We love Bela Borsodi’s photography of busty balloons.

Balloon-a-licious!

Yesterday the team checked out this year’s Pick Me Up at Somerset House. As per previous years it was a riot of fun, colour and noise (thanks to Heavy Pencil). 

There was tons of brilliant illustration on show, but a personal highlight was the work of Malika Favre (not just because it depicted the Kama Sutra!) but because the simple shapes and limited colour palette created something rather beautiful!

Above Images from www.malikafavre.com

See more brilliance here.

(Source: rubbishmag)

Illustrations by Steve Simpson.

Design legend, international treasure, long-time muse of David Hockney, Londoner, Mrs Ossie Clark, there is much to celebrate when it comes to Celia Birtwell. Her new fashion collaboration with Uniqlo was unveiled yesterday in London’s hectic Oxford Street to much excitement and applause.

Celia’s aesthetic is beautiful, mischievous and optimistic. Her art is otherworldly, her textiles are magical whimsies that somehow bring an aura of sunshine to rooms, dresses, boulsters and bags. We believe she might even be a fairy from rainbowland, bringing us bounteous joy through her designs [yup, Mrs Rubbish has a giant #fashioncrush on CB…can’t you tell?]. 

The RUBBISH Interview with the sub-conscious mind of Celia Birtwell is by Jenny Dyson

What can you hear?

I can hear radio four, which I listen to a lot. I like the Today programme in the morning. It wakes me up. I live with someone who’s very bookish and listens to the radio. I get all my news between seven and nine in the morning. With the radio, you can absorb all the intelligent conversation. When I’m designing, if I listen to music that piece will come back and revisit me while I look at the design and think of the setting in which I created it. It’s a rather odd experience.

Shut your eyes and what do you see?

A warm glow and a longing… to open my eyes and see again.

What’s on the shelf?

Books and cards. I’m finishing Thomas Hardy:  The Time Torn Man by Claire Tomalin. What a remote man he was.

Who is with you?

Andrew, my partner. Also, Jubilee my ginger cat who is a bit of a pain. We moved last summer and he’s absolutely terrified of a black and white cat who comes to the back garden. He sits and watches but keeps forgetting how to get in through the catflap so you have to open this bloody door for him. I love looking at cats, but I’m not a cat person like Andrew. I’m not in that league. I love to see them move about and I like the independence of them. I think humans connect with a dog much closer. I had a poodle called Beaulah. She was adorable. You have a real sort of bond with a dog. With cats it’s all about them. With dogs it’s all about you. 

Which bits of the brain do you use the most?

A good eye has led me through life, and has led me to meet other people with a good eye. What I notice is many people don’t see. I find light really affects me. I find the uniqlo shop lighting a bit white and a bit bright. I also use my imagination. My work comes from within me. I hope that the characters I create, like my little beasties, are quite harmonious and joyful. I feel that vision part of my brain is quite a gift.

What’s behind you?

My whole life, but I always like looking forward. Behind me is there, but it’s gone. I have friends who hark back to their youth, but I find that rather sad because I find all life interesting. I find it healthier to look forward. I’ve got quite a crazy past, with plenty of ups and downs, but it’s a journey, life, isn’t it? This obsession with youth and everything, it can’t be created for you. You just have to go through all ages. My career with fashion has made me very aware that as you get older, the industry is mainly to do with youth. Youth seems to be when you’re at your most beautiful. And everybody sees you as being beautiful but you can’t see it or enjoy it at the time. There is that famous saying, that youth is wasted on the young. I’ve got grandchildren who are just adorable. The older you get, young people get so much more beautiful. I like to design things for my own generation and it falls on deaf ears. People with youth and beauty don’t necessarily have money to spend on fashion. You have to struggle when you’re older because you’re not going to show off all your bits and pieces, but you still want to look gorgeous. You just have a more measured take on it and appreciate quality. I believe that in the eyes of fashion, we become invisible as soon as we are no longer youth. And that’s a shame and rather idiotic, considering the older generation are the ones who have the money to spend.

What’s beside you?

I’d like to think my grandchildren. I have six. They all came in a big flurry. They don’t call me granny. I’m grandma. With the word granny, I don’t like the ending. I prefer Grandma. It’s so much more majestic. 

What’s above you?

Above me and beyond is the unknown. And I hope it’s exciting.

What’s below you?

A void. 

Where are your worries?

Everywhere. I am a worrier. I try not to do it. If you don’t worry, then you can be a bit stupid and miss the important bits you should worry about. On the other hand you can overdo it on the worrying front and it’s your imagination playing overtime, so that’s to be reigned in sometimes. The spiritual side of our lives has been diminished greatly. It’s quite hard to have a faith. I watch this new pope and I think how long will he last because he’s a humble, sweet man. Power produces the opposite.

