ink and spindle

Hello 2012!

2012-01-12T15:18:00.002+11:00

Greetings to you, dear friends & hello 2012!

We're a bit excited. This first week back has seen us set some new plans in motion! We had been feeling a little uninspired of late & after having some much needed time off/headspace to think, we've come back to the studio with a stack of ace ideas to develop! All *top secret* for the moment of course, but you guys will be the first to know when the time is right.. I promise.

In the meantime, while we scheme & plan all the wonderful things to come this year, cast your eye over one of our client's beautiful works!

The delightful Olivia of Moochie Lou is responsible for this Birch & Dashes Duvet Cover. Isn't it lovely?

Lara was a busy bee while I was off gallivanting in warmer climes over Chrissy & with the super fantabulous help of our dear friend Mr Matttbags, she did a COMPLETE reorganisation of our workspace. Now it looks amazing. A-MAAAAAZING. Although it's not *quite* finished, so no pics for you - yet! Stay tuned!

xx Teegs

Ups & Downs

2011-12-20T14:33:00.002+11:00

As 2012 winds to a close we can't say this year hasn't been without it's fair share of drama. The last few weeks especially have seen some rather full-on happenings - not least of which has been the destruction by fire of our much beloved and much dependent upon dyehouse & heat setting company Bulace. This has been such a devastating blow to our already tiny industry - Bulace are one of the last remaining dyehouses in Australia who are able to process meterage and many local labels are dependent on their services.

We personally have used Bulace every single week of the last three years to heat set our fabric - not one metre of fabric has rolled off our table without passing through their hands. Of course we were shocked and devastated to hear the news, and it's only due to the generosity of another print house in Melbourne (Veronica Textiles) that we've managed to keep on trucking without too much delay. Of course we're all very hopeful that Bulace will get back on their feet and continue to be a crucial part of our local industry.

There has also been good news however. Last Tuesday, ourselves (and half of Kensington) caught the train in to Town Hall to sit in on a council meeting that would decide on the fate of our beloved Younghusband Wool Store - specifically a Planning Scheme Amendment to rezone our building from Industrial to Mixed Use so Younghusband could be gutted & 3 residential apartment towers built. Many people spoke up against the proposal, including Teegs, and we played this video produced (in less than a day) by the very talented Yong of Studio Limo (of course) and a little help from me:

And it is with very proud and relieved hearts that we can announce that council UNANIMOUSLY rejected & abandoned the proposal to rezone our building! This is fantastic news for Kensington and the greater creative community. Of course we don't know what the owners will do next, but for the time being we can all feel a little bit safer, hopeful and more confident about our future here. A very good Christmas present indeed :)

x Lara.

Open Studio this Saturday 17th!

2011-12-13T12:41:00.003+11:00

Hey guess what? It's our very last Open Studio for the year THIS SATURDAY! How did that happen? I'll refrain from blathering on about how fast the year has flown by - we've all heard it before. Instead I'll just beseech you to come visit, say hi, have a cuppa and help us bid adieu to 2011!

xx Lara & Teegs.

Harvest Market this Sunday!

2011-12-13T09:33:00.002+11:00

Yay, we're taking our Inklet range plus some other cute bits and bobs to the Harvest Xmas Market this Sunday. Last time Harvest had a market it was an explosion of awesome cuteness, nice people and good tunes, so we're excited to be a part of this one.

Hope to see you there!! xx

New Inklet colourways!

2011-12-09T10:30:00.003+11:00

Hey guess what? We've got some brand new Inklet colourways up in the shop! We decided to go a bit bolder and also a bit more gender neutral. We're loving the red and almonds and just want to find little people to put in them! (so long as we can give them back).

Trams & Bicycles Tee in Ruby Red (also in a Onesie!)

Pirates & Sea Creatures Onesie in Almond (also in a Tee!)

Little Forest Tee in Ruby Red (also in a Onesie!)

Hope you like :)

Mobile & Garland kits

2011-12-01T11:53:00.003+11:00

Yay, our garland and mobile kits are now available in the shop! Just in time for xmas :)

Suitable for any non-sewing folk out there who still like to make things!

Make Your Own Garland Kit - in Pink/Red or Saffron/Robins

Make Your Own Mobile Kit - in Pink/Red or Saffron/Robins

Hope you like! x

Intern Tales: Gretta

2011-11-30T17:10:00.002+11:00

We've had a lot of interest in our intern position lately & so we thought you guys might like to know a little bit about the lovely (for some reason always) girls that spend time learning new things with us here at I&S HQ.

Here's some words from Gretta on her final day with us - 'bye Gretta!

We'll miss you!

xx T

How did I, an Environmental Studies student from the United States, end up in the Ink & Spindle studio? A long journey! I’ve been in Australia since late August on a study abroad program. The focus is Sustainability and Environmental Action. Because it’s through an organization (The School for International Training) and not a university, my group was able to travel all around Australia. We did workshops about everything from sustainable agriculture to rainforest ecology to social change. What has stuck with me through the whole program is that sustainability can mean many things. Sustainability isn’t just about the environment; it’s about people and communities. Part of my program is a month-long independent study project (ISP). From the first week in Australia, we each had to develop a project- an internship, creative piece, or research-based project. When I heard “internship”, I instantly thought of Ink & Spindle! The only limits on my project were that it had to relate to sustainability (check!) and had to be in Australia (check!). My mom is an art quilter/fabric addict and had found Ink & Spindle on the blogosphere a few years back, so I was already a fan upon my arrival in Australia. When I approached Lara and Teegs about a possible internship, I was happy to find they were enthusiastic about the idea!

What has amazed me about Melbourne is the creative community. During my time with Ink & Spindle, I’ve had the opportunity to go to the Melbournalia opening, Markit@Fed Square, and meet all sorts of awesome-sauce Melbournians doing and making amazing things. Seeing all the collaborating that happens gives me hope for the future! I’ve been reflecting a lot on sustainable consumerism and whether or not it’s an oxymoron. While consumerism has caused immense damage in this world, it is also at the forefront of environmental change. It has the potential to be an easy way for people to lower their impact. Lara and Teegs have worked hard to produce textiles that are sustainable from beginning to end. By sourcing organic cotton, they aren’t buying to a toxic industry that has led to 250,000 farmer suicides in India. By using water based, solvent free inks, they aren’t putting themselves and others at risk. The quality means durability, so their products last. While people may care about the environment, it can be really difficult to live your life sustainably. I struggle with it all the time, and I study it! It is important for consumers to have more sustainable options. It is equally important for young people like me to see that running a sustainable business is viable. The supply side needs to grow, and the consumer base needs to use its voice.

Besides learning loads about sustainable business practices and textile design, I got to get to know Lara and Teegs and all the other wonderful people in and out of the studio. I had adventures in Melbourne, often as a result of my poor directional skills. I got very inspired by Melbourne’s architecture, especially the colors and designs around Fitzroy, where I was staying. The result: some lino block prints of windows, door, and fences, and a print run of stenciled fences! I’ve completed a “Prismatic” quilt top from Kathreen Ricketson’s book “Little Bits Quilting Bee” from the fabric I printed. I will complete the quilting upon my return to the United States in a few weeks.

Thanks to Teegs and Lara for an amazing experience! Melbs, I’m sure we’ll meet again!

Gretta's lino cuts, she made some lovely art prints from these &

developed the idea further to create the design & handcut stencil

which she printed as a two colour separation below!

Quilt top completed! Didn't Gretta do a wonderful job??

Leuca is in the shop!

2011-11-28T17:12:00.002+11:00

Yay, Lara's new Leuca print is finally printed, photographed and up in the shop!

Leuca in Inky Blue & Moss

Leuca in Red Orange & Stone

No prizes for guessing where we did the shoot

And big thanks to everyone who popped by our stall at MARKit yesterday - was great to see familiar and new faces alike. We had a great day and managed not to spend all of our takings on all the other gorgeous wares for sale - though we did have a good crack at it.

xx Lara & Teegs

manysquaremetres

2011-11-22T16:06:00.004+11:00

manysquaremetres - studios and exhibition space, Kensington

There are some spaces in our building that have just been crying out for some love for many years now. One of those is a vast, light filled, loft space across a bridge at the end of our corridor, above the Crumpler HQ.

Needless to say we have been very excited to see this space being recently occupied and transformed, under the hands of the manysquaremetres crew - Bridget, Jules and Cassie - all landscape architects by day.

Fitting name huh?

manysquaremetres - currently exhibiting GradEx

The corflute stud walls are a really nice touch. The whole space embraces brightness and lightness and has a wonderful contrast of old and new textures.

... and so long as I can stretch their generosity, this space makes for a great photo studio for our product shots ;)

manysquaremetres - studios and exhibition space, Kensington

Love it. Welcome to the building, guys!

Markit @ Fed Square

2011-11-15T09:22:00.002+11:00

It's on again! Yaysies!!

We *love* Markit, it doesn't get much more Melbourne than this.. no sir!

Located in the beautiful Federation Square Atrium, we get the whole day to hang out with a bunch of ace Melbs-based designers/friends (and some from further afield!) and of course meet, chat & laugh with you guys!

It's definitely one of our favourite aspects of having I&S.. the excitement of *actually leaving* the studio and interacting with people that aren't us!

Come visit us if you're in town - and bring chocolate ;)

xx Teegs

If you come along, please introduce yourself -

Bex's Duvet

2011-11-14T17:38:00.005+11:00

Bex's Duvet

When you've got a Kiwi intern in the studio who keeps saying the word "duvet"... after a while it kind of sticks.

"Bex how's your duvet coming along... I mean doona... damn it!"

Bex has been working on this masterpiece for the last few months in between doing work for us. We all knew the result would be fantastic. And it was indeed. We just love the fact that she took a bunch of offcuts and scrap fabrics and turned them into something amazing.

