor!

Foxy has been growling at me for quite a while now, insisting that I return to my blog. I assure you all that I am still alive, I have just been on a small hiatus over the festive period. I usually head to the beach in january and aside from that I find myself in a whirlwind of catching up with all the people I miss during my adventures. I have started working in the city again, I was quite amused at how the barrista heard my name yesterday:

I am working on a few projects at the moment, I cannot give details just yet but Im certain you will all be finding out soon! Heres my travel drawing book on the table in front of me, and my 'tool box' (nee pencil case)

Everything is sideways for some reason, but I like things that arent quite right anyway, so please forgive me for today :P 

 

I think I have found a post title!

 

Until the next time, and for my interesting-thing-to-share-that-isnt-all-about-me, have a look at this! Its a beautiful project that utilises the characteristics of wood rings and plays them like a record.

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

 

Whimsybewithyou!

Holly and Foxy

 

 

 

Hello There! (and other things that are far past due)

Hello there!

So the world for me went into an insane spiral of trade shows, interning and drawing, so I haven't posted in quite a while...

 

Okay, so my hideous lack of posting is mostly because I have to pay Typepad to keep foxy looking adorable on the side of this blog, and they closed my ability to post until I payed them (oh dear Holly Wolfe, you do get rather distracted when it comes to adjusting billing information!). I promise though, that you will now be hearing from me much more regularly, because foxy and I have oh so much to talk about and share with you!

 

 

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Firstly though, I need to make a few special mentions from my previous post's comments. All your words touched me very much and I cannot express how emotionally dizzy all of it made me! Sometimes I wish I could personally reply to every single one in a lengthy email (because I could waffle on forever to each and every individual one of you, which I am certain would be bound to exasperate someone!) but I cannot, so here are a couple I pulled from the last post :D

 

If my words are lovely, these are both touching and sublime. Thank you DW, I wont forget :) I admire that you are one of the few people who decide to dedicate every aspect of their heart and life to their children. People who decide to police your decision are forgetting that each person's life is their own, and that to decide that a person hasn't lived it the "right" way is a tad short sighted.

 

If I have learned anything from working in a design field, it's that every person has a different perspective. I remember overhearing a person commenting on one of my fashion pieces and saying that they didn't like it and was surprised at how little I was upset by it. The beauty of creating is that things are so varied, tastes differ and opinions change. It is because people like different things that the world is such a diverse place.

 

I think I appreciated that moment because I would rather everyone like different things and believe different things than to have a bland world that only held the same type of thing. Im sure we would all be incredibly bored and be just about ready to bludgeon ourselves to death with our embroidery hoops (or other object readily to hand)!

 

 

Hooray Rose! Maybe we should have an egg-off, and create a gallery of how many ridiculous and adorable faces that can be put on our old eggs? Foxy approves :)

Now that I think about it, I have been lax with egg duty lately... Someone else has been putting the faces on and they seem to be becoming a little bit uniform! So much so that I think one of them has fallen asleep in its boredom...

 

 

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For now, I will leave you all with this little tidbit which I think is a nice thing to share. I really love the background music to this commercial, but its also quite whimsical and cute. Its called "anything can fly" and the objects within it are actually flying. 

 

 

If you don't believe it, take a look at the accompaniment to this video, it details the passionate people who experimented with making these objects fly. I think that the altitude of the washing machine in some parts of the commercial may just be clever graphics, but the smaller objects are in fact very real :)

 

 

I would love it if I could make things fly around my studio, I have a friend who studies rocket science so maybe she could help me...

 

 

 

 

• A Brush with Nostalgia •

I dont really know how or where to begin this post, because I dont wan't to sound presumptuous or attention seeking, nor do I want to divulge things that should be expressed only in another's voice. So have a read of my mentor's post here, and you should have a pretty good gist of why I am writing this the way I am.

It seems the most important people in my life have been affected by cancer, and I have been understanding a reality where life is fleeting, ephemeral, and intangible.

I think having a phone with a camera in it is an amazing thing, I don't really go back over my albums, but when I do I am assailed by many things. A soft memory, a moment of sweet poignance, a curly giggly sensation from a silly situation. These can be encapsulated in the things we hold in our palms, and I have gone back to this in the past couple of days.

So here is a chronology of things, mostly for myself, but also to share in the diversities that living offers us.

 

This is me, an incredibly bored me waiting for the car to start moving again.  I run into things a lot at work, I bomp myself in the head, step on things I shouldnt, and am generally hazardous to be around when I am distracted by creative thought. I forget things sometimes, I remember strange things at other times. Foxy likes me because Im very quiet and like to sit quietly and draw when he is foraging.

 

I cant remember taking this photo, its underneath the stairs that lead to my bedroom and studio, where I create things for you to create too. I love wood, and antique things, that's an old telephone on the wall, it still works. I love urban exploration now, I think its a result of being brought up within a world of old mysteries. You should try it, have a look at an old or disuded building, and be in awe of its loneliness.

This is a beautiful sake cup from a japanese restaurant in Melbourne. They brought us a tray of different cups to choose from, and this is the one I selected. I wish all drinks came in a cup of your aesthetic choosing! This image gave me flashes of soft hued lights and towering archways of china town, my little cousin and my brother drinking plum wine and sake with me over beautiful food. Im sure many people would have a lovely memory of food and friends like this, it makes me happy to think of it that way!

 

I love how pink the sky was, and how still the air was, as though the world was having a lovely relaxed sigh at the end of a busy day. This day, we decided to go to the beach after work. I love the spontenaity of my friends, this beach is a generous hour and a half away from my home. Sometimes, we should all just go, not think of working the next day or sitting and worrying. Its a very hard thing to do, when you are stressed, I would know. I think this moment makes it worth it though.

These are the eggs after I have taken to them with a permanent marker, whenever we buy a new set, I volunteer for "face duty". I draw faces on the old eggs so we know which to use first. Does anyone else do this? I love eggs, I based one of my tailoring studios around them, and they're delicious :) This seems like a rather odd thing for past me to take a picture of, but I'm glad that I did, because I wouldnt be remembering this simple thing now.

 

This is a grasshopper that decided to hang out in my left shoe, I remember putting it aside somewhere safe and looking for a different pair of shoes to wear. My little cousin was outraged when he got wind of this, and told me not to compromise for it and squish it. I can imagine you already know what ensued, but in case you dont, I ran through the house holding my shoe away from my cousin, and set the hopper free.

I actually remember taking this image a while ago, just for this purpose. I didnt have a blog yet, in fact I was only just drawing my first range of stitcheries, but I remember that I was hoping that I would be able to share what I saw with other people. I liked the green of the ring, the soft of the spot and the black of my nails, people in spotlight must have thought me batty to shoot an image of my hand. Here you go.

This is- was a feather supplier in Sydney, I was there for the fashion designer I intern for, sourcing stock. I was mesmerised by the mismatched boxes filled with beautiful fluffy fronds of feathers, and by the narrow city building. The owner was terminally ill, and was closing business and selling the building. No one would buy the business because no one is interested in manufacturing things any more. This is why craft is so special, because in this world, things created with our hands is an increasingly rare phenomena. I remember feeling a small sorrow, and yet a renewed apreciation for the unique skills people can posess.

 This is my mother's car up in daylesford after she got excited at the plant stall of a market. I called her 'the crazy plant lady', but one day I secretly hope I will be as fun as she is :)

 

I will finish on this one, taken in Eden. We had spent a warm afternoon on the grass, laughing and watching the sky. The evening sunshine was beautiful, and the moon was so tiny we wondered if we could pluck it from the heavens.

 

These memories are dedicated to the notion that life, no matter how fleeting, can be so full of special things. From larger things, like trips interstate right down to the faces on the eggs, every person's life is unique and precious. While there are so many things that could be forever missed, those things can be forever loved in our hearts also. I give these memories to my mentor, and hopefully they will lift her heart.

 

Please feel free to share memories of your own :)

 

Until next time

 

HollyWolfe

 

• Busy Busy Sick Sick •

Do you ever get this horrible desire for more hours in your day? I am lately, I feel as though I'm being gobbled up by the timetable monster (He is okay, once you get used to his questionable odor and complete disregard for the things you need to do)

 

Not sure why I spent the last five minutes illustrating and scanning what he would look like, but there we go :)

 

Between my internship, designing (special project that I cannot divulge at this point in time, not even foxy knows!), and being sick for the past three weeks, I haven't found an awful lot of time to make new things to share. I have been working on a couple of things here and there though, and I promise they will exist! One day...

 

I still have to pick up my sewing machine from hospital as well, I thought it was missing a power pin, but it turns out there was something wrong with the pedal! I seem to have a lot of ill luck with sewing machines in general, does anyone agree that some people can just make a machine work?

I think sewing machines have an inanimate love for their true owner, Rosalie once gave me one of her old machines a few years ago, and it genuinely died of a broken heart! No amount of servicing made it right again.

The one I have now is an old bernina, it is incredibly steadfast, and likes me because it was a school machine. I suppose it didnt have a particular owner to miss!

I could be a tad looney, but it justifies my ill luck in some ways :)

 

Until Next time :)

 

HollyWolfe

 

 

 

 

• First Launch •

 

I am greatful for many things in my life, I know its a bit of an overworn cliche (although thats probably a good thing, I would like it if most people felt that way!) but its true. Amazingly, with much help, I have finished and launched my very first range of stitcheries!

You can find these in patchwork stores now, if you can't, then the store you are in doesnt stock my patterns! I would suggest buying some precious-es (what rosalie and I call anything craft/fabric/thread related) and having a nice drink before puzzling out where else you can find them.

 

 

boy and bird

I have heard some lovely feedback about these here and there, which fills me with a warm feathery feeling, as well as a squiggly feeling. The warm feathery feeling is for making things that you can enjoy, the squiggly one being the 'I have to make bigger better things to share now!' feeling.

 

It is a beautiful day today, the wind is rushing past the sunsoaked naked tree outside my window, and its making clacking sounds as it shivers. I would love to be outside at some point today, it reminds me of the 'where the wind sings' stitchery actually.

 

 

Foxy just glared at me! I completely didnt set that up, I promise! There is a naked tree outside my window and it is a stunning day. Maybe we should stop blogging and reading blogs. How about we have a nice cup of tea in the sun now?

 

Sounds like a plan!

If you would like to see more, you can head over to the wonderful rosalie quinlan's blog to check out the full range!

 

HollyWolfe

 

 

New • Beginnings

I was incredibly worried about how to begin this, I suppose its because you can sum someone up in the first few seconds of meeting them... well, in this case it's reading them.

If that theory was correct, a discerning reader probably pegged me in that first sentence as fretful, hesitant and alltogether too concerned about the lack of strawberry flavoured milk on my desk.

These things aside, let me stand up from this chair and introduce myself:

Hello, my name is Holly, and if you have already sunk your gleaming needle into one of my stitcheries, you probably know I like rabbits and the colour green. I am new to the world of creating for others- that is, I am new to being an "official" designer. Hopefully, there will be people like you to join me on this (hopefully) long journey of creation.

I am relatively young, but I find that is the beauty of this industry of creating, anyone can be apart of it. Whether you are a seasoned maker of beautiful things, or if you have never touched a piece of fabric and speak along the lines of "I'll stick this flossy stuff through the needle and start on the whatchamacallit now then". I am loving this oppertunity to share in those experiences through my patterns.

So who is HollyWolfe, where is she from, and why is she babbling about herself in the third person?

I suppose that is what this space is for, if you want to escape from your day, I will be here in the vast galaxy of blogland waiting to adventure with you. So come back here (preferably with a cup of tea, I LOVE tea, but any other beverage is fine) every now and again, and spend some time with foxy and I.

 

HollyWolfe