Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Teegs' playing dress ups..

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

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

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

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

Clockwork wood nymph costume

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

Clockwork wood nymph costume

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

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

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

Clockwork wood nymph costume

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


















So that was that one. Cool, huh?

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

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

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

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

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

And so I made this.

1930's screen siren gown
The front

1930's screen siren gown
The back

1930's screen siren gown
Cowl & clasp detail

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

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

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


















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

More pics here if you'd like to see!

Good times.

xx Teegs

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Summer Holidays!

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

The Ink & Spink stall at the Ballarat Design Exchange Market


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

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

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

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

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

See you in the New Year!

xx Teegs

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Design Exchange - Ballarat

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



xx Lara.

Monday, December 13, 2010

More Tea Towels

Hey everyone!

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

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


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

xx!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Final Open Studio for the year!!


Hey everyone!

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

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

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

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

Hope to see you there!

xx Lara & Teegs

Friday, December 3, 2010

Wheatbags!


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

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

Anyway here's some pics!





Hope you like them!

xx Lara.

Thunder & Stingo


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

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

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

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

Miki working hard at the overlocker - her new favourite machine

Thunder & Stingo teatowels

Thunder & Stingo t-shirt

Thunder & Stingo t-shirt

xx Lara

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Teatowels in the shop!



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

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


Kangaroo Paw in Red Orange - Teatowel


Wrens in Dusty Pink - Teatowel


Kangaroo Paw in Charcoal - Teatowel


Bonsai on Olive - Teatowel

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

xx Lara.