Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Teegs' playing dress ups..

Since it's holidays & all, we figured I could get away with posting a little non-Ink & Spindle related shenanigans!

2010 for me, has been the year of the dress-up: there's been pirate, ball-going belle, gangster's moll, Jessica Rabbit, and then over the last couple of months I've been busy with some extra-curricular activities (not that kind, you guys! Sheesh! The sewing kind!) & the following are some pics of the fruits of my labour.

Backstory: You may remember back in October we posted about our fav new neighbours here at Younghusband, Revolt and how they were throwing a big ol' opening night party which, quite conveniently for me, happened to coincide with my birthday! The other awesome thing about the opening night was that it was Steampunk dress up!! And all my friends were gonna be there. Yay!

It was all I needed to go a bit mental in the costume department, to be quite honest.

Clockwork wood nymph costume

I happened to have some rather lovely silkpaper faerie wings which I had made a couple of years before & with the skills, assistance & workshop of the amazingly talented Master Sam (he is my armoury/metalwork teacher) we steampunked them up a bit & made them all wind-up, clockwork-y..

Clockwork wood nymph costume

It became the basis for my whole costume: Militant Woodland Nymph Princess!

Militant because I had a gun, Woodland because I was all green/brown & am a lefty-hippy-type, Nymph because I'm a redhead & Princess because it was my birthday. And because I had a crown..

Check it out you guys! I made a corset! Well technically, it's a stay (Butterick 4254). There's 12 metres of boning in that thing...

Clockwork wood nymph costume

This is me on the actual night - with all my extra paraphernalia (including a glowing vial of magical potion), and with make-up & hair.. 'scuse the low res.


















So that was that one. Cool, huh?

The next dress up was for Jewel of the Night - a step back in time from the 1920's to the 1950's.

With the help of my Twitter buddies, we decided I should aim for 1930's Gown'd Screen Siren.

This inspired many an internet search & many elaborate drawings & one long and involved conversation with Suzie, and in then end I quiet simply ran out of time to do the original (read: convoluted) design, which was going to involve a lot of drape & bias cutting. Two things my skill level is significantly underdeveloped in.

Then, on a night out with my dear, tiny, fellow-ginger, Kiwi friend Anthea, we quite randomly came across a rather fantastic, deco-inspired necklace & my gown appeared fully-formed in my head!

I found a pattern that was pretty darn close to my mental picture & seemed easy enough to tweak to be what I had in mind (Vogue 7365) & then a trip to my ol' buddy Nikki at Tessuti Fabrics, where we scoured the store looking for the perfect fabric (it was of course, the first one we looked at, but one must be sure of these things..!) I strolled home, over-the-moon, with 4 metres of a gorgeous, green silk. It was beautiful to work with.

And so I made this.

1930's screen siren gown
The front

1930's screen siren gown
The back

1930's screen siren gown
Cowl & clasp detail

You can see from the above two shots that I deconstructed the necklace so the front had little beaded clasps that matched the main pendant at the back. Y'know, to tie the whole outfit together & whatnot.

I was a little concerned about the potential for an extreme wardrobe malfunction, but the chains were all very obedient & stayed linked together, bless them.

I only have a crappy iphone pic to show you what I looked like on the actual night..


















I *really* want to wear this dress again. Will someone take me to the opera, please? :)

More pics here if you'd like to see!

Good times.

xx Teegs

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Summer Holidays!

Phew! We're off on a well earned break for a while!!

The Ink & Spink stall at the Ballarat Design Exchange Market


The studio is closed from today until the 17th of Jan, however we will be posting out online shop orders from the Monday 10th Jan.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your ongoing support over the last few years - it's been one heck of a ride so far & please know that we've appreciated every single email, shop sale, market attend, open studio visit, photo of the awesome thing you made, morning tea visit, blog post, kind word & all the love you have given us.

Both Lara & I are feeling quite spent after what turned out to be a really massive (both professionally and personally!) 2010, but are looking forward to rejuvenating on this break, getting away from the city for a tiny bit & moving onward to a bigger & better 2011 - we've even got some new surprises planned for you!