Bex arranging pieces

Detail

Nice work Bex!! And thanks for being an awesome intern :)

P.S. - thanks again to manysquaremetres for the location!

Happy 11:11:11 11/11/11 !

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002+11:00

At Ink & Spindle we have a thing about 11:11. If we ever spot 11:11 on our phones it's always a race to text one another or a friend with a similar appreciation for the number before the time ticks over to 11:12.

Today though. Today is extra special. To show our appreciation we dragged our fellow Younghusband neighbours out onto the street for a tribute to this once in a lifetime moment in time - 11:11:11 11/11/11

Bex, Sass, Teegs, Gaby, Georgia & Joel

Being an 11 is just soooo tiring...

Hope you caught the moment!

xx Lara & Teegs

New happenings...

2011-11-09T17:53:00.005+11:00

Look who just arrived in the studio. He's new, attractive, has a lot of potential for awesomeness and is more than 6 foot tall. What more would a girl want?

'Leuca' by Lara Cameron

It's our new 'Leuca' screen of course. We can't wait to get this one on the printing table.

Much excitement.

'Leuca' - screen detail

Meanwhile, today we printed 20m of a gorgeous custom colourway for some curtains - our Large Birch print in Olive on our Hemp/Yak basecloth. LOVE it. Love how the texture of the Yak shows through the translucent ink. Looking forward to seeing this made up into curtains in a local Kensington home :)

Large Birch in Olive on Hemp/Yak

Colourful

2011-11-08T17:37:00.003+11:00

Busy times here in the studio as we prep for lots of pre-xmas events! There's Melbournalia (launching this Thurs evening, come along!), The Design Files Open House, MARKit @ Fed Square, Mathilda's market and an Open Studio here at the I&S HQ all before the end of the year. Hang on a second, didn't we decide to do LESS markets this year? Hah!

To keep things interesting we decided to launch a couple of new kits! Here's a sneak peek:

Exciting! Will let you know when they're up in the shop!

x Lara.

P.S. - Thanks to Manysquaremetres for the location!

Melbournalia Fancy Goods & Postal Service

2011-11-07T14:44:00.004+11:00

As if that's not the coolest name ever :)

Check out this fabulous new pop-up shop happening in a few locations around the city in the lead up to Christmas - we've got some cute new kits & also some pretty cool, very Melbourne, new Inklet colourways!

Yaysies!

Come along because it's ALSO MY BIRTHDAY! Have a drink with me :)

xx Teegs

Unexpected niceness

2011-10-19T10:42:00.003+11:00

Sometimes we are just blown away by the volume of unexpected generousity, kindness and support we receive from people out there in the world. The other day I wrote this brief blog post about feeling a little uninspired & lost, and in response quite a few people emailed and commented with perspective shifting advice and feedback.

But by far the most amazing response was from a very warm, generous and thoughtful woman named Carmen, who sent us this amazing package. Each item was wrapped individually & beautifully, with a card attached explaining it's significance and origin. And everything came in pairs. But of course it was the letter she wote that was most touching.

(Help Japan ceramic birds by Shin Shin)

Thank you Carmen, for reminding us that creating and sharing beauty is both worthwhile and appreciated.

x Lara.

Just a reminder...

2011-10-11T10:07:00.003+11:00

... that this coming Saturday is our combined Open Studio and very civilized 3rd birthday celebration! There'll be champagne! And cucumber sandwiches! And cake! Amazing cake by these talented ladies.

on Saturday

the 15th DAY of October

11am - 1pm

in our beloved studio at 206/10 Elizabeth St, Kensington

There will be a printing demonstration at 11:30, the usual shop setup in case you want to peruse the fabrics, and then we shall break for tea, cucumber sandwiches, champagne, civilized conversation and CAKE!

Yay! Hope to see you there... I mean here. :)

xx Lara & Teegs.

Everybody loves a good Before & After

2011-09-28T18:10:00.005+10:00

Flowering Gum in Red Orange & Stone on upholstery weight organic cotton/hemp

Hello! Hope you're all out there enjoying the fickleness that is Melbourne weather. Right now we're mid thunderstorm with crazy lightning flashes outside our windows and thunder rattling the glass. All this after stepping outside our doors this morning without a cardigan.

Anyway, I've been meaning to do this for ages (how often I find myself saying that) but I'd like to share a couple of Before & After's with you! Well that's not entirely true, I don't have a before shot of the armchair but I'm sure you all know what a beaten up armchair clad in a chunky 70's wool looks like. Above though is the lovely upholstery weight fabric that we printed for this job, and below are the wonderful results courtesy of Jacqui from Reissued!

Fler Armchair by Reissued - Flowering Gum in Red Orange & Stone

Next up, this pair of foot stools horridly clad in uninspiring vinyl. I picked up both of these during a crack of dawn trip to the Camberwell Market. So early and chilly that the vinyl was wet with condensation. But how beautifully they were transformed...

Vinyl foot stools from Camby Market

Foot stool in Robins Egg Birch, reupholstered by Reissued (of course)

Foot stool in Snow Wrens, reupholstered by Reissued

Yay!

x Lara.

Friday in the studio - Amy prints

2011-09-23T17:39:00.003+10:00

Another Friday, another intern making awesome things.

Amy's been interning with us for the last two weeks. An architecture grad who's thinking maybe designing houses isn't her thing, maybe textiles is her true calling.

During her time here, whilst she wasn't cutting fabric, cleaning screens, wrapping parcels and making us tea, Amy did a hand cut stencil print and made herself an awesome fully lined drawstring bag:

Amy's drawstring bag & stencil print

And today she hand cut two more stencils to make a 1+1 = 3 colour print of a hare:

One plus one equals three - Amy's hand cut stencil print

Yay! I love it when interns come here and help us out but get to take away something they've made. Nice work Amy!

Our 3rd Birthday / Open Studio October 15th

2011-09-23T11:18:00.019+10:00

Hey wow! We're turning 3?! Am I the only one who feels like the last 3 years have flown past? Geee...

So it turns out that October is filled with birthday parties, (including a VERY special birthday party for my VERY special business partner *cough*turning30*cough*) so instead of throwing yet another bash just for I&S, we thought we really ought to act our age & have a lovely sedate luncheon/open studio.

Well we are 3 now, after all.

Ahem.

*posh voice*

Lara & I cordially invite you to attend our

on Saturday

the 15th DAY of October

11am - 1pm

in our beloved studio at 206/10 Elizabeth St, Kensington

There will be a printing demonstration at 11:30, then we shall break for tea, cucumber sandwiches, champagne, civilised conversation and CAKE!

How delightful.

*end posh voice*

So please come along to help us celebrate - I plan on making Lara wear a party hat, it'll be worth coming just for that..

xx Teegs

The Formula - or 'how to price your wares correctly'

2011-09-20T12:50:00.013+10:00

IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER OR A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER, THIS POST IS FOR YOU.

[update and disclaimer] This post has received a lot of feedback in the comments section which is great! I'm glad we're all talking about this difficult topic. But I do want to add - this formula wasn't meant to be perscriptive, merely a guide. Adapt it to suit your situation. I've added more comments below in red :)

It's crazy how often the topic of pricing comes up in conversation around here.

- It might be triggered by our frustrations with a comment on a blog about how such-and-such beautiful, bespoke, handmade item is 'too expensive'.

- We might be throwing around business ideas & offering advice to a intern or friend who wants to start a small business.

- Or we might be discussing a new venture for our own business (such as Inklet), trying to figure out if a product is actually viable to produce and sell at a reasonable price.

The thing is, pricing yourself correctly is HARD. there are so many things working against you when you're a small, local business trying to sell your wares. Like the fact that 99% of the products in your marketplace are manufactured overseas with poor ethical & enviromental standards and sold at a price that you'll never be able to match. And the fact that in your own community there are people who will operate at a loss on a hobby basis because they don't depend on the income from the business. And because people as whole have a mindset that cheaper is better and haven't been educated about the 'real cost' of their purchase.

Since the very beginning, we've always tried to price our textiles correctly. If it wasn't for the wonderful book Craft Inc., we might never have known about The Formula (as we have dubbed it), and by now we would have worked ourselves into the ground.

But fortunately we did know about The Formula (said with a reverent tone) and would like to share it with you today:

The Formula (guided by this book) and made pretty by me

What do you reckon? Sounds pretty full on, huh? All those x2's! Well let me tell you, those x2's are there for a reason and without them we wouldn't be here writing this post to you today.

Let's break it down:

Cost price

Your cost price is the cost of your time (or someone else's) plus the cost of your materials.

Time cost

If you're doing the work yourself you need to pay yourself an hourly rate. We calculated our rate based on what we'd have to pay someone else to do the job for us. Because if we got bigger, that's what we'd have to do. Make it a realistic figure. For us it's $20per hour. You might be able to work to a lesser figure, that's fine. If you outsource, remember to factor in any time you need to spend liaising with or managing your makers.

Material costs

These are your direct material costs, not equipment or setup. For example, we factor in the cost of our basecloth, our inks and our heat setting, but not the screen exposure.

Wholesale price

Your wholesale price is your cost price, doubled. Why double it? Because you need to cover all your overheads! Your rent, electricity, equipment, etc etc etc. If you were paying someone else for their labor then you'd be making nothing for yourself if you didn't mark up the price. Update - double might not work for everyone, everyone's overheads are different, but the important point is that you need *some* markup here. If you material costs are very high then double might be extreme, though it's important to remember that high material costs come with high investment and risk, which you should be covering yourself for.

Retail price

Finally, your retail price is your wholesale price, doubled. Again, why doubled? Because retailers will typically need to mark your goods up by 100%. That sounds extreme, but a retailer also has all of their overheads to cover, plus they have to factor in losses from goods that don't sell. Update - 100% is the standard for *our* industry. If your industry has a standard markup of say, 50%, then you can work to that. Do your research and find out.

