when my boyfriend peter and i are together we must look pretty funny. he’s always in his black or olive green (maybe even brown) rockin’ guitar god gear and i’m in my technicolor 60s/70s mescalin-fuelled dream coats. under those crazy opposite looking things we’re very much the same, but you can imagine my surprise when our worlds collided this morning and he shared the work of sean yseult with me. i’ll let him fill you in on her background:

sean yseult

I first became aware of Sean Yseult in the early 90s. White Zombie were on the cover of a magazine called Guitar School (don’t look for it, it ain’t around no more) and even though their guitarist J Yuenger was pretty cool, Sean was even cooler. The hair, the clothes, the sticker-covered bass… all awesome. What made her super-cool to me though was that in addition to her driving bass style, she also had a background in visual design (the internets tell me she earned a degree in graphic design from Parsons The New School for Design and also studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts). As a musician I’ve always been pretty visually motivated (‘Dude, that guitar sound is pretty sweet but it needs more vermillion and an iridescent topcoat’) and and I tended to gravitate toward musicians with a history in the visual arts. By the way, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were all art school guys and they were all in The Yardbirds. Neat.

After White Zombie split in up 1998, Yseult played bass in a variety of bands, including Famous Monsters, Rock City Morgue and even a stint with The Cramps. She now divides her time between New York City and New Orleans, and parcels her creative energy out between playing music and designing scarves for her company Yseult Designs. By the way, she’s also putting the finishing touches on a book, I’m In The Band, which will be out in early December through Soft Skull Press.

thanks, peter! pretty awesome lady, right? well, set your faces to “drool” when you see what she’s up to these days, creating gorgeous psychedelic scarves:

ah they’re too cool! its not often that you see good contemporary psychedelia and these really do it for me. there is enough of that awesome peter max/pucci inspiration to give them vintage cred, but also the hand-drawn style gives them a contemporary edge. click here for more designs and information.

are you new to draw! pilgrim? or maybe you just missed a few posts? step into the time machine and travel with me back to february to see a handful of fun things from er.. yestermonth:

i shared the vintage nonsense poetry book ‘alligator pie’

i took you back to my teenage days of bedroom mixtape making

i gave you a virtual tour of the gorgeous lark store

i shared a pattern for felt flower clips to cuteify your shoes, bag, hair, or anything else.

and i told you all about my grandma’s fabulous charm bracelet.

✽ golden delicious fabric ✽ ‘i like you’ patch fabric ✽ fruity tablecloth ✽

✽ plastic apple tray ✽ mid century tile trivet ✽ recipe folder ✽

✽ yellow linen tablecloth ✽ glass measuring jug ✽

an apple for teacher? i know its back-to-school time in north america, but if you ask me any time is a good time for apples!

helloooo september! i see you’ve brought the sun back with you, ever so briefly. well then how about i share some peeks into my week?

oh its been such a long and bitter winter here. especially bad since our heating stopped working and i’ve spent the last month virtually living on top of the tiny radiator! i took this photo on our vacation and looking at it thaws me just a little bit. here comes the sun…

sigh. i spent a dreamy afternoon relaxing in front of the fire and watching the sun move across the carpet. the house we stayed at had cut glass windows and at certain times it cast rainbows on the floor. i have a pretty spectacular pedicure at the moment (OPI’s coronation, with a few topcoats of napoleon’s las vegas lights – so its silver holographic topped with more holographic glitter. yep my toes are from the year 2525) and i took a picture of my toes in this rainbow but i thought i’d spare you all an ultra close shot of my toes.

while on vacation i took my guy to one of my favourite haunts from back in the day. this place remains virtually unchanged since it opened in the late 60′s and though the ambience and clientele may be questionable, its still charming and awesome in a very special way. are you diggin’ that mirror? i love the greatful dead-esque type – not to mention that little bacchanalian tableau in the blue section. goats and cider and babies?! they just don’t make ‘em like they used to!

another old-skool eatery we visited has this amazing ceiling. its like a huge inverted ice cube tray. i love thinking back to my mum telling me how she and her 60s art school cohorts would come here to drink fancy “cappucino” and eat that new fangled “spaghetti bolognaise”. australia in the 60s was a funny place! influxes of european immigrants shook it into a new multicultural age and it must have been so exciting. i feel i need to confess to sharing SIX scoops of gelato here. the ceiling made me do it! oh but it was the best.

isn’t this spectacular?! i just can’t get over  how perfect this camellia is. and there was just this one on the plant. it took all its plant power to make this one perfectly formed flower. thank you, plant. i know i’ve killed a lot of your kind, but i do appreciate you.

oh, and this! this, my friends, is what haigh’s toasted marshmallows look like. years ago my dad worked for haigh’s as their head chocolatier. he was something of a genius when it came to confectionary and he could temper chocolate like a wizard. i remember making these at home with him, so when i pass by haighs i treat myself to a packet. mmm the toasted coconut goes everywhere but who cares! before he died, my dad gave me his confectioners thermometer. its such a silly thing but it means so much to me. i need to get it out and make some nougat, toffees and boiled sweets for christmas this year, i think.

