Ruth Clifford

2012-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

2012-01-03T03:27:00.000-08:00

I saw 2011 out with a cocktail party, thrown by my lovely pals for my 25th birthday. The select cocktail menu was adapted from a delightful book by John Doxat and boy does he know a thing or two. Madeira cobbler's were an all round favourite.

I'm collecting retro cocktail glasses and searching for the perfect boat bar...

Remember when drinking your cocktails, be sophisticated and responsible like me.

I've been cutting!

2011-11-21T05:56:00.000-08:00

Two of my friends received these paper-cut initial's off me last week, framed and all. Hooray for home made birthday presents!

2011-08-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

EXCITING NEWS FLASH: I'm recently featured on the new G-MAG website, do have a little read about me here: http://tinyurl.com/3l4mxa7

2011-07-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dreamland, Broadstairs.

Robot, Margate.

King Kong, Broadstairs.

Windmills, Isle of Wight

Charity shop birds, Margate.

LI, Broadstairs.

Pull to open, Isle of Wight

Fountain of dreams, Broadstairs.

2011-07-13T03:46:00.000-07:00

The work of one of my favourite photographers, Robert Frank.

2011-06-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Stoke Newington high street, 12.30pm, Sunday 19th June.

ATLANTA

2011-05-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

To find these things, you need to visit:

Little five points, an area in North East Atlanta scattered with retro and vintage stores slightly reminiscent of Camden.
Buckhead Diner, because the red velvet cake tastes AMAZING. Better than London's Hummingbird and NYC's Magnolia bakery. Bold statement I know.
The Fainting couch, a small antique shop run by Kathleen and her pocket sized dog Sir Cedric. Kathleen loves the British Royal family more than anyone I've ever met.
Paris on Ponce, a massive warehouse filled with the most slot machines, beds, baskets, mirrors, victorian croquet sets and manikins that I have ever seen. Hidden behind a fancy glass door, is a huge room styled completely as Moulin Rouge. You can hire it for events.
Fellini's pizza, Go there and you'll leave happy.
Scarlett loves Rhettro, it's next door to The Fainting couch. Be prepared to rumage and choke on dust while wading through the sea of furniture, clothes and china - it's totally worth it.

2011-04-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some nice things to look at.

2011-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Hacienda, Manchester.
Designed by Ben Kelly.
Opened in 1982.
Owned by Factory Records and New Order.
Closed in 1997.
:-(.

2011-01-31T04:08:00.000-08:00

The best shop I have ever been to. It's in trendy Austin, TX.
Watch the peepshow.

2011-01-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

We snapped the amazing Fred Butler at SS/11 London Fashion Week, who is always dressed in the most colourful inspiring outfits. The paper dress you see modelled by Miss Maude Seighart, fashion queen in the making, I made from The Daily newspapers! The shoot was going to go in the lastest issue of RUBBISH magazine but we didn't have enough page space in the end.

2011-01-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

Cocktail bars seem to be completely under estimated, when infact every home and definitely every office should have one. Just like Del boy. Pineapple ice bucket essential.

2011-01-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

The streets of Berlin are lined with cafes boasting many bright [yet empty] chairs. There's something so great about the colours in each of these pictures. I'm particularly enjoying the lanterns hanging from the shop canopies in the last image. Very curtain tassle-esque yet slightly retro chic.

2011-01-11T05:15:00.000-08:00

I have just rediscovered this image and wanted to share it will you all. I took this when I visited poole a few years ago... it was such a suprise to find art deco houses along the beach like this, I didn't know such a thing existed in England!

2011-01-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

Boy-o-boy, why aren't popcorn holders like this anymore?

2011-01-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

So nice! These were a lovely birthday gift from fellow expert at colouring in, Alice Gabb. One can finally get around London without fretting about going in the wrong direction, maybe.

M E R R Y R E T R O C H R I S T M A S

2010-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

I found these at the bottom of our bauble box. Fresh out of the '70s, maybe even the '60s.... so great!

2010-11-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

Love this.

2010-11-21T05:12:00.000-08:00

I visited the V&A over the weekend to see the ceramic and glass ware wing. Its absolutely amazing, just like a library but instead of shelves of books, the shelves are filled with treasure!! I'm now on the hunt for some pink and green glasses, I'm a big fan.

2010-10-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

2010-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

I recently did four illustrations for 'The Daily' which is the official newspaper of London Fashion week. 50,000 copies are printed each day of FW and distibuted across London.

See my website for the other illustrations!

2010-10-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

LOVE this postcard that I picked up in Paris while stranded due to le ash cloud! Most amazing shop, have a look here.

2010-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just off Portobello road, on Golbourne road is a shop called Ollie & Bow which is home to these absolute treasures. I would quite like to buy the matching deco style lights, so tacky I love it.

2010-10-09T06:12:00.001-07:00

Spending a saturday at my desk. Working very hard!

2010-10-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

This image is taken from a stack of amazing french newspapers that I own; they date back from the 1930s.

ANORAK

2010-10-04T03:33:00.000-07:00

Im in the autumn issue of Anorak magazine - the 'friendship' issue. Yay! Go Buy a copy if you want to see my Autumn Hedgehog recipe!

CAT

2010-09-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

PLAY DOH

2010-08-24T04:03:00.001-07:00

THE KNIFE GRINDERS

2010-08-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

This is a shoot I helped Andy Macgregor with back in October 2009... I drew lots of the illustrations onto the guys skin! Can you spot the nipple that I turned into an eye?

ONE RED DOT

2010-08-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

An amazing pop up book: ONE RED DOT by David A. Carter.

HAIR DOG

2010-08-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

This hair dog must be annoyed all the time.

Ham Feast

2010-08-13T04:11:00.001-07:00

Blast from the past

2010-08-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

When I ventured back to the sunny midlands a few weeks ago I thought it would be a fun idea to go through my primary school books. My quest was to see how good I was at drawing when I was six years old. I didn't quite expect that some of my first art work would look like this:

Slightly weird? Mental scribbling and plenty of black crayons ... I can't see a resemblence to how I draw now...

2010-07-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

This is one of the best things I've ever seen. I took this photo in the 'White Trash' bar in Berlin.

CUT SNIP CHOP

2010-07-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a sneak peek of something that I'm working on at the moment... I'm pretty excited about the final outcome!!

2010-07-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Charlie Parsley, Dot Button & I made delicious cake this afternoon... I think Charlie wins on the creative front - just cover the entire thing with cherries and silver balls. Yummay!

DREAMLAND

2010-06-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Been slowly decorating my work space in the RUBBISH HQ... can you spot the office emergency curly wurly?

Photograms of the year 1944

2010-06-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

I love car boot sales simply because you never know what you going to find. Above are images from a book I found in a horse trailer... good times!

RCA graduate fashion show

2010-06-14T06:06:00.000-07:00

Zara Gorman, my favourite designer from the Royal College graduate fashion show!

DON'T BE FOOLED...

2010-06-07T08:12:00.001-07:00

Is it an iced bun...?

... or is it corn on the cob?!

ART CARBOOT FAIR

2010-06-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today I was at the art carboot fair on Brick Lane for RUBBISH where we had a stall selling our fashionable finger puppets. A rather fun day involving dancing, live band wearing crazy icecream hats, art poker, acrobats, a boxing ring and plently of yummy smoothies and cake!

Artist Lucy Parker creates brilliant bespoke pieces using toys, letter press trays and old postcards.

LOVE these little dogs!

Patrick Brill aka Bob & Roberta Smith had a stall offering the chance to do signed paper rubbings of his typeography for just £10 ... I did a gold one.

I hope to be doing a stall next year selling my art work...

EXCEPTABLE IN THE 80s

2010-06-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to some sweet 1980s power ballads today. However, hearing is not seeing, my point above. Beautiful.

THE MAGAZINE TABLE

2010-06-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

Retrotastic!

MIROSLAV SASEK'S 'Mike and the Modelmakers'

2010-06-03T02:49:00.000-07:00

Miroslav Sasek is widely known for writing and illustrating the 'This is ...' series which follow his travels to many cities across the globe. 'Mike and the Modelmakers' is one of Saseks lesser known books; published in 1970 and printed in England.
The story follows the character Mike, who comes to England on a trip from America with his father to visit the 'MATCHBOX' factory in Hackney E9 [where they made model toy cars].

Its an absolutely charming little book!

POD CITY LIFE

2010-05-26T04:28:00.000-07:00

Amazing architecture. This now ghost town was built in the 1980s for the elite of Taiwan yet it never got completed. No one really knows why the project was put on hold, but many workers died constructing the village. Some pods remain in tact while others have crumbled to the ground. It is now visited by thousands of photographers and tourists every year!