The important thing to note is, you need to sell at the retail price (or close to it) in your online shop and at markets. Even if you don't wholesale yet. For three reasons:

1) Because when the time comes to start wholesaling your goods, you can't be undercutting your wholesale customers.

2) Because there are additional overheads involved in playing the role of retailer yourself - packaging costs, shop fees, time to photograph & list items, market stall fees etc etc.

3) Because you're potentially doing the rest of the handmade industry a disservice if you don't.

That last point is a crucial one. And a tough topic. On the one hand, it's important to acknowledge that not everyone can launch into their small business selling at a 'proper' retail price. And one could argue that it's those stallholders with more affordable handmade items that help keep our handmade marketplace a thriving and dynamic one. But on the flip side, other businesses who have set their prices at a sustainable level aren't able to compete. For example, a fully lined zip purse made from our fabric with the above formula would need to be sold for around $35. How often do you see these being sold at markets for $15 or less?

One last thing

Whilst we're here, let's just take a moment to reflect on how the above formula applies to a $15 t-shirt from a large chain store. Considering that some large retailers have markups of 200 or 300%, how much did the person who sewed that garment get paid? Society seems to be more educated about battery hens than their human counterpart.

We hope this post has shed some light for both customers and other business owners alike. We figure if we're going to selling fabric for $96 a metre and t-shirts for $45 then it's important for you to understand where those figures came from. And we hope you'll think about this post when you next think of someone's wares as being 'too expensive', or when you find you next 'bargain' in the stores.

Onesies!

2011-09-20T09:30:00.000+10:00

Inklet onesies! Studio photography courtesy of Rebekah Lyn Photography

Cuteness of cutenesses, we finally have our Inklet onesies up in the shop! Yay! Some things just take a little extra time to get perfect, but we're so happy with how these have turned out :)

Inklet onesies! Studio photography courtesy of Rebekah Lyn Photography

Needless to say, all our onesies are locally & ethically made, using 100% organic cotton printed in our studio :)

Extra special thanks to Tai for loaning us Leo for our shoot, he is the cutest little man.

xx Lara, Dana & Teegs.

Gallery!

2011-09-20T09:00:00.002+10:00

It's been SUCH a long time coming, but I'm so excited to have finally launched a new gallery section of our website! It's still a work in progress but it'll be an opportunity for us to showcase our textiles and their applications in all sorts of context. My favourites are the upholstery and curtains & blinds sections, which I can't wait to add more photos to :)

Enjoy!

xx Lara.

Teegs' Tessuti Awards entry!

2011-09-01T18:12:00.002+10:00

Teegs' Tessuti awards entry - bodice detail (with hand made lace trim!)

If you happen to have been following us on Facebook or Twitter you might have noticed that Teegs has a slight penchant (and talent) for dressmaking. 'Slight' being an understatement. She loves costumery, she jumps at the opportunity to make outfits for balls, cocktail parties and themed dress-up events for both herself and friends, and sometimes her pieces exhibit insane amounts of detail.

So of course when the theme of this years Tessuti Awards was announced as being Linen & Lace (with the first prize being a trip for 2 to New York, OMG) Teegs was right onto it. Linen? Why, we love printing on & sewing with linen! Lace!? Why we happen to have a design called Lace Fans and Teegs just happens to know how to MAKE LACE BY HAND.

The winner of the competition will be decided by the judges, but there is also a People's Choice award, so if you like Teegs' entry then please vote for her! You can read more about her entry and see more awesome pics here.

Teegs' 'Linen & Lace' Tessuti Awards entry

Printing Lace Fans for Teegs' dress

She is one talented lady, that's for sure :)

xx Lara.

Open Studio this coming Saturday!

2011-08-08T14:12:00.004+10:00

Wow it's been quite a while since our last one but we're finally having another Open Studio THIS COMING SATURDAY!

Photo by Luka Kauzlaric

As usual we'll be doing a printing demonstration, but it'll be held at the slightly earlier time of 10:30am. In fact the whole event will run 1 hour earlier than usual because I have to dash off to a dance class thing.

Here's the deets:

Time: 9am - 12pm (printing demo at 10:30ish)

Place: 206/10 Elizabeth St Kensington

What: Textiles, wares and kits available for sale, tea and bikkies provided

Hope to see you there!

xx Lara & Teegs.

More D:M:T

2011-07-25T15:36:00.003+10:00

As promised (though a bit belatedly), here's some more pics from D:M:T, this time of some of our amazing fellow stall holders that we had the pleasure of working alongside over the four days.

It's ironic how much we love and respect and admire these people but only ever get to see them at shows! We're all too busy working on our little businesses to actually socialise. Must fix that.

First and foremost, the very lovely and talented Beth-Emily:

Beth-Emily - gorgeous Illustrations with pencil and watercolour

Beth-Emily and her lovely man-friend Tom came up for the show from Hobart and stayed a couple of nights at my place - my first house guests in the new abode!

Next up, the gorgeous Aisling and Neil from Designed in Brunswick:

Hand printed cushions, lamps and scarves by Designed in Brunswick

If you spent a few days at D:M:T you might have noticed that the unofficial uniform of stallholders and customers alike included a brooch/necklace by Emily Green:

The sweet Emily Green and her amazing, colourful Open Studio space

Working alongside Emily in the Open Studio spaces was our much beloved Matt of Mattt bags, and I was very lucky to get an actual photograph of Matt himself:

Matt from Mattt, doin his thing on the Juki machine

Around the corner sharing spaces under the Craft Victoria banner were Penny from Pocket Carnival, Shelley Panton pottery and Morgan Wills:

Pocket Carnival's colourful display of cuteness

Shelley Panton's gorgeous ceramics (cutest little jugs ever!) and Morgan Wills with her rows of Babushkas

And last but not least, our textile buddies Harvest with their totem of cushions, craft kits and textile swatch sets for the yardage inclined:

Our buddies from Harvest textiles

Of course there was gazillions of other talented peeps that we didn't have a chance to photograph, so next year you'll just have to come along and see for yourself!

xx Lara.

Design:Made:Trade!

2011-07-21T17:46:00.002+10:00

The Ink & Spindle stall at Design:Made:Trade

We're here! And so far it's been great!! I know it's a bit self gratifying and we really should be posting some pictures of some of our awesome fellow stall holders, but we're just so proud of how our stall came together and had to share some pics!

It's the first time we've been able to truly put our textiles on display in all our favourite contexts, and I think it's really given people a better sense of what we do (as opposed to what we can show in a market).

Anyway here's some more pics of the stall, we'll have some more show-wide photos tomorrow!

D:M:T - Our little kids corner featuring the Allsorts Quilt Kit, reupholstered stool by Reissued, and Table Lamp by Wilkins & Kent

D:M:T: Our little lounge area featuring mid-century Fler Armchair reupholstered by Reissued

D:M:T: Little hanging garden (Teegs' handiwork) and our kids corner again

Our little Inklet dude rocking out in his Pirates & Sea Creatures tee

We're here till Sunday, with Saturday & Sunday being public days, so please come down and say hello! There's so many amazing people here and everyone will have stock available for purchase. It will be like a design market ... but better!

xx Lara & Teegs

Little chair

2011-07-17T18:34:00.002+10:00

Remember how I said our lovely neighbour Sass is great for sourcing things? Well the other day she saw this little, child-sized, mid century armchair at the Mill Markets in Daylesford and thought we might like it. OMG, yes we do!

Dana and I set about reupholstering it this weekend and were SOOOO pleased with the result!

Little armchair - before

Little armchair - after

I tell you what though, reupholstering can be disgusting work. Dana had some upholstery experience from a past life that came very much in handy, and I'd recovered a few dining chairs in my time, but they were nothing compared to the filth you find inside an old armchair like this. Here's some progress shots from some of the nicer, cleaner stages.

Reupholstering the little armchair - in progress

The 'after' shot again - because it's just so darn cute!

We decided to leave the arms in their rough and scratched up state, a nice contrast to the fabric we thought.

Yay! Fun times :)

xx Lara.

Younghusband love

2011-07-15T10:58:00.007+10:00

You know we love our building. A lot. It houses a bunch of awesome creatives and small businesses & we all feel oh-so-lucky to call the iconic Younghusband Wool Store home.

You may also know that our beloved Younghusband is (eventually... we don't know when. Hopefully not for a long time..) going to be totally gutted & have horrendous, ticky tacky little boxes (we've seen the plans) built inside it's pretty external walls, so that the wealthy can pretend to live in warehouse apartments.

WHERE WILL ALL THE ART KIDS GO? I'm not bitter about it at all, I swear..

Anyhoo, so we were recently approached by Luka Kauzlaric, a lovely photographer who volunteers his time & skills to the local newspaper. He wanted to come in & shoot a stack of the residents here at work for a feature article & he has just sent through some finished shots!

Smiling prettily for the camera...

Mid print run, probably trying really hard not to slouch

That's Sass!! And grumpy, adorable Diesel - Bella is totally in love with him, it's very cute

Sass in her gorgeous Ask Alice office (plus diesel hiding in the background)

That's Tim, in his natural habitat, serving patrons at the AMAZING Revolt Artspace

The crowd waiting for a performance at Revolt - how amazing is the mural on the far wall??

Angus, bossman of Lettuce

Lettuce office shot

Master Sam, armourer extraordinaire, at his forge.. he's old school. He has no web presence!

Master Sam's workbench - remember the costume wings I made late last year? Master Sam totally taught me how to do all the metal work for them. Skillz. He has them.

He custom makes to order. Email us for more info!

And finally the lovely & tiny Bea of Beaspoke! Yes, that totally is Aslan. THE Aslan. From the stage production. The White Witch's amazing costume is somewhere around here too...

