red and green things

I've still been in a bit of a funk this week. Not my usual chirpy self, instead being emotional and swearing at things. My design work is coming along nicely though so maybe it fits with that old adage about artists doing their best work when they're feeling down ;)

In lighter news, here's some red and green things that are making me happy:


Some freshly potted herbs and Cyclamen for the balcony. I always love that european red-flowers-in-planter-box thing, and these Cyclamen weren't too expensive and apparently love the cold. Perfect!


A gorgeous handbound book sent to me by Nicole of Freshly Blended. Sooo cute, and so well made! It's related to a little collaboration we've got in the works :)

Aaand...


... a new shoulderbag from Mattt! This one features the limited edition ginkgo print on natural hemp canvas. It was a custom job for Mattt, which is why I had a bit of the print on cream available last week. He also has this print in Pumpkin, and you buy them online here.

I've got more Ginkgo on the way actually, in another new colourway. Exciting :)

Heart my golden soil

Aww, you guys are so sweet with all your comments to my last post. Thanks so much. Makes me feel better already (and I'll try to post more about the downs as well as the ups).

That said, there are some really interesting (yet stressful) things in development that I wish I could talk about but can't just yet. Let's just say it's a big change in the way that I do what I do :)

Anyway, most of you know by now that I am just a wee bit patriotic. Not in that yucky political way, just a more lovin' the people and places kind of way. So, I was extra delighted to see these two awesome posts in my blog feeds today:

1) Bloesem Blog - Lucy Feagins' guide to Melbourne

For the beginning of Bloesem's world tour, Lucy Feagins from The Design Files writes about her favourite must-see spots in Melbs, almost all of which are my favourites too:


Image from Bloesem

Douglas and Hope - Image from Bloesem

Journal Cafe - Image from Bloesem

See the full post here.

2) Decor8 - Australian Design

An amazing post on Decor8 about Australian design. With what looks like a lot of hard work Holly has written up a long list of fantastic Aussie bloggers, with a description for each. Thanks so much Holly!

Barcelona

I just received these photos from Mio, Chris's Japanese photographer girlfriend who we traveled with overseas, and had to post them. Such classic moments:


Eating freshly made xurros from a tiny old couple's shop in the back streets of Barcelona
(c) Mio Kisaca


Stone spiral staircase in the towers of La Sagrada Familia
(c) Mio Kisaca

Mio captured some fantastic moments on our trip. I can't wait to see the rest of her shots :)

This is kind of related - but it's strange when your blog no longer feels like a personal place where you can write about anything. Where you can talk not just about work successes but also the not so good bits. Like when sales are down, or when you feel creatively paralyzed and self doubt starts to creep in. When you do your quarterly BAS and think "uh oh... not a good quarter".

I write this at the tale end of a not so good week, which fortunately has passed and I'm feeling more optimistic. I have some ideas brewing, which is always a good feeling.

Random Appearances

I've decided it's time for me to start doing more random, unscheduled shop updates. The shop is well stocked enough these days and it's nice to not make such a grand event of things. I've also been trying to think of ways to diversify my product range. I'm going to try putting together more kits and things. Would love any suggestions :)

So in light of the above, I've just popped a bunch of things up in the shop:

Some little Reversible Notebook Cosy kits like this:


Notebook cosy kit complete with instructions for A5 size or smaller

Some new fabric mix pack combinations:





And a new, super limited edition print of my Ginkgo fabric, on a heavyweight 100% hemp canvas. I did this little batch on the side of a custom print run for a customer (more on that soon!)


Ginkgo in Pumpkin on 100% Hemp Canvas


Ginkgo in Deep Red on 100% Hemp Canvas

Okay better go start thinking about dinner...

up and down, warm and cold

In the last week I have:

- Spent a beautiful warm public holiday walking around in singlet top and jeans

- Spent the rest of the week rugged up in my winter gear. Call this Autumn?? It's like winter already and the trees have hardly dropped any leaves!

