Things...

...are busy, busy, busy. But I still always find the time for a nice cuppa. I do like this Kikki.K mug :)

Why so busy? Well, it's all go with my designing and market preparations. The market is on Sunday 28th July at the Masonic Temple, in Sandy Bay Road from 10-3 I think. I had better check those hours!

After weeks of tooing and froing with my printer via email I finally have a shipment to collect tomorrow. I am always nervous to see my new designs as you never know what they will look like. I am blowing up a postcard size image (literally) into something that's around 1x2 metres in size. Anyway, cross fingers they look good!

I have all of next week off work (yippee) to sew as I still have a heap to do for the wearable art event. Model fittings are in 2 weeks' time and I have very little ready. Very little. Gulp. I will just have to try my best and see what I can get done.

I think that's it. I'm so tired and scatterbrained at the moment!

Hmm, must be time for a cuppa! Sounds good to me.

Thanks so much for dropping by and thank you ever so muchly for your lovely comments.

xx

Market success!

Well, the day didn't start off great. I was in recovery mode from chronic hay fever due to the high winds on Saturday and while getting everything sorted and packed I managed to break 2 mirrors. Yes. TWO mirrors. And cut my hand in the process. Well, it was either going to be a disaster or maybe the 2nd mirror was going to cancel out the superstitions of the first.

Thankfully I think the later was true :)

The market was a success!

The scarves received really great feedback and I sold 8 of my 9. Two are being sent to Montreal and another is going travelling to Europe next year. The scarves will be far more well travelled than me!

The little heart brooches I made from 1940's German glass buttons, vintage faux pearls and silk were also a success - I sold them all. I wish I had made more.

And funnily enough, the thing both Lyn and I thought would sell best, the Paris pouches, didn't do as well as expected, but that's fine, it means I can put them on Etsy!

Despite it being a long day I had a good time and it was great chatting to friends and meeting bloggy and instagram buddies for the first time. Thanks so much for dropping by!

What next?

Well, I have to tidy up my studio (crazy messy!) and then I will get a few little bits made that I will pop on Etsy. I have some scarves I hope will arrive today and will (maybe after Christmas) re-order some of the popular fabric that I will make into scarves again.

By the way, did someone mention Christmas? 

Only 3 weeks away? 

I have way too much to do!

xx

Designed by me... Parisian Scarves!

Silk chiffon scarf approx 1x2 metres.

I am really thrilled to be sharing my new creations with you. I have been working on these for what seems like a year and finally it has happened!

I present my Parisian Scarves! Using digitally printed images from my antique Parisian postcard collection, I have created a range of scarves. The fabrics I have chosen are silk chiffon (it's a nice, weighty one), a simple cotton voile and a very soft 85%wool/%15 silk blend stole. There's also a modal fabric stole that I am currently waiting on.
 

So why has it taken so long and what and I going to do with them?

Well, I have been trying to source a printer for such a long time. Spoonflower in the US is great, but the fabrics do not print through to the reverse, making them unsuitable for scarves. There's a printer in Australia but when I investigated with them, they did not print on scarf fabrics, plus their higher costs would have made it very difficult for me to make a dollar from selling them (though I would have loved to have sourced locally). I found another in the UK whose fabrics looked good, but the costs were just beyond my means. Then, earlier in the year I spoke with a scarf designer at the Finder's Keepers Market in Melbourne and she suggested India as a place to look. So, tonnes of emails to different companies later, I found one (a family business) with reasonable pricing, good communication who could offer a range of fabrics that I desired. Yay!! I took the plunge, sent off my massive image files and waited for my parcel to be couriered to me just a week later!

Cotton voile approx 1x2 metres

Cotton voile approx 1x1 metres - more of a necktie style

And I'm really happy. I had a couple of samples of the wool/silk stole printed, though as these are ready-made they are much more costly, I think they're worth it. The other fabric I had printed in lengths that I have cut into a couple of different sizes and hemmed the edges myself.

Sorry about the creases! This is my (almost) square Eiffel scene in cotton voile.

I am going to present these at a local design market this coming Sunday, but have to admit, I'm rather shy to put these new goodies out there. What if no-one likes them? How do I price them so they are affordable, but make me a little money (so I can get more designs printed)? When I look at stores in the city, like Country Road that sells their scarves for around $60 or more, I think that a similar price for my scarves must be reasonable as they're much more exclusive! I'd like to get them up on Etsy as well, but I'll wait until after the market.

As usual, I'd love your thoughts and feedback here :)

xx

Fabulous book

I have somewhat of a 'thing' for books, all sorts of books but particularly art, fashion and jewellery books. Well, combine that with an interest in all things fancy and you have my latest treat to myself Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture. This is one beautiful book which is also limited edition so I had to get my little mitts on it.

It has a funky plexiglass cover, dust jacket by artist Takashi Murakami and about 400 pages of gorgeousness. Sigh...

It's full of collaborations with artists, designers and architects.

Above is the rose motif by Stephen Sprouse. I just love it!