Toby etc.

CREATION 928: STUDIO LUBIN I met Hannah Lubin today, the embroidery artist and founder of Studio Lubin... You can tell with some young people you meet, they will have a bright future. Hannah is one of them. Her tiny embroidered people are so fun. Using found vintage linen doilys as a material base, she free forms her embroidery pieces with no preconceived idea of what's going to turn up. This spontaneous freedom creates a sort of magical quality, as her subjects come to life. Rather than focus on the more traditional subjects of embroidery, like flowers and flora and fauna, Hannah creates little urban scenes from the metropolis. Lamposts, traffic lights, traffic cones and people hanging out on benches are the thing. The tiny scale of her work creates a certain intrigue... as you imagine the conversations going on between the subjects. Each piece unique, Hannah works on custom commissions as well as creating ready to purchase works from her online shop - coming soon! The Handmade In Highgate fair is Hannah's first little exhibition of her creations. A piece of her work feels like a collectors item, as her reputation will be sure to grow. Even her grandad showed up. Hannah you're a star. ⭐️

CREATION 927 Sienna Peach & Biba Daisy ' The Princesses of Wales'. Please meet Miss Sienna Peach and Miss Biba Daisy. I have been living in Highgate for a few weeks now and I really love it! It's the happiest I've felt since first moving to London in 1991, when I was a student at the Royal College Of Art and living in digs on St Lawrence Terrace, opposite to George Melley. That's the bottom end of Portobello Market. In fact, on my very first walk up along Portobello road, I saw Malcolm Mclaren standing on the corner and I thought to myself 'Omg, is this what Portobello is like, a load of cool famous people everywhere.?' It was back then, as am sure mon amico Paolo will recall. @paolohewitt1 Yesterday, I popped in to the Prince of Wales Pub in Highgate at 5;00pm for just a quick half of guinness, but before I knew where I was Sienna and Biba were calling me out as totally YOLO, because I had rainbow nails. My half of guinness quickly progressed into 3 pints I think. Not sure, it did get a bit hazy as I hadn't eaten anything. I think I left at 9:30pm. And after explaining to Sienna and Biba about the Super Mario drawing I did for Mario the newsagent grocer in Highgate, who calls himself 'the mayor of Highgate init" because he always says "init" after every sentence and who wants me to be his father christmas this year 🎅 because "Toby it's your beard init ? And we will have nice lights and stuff and now ive told you about it, it's all sorted in it" .... then Biba and Sienna said "Omg, can you do a drawing of us for the pub?" And i laughed and said "Sure, you will need to choose yr characters as that's what will make the drawing magical and fun" And they both had a think and said ... "Omg, we know, lets be Princess Peach and Princess Daisy" and thats why those images are now up on my instagram feed, of them posing just like Princess Peach and Princess Dsisy, to remind myself to do the drawing! When I have some free time, as my life is fairly crazy busy at the moment. Oh and it's a love thing. I don't charge a penny!

Opening up the multi-sensory story telling of ocean conservation through the Cyanotype canvas. Amazing @toby_etc in his creative element being a contributor to the Communisea canvas. #art #storytelling #community

CREATION 925 MY FRIEND KINGSLEY For those who have followed my instagram posts for more tham 10 years, will understand what a special relationship I have with Kingsley and how proud I am of him. ... Kingsley is the 1st person to graduate from my mentoring school. He graduated yesterday. I left a little kite on his wall I made in leather. My mentoring is not an official thing. There's no school class. No school fees. It's entirely free. I also learn as much from the people I mentor as they do from me. Kingsley secretly made this bag for me exactly 3 years ago. Kindly as a gift when i returned from 3 yrs in Aotearoa after covid lockdown. It brought a tear to my eye. Yesterday Kingsley added a side strap so i wouldnt fall off my bike again and spend the whole night in A&E - when trying to cycle one handed with tote on handle bar, over a speed bump. It really hurt! Thank you Kingsley. I love you like a brother. Keep crafting. Keep shining bright. 🙏🏻

CREATION: 924 JANS SPECIALITY COFFEE So this is my favourite coffee shop in North London. That's 100% the Brand truth. That's my authentic and real feelings. I'm not being paid to write this and Jan is not giving me a years supply in coffee. Jan is like a Willy Wonka - Heston Blummenthal hybrid. Today he gave me a sample of a frothy earl grey flavour oat milk, a concotion he was quietlt working on, that was super nice. I had a cheese toastie with an indulgent creamy pesto blob sauce which was basically heaven. And I had a rasberry matcha cookie which I politely demolished. The friendly people who hang out there, actually made me feel cool. And I got a bonus number 1 haircut with HAZMA next door @n19gentsbarbers Respect brother... And the speciality coffee is basically just that. Special. I think i've said enough already. Enjoy the pics. Big up Jan. You crazy good, big Czech bear... 🇨🇿 🐻

