Meet Lara

Yay! We have a junior studio assistant and the timing couldn't be better with all of our busy studio shop preparations this week.

Say hello to Lara. Yesterday, she was busy wrapping natural soaps for a wholesale order.

I had met Lara once before when I visited her high school art class last year to see their screen-printing projects. Lara had made this gorgeous boxed stationery set.

Welcome to the team Lara! You can meet Lara and the rest of our team at our studio shop opening tomorrow.

Shop Preparations

This post is subtitled "How to Set Up a Shop in 3 Days". It's possible when you have enough help. With our official Studio and Shop Opening on Saturday, it's full-steam ahead.

Yesterday was Day 1. Dan cleared unslightly cobwebs from above the windows.


Mopped the floor.

Painted the floor. Yay for man power!

Behind the scenes, I was painting an old wooden table and training our new junior assistant Lara (you will meet her later) who was heat-setting fabrics and tagging tea-towels.

Last night, it was off to IKEA to buy shelving which made for a very long day but at least we got a nice meal at the cafe (yes, I like IKEA food). Today, we will get the shelving ready and make sure that we have LOTS of goodies for the opening that you will love for Mother's Day gifts.

Let me know if you plan to come. We would love to meet you and have your support. Fabric printing demonstrations are scheduled for 11.00 am and 1.00 pm.

PLUS all visitors will receive a raffle ticket and one lucky person will win a $100 Thea & Sami gift voucher that can be used to purchase fabric, homewares or go towards a screen-printing workshop.

Last week, we had a very special guest to our studio. To see who it was and to view more pictures of us screen-printing, click here. Thanks Jennie!

Mrs Tiff's Feathered Nest

Recently I discovered a lovely blog called Mrs Tiff Living Creatively and was lucky enough to win these vintage-inspired Rose gift tags from a recent blog giveway.


They're so pretty that I just don't know if I can part with them. I probably will use them for special friends but keep one for myself.


Tiff has an Etsy store with other lovelies such as these Cutlery Dining Tags.

Or how wonderful are these reusable Chalk Oilcloth Heart Tags? Find these and more at Mrs Tiff's Feathered Nest.

Local Press

There was a little story about me and our fabrics in Saturday's Courier Mail. Ironically, my husband, son and I had all flicked through the newspaper while having breakfast and didn't notice it and you probably didn't either unless you were looking for business opportunities. It was on page 83 and I only found out about it when Debbie emailed me.

I guess any publicity is good publicity although it would be nice if journalists let you know when something will be published. This story was initiated 9 months ago!

Anyway, if you are interested, you can read the article on-line. Personally, I don't enjoy having cameras in my face so I was pleased that they used a file portrait photo, thanks to the fact that the assigned photographer and I couldn't find time to meet up. He did take a great photo of our Hydrangea printed fabric (above) though.

I hope you are having a nice break. I know I am although we definitely overate yesterday at my parents' place. My Greek mum is just too good a cook!

Super Fabric Printing

The new studio is finally fully functional with the arrival of all of our new stops this week.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, we screen-printed fabrics on both tables which was a dream come true for me. We were faster than ever before since we could simultaneously print 2 different designs on both tables; one on our original 7 metre table and then on the new 10 metre table which meant no stopping for fabrics and screens to dry in between.

From beginning to end, including pinning out fabrics (we refuse to use yukky glues) it took us 1.5 hours although I'm pretty sure we can get this time down with practice and more whip cracking.

While we waited for the first run of the Blue Hydrangeas to dry, we washed the screen and continued printing on table no. 2 with a different, dry screen.

If you have ever watched yardage printing, you will know that it is necessary to print every second space so that the screen doesn't pick up and transfer wet inks in the wrong places. You can watch how it's done at our Studio & Shop Opening on the 30th.

Red Hydrangea print on natural linen.

Most of this French Stripes red print will be going to our cutting and sewing team for table runners, tablecloths and cushions to fill current wholesale orders.

Don't worry, we'll leave some fabric and homewares for you to buy directly from our website or studio shop too.

I'm it easy today but will be going into work early next week to get our studio shop ready. I'm hoping that some of you will be visiting.

I wish you all a lovely Easter break! x

It's the time of the year when I can't help thinking about chocolate. Have you ever wanted to make your own?

Brisbanites have the opportunity to participate in a chocolate sculpture workshop led by Sally Colpoys and hosted by Artisan in the Valley.

The workshop date is Saturday, 7th May from 2 - 3.30 pm. Email Shannon for more information or to RSVP by 29 April. Ph: (07) 3214 0800 or info[at]artisan.org.au

Image Above: Some girl’s mothers are bigger than other girl’s mothers Sally Colpoys 2009, White Chocolate.

Fish Napkins Preview

It's only Wednesday and I'm already exhausted probably because I haven't had a day off in 2 weeks. We've been busier than ever but that's good, right? I'm interviewing a junior assistant today so fingers crossed as we really need the extra help.

On Monday, Voyt and I drove to Noosa. Now don't be jealous as it was for business, not pleasure and if it makes you feel any better, the weather was terrible; especially driving through the pouring rain with poor road visibility.

I screen-printed some new Fish napkins and placemats as samples on Sunday for our Sunshine Coast trip and they were a hit. You will soon find the Fish napkins at our lovely stockist Finders Keepers at Peregian Beach,

That's Voyt in the picture looking very metro in his pink designer shirt. Finders Keepers is such a lovely store and more photos will follow in a later post.

I'm happy that we have just secured an exciting new stockist at Noosaville too. I just can't wait to share more with you once their Thea & Sami goodies are delivered.