- Spent far too much time flicking through images on ffffound. Feeling simultaneously inspired and petrified (eg: "oh my god, so many amazing ideas out there... I could NEVER think of anything as cool as that"). It's been a very up and down week.

- Found a suitably battered parcel in my letterbox, and was very excited to open it. Gorgeous teatowels from Skinny laMinx!! And so nicely packaged up too:






Eep and Borrowed Spoons teatowels from Skinny laMinx

Thanks so much Heather :)

The Design Files

I am very flattered that an interview with me is up on The Design Files blog today! The Design Files is a Melbourne focussed design blog and profiles some really amazing local talent and places (today I learnt about Journal Canteen in the city - sounds just like my sort of lunch place!).

Thanks so much Lucy!!

Rainy Day in Autumn

Oh my gosh, 103 comments and suggestions on my last post! Thank you all SO much for your name suggestions, they were brilliant! Definitely kept me entertained over the weekend. I loved all the suggestions that related to trees and forest (I love trees, did you know?) but in the end I just couldn't get past the fact that it looks like rain to me.

So ..... I decided to go with 'Rainy Day in Autumn' :) 'Rainy Day' as the print name, and Autumn as the colourway, so later I can do Spring and Summer etc, as per Retro Age Vintage Fabric's suggestion.

Some free fabric will be heading over to Mia for the name, and Retro Age Vintage Fabric for the colourway/theme. Send me your details - thanks so much girls!



On that note, the shop is updated right now! I'm sorry that the price of Rainy Day is a little more expensive than usual - although I reduced costs on screens, 4 colours still costs more to print. But I think it's totally worth it :)

new fabric print - yay!!

I have been waiting for this for what feels like SO long. Finally my new 4 colour print has come back from the printers, and I am so happy with how it turned out. Here's a little preview!



One of my favourite things about this print is that all 4 colours are printed off the one screen. Tricky and complicated yet fun to set up! It helps keep the production cost down and makes multiple colour prints actually affordable.



There's only one problem though. I have NO idea what to call the print, and what to call the colourway! I've already done a print called "raindrops" so I can't use that. I was thinking something like 'rain', 'water', or just 'drops'. Or 'winter rain' which describes the colour at the same time... but maybe thats too depressing.

Anyway, I'm totally open to suggestions at this point. If you manage to suggest a name or colourway that I end up using for this print - I'll send you a free piece of the fabric :)

Hopefully something will be decided before Monday 28th, 9am Melbourne time, which is when I'm putting this up in the shop :)

little tags for mix packs

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments about my sketchbook! Definitely inspires me to turn some of those drawings into actual things. Looks like the 'book tree' is number one :)

I finally got around to making some more fabric mix packs this week. For awhile now I've been unhappy with the presentation of the packs - it seemed a bit stale, not cute enough. I like the idea of putting the fabrics in a cute little bundle, but you have to be careful doing that because if the thickness exceeds 2cm it becomes a 'parcel' rather than a 'letter' and therefore a gazillion times more expensive.

Anyway, I think I've found a good middle ground. And with the addition of some old fashioned swingtags (gocco printed at midnight last night), I think they look much better all round.





I'll be putting these up in the shop probably Monday 28th :)

Gocco tip - I've often had problems with the large solid areas of my prints being a bit patchy. I believe this is due to excess carbon in the original artwork which overheats and stick to the screen. However - there's some special stuff you can get called "Artwork Clean-up Paper". It looks suspiciously like baking paper and you iron it over your original and it lifts the excess carbon off. Worked for me!

sketchy!

I recently had a request from an interviewer for some pictures of my sketchbook. I took a bunch of photos and then thought I'd be a nice thing to post here, to show a bit of the process behind my designs. Not that any of these sketches relate to any of my current patterns, but they might one day!


