vintage japanese illustrators

Kodomo no kuni is a Japanese childrens picture book magazine published in the early 1920's. The magazine was created to support the education of young children focusing on art, music and games. The illustrations are a beautiful mix of the modern technologies that marked this era with the whimsical and playful imagination for children.

The Railway Bridge Yasui Koyata 1931

The Insect Orchestra Honda Shotaro 1922

Bean Crafts Takei Takeo 1927

Diving Okamoto Kiichi 1928

A Beehive Okamoto Kiichi 1928

Flower Viewing Okamoto Kiichi 1928

A Modern Urashima Taro Okamoto Kiichi 1930

The Insect Journey Kawakami Shiro 1927

sewing box

It was my birthday recently, and once again my very handy man has given me the most beautiful and useful birthday gift. We have a lack of storage space and the organisation of all my sewing things comprises of boxes and bags stacked up beside our bed. He found this old tool box in an antique store down the road, he cleaned it up, added some compartments, trays, drawers and a vintage box for bobbins. It still has all of its rustic charm and I love it. And it is the first step in having my own organised sewing space!

vintage patterns

I was recently given this pile of vintage children's clothing patterns from Rae, a gorgeous lady in Nanna's craft group. One of her first jobs as a teenager was to develop the sizing charts for Simplicity Patterns. The patterns are from the early 70's. I love the classic posed illustrations of the perfect happy children. So gorgeous. I can't wait to start making

puppet community

Oma knitted these finger puppets for us when we were little kids. A bride, a groom, a bridesmaid, a school girl, a school boy, a baker, a grandma, a grandpa, a nanna, a mamma, a daddy, a teenager, a baby, a sailor, a swimming champion, a hunter, red riding hood, Sinterklass and Zwarte Piet. My favourites were always the bride and groom and Sinterklass and Zwarte Piet (Saint Nicholas and Black Pete. Sinterklass is a celebration on the 5th of December in Holland to celebrate the naming day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of Amsterdam. It was such an exciting day for us as kids).

Mum kept the finger puppets in the attic all these years, and recently brought them back to life for our children to play with. I really appreciate now how much work went into making them and how beautiful they are. Made with the most intricate details, using tiny buttons, feathers, beads and embroidery.

Ot en Sien

Ot en Sien (Otto and Francine) is a series of children's stories set in Drenthe in the early 1900's about the daily life of two Dutch children growing up next door to each other. The stories written by Hendricus Scheepstra are inspired by Jan Ligthart's idea of showing young people what was considered a "healthy daily family life". The stories however, portray an idealistic version of what life was considered it should have been, rather than the impoverished provence Drenthe actually was. During the first part of the twentieth century, the stories of Ot en Sien were extremely influential in elementary school education as a teaching tool for reading. Generations of children in The Netherlands have grown up with the stories of Ot en Sien.

When Mum emigrated to Australia she brought these hand sculpted clay figurines and a book illustrated by Cornelis Jetses. They are something I have strong memories of playing with as a child. Ot en Sien are a definite reminder of childhood.

story time : the quangle wangle's hat, edward lear

On top of the Crumpetty Tree
The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see,
On account of his Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
With ribbons and bibbons on every side,
And bells, and buttons, and loops and lace.
So that nobody ever could see the face
Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.

The Quangle Wangle's Hat is a story of total nonsense, which at the same time seems to make a lot of sense, with its many layers of meaning and illusion. This whimsical poem was written by Edwar Lear, a Victorian author, poet and artist. It was first published in 1877 in his book Laughable Lyrics: Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music &c.

I love Lear's imagination. His fantasy creatures such as the Fimble Fowl with the corkscrew leg, the Pobble who hast no toes, and my favourite the Dong with a luminous nose.

Lear was born into a family of 20 children, in Holloway England 1812. Financial difficulties left him to his elder sisters care. Raised and educated by his sisters, he then began earning his living as an artist at age 14. He had a difficult life suffering from epilepsy and depression for which he felt ashamed and would often retreat from public view. He was a well travelled man, having explored Europe, Egypt and India. He briefly gave drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. During this Victorian era it was Lear, together with Lewis Carroll, who helped establish this new literary genre of the humorous, irrational and nonsensical. Lear died in 1888 from the heart disease he had been struggling with since 1870.

