Surprise in the mail

I recently sent a bunch of fabric scraps to Sherrin from Starashan to make into badges, and look what she sent me in the post!



Gorgeous button badges, zipper pouch and gocco printed card. I love the way her labels are gocco prints onto bits of old dictionaries (I think) - classic! Hollabee recently received a similar parcel and I was coveting hers at the studio before arriving home to find my own :)



Thanks Sherrin!!

We've just spent two solid days down at the studio working on our table. Getting that surface right has possibly been the hardest and most stressful part of the whole operation but I'm happy to say it's gone completely smoothly! Now for the first test prints :)

Kristen Doran has come to stay for a couple of nights so we're off to see her work in an exhibition and then dinner at Movida which Deanna was kind enough to us a table for! Yay for busy, exciting days.

Birch revisited

Birch Forest has always been the most popular print in my collection, and I have to admit it's my favorite too. Most of my sewing projects have been made with this fabric.

However, there's always been a couple of things that slightly bother me about this print:

1) If I'm making something small, I can't always get enough birds or branches in the section of fabric I'm using.

2) The texture on the tree trunks isn't quite right.

Soooo, as I plan to reimage this design anyway at the new studio (full width, no less!), I'm taking the opportunity to change some things. But thought it might be wise to run them past you first!


Note that this is a particularly bird heavy section - there aren't always that many birds!

So... what do you think? *Nail biting ensues*

Lara Cameron flickr pool!

Thanks to a very insightful suggestion by the lovely Susan of Spin Spin - I've created a flickr pool for crafty projects made with my fabric!

http://flickr.com/groups/lara_cameron/pool/

A little indulgent I know - but so excited to see what appears there :)

Please go add stuff!

Ink & Spindle progress update

Things always seem to take longer than expected. Every time I find myself thinking 'we'll do our first print run in about two weeks', I invariably find myself thinking the very same thing again two weeks later.

Still, progress down at the studio might be slow but things are surely happening:

-We have a kitchenette and wash down area almost complete.
-The table is almost perfectly level and ready to have the printing surface applied.
-Screen frames are being made, ready for stretching.
-Ink & squeegees have been delivered.
-We've signed up for Naked broadband which could take up to 20 working days to activate (!?!)

I've also moved my work essentials down to the space and plan to spend tomorrow morning doing real work down there for the first time. Here's how my little corner is looking:



Loving it. Floorboards. Feature wall. A colour scheme. A renter's dream, really :)

Bird Softie Kits - Australian Homespun

Just a quick note to let you know that the bird softie kits for the Australian Homespun tutorial are up in my shop :)

Unfortunately they do not contain the actual instructions as those are exclusive to the magazine - so you'll have to go out and buy it :)


Australian Homespun bird softie kits

Australian Homespun project

Whilst I was totally distracted by the very Melbourne-esque turn of the seasons with the weather suddenly being all spring and sunshine like somebody clicked their fingers, it slipped my mind that it's now September and my article in Homespun magazine is out!



The article includes instructions I submitted for a softie bird project. And I had planned to have fabric kits available in my shop to go with it!!


A little interview


Instructions for making the birdie

I'll get onto the fabric kits today! So please pop by my shop in a day or two if you'd like to buy one. The fabrics will be the very same as used in the photos :)

a brief respite

We are getting so close to having the studio up and running and I am feeling almost giddy with excitement. There's still a lot of things to do - but we have all the pieces of the puzzle in sight and now it's a matter of waiting for them to arrive and then putting them all together.

This week Pete is home on Staycation (a concept that I love, and am starting to see pop up elsewhere on blogland), and I've taken the opportunity to chill out a little myself. I read a book for the first time in ages, and actually did some pattern designing!

I had told myself "no I can't do a wattle design because Tim Growcott has already done one", but it's funny how when you do something in your own style it turns out completely different!


Acacia © Lara Cameron


Acacia © Lara Cameron

I loooove how this print turned out and I hope you do too. I think it will be the first design I print in the new studio.

Mix pack love

I had a little spike in sales in the shop in the last few days, which I think is to do with a lovely mention from Loobylu! Thanks Claire!

I noticed that my shop is looking rather empty, so have hastened to put up a bunch more mix packs that I made the other day:


Fabric mix packs for the shop

I still have so much fun putting these little packs together.

Thread Den fashion show

Last night Bianca and I went to see our very first fashion show as part of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. I'd never been to one of those catwalk gigs before (not usually very much into fashion) but it was quite fun! The venue was great (Melbourne Town Hall), we got showbags, and it was a bit of an eye opener in terms of what sorts of things we could do with our yardage prints. I've never considered printing for fashion before, but it could be fun.

On that note, Thread Den around the corner on Errol Street are having a show of their own this Friday night! It has a 50's theme and there'll be a market and 50's themed cocktail party afterwards. I'll definitely be going to that one because I designed the promo artwork for it!



No. 57 trams, branches and bits of North Melbourne. Who me? Never ;)

Piece by piece

Ink & Spindle studio

Slowly but surely, our studio is coming together. It seems folly to be focusing on such seemingly trivial things like interior-decorating our office, when there's so much still to do that's more directly related to printing process itself.

But like any big project, things take longer than you'd hope - there's always periods of time when all you can do is wait for other people to get back to you on things. So we fill in the gaps with making the studio look pretty :)

Over the weekend I stopped by Lincraft to buy some letters (promptly painted lime) and an assortment of cute frames. I've been wanting to frame these yumi yumi prints for ages and now they have a happy home!


The wall behind my desk ... a work in progress.