Decluttering for a Good Cause

We have been busy decluttering at the Thea & Sami studio, don't you love that feeling?  Better still when your clutter can be put to good use.  Yesterday, we packed a box of hand-printed summer skirts and have sent them on to the Handmade Help team.  They will be distributed to the Victorian Bushfire Victims who lost so much.

The team has done an amazing job and you can read more about what has been achieved and how you can help at their blog: Handmade Help.

Thank You Fans

Hand-printing fabrics is a slow process so imagine my delight when hubby Voyt scored some wonderful old industrial fans for peanuts. This is one advantage of him selling industrial real estate.  Destined for scrap-metal, six fans have now been given a loving home in the Thea & Sami studio.

After much needed cleaning, we put them to the test and these guys are super-duper efficient! Our 7 metre table-length of printed fabric was dry in 10 minutes.  I was impressed as this means we can now print more yummy fabrics in a fraction of the time than previously possible.

  

And to demonstrate that inspiration surrounds us, I started playing with the original image (yes, part of my studio walls are pink) in Photoshop and came up with this retro type print.  Possibly a t-shirt print, what do you think?  Go ahead and try it - any photo of an object can become art.  If you have Photoshop, go to Image, then Adjustment and play around with the Hue/Saturation settings.



Speaking of fans, if you have been lurking (we've all done it) on this blog for a while, do consider publicly following my blog and please say hello.  All bloggers appreciate comments and feedback on their craft and designs.

My Mum & Dad Made These

I love getting emails from happy customers so imagine my delight when I received these adorable photos today.  Meet Rocco Christiansen who is one lucky little fellow as he is wearing original designs by his very talented mum Liz.

Last year, Liz brought along her husband Elton, sister Kathryn and niece Natasha to the Thea & Sami studio to learn how to screen-print.  I have yet to meet a more prepared team of printers than Liz and Elton who must have screen-printed dozens of little clothes for baby Rocco on the day and he wasn't even born yet!

So here we have him finally fitting into his own exclusive range of hand-printed clothes at the age of 6 1/2 months.  Isn't he just the cutest model?

 

We offer discounts for group workshops so please contact me if you would like to book your own date. They are also fun for corporate team building.

Funky Fabrix

Funky Birds from a funky lady.  How cute are these?? Design is not just about shapes but colour too!



Shona Farr was the fifth participant in our screen-printing workshop yesterday and is a fabric lover from way back. Together with husband Jason, Shona owns and operates Funky Fabrix, an on-line store that specialises in vintage fabrics as well as Australian designer fabric.  The store now has a physical presence right here in Brisbane at Mitchelton.  I am looking forward to visiting the store soon and including it as one of Thea & Sami's new stockists of hand-printed sustainable fabrics and homewares. 

I promise that the fabrics will be listed very soon on our own shopping site too.

 

Shona was very productive yesterday and is seen here busily cutting out another stencil of a cute bird and tree.  In addition to her calico prints, she managed to print a tea-towel plus 3 organic cotton t-shirts for her children.  I hope they don't mind the matching outfits :)



Towards the end of the class, everybody is usually blow-drying their work so they can take it home. It's always a challenge getting people to stop printing in the Saturday class but that's okay because it shows that they are having fun.

Shona will be returning to the Thea & Sami studio in February to do our t-shirt commercial screen-printing class.

Katrina had a House

  
We were delighted to also play host to Katrina Donald yesterday in the Thea & Sami studio.  Katrina came to the screen-printing workshop with her friend Tiel and put her artistic talents to good use by printing several little houses and furniture too.



We all loved this Queenslander house printed on a children's t-shirt, perfect for celebrating Australia Day tomorrow.  So reminiscent of an Australian home in a sunburnt country.

Cheating is Allowed

If you really don't think you can draw your own designs, then do what our clever girl Kelly Goldstein did and ask your graphic designer husband (or boyfriend/sister/friend/other) to draw them for you.

Kelly is a lovely stay-at-home-mum with 2 young children and was looking for a fun day out and so came along to our screen-printing class.  Personally, I thank her and the rest of yesterday's group for braving what must have been Brisbane's most humid day ever and coming along to the Thea & Sami Studio (no air-conditioning here) to print.



Kelly was very productive and printed cute t-shirts for her little ones.



How cute is this lady bug?