Click to view proper big version :)

g'night :)

Crafty ladies in the newspaper

Yesterday's The Age M Magazine was chock full of crafty ladies! Firstly, one of Jhoanna's peg bunnies splashed over the front cover:




And then an article about 'the new cute', with a picture of Pip in it!




And then an article about 9 young designers ... with me in it :)


With the photo taken by none other than Bianca's boyfriend Marcel Lee. Yay for that.

Bamakko 'screened' exhibition this Saturday

I dropped off my warez at Bamakko yesterday and bumped into Bianca there doing the very same. I had trouble figuring out how to label my cushions and finally came up with these:



Gocco test prints + paper eyelets = handmade tags. Fun and easy.

Anyway, if you're not doing anything this Saturday evening between 9-6pm, do come and visit us at the exhibition. It's at Bamakko - 358 Victoria Street North Melbourne. Here's the flyer:


Click to see it proper-like

Yay!

New kid on the block - Pippijoe

Last week I got a surprise email from Caitlin, AKA Pippijoe, another Melbourne based designer who has just taken her first leap into the world of hand screened textiles. And I really like what she has done. I received these samples in the mail the other day and they look great:




All of her designs are printed on Hemp or Hemp/Cotton blends

There's even more great designs to choose from in her etsy shop, so I recommend you hop skip over there right now and get some, and support more locally produced textiles! It looks like our little Fabric Mafia += 1 :)

One Red Robin

I've always been a fan of Johanna's softie creations, especially her little peg animals.

So I had quite a giggle when I saw her latest Peg Bunny series, made from the fabrics of all 5 Aussie designers in our little 'Fabric Mafia':


Left to right: Shannon Lamden, Kristen Doran, Danielle Smeets, Lara Cameron, and Bianca Van Meeuwen.

It looks like they're all sold already except for Shannon's one far left, which you can snap up here.

Nice work Jhoanna :)

Bamakko exhibition

This weekend has been somewhat of a crafty marathon for me. I decided last minute to contribute some works to the Bamakko 'Screened' exhibition. Bamakko is a local shop run by another crafty man who makes bags and things, and he's been having themed exhibitions for the last few months. This coming one is focussed on all things screen printed, and myself, Bianca and Anna Laura are all submitting bits and pieces.

Along with my Sia's Village print, I'm going to submit these gocco printed Moleskine notebooks (thanks to Paola for planting the seed of that idea!):





It's not confirmed yet, but hopefully he'll also take some of these cushions (if they don't take up too much room). Thought I should actually submit something fabric based!





Okay, I need to go flop on the couch and do some serious relaxing...

antisocial blogger ;)

I have been pretty slack lately when it comes to blog-community socialising. Barely keeping up to speed with all my feeds, not commenting as often as usual. Some lovely people have given me blog awards which I still need to pass on - eep, sorry!

Bianca and Fi both tagged me a little while ago, so here goes:

1) I have trouble with left & right, and east & west. I've heard this is a sign of creativity though so I've learnt to love it ;)

2) I've discovered I have a tendency to cry for no particular reason on long plane flights. I'm sure there's many reasons why one would be crying on a plane (missing people, sad to go home etc) but none of those applied to me at the time.

3) I don't like purple. I can handle burgundy or plum, but not middle purple. And I know I'm not the only one - many people seem to have issues with purple it seems.

4) Come to think of it, I don't really like any pure middle colours. Middle green, middle blue, middle yellow. Yellow-green is okay, as is blue-green, and green-blue, and orangey yellow.

5) I've just (finally) found out how to make invisible zips actually invisible!! Thanks to this tute. So easy and so good - takes all the mess out of zipper sewing I reckon.

Okay that was all relatively easy and painless. I'll spare you all and not tag anyone else ;)

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share five non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag five random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

Sproutdesign

As you might have already read on Kristen & Bianca's blogs, a new and exciting collaboration is going on between Sproutdesign and a handful of Australian textile designers. We've been asked to design a range of new and fresh textiles for kids, which will be launched at the Melbourne Life in Style trade show this August. How fun!!