How great is everyone?? And that's only a few of the residents..!

xx Teegs

All photos by Luka Kauzlaric.

Ask Alice

2011-07-13T15:50:00.003+10:00

...or as we find ourselves saying lately - ask Sass! Because Sass (of Ask Alice stationery fame) is the newest resident in our Younghusband Building and we are just loving having her as a neighbour.

We've found if there's any cute/quirky/random thing that we are in need of, Sass always has a solution. Be it a cute child size mid century armchair from an antique store or a bunch of whimsical stickers for name tags at a dinner function, or a particular coloured pen or delicious homemade cupcakes for a birthday, Sass comes up with the goods!

The most recent instance was when we asked Sass if she had any tags or cards that we can include as freebies with our shop orders. I have a real issue about sending orders without a little "something" extra - it feels cold and businesslike to just send a piece of fabric without a note. We've been including flyers but that's not the same, it's not something our customers can use and enjoy.

But funnily enough, Sass has exactly what we required! Two boxes full of ever so slightly imperfect stock that she doesn't want to sell. Which to you and I looks completely fine! And once we've gone through those we'll do a formal collaboration. How fun!

cards and tags from Ask Alice - thanks Sass!

Check out Sass's cute stationery range here. Yay! xx

Inklet - online launch!!

2011-07-11T17:22:00.005+10:00

Leo wears Trams & Bicycles tee in Apple Jack

It seems there's an endless stream of stuff for us to be "super excited" about right now, and this is no exception! We are super excited (and proud) to finally launch our Inklet range online!

---

About Inklet

At Inklet we’re all about doing what’s best for our environment, our community and your little ones.

All our products are locally made with certified organic cotton fabrics and are screen printed by hand with water based, environmentally friendly inks.

Inspired by nature, the ocean and our hometown of Melbourne, Inklet came to life when Dana moved her children’s wear label Twiglet into the Ink & Spindle textile printing studio. It only made sense to combine our skills and produce this little range for you to enjoy!

Visit the Inklet range in the Ink & Spindle shop!

---

Inklet! All photos courtesy of Rebekah Lyn Photography

It's one thing to have an idea for a new range, another thing to go through the extensive process of garment sampling & testing and production, and another thing again to find gorgeous little people and a great photographer to do it all justice in photographic form!

But with a bit of luck, a bit of hard work and a lot of generosity we managed to pull together a shoot that we're so proud of and really captures what Inklet is all about. We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Rebekah Lyn Photography for her amazing work, we kind of threw her in the deep end of a studio full of little people but the results speak for themselves.

Ari wears Trams & Bicycles tee in Apple Jack

Pip wears Pirates & Sea Creatures tee in Pink Mahlie

Also huge thanks to the models and their mums - Leo, Tai, Isabo, Sara, Pip, Jane, Ari & Kim :)

xx Dana, Lara & Teegs

Design:Made:Trade

2011-07-11T14:31:00.004+10:00

Guess what!? Design:Made:Trade is on again, and this year we're super excited to finally be a part of it! We've been considering it for years but never felt quite ready, but this year it felt right. It's our very first trade show, ever, and we can't wait!

Design:Made:Trade 2010 - Photo by Tobias Titz

Here's some deets!

Date:

Trade & Industry

Thursday 21 – Friday 22, July

Public

Saturday 23 – Sunday 24, July

Time:

10am – 5pm

Location:
Royal Exhibition Building

Really hope to see you there, we'd love the support!

xx Lara & Teegs.

P.S. - We particularly like the fact that the owners of this trade show do not drive around in a bright yellow Hummer.

Friday in the studio, again...

2011-07-02T19:59:00.002+10:00

I wouldn't dare suggest that this "Friday in the studio" thing is going to become a theme... I have nowhere near enough confidence in our regular blogging abilities to deem it as such ;) But whilst I'm feeling inspired with the camera, why not!

Firstly, as usual we have some extra faces in the studio this week, including Darci who came to do her year 10 work experience with us. We don't always have a lot for students to do when they come here (depends whether or not we have a market coming up) but if there's enough quiet time we encourage them to stencil cut their own design to print on some fabric.

Bex & Teegs help Darci measure her repeat

Darci's hand-cut stencil taped to a small screen

Darci prints!

This week I was also loving the overprints that have appeared on our latest drop cloth. The drop cloth gets printed on whenever a fabric is less than 150cm wide, so we don't get ink on our glued table:

Overprints on an old Native Grasses print

And last but not least...

Stacks and stacks of fabric! Fresh from the heat setters and back in the shop. Yay!!!

Ahhh it feels good to be back on track with a studio full of fabric again :)

xx Lara.

OMG! QUILT KITS! (And other fabric too!)

2011-06-29T10:53:00.006+10:00

We can barely believe it either, but we have finally - finally! - got some stock back!!

We're only part way through our re-stock, but the first things that are ready are the Allsorts Quilt kits & some Robin's Egg Birch ... plus some other fabrics, go check out our shop!

NEW Saffron, Robin's Egg & Charcoal Allsorts Quilt Kit!

I had a bit of fun with the free quilting foot on my machine, this time I followed the shapes of the prints. Pretty cool, huh?

PS: WE ONLY HAVE 14 OF THESE! So get in quick..

Red, Pink & Charcoal Allsorts Quilt Kit! The beloved favourite..

20 available now, more to come.

Those people who are after the Blue, Green & Charcoal Allsorts quilt, I'm afraid we won't be stocking that one again as we have altered a few of the fabrics that were in it.

SORRY! But, have a look at the Saffron one! C'mon, how much better is it?? :)

Ok now to the nitty gritty & some kinda bad news.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we have to put our prices up a teeny, tiny bit! It's been a long time coming and we've been putting it off for ages but...

Come next WEDNESDAY JULY 6TH our fabrics will be going from $22 per quarter metre to $24 per quarter metre. This means our quilt kits will also be increasing in price, from $125 to $145.

We wanted to give you guys the opportunity to purchase the fabrics & kits you have been waiting oh-so-patiently for at the old price, so get in quick to nab something now! No dilly dallying!

xx Teegs & Lara

Friday in the studio

2011-06-20T11:44:00.002+10:00

At the end of last week I had a moment where I stopped and looked around me and felt so proud of our little studio and all the things that are happening here. And then realised that these are the moments we should share more often on this here blog. So here's some snaps from Friday afternoon:

Susan and Katie printing

Susan and Katie printing - the second pass

Susan and Katie are two awesome interns who have been with us over the last few weeks - during any down time when we didn't have jobs for them to do they hand cut their own stencils and printed a repeating design. So much fun to see their creativity at work!

Our new little lounge area

... and windowsill garden

When Teegs was away the other week and coincidentally Dana was moving house, we scored a Dana's old retro couch. It needed a bit of work and reupholstering but now looks awesome below our windowsill garden :)

A custom Birch colourway

What better way to view an long standing design with fresh eyes than to print it in a custom colourway for one of our favourite clients.

Yay! xx

The great basecloth drought... (and a cancelled Open Studio)

2011-06-08T09:58:00.003+10:00

Oh how we wish our shelves looked like this again...

Hey everyone, hope your chilly Melbourne week is travelling along nicely :)

If you've visited our online shop lately you might have noticed that there's a serious lack of stock in there. And that's because our damn basecloth supply issues are still dragging on and we still don't have any of the cream basecloth to print on! Number #1 lesson learn - don't depend on one supplier! Which is much easier said than done when you have pretty specific environmental and ethical requirements like we do.

Aaaanyway, the good news is that it'll definitely be here in about two weeks, and in about 3-4 weeks we'll have our stock in the shop again. So please be patient with us and know that everything will be back soon!

The other bad news is that we're cancelling our Open Studio on June 18th. Partly because we have hardly any stock in the studio to sell you, and also because Teegs is away that weekend and we can't do a printing demo. But the August one will still definitely be on :)

Thanks again for your patience guys!

xx Lara & Teegs.

Cushions!

2011-06-06T13:33:00.002+10:00

One of my favourite things is seeing our fabrics made up into cushions, and lately we've taken to sewing up small batches of them to display & sell at markets.

Since Teegs was away in Byron last week I finally had some spare time to photograph them for the shop. So for those non-sewing-folk out there (or those mortally afraid of sewing zips) here they are!

Cushions! Finally in the shop :)

Lace Fans & Flowering Gum 45cm cushion

Flowering Gum 45cm cushion

Kangaroo Paw 45cm cushion

Trams & Bicycles 45cm cushion

...and lots more!

Hope you like :)

xx Lara.

Teatowel update

2011-06-03T12:09:00.003+10:00

Wow guys. 93 people commented on our post about those dodgy teatowels and your suggestions are all awesome!

I'm so sorry we haven't got back to you with a winner yet! Teegs is away in Byron so when she gets back we'll both decide who had the best suggestion. I think we'll pick one person with the funniest/most outrageous suggestion and one with the most practical suggestion.

Stay tuned and thank you again!

xx Lara.

MARKit and State of Green

2011-06-01T18:08:00.000+10:00

We had such a good time at MARKit on Sunday. It was so great to attend a show with a fresh textile & product range that we weren't tired of. It was so great to have just a small stall and only one car load of stock. And it was so great to see people walking away with the wheatbags and draft snakes that our super talented assistants & interns made (I have a soft spot for draft snakes - they're just so cute and functional).

The Ink & Spindle stall at MARKit - Photo by Jenny from State of Green

The other great thing is that the very lovey Jenny from State of Green wrote a very flattering blog post about our stall & new Monochrome range, which you can read over here. Thanks so much Jenny!

This week Teegs is away in Byron enjoying some warmth. In the meantime I'm catching up on admin, taking product photos, tidying and reorganising the studio with Dana and generally getting everything back on track.

