PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS ASKING ME IF I KNOW TYLER DURDEN

One of the greatest scenes from seminal counter-cultural macho fest Fight Club has got to be the one and only Tyler Durden burning the crap out of Ed Norton's hand with caustic soda in a male-bonding initiation ceremony so hardcore its almost homoerotic. Durden of course turns out to be Norton's merrymaking alter-ego and this is his first lesson in the very sexy dangers of soap production.

"this is your life and its ending one minute at a time..."

It was this brilliant scene I had in mind when I attended Melinda Coss's soap production course today in lovely, leafy Walthamstow. Melinda couldn't quite reach the same heights of hotness as Tyler Durden but she proved to be a wise old owl, having decades of soap making experience including a stint learning and teaching the craft in Africa. Melinda (above) and her lovely crew of ladies explained the delicious chemical reaction which occurs when caustic soda mixes with oil to create soap, like water into wine...(maybe not that good). Hence the requirement of the heavy duty industrial safety chic items below.

Melinda's course gave an excellent run down of the fundamental history and principles behind soap making as well as two attempts at the actual process, very messy and requiring an exacting precision to get the measurements correct. We made a basic batch with ylang ylang essential oils, then a batch experimenting with different colour pigments to create some pretty pastel swirly effects. It proved to be somewhat of a labour of love producing our own bespoke soaps...and it feels creepily satisfying to pour your heart and soul (not to mention risking third degree burns and potential blindness) into creating an object your lover will ideally be rubbing enthusiastically over his/her genitals at some point in the future. For more information on Melinda's courses check this link.  

SEASIDE SISTERS SOUVENIR SHOP, CLERKENWELL



Last night, my amiable friend Mr 'Craft Gives Me The Horn' Ginger and I headed to Clerkenwell creative hub Craft Central's pop up event, the Seaside Sisters Souvenir Shop. Exhibiting and selling an enticing array of kitsch, seaside-inspired vintage homewares and paper goods, the ground floor space overflowed with feminine retro charm, delicious home made baked goods and an extensive collection of nautical knick knacks.   

Including the charming and authentic seaside photographs above, the exhibition also featured tacky snow domes from various seaside ports, tea towels and other kitchenalia with retro nautical graphics. Customised handmade bunting, pretty cuddly toys and other cute, original gifts produced by the Seaside Sisters themselves were also for sale at the event.

The girls produce smart, iconic products reflecting an idiosyncratic, peculiarly British take on the seaside reflected in this great seaside rock cushion pictured above. The event attracted a lively crowd of creative eccentrics, dividing their time between checking out the fantastic wares for sale in the show and admiring the balmy late summer evening setting sun over Craft Central's warehouse rooftop towards St Pauls and Clerkenwell's Victorian buildings below. Read more about the Seaside Sisters collective and purchase their crafty wares here.

QUILTING

There appears to be somewhat of a quilting mania in London right now, with the V&A's imaginatively titled major exhibition Quilts: 1700-2010 running until July - in addition to the London Quilters' Exhibition 2010 currently showing at the Swiss Cottage Library. The V&A had some great historical examples but the Swiss Cottage show embodied a far more down to earth and contemporary take on the craft (see pics below).

Quilts somehow seem to become allegorical symbols for their makers. The traditional quality of the craft reflects centuries of domestic teaching between mothers and daughters, providing a nostalgic vibe into the mix for modern quilt makers, in line with the comeback of all things handmade. For some, quilting seems almost an obsessional practice, incorporating sophisticated designs and even names for each piece they produce. English quilter Hazel Ryder, quoted in a recent Guardian article suggested 'I think I need to make quilts. Quilting to me is like breathing - it is what I do. It is my way of responding to the world'.

British artist Tracey Emin, of course, remains heavily associated with the needleworking genre, customising this feminine form of expression to blistering effect in her 2004 work Hate and Power Can Be a Terrible Thing (above).  Her juxtaposition of stark, angry phrases with the pastel colours and kitsch floral designs of the fabric she employs epitomise to me the enormous gulf between the idealised societal expectations of femininity and the often brutal reality of what it means to be a woman today.

COLLAGE SCRAPBOOKS

I moved into a typical student houseshare when I was 24 - lovely people but I didn't have loads in common with two lesbians and a continuously stoned guitar-strumming hippy. It was a very communal house and I found the obligatory vegtarian korma dinners and trips to the local student pub quiz night constricting to say the least. The final straw came when my flatmates developed an unholy addiction to Dawson's Creek and every Tuesday they would gather round (even Stoner Dude emerging from his garret), to watch that god-awful programme.

It was around this time I started hiding up in my room making little collages to avoid the appalling spectre of the Dawson's love-in. Usually they featured images of my boss at the photo lab where I worked with his hand up a customer's arse or something similar. I had discovered John Heartfield's photomontages at university and loved their anti-nazi subversiveness as well as their stark black and white simplicity. I also liked punk artist Jamie Reid's imagery so heavily associated with the Sex Pistols aesthetic.

I've been collaging for over a decade now with something like thirty or more scrapbooks in existence, from fashion to interiors, Amy Winehouse to black and white imagery. It truly feels like a compulsion at times, with endless piles of tear outs from Vogue and god knows what other publications cluttering up my 'workstation'. Work created from magazine imagery seems to be an increasingly cultish artform, both easily produced and extremely accessible. Check out these two great examples : John Paul Thurlow and Nate Page

Images 5 and 6 courtesy of Google