#highscrollers

Penguin The Magpie Who: Cameron Bloom + Penguin the magpie What: A photographer sharing the shenanigans of an adopted magpie called Penguin Backstory: With more than 90,000 Instagram followers and a book on the way, the Bloom family’s feathered friend has been dubbed by The Huffington Post as “coolest pet ever”.

How did Penguin arrive in the Bloom family? Penguin was found blown out of a nest one windy afternoon as a baby chick. She works so well with our family because we love and respect nature. The kids have had a ball with her.

What makes Penguin such a captivating subject to photograph? You have to catch her at the right time. Sometimes she’ll just want to roll over and snuggle up to you, other times she wants to hunt in the garden and not be picked up. I love her moods and different body shape and above all, her singing.

Why does Instagram love her? She is unique. Not necessarily that people haven’t kept or rescued magpies before, just that she fell into the right family who happened to not only love her but had a dad who could take some okay photos.  

Her favourite thing to do? Taking food and hiding it in [my son] Oli’s bed. She caught a mouse the other day and was trying to find her way inside but we locked her out. Also, falling asleep by the fire.

Who: Lauren Winzer What: Tattoo artist at and co-owner of Hunter and Fox Backstory: This needle master founded a parlour with her husband and was recently caught playing ink-tag with Miley Cyrus.

Why a tattoo artist and how did you make it happen? I just drew every second of every day and would put my stuff online until people started requesting art from me and then my boyfriend (now husband) pushed me to learn to tattoo instead of just drawing the designs. The fact that you can create something completely original and then it becomes a part of a person for the rest of their lives was enough to push me to make my art translate to a tattooable form.

Toughest day on the job? There’s been a few, it might be that me and [my husband] Heath have fought on the way to work or that we had a bunny die that we were trying to rescue while I was working. It’s hard to switch that off and be social with my customers and work friends, but the best thing I find is to go to the shop balcony and catch my breath and talk it out.

Why do people get tattoos? To collect art, for aesthetic reasons, for therapeutic reasons, because they feel like it – ha ha! All sorts of reasons depending on the person really. I personally get tattoos because that’s what makes me excited and happy and I love collecting art from friends and people I look up to.

Words to live by? Always make choices based on if it makes you happy.

Who: James Jirat What: Exhibiting artist and freelance illustrator Backstory: This arty lad has channelled his boyhood thrills into creative genius for Nike, Microsoft and HBO.

How would you describe your style? It’s this kind of electro-gothic aesthetic world that I like exploring, throwing imagery from different influences like fashion, the supernatural, and sci-fi together and giving it a candy-hued rave twist. Some people think it’s scary, but it’s not scary if you’ve seen Saturday morning cartoons or an episode of Buffy.

Where do you turn for inspiration? I used to turn to the Internet a lot, using image aggregators like Tumblr or FFFFOUND!, but then I found I was getting inspired but no work was really coming out of it. Nowadays I look to music and try to create images that evoke the same feeling I get from certain songs, be it ’80s ballads or RNB songs or metal songs – you get different results that way.

Project keeping you up at night? I’m working on about three personal series right now so that keeps me up a lot – one’s a fictional editorial, one’s a typographic series and the other is still-life series. They’re all getting more and more complex as they go on, so that, and all the vintage leather jacket eBay auctions I’m stalking.

Tips for budding artists? It’s good to be inspired and have your heroes but at the end of the day, you need to do you. No-one respects another copy of an existing artist. We all have different backgrounds and tastes so take advantage of them – be as weird as possible. The weird things no-one has seen before are what sticks out, especially in an endless world of repetitive scroll feeds. If you’re really into yoga, but have a soft spot for the occult or aliens, then your work should reflect that.

Chili Philly Who: Phil Ferguson What: A lad with a thing for crocheting foodstuffs to wear on his head   Backstory: Everyone’s talking about this Melbourne-based wool wunderkind, with thousands of Instagrammers now trailing his every stitch.  

How does a young bloke come to start crocheting? Boredom! I was on holiday in Canberra staying with my sisters four or five years ago and figured I had to do something to fill up my time.

And why food items in particular… to wear on your head? I’ve always made things to wear on my head because I was inspired by the hat Finn wears on the TV show Adventure Time. The food inspiration wasn’t anything I had planned but it’s an easy theme to do and is always the most popular.

Most challenging creation to date? My Burger Hat. I guess it [was] mainly because I hadn’t nailed construction at that point, so figuring out how I was able to create this detailed burger to wear on my head was always going to be a hard task. Though since then, because I have done so many hats, I’m able to finish things in a day or two – unlike the burger, which took months.

Are you still working at a burger shop? I still work at Tuck Shop Take Away. I only work nights though which is how I am able to do things during the day and still work for solid money. Though it’s hard to balance an actual paying job with something which isn’t necessarily giving you an income, it gives you incentive to go hard at what you are doing because you would want to push yourself to succeed when placed out of your comfort zone.