Oh, and crossing my fingers and toes that we'll have some basecloth soon so we can actually our stock that you're all so patiently waiting for.

xx Lara.

P.S. - happy first day of Winter!

Ink & Spindle goes Monochrome*

2011-05-28T14:02:00.006+10:00

Oh yes. We are very serious, über cool, designer types... Look! Cute bike! Old camera! Hipster glasses! An ampersand! Not smiling! The studio dog!

This week at Ink & Spindle we're doing something a little dramatic. We're going Monochrome.

As of Sunday, our textile range will be limited to Black, White, Charcoal and Almond prints... *with a splash of Red. And we'll be launching the new range tomorrow at the MARKit Design Market at Fed Square!

As with all of our ideas, this one was born over the printing table as we were discussing our textile range and how our market stalls always tend to look. "Too colourful", "too pastel", "too French provincial looking" ...is what we always whinge. How did that even happen? I prefer earthy, natural tones, Teegs prefers something a little bold and dramatic.

So then we thought about the gorgeous hemp/yak basecloth we'd seen. And how it'd look great with black printed on it. Or black and white. And how nice it'd look alongside our charcoal basecloths. "Hey we should do a market stall with nothing but black, white and charcoal. With a dash of red thrown in. And we could do some really w*anky designer photoshoot to go with it because it'd be so 'cool'. HA! Yes! Let's do it!"

The new textiles will be up in the shop on Monday. Come visit us tomorrow for a sneak peek (and a bunch of awesome products & kits we made)!

P.S. - don't worry this isn't a permanent change, your other favourites will be back in stock soon once our darn basecloth supply problem is over ;)

P.P.S thanks to the lads at Lettuce for the lending Teegs the hipster glasses...

Did you see??

2011-05-24T17:09:00.003+10:00

Well, I think we're officially "successful". We've made it. Whatever "it" is..

Why, you ask? Because we made our television debut last night, of course! It was on our fav Melbs TV show, Offspring.

Exciting. VERY exciting.

We printed some special textiles to be made in to Nina's bedlinen - Birch & Bonsai in Juniper!

The opening shot! Check out that Birch in all it's glory...

And a nice close up of the Bonsai. WAKE UP, NINA!!! It was just a dream...

Then later in the episode, dear Nina got some hot fake-tv-doctor, fake-tv-lovin' on (or under..?) our fabric. Yup. We were preeeeeetty happy about that!!

There was lots of "squee!" & "lolz!" text messages flying back and forth between us for most of the show. And lots of yelling "zoom out, dammit!" at the TV during the bedroom scene... see the bed there in the corner??

Yay! Thanks Offspring!!

xx T

This is what you get when you mess with us

2011-05-19T16:34:00.006+10:00

It may seem like we're doing a lot of fighting battles these days against big evil companies out to screw creative businesses of their livelihood and homes.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. But this time we won:

Dodgy rip-off teatowels recalled from the shelves

See this? See this huge pile of boxes of teatowels dramatically arranged at our front door? These were dropped off to us late last week. Recalled from all the shelves of one big, bad and terrible homewares chain who ripped us off.

After getting our lawyer (the very wonderful Sharon Givoni) onto the offending company they agreed to recall the product, but of course took no responsibility for ripping off the design. OH! no... it was the company in India who manufactured them! Who, when we approached them exclaimed:

"oh golly what a coincidence! We came up with this design our very selves! Please, see this power-point document of 'reference material' that we obviously just scraped together at the last minute as proof we didn't copy you!"

Pah! I really hope some designer, SOMEWHERE got into a LOT of trouble for ripping off our design and then sending it back as product to the hometown of the designer. Stupid.

So anyway, as you can see, we have a LOT of these dodgy teatowels to somehow get rid of. We absolutely refuse to sell them or put them back into circulation. Whilst being almost idential to my Birch print you can see where they've done a hack job of it and we don't want people associating this dodgy version with us.

So, we're asking you. What do you suggest we do with these 1000+ teatowels? What good use can they be put to, without damaging our image? We're definitely open to donating them, but who to? The person with the best suggestion will receive (you guessed it!) a bunch of teatowels! Personal use only of course ;)

xx Lara.

URGENT - help save our building

2011-05-18T14:48:00.002+10:00

The Younghusband Wool Store - Photo by Angus Booker

Most of you probably know that we are incredibly lucky to have our studio within the gorgeous Younghusband Wool Store building in Kensington.

But our building is under threat and we require your URGENT action! The owners of the Younghusband building are asking the City of Melbourne to rezone the site so that they can erect 12, 8 and 7-story residential towers.

This development will destroy the small business and cultural hub that has emerged over the last few years, leaving artists, designers and other creative small businesses without studio and office space.

Please submit your objection by tomorrow Thursday 19th of May at the LATEST.

Here is an objection letter template:

Dear Robyn Hellman,

I object to proposal C177 because…….. [whatever your objection is] and it would affect me as follows: ………. [however you think it will affect you], [indicate what changes you would like, as in height reduction or reduction of apartments].

Yours sincerely, [your name, address]

Email objections to: robyn.hellman@melbourne.vic.gov.au by Thursday 19th May.

Thanks so much everyone!!

xx Lara, Teegs and the folk of Kensington

MARKit!!

2011-05-17T15:18:00.004+10:00

The last month or two around here has been nothing short of insane. We've been juggling so many things there's been no spare head space for blogging, hence the lack of substantial updates - sorry guys!

In between working on our new Inklet range (more soon!) attending Bowerbird Bazaar (which was so much fun, thank you for everyone who came and visited our stall!) and printing for Nancybird, we've also been secretly planning yet another new and exciting range which we'll be launching at the upcoming MARKit Design Market at Fed Square:

We've been starting to tire of our usual market stall range, so at MARKit we're going to turn our collection on it's head and do something kind of crazy and the opposite to usual. We think you'll love it! More soon!

P.S. - you might have noticed that our online shop is looking seriously sparse of late! That's because we've been having some huge basecloth supply issues and haven't been able to print a lot of our fabrics. But don't despair - the full range should be back in stock in about 4 weeks! Thanks for being patient! xx

TV love.. made in Melbs!

2011-05-16T10:27:00.002+10:00

Offspring 2 - photo from Nancybird

Tonight people!! It's the premier of Season 2 of Offspring!

We'd normally be pretty excited anyway because it's both of our favourite show & we love playing 'spot the location' as it's shot in our beloved Melbs, but we're UBER EXCITED about it this season because we made some textiles especially for Nina's bed!!

So we have no idea which episode they will appear in, but keep your eyes on Nina's doona & look for Birch & Bonsai in our lovely pale blue Juniper colour (we loved the colour selection - thought it was very Nina) :)

The great thing about the show is they are really keen to use Melbourne based labels, such as the gorgeous and much coveted Nancybird! Emily is one of our favourite customers and an all-round wonderful and inspiring person, so we're super excited that her bags will be featured too...

Offspring 2 - photo from Nancybird

Offspring season 2 starts tonight at 8:30! So grab a glass of wine and some chocolate ice cream and curl up on that couch under a granny square throw and get yourself a-watching!

xx Lara & Teegs

Sneak Peek - Inklet!

2011-05-05T10:59:00.002+10:00

Eeee! We are totally excited to give you a sneak peek of a little project we've been working on here in the Ink & Spindle HQ! Introducing.... Inklet!

Leon & Mahlie wearing Inklet tee's - Pirates in 'Leon Blue' and 'Pink Mahlie'

Since Dana of Twiglet moved into our studio and we started printing on jersey, it only made sense to combine our skills and start producing a gorgeous little range of organic wares for little ones. And so Inklet was born! (Twiglet + Ink & Spindle = Inklet, get it??)

Leon & Mahlie wearing Inklet tee's - Pirates in 'Leon Blue' and 'Pink Mahlie'

We'll be soft launching the range this weekend in Adelaide at the Bowerbird Bazaar which we're veeeeery excited about. We just have tees, lovely soft blankets and bibs for sale, with onesies and legging to follow soon.

Of course everything is 100% certified organic, printed and manufactured in Australia (even the jersey!)... and sweatshop free. Yay!

Leon & Mahlie wearing Inklet tee's - Pirates in 'Leon Blue' and 'Pink Mahlie'

How cute are Dana's little ones posing for our shoot. So good in fact that we decided to name the colourways after them ;)

Raaarh!

Yay! Hope you like them :)

xx Lara, Teegs and Dana

The IOU Project

2011-04-29T16:36:00.002+10:00

While we are madly printing for one of our fav clients & getting ready again for the awesome Bowerbird Bazaar in Radelaide (the countdown is on!!), we are yet again neglecting you, our wonderful blog readers.. know that we love you all dearly & hopefully this'll tide you over until we have a spare second to sit in front of a computer again!

We think it's totally rad & surely - surely! - there must be hope for us as a species/caretakers of the planet if this can exist?? Spread the word, friends!

xx Teegs

Bowerbird Bazaar

2011-04-15T11:48:00.003+10:00

We can't believe this is only three weeks away. Eeep! So much to do! But so excited. Originally it was just going to be Teegs and I heading to the lovely city of Adelaide (AKA Radelaide), but now Dana is coming too, and Georgie our occasional intern... and we're all staying in a little apartment hotel in the city with the lovely Miranda of Bride and Wolfe.

And at the end of the show we're going to the Barossa to visit Maggie Beer's farm.

I reckon the market should be pretty darn awesome too ;)

Lara.

Open Studio this Saturday!

2011-04-04T11:06:00.005+10:00

Yay, it's come around again!

Who's up for some lollies, tea, a chat, some fabric stuff & a printing demo??

You know you wanna...

Come to our studio!