Here is my chosen design:


My Little World in Plum for Sproutdesign


My Little World in Mint & Lime for Sproutdesign

And here are the chosen designs by the other designers. All very cool:


Nice work, girls :)

Shop update

Bulokku in Lime


Bulokku in Mint

The date for the shop update has been decided - yay! It'll be on Wednesday the 9th at 9:00am Melbourne time. As mentioned they're reprints of previous designs but all new colourways, and the best thing is they're printed on an eco friendly hemp and organic cotton blend. Mmm that makes me feel all good inside.

One little request: PLEASE if you're paying with paypal, don't close your browser window/tab until you are redirected back to my shop after paying. Otherwise the order isn't officially completed and causes all sorts of stock problems. Thanks!!


Birch Forest in Dusty Pink


Raindrops in Red Orange

New organic eco friendly fabrics!

How's that for title full of buzz words. I am so excited to announce that my latest range of fabrics is printed on eco friendly basecloth! The new fabric is a blend of 55% hemp and 45% Certified Organic cotton - whoo! Although it is made from hemp it's actually really soft and lovely - I really like it.



The other cool thing is that although these are reprints of existing designs, they're in new colourways I've never done before, and generally a lot brighter and fresher - hope you like them :)



I'm not 100% sure when I'll be able to put these up in my shop - it depends on when I can get my hands on a nice camera for the product shots. At this point I'm estimating Wednesday or Thursday this coming week :)

Home sweet home

We're back!!

I'll spare you the monologue of our travels, but suffice to say it was fun & inspiring, lots of things were seen and done, but I'm happy to be home. We saw some beatiful architecture, art and scenery, but at the end of it all it's reinforced for me that I really am a Melbourne girl, and nothing beats my home town. I'm sure I'm not really "supposed" to say that after a trip to Europe ;)

One funny story though - we completely missed our flights home. When we got to the airport, check-in had already closed. We were totally confused until later we realised that "summer time" had started that day, and our watches were wrong. How cruel is that?

However it all worked out alright in the end - we found ourselves in a situation where we could blame it all on the new dysfunctional Heathrow Terminal 5, and got free acommodation, breakfast and a new flight home - sweet!

Anyway I've jumped right back into the swing of things! Just collected a new batch of fabrics from the printers - all new colourways... will post more soon.



I also collected colour sample swatches for my new 4 colour print (see above) which go together perfectly! I'm so excited about this new one.

Oh also, the shop is restocked - I had to take everything down whilst I was away :)

Squerls

Today, finally, the constantly grey and drab weather got to me. The tipping point was probably when I found myself in the middle of Hampstead Heath (masssive sprawling park) with no other people in view, tramping along muddy tracks in the wind and rain. I know it could sound very lovely and naturey but I was feeling kind of lonely and very far away from home.

So tonight I'm having a quiet night in, curled up on the couch eating toasted sandwiches and watching Animal Planet (I'm sooo not into cable TV, but how good is a channel completely dedicated to animal shows!?).

I've had a lot of fun recently feeding squirrels in the parks (video to come soon!) so here is my little tribute, also a means of easing my recent creative frustration:


('scuse the colours if they look a bit odd - my laptop monitor is shocking)

P.S. - have a happy easter everyone! I really wish I was home eating hot cross buns and doing an easter egg hunt!

Moo in London!

Oops, quite a long time between posts! I've been spending most of my free time in the evenings/mornings organising our last week trip, which is FINALLY sorted! 6 nights in Barcelona, 2 nights in Paris! The flights were expensive, but a couple of friends are going to be travelling with us which helps ease the cost of eveything else (and will make it much more fun). Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, they were great :)

Meanwhile, I've been keeping myself busy with lots of sight seeing, window shopping, walking, tube catching, bus catching and best of all, catching up with Moo for lunch!