Let me know if you like the new Fish napkins as we haven't added them to the on-line store yet. We may have some available at our Studio Shop opening.

April Screen Printers

I'm a little late with posting the images from Saturday's screen-printing workshop but the following is some of what was printed. I always like the variety that comes out of our classes and I hope you are inspired.

Birds are always popular and the possibilities are endless.Two-colour print by Anne Whitlock.

Here's the talented Anne being neighbourly and blow drying Tracy's work. Anne is also a craft teacher and you can visit Creative Craft Class for details.

A chirpy t-shirt for a little girl by mamma bird, Charmaine Carlton.

Here's Charmaine (on left) with fellow class mate Tracy Hallmond.

Birds in a cage screen-printed by Sarah Johnstone.

Our lovely Canadian Sarah enjoyed using our much bigger studio. Everybody had more space and more fabric to print on than ever before.

Happy classmates Kate Bugden and Amanda Evans (L to R). Amanda also printed some cute owls (birds) but I neglected to take images or them. If you look closely at the table, you may be able to see her design.

Amanda designed and printed the starfish. Don't the circles add texture? Amanda's a talented designer whose company My Munchkin Home, specialises in removable wall stickers for stylish children's bedrooms. You can also order custom-made wall decor for your home or business.

Away from birds and continuing with the ocean theme, Tracy's jellyfish are much cooler than your average stingers.

Kate was in a class of her own with her sweet lanterns.

Our substitute junior studio assistant, Val worked for a pittance on the weekend.

Even better, Tracy paid me to let her wash up. Thanks Tracy and thanks to all of the lovely ladies who attended the class and made it a fun day.

Classes are available for June and July. Book early to avoid disappointment. See more designs from previous classes here.

Don't forget to come along to our official Studio Opening on April 30th. Fabric yardage printing will be demonstrated.

School's In

This week we (Dan) painted one of our studio walls with chalk board paint and I love it. It's perfect for writing up and keeping track of which jobs need to be printed next.

You can see our large fabric screens to the right.

The chalk board was used for the first time today when I surprised our screen-printing class with a little welcome message. You can tell that I'm not a calligrapher but we're all about the hand-made here and not perfection.

Tomorrow I will be posting images from the class and there's some lovely designs to show you. New screen-printing classes are scheduled for June and July so book directly on-line if you want to have a day of creativity.

Beautiful Things at Mart

Mart in Brisbane has beautiful items hand-crafted by some of Australia's best artisans. I hadn't visited for a while so was eager to personally drop off new stock on Thursday. It was lovely to meet the new retail managers Caitlin and Jenny (thanks ladies).

The following is a selection of some of the things that I wouldn't mind getting for Mother's Day.

Ceramics by Murray Topham.

Glass Vessels by Joanne Bone.

You can view a video on how Joannes crafts her work here.

Sweet ceramics by Virginia Jones.

Coral sculptures by Douglas McManus.

It was lovely to see some Thea & Sami textiles in the Easter window display.

We are now longer making the Fretwork hemp/organic cotton tea-towels but you can get them at Artisan Mart in the Valley or Southbank or at Shelley Panton in Melbourne, while stocks last. I will also have a few for sale at our Studio Shop opening.

The Fretwork fabric is available for purchase here for you to sew your own goodies. I may be packing some today for the fabric scrap packs I'm putting together for the ABCD meet up in Brisbane tonight. Hope to see you there.

Stops Mean Go!

As you may know, there have been many frustrating delays in setting up our new studio. I just want it all to be done so that our production is super-efficient. Is that too much to ask?

With that thought, I was so happy to get (some of) our new Stops this week. These are adjustable metal markers that are positioned across the registration bar according to the repeat width of each fabric design.

I love them (something that only a fabric printer would understand). They're all even and so easy to adjust. Look Alyssa, we did finally print your fabric order yesterday.

I won't be sad to see the old stops go. They're old and cracked and needed a spanner for adjustment. The spanner sometimes went AWOL and the bolts were worn. We all have to retire at some point.

The problem is that I haven't been given all of my new stops yet as they have to be custom-made and little orders like mine get pushed to the end of the line. Part of my job is to keep being the squeaky wheel with suppliers and there will be more squeaking today.

If you want to see firsthand how the printing stops are used exactly, do come along to our official Studio & Shop opening on April 30th. We have scheduled fabric demonstrations for 11.00 am and 1.00 pm respectively. Are you coming? You may also RSVP here.

I Can Teach You

It must bring every mother joy when their child (big or small) finally takes an interest in what they are doing.

I taught my son Val to screen-print yesterday and he was stoked when he printed this t-shirt and now wants to do more.

This is a big deal as my boy has never been arty or creative having studied Computer Science and Commerce at university and learning to play Chess at the age of 4. So with confidence, I can say that I can teach anybody to screen-print!

I figured that with the extra studio space we now have, we could accept 6 people for our new Screen-Printing Workshops (instead of 5) providing that I have a studio assistant to help.

Val will be our friendly assistant for this weekend's class and was quite obliging when I told him he would be surrounded by 6 lovely ladies (plus me). I will be posting images of the workshop after Saturday.

I'm taking a break from classes in May but have scheduled one for June and July. Book directly on-line if you wish to join us.

French Stripes Table Runner

Oh my, it has taken me ages to find time to update the website but I have now added French Stripes Table Runners in natural linen.

I cheated and quickly photographed the runners on my old ladder but I like this display and you get the idea of how they look.

Available in traditional French colours of red, crème and blue on natural linen. Choose from 2 lengths. Order now for Mother's Day.

Coordinate with our linen napkins or the Thea & Sami striped cushions look pretty good too. Do you like the striped range?