Wishing you all safe & happy holidays, wherever you may be :)

Much love from Team I&S: Lara, Louie, Miki, Renae & I.

See you in the New Year!

xx Teegs

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Design Exchange - Ballarat

Just a quick reminder that we'll be at The Design Exchange market this coming Sunday in Ballarat! The market is going to be held in the gorgeous Mining Exchange building which I'm excited about. Should be heaps of great designers there so if you live nearby please come visit!



xx Lara.

Monday, December 13, 2010

More Tea Towels

Hey everyone!

Hope you're having an awesome December and not too crazy. Ours has been pretty crazy and exhausting but all good. We had a great Open Studio over the weekend so thanks to everyone who came and said hello and watched us printy print :)

Anyway, just in case you're still looking for xmas gift ideas, here's some new tea towels that we've just popped in the shop. LOVE this combination of colours - Sage, Deep red and Persimmon. Mmmmm.


New Tea Towels - find them in the shop over here!

xx!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Final Open Studio for the year!!


Hey everyone!

It's totally Christmas time (did you notice?) and to celebrate we're having a little Open Studio event THIS SATURDAY! Hooray!

We're going to have bic's n'dip & cups o'tea for you! And lollies... always lollies.

Also we shall of course be doing a little print demo & will have all our wares available for those last minute-y Christmas gifts!

Saturday 11th December 2010
10:00am - 1:00pm (printing demo at 11:00ish!)
206/10 Elizabeth St, Kensington

Hope to see you there!

xx Lara & Teegs

Friday, December 3, 2010

Wheatbags!


Yet another shop update post, sorry! But I just uploaded our organic/bio-dynamic wheatbags and wheatbag kits into the shop and had to share!

These wheatbags came about when I promised a friend that I'd make him a wheatbag for his birthday. We loved how it turned out and thought it'd make a great kit! Plus we thought we should make a few for those who aren't inclined to sew (craziness, I know).

Anyway here's some pics!





Hope you like them!

xx Lara.

Thunder & Stingo


How awesome is this - Mikaela our Swedish intern has launched her own label of designer screen printed goodness with her friend Stina - Thunder & Stingo!

Stina is a Swedish graphic designer also living in Melbourne, and the pair has been pulling some late nights getting their label off the ground in time for the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar. Which is on THIS WEEKEND! If you get a chance to pop down she'd totally appreciate it. I'm definitely going to check it out - a whole market of Scandinavian craft/designer awesomeness! Sounds good to me :)

Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar
Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th December
Swedish Church, 21 St Georges Road, Toorak

Stina works at the cutting table preparing labels - and looking so cute!

Miki working hard at the overlocker - her new favourite machine

Thunder & Stingo teatowels

Thunder & Stingo t-shirt

Thunder & Stingo t-shirt

xx Lara

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Teatowels in the shop!



Hey folks, just a quick note to let you know that our teatowels are in the shop!

Because they're made from the very ends of our print runs (whoo, less wastage!) the range will be constantly changing, but here's a few that are available right now:


Kangaroo Paw in Red Orange - Teatowel


Wrens in Dusty Pink - Teatowel


Kangaroo Paw in Charcoal - Teatowel


Bonsai on Olive - Teatowel

And thanks to everyone who came down to say hello at our MARKit stall on Sunday! We had an awesome day. Cold. But awesome.

xx Lara.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

MARKit!!


Letters + Branch = yay

Hey folks, don't forget the MARKit Design Market on this Sunday at Fed Square! We're super excited to be a part of this design market alongside so many amazing, creative peeps, and hope you can come along to check it out!

We've been busy working on a few new xmas-gift-worthy items, plus some new display ideas to make our stall look extra good. Including these gorgeous teatowels, which I had as much fun photographing as we did making them...


Organic cotton/hemp teatowels - screen printed and sewn in our Kensington Studio


Organic cotton/hemp teatowels - screen printed and sewn in our Kensington Studio

The most exciting thing is that most of them are made from the very ends of our print runs, so the print only covers 2/3 of the teatowel and the rest is blank. We love this look! Sometimes we just get bored with seeing all-over prints every day and these feel a bit more like placement prints which is really refreshing.