Meet Angie - the angel who helped me so much this last week ❤️ @glengallwharfgarden 🔹💛🔹 I met Angie on a beach clean a few months ago and we stayed in touch - when I put a call out last week about this sculpture I’m making and the logistics I was feeling slightly panicked by she helped me so much 🙏🏼 🔹💛🔹 I needed a place to sort and clean loads of plastic we’d collected from the Thames - my flat can cope with little plastic treasures for cards but not bulky stuff needed for sculptures 😂 🔹💛🔹 Angie told me about Glengall Wharf Garden which was the PERFECT spot - a beautiful community garden in the heart of Peckham I’d never heard of! All the calm nature energy I needed on a pretty stressful day. And there were chickens 🐔 and bees 🐝 there too! Thank you to Carlos, Nina and everyone for making me feel so welcome. 🔹💛🔹 We didn’t get through nearly the amount we wanted to but we did work out more of a plan for how we’re going to do this. Also HUGE shout out to the lovely @toby_etc for coming down to help sort plastics too (even though when he arrived there was virtually no system!) we got there eventually 😂 Angie thank you for again for all your kind support, those sandwiches were delicious (secret ingredient basil?) and the most amazing birthday present @lavazzauk milk frother!!! 🔹💛🔹 This is the biggest project I’ve ever done and I am still dead scared but a little better it’s underway now - next stop we need studio space and an artist! I’ll be tackling this next week - but for now I’m heading off grid in a camper van for my birthday surfing - can’t blooming wait - let’s all do a sun dance too yes? 🤣☀️ 🏄‍♀️ #trashtotreasure #behindthescenes🎬 #plasticart #glengallwharfgarden #help #community #plasticpollution

Creation: 922 Heartfelt Repairs Co. I rarely promote my own projects and brands on here as I find the creative work of others so much more inspiring to me. But this is different as it's so very important for all of us. Anyone with half a cucumber short of a salad bowl will know the world is drowning in textiles, particularly Ghana whose receiving a truly shocking 15M garments a week from the north European countries waste excess. Every street or park in London now seems to have a piece of textile strewn across its floor. It's deeply depressing, but sometimes that negative emotion can be re packaged into something truly magical. Helen @clarkiemcg responded to my prompting for a very simple repair solution. So simple a 3 year old or a 90 year old could do it. Helen nipped to the bathroom and came back with a box of medical plasters and said "Do you mean like this?" That flash of brilliance was the lightbulb moment. 💡 We now have a focus and a mission to produce heart shaped adhesive textile band aids in dead stock fabric, to cover rips, stains, holes and tears. To keep clothing in use and out of the waste streams. Healing fashion Our dream is to go to Ghana and distribute our plasters to @theorispresent They deserve our support more than we do. Power to the people... 🙏🏻

Creation 921: ZOFIA FIJALKOWSKA The greatest show ive ever seen @rca_fashion and i've seen quite a few... Aniela, Wayne and I, all watched mesmerised as Zofia unfurled a breathless hedonistic, spiritual, mystical piece of 1930's meeting 2025 white witchcraft ... which left our hearts racing & feeling spellbound. A family affair, with mum & dad and 2 sibling sisters all emmersed in the show production. A perfect ring of salt sprinkled bones...A chime timer gong An ethereal writing spree on mirrored glass, A stunning model...An ensemble hand crafted to the finest detail, cloth, jewellery, hair piece, body armoury essence... Am quite sure the concealed lingerie wld have been crafted too. A round of applause and live whooping Congratulations Zofia... You really are a ... ⭐ 👈🏻

