Twee Art // Emma SanCartier

Hey Sweets,


We're always on the look out for exciting new artists to grace the walls of Twee Towers - Lola stumbled upon Emma SanCartier's Etsy shop and picked up the delightful print below for Rhi's birthday last year. There is something about her whimsical water colours and folk lore subjects that are so captivating, we feel we must add more to our collection to compliment our beautiful Little Red taking little wolfy for a walk through the woods. 






Living in San Francisco Bay, as well as being a rather fantastic freelance artist, Emma SanCartier is also a Children's book illustrator, seriously, check out 'The World is Your Oyster' it is just cutest thing - as lovers of beautiful kids books, these lovely pages are sold and on their way to Little M's (*ahem* our) bookshelf as we type!. Love this one, it reminds us of Philip Treacy's famous Galleon hat!
We're seriously art crushing on Emma SanCartier right now, aside from the gorgeous fairytale and woodland dreaminess we've featured here - she has another incredible shop OddFAUNA - full of the most charming little monster creations and darling sculptures in shadow box frames - beautiful, we definitely need more of this talented artist's work in our home!
Be sure to check out more of her stunning work on her site www.emmasancartier.com 
Do you have any new Artsy Etsy discoveries to share? We love hearing about new artists!
Much love,Rhi xx
PS.  To celebrate our first year in Twee Towers on Sunday, we're giving you the chance to win all of our fave twee-treats in a GIVEAWAY! ♥  Remember to check back for your chance to win!

Twee Art // The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes

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 It's been a quite a while since we gave you a tour around Twee Towers, so we thought that it was high time that we shared some more of the art that we have hanging around! We've recently added new prints to our studio by English illustrator, Alan Aldridge.

For those who haven't heard of Aldridge, he was one of the key graphic designers of the mid-century and during the Sixties & Seventies it would have been an extremely difficult mission to escape his kaleidoscopic, vaudervillic (is that a word? if not, it's being coined right now) creations. His CV is simply ridiculous; he was made Art Director of Penguin books, bringing surreal, pyschedelic sensibilities to their Science Fiction titles, he famously won a drawing competition with a slightly manical Savildor Dali whilst waiting an airport, and to top it all off, designed artwork and lyric books for the likes of The Beatles, The Who & The Rolling Stones. Phew.

We first discovered Aldridge's work a few years back upon buying The Beatles' illustrated lyrics book (if you don't own, you must!) and recently, Lauren invested in The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes as a gift for James' Christmas, completely unselfishly we might add.


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His style is an illustration of the Sixties, defining the age through an LSD fuelled carnival of surrealism, imagined dystopias and fantastical explosions of colour! Leading visually rather than textually, Aldridge's work tells a multitude of stories. It takes intertextuality to the extreme, toying with perspective and layering reference over reference, to the point where it bends your mind and hurts your eyes. At once, both graphically bold and artfully intricate. Just how we like our art!


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So yeah, it's safe to say that we successfully brightened up & revitalised our studio with a little help from Aldridge's prints, and just in time for Twee Towers' year anniversary!


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Much love,

L&R xx

Tremendous Tips for Braving Spring Flea-Markets!

As the Spring season draws in, there is nothing better than getting up early on a Sunday morning and going for a meander around a flea market. One of the must-do's on the agenda of Lola & James' Berlin adventure was getting to one of the hugely popular flea markets that were littered around the City. After checking out a few online first, they opted for the Arkonaplatz market, located in the Mitte district, advertised as a haven for fans of Sixties & Seventies. Nom. 


The problem is, with the warmer weather also comes the larger crowd and the competition to bag yourself exquisite antiques and beautiful bargains heats up! At this time of year you need a plan as well as a good eye and it's also easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast array of knick-knacks on offer. So today we are sharing our top tips, that will hopefully help you have a successful trip around the flea-markets and as girls that love shopping, we like to think we know a thing or two... 







1. Arrive early - we're starting with an obvious one, it goes without saying. Not only are you putting yourself in the same privileged position as the rest of the savvy, flea-market frequenters to bag the bargains first, but it's also wise to be careful of item hoppers - a self-penned term ;)! That is, vendors browsing around the market early on, buying items and selling it on their own stall later in the day at an increased price! Apparently, it happens a lot more frequently than you think and sometimes items can jump from several stalls throughout the day and the price multiply each time!

2. Take cash - another obvious tip but in a day and age where we rely on carrying around our cash cards, it's so, so easy to forget to cash out for occasions like this and it would be simply tragic (we're not even being dramatic, tragic!) to miss out on something that you love, purely because you didn't have the cash on you!