PICK ME UP

2010-05-04T13:12:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to make it to Somerset House over bank holiday to see the amazing Pick Me Up exhibition. A few of my favourite exhibitors were Rob Ryan, Nous Vous and these super nice wooden toys from Peepshow. Having moved his studio to the Pick Me Up space, Rob Ryan and his team were doing live screen printing and working hard on a beautiful paper cut image!

1960s POD

2010-05-03T01:41:00.000-07:00

POLITICAL FINGER PUPPETS

2010-04-29T07:31:00.001-07:00

RUBBISH (who I work for) have just lauched five brand new political finger puppets!

David Cameron by Gosh he's posh
Nick Clegg he's such a good egg
Oh my lordy it's Labours Gordy
Caroline, the woman who's keen on us going green
Boris, London's Mayor extraordinaire!

You can buy them at £10 from the RUBBISH shop.

Make sure you get yours in time for zee elections!

2010-04-28T02:31:00.001-07:00

THE FACE OF BERLIN

2010-04-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from what was supposed to be a four day trip to Berlin. However, due to zee volcano in Iceland erupting, we were forced to spend 8 nights in Berlin, 1 night on a bus and 2 nights in Paris...and it was GREAT!

I noticed in Berlin there were lots of freakish manikins, above are a few favourites.

WORLDS GREATEST MAGIC SHOW

2010-04-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Dirk Arthur: of medium build, dark hair, handsome, trains tigers, is a magician. Whats not to like? If your going to Las Vegas anytime soon then book yourselves a front row seat to see this smooth talking magician blow your mind. He certainly impressed me with his white tiger tricks.

If you have 8 minutes 43 seconds free, then click here.

NATIONAL CHILDRENS BOOK DAY

2010-04-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Today is Hans Christian Andersons birthday, making it national childrens book day. I will be reading my collection of Miroslav Saseks books!

ATOMIC ARCADE

2010-04-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

How very 1990s. This was one of my favourite childhood games. I wasn't allowed to play on it much because it makes a horrific noise, at the time I couldn't understand why.

The Heart and the Bottle

2010-03-20T06:36:00.001-07:00

This week I was lucky enough to see Oliver Jeffers in conversation with Martin Sailsbury. It was wonderful to hear Jeffers speak about his work where he is based in New York. I think Jeffers is a great example of someone who is so hard working and determined to succeed in illustration.

Obviously, I waited around to get my book signed!

T H E E L E C T R I C

2009-12-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

I have lived near Birmingham - forever - how did I not know that this existed?! Surely I must have known and forgotten or something. The Electric is the oldest working cinema in the UK, opening in 1909. I shall definitely be watching a film there soon!

FACE OFF

2009-11-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty interested by shapes within the face. I feel a new project coming on?

R E B E C C A V E R N O N A H O Y!

2009-11-10T05:52:00.000-08:00

Best ceramics ever, Fact. Through her obsession of collecting glass ware, decanters, posters and many other bizarre kitsch items, Rebecca Vernon has created an inspired collection of ceramic pieces. Each porcelain item is carefully hand carved and engraved to achieve the tiniest of details. The top image is a place setting titled 'too much of a good thing', which has been just one of many pieces floating about craft fairs over the summer.

Anyone for TEA?

2009-11-09T04:37:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Lewes, near Brighton, where I attended the most amazing bonfire ever! My friend insisted the next day that we visit the famous 'Tea cosy tearooms' in Brighton. It was a very surreal experience. If you fail to drink your tea and eat your food in the right way, you are banished to the streets!

Rediscovered...

2009-10-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

I just rediscovered this book. I love it! Its designed by Marion Bataille, each letter is made to do cool things like pop up, reflect or slide into another letter. These are some of my favourite pages...

Whilst driving through the mountains...

2009-10-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

While driving through the Smokey Mountains on our way to Ithaca, we stumbled across the most amazing junk shop. Full of 1930's - 1980's Americana gems. I bought this 1950's hair dryer AND it still works.

Home-landed

2009-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

I've been in America for 6 weeks doing a road trip. We drove from 7,100 miles in total from San Francisco to New York. I'm slowly editing through the thousands of photo's I took.

The above images are of a Motel called Pacific Sands in Santa Monica. It is probably the most unsafe place I've ever stayed in my life! Don't go there.

Loving Lomo's

2009-04-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Robots

2009-04-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

Sreen printed robots, four colours on each