String of circles

Following on the same tack as my last post, sometimes when there's no space for spare thoughts, no room in my head to create... random ideas just pop into my head completely out of nowhere. Right as I woke up a week or so ago I suddenly had a picture in my head - a garland out of random sizes circles using only our saffron coloured fabric.


Cutting circles on the floor at home

So I grabbed some fabric from the studio, ironed stiff interfacing onto the back, took the pieces home and traced circles from assorted round objects.


My string of circles hanging in the studio

Then it was simply a matter of cutting out the circled with some pinking shears. I use the term simply lightly 'cause damn those shears can be hard work and the stiff interfacing didn't help. I ended up with some nice purple dents on the fingers of my right hand. I came back to tackle the rest the next day.


My string of circles hanging in the studio

Then it was just a matter of cutting some slits and threading the circles onto some herringbone tape. I like the fact that they can be moved around and repositioned. And no sewing machine was required!

xx

Lara.

Making.

Sometimes (actually often) I feel like work is just one constant to-do list. Constantly juggling a gazillion different little tasks that I try to write down but some just keep slipping through the cracks and then I remember them again and forget them again and remember them again with a start at 5am.... and repeat.

So on the weekends often my brain just feels numb. Inspiration to be creative is just not on the radar. Don't be fooled, 95% of the time I'm not a textile designer. I'm a small business owner.

Anyway, something clicked last week when I somehow, briefly felt on top of things, and - god forbid - I actually felt like making stuff.

And make I did.

For ages I'd been meaning to make a table runner so I raided the scraps box and whipped this up in a couple of hours after the work day finished.


Patchwork table runner

Sure a patchwork table runner isn't the most original of concepts (Cloth do them, I know) but it is just such a great way to use up odds and ends.


Patchwork table runner

The next evening I made a draft snake, also using fabrics from the scrap box. I'd noticed a whopping big gap under Jon's front door, which does not sit well with a cold frog like me. I told him he needed a draft snake, he had no idea what I was talking about.


patchwork draft snake

The next night I started my third project, but hey, I'm not going to waste the opportunity and am going to write about that in another post ;)

xx

Open Studio this Saturday

If you're not a regular follower of the Ink & Spindle blog you might not know this yet but we have an Open Studio this coming Saturday! We do a printing demo, sell fabrics and wares and provide tea and bikkies. Oh and kids are more than welcome, we had heaps of little ones at the last open studio and they loved watching us print!

Hope you can make it! xx

Dining table project

These photos are from the archives, back a few months ago when man-friend and I recovered his dining chairs in some of my fabric. It was a pretty uninspiring set of dining furniture before but now it looks quite cute (ahem, sorry I mean manly) covered in Almond Birch. Which HE chose. Yay.


Recovered dining chairs


Recovered dining chair - Almond Birch

xx

Autumn happenings

Let me try to make up for my lack of blogging with some pictures from the last month or so. It's been a bit of a weird hodge podge kind of month and I feel like this is the first weekend in ages where I've had space to just sit and calm down and think and write and feel inspired again.

Anyway. Some things...


Berry picking with my family in the Pennyroyal Valley... one of the most beautifulm secluded places I know. Between us we picked 10kg of Raspberries for jam, sorbet, brekkie etc. Possibly too many. Possibly.




My flat is featured (yet again!) in the latest issue of Peppermint Magazine. It was photographed by Olga Bennett who is lovely and we had a great chat about stuff and things and ceramics.


Farewelling Suziam (and an Elly Oak card)


We had a farewell lunch this week for Suziam who is off to the States with her lovely man friend to live/work over there! Suz is one of the few other women in our building, works for Lettuce and amongst other things has been doing nice things for Lucy from TDF. She will be missed!



Completely over exposed but I love the floral arrangements at The Premises.


And last but certainly not least - our stall at the latest Finders Keepers market. (photo by Kristen Doran)

Let me just say, the Finders Keepers market this year was AWESOME. So many great stallholders and so many people! I bought some lovely things but really wish I had more time to shop. Plus... we did quite well as stallholders which has been such a relief... we really needed that boost to a) pay bills b) live, and c) invest in some new product/range development. I feel like we can relax a bit now. Whew.

