Mordialloc, Fitzroy, Collingwood and Kensi

So yet another busy week has passed, with much hectic balancing of day jobs and I&S work! But we'll skip straight to the fun bits - starting Friday, the first properly warm day, post Winter! Yay!
The sun had put everyone in a good mood, and we were no exception.
As Bi and Marcel took off down the coast to Anglesea for a gorgeous long weekend away (Happy B'day Marcel!!) Lara and I took off in the other direction, to Mordialloc! Lara had been busy on the phone all week, hunting down various people, suppliers and shops we would need and had prepared us well with maps and addresses, etc, (I swear she used to be a Scout) for a Friday of cruising in style, in Lara's parents Saab!
Our first stop was a canvas supplier, and we ended up staying there for ages, hearing all sorts of 'brush with fame' stories from the lovely old man who owns the shop. My fav was how he made all the canvas stuff for the ships and tents in Steven Speilberg's Band of Brothers! I liked that series...
So anyway, we ended up getting metres and metres of 12oz, artist quality, cotton duck!
'But Teegs,' I hear you say, 'That must have been awfully expensive!'
'Aha,' says I, 'Not nearly as much as you think!'
I wish I had had the insight to call a canvas supplier back when I was at art school, because our lovely man charges only around $17 per m for the 12oz, not the $40+ that you find in artist supply stores... oh, the humanity! Learn from my mistake, people.
Ok, so having ticked that off the list, we merrily headed back in to the city to go to chiggidy-check out Dale's studio in Fitzroy. Unfortunately, Dale wasn't there at the time, but his 2IC shows us around, no wukkas, except we had to leave after only a short time, because the colour they were currently using was a deep brown and smelled, how can I put this delicately... well for the gardeners among us, exactly like fertilizer.
So we head from the studio, to the shop, which is where we find Dale, who turned out to be an amazing font of industry knowledge and really happy we're starting up - which was fab! So after some serious textile discussions, we head down to Monsieur Phillipe the metal worker, a couple of blocks away.
Unbeknowst to us, M. Phillipe was in a one way street and we had done a u turn, as we had gone past his workshop looking for somewhere to park... Short of it is, we got yelled at by an angry man in a van who screamed 'One-way, Girly!!' as he roared past us - so hilarity ensued for the rest of the day as we kept on with the 'Girly' reference, in the best manly voices we could muster.
So after sorting our metal requirements with M. Phillipe, we headed off to find some special glue which had led Lara on a merry (phone) chase, halfway across the country and back, until she found it on, of all places, Macaulay Road, Kensington!! Barely a minute's drive from our studio!
Bril!
So with the gorgeous sun shining in the blue, blue sky, we head up to drop everything off at the studio, feeling very happy and full of that-contented-feeling-you-get-when-you-tick-things-off-your-to-do-list.
Once upstairs, we hear power tool noises coming from next door, which is unusual coz thats 'the photographers' and they have been overseas for weeks and weeks!
So we pop over to do the neighbourly thing and say hello, welcome home, etc and end up scoring ourselves some of the best chocolate cake e.v.a. - turns out they are food photographers and had done a shoot with/for Real Living Magazine (the one Lara was in a couple months back) and the mag's food editor had come to their studio and made chocolate cake for it!! The photographer said, and I quote, "I was just gonna throw it out anyway", so Lara and I were determined to save at least some of it from this dastardly fate...
The beautiful afternoon wore on, and became a gorgeous evening and we decided we deserved a drink of something refreshing and summery! I might leave it there, as I'm sure you can imagine what followed... vermouth(just coz it was there), much laughter, chicken, our boys, beer, Hellboy and, of all things, Pacman & company (in decal form) now adorns my new kitchen... thank goodness winter is over!

Aubergine, Lime & Eucalyptus Green

It was a pretty full on Friday, Saturday, Sunday full of painting, ikea shopping, ikea-put-togethering and bruised fingers & palms. But the result was well worth it. I happened to do a complete 180 on my feelings about the colour purple about a week ago, just in time for choosing the colour of our feature wall:



We're soooo happy with how this is coming together, and are looking forward to covering that wall with an ecclectic mix of art & prints in cute random frames.


The three of us together in our new studio office. From left to right: Lara, Bianca & Tegan

feature wall...

...because I said we'd be back :)

Proudly presenting our aubergine wall...it looks quite funky and it's very hard to take a picture of. I guess you will just have to come see it for yourself on our opening night. Not sure when that is though...so hang in there, we'll let you know.


The view from our studio to our office : we love the framing


Lara giving our wall a second coat

packed to the rafters

I'm supposed to be in bed right now, after such a hectic day but I thought I'd share it with you first.

It started this morning at 7.45am when Teegs dropped their cat off at our place because they were doing their big house move to an absolutely drop dead gorgeous victorian cottage in Kensington. The cat decided that we had slept enough for the night so pretty much kept us awake until we got up at 9am (lucky me for not working on Thursdays & Fridays).

I met up with Lara at the paint shop in Yarraville at 11am to find a paint colour for our feature wall. The couple at the paint shop were so cute, and very helpful and we walked out of the door with a nice warm aubergine colour...why not?

On our way to the studio we stopped at Teegs' new place to drop off some 'move stuff' and then we decided it was time for our big trip to Ikea. Lara & I made the long drive across the city and went shopping...some good shopping :)
We bought our desks, expedits, drawer cabinets, bins, glasses, lamps and some other little nick nacks.

Next step...fitting it all in an average sized sedan...I can tell you that we did it! It all went in and this is what it looked like:



It was so funny, it took us a while to fit it all in...moving some seats here and there and in the end we could close the boot. When I finally got in the car, squeezing myself in the front seat...I had forgotten to close the back door... :( so then I had to do the story all over again, squeezing out of the seat, closing the door..etc etc. you get it.

That was the fun part, the hard part was yet to come. I was seriously enjoying the relaxing ride back to the studio because I knew what was going to come.
The two of us carried everything up to the 2nd level...everything! After that we were crazy enough to get the paint out and put the first coat of paint on our feature wall. Sorry there's no picture of that yet, because it definitely needs a second coat before it is blog-worthy...so back with that tomorrow.

more pretty table pictures...

Our yardage printing table!

This morning I received a phone call from the company who are supplying the materials for our yardage printing table. They told me that the delivery truck had left a little while ago and that I must (and I quote) "Run! Run!" down to the studio to get there before they did.

So I quickly gathered together my things (thankfully had the foresight to pack my laptop) and hurried down there.

And then waited. And waited. Missed morning tea, missed lunch. Pottered on the laptop sans internet (such agony) and did some more painting of the windows. And then, finally the delivery guys arrived.

These poor blokes had to haul sheet after sheet of incredibly heavy particle board up 2 flights of stairs which I did not envy.

But once Tegan and Bianca arrived later that day, it didn't take us long to put it together:


All the pieces laid out, and construction begins!


The frame coming together


The bottom shelf in place (yay storage)


Et voila! (like our new window colour?)

Well kinda - next we need to prepare the surface and get this baby perfectly level. Eeee!

Another week gone...

So as Bi said in the last post, we've been busy doing non-diy work, and its still happening! So we don't have any new pics to show you - sorry!
What we have been up to has still been pretty exciting - Bi and Lara are working on their fab new collaberation and I have been busy with my senior fashion design students!
Our school took part in the Myer Fashion Awards Australia last friday and much to our delight, five of our students took home individual awards, AND then we won the School's Cup - which means we got the title of Best Fashion Design School in Aust! So as you can imagine my two colleagues and I were totally excited, proud and exhausted.
So in short - busy, busy.
On Ink & Spindle news, our printing table is being delivered this week, so we promise more news and pics in the next few days! Stay tuned...

behind the scenes

I hope you're not thinking that we've dropped off the earth, because it has been quiet for such a long time...BUT we have been busy, trust us ;)

Even thought the painting is on hold, sort of, we have been busy with lots of paperwork and financial projections etc.

Real business stuff, things that we need to have ready to make this fun and exciting venture a success.

On Saturday we did a little bit of painting and cleaning but forgot to take photos, sorry. It's going to look really nice, we're definitely liking the pale green much better than the electric blue.

This week we're pretty busy with our own projects. Teegs will be getting herself and her students ready for the fashion show and Lara and I are busy with an exciting collaboration...and of course it's just really cold and we'd rather stay at home with our heater and hot water bottles ;)

We'll be back with more DIY pics soon...as pictures of financial statements and business plans aren't all that exciting for some...

In the meantime, if you're interested in renting a studio space in our fantastic building get in touch with Laura Woodward.
Here are some details:

Hi!

I am currently looking into establishing a Studio of about 20 individual spaces, and am very keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in a space towards the end of this year.

At this stage:
- each space will be an individual room
- sizes will range from 16 to 32 square metres (larger available if required)
- cost from $40 to $80 per week, according to size
- cement floors
- located 15 minute train trip or bike ride from the city, very close to station
- good street access for moving large artworks
- suitable for a wide range of artistic practices

If you may be interested in a space, or would like any more info, I would love to hear from you! I can be contacted at laura(at)laurawoodward(dot)com(dot)au.

The floor...

Oops, I'm a little late with this one, but I figured peeps would want to see it anyway!

The finish has worked beautifully, and we're totally happy with the result. Of course this post should have gone before Bi's, as we have now painted nearly all the window frames, sorry 'bout that!

painting time

Yay, finally...we made it through all the hard work of ripping out masonite and lino floors, sanding it and treating it. Now it's time for fun!

Painting the electric blue window frames and doors with a lovely soft green :)


Teegs painting our window frames, Marcel holding the paint


Lara painting the door to our office