Rachel Collins, like many of us, was taught to knit by her grandmother. Unlike most of us however, who never got beyond pointless squares and gappy Doctor Who style scarves, she has gone on to be the creative force behind Selvage, a young company based in Crossgates, Fife which sells beautiful, supersoft Fair Isle blankets, scarves and cushions in the muted tones of the Scottish landscape. Rachel, who grew up
If you enjoy the work of David Shrigley you may like Hannah Richards, an illustrator, photographer and filmmaker who graduated from Brighton University in 2011. Her interests apparently include masking taping things to other things and drawing anything that comes into her head. You can contact her at hellohannahrichards@hotmail.co.uk
The project to bring a new museum and gallery to the ancient city of Dunfermline, which woefully undersells its impressive heritage, is making steady progress. The town was once Scotland’s capital and is the burial place of Robert the Bruce. It’s the home of Scotland’s only saint, Queen Margaret, and the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, the world’s richest man and father of modern philanthropy. It was once also a global
Utterly beguiling and very funny short film by David Shrigley for Pringle. He doesn’t really have a one eyed alcoholic son called Gerald does he? Until January, you can see new and recent work by David Shrigley at the Cornerhouse in Manchester in an exhibition featuring drawings, paintings, sculpture and never-seen-before live performance. Shrigley’s new book How Are You Feeling? has also just been published by Canongate.
Mexico’s Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is distinctly different from Halloween. It’s a festive, up-beat, family-centred celebration of friends and relatives no longer with us, full of rich and colourful imagery and also paper craft traditions and that’s what inspired paper printables experts Happythought to put together this party kit. The kit includes party invites and envelopes, coffin favor boxes, cupcake toppers and wrappers, sugar skull masks and bow ties, paper
Sonica, Glasgow first sonic arts ‘festival’ might be both flattered and bemused by Grazia magazine’s ‘brilliant but bonkers’ tag. But it does serves as a warning to those who are fairly traditional when it comes to visual art and sound. The brilliant bit is the radical nature and the theatricality of the performances. Lithuanian composer Juste Janulyte presents the Scottish premiere of her work Sandglasses (8 & 9 Nov, Tramway),
Odd sort Coco Chanel. For some the epitome of the self made, independent working woman who released women from the tyranny of the corset, for others an amoral, rabidly anti semitic social aspirant prepared to dance with the devil, or at least the Nazis, to achieve her ends. What nobody disputes however is her absolute genius for design and the enduring influence she had on her contemporaries and everyone after.
Watch the clip below of Lisa Marie Presley performing a track from her latest album Storm and Grace on American Idol recently and it’s clear this is the genuine version of the ersatz look and sound Lana del Rey’s Svengalis are trying to peddle. Sultry, grown up lady music – excellent stuff. The whole album, which Presley worked on with T Bone Burnett and Richard Hawley, is good and seems
The great John Hegley will be reading from his new collection Peace, Love and Potatoes this evening at the Scottish Poetry Library in Crichton’s Close Edinburgh. Tickets are £7. Hegley has long been a favourite with us at Avocado Sweet and this latest collection has all the whip smart-yet-vulnerable, simple-but-meaningful charm of his previous work: An Alien Address Do you have bendy buses or are you jet propelled? Do you
The people behind Basecamp Hotel in Lake Takoe California have grasped the idea that great style doesn’t cost much. Inspired use of design, colour and concept has resulted in a witty yet highly functional hotel which prefectly suits its lakeside, outdoorsy environment. Of course it has impeccable green credentials but it also offers deluxe bedding, high speed wi fi, flat screen tvs and XBoxes. There is orginal art on the