You know what, I might even do a bit of non-work related crafting next weekend. Who woulda thought!

xx

Finders Keepers

Yay, the Finders Keepers market is on again this coming weekend!! I love a market that spans multiple days, gives us a chance to really make the stall look beautiful and spread out the whole set-up, pack-down rigmarole.



My good buddy & fellow textile designer Kristen Doran will be staying with me for the duration of the show. Kristen's in Sydney and it feels like we only ever see each other when there's a market on. What am I saying? We DO only ever see each other when there's a market on!

But that's one of the things I love about markets, catching up with all our fellow creative buddies since we're otherwise too busy to socialise :)

Hope to see you there too - please come and say hi!

xx

The Design Files... Me? Really?

My little Flemington flat on The Design Files today

I think it's somewhat ironic that less than 12 hours after writing my last blog post the feature about my flat appears on The Design Files.

Just... wow. Don't get me wrong, I am so SUPER EXCITED about my little abode being featured on my favourite design blog of all time. It's been a secret ambition of mine for aaaages but when Lucy saw some pics of my flat and asked to do a tour my first internal reaction was "oh no but it's not good enough!". I insisted she wait a couple of months till I'd made some changes I'd been thinking about.


My little Flemington flat on The Design Files today

That might sound crazy but it's so true that we are always our own harshest critic. I also feel like in the creative world one's own work inherently lacks the magic that everyone else's work appears to embody.

Because when I design something I'm intimately familiar with every step of the process. The first seed of inspiration. All the reference material I gathered together. The sketches that didn't work and the ones that did. The general struggle to turn an idea in my mind into something real. Then there's a brief period of appreciation once it's finished, but that soon wears off when you're looking at it every day.

When it comes to other people's work I tend to think that their ideas came about by a magic lightning bolt of inspiration. Through some "highly creative" process rather than mine which somehow seems so much more calculated.

But I guess that's something we all feel.

xx

Lara.

P.S. - thank you everyone for you awesome comments on my last post. I'm so glad to hear that so many people feel the same way and that being open and honest about our struggles is equally important and inspiring. I'd like to write more on the subject soon...

Reflections, perceptions and pressures

Contrast - what you see versus real life

It's been a bit of a quiet month at work and as we all know quiet times are ripe for reflection.

I've been thinking a lot about the pressures we (or at least I) place on ourselves when running a creative business. There's the pressures of making a living and being innovative, which are hard enough, but I think the biggest pressure is fulfilling one's own expectations.

How do you define personal success? I find it's a definition which can get muddied by the pressure to be everything that other people assume you to be, and to be everything you assume your idols to be.

Sometimes I really feel like our blogging community is one big double edged sword. As many of us are strive to establish ourselves as creative individuals we filter and only present our best images (I'm definitely guilty of that). But at the same time we're reading each other's blogs and feeling so much pressure to measure up to unrealistic ideals that we ourselves are perpetuating.

Contrast - what you see versus real life

Perfect example - the home photo shoot. Select the prettiest rooms/nooks in our houses, tidy them up, play happy families. How much of that is real? I know of many couples who have had to pose for a photo shoot pretending all is fine when the reality is far from it. My flat is another great example. Even in this post I daren't show you my 2nd bedroom.

Even though conciously we're often hiding our dirty bathrooms and relationship issues and financial struggles, at the same time we're blindsighted to the struggles that others might be facing. So we fill in the gaps in our knowledge with the most rose tinted images that are very likely unrealistic.

I guess what I'm starting to realise is that perceptions aren't reality and sometimes we need to change our ideals. I want to feel grateful for what I do have, what we have achieved, and not place all this pressure on myself to be something that's probably not realistically achievable.

From a business perspective this means accepting that it is very, very hard to make a decent living doing something you love! All those creative businesses who I (and you) idealise - more often than not they face the same problems we do, just on a bigger scale with more stress. I'm still striving to prove that it is possible to make a decent living from a creative & ethical business, but the reality is that we're not there yet.

If you've read this far, then thank you. I know this post is a bit disjointed but I hope it makes some sense.

xx

Home

It's been a very long time coming, but my little Flemington flat appeared in the Herald Sun home magazine last Saturday. Three pages. THREE!


My flat in the Herald Sun Home magazine - yay!

I wasn't sure how the article was going to turn out but I'm really happy with it! The text is great (I don't sound too ineloquent) and the photos are really lovely. Although my flat doesn't look anywhere near as big as this in real life. Thanks wide angle lens!