3. Have an initial browse - As we mentioned earlier, it's really easy to be overwhelmed by the fast pace  and bumble of people crammed into compact markets not to mention the thousands upon thousands of items on offer.... just where do you start? We found that the best thing to do was to have an initial browse up and down all the aisles to get a feel for what sort of things were on offer before heading back to take a closer look at the things which caught our eye! Remember, most flea markets are open all day (9am-5pm) so take your time :) 



4. Make a wish list - it's so much easier to find something you'll love for years to come if it's something that will have a place in your home. Make a wishlist beforehand, even if you divert from the list for a couple of impromptu bought items, it keeps a sense of focus when browsing amongst the variety of knick-knacks available... it's easy to get carried away with no-so-practical purchases when it's all sittin' pretty! 



5. Buy old - Resist the urge to buy something new. At the Arkonaplatz market, vendors had also set up darling stalls full of home-made and vintage looking jewellery (Egyptian inspired beetle jewels & cameo necklaces, gah!) as lovely as they looked, it seems a shame to browse around a flea market, only to come home with something brand new that you could search out online. Keep to the old and the antique and then you'll truely feel like you've found a treasure!



6. Colour vision - Seems silly but it does work...use colour to scan out items from your favourite eras. Colour pops of bright orange kept catching my attention and pulling me towards wonderful stands full of 60s and 70s delights!


7. Do your research - This really does help! If you have access to internet on your phone, use it! This way you have a much greater idea of how much an item is really worth before you pay or barter... you could even show the vendor the prices that you've found to see if this will encourage them to knock off a little more dollar! James fell in love with a beautiful sounding harmonica from the 50s on one of the stalls, the vendor was adament that the price offered was a bargain... a quick browse on ebay soon uncovered that you could get them a little cheaper online! There's nothing worse than feeling fooled by a confident seller! 



8. Stay friendly & polite - although it might not aid your quest for lustrous bargains too much, remember that the majority of items on offer are probably from private collections or the seller's own possessions. Be respectful of sentimental value and use this to your advantage to find out as much information as you can about the items - it's always lovely to have a bit of backstory! 





9. Take a tape measure - At Twee Towers, practicality is not always our forte... remember we bought our sofa without even considering the shape or size of the living room before moving in... luckily it fitted! For bulkier, house hold items, being able to measure will be a useful tool and will save you tediously lugging around a chest of drawers only to find it's too big to fit anywhere!





10. Look past the wear and tear - we all get suckered in by pretty, visual merchandising and artistic set ups but some of the best antique junk looks just like it sounds... junk! We stumbled across a stall that at first glance looked like boxes upon boxes of recycled metal, on closer inspection they housed the most charming, ornate brass door knobs that would make an amazing feature on wooden drawers and dressers... and sooo much cheaper than you would pay elsewhere! At Twee Towers we live by the mantra that almost everything can be fixed, scrubbed up and upcycled!



11. A bonus tip - enjoy yourself! How often do you get to spend a day drifting around troves of vintage and antique treasure? Buying is much more interesting when you have to work to find your goods! 



We hope you enjoyed today's tips... happy shopping :)
Much love, L&R xx

DIY Love // Lola's Family Nests

A short but sweet DIY to share with you today! As well as purchasing gifts for our families for Christmas last year, we made it our mission to create something special for them when we could. Particularly, when buying for our grandparents with an ever expanding family, we've found it's become increasingly difficult to buy them something unique!

Originally, designed as an alterative to wedding guestbooks, Lola first spotted across these amazing 'Finger Print Tree Guestbooks' on snaps from a wedding and thought it was such a fabulous idea. With no wedding invitations on the horizon, she decided to adapt this idea to make 'Family Nest' prints for her grandparents!

Here's a little step-by-step to how you can make them yourselves...

Firstly, after measuring card in your chosen colour (I went for a slightly off white) to fit your frame, draw out the outline for your tree. Bear in mind, you'll need lots of branches if you have a big family (this is why it's a good idea to do it in pencil first so you can play with the space you have!)

Once you're happy with your design go over in black ink - coloured if you're after a more vibrant print!



The idea for the orginial 'finger print tree guest book' is to get your wedding guests to each leave their fingerprint to represent the bird in the tree, but as my nests were to be gifts, I thought I'd complete the Family Nest with a family of birds! I found these rubber stamps on Ebay which included birdy couples & cute owls!



Then just stamp on your birds! Keep track of the number of birds/family members of you might end up with a few miscellaneous birds of your tree!

I wanted it to look really bright so I used acryllic paint to make a turquoise but it would probably work a lot better with an actual ink pad as it was a bit too thick for the delicately, engraved stamps.

I completed the pieces by writing everyone's name next to a bird (starting with my grandparents at the head of the tree and working down to parents, aunts & uncles, cousins etc) And that's all there is to it! The Family Nests look great mounted and framed and the best bit is... you can keep adding to it as your Family grows!

