Quick Update

Hello! I really don't blame you if you thought that I had fallen off the face of the earth. I have really missed you all. Things are slowly getting back to normal in our little corner of the world. Hubby is out of hospital and moving around on crutches and we are now catching up with fabric orders so thank you for your patience and support.

We still don't have internet in our new place (long story) but have been checking emails on my phone. Right now, I am using the internet in the local library to post this update. This is a new world to me. I had no idea that so many people come in here to use the internet. I also got used to not watching televison for a few days and have rediscovered the joys of reading a good novel.

I will be back to normal blogging by the end of next week so please don't go away. Have a great weekend and another long one if you are in Queensland!

Friday Follower - Madonna

Yesterday was Earth Day so I think it is appropriate that this week's Friday Follower this week is also a crusader for environmentally-friendly design. Personally, I hate wearing synthetic fibres next to my skin and it's not easy to source eco-underwear that is also beautiful but I do believe that Madonna Bain has achieved exactly that with her luxury label Eco Intimates. Her range of stylish undergarments are made from yummy fabrics such as hemp/silk and organic cottons. Chemical-free skin clothing is good for your skin and the earth's soil and waterways.


This is the lovely Madonna Bain who I had the pleasure to personally meet last year. Madonna is based in New South Wale's beautiful Byron Bay and because we're all nosey, I asked Madonna some questions so we could get to know her better. Read on.

1. What prompted you to start Eco Intimates?

I started Eco Intimates as my major work for my Diploma of Fashion. As I studied Fashion, I internally struggled with the impact the industry has on our planet from farming, milling, dying and consumer waste at the end. I just didn't want to feel guilty about my passion for fashion; I wanted to help make changes and support systems that help make it a cleaner industry. So I researched how I could design clothing; beautiful fashion-forward clothing that would have a lesser impact. Eco Intimates came out of my love of beautiful underwear, vintage detailing and natural fabrics. It's a growing process, one green step at a time.

2. You have very original designs, what inspires you?
I adore vintage slips and antique lace. I have collected pieces and old sewing books for years and I love to experiment with the techniques. I am inspired, above all, by beauty and what ever form that resonates with me at the time that I am designing. My desire is to designs garments that are beautiful, flattering, comfortable yet have the essence of bespoke treasure.

3. What training do you have?
I have a Diploma in Clothing Production, where I gained my technical skills for pattern-making and sizing garments. I have sewn for 15 years for myself and for little business ideas I have had over the years, my first being at 16 when I made hats out of velvets and upholstery fabrics that I sold to my family and friends :) When I had my daughters, I was inspired to design pretty frocks and bloomers for little girls and sold them at the local markets. I feel like every new venture I take is training for the dream job.

4. What other occupations have you had?

I started out in fashion retail and have worked for many boutiques in the Byron Bay area. Once I studied fashion, I freelanced as a pattern-maker for 2 years, while developing Eco Intimates. Now, as well as working on my label, I work as a sales representative for a fashion agent. This is great research for my own business. I always keep my eye on my future goals and try to work in areas that will assist and give me the experience I need to be a successful business woman.

5. Where can we buy your designs?
The 2010 range is available to order from www.madonnabain.com.au and on my etsy store and will be available in selected stores from September.

6. Is there something interesting about you that you would like to share with us?

I recently had my first celebrity style job. I was asked to design and make a frock (in 2 days !!) for the gorgeous blues and roots performer, Dallas Frasca for a red carpet event, The MusicOz Awards. Dallas is a fierce supporter of our planet and its wildlife, a true Rock and Roll lady who is also well known for her bright red dreadlocks and Rockabilly/Punk twist look.

It was such a thrill and loads of fun to make a dress for her. She asked for electric blue and I amazingly found a 50's bright blue satin frock with loads of fabric in it. I transformed the dress into a Dallas-style number, added loads of tulle tutus underneath and electrify she did. She took out the major award for the Artist of the Year and Blues and Roots artist and I got a dress on MTV ... Yippee!!!

Wow! That is exciting. Thanks Madonna. I will keep reading your blog to follow your adventures.

I am moving house today and I am a little sad as it looks like the first few days it will only be me and the dog in our lovely new place. We were so looking forward to this time but hubby is still in hospital. However, he may be getting a day pass to come out and visit on Sunday. Oh dear, I make it sound like he's in prison, don't I? I won't have my internet reconnected in the new place until Tuesday so I probably won't be around before then. Have a Great Weekend!

Images are courtesy of Madonna Bain and MTV.

Eco Notebooks

Today is Earth Day so I thought I would showcase these lovely eco-friendly notebook covers from Pepperberry & Co., a boutique textiles store specialising in earthy, natural products.

Creator Sandra Sanders crafts the products by hand in Melbourne, using natural cotton & cotton/linen blends . Unbleached and 100% Vegan & Cruelty Free fabrics are sourced when possible. The covers feature hand-printed fabrics from Thea & Sami other Australian designers.