206/10 Elizabeth St

Kensington

Demo at 11am sharp...ish.

xx Teegs

Finders Keepers March '11

2011-04-01T16:44:00.000+11:00

Hello friends!

Gosh, I feel like I haven't written a proper post in FOREVER.. so much stuff has been happening in our world for the last ohhhhh.. 12 months, it hasn't left much time to devote to lengthy & hilarious blog writing.

Anyways. Finders Keepers!

Photograph by Sean Fennessy

What a totally rad weekend. Usually when we do a big design market it's an epic production. Eg: up at a chilly 5 or 6am, bump in/build stall, talk & smile constantly (you get a sore face, guys) um... (ok, the talking constantly we can do, but the smiling for 7 hours straight? Hard work), trying to not hit the wall at 3pm, having waaaaay too much coffee/lollies/chocolate, escaping from the stall for a moment of quietude/shopping, pack down & bump out, not forgetting anything, drive back to the studio & unload all our stuff...

See what I mean? Epic production. Not that I'm complaining, it's just a lot of energy to expel in one 18hr stint.

Photograph by Pip

Hey looky! It's us. Sneaky shot, Pip. Veeeeeeery sneaky.. ;)

So, FK was great! Bumped in on Friday, rocked up at a VERY civilised 9:15am on Saturday, met a bunch of ace people (thank you if you were one of the ones who introduced yourself!), saw/hung out with a heap of old friends/familiar faces from Indy Design Land, shopped (my how we shopped), ate Mr Nice Guy cupcakes & Taco Truck taco's, had visits from heaps of lovely friends, sold out of stuff, repeated it all on Sunday, then did a lovely quick pack down & bump out on Sunday!

It was most pleasing & almost (almost!) relaxed. It was definitely the least stressful one we've ever done. Thanks Finders Keepers!!

Photograph by Sean Fennessy

Lara says "yaysies!"

One thing we didn't do was take photo's. (Well, except for the iphone ones we posted on our FB page) So instead I'm stealing some pics from FK, Lucy, Pip & Dawn :)

Photograph by Sean Fennessy

Nat from Rebound & I making friends IRL! #veganpride

Photograph by Dawn Tan

Random small-Melbs-world fact: Emily is the partner of one of my colleagues from back in my high school teacher days! Great to see their lovely faces again :)

Photograph by Dawn Tan

We love you Anna!

Photograph by Lucy

Rebound <3!

Photograph by Dawn Tan

Omg, Mr Nice Guy Cupcakes! Only my fav thing at the entire market. Zombie BRAINZ! *drool!*

Photograph by Pip

TACOS! So, so, SO good.

xx Teegs

Finders Keepers! March 26-27th!

2011-03-15T12:20:00.002+11:00

Yay! The Finders Keepers market is on again and we'll be there!

The Market is on in two weeks (not next weekend but the one after) and if the last one is anything to go by it's going to be amazing!

Make sure you read up on how to get there before you leave home so you don't get lost!

Lara.

Leslie's vintage stool

2011-03-08T11:31:00.003+11:00

The lovely Leslie has done it again. Check out this gorgeous vintage Parker stool that she just reupholstered with our Kangaroo Paw fabric!! The stool was an Ebay find that she sanded and varnished and reupholstered (before shot here). Niiiiice work.

Leslie's vintage Parker stool

Leslie's vintage Parker stool, with piping AND buttons! Skills - she has them.

New organic cotton/hemp cuteness

2011-03-07T17:50:00.002+11:00

We literally squealed when these colourways materialised on our printing table. How seriously cute are they! And they're printed on our woven organic cotton/hemp basecloth for those non-jersey sewing folk out there.

Pirates & Sea Creatures in Saffron

Can totally imagine either of these as a lamp or cushion or blinds in a kids room!

Pirates & Sea Creatures in Sage

And on a slightly different tack, we're just loving this tres Melbourne-esque colourway of Trams & Bicycles. Appealing for Melbourne lovers big and small alike. We're imagining cushions or diary covers or little purses. Eeee!

Trams & Bicycles in Deep Red

Hope your week is off to a good start!

xx Lara & Teegs

Leslie's patchwork chair

2011-02-24T16:55:00.002+11:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for ages, but how gorgeous is this patchwork chair that our pal Leslie from Onegirl made. So, so frakking cute:

Leslie's patchwork chair

Leslie's patchwork chair - detail

Of course there's a few familiar faces in amongst those fabrics - so chuffed to be a part of this gorgeous piece of furniture that lives in her girls' room :)

xx Lara.

New wovens - yay!!!

2011-02-23T14:23:00.003+11:00

Okay so we were excited about releasing our new Jersey range (thanks everyone for all the positive feedback!) but we're also super excited about some new wovens in our collection! Especially our new Flowering Gum print. It was really challenging yet fun to turn this idea into a reality (I blogged a bit of the creative process over here).

Introducing our new wovens (more to come next week!):

Flowering Gum in Red Orange & Stone

Flowering Gum in Olive & Robins Egg

Little Forest in Sage & Lime

Seedling in Saffron

You might have noticed that we've introduced a new colour into our range - Saffron. We decided to update our previous "Gold" colour with a yellow that's more of an orange-yellow than a green-yellow. So you won't be able to buy Birch in Gold anymore, but instead we have...

Birch in Saffron

Lace Fans in Saffron

We hope you like them!

xx Lara.

New Organic Jersey Range - YAY!!

2011-02-21T12:23:00.005+11:00

You might have noticed from our recent blogging, tweeting and facebooking that we're super super excited about the new range we've been working on.

Not only does the range consist of 4 completely new prints (yay! we found some time to do some actual designing!)... but it's printed on lovely 100% organic AND AUSTRALIAN MADE cotton jersey! Read more about our jersey basecloth here.

Introducing, for little and big people alike...

Pirates & Sea Creatures in Aubergine

Seedling in Apple

Little Forest in Teal

Bicycles & Trams in Saffron

Little Forest in Saffron

Bicycles & Trams in Apple

Pirates & Sea Creatures in Teal

Seedling in Aubergine

We hope you love these new fabrics as much as we do!

We will be releasing them on our woven basecloths in the not too distant future too. Plus stay tuned for more new-ness and exciting new colourways over the next couple of weeks!

Lara & Teegs.

Open Studio - tomorrow!

2011-02-18T16:16:00.003+11:00

Hey everyone, just a reminder that our Open Studio is on tomorrow! Here's a sneak peek of some of the new fabrics that will be available for sale. They'll be up in in the shop during the following week :)

Some of our new jersey prints

Some of our new wovens

Hope you can make it!

Open Studio - Saturday Feb 19th!

2011-02-14T16:19:00.002+11:00

Hey everyone! We have an open studio this coming Saturday and we're VERY excited about it for a couple of reasons!

1) We will be launching our NEW JERSEY RANGE!! All new prints on all new fabrics, with a special focus on the little ones in your life. If you'd like a sneak peek of our new prints on jersey come visit us on Saturday!

2) Dana from Twiglet has moved into our studio - yay for a new studio buddy! Her wares will also be for sale PLUS she is having a garage sale of vintage fabrics and remnants!

As always there'll be printing demos and tea & bikkies too.

Saturday February 19th, from 10am-1pm at the Ink & Spindle studio.

Hope to see you here!

xx Lara & Teegs

Jenny's bedhead

2011-02-10T09:16:00.003+11:00

Hands up if you know the very lovely Jenny Butler who now helps Lucy out at The Design Files!? She's awesome, and check out this amazing bedhead she made from an old reclaimed fireplace mantel and some of our Birch fabric!

Jenny Butler's bedhead

P.S. - that colourway of birch is discontinued but we can do custom prints of 5+ metres for anyone who desperately wants it. It does look amazing! And how cute is Jenny's bedroom!

Thanks Jenny!!! xx

New and exciting...

2011-02-02T17:25:00.003+11:00

A bit quiet over here on the blog whist we work on some very new and exciting things. Here's a little teaser...

New and exciting things in the works...

Should be ready to launch in a couple of weeks. Yay!!

xx Lara.

Flood Relief - thank you!

2011-01-25T08:32:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone, just a quick note to say a huge thank you to everyone who bid in our Flood Relief Auction, we were blown away by your generosity. And an extra big THANK YOU to Sheryl from One for a wish who placed the winning bid of $360!

And of course another big thank you to Toni from Make It Perfect for co-ordinating a whopping 300+ auctions/raffles/sales across blogland. It's not too late to enter one of the raffles if you still feel like donating :)

Inspiration

2011-01-20T13:06:00.008+11:00

Yet again you guys never fail to blow us away with the gorgeous photos that land in our inbox. We're always so very inspired by the things you make with our textiles. Here are some of the most recent submissions:

This amazing reupholstered armchair blew us away when it landed in our inbox.
Reupholstered by Flourish and Blume for Elissa at Evoke Yarn and Fabric.

Gorgeous skirts by Elissa at Evoke Yarn and Fabric

Birch bag by Leanne at Belyn Design

Ginkgo yoga bag by Leanne at Belyn Design

Another amazing roman blind handmade by Adele, plus an ottoman made from the leftovers of her two blinds.

Open Studio Dates

2011-01-20T10:32:00.002+11:00

Thanks to everyone who has been bidding in the Allsorts Quilt Kit Flood Relief Auction! Don't forget to keep bidding until next Monday :)

It's been Organisation Central over here at I&S HQ of late & that means we've got our Open Studio dates set for the entire year!! Impressive, no? ;)

The Open Studio's are all on Saturday's from 10am til 1pm.

You are welcome to come in & chat to us, see our space, watch a printing demo, discuss the process, ask a zillion questions, stroke some fabric and meet Bella! Now there's a drawcard :)

So come along!