What’s your ultimate knitted headpiece? I’m not sure… a full buffet? I have so many ideas but I’ve gotten into the habit of only wanting to make things in short periods of time. Ultimately, I would want out of all of this a large legacy behind me that I can look back and say I really achieved more than I ever had expected and I was true to myself the whole way.

Who: Katherine Sabbath What: Instagram dessert queen Backstory: this “over-enthusiastic” high-school teacher started baking the world a better place, and picked up 169,000 followers along the way.

Did you ever dream of making a career out of desserts? Actually, not at all! I always thought I’d be a high school teacher until the end of my days. It wasn’t until I started sharing my work with others and the wider Instagram audience that I realised there was a huge market of creatives out there who enjoy my sweet hobby as much as I do!

What role has Instagram played in your journey? I’ve been seriously gob-smacked by the amount of support I’ve received through Instagram as well as all of the wonderful people I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with over the last two years! Most of the incredible opportunities I’ve been able to partake in have been because someone, somewhere has seen my work on Instagram. It’s something I would have never imagined and I thank my lucky stars every day! I try not to take it all too seriously though and still treat it as though my parents (my biggest supporters) are the only ones paying attention to what I post.

Advice for others wanting to turn their hobby into something more? Hone your skills and evolve your craft by constantly experimenting with new ideas and methods, seek and reflect on constructive feedback from others and only work on projects which you truly believe in and love. If you pursue what you love, you’ll never have to ‘work’ another day in your life!

Little Miss Craft Who: Tallulah Baran What: Teenage creative and water baby, Little Miss Craft Backstory: the daughter of designer Phoebe Gazal, this young crafter spins magic with her mitts.

What’s your favourite thing to create? I love making anything edible. Craft related, I usually like making presents or stuff I can make with my friends. I try and get my friends to come in and help me with making things for my blog whenever they can as it is way more fun. I also like creating things that are colourful and I can have fun with like piñatas and anything that makes the world look prettier, I suppose.

Do you start with a clear plan or just see where the process takes you? It changes from project to project, but not always. Sometimes mistakes turn out to be better than the original idea. Sometimes, some of the craft projects don’t make the final cut because they just don’t work out, but the fun part is in the process, not always the end result.

What has been your most challenging project to date? A mother’s day card that I made that was quite tricky because it involved 3D paper and then a tote bag that I made using four shades of glitter. It was really quite hard to get the ombré effect whilst at the same time trying not to get the glitter virus.

What’s on your plate right now? I am working on a YouTube channel and am super excited. I am finding it hard to get a balance between trying to make the craft projects fun and easy to follow but at the same the steps are informative enough to actually create the project. It is really hard to fit everything in with school but I am really hoping to get it up very soon.

DJ Tigerlily Who: Dara Hayes What: Half-DJ, half-mermaid, making a splash in the EDM scene Backstory: This Sydney-based lady of the decks brings her sound and sparkle to dance floors the world over; fanbase #teamunicorn in tow.  

Cool look, but why a mermaid? I've always been a water baby as I grew up next to the ocean in Maroubra, Sydney. The water definitely has a very beautiful healing power with me. I don’t think I was always a mermaid though... growing up I would say I was more of a crazy fairy!

What was the music of your childhood? I was definitely a product of the late ‘90s. I mostly listened to pop, especially boy bands and girl groups. I’m talking Backstreet Boys, Bardot and my all-time favourite, the Spice Girls. I even started my own, kinda. I made my sisters dress up and sing along with me.

When did you start DJ’ing? I have played music my whole life, but my instrument of choice was a little dorky (the trombone). I fell in love with electronic music in my late teens and started DJ’ing through a program called Your Shot, which gave young kids the opportunity to learn how to mix. It really opened up a whole lot of doors for me within the music industry.

Who: Bei Badgirl What: Cute-crazed artist and designer Backstory: This Sydney-based creative rolls with the catchphrase “Just be cute and don’t worry” while prettying up the likes of My Little Pony, Red Bull, MTV and EMI.

Tell us a little about your background… I have always been in love with art. I decided to pursue it at a young age and I feel extremely lucky that everything has organically been falling into place. Illustration is my favourite form of art and I love that it can be applied to so many different mediums.

How would you describe your work? Sexy, fun and cute!

Can you give us a little insight into your creative process? I’m a painter at heart. I love working with tangible materials the most. When I’m making artworks, my preferred medium is acrylic on wood. Recently, I’ve found myself working digitally a lot more as I’ve been focusing on fashion design, accessories and working on brand collaborations and related details such as packaging. As a Capricorn and extreme perfectionist, everything is definitely pre-planned, but I really need to be in the right mood to begin and creative; honesty is really important to me. I’ll typically work start-to-finish on most projects.

Where do you turn for creative inspiration? I’m a huge nerd so I spend almost all my time online and I love pop culture. I’m always travelling (currently in Japan) and find a lot of inspiration in my surroundings and experiences. Tokyo has been really cool for that. In a way, I consider it my spiritual homeland. I’m passionate about cuteness – which is a major theme that’s integrated into the city and society like nowhere else in the world.

Proudest career achievement? Collaborating with Hello Kitty!

Tips for budding designers? Stay true to your creative vision and sleep while you can!