Our popular floral Marguerite fabric is available as a notebook cover in white on black organic linen or black on natural hemp/organic cotton.


If you have been wanting to buy Australian designer fabrics in American dollars, you can do so from Pepperberry's Etsy store.

In keeping with the black and white theme, I do like this Curly Tree design on hemp/cotton from PippiJoe.

To find out more about Pepperberry, visit Sandra's blog.

Images are courtesy of Pepperberry & Co.

My Apologies

Things are pretty chaotic around here at the moment. The settlement on our new house is this Wednesday and it looks like my other half will be in hospital for yet another week. Admittedly, I am feeling just a tad overwhelmed. Between driving to and from the hospital daily, I just can't believe how long it is taking to pack these boxes! I think I will be calling the moving company for help with packing tomorrow.

Please accept my apologies if I have been a little slower than usual in responding to your emails. It has also been pointed out to me today that the shopping cart on the Thea & Sami website is not working. The site's template was updated on the weekend so this may have caused some problems but my web designer is looking at it tonight so please be patient or otherwise email me with any requests or enquiries.

Friday Follower - Harvest Textiles

Today's Friday Follower is a team of 3 creative souls that have come together to form the label Harvest Textiles. Melbourne readers will be especially excited to know that the girls teach screen-printing classes on a regular basis. Read on:



1. Who is Harvest Textiles?
Harvest Textiles started late last year and has been been growing very organically; our motto is slow and steady. Harvest Textiles is made up of Lara Davies, Jess Wright and Emma Byrnes; three women with a love of textiles and the handmade who come from various backgrounds.

Lara was trained in Fine Art and majored in Drawing. She teaches the screen printing and textile design workshops. Jess is trained as a graphic designer and has worked for many years designing children's wares and now teaches toy-making workshops. Emma has training in Communications and is our business pro, she was a founding member of the organic shop Plump in Yarraville and also happens to be a fantastic photographer and web designer. We are pretty lucky to have such a diverse range of skills to draw on, which makes it possible to achieve almost everything in house.


2. What do you do?
Harvest Textiles run workshops from our studio that is also the home of Ink and Spindle. We also produce a children's label called Little Harvest that makes hand drawn and hand screen-printed clothing, handmade costumes and handmade contemporary toys. As a brand, we try to use organic, recycled or locally produced fabrics where possible to reduce our impact on the environment. We are passionate about creating products that are not mass produced and made by our own hand.

3. What can participants expect from your class?
Participants can expect to be inspired to use the creative side of their brain in a very fun and relaxed environment. We try to make all of the workshops really enjoyable so people don't feel intimidated. Its really common for people to rock up and feel a bit confronted about doing new things like drawing or printing or sewing. So we make sure the classes draw out these talents that they never knew they had!

In our screen printing classes we make sure we focus as much time on the art of making great designs as we do to general printing techniques. This means people are always really happy with what they print, as I'm sure you know Thea, 99% of a good print is having a fantastic design.

4. What are some of your future business plans?
We are planning to release a range of hand-printed children's costumes in early June which we are really excited about. We are also working on some yardage designs for some exciting new garments we have in mind. And Jess is always coming up with new toy designs so I'm always excited about that.

Our journey so far as a business has taken us in many unplanned directions, so who knows what next. We do have to say a big thanks to Ink and Spindle for putting a roof over our head and welcoming us into their hearts even though we were strangers at the time. We have learnt a lot from them about being kind and generous to others in your industry because not everyone in business is like that unfortunately.

5. Is there something interesting you would each like to share that isn't common knowledge?
Ummmmm because we all have children under the age of 6 you can often find us in our studio between 8pm and midnight drinking tea and eating dark chocolate Kit-Kats at the sewing machine. Recently I have started to think that its going to make us all insomniacs...all that caffeine after dark!

Thanks Lara and Harvest Textiles, we look forward to following your progress. If you're in Melbourne, you can see and visit the studio tomorrow at their Open Studio.

All images are courtesy of Harvest Textiles. For more info, see image source from top of bottom: Woollen blanket bats, Little Harvest girls' dresses, Screenprinting class, Amber from first class, Pretty Stencils.

Winners

Just a quickie to announce the winners of my Pop-Art Girl giveaway. The 2 blog followers who left comments and were drawn to win a tea-towel each are Jen Meister and Lyssy May. A third towel goes to jewellery by Kristine as a thank you for being a blog follower. Each month, I say thank you to one of you for reading my ramblings. The winner is randomly chosen using random.org.

I will be back later to post today's Friday Follower.

Life Instyle

You may remember that I visited the Life Instyle trade show recently in Sydney and was impressed by the high standard of exhibitors. Since that visit, I had decided that Thea & Sami would need to participate in the next show to attract more wholesale accounts and to grow.