Thanks to Miki for all her hard work sewing these :)

Anyway, hope you see you guys down at Fed Square on Sunday, yay!

xx Lara.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Window Furnishings Australia

We've been in the press a few times now, and overall it's been a bit of a weird experience. Usually our message gets garbled, misquoted or we just end up sounding like ditsy girls. So we've learned to be a bit cautious with interviews & take any press with a pinch of salt.

So we were VERY pleasantly surprised to read this fantastic article from Window Furnishings Australia! Dawn seemed to really understand us & translated that perfectly in to a really well written article.

Thanks a bunch, Dawn!





And I only mention 'hippy love' ONCE! I'm so restrained...

Ha!

xx Teegs

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Talented ladies!

Some more loveliness has made it's way to our inbox!



Nikki conveniently requested a more man-appropriate colourway of the rooftops way back in March & after faffing about for ages with basecloth & colours we printed up this little guy!
Featuring Rooftops in Black on Charcoal. Nice work, Nikki!

Lace Fans in Robin's Egg blinds, handmade by Adele for her daughter's bedroom - gorgeous work!

Gorgeous custom printed large scale Birch in Soft Moss for Justine's nursery.


Catherine bought our Allsorts Quilt Kit and modified the design slightly - it looks so awesome!

How wonderful are these creations?!

xx Teegs

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Deep in the Woods

You know how sometimes there are people out there who are amazingly talented but tucked away in quiet places (in this case at the end of a cobblestone laneway) and you wish that more people knew about them? Well Steve from Deep in the Woods is one of those people.


When we first moved into the Younghusband building, there weren't many other people around in this cavernous place. But Steve's workshop at the end of the laneway was always lit up, as he worked long hours into the night turning salvaged timber into amazing pieces of furniture.


I wasn't the only person who told him that he really needed a website to get more exposure, and am so glad that a contra deal with our other talented neighbour Angus from Lettuce (who now has a dining table so large it can only fit in his studio!) resulted in the awesome website below:



It took us a while to get to know Steve but since knowing him better he's been so generous with his time, spare tools and skills. The other day he took the time to cut a new window out of perspex for my car after someone broke into it. How nice is that!

We're looking forward to one day doing some collaborations with Steve, so stay tuned :)

xx Lara.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Suziam - talented she is

You've heard us waffle on before about the talent in this building, and here's yet another example! Suziam (AKA Owl Posse AKA Susan, who works downstairs at Lettuce) bought two old armchairs a couple of years ago at the Chapel St Bazaar and then in classic crafter form took a couple of years to find the right fabric and some spare time to actually recover them.

But she finally did, in no less than Teegs' Lace Fans in Robins Egg. They turned out awesomely!

Here's the before shot:

Suziam's chairs - before

And here's the after:

Suziam's chairs - after

Nice work Suz! Oh and check out Suz's other crafty awesomeness at her blog Owl Posse. Yay!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Restocked!


Hello all!

Just a quick note to let you know that we've just restocked a bunch of stuff in our shop - including more Allsorts quilt kits - yay!


There's also heaps more meterage of all the popular colourways that have recently sold out. Yay for having a fully stocked shop again!

Oh and guess what else? It's Teegs' birthday today!! Wish the special lady a happy birthday everyone!! We're about to take her out for a special lunch/arvo tea at a surprise location :)

xx Lara.

Friday, October 29, 2010

More Markets!

How is it that just a few days after exhausting ourselves doing FK & Bowerbird on the same weekend we decide that we should do two more design markets before the end of the year? But we just couldn't say no to these ones!

We've very excited to be a part of the MARKit Design Market this time around - it's at Fed Square in the Atrium and full of awesome independent designers (the best kind).


And then there's the very new and very exciting sounding The Design Exchange market! Located in the gorgeous Mining Exchange building in Ballarat, it'll be a great opportunity to see some new faces (customers and stallholders alike) and get out for a bit of a road trip. Yay!

Hope to see you at one or both!