It was so good to meet some of the Moo team in person and they were as lovely as I expected! They took me out for a yummy lunch, and showed me around their office and production area:


Bunches of mini cards all stacked and sorted


Colourful mini card boxes ready to be sent to loving homes

Other highlights have been catching up with Paola for afternoon tea and shopping, sampling some of the yummiest cheese ever at the Borough Market (and doing a complete 180 to go back and buy some), and looking at antiques/bric-a-brac at the markets.


Best cheese ever, by the Borough Cheese Company


A WHOLE STALL (at the Portobello market) dedicated to typecases, wooden type and wooden type artwork! Fantastic!


A little vintage fold out wooden ruler I bought when I stumbled across the gorgeous Camden Passage (quite by accident). I've always wanted one of these.

London shops

Today I spent the afternoon wandering around Covent Garden and Soho. I visited a whole bunch of the shops that you guys kindly recommended: Muji, Topshop, Liberty, Orla Keily, The Cloth House to name a few :)


Check out the crazy Tudor facade of the Liberty shop!


I love the front of the Cloth House shop - very linen-ey and Japanese-craft-book-esque :)

I would have loved to take photos of/in all of the places, but I felt too guilty. I managed to sneak in one photo of a wall of beautiful rolls of felt in The Cloth House before noticing the security camera!


Mmm, so much beautiful wool felt.

The Orla Keily shop was gorgeous, but I felt uncomfortable just walking through it, let alone taking a photo! The shop assistant followed me around the store with a hawk eye ;)

Something is stressing me out quite a bit at the moment - where to go for our last week here before we're scheduled to fly home. We realised too late that it's the Easter weekend when our acommodation expires, and as a result flights and everything are crazy expensive. Any suggestions of where we could go/stay in Europe/UK that's not going to cost the earth?

hello London

Well, one 24 hour flight and one 11 hour time difference later and we're here in London! I think we've more or less conquered our jet lag, settled into our little apartment, and Pete started work yesterday (getting absolutely saturated on the way there due to horrible, squally weather).

It's weird, it hasn't really sunk in yet that we're on the other side of the world. At the moment it just feels like an older, larger version of Melbourne, coupled with all the iconic London stuff you see on postcards. I feel like I'm still looking for something that really grabs me and shakes me and yells out "you're in LONDON!!". I blame Tokyo for the complete lack of culture shock ;)

Okay, time for some pics:


At the gates of Buckingham Palace...


... but I much preferred the gardens and lake nearby, with all the daffodils in full bloom...


... and the crazy 'wildfowl' that look similar to what we have at home but slightly different. Oh and there were squirrels!! I'd never seen a squirrel in person before, so cute!


While Pete worked his first day I took myself to some museums to escape the rain. Above is the Natural History Museum, which I went to see purely for the building....


I also went to the V&A, but curiously wasn't as blown away by it as I expected! I guess I'm not much of a museums girl, but I did love the whole room full of skeleton keys and elaborate locks (thanks to lupinbunny for the heads up!). How beautiful are the pieces above? Just two of like, 100+ pieces. I think I feel a pattern coming.



And last but not least, our little apartment! Light and bright, plenty of room, and completely free care of Pete's work. We are too lucky.

Afternoon Tea

Now, if anyone wants to join me for afternoon tea this Friday you're completely welcome! We're meeting at Costa Coffee in the big Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road at 3:00pm on Friday (14th). Hope to see you there :)

some last minute feedback

The other week I imported this really lovely, environmentally friendly hemp/cotton blend fabric. It's cream in colour with lots of texture and slub. Yumm.

Anyway I got some colour samples back from the printer today and am totally stumped as to which colours to print. The samples I got back were not what I expected, but still really nice:



I'm going to print two colours. I think I'm totally sold on the top one - a sort of dusty pink colour, but am unsure about the bottom two. They're a lot more vibrant in real life than they appear here. I'm not usually one for bright colours but maybe it's time for something like that. What do you think?