I had long been procrastinating over submitting an application as I was always waiting for the website to be "perfect" or worried that I wouldn't meet the selection committee's criteria but when a friend tipped me off last week (thanks Alyssa) that stand offers were being finalised, I knew that I had to act fast or miss out on yet another opportunity.

On Monday morning, I submitted my application and I am proud to announce that Thea & Sami now has a confirmed stand for the Melbourne Show in August. Yay! I am so happy about this. The moral of the story is that if you hesitate, you may just miss the boat.

For those who have been wondering about Voyt's progress (the patient and husband), it turns out that his leg has a staph infection but he is on an antibiotic drip and the painkillers are keeping him sedated and well-behaved so he is slowly recovering. He was certainly well enough to be giving me legal instructions from his hospital bed yesterday. So, we aren't moving house until next week but it's probably all for the best.

Thank you all for your well wishes.

Image is courtesy of Life Instyle.

More than a Tea Towel

As a designer, I often try to think outside the box and am impressed by others that do the same. Lately, some clever crafty types have been taking Thea & Sami tea-towels and transforming them into other products. This has inspired me to write this post.

Sandrine Marsh is a very stylish lady and I love what she has done with our Spoon & Whisk tea-towel. This is a cutlery roll for picnics. Visit Histoire De Soie for further details.

Even I have to admit that our Loads of Fishes linen tea-towel looks better as an apron. This is the creation of clever Tania Ennor over at Myrtle and Eunice.

Another clever transformation from the Loads of Fishes tea-towel is this adorable slouch bag by Nikki Cardigan at My Black Cardigan.


Here's an easy no-sew idea from my blog archives. I like to use a tea-towel to gift wrap a a bottle of wine. This way, the recipient can fondly remember you and a (hopefully) pleasant occasion long after the wine is forgotten. This towel is now longer in our range but you can use any towel. See more pictures on how to gift wrap your bottle here.

And speaking of towels, is there no love for Pop-Art Girl? You still have a few days for your chance to win that tea-towel here.

Have you transformed a tea-towel into something else? I would love to see it.

Screen Printing Yardage

Yesterday, we hosted our Open Studio and I would like to say a thank you to all the lovely blog followers and newsletter subscribers who visited.

Julie Palmer took some great pictures and has posted a thorough commentary on her blog, Olive and Joy, explaining the yardage printing process.

I was just excited as those who watched as it was the first time we printed our Peacock design on the Provincial Natural Flax, one of my favourite fabrics and a joy to print on.

For those who visited, you will be pleased to know that my partner in printing and life, has finally been taken to the hospital (by me) and will remain all week. He was limping around on an infected leg yesterday. He has been diagnosed with Cellulitis, brought on by his long flights recently but made worse by his refusal to seek medical help earlier.

This week we are supposed to be moving house but there are already delays with the settlement and I will have deal with that and all the other moving related hassles alone :(

I often wish that my life was simpler and a little more boring.

Photos courtesy of Julie Palmer.

Friday Follower - KT

This week's Friday Follower was one of my very first blog followers and a lady that I am proud to call friend. Brisbane-based designer KT Doyle has a multitude of talents and skills that you will discover as you read further.

1. What services or products do you offer as a designer?
I’m a project-based designer and artist specializing in sustainable solutions for wallpaper and textiles, limited edition original artworks and artwork for the public and built environments.

As well as releasing a new collection of wallpaper and textiles annually, my Bespoke Design Service delivers custom solutions for architects and interior designers. Enquiries welcome!

Over the past twenty years, I have travelled widely researching textile and decorative arts collections in Australia and Europe, along with the notion of the contemporary nomad. The basis for my work is conceptual, evolving the physical execution of ‘the idea’ in the most appropriate media including installation, the ready-made object, digital media and textiles.

My vision is for a clean future, which is auto-renewable. Be one of the forward thinkers!

2. Where can we buy your products (wallpaper and fabrics)?
Just contact me… It’s that easy!

3. What can we expect to see from KT this year?

It’s a big year and I’m busy with a range of exciting projects:

Firstly, I’m working with Urban Art Projects (UAP) and the Brisbane City Council (BCC) to create a site-specific permanent public artwork for one of the entries to the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. The concept references botanicals cultivated in the Gardens by its nine curators over an 125+ year period. The research component of this project alone is fascinating!

Image source and further info here.

Secondly, I am delighted to have been awarded a SignatureBrisbane Seed Grant to develop a new series of textiles and works on paper. The project is tentatively titled "Botanica" and is based on plants collected, studied and distributed throughout Brisbane and regional Queensland during the curatorship of Walter Hill, one of the first curators of the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Its rationale is an extension of work I am undertaking for the public art commission at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens with UAP and BCC. This is a 12-month project due for completion early 2011 with an exhibition to follow.