Creation 920 BELLA FREUD. I have loved Bella Freud for a very long time... Can't tell you which bits i love best, but it's probably everything... I love that shes a purist. I love that shes an artist, like her father. I love her sense of colour And her sense of fun. I love her edit. And her silhouettes... I really love @fashionneurosis_bellafreud We very nearly worked together on a small cashmere project in Tolaga Bay, NZ. Soon after I received a direct message from Susie Bick of Vampires Wife who said "Hi Toby, Im a friend of Bella, I would love to work with your small cashmere farm too." I didnt know who Susie was or Vampires Wife. I thought it was like a halloween spook thing at first. I was also rushing to catch a train at Euston. It was a major faux pas on my behalf. @thevampireswife 🙏 Anyway, I love Susie too and Nick Cave's song breathless. The greatest thing on instagram right now is Bella's Fashion Neurosis. It's a work of art. No surprise there. My dream is to lye on Bella's couch wearing the Same Clothes that I wore everyday for 3 years as an eco punk, when I was locked down on Waiheke Island during covid. Living in a little wooden cabin as a buddhist monk, with no sink or toilet inside, eating cold chickpeas from a can. That's when out of the blue (Lorde) Ella Marija Yellich O'connor's mum Sonja found me , messaged me to say " Hi Toby, I really love your eye" and somehow miraculously turned me into a poet.... 🙏🏻

CREATION 919: FLORA BLATHWAYT Flora is the coolest girl on two legs ... Why? Because she's totally awesome ... Why? ... Because she is the founder of @washedupcards and turns tiny micro plastics (she calls treasure) into greeting cards... People come from far & wide to help her... They also bin the stuff, thats harming our natural wildlife, eco system and polluting our waterways... And its making a difference, a BIG difference and the river Thames is getting cleaner... If you want to have the best ever start to your day. I mean ever EVA. Then follow Flora, founder of Washed Up Cards and jump onto her beach clean workshop... It's free, but you do need to "turn up", otherwise someone else trying to get onto it, will lose their chance to ... And based on my own experience, it feels like you've just dropped into an Angels gang. I don't mean Hells angels, i mean LOVE angels.... The plastics had no chance! And the best bit. The really best bit, as a reward, Flora gives you one of her super cute washed up plastic greeting cards made from plastic treasure. @florablathwayt @washedupcards Have a great day ... Do one plastic ...

CREATION 918: ROBERT SMITH I can't claim to be Robert Smith's greatest fan, but I wont be too far down the pecking order... Few artists in my lifetime have made me gut wrenchingly ache ... from the pit of my stomach... This man is a dead ringer romantic. 💋 Picking my favourite CURE song is impossible. But i picked ~ Boys dont cry ~ as it's so real... Boys dont. Well most dont. But when you do cry, it really helps. Cindy @cindy__gc saw my heatbroken face in her cute sorbet d'amour shop on Cap Ferret and fixed me up a double scoop dark cherry & white yoghurt... & It was super, super nice! So i made her a drawing to thank her and she pinned it up inside her little sorbet shop which felt super sweet. And then i felt happy again. ♡ I suggested on the drawing to play The Cure ~ It's fridays im in love ~ and for Cindy & Paul, , to play love songs all day long - music d'amore,... charging an extra +1€ to fix a broken heart. 💔 Cindy serving up her dark cherry & white yoghurt, love alchemy sorbet. But heres the best bit.... Before i gave the drawing to Cindy, I took a photograph of it, placing it inside the book SHANTARAM i had picked up the day before .... from the tiny free book shelf on Bourdeaux's rue Notre Dame. And then i put it onto my Insta stories with The Cure playlist ~ It's Fridays Im In Love... ♡ And later that night.... as i was sorting the photos on my phone, I suddenly saw the name on the book.. This book belongs to: Robert Smith Et Voila... The universe had served up some kinda crazy Love potion... 💋 CINDYS CURE X LOVE ALCHEMY ♡ ○ ●

CREATION 917: MICHELLE LOWE HOLDER Yesterday I went with the pocket rocket Aniela to the Future Fabrics Expo.... If you go places with Aniela everyone stops to say hello and breaks out in smiles... she has that aura around her... Aniela said ... "Toby, I really want you to meet my friend Michelle who mentored me when I won the Kering Alexander Mqueen prize for innovation. She is the most purist punk I've ever met. She takes waste and transforms it into luxury beauty." That sounded kind of dreamlike in my mind. Michelle and I chatted a lot. We realised we had both sold our fashion collections to @juliegilhart at Barneys NY back when we were young and knew nothing about life... Michelle is exhibiting a ButterFly Chair. It's her own design concept, with the leather made by a fine leather craftsman to her exact specification, feels like leather macrame, but better, and is interwoven into an old chair frame patent that Michelle's parents owned. That was disused and hanging out in the garage basement. I think she said... Michelle is also deeply cool. Perhaps the coolest woman i've ever met, but just on the right side of not being "too" cool. Excuse the french... She is F*kng awesome. Thanks for the intro Aniela 🙏🏻 @aniela_fidler_wieruszewska