Where are your fears?

Fears are the usual ones of things going wrong in my family. I have loads of fears; the whole world is full of fears. You try and centre yourself and think how fortunate you are, because the fears are all around you. You can’t hide from them with all the technology everywhere, showing you the dark side of the world. We would never have seen those things before. The world’s getting smaller. I think that’s why there are so few great living artists. Hockney portrays the world as he feels it. Not just how he sees it.

What is your idea of happiness?

To be surrounded by my family, living in a nice house, nice weather, sunny, not too hot, spring like, cooking and having a nice meal with them. 

What does misery look like?

That’s too dark to describe. You have to keep away from that as you don’t want to get morose. Misery is just horrid.  

What is your favourite place?

We’ve got a tiny cottage in Shropshire with a beautiful garden. We’ve only had it three years and it is pretty fabulous. It’s a big contrast to life in London. It’s remote and on a hill. The garden is a third of an acre, so everything behaves itself and the lady who owned it before used to have pigs so everything grows and it’s so verdant.

Describe your perfect room:

I had a perfect room before I moved, it was my sitting room which was red, with lots of mirrors. I quite love French architecture. The old red room was a very, very beautiful room. You can’t do up a room quickly. It takes a while to create. You do have to wait and look at the light and get the feel of the place and make it very personal. 

What shape is your mind?  

Heart shaped

What are your hobbies?

I garden, I don’t have a very regular routine in as much as I don’t have to go to an office to do my work. I quite like shopping, seeing what’s going on, going to junk shops in and architectural salvage.

And I do like going to museums, especially to the V&A. I really like my work so much. I’ve just designed the winter collection for Uniqlo so it’s an adventure to watch things develop from this season to the next.

What do you collect?

Anything that I can’t resist, if I can afford it. I have a nice collection of objets d’art, from car boots and expensive places. I always like to have fresh flowers in the house. I’ve got a nice collection of lamps, so an eclectic mix. I’ve probably got too many of them really. And mirrors, because they give space and add volume to a room. 

What colour are you most drawn to?

I suppose it must be red. I don’t know what it is…I used to think I liked blue more, but I’ve always had a red room. I like its warmth. It’s very cheerful. 

Do you have recurring dreams and do you recall any from your childhood?  

I don’t think I do. I love dreams. Sometimes they’re rather scary and in the afternoon I love how they come back to you. I think they’re very strange, dreams. They can be almost so true. I think they’re more to do with what’s going on in my life. I don’t like to analyse them too much. 

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?

From very early on it was noticeable. One of my first memories is of drawing these little figures, sitting with my aunt and my cousin at a brown square table in their house in Manchester. 

Playtime is…

Having free time to do whatever takes my fancy.

What is your earliest memory?

Playing in the garden in my home. I also remember falling down a big hill in Lime Park and thinking I was dead, then waking up beside a pool filled with black catfish with whiskers swirling around and people coming round me to see if I was alright. 

If I were an animal…

In the wild, I would like to be a tiger. They are untouchable and supreme. In the home, I would be a poodle. Poodles don’t smell like dogs, they have lovely little curly hair and can look like a lamb.

Celia Birtwell’s collection is available here. Here’s a little taster: 

 #styledincelia 

Without wanting to put ourselves out of a job we thought we’d bring www.trendlist.org/generator to your attention. Choose between the carefully selected on trend typefaces, colours and graphic elements (e.g. The Slash / ‘Maybe the most trendy shape ever.’) and in just a few clicks anyone can create a super-duper cooler-than-cool poster to adorn your walls. 

While this little bit of fun brings a smile to our face, the site does also include a large amount of interesting content about past/current design trends, design studios, designers and how design differs country to country.

Send Jim a letter, he’ll paint it, in Paint…literally.

Dear Jim,

Please paint me a bat in a leotard being distracted by a violin sticking out of a rainbow coloured bottle bank next to a three legged toffee crisp holding a mushroom and half a wasp. In the background is a turtle having a tennis lesson, and an upside down Taj Mahal covered in ears.

Thanks,

Darren Harvey

Dear Jim,

Please paint me a guinea pig version of Burt Reynolds on a sun lounger being served drinks by Hulk Hogan wearing only the top half of a tuxedo.

Thanks,

littlecthulhu

Send in your requests here.

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

Yummy!

Photos by David Schwen

Vaguely Rude Place Names of the World

Click this link to see more

Love this idea from Anya Hindmarch

and it is so amazing we put the whole thing here!

To see more of Hallie Bateman’s great work click here.

Just can’t find the help anymore…

See more examples of fine craftsmanship here.

RUBBISH loves a bit of greenery so today we are celebrating photographer Heidi Voet’s fantastic work. Definitely some fresh veg to accompany the meat.