It's such a lovely idea for a personalised gift and my grandparents really loved them <3

Much love,
L&R xx

If You Could...

Hey lovers, Lauren here today

If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?

That is the lingering question posed by designers Will Hudson and Alex Bec, in an ongoing experimental project to graphically illustrate the enthralling, and occasionally utterly bizarre desires of our contemporary artists. The idea is simple, answer the question by drawing what you would do. I first stumbled across this project whilst doing research for Article, a magazine I wrote for at University. The ability with which it has progressed is astonishing. Encouraging simplistic yet personal creativity, the 'If You Could' project has the aptitude to engage a considerable audience with its exciting blend of light-heartedness with a thought-provoking and stimulating concept.

Inspired, the question remains, how would those without the artistic dexterity of Kandinsky respond to such a matter? A couple of years ago now (ah, time flies), I decided to explore this a little further and put it to a bunch of my friends to send back their responses - I think it was put on out on MySpace, that's how long ago it was!

I then thought it would be cute to represent their answers, as intended, with playful illustrations...
1. I'd dance at the front of a Rolling Stones gig - circa 1973 ish.
2. I'd go to Turkey and find the love of my life
3. I'd fly to New York without a plane
4. I'd rob a bank, with a banana



1. I'd explore a castle in Slovenia
2. I'd be given £10,000,000 and go on a plane
3. I'd pack my bags and see the world
4. I'd dance all day, listen to good music I've never heard before, eat nice food and make love to some beautiful girls!



1. I'd go to the peaks
2. I'd dance...
3. I'd get sexually explicit with 12 beautiful women whilst eating fried chicken from a bucket
4. I'd go to Alton Towers



1. I'd wake up with absolute knowledge and have a coin-operated boy
2. I'd take magic mushrooms and go to the zoo with nice people and nice faces!

It would seem; the bunch of romantic, mushroom munching, thrill-seeking, not to mention cultured, wanderers would swap their material luxuries in a second for an idyllic life, travelling and viewing the world through rose-tinted raybans.

Without wishing to get all Louis Theroux on you (not that there's owt wrong with that, we love Louis!) it does appear to provoke further questions. It's questionable whether everyone feels that they are missing out on the subtleties of life such as exploring an enchanting castle or taking some time out to explore the world in our quest to succeed financially and set up home.

However, obtainable or not, it always fun to imagine what would you would do if there were no limits imposed and set yourself life goals - which for me has transgressed from being a ballerina, a spice girl, and air hostess in the 60s (which I understand, is a goal that might have a been a little hard to obtain in 2006 and more recently, a bohemian, troubled artist. Here, at Twee Towers we're always setting ourselves goals, foremost to keep us organised and secondly, to keep us sane when our workload gets a bit crazy... we WILL dress Jedward one day!

So, what would you do? To have a look at some of the designers' input on the project, take a look here!

Much love,
L xx

Twee Art // Rob Ryan

Happy Sunday Sweets,

Last year we started talking about some of the art we have in Twee Towers (like our dreamy Hannah Frank prints) and its something we've been meaning to revisit... So without further ado, let us show you some of our favourite Rob Ryan pieces that are propped up about Twee Towers.

RCA Graduate Rob Ryan specialises in paper cut art and screen printing and makes the most beautiful images with these techniques, each piece tells a story - be it a heartwarming or heartbreaking one; laced (metaphorically and aesthetically) with a touching delicacy of intricate detail and insightful understanding of life's highs and lows. Whether he's addressing romance or loneliness with his art, he does it beautifully.

He first grabbed our attention when he created this piece of wonderment for Vogue magazine, a paper-cut dress, simply sensational.







We have these tiles out in the kitchen and studio. "Why are you so naughty?" "because I'm happy" - childlike innocence at its best, and "I miss being a small girl"... because we do.

Last Christmas Rhi was given this set of Rob Ryan decorative plates, illustrating the changing seasons. So pretty, still need to find the perfect spot to hang them though!

We're also lucky enough to have a much treasured signed copy of Ryan's first published book "This is for You" at Twee Towers. The inside of the dust cover simply states "If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain - This is for you" - it tells a tale that scopes the aforementioned loneliness and romance in such a charming way.


Nestled on another book shelf is Little M's copy of 'The Gift' written by Carol Ann Duffy featuring more of Rob Ryan's paper cut illustrations... We must get our hands on his latest book 'A Sky Full of Kindness' too - without a doubt it will be as delightful as the others.

If you want to get your hands on some of your own pieces check out his Etsy shop, ooh what we'd do for some Rob Ryan wallpaper!! Or if you're lucky enough to find yourself in or around East London pop into his super lovely shop on Columbia Road! Such lovely art to collect :)

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend lovelies!

Much love
R&L xx