My flat in the Herald Sun Home magazine - yay!

Now I know it's a bit crazy but this post is totally unrelated to my other recent post because my flat is going to be popping up in a couple of other places soon too... when it rains it pours.

xx

New textile happiness

If you've been reading the Ink & Spindle blog you would have seen this already, but over the last couple of weeks we've been releasing a bunch of new prints & fabrics!

Firstly our 100% organic and Australian Made cotton jersey range:

Little Forest, Trams & Bicycles, Pirates & Sea Creatures and Seedling.

Secondly (I've been looking forward to this for ages), we released my Flowering Gum print:

Flowering Gum in Olive & Robins Egg

Flowering Gum in Red Orange & Stone

We're printing all the new prints on a woven basecloth too (some are still on the way):


Flowering Gum, Seedling & Little Forest cushions


Flowering Gum, Seedling & Little Forest cushions

It's been so much fun and so satisfying to see these designs come to life. We have lots more plans for them too.

In other exciting news, my flat was featured in the Herald Sun Home magazine today! Will post some pics soon once I have my camera with me :)

xx Lara.

Oooh...

Today I had to pop home briefly for a very exciting reason.

See if you can guess why.



Eeee! My current life goals are officially all complete.

Ink & Spindle Open Studio - THIS SATURDAY!

Hey everyone! We have an open studio this coming Saturday and we're VERY excited about it for a couple of reasons!

1) We will be launching our NEW JERSEY RANGE!! All new prints on all new fabrics, with a special focus on the little ones in your life. If you'd like a sneak peek of our new prints on jersey come visit us on Saturday!

2) Dana from Twiglet has moved into our studio - yay for a new studio buddy! Her wares will also be for sale PLUS she is having a garage sale of vintage fabrics and remnants!

As always there'll be printing demos and tea & bikkies too.

Saturday February 19th, from 10am-1pm at the Ink & Spindle studio.

Hope to see you here!

xx

A botanical study...

The cycle of a flowering gum

As you might have noticed, I've recently developed quite an interest in flowering gum trees. There are sooooo many varieties of Eucalypt and right now is the perfect time of year to study them :)

I went back to the local reserve where I originally gathered the branches for my flowering gum print, and managed to find examples of every single stage in the flowering process. I found it interesting that one single branch can exhibit many of the different growth stages at the same time. So it was easy to gather examples of each for a shoot!


The cycle of a flowering gum - from operculum to bud of stamen to gumnuts
(view the full sized version here!)

So here's how it works! In this variety, the flowering cycle starts with a cluster of "opercula" that begin quite small and grow to approx 2-3cm in length. Each operculum is essentially a little cap, and inside are clusters of stamen (This is where the Eucalypt gets its name - Eucalypt translates to "well covered").

Over time the stamen expand and force the caps off.* Some flowering gums just feature a single bud, whereas this species features a cluster of buds so the end result looks like a whole sphere of pretty stamen.

Once the flower begins to die, the stamen drop off, leaving beind just the cup shaped base - which lo and behold - become gumnuts!

*I remember when we were little we'd find those really long pointy ones on the ground that we'd put on the ends of our fingers and pretend to be witches with long fingernails ;)

So yeah, isn't that interesting??

And of course I couldn't leave you withour a sneak peak of the new Flowering Gum print finally on fabric :) It'll be in the shop soon!


Flowering Gum in Red Orange and Stone

A creative start

I know I'm not the only one who's seeing 2011 as an opportunity for a fresh start - a year with more focus on creativity and personal fulfillment, and time for the things that really matter.

And I'm so glad that 2011 has already started to feel different. The last two weeks in the studio have been spent planning the year ahead, keeping sight of our personal and professional goals (much the same, really), making the studio a more beautiful place to work, and most importantly... designing. I'm so excited to announce that we've got a whole suite of new designs about to be released, and ideas brewing for new ones - with a focus on pushing the boundaries a bit more.

Here's a sneak peak at a couple of new designs in the works, and how they came to life:


Flowering gum pencil sketches, drawn from some locally gathered specimens


Yellow flowering gum specimen, and the new print...


Little forest sketches and new print...

Can't wait to get these onto fabric!

-------------------------------------------
This week I am liking:

- The look of these ceramics classes. Going to sign up for one soon when finances allow!
- This photo from the floods.
- Quince Homewares who I visited today and had a lovely chat with Michelle.

xx

Flood Relief Auction at I&S!

