vintage kimono textiles

A new batch of vintage kimono cards for a custom order. I really liked the way they looked all together this morning so thought I'd show you. Old kimono fabric is so gorgeous in terms of colour palette and pattern, don't you think?

giving

Ask anyone and you will find I'm not known for my joyful approach towards the 25th. But I do have nephews & nieces. And we have a family kris kringle. So to decrease my contribution to the consumerist drive at this time of year if I can't make stuff for gifts I make the wrapping paper. And the cards. It's the least I can do.I use plain old brown paper by the roll as my back drop. Last year I made ginger bread for my work colleagues and wrapped them up with little home made gift tags. I don't know if I will get that excited again this year. It was like a factory in our kitchen getting all that organised.

Do you have any handmade tricks for this time of year? Ways to escape dishing out bucket loads of money?

chocolate and teal

While I was printing particles in chocolate brown on fabric last weekend I decided to also print some cards for the shop. I printed some in single colours and others with two colours: chocolate and teal.
My beloved favours the single coloured teal ones whereas I prefer the cards with two colours. What do you think?

I plan to print on fabric again this weekend but this time with a different design. I picked up some small fabric samples during the week which should be perfect to use. And I'm so so so tempted to buy a second hand sewing machine.

brunswick bound

It's been a hard week as I've been sick with a virus that has knocked me around pretty badly. I'm not a very good patient.

Something that cheered me up in the midst of my sickness is that Brunswick Bound, a bookshop that is simply sublime (and located in my old neighbourhood) will be stocking my cards and a small range of giclee prints from today. Thanks guys!

printsy interview: marissa buschow

Printsy is the name of a new flickr group for printmakers who have an etsy shop. That is, printmakers working with techniques such as intaglio, relief, screen printing, lithography and monotypes.  And printsy now has its own blog: Printsy: printmakers of etsy. Printsy members are in the process of interviewing each other about their various backgrounds and printmaking processes. The first interview is up on the new blog and is with Marissa Buschow,  also known as fustian on etsy. This is her lovely woodblock print titled 'fox sparrow'. I'm particularly excited to learn that Marissa also works in the moku hanga (Japanese style woodblock printing) tradition. The interview is a great read. 

And a little note here to say that some of my woodblock print and kimono fabric cards are now available at the gorgeous Bamakko in North Melbourne. Bamakko stock hand made products from a range of Melbourne designers and artisans. The shop is a delight to visit.

things that make it worth getting out of bed for

Some days I'm just astounded by the generosity and spirit of the creative blogging community. It seems that there are some wonderfully supportive people out there who really want to help others build their working lives in creative fields. I'm talking about the roadmaps series just started on design for mankind with the help of decor 8 and creative thursday. These gels are sharing their experiences (and those of many others) in how they were able to make changes in their lives to eventually become self-supporting in various fields of creative work. It's so wonderful to tap into their advice and to draw strength from their support. Especially, if like me, you've made some big changes already and want to keep inspired and strong on the journey.

And then I stumbled upon some beauty (via bloesem) from round robin press:

I'm a sucker for beautiful, arty cards like this from Shannon Lowry in Austin, Texas. It sure beats a lot of the tacky mass produced stuff I see for sale in newsagents in Australia.

More joy on the card front (I have a lot of friends with birthdays coming up so I'm a bit stuck on the card thing at the moment) from sea spray blue adapted from her range of larger sized prints.

stocking up

Over the last few days I've been printing away making more blue dragonfly cards to fill shops orders. Tombo, a gorgeous shop in Westgarth, Melbourne that stocks Japanese furniture to die for, have been keen to stock both the brown and blue dragonflies. I'm guessing this is because tombo means dragonfly in Japanese and so the cards will hopefully work well in their space. A stunning homewares and furniture shop in Fitzroy, Wilkins and Kent, are also now stocking some of my hand made woodblock print cards and vintage kimono cards.