19th February

9th April

11th June

13th August

8th October

10th December

Come visit us!

xx Teegs

More flood relief :)

2011-01-19T15:35:00.004+11:00

Hey everyone,

My god we are so impressed with your generous bidding on the Quilt Kit! Thank you so much! The bidding is open till next Monday :)

For those who can't afford to donate quite so much, don't worry there are some slightly more affordable options! We've just donated some goodies to the Craft Relief online shop - all proceeds will go to the QLD Flood Appeal or the RSPCA Flood Appeal.

So please head over to Craft Relief and snap up some gorgeous handmade goodies (keep checking back as more things will be added daily!!!) and know that you're supporting great causes at the same time. How awesome is that.

Thank you to Therese from Ena & Albert for setting up the Craft Relief shop!

xx Lara & Teegs

It's the FUTURE!

2011-01-17T14:13:00.006+11:00

Guess what?! We made a Facebook Page for Ink & Spindle!

So exciting, right? Our thoughts exactly... Wanna give us some FB lovin'? Look to the top ~~left~~ err, right of your screen!

Thanks a million, you guys :)

xx Teegs

(Lara & I still don't know our left from our right. We both missed that one.)

Flood Relief Auction!

2011-01-14T11:34:00.006+11:00

I don't think there's a single person out there who hasn't been affected or moved by the devastation going on up north. I'm personally such a homebody and love my housey 'things', plus we love our local community so very much, so can only imagine how heartbreaking it must be.

To help out we've decided to participate in the QLD Flood Appeal Auctions organised by Toni from Make it Perfect with the auction below:

------------------------------------
FLOOD RELIEF AUCTION!
------------------------------------

Allsorts Quilt Kit - Blue/Green

Valued at $125 this Allsorts Quilt Kit (details here) is up for auction with 100% of proceeds going to The Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal.

How it works:
1) Leave your bid in the comments of this post - please supply contact details!
2) Bidding starts at $50!
3) The highest bidder will be asked to send a donation equivalent to their bid here and provide a receipt of doing so. We'll then post the Quilt Kit to the winner!
4) Bidding ends Monday 24th at 9am

ALSO - a list of all the other actions will be posted on the Make it Perfect blog on Monday.

Thank you everyone and happy bidding!!

xx Lara & Teegs

Hello 2011!

2011-01-13T14:37:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great holiday break :)

We're back in the studio this week getting all our ducks in a row for the year ahead. Lots of tidying and planning and designing going on - it's all very exciting after spending a lot of the last year just fueling the machine that is I&S. There a times when it's felt very draining and not creative at all.

But one of our goals for 2011 is to "be creatively fulfilled", so we're going to make it our mission to allow more creative time into our schedules. Hand in hand with that is improving our creative space and sprucing it up a little, and where better to start than our website:

Some nice pretty pictures on the home page and an updated about page that sounds a bit more like us :)

Stay tuned for lots more developments!

Teegs' playing dress ups..

2010-12-29T11:28:00.004+11:00

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.

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..

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...

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.

The front

The back

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

Summer Holidays!

2010-12-22T16:44:00.002+11:00

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

The Design Exchange - Ballarat

2010-12-14T10:36:00.004+11:00

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!

The Design Exchange market, Ballarat - Sunday 19th December

xx Lara.

More Tea Towels

2010-12-13T13:17:00.003+11:00

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!

Final Open Studio for the year!!

2010-12-06T12:15:00.003+11:00

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

Wheatbags!

2010-12-03T22:55:00.000+11:00

Organic & bio-dynamic 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!

Wheatbag kit - blue/green

Wheatbag kit - pink/red

Wheatbag kit - red/orange

Organic & bio-dynamic wheatbags

Hope you like them!

xx Lara.

Thunder & Stingo

2010-12-03T22:49:00.003+11:00

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

xx Lara

Teatowels in the shop!

2010-12-01T12:48:00.004+11:00

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.

MARKit!!

2010-11-23T14:22:00.007+11:00

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.

Window Furnishings Australia

2010-11-22T10:50:00.005+11:00

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

Talented ladies!

2010-11-18T10:38:00.006+11:00

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

Deep in the Woods

2010-11-17T17:11:00.002+11:00

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.

Deep in the Woods - handcrafted reclained timber furniture

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.

Deep in the Woods - handcrafted reclained timber 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:

Deep in the Woods - handcrafted reclained timber furniture

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.

Suziam - talented she is

2010-11-11T10:09:00.002+11:00

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!

Restocked!

2010-11-10T12:45:00.004+11:00

The Allsorts Quilt - Dusty Pink, Red & Charcoal

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!

The Allsorts Quilt Kit - Blue, Green and Charcoal

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.

More Markets!

2010-10-29T09:58:00.004+11:00

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).

MARKit @ Fed Square - Sunday 28th November

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!

The Design Exchange market, Ballarat - Sunday 19th December

Hope to see you at one or both!

Younghusband Love - our fav new neighbours!!

2010-10-27T17:40:00.003+11:00

As you know there is endless talent crammed between the walls of our fantastic, rickety, leaky old Woolstore & this time I want to introduce to you Revolt Melbourne!

Ryan, Tim & Steve are the geniusii (I made that word up) behind Revolt & they, along with a team of extremely awesome & talented people, have created a mind-blowingly amazing, multi-purpose arts venue.

It has to be seen to be believed & lucky for you, me & all the other regular folk, they are inviting us all to their Grand Opening!!

It's happening very soon - Saturday Nov 6th, in fact, so if you're in ye olde Melbourne town you really ought to come along!

We're all gonna be there az! And I will even be in costume, coz it's also my birthday (woooots!) & I need very little excuse to a) make stuff & b) dress up! Yaysies!

So go get your ticket & look forward to seeing all you cool* kids there!

xx Teegs

*by 'cool' I actually mean 'fellow geeks'. Whatever! :)

New bundles!

2010-10-27T16:14:00.002+11:00

Hellloooo, just a quick note to let you know that there are a couple of new "3 fabric bundles" up in our shop! Thanks to Lou and Miki for their hard work this morn putting them together all pretty like.

Three fabric bundle in Pink & Red (yup, still loving that dusty pink!)

Three fabric bundle in blue

Yay new (ish) stuff!

Our second ever birthday!!

2010-10-26T10:56:00.001+11:00

A-hoy hoy!! I am return'ed from my lengthy blogging absence. Long time, no typey-typey, eh?How are we all..? Good? Aces, glad to hear it.

Oh, me? Yes, I'm good, too - thanks for asking..

Things have been rather on the busy side since we last spoke - I've got sooo much to tell you, but we all know that Lara will yell "a good post's a short post! With photo's!!' at me if I begin on a rambling stream of consciousness.

SO! No rambling stream of consciousness. Instead, check out some of our party pics:

(Lara got a spanky new camera for her birthday a few weeks back & my, my, does it take a pretty picture, even in very low, yellow light)

Me, Luz & Lou

We were running late, & still prepping the nibblies when our guests started to arrive.. of course. So typical Teegs & Lara. Thankfully we had the wonderful Jonathan to help us out julienning carrots & celery! Thanks, Jon!! :)

A bunch of awesome folks come to our party.. including NONE OTHER than Louie's wonderful mum Lorraine & gorgeous sister Cleo, who came all the way from New Zealand!!

A trio of lovelies: Dana, Cleo & Lorraine!

Massive thank you to Dana (the lady behind Twiglet) who gave Lara & I a wonderfully beautiful Bride & Wolfe wall hanging each!

AND Lorraine made us a giant birthday cake. We do mean giant. We're still working our way through it...

Another big ol' thank you to Natalie (on the right) from Bunni, who gave Lara & I lovely hand cross-stitched rings!

My bestie Tim, came for a while - then left with my other bestie Kat to go see The Melodics gig (withooooout meeeee... yep, so gutted I had to throw a party instead) (tough life.. no, really..)

Sharing the birthday love: Luz & Shanny - so cute!!

Lara eventually started to fall asleep, so I released her from duty on the proviso that I'd stay & host party things if she came back & cleaned up the next day. She was so happy to do that, you shoulda seen her face. Ha! Sucker ;) S'if I was gonna go home anyway..

Miki, our lovely Swedish intern (you haven't really met her yet, but I'll make her write a post soon...) brought another few Swedish friends and her hilarious Kiwi housie, Heather along & we ended up watching YouTube clips down at Lettuce at 3am of Flight of the Conchords with the last remaining troopers (Thanks Gus! Thanks Renae!). I think most of the hilarity was lost on the Swedes... the rest of us had fun tho!

Then the besties came back, (hooray!) so we took the Swedes next door & hung out with our rad Younghusband neighbours at the very-soon-to-open Revolt Melbourne, til the morning birds sang at us.

xx Teegs

(p.s, Lara just proof read this post & her comment was: "well, it's not tooooo random & ramble-y.." think I passed!)

Anyone for a bit of Dusty Pink?

2010-10-25T18:16:00.004+11:00

I hope some of you saw our previous post about the Allsorts Quilt and thought "ohhhh yeah I gotta get me some of them dusty pink fabrics" (or perhaps something more eloquent). Because they're also now available in our shop as yardage too!

It's been a long time since we've printed pink as we're not usually pink type ladies, but as the wonderful Suzie Fry said to us "that is the only shade of pink that I'll tolerate" (or something along those lines) and we tend to agree. Pink, but not too pink.

Anyway I do waffle on, here's some pics of some new colourways! (note: not just pink)

Wrens in Dusty Pink

Ginkgo in Dusty Pink & Deep Red

Wrens in Deep Red

Kangaroo Paw in Charcoal and Sage

You might have seen the above print before but slightly different - we originally printed it with Teal Dashes in the background but decided they were a bit too strong and that there needed to be more contrast with the charcoal Kangaroo Paw. So we invented a new, softer colour called Sage and it is gorgeous! We like this much better :)

Rooftops in Deep Sea

Yay for new colourways! Now... to get around to designing some new prints (pah! with all our free time! not.)

xx Lara.

