With one foot in Melbourne and the other in New York City, Ed Janssen has found such a big fan base for his hand-made jewellery that he has had to cut back on his other great love in life – making the best espresso you’re ever likely to sip from a cardboard cup. But Ed’s charm necklaces are still inspired by his experiences in the cafes of Melbourne and Manhattan. Under the label This Charming Man, his cult item is known as ‘the knuckle sandwich’. Fashioned from sterling silver, it’s a set of three charms – two pieces of bread to hang on either side of a tiny knuckle duster. Other pieces include ‘the knuckle bagel’, as well as steaks, burger patties and single slices of cheese. We don’t know about New York, but every man in Melbourne worth his winklepickers is wearing these right now. [see also Lynda Holt]
Also by IS NOT MAGAZINE
Ed Janssen is famed in Melbourne for his jewellery designs, sold through cult Morrissey-friendly label This Charming Man. ‘The Knuckle Sandwich’ charm necklace (two pieces of bread on either side of a tiny set of brass knuckles, as pictured above) exudes an oddly amusing menace. More recently ‘The Bear Trap’ has been dangling from every second neck, wiping out hope for Melbourne’s unsuspecting tiny forest animals. Janssen is about to launch a new range inspired by the iconography of various secret societies. Melburnians can check out their old and new favourites at the first This Charming Man exhibition launching this week at Alice Euphemia’s new store. Flex those tiny knuckles and watch those tiny feet. Read more
Melbourne illustrators, designers and men-about-town Tin&Ed are known and loved for many things. Their lost-in-a-forest illustrations, their science-meets-whimsy line-based art, their collages, their photographs, their escapades and their generally unexpected solutions to design problems. Tin&Ed’s work is great, probably because they strive to find the best answer to each design challenge rather than aiming for a distinct studio style. Their recent work for Crumpler is not only awesome to behold, but has applications way beyond the commercial. Check out the animated alphabet and behold your ticket to the best graphic email signature ever. Spend a few minutes on the site and you’ll work out what we mean.
Amanda de Simone is a Melbourne photographer who has a fine fine haircut. We also think she is the most exciting photographic artist in the city right now. Her portraits combine emotions like rage and grief with questions about masculinity, femininity, desire and … well … the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. Her new exhibition at McCulloch gallery is called ‘Cock Fight’ Playing with the idea of the men’s club, ‘Amanda explores men’s lust for undying fame, their internal prowess in battle, their sensitivity to insults’. We think the idea is to pit the portraits against one another in a kind of imaginary Battle Royale. Then maybe pick some fights with some jocks, which we do quite frequently anyway, or at least whenever we walk past The Prince. Those who saw ‘Crying Boy Fanclub’ last year will know this exhibition is going to be hot.
YOU'RE SAYING (5)
Andy said | 14 March, 2007
Love these pieces, top notch.
Penny said | 15 March, 2007
Hey guys, you can get ‘em at the awesome Bobby’s Cuts (scott alley, melbourne), Alphaville (brunswick st and flinders lane, melbourne), Somedays in Sydney. Don’t know about NYC, you’ll have to email Ed. He won’t mind.
Ed said | 15 March, 2007
If you are interested in purchasing (or stocking!) This Charming Man Jewelry please feel free to get in contact with me via my website http://www.edwardjanssen.com
thanks for looking, and thanks to lost at e minor and especially Penny at is not magazine.
derrick said | 8 December, 2007
damn whose that guy he’s HOT!!!
HAVE YOUR SAY
Austrian photographer Reiner Riedler’s latest series — Fake Holidays — is based around the theme of simulation. It’s been exhibited at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt and will be released as a book later this year. Read more
This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night. Read more
For an industry that spends so much time fratenising with musicians, few designers ever admit to being primarily influenced by the music industry itself. Electronic Poet are an exception. Read more
By some estimates, Google has over half a million servers that each month crunch the equivalent of all the data in the entire library of congress 240 times over. Well over half of web users go to Google for answers to their questions, asking the machine over 400 million queries per day. Slowly but surely, Google is becoming our collective brain. Consider this: Google can now predict flu outbreaks weeks in advance simply by monitoring searches for flu terms (’sore throat’), and aggregating this based on location. They’ve launched this service as Google Flu Trends. ‘From a technological perspective, it is the beginning’, says Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. So where is this is all heading? Read more
I don’t intend on tempting any grape cravings which some borderline AAs may be experiencing, but everyone deserves some red after a long day. Drop of the Day is an easy way to receive fantastic quality wine at an extremely competitive price. Sure there are places online that offer cheaper alternatives, but Drop of the Day offers quality wine that pleases your wallet and your taste buds, too. Better yet, there is a new drop available to choose from each day for around AU$9 per bottle. Hmmm, I recommend you go for the blends.
‘Lost’ is the most recent film production in the urban art series produced by Tokyo-based art crew Rinpa Eshidan. Read more
You know that band you’ve always wanted to form, the one with the little-girl-lost singer with the mischevious eyes and the propulsive beats that drive bass hooks so catchy you want to bottle them up and sell them to Sting? That’s right, that fictional band that lingers just that little deeper in your imagination every time you saunter down Bedford Avenue, surrounded by girls in neon tights and guys in ruffed up converse. You know the one? Well, guess what, you’re too late. It’s arrived. It’s French. And it’s so damn good.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more

Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.

Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more

Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
This Powder Necklace features a pearlized Turbo Cinereus shell with tiny holes drilled into the bottom, filled with a sparkling silver-colored powder that when gently tapped, sprinkles a light dusting on the wearer’s chest. Designed by Stephanie Simek. Read more
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paul said | 13 March, 2007
where do we find these trinkets then?