Thirdly, I’m developing a new collection of wallpaper and textiles. It’s only early stages, so you’ll have to follow my project blog to find out more! Of course, my current design, Falling Leaves (pictured above) is available and can be viewed on my website or contact me for more details.

Lastly, I’m also writing about design and architecture related projects, people and events in Brisbane and regional Queensland for Indesign. Check out their suite of publications: Indesign, Design Quarterly (DQ) and Habitus. Also, their regularly updated news site IndesignLive.com is a great way to stay abreast of what’s happening across design in Australia.

4. How do you keep motivated when working from home on your own?
Motivation is certainly something I don’t have to struggle with, whether at home or not! I’ve spent so many years working for other people that I thank my lucky stars now I work full-time on my art and design practice. I find the convenience of having a home studio is brilliant and I never let a pile of washing distract me from working during the week!

Having a routine and discipline with a strict calendar is invaluable. Monday to Friday I start work at 8.30am, finish around 6.30pm and take an hour for lunch, often with friends or clients locally in New Farm. If I need to work late or over the weekend I can, while still connecting with my partner and cat in our space, which makes it feel more like play than work.

5. Is there something interesting about you that you can share and that isn't common knowledge?
I’m a swing dancer (no not swinger!), which means I like partner dancing from the 1930s – 1940s, especially a style called Balboa. I travelled to San Diego in 2007 to participate in Bal Rendezvous, an amazing week of dance workshops and social dancing, culminating with a couple of days in Las Vegas! Definitely not a relaxing holiday, but a truly exhilarating one!

Commission Wallpaper for Laruche Bar & Supper Club in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley. Image source and more information here.

Thanks KT, you really are one busy lady! Do visit KT's Blog.

Blog Giveaway

Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing our product range. Some designs and fabrics will be discontinued and priced to clear. If you are able to attend our Open Studio this Sunday, you will have first pick of these. Otherwise, you will be advised when items are listed on our Sales page.

Pop-Art Girl has to go! I am giving away 3 such linen tea-towels to my blog readers. One will be given to a randomly-chosen follower as I have yet to draw my monthly giveaway.

In celebration of positive changes in my life and business (more announcements coming soon), I would love to hear about any decisions that you too have made or are now inspired to make in order to simplify your own lives. Share your comment here by next Thursday, 8th April for your chance to win Pop-Art Girl. I really look forward to reading your thoughts!

Please note, that for this giveaway, you should be a blog follower and I need to be able to contact you (if you win) so please leave an email address if you don't have a blog link.

Thank you to Daniele of Lace and Bark for her lovely blog post yesterday about Thea & Sami.

Winners have been announced.

Organic Cushions

I hope you have had a better week than me. Everything that could have gone wrong has. The following broke down: computer, internet, printer, camera and car. Is that Murphy's Law or what? Is it any surprise that I spent Good Friday trying to survive yet another migraine? I am definitely taking next week off to pack and move house.

Now that I have explained my absence from the blogging community, I would like to move on to some positive happenings. We are expanding our homewares range to include cushions.

I am so happy with the quality of these. Our cushion-maker also made the internal form, ensuring that it is well filled for a professional look.

These cushions feature our Cottage Garden design hand-printed on the organic cotton/hemp Jacquard that is also available as fabric here. I will be listing the cushions on the Thea & Sami website once all my programs are reinstalled on my new laptop so please be patient or otherwise email me.

This range will also be available at New Farm Editions. New natural linen printed designs will follow.

These black and white cushions are printed on the organic linen.

Curious how we print our fabrics? Don't forget you can see exactly how at our Open Studio this Sunday. Let me know if you're coming and I'll provide refreshments.

There will be sale clearance prices on discontinued fabrics, polyester fabrics, old screens, organic cotton t-shirts, etc.

Happy Easter!

I wish you all a Happy Easter and hope you enjoy a special day with your loved ones.

Hand-printed fabric basket is available here.


Today is also my niece's 10th birthday so I made up this colourful bunting this morning using discontinued Thea & Sami prints. I have taken photos so plan to write some easy-to-follow instructions for new bunting craft kits.

Love and Lampshades

On my recent Sydney trip, I visited the most adorable little shop in Rozelle. Melinda Love is the pictured interior designer who owns and operates the eponymous shop. She makes exquisite lampshades paired with gorgeous bases and a lovely range of cushions is also on offer.

I'm happy to announce that Thea & Sami has just shipped some custom-printed fabric to the store to be used as lampshades. I can't wait to see what Melinda does but I will be giving you a sneak preview of what we printed soon.

Visit Melinda Love from Thursdays to Saturdays at 739 Darling Street (it's true) in Rozelle. Check out her website for more images and information.

Since tomorrow is Good Friday and a holiday, my Friday Follower column will resume again next week. If you are going away for the long weekend, stay safe!