For a long time, I had Lavender filed somewhere between a Disney princess and a drawer sachet. In an open manuscript I have, there’s a complex woman with a laundry obsession who is lured in by Lavender only to realise what she really craves is bleach and ammonia doing the sensory work – […]
English never met a noun it didn’t want to adopt. It has words for drizzle, shower, downpour, mist, mizzle (surprised?…me too) sleet and hail – which feels like overkill for something I’d happily live without – but it still leaves some fairly inconvenient holes. English has a word for the smell of rain on […]
Imagine you’re a word, and you’re choosing your final resting place – are you nestling into a soft bed of linen? Or sliding around on polyester? My confession before we get to the poem part: the paper it ends up living on has had a previous career. THE PAPER HISTORY For most of […]
There’s a name for what happens when language stops being information, when it moves beyond story and starts being a vibe. I’ve been calling it poetry design. It isn’t a movement yet. If I have my way, it will be. Not to be a gatekeeper: to invite participation. If you’ve ever walked into a room […]
WORDS FOR WALLS – STUDIO NOTE Words belong not just in books, but on walls. Words for Walls came into view after I had started giving language a personality and it was begging to go on the wall. I took note. It became clear to me that, as an artist, language was my medium […]
Back to The Journal things i like to live with My list of coveted things. 2026 edition. Updated periodically. THE BLUE AND WHITE EDIT. TOM FORD ICON BLUE BLOCK NAVIATOR OPTICALS CUTLER AND GROSS AVIATOR OPTICLALS GREAT JONES HOLY SHEET PAN in Blueberry IKEA CHILIFRUKT VASE/WATERING CAN BEESWAX & LINEN BREAD-BAGS EMILE HENRY SALT […]
A MODERN RITUAL OF GRATITUDE AT THE TABLE I grew up in a fruit shop. I didn’t work, I ate. When our bucolic family was wrangled indoors, think; lots of boisterous male energy and one baby female in semi-rural New Zealand, we gathered around the table. In our household we had a daily format with […]
Back to The Journal GLOBALLY, AROUND 2.25 BILLION CUPS OF COFFEE ARE DRUNK EVERYDAY. That’s a power move if I ever saw one. With delight and awe, I finally get to interview the essential, omni-present, Brown. Here’s our chat! GF: Describe your personality in a few words B: Grounded, core, fundamental, controversial, paradoxical. I’m a […]
A COLOUR DOWNLOAD WITH NEW ZEALAND DESIGNER EVIE KEMP Evie Kemp first came to my attention when I moved back to New Zealand a few years ago. Friend and interior designer, Kate Raney from North Carolina said to me, with much hope and enthusiasm, ‘are you friends with Evie Kemp?!’ Since then I have followed […]
HOW TABLE TOP DESIGN IS THEATRE FOR YOUR HOME Look around–what’s on your table? Your dining room table. Is it poppies in fresh bloom. Tiny piles of petals dropping from your thirsty pompom dahlias. Poetry perhaps, or finely chosen candlesticks holding the faint smell of expended wax and cypress oil. Maybe you have a bowl […]
