L&C can’t get out of our holiday mood. And what is making it worse is this weather. We want to take a trip guys. We REALLY want to take a trip. We are sat here with our editing and crediting caps on, and we are coming up with a cunning plan…

We have to be in the country, and we have to have our computers… and we had a visit recently from Sean & Lauren in the middle of their UK tour… we have heard a rumour that VW have made a new campervan and we’ve been thinking… maybe we should do a Ballad UK tour. We like this plan. We like it a lot.

ESPECIALLY since the weather is so WEIRD!! I mean, it’s sunny… but never for long. A little bit of Cliff Richard, and a lot of Spice World, we want to caravan around the UK, chasing the last of the British summer sun while putting this issue together. We can visit Blackpool, where we first met, we can see the Spice Girl exhibition in Leeds, we can do Barnsley and Newcastle and sea sides all over the country! And we don’t have to stop working for one second of it! THIS, my friends, is the plan of the century.

Armed with our driving licenses (both parts) we are off to scout for the perfect rent-a-caravan, and the perfect caravan insurance scheme. Any tips guys?

Now… what to wear. How do you pack for life on the road? Hats. We think that it is definitely going to call for a lot of hats. And dinky utensils. Lots of tinned goods, a pet plant maybe? Total Thelma and Louise style… but not with the ending…and without the general sinister tone of the film… all Ballad and good vibrations : )

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Long time love Emmeline Pidgen has illustrated a poster supporting the riot clean ups and has made it into screen prints to be auctioned for charity.

The auction’s on now and absolutely all the money raised from the auction of them goes to Reclaim Project and Leap Confronting Conflict charities who do amazing work with disadvantaged young people.

There’s 50 limited edition, A2, 4 colour screen prints available here all hand numbered and signed by the artist (little Emmeline!) and printed by the lovely Savwo print company. What an excellent cause, get on over there for your print!

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Look what arrived at Ballad HQ!!! Our very own Worn By Nico T shirts!! We’ve been drooling over these Philip Townsend bad boys for AGES!! And how we adore them… and OHHHH how we adore Nico!! (could today get any better??)

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Today we are enjoying the random, colourful nightmare that is the paintings of Claudio Parentela. Almost Picassian in style and content we are a little bit in awe and couldn’t wait to show you these wharped female forms on this grey day.

Pattern designer and illustrator, Rachael Taylor sure knows how to make things look nice.

Her simple, colourful line designs have adorned kitchenware, greetings cards, textiles, and even been used as wall art, and often feature girly floral motifs, spots and stripes.

Having worked for big names such as Paperchase, WHSmiths and Oxfam, we’re clearly not the only ones who appreciate her pretty patterns!

Kristy Lynn welcomes us all into her work that delves into the realms of the familiar to dreamers and wanderers. Her work is super defined, textured with the cutest little illustrations that will make anyone want to live in her world.

We thoroughly enjoyed looking through Lisa Manfre’s Flickr. Like, we went the whole way through, but can only show you lucky lot a select few of her awesome diary-esque photographs. If you’re a dog lover then Lisa’s photography is definitely the way you should be heading. Awww lots of pups.

Earrings. Statement. In Love

Debbie x

Everyone that knows the lasses at Ballad Of…knows we are pretty much obsessed with vintage tea cups, saucers, t-pots the whole lot. So when we stumbled upon Night Owl, it was like our dreams had come true. We can just picture ourselves sitting in Beatrix Potters cottage with Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggywinkle and the gang sipping on tea and eating delicious cakes. Just how gorgeous are these, folk?

Today we are delving inside the lovely little pup, Lola-Bacon. You have another chance to catch Balladite Faye’s interview with photographer Briony Ridley and we are giving you a sneaky peek at the Ridley pages… never before seen online. Excited? Read on…

With layout genious by iamanoctopus and illustration by Stacie Swift we really went to town with rosettes, 1st 2nd 3rd places, the lot - a huge InDesign production, all singing, all dancing! Miss Ridley’s Best in Show story shimmers, and we are sure you can see why she got the cover!

Surely you caught it, but incase you didn’t, Faye Nottage spoke to Briony a few weeks ago about her inspiration for the shoot, her plans for the future, Ballad and Cheddar - Over to Faye:

We know how much you all loved our beautiful cover for the Ballad Of Lola-Bacon issue and we thought you deserved to know the tale behind the image. So I chatted with Briony Ridley to discover her inspirations and a little more about our wonderful cover artist.

- What was your inspiration for the front cover of Lola-Bacon and how did the picture come about?

This picture was from the end of a long day of hair and makeup, the hair in this shot literally took hours, but Victoria the model promised me we could pull it all together, and we did. After having her hair pulled and pinched for half the day she was amazingly energetic.
The inspiration for the shoot was Carrie the dancing dog, and I’ve always loved Best In Show.

- Why did you want to get involved with Ballad Of?

Ballad Of is a lovely magazine and it was great to be able to showcase my work alongside all the other wonderful artists. Plus you’ve got to love a couple of girls putting together such an amazing magazine independently. (*Lindsey & Claire LIKE this… and wish real life had a LIKE button!)

- What inspired you to focus on photography?

I was studying art history and decided that I wanted to make art instead of write about it so I dropped out of my art history degree, moved across Australia, and enrolled in a commercial photography degree at Melbourne’s RMIT. In the beginning though I just wanted to make nice pictures to go on my walls.

- How would you describe your work?

Stories, colours and characters. Most of my ideas start off as a comedy, but by the end have morphed into more of a drama, which is a nice natural progression. My personal favourite images are the ones that could be film stills.

- What are your plans/hopes for the future?

Right now I just want to make time to work on a series I’ve been planning to shoot at my parent’s property. It involves a lot of collecting of costumes, people and props, and a flight half way around the world.

- And finally, what 5 things do you just love?

Cheddar (the old crumbly kind), Gruyére, Berg Käse, Parmesan, Pecorino..

And over to Lindsey & Claire? You want to know what we think?…

C: Lindsey, why did we choose Bri for the cover?

L: I chose Briony because I thought the image was very different from any previous cover. I thought it was fun, energetic and a nice concept.

C: Yeah, if you look at all the teeny touches she really thought about the whole thing. I mean - the print of the jumper, the bow, the trophy, the frikkin NOSES! Too cute.

L: Yeah, it’s so great when we get submissions in who have taken the theme really seriously. It always shines through. For me there was no other option, I always wanted that image for the cover. We played about with other images but this was the obvious choice.

C: It’s so completely different from anything we’ve had before. I was nervous, but it was such a clever story that it was always going to win.

L: Thats what it is, the winner! The best in show! Submitting to Ballad is a competition. Getting published is like winning a prize, and getting the cover is the top prize.

C: Nice.

You can still pick up Ballad Of Lola-Bacon. Recent sightings suggest that Selfridges, Tate Modern and Jala News have a few left. Don’t delay, pick up your puppy today!

A few past issues are now available online incase you have missed out on a Mary Maud!

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