The Poppies! Please vote for us!

Oh wow, Ink & Spindle has been nominated in the "Favourite Handmade Textiles" category of The Poppies! We're feeling very honoured. So if you like what we do at Ink & Spindle please vote for us! Takes literally two seconds to do :)

The super talent that is Nancybird!

You'll never guess who we've been printing for!

Ok, so maybe you will...

...That's right! We've been printing for the one, the only, the amazing Nancybird!

Many, many of our clients & visitors have Nancybird bags (which we have coveted for years & years) and so when a gorgeous lady with a fantastic handbag came in for a visit or meeting, it was to a chorus of "Ooooh!"'s and "Is that a Nancybird??"'s which of course lead to long, gushing, admiration-filled, Nancybird discussions.

SO! You can imagine just how beside ourselves we were when Emily (the lovely talented lady behind the label) emailed us, saying she had (ahem) "a small bag & accessories label" and wanted to come in and discuss printing!

We tried very hard to be all cool & professional, the whole time feeling completely starstruck! I mean she is one of our main inspirations! Just look at her!! She's created & runs an successful, independent, designer label!!! (Quick we need another exclamation mark!!!!) Seriously tho, how much to we want to be her when we grow up? About a gazillion. :)

As we have gotten to know her over our many meetings, emails & phonecalls, we have found she is so down-to-earth, super friendly, quite relaxed for someone who runs her own business (trust us, that's a nigh impossible thing to achieve) and is completely unaware of how awesome the rest of the world thinks she is. I've tried to tell her on several occasions, but I don't think she believes me yet.

Oh well, I'll just keep trying.

We printed all of Emily's single colour designs in her new seasons range, which you will find in stores this coming Monday! Hooray!

Meanwhile, we can't wait for the release, coz we're totally going to finally get our much coveted, long awaited Nancybird bag! How could we not, as we actually printed with our very own hands some of the material!! It's almost too exciting to bear.

Me, I'm leaning toward the Stitch Bag from her Classic Collection - see below. What do you think?

(Luz is too actually, but I figure I can claim it first on the blog. You guys are my witnesses, k?)

xx Teegs

The Poppies

We received a heads-up from the everlovely Amber that we had been nominated for a few categories in The Poppies!

The Poppies are a new, vitual awards ceremony devoted to celebrating the fabulousness of the Handmade Community, by the good folks over at Poppytalk!

We're pumped to have been nominated in the Fav Handmade Eco & Fav Handmade Textiles sections along with so many amazing people - it's quite the honour indeed!

So why not head on over & cast a vote!

Umm.. d'ya s'pose it's against the rules to vote for yourself? ;)

Bye!

xx Teegs

A Surprise in the Mail Today!

Gorgeous goodies from Little Jane St

I mean, who doesn't love getting an unexpected package in the mail?!

A while ago, Alarna of Little Jane St fame, tweeted that she needed some spindles - pronto! - for a photoshoot... well, it just so happens that we have a trio of them (courtesy of the 'cute-thing' collector), so I of course offered to lend them to her! And they were quickly wrapped & popped in the post for a holiday in sunny QLD. Ahh, the twitter love..


Gorgeous goodies from Little Jane St

Anyhoo, the gorgeous Alarna returned the spindles to us today, and much to our extreme delight it was with a heap of her amazingly beautiful products! All that, just to say thank you!! Nawww! How lucky are we??

Thanks Alarna! We love, love , love them all!

xx Teegs

p.s please ignore that noise - it's just Luz & I squabbling over who gets what ;)

Erika's bedhead

Just had to quickly share this fantastic bedhead made by Erika Hellstrom-Allan, one of our new wholesale customers. Erika is making bedheads to order, the next one will be done in Birch. Very excited to see how that looks!


Erika's custom made bedhead in sumor

If you're interested in one for yourself, Erika's email is ehellstromallan@optusnet.com.au.

Reaburn Design - Pop-up Shop in Kensi

Reaburn Design pop-up shop till 10th Jan - 399 Macaulay Rd, Kensington VIC 3031

One of the many things we love about Kensington (and the reason why we all live and work in this postcode) is that it has such a nice community feel about it.

Meeting Glenda from Reaburn Design is a classic example of this. We met Glenda at the 3031 market and since then she's often walked down to our studio from her house to grab some fabric or buy some cushion inserts. And right now she's got a pop-up shop down on Macaulay Road till Sunday. It looks awesome!