This tattered edition of The Quangle Wangle's Hat was Will's from his childhood. Published in 1975 by Puffin Books, this version is illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. Oxenbury also illustrated Mem Fox's children's book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, another one of my favourite children's stories.

And at night by the light of the Mulberry Moon
They danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon
On the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree,
And all were as happy as happy could be,
With the Quangle Wangle Quee.

birthday cupboard

My other special birthday gift was this old cupboard. We saw it one evening on the side of the road a few blocks away, thrown out for bulk rubbish collection. Will rescued it wheeling it all the way home that night on a sack trolley down the middle of the road. He spent weeks in his shed cleaning it up; sanding off all the old paint, fixing broken drawers and varnishing.

I wish I had taken a photo before it was cleaned up, with its cracked white paint and awful big blue plastic handles. I would love to know this cupboards history. But it now has a new life as my wardrobe.

mum's wall hanging

I was given two of the most special birthday presents this year. One was this wall hanging Mum made when she was in high school back in Holland. This is Mum's wall hanging and her story, so I will let her tell it:

“I was 16 years old and at high school when the arts teacher asked us to create a 'painting', using a different medium than paint. The task was to create an imaginary 'space', where we could place ourselves one day later in our personal life. I dug through my mother's boxes and boxes of materials, to find little treasures for my project, and I painted a place of my future, snipping and stitching it together, layer over layer. Well, my prediction through this 'painting' has well and truly come alive: Thirty years ago I immigrated from Hilversum, a major city in The Netherlands, (after bumping into my husband Kim on a bush track in Australia), to the most incredible natural environment in the world: a peaceful valley in the middle of the Karri forests, with old growth trees, permanent creeks, abundant bird- and wildlife and wild flowers galore. It is here that I became a mother of three absolutely beautiful children. I loved my pregnancies, the bonding and mothering and truly can say that I feel rich, despite all the challenges. And there were plenty of them!

My art teacher told me that she was impressed with my work, but she also asked me: "Do you really think that this is where you will be one day Marianna??" Wouldn't it be interesting, if Mrs De Lange could come over to see me here in Australia today? I can't remember what mark she gave me for the wall hanging and that seems totally unimportant.

I seem to be able to predict, without trying, certain events in my life and I have been very accurate with my predictions at times. So, it is not surprising to find me today in my 'painting'! I am hoping to stay here, in the beautiful green valley of my 'painting' for as long as I can!"

One of my earliest memories is looking at this embroidery, studying all the colours and textures and daydreaming that it was me lying in Mums arms at the edge of the forest, not realising that she actually created it with this image in her mind all those years ago.

Now that I am a mother myself I feel so lucky to have this image hanging in our lounge room. Despite it slowly deteriorating with old age, I hope it will continue to be an image in our family of new life and new generations.

little girls, little blue dresses

I was looking through my childhood photo album to compare one of my baby photos to Hannah now (I think she is getting my fluffy frizzy hair), and I came across this photo of Mariska and I wearing Oma's little blue dresses.

mr happy apple

They just don't seem to make musical toys like they used to. Battery operated garish plastic seems to be everywhere, with parents wishing batteries would run out and wondering why they bought the toy in the first place. Happy Apple was one of our childhood favourites, and luckily it was one of the many things Mum kept for her potential grandchildren. Soft musical chimes sound when you roll the apple around. It has a gentle sound with differing musical tones depending which way it is rocked. Made by Fisher Price between 1972 - 1984, originally they had a long curled stem, but apparently broke off quite easily. The one we have is a second edition short stemmed version. With only a few marks of old age, Happy Apple is still the perfect baby toy, and seems to be one of Hannah's favourites too.

The toy was even the inspiration for an American experimental jazz trio 'Happy Apple' who used the apple as their backup percussion instrument.

the little blue dresses

These gorgeous little Dutch girl dresses have been stored in Mums attic for the past 20 years. They were sewn by Oma for my sister and I when we were little girls. Recently with the birth of Mum’s first granddaughter, our little Hannah, she cleaned out her attic and passed on bags and bags of children’s clothes she has been keeping all these years for her future grandchildren. The moment I saw them again so many childhood memories came back to me. Memories of our Oma and all the beautiful things she knitted, sewed, and created for us as children. They, and she is the inspiration for creating this blog.