last of all, i’d like to introduce the newest member of my bedroom art wall family. i found this tray on etsy and it was too good to pass up. after all, love is all you need!

i hope you’ve had a good week and you’re enjoying the seasonal transitions wherever you are. got anything exciting planned for the weekend? i have some work to do and a movie to see and some friends to eat (with). see you monday, lovelies!

i’m so excited to be part of this month’s poppytalk handmade online market. i’m in such excellent company, you really should pop over and see what treasures are there to be had (hint: there’s lots of treasures to be had). here are a few of my favourites:

roddy & ginger - rawbone studio – a. favourite design

slow industries – sweetnature designs – dwell deep

moxie doll – matte stephens – magic markings art

and in other news draw! pilgrim has now opened up on big cartel. so head on over and have a look around! i’m looking forward to having special reader offers and sales in the coming future times ahead.

you’ve seen wings on wednesday, you’ve seen the wizard of the umbrella people and you’ve seen please sit still (if you haven’t – quick, go look now). now its time to see the last of my sandra smith illustrated picture books. i really don’t know any more about her than i did when i first posted, but i have had lots of nice people comment or email telling me they remembered her illustrations and love them too. so if you know anything, please share, because there are lots of sandra smith admirers here! can you imagine if we tracked her down and scored an interview? dream!

firebrand push your hair out of your eyes

written by natalie scott

illustrated by sandra smith

published by ure smith, sydney 1968

find your own copy here

once there was a small girl named firebrand who had beautiful thick, red hair and a voice that roared. she lived with her parents and an older sister named carrots (take that gwyneth paltrow – apparently parents were raiding the crisper for names long before little apple was born!) her aunts would visit and comment on her beautiful hair and her mother would say “push it out of your eyes, firebrand” to which firebrand would reply with a roar “NO!”

each morning her mother would comb and tie her hair back and firebrand would turn red and say “i look like a bonbon!”. nonsense! everyone told her. but as soon as she was on the bus she’s let her hair down and fluff it til it fell into her eyes.


at school she learned songs and arithmetic and the teacher would say “fingers, stop sucking your thumb! curlycue, sit up straight! gossip, stop talking so much! firebrand, push your hair out of your eyes!” firebrand would scowl and roar to herself – NO!


after a fight with her sister, firebrand finds a tree and looking up she see’s all the beautiful leaves and so she climbs to the top. at the very top the wind blows her hair from her eyes and she looks out at the wonderful view. on her way down, though she loses her footing and falls hard against the ground.


her father puts her to bed and the doctor comes but finds no broken bones. firebrand was very sore and sorry for herself but everyone makes a fuss over her and her aunts bring her flowers, and chocolates and a gramophone.



the next day firebrand quietly brings her brush and comb and ribbons to her mother. she asks in a small voice, nothing like her usual roar, for her mother to tie her hair back. she discovered that with her hair back she could see all kinds of things she’d never seen before.


for more pages from firebrand visit my flickr

during my blog vacation we spent a weekend at a friend’s house and it was heaven having a break and spending time with good friends. i haven’t felt so recharged in months! while staying there i spent some time wandering around their garden and i was so inspired by what i saw. yeah… i don’t get outside much. it’s been such a cold winter here, and i’ve been so busy that i’ve been holed up for months. also our garden isn’t that amazing. sure we have a nice fig tree, and there are some flamingos to keep me company when i’m hangin’ in the hammock – but its not much of a ‘wandering’ garden unless you like pacing in a circle. so i took my camera and i’ve captured some of the textures and colors that convinced me spring will come, and taking a break is important.

✽ pocket watch wall clock ✽ tin rabbit ✽ caterpillar’s garden wall plaque ✽

✽ cheshire cat note cards ✽ lagoon blue embroidered alice dress ✽ mushroom card game tally sheet ✽

✽ ‘eat off me’ mushroom tray ✽ ‘drink me’ swirly cups ✽

“one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small.. ” – white rabbit by jefferson airplane

a psychedelic take on alice in wonderland. and here i am, back out the other side of my little vacation! was it all a dream? find out tomorrow.

i’m having a little holiday. normal programming will resume on august 31st.

it’s been about six months since i took a little break so, if you’re missing me take a look through my regular features, explore the categories and maybe even do some random searches. there’s lots to explore!

and if all else fails, watch this and be inspired:

✽ bright flowers on teal ✽ potted flowers and birds ✽ ginger haired girl ✽

✽ hat girl with curls ✽ flowers ✽ butterflies ✽

✽ blue flowers ✽ le tigre ✽

hello, crewel world! sorry for the pun – the tiger made me do it. anyway my current vintage fetish is crewel embroidery. i love it’s bright colours, i love it’s chunky, 3D-felt tipped pen-style textures and i love it’s name: ‘crewel’. anyone else loving crewel?