Reaburn Design pop-up shop


Reaburn Design pop-up shop


Reaburn Design pop-up shop

Reaburn Design pop-up shop
Open till this Sunday 10th January
399 Macaulay Rd, Kensington VIC 3031

Shelf / Life - new stockist

We've been a bit slack when it comes to mentioning who our stockists are, which is something we plan to change! I'm going to write a list in the sidebar over there, and in the meantime let me introduce our latest stockist, Shelf / Life in Sydney!

How gorgeous does this shop look (spot the I&S cushions!):


Shelf Life - Shop 1, 50 Reservoir St, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

Shelf / Life specializes in ethical craft & design for the home, all produced by independent designers. Sounds like the perfect place for our goods.

Vida Textiles

One thing on our list of how to become a proper-professional-designer-screen-printed-textile-studio is to find some agents to rep our fabrics! Vida Textiles is a new textile agency with a focus on organic, sustainable and fair trade fabrics - and who better to represent Ink & Spindle to our beloved neighbours in New Zealand!!


Ink & Spindle fabrics at Vida Textiles


Ink & Spindle fabrics on the Vida Textiles website

Celestina organised some lovely photo shoots of our fabric for the site, which is definitely inspiring us to do some of our own (next on the list!).

Younghusband Studios

We were just reflecting today how super lucky we are to be in our big great old building surrounded by so many talented peeps. One such genius we probably haven't mentioned before is Yong, who concocts pieces of creative brilliance from his desk situated behind our kitchen wall.

When it came to organising our building Christmas party, it was Yong who took on board organising the invites, designing a logo for Younghusband Studios and on top of it all making a beautiful video about our beloved building! It's a bit esoteric but impressive nonetheless. Do watch!




And here's one of the many cool things he made for the invites - a Christmas card (the sawtooth roof even forms the shape of an xmas tree on the back - rad!)


Younghusband Studios xmas card by Studio Limo


Younghusband Studios xmas card by Studio Limo

Thanks Yong, it's great having you as our neighbour :)

Introducing... Classes!

I know, I know - finally, right?

We get so many requests for screenprinting workshops/classes that we have felt kinda guilty at not having enough hours in the day to provide them.. awww, poor us, I'm sure.

SO! How happy were we when screenprinting-teacher-extraordinaire Lara.D (not to be confused with our Lara.C) approached us to teach in our studio space? Umm, about a 10! After much figuring out of details and such, we have settled on dates! Hooray!

Design and Screen Print Your Own Fabric:
This is a full weekend workshop that runs from 9.30am till 4.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
Please bring your own lunch and any special fabrics you would like to print on (making sure they are a natural fibre and pre-washed for best results!). Teacher: Lara Davies.

Jan Saturday the 30th & Sunday the 31st 9.30am-4.30pm
Feb Saturday the 13th & Sunday the 14th 9.30am-4.30pm
March Saturday the 13th & Sunday the 14th 9.30am-4.30pm
April Saturday the 10th & Sunday the 11th 9.30am-4.30pm

Cost: $210 for the whole weekend, with all materials provided. Refunds cannot be given for cancellations - sorry. We can, however, try to transfer you into another date if you give us 48 hours notice.

The wonderful Lara.D has an equally wonderful partner-in-crime, Jess, who will also be teaching in our studio! Jess will be taking classes on softie making (awesome!)

Make Your Own Softy Collection:
This is a one day workshop from 10am-4pm. Please bring your own lunch, as well as any buttons, fabric swatches, etc., that you may want to use to personalise your toys. However, it is not essential as we will have threads, etc for you to use. Teacher: Jess Wright.

Feb Saturday the 27th 10am-4pm
March Sunday the 21st 10am-4pm
April Saturday the 24th 10am-4pm

Cost: $80 for the day , with all materials provided. Refunds cannot be given for cancellations-sorry. We can, however, try to transfer you into another date if you give us 48 hours notice.

Contact Lara & Jess: harvesttextilesmelbourne@gmail.com

Check out Harvest Textile Studios for the full run-down & all the details!

Melbs peeps, you should totally enrol. We are!

xx Teegs

Happy New Year!

I know we're a little late for this one (but when aren't we late with our blog posts??) but Happy New Year anyway!

Thanks to everyone for your support over the last 12 months - for us it really has been a time of extreme learning curves, organisation, development & (to quote Luz) "getting our ducks in a row". And believe me it has been hectic. Usually the quieter we are on the blog, the more insane things are in the studio, and looking back there were some loooong quiet periods!

So our hopes for this year are pretty simple: we are going to refine & develop our business. Of course saying that, there's about a million things that that entails, but I shan't bore you with the details ;) just suffice to say that there's going to be some changes happening, both big & small, ones you won't notice & ones you will.

Either way, it's all pretty exciting. I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be an ace year!

xx Teegs