Hey folks just a quick note to let you know that we're holding a litttle Flood Relief Auction over at the Ink & Spindle blog - one of our Allsorts Quilt Kits is up for auction. Please head over and bid!

xx

Vintage Australiana

I must say getting out of town is good.

Man friend and I took a trip up to the north of the state, read books and napped on the banks of the Murray surrounded by river red gums and went to cute places like Swan Hill and Echuca. And a trip to country towns is never complete without an absolute score at one of the antique shops:


Vintage Australiana tins - set of 3 for $15!


Vintage Australiana tins

I found these at the antique shop in Kerang where one of my best girly friends has been posted for 6 months. I use the term vintage loosely - I have no idea how old they are but they're totally up my alley with all the native flora and fauna. And the lids are pistachio coloured! They fit right into my kitchen :)

In other news, the last few days have been spent designing. Would you believe it? Not just designing but preparing actual finished designs for screens. Excitement indeed! Will post a sneak peak soon :)

xx

2011 begins!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!

Hey I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post. They were very sweet, supportive and insightful and I appreciated them a lot.

2011 is off to a good start. Watched the fireworks from the "eel trap" bridge (and relived my childhood by making sparkler bombs), beach volleyball and BBQ with friends the next day, and today sketching and reading in the sun whilst man friend provided delicious food and snacks all day long. Can't complain, really.

And because a post is not complete without a photo, here's a picture of my fridge, because who says fridges can't look pretty and inspiring? (all the "real fridge" mess is hidden below ;)


Things and places that I like ... oh and how awesome are those Ginkgo leaf post-its?? Thanks Yong!

Hope your 2011 is off to a great start :)

xx

2010 farewell - and some honest thoughts

Achillea, real and sketched

So. 2010 is coming to a close. And what a year it has been. So much has happened yet it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye. For me, the year has been one of a lot of personal and professional growth. Not as much as I would have liked (on both fronts) but growth all the same.

I've spent this last week doing a lot of reflecting whilst on holidays. And I think my thoughts on the year can be grouped under two themes:

Anxiety & Acceptance
Like most people, I have lots of different anxieties, that affect me to varying degrees both socially and in the workplace. 2010 has been a year of recogising these and learning ways to manage them - definitely still a work in progress! An important part of that is acceptance. Both accepting myself for who I am, but also surrounding myself with lovely people who accept me & my quirks and don't push and pull me to be something else. And of course, doing the same for them in return :)

Inspiration & Intimidation
The hardest thing about 2010 for me has been the lack of creative inspiration. Running Ink & Spindle so often feels like a machine that constantly needs feeding. Opportunities for creativity have been centrered around working with our existing designs (new products etc) rather than developing new ones.

I want to be inspired again but also inspire others again. I look back at my work from a few years ago and miss all of that random creative expression that wasn't related to my work. And I miss how that made others respond and connect with me and my blog. I also see all of the amazing creative development going on around me (eg our friends at Harvest) and feel so intimidated by it all. I know that might sound crazy given what we have achieved so far but moving forward is still really important - both commercially and personally.

Anyway, I really want to bring inspiration and creative expression back into my life, and I'm really hoping our 2 week break away from the studio (and some time out of Melbourne!) will faciltate that.

Anyway enough rambling, here's some sketches from the last few days :)


Top - I've been toying with the idea of getting into ceramics again, hmmmm
Bottom - flowering eucalypts...


Birds!

Lastly, I just want to say a huge thank you to anyone out there reading this blog and commenting. It really does mean a lot to me. I hope next year I'll have more interesting and exciting things to share :)

xx

Lara.

Xmas in pictures

Hello all, I hope you and your family had a great day yesterday doing whatever celebratory things you do!

Ours is typically a very small Christmas, this year just the 5 of us. Here's some pics :)


Presents under the tree (gift tags by spin spin!) and a Kindle cover for my mum


The Kindle cover for my mum - nice to sew something non-work-related for once, and I love how the Kindle screen is just like paper


Musical family - the most awesome xmas cracker contents ever, and some serious concentration at the piano as my bro and I *attempt* to play a duet


The Xmas Pav - with passionfruit AND kiwifruit (don't tell Margaret Fulton)


The Xmas Pav - reduced to very little, very quickly

xx!