The Allsorts Quilt Kit

2010-10-25T11:36:00.003+11:00

The Allsorts Quilt Kit - Dusty Pink, Red & Charcoal

The Allsorts Quilt - Dusty Pink, Red & Charcoal

Hey guess what! The Allsorts Quilt Kit is finally available for purchase online! Yay!! Here's some more pretty photographs to make you go "mmmmm" and think about worthy xmas recipients.

The Allsorts Quilt Kit - Blue, Green and Charcoal

The Allsorts Quilt - Blue, Green and Charcoal

The Allsorts Quilt - Dusty Pink, Red & Charcoal

Some practical info - The finished quilt measures 120 x 150cm and is 100% organic. The kit includes everything you need to make the quilt top, but you can buy binding and backing fabric from us too. You'll need to supply your own batting.

Hope you like it!!

You Are Invited

2010-10-15T10:41:00.003+11:00

Photography and styling by Gabriella Moxey

Who would have thought that it was over two years ago now that our beloved Ink & Spindle was born. Time has absolutely flown by and we've loved (almost) every minute of it!

We'd love, love LOVE you to come by and help us celebrate our 2nd birthday NEXT SATURDAY!

Everyone is invited, even if we've never met you before! Just rock up and enjoy the company of some lovely ladies and gentlemen, and we'll have plenty of drinks and snacks on hand.

RSVP to info@inkandspindle.com.au or leave a comment on this post.

Hope to see you there!!

xx Lara & Teegs

Twiglet!!

2010-10-14T16:34:00.003+11:00

Oh. My. God. How gorgeous are these little dresses by Twiglet! The gorgeous Dana from Twiglet has a studio space in our building and we were lucky enough to take some of her dresses with us to Adelaide. But if you couldn't make it to the market they're also available online now in her Etsy Shop. Yay!

Twiglet's Eartha Dress in Acacia

Twiglet's Eartha Dress in Wrens

Twiglet's Eartha Dress in Acacia

Twiglet's Eartha Dress in Wrens

The dresses are available in sizes ranging from 1-5. Nice work Dana!!

xx!

Whew

2010-10-11T18:09:00.002+11:00

Finders Keepers

Needless to say, we're pretty exhausted after tackling two huge design markets on the same weekend. Teegs and Lou are still in Radelaide but I can say that Finders Keepers was great and if you didn't make it - look forward to the next one!!

There's a great recap and photos over at the The Design Files, and here's some random ones from me (more about playing with my new camera than anything particularly informative!)

The Ink & Spindle stall - Finders Keepers

The Ink & Spindle stall - Finders Keepers

Native flora for the stall - a last minute idea that worked really well

Native flora for the stall - preeeetty

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the stall and said hi! It was great to finally put some faces to names and squeeze in a quick bit of shopping in the last 30 minutes.

Yay!

Allsorts of goodness

2010-10-07T17:48:00.002+11:00

The Allsorts Quilt - red/pink colourway and blue/green colourway

Okay so, we're usually not into the whole gender specific thing - pink for girls, blue for boys, yadda yadda yadda. BUT! A few weeks ago we were printing Ginkgo in Dusty Pink for a custom order and decided it looked really, really good. And then we decided the Dusty Pink colour would look great beside our Deep Red colour. and Almond. And Charcoal. Oooh!

We got very excited. And thus the idea for a quilt was born.

Miki and Teegs work on the new quilt

Of course, we're not in the business of making quilts. We're in the business of encouraging YOU to make a quilt. So we came up with a kit! One that uses our 47 x 47 "fat quarter" pieces, is super easy to put together, is modern in design and a bit random.

The Allsorts quilt in red, pink and charcoal

We couldn't just do a pink version though, so we also came up with this more gender neutral/boy friendly blue & green version which we also love!

The Allsorts quilt in blue, green and charcoal

The Allsorts quilt in blue, green and charcoal

So we'll be launching the quilt kits this weekend at Bowerbird and Finders Keepers, yay! The finished size measures 120cm x 150cm (so perfect for a cot or single bed) and the quilt top kit will be available for $125. Backing and binding and batting available separately.

Hope you like it as much as we do!

P.S. - please excuse my hurried photography :)

Save the date!

2010-10-03T09:31:00.004+11:00

Hey everyone! Okay so we've been madly preparing for Finders Keepers and Bowerbird the last two weeks so we haven't had a chance yet to make a proper invite, buuuuut....

Ink & Spindle is turning...

Artwork by Gabriella Moxey

!!!!

We'll be hosting a party on Saturday the 23rd October and we'd love you to join us! So save the date, and we'll send out more info soon. If it's anything like last year's party it's going to be an aaaaaaaawesome night.

Hope you can make it!

Finders Keepers & Bowerbird Bazaar

2010-09-29T11:23:00.004+10:00

Kia Ora All!!!

So it's been an entire year since I walked into the wonderful world of Ink & Spindle and Teegs has insisted I try my hand at this blogging thing......Choice! You may have seen me on the blog I'm Lou the Kiwi and I've been having a ball stretching across the printing table and gossiping up a storm with these lovely ladies in the legendary Younghusband Building & surrounds.

I have to introduce to you another beautiful gal who has also joined the team, Mikaela. She is here all the way from Sweden!!! Lucky us having an intern from the other side of the world for 10 whole months!! Her pretty face along with the wonderful boss-lady Lara will be at the Finders Keepers market at Shed 4 Docklands next weekend the 9th & 10th of October. So head down, Melbournians and check out the new goodies we have waiting for you to snap up!

On the very same weekend Teegs and I will be heading to RADelaide for the Bowerbird Bazaar! It will be my first visit to the City of Churches and Teegs & I have been rather excited about it for weeks now!!

Hehehe... We are a little bit of a troublesome pair and Lara is often seen rolling her eyes at us. So No doubt there will be lots of fun and giggles, so if you'd like to join in, come visit us!!! We'd love to meet you, after all chatting is what we do best - espically over the print table... and at morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, after work, on weekends... in fact, pretty much constantly.

Hope to see you there!

Laters!
Louie xox

Gold Birch Goodness

2010-09-20T15:20:00.002+10:00

Wow. Tracey from Knicky Knacks just sent us these pictures of her recently renovated living/kitchen area, featuring our Gold Birch drum shades.

Tracey's renovation featuring Gold Birch drum shades

They look AMAZING! Seriously, this sort of thing is why we do what we do. So chuffed!

If you love the shades then pop over to Wilkins & Kent who are stocking them (and can take custom lamp orders!).

Reminder - Open Studio this Saturday

2010-09-15T15:55:00.002+10:00

Hey people, just a reminder that our open studio is on this Saturday 18th!! Hope to see you there!! (or should I say 'here'). Yay!

Christchurch visit and talk - this Thursday!

2010-09-07T17:25:00.002+10:00

Hey Christchurch people! Lara here. I know it isn't the best time given the recent earthquakey-ness that has rocked your city (hope you and your loved ones are all okay!)... but, I'm coming to visit on Thursday!!

I'll be passing through Christchurch on a short holiday so the lovely Suzannah from Bolt of Cloth invited me to visit her store and give a talk about Ink & Spindle and our textiles! I'll be there from 3:30 on Thursday 9th Sept (so long as our flight isn't late) and it would be awesome if you live nearby and can come along!

Here's some pics of the gorgeous Bolt of Cloth store & workroom which looks AMAZING and I can't wait to visit it.

Bolt of Cloth, Christchurch

Bolt of Cloth, Christchurch

Bolt of Cloth, Christchurch

Hope to see you there!

xx Lara.

Open Studio September 18th!

2010-08-31T12:01:00.002+10:00

Oh my gosh. A miracle has happened. We are letting you know about our open studio a whole 2+ weeks in advance! I know, you're very impressed with our organisational skills.

I really have Fiona from Onabee to thank, because she requested a poster for her shop window. So we had to get our ass into gear and make one.

Anyway, hope to see you there!!!!

Bundles!!!!!

2010-08-25T17:00:00.002+10:00

Despite having a list as long as my arm of other things to blog about, I have to tell you about these now now NOW because it's just so darn exciting.

We just put some three fabric bundles in the shop!!!

Three fabric bundle - Red Orange

How did it take us so long to get around to doing this? Good question! It's not exactly rocket science.

Three fabric bundle - Green

They're all cute and colour co-ordinated and everything. Each piece measures 47cm x 47cm - perfect for cushion covers, small craft projects or even quilts. Go snap one up :)

Three fabric bundle - Blue

Yay :)

xx

Updated Open Studio

2010-08-16T14:25:00.002+10:00

Hey lovelies!

Just in case you were planning to pop in to the next Open Studio, we've had a change of date!

In a fit of absent-minded-ness, we had it booked in for Oct 2nd, BUT that's a) Lara's birthday weekend (woots) & b) Parklife party weekend! So we've decided to bring the Open Studio forward a couple of weeks.

New date is September 18th (first weekend of the school hols, I believe) at the usual time of 10am -1pm, at our lovely premises at 10 Elizabeth St, Kensington!

You should totally come :)

xx Teegs

Youse got talent

2010-08-10T15:29:00.004+10:00

I love love love it when people email us sexy photos of things they've made with our fabric. Especially when they've taken time to do some styling. I'd love to post pics from all the things people send us but I'm just going to post the prettiest photos today:

Birch Curtain in Dylan's Woodland Nursery

Baby bag by the expecting Ainslie Heffernan

Upholstered copper chair by Floery Mahoney

Lamp shade and Canvas by Studio Eco, one of our stockists in Adelaide :)

Canvasses by Studio Eco, one of our stockists in Adelaide :)

Keep the photo's coming guys - we love seeing your creations. Makes it all worthwhile :)