Shelbyville

Bookbinding class

 

Did you ever want to learn how to make your own handbound leather notebooks...? 

Next Saturday, 4th July 2009, I'm hosting a hands-on bookbinding workshop where I'll be teaching the steps involved in making an A6-sized softcover leather notebook from scratch.

It's an afternoon workshop, running from 12:30 until 5:30, and it'll be held at the groovy Vibewire space in Ultimo (525 Harris St, across the road from the Ian Thorpe Swimming Centre). The class is $40 and all the book-making materials are provided (leather, paper, bookbinding thread), but you'll need to bring your own tools (Stanley knife, steel ruler, cutting mat, and a sewing needle).

I'll also be bringing along a number of different examples of cross-structure bound books, so you can select the style you wish to make. And of course, after you learn how to fold, cut and sew your book, you'll be able to take it home with you at the end of the workshop.

There are still spaces available, so if you're interested in coming along to the workshop you can RSVP to events@vibewire.org.

Hope to see you there :)

Melbourne meanderings

So I just got back from Melbourne, and although 5 days was never going to be enough, I did endeavour to cram in as many new experiences as I could, the emphasis especially being on 'new'. On my travels to Melbourne it's all too easy to spend the whole trip revisiting the familiar old stomping grounds, the gallery spaces, and the cultural hotspots I know and love - but it's more of a challenge to scope out the new and as yet undiscovered places.

And so it was this trip, the focus on new discoveries led me to some fantastic finds:

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Asta Pubblica
355 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North
www.astapubblica.com

Fitzroy North is a part of Melbourne I've not experienced prior to this little trip, so it was fun to stumble upon this quirky little shopping strip in our search for the brand-spanky-new Asta Pubblica shop. Featuring hand-made local designs crafted from either re/used, re/cycled, local or natural materials, Asta Pubblica is a bit of a hybrid space - a mixture of gallery, retail, public art windows and office/meeting space. You'll know you've found it when you see a shopwindow decked out in swathes of lovely pianola rolls (of which I'm a huge fan...).

 

 
Images sourced from the Asta Pubblica website.

Sidenote: I found an amusing Stuff White People Like article whilst sifting through the internet, and it really hits the North Fitzroy nail squarely on the head:

"North Fitzroy is Melbourne's Whitest Spot. It has more organic bakeries and vintage shops per square mile than anywhere else. It's been gentrified—but not completely, which means it still has credibility. And most importantly, everyone seems to be in possession of at least one blonde child. When a suburb is hip enough to contain vintage shops, but safe enough for white people to have kids in, then it's truly white."
Full article can be found here.

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Arthur's Circus
631 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne
http://www.arthurscircus.com/
http://arthurscircus.blogspot.com/

I first heard about this store while researching online (I found it on the incredibly useful Craft City Melbourne site), but the website did not sufficiently prepare me for the happy thrill of the real place. Susy captured it quite well on her blog when she described me 'going wild' at Arthur's Circus, but how could I not? - a whole store dedicated to vintage games and cool collectibles, with a bit of handcrafted goodness thrown in for good measure. It was like a vintage playground wonderland...! Lots of lovely, lovely stuff.

 
Susy and I arrive with much anticipation and excitement...

 
Just look at this gorgeous shop space!

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Brother Baba Budan
359 Little Bourke St, Melbourne CBD
http://brotherbababudan.com.au/

It's taken a couple of Melbourne visits before I've been able to experience this cafe with anything more than a nose pressed up against the front glass window, but now I've indulged in one of their sensational caffe lattes I'll certainly be back for a repeat visit. Most people know this cafe for its peculiar arrangement of old chairs dangling from the ceiling, and as a marketing/design feature, it's pretty darn clever really. Not only that, however, the chairs actually lend a quirky warm intimacy to the space (if you can get over your fear of one falling on your head, that is), and this cafe is wonderful as a refuge from Melbourne's chilly winter air.

 

 
Images sourced from the Brother Bada Budan website

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Lost + Found Market
12 Smith St, Collingwood
www.lostandfoundmarket.com.au

While technically not a new discovery, the Lost + Found Market has moved locations since I last visited, so I'm slipping it in regardless. Full of lots of vintage goodies: clothing, books, bric-a-brac (who on earth came up with that term anyway?), it's a pretty fun place to spend a couple of hours browsing, and I challenge you to leave empty-handed!

 
Image borrowed from Lost + Found website 

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Thread Den
Level 1, 16 Errol St, North Melbourne
(Entrance via Webbs Lane)
www.threadden.com

Our side adventure out to North Melbourne was initially planned solely so we could visit this funky little place. I've been enamoured with Thread Den's central 'concept' ever since I learned about the store last year (it opened in late 2007) - it is essentially a 'sewing lounge' combined with a retail store featuring local, designer and vintage clothes and accessories, as well as vintage fabrics and sewing notions. You can drop-in to 'hire' a sewing machine on a per hour basis, or attend one of their regular workshops (class timetables here). 

The space itself is truly vintage-inspired and lovingly decked out with all sorts of interesting knick-knacks, and it's quite fun to rummage through the many small, interconnected rooms. 

 

 

Images sourced from the Thread Den website

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Kent St bar/cafe
201 Smith St, Collingwood

It was nice to happen-chance upon this place as DD and I were gallavanting along Smith Street cursing Melbourne's bone-chilling cold night air. Kent St was so warm and beckoning, and we always love a place with high quirk factor. It was so genuinely relaxed that we were able to snuggle ourselves into a booth seat, pull out a bit of reading, share an espresso cocktail, and had permission to order our tempura/sushi dinner from the restaurant next door. Kent St looks like it's been around forever, and it's easy to see why. I wish I had a local like this...!

 

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Atomica Caffe
268 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

A brilliant new cafe discovery is always welcome, and I was particularly pleased to come across this one in Fitzroy, just down the road from our hotel. A perfect cafe experience—all boxes ticked for food, coffee, service, location, ambience and interior design. A must for breakfast when you're in Melbourne.

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More to come... 

Red doors and robots

Seems like I have started this blog post so many times over the last month, only to be interrupted by a vast array of more pressing/urgent/demanding matters. It's been a very go-go-go month, with a trip to Brisbane at one end, a soon-to-be trip to Melbourne at the other end, and three very hectic market days in between (including a stall at the ever-amazing Finders Keepers). On top of all the usual work + life demands, of course.

So FINALLY, I am of full intent to complete this post today!

The 'Red Doors and Robots' project is one I've been working on for a seriously long time. Although it's only been the last few months when I've really started to see it all coming together, thanks to a wonderful and timely collaboration with a talented young writer, Sonya Gee (of Matchbox Project fame). Together we have been working on a zine series collectively titled 'Urban Quirky', of which 'Red Doors & Robots' is to be the first issue.

For years I have been mentally collecting, photographing and obsessing over a myriad of quirky urban details: the bright-red fire hydrant boosters and doors spotted throughout cities that look remarkably like robots; ikebana-like plantlife growing in unlikely urban locations; love-heart shapes appearing in odd places; messages scribbled or stencilled by strangers; urban typography altered in amusing ways; and dozens of other quirks. And these are all ready and waiting to form the lineup of topics for our Urban Quirks series.

Beginning with a very definite vision for 'Red Doors & Robots' and plenty of photographs to draw upon, I created a cardboard-based ambience board of imagery that I handed over to Sonya to help inspire her writings:

 

Thankfully, Sonya completely understood all about my red robots/doors, and she went forth and crafted a beautiful little story that perfectly captured the exact right idea: a friend of the protagonist alerts her to the presence of the city's conspicuous red robots (and later the doors) and the girl quickly begins to seek them out for herself, and soon learns to distinguish their individual characters and personalities. In doing so, she discovers a whole new layer to her everyday experience of the city.

So now my task is to graphically translate my original imagery and Sonya's story into a book design that at present is looking something like this:

 

 

Each of the pages is being created as an individual square panel, a 3-dimensional collaged artwork, that when finished will be photographed and digitally assembled into a small, square, book format. The 12 pages of the book are in various states of completion, and currently spread out across my studio floor:

 

Slowly, slowly the RD&R project is coming together, one collaged page at a time. This is always the hitch with self-initiated projects - without the demands of clients and the urgencies of deadlines, they are destined to take so much longer to complete...

But soon, RD&R will be done and ready to make its way out into the world. Shall keep you posted :)

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P.S. Check out the sweet handmade original art I recently purchased from the talented Dudley Redhead, a set of red robots that will make a lovely door-hanging for a little boy's room one day, but for now look just as lovely on my studio shelf. Thanks Tara - I love them!

Finders Keepers wrap-up

My, how time flies...

The Finders Keepers markets came and went a couple of weekends ago, and it's only now that I've got a few spare moments to pop up some photos. These shots were taken but minutes before the Carriageworks doors opened on Saturday morning and the crowds came pouring in...

 

 

And an up-close-and-personal shot of the Shelbyville table:

 

Had such a brilliant, yet frantically busy couple of days at FK. Lots of new stallholder faces (including many from interstate), and so much wonderful stuff to browse and buy. The whole vibe was just really nice - chilled music, some excellent art to peruse in the gallery space, and lots and lots and lots of people to meet and chat to. Sooooo many people...

 

 

The FK girls are still updating the Finders Keepers blog, so hop over to here to see some more pics and profiles (including Shelbyville's!), and for information about future Finders Keepers markets.

The Weekly Sketchbook project

Last post, I mentioned that while in Adelaide, Jay Dee and I each bought ourselves a very cute 'weekly scheduler' book from the Pepe's Paperie store on Rundle St. The idea was that we would use it for focusing ourselves on doing some sort of weekly/daily sketching, and henceforth the Weekly Sketchbook project was born.

Truth be told, in the rush of daily life and the constant shortage of time, it's much too easy to neglect or sacrifice leisurely drawing (and lots of other creative pursuits), so it's really satisfying to have a project like this to encourage us to deliberately make time for it - the Weekly Sketchbook is an incentive to draw small, and draw often. And it's helpful having a friend you're accountable to, and with whom you can share the results. And we'll get to dream up sketching 'themes' and 'challenges' for each other, to keep things interesting...

Now in its 5th week, these are my first five efforts:

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WEEK 1 - In Adelaide

 

 

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WEEK 2 - Back home again (and doing a 'Paper Mechanics' course)

 

 

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WEEK 3 - Sketching at Doug up on Bourke

 

 

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WEEK 4 - Exploring an idea for a zine I'm currently working on

 

 

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WEEK 5 - A slight fascination with old keys + found papers

 

 

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In case you were wondering, our Weekly Sketchbooks are from the range of delicious stationery items from O-check Design Graphics (from Korea). Incredibly beautiful and desirable (you've been warned)..! 
A close-up of the text + image on the cover:

 

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P.S. Jay Dee, your 'week 6' challenge is to create and use a set of hand-carved rubber stamps.

Hoorah for the Finders Keepers markets!

Exciting news - I've been accepted for the next Finders Keepers markets coming up on May 15 & 16...!

Details can be found here.

Hope to see you there. I'll be the girl beaming behind the Scrabble jewellery and a host of other colourful bits and bobs (including new, never-been-on-the-market-stall-before stuff!). Hoorah!

Adelaide - a week in The Grid

 

Last week, Jay Dee and I returned home from our week-long sojourn in Adelaide for the 2009 Fringe Festival, and more specifically, for the Format Festival and its zine fair and Academy of DIY.

During our time in The Grid, we managed to see a nice assortment of shows: cabaret, comedy, puppetry, live theatre, glass-blowing. We visited more art galleries and exhibitions than most people see in a lifetime, discovering that it is indeed physically possible to see 18 art exhibitions in 6 hours in locations scattered across an entire city centre. Here's the map to prove it:

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In condensed form, these were the Adelaide highlights:

Best bit:  Saturday's zine fair in the grungy backroom of 145 Hindley St, followed by a plush dinner at Mesa Lunga (to celebrate a successful day of zine fairing), followed by an indie film festival in aforementioned backroom. 
Worst bit:  Picking up a viral infection on the last day and having to resort to copious amounts of Difflam to dull the pain of a horrendously sore throat. 
Favourite Fringe show:  Definitely the Anarchist's Guild Social Committee. Can't go wrong with clever comedy, and it's always nice to conclude a mirthful show with mirthful red wine and chatter. The cabaret show, A Company of Strangers (perfect for the Spiegeltent venue) makes my list purely for the amazing voice of Lady Carol. Wow. 
Best art exhibition:  There were plenty of contenders during the Fringe Festival, but still my favourite would have been the Tom Moore exhibition at the Jam Factory. Just magical.
Best cafe moments:  Felici cafe caught our eye on the first day in town - fantastic interior fitout, great vibe, tasty food, and one of the best locations on Rundle St. Also, Cibo Espresso cafes seem rather popular in Adelaide ... their sweet temptations are dreamy (try the Bomboloni al Limone - a lemony custard-filled sugar-coated brioche), and I took a gamble on a Zabaccino and was pleasantly surprised that a cappuccino flavoured with egg and Marsala actually tastes pretty damn good (imagine a sweet coffee infused with a subtle meringue flavour).  
Best meal:  Exquisite dinner and wine at the immensely popular Mesa Lunga, but beware the waiter who tricks you into accepting his casually offered olives and bread (they're not complimentary, and will appear on your bill...). Oh, and the barmen are HOT! Nice recommendation Georgi!  (p.s. The Sparrow kitchen + bar in North Adelaide was also darn nice too.)
Favourite book store:  We liked Rundle St's cute little Mary Martin bookstore and Hindley St's Imprints bookstore, but our favourite was actually an indescript secondhand bookstore on O'Connell St in North Adelaide. No idea what it was called though...
Best retail experience:  Exploring the 2-level historic Adelaide/Gay's Arcade - lots of history, lovely architectural detailing, a great antique collectables store (where I bought a stash of vintage button cards), two contemporary jewellery-design shops, and Chocolate World..!
Favourite shop:  Pepe's Paperie. We're both obsessive about paper and books, as if we weren't going to love this place! And it's the store where we hatched a plan to each buy the same calendar book and use it for a Weekly Sketch project. Will blog about that later.
Happiest surprise:  Stumbling across a backstreet public art installation involving a 4-storey brick wall and several thousand Matchbox cars, one per brick. Incredible. See photos below.
Best sweet experience: Jay Dee's discovery that Monaco Bar icecreams have made a comeback after all these years - I used to love those things like you wouldn't believe. They definitely look smaller than I remember though. 
Historic Adelaide moment:  Stocking up on snack foods from Ditters - dried fruit and nut specialists since 1918. The dried bananas look terrible but taste exactly like banana cake, but without the cake. A must-try if ever you're in Adelaide.
Hidden treasure:  Tuxedo Cat - a rooftop bar (and small venue) above the Record Bazaar. After being lured down an alleyway off Rundle St by the quirkily signed Record Bazaar, Jay Dee soon discovered that Tuxedo Cat was a bar upstairs. We came back on a different day and spent a delightfully lazy afternoon reclined in beanbags, languidly sipping red wine, and sketching in our books. Wonderful.
Best urban exploration:  Trailing along behind Chris Tamm as he took us on a Friday morning street art walking tour through back alleys and hidden Adelaide locales, happily snapping photos the whole walk. 
Most photographically inspiring location:  The Adelaide Botanic Gardens - after 3 separate trips there, I reckon half my photos were taken whilst exploring the Gardens and its pavilions.
Quirkiest festival event:  The Zinester Walking Tour on which Ianto Ware led us down all sorts of back alleys in the pursuit of bizarre locations so that various zinesters could spruik the launch of their new zines. Good, clean fun.

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And some happy snaps:

 
Jay Dee and me in Rundle Mall, using public art as an impromptu fish-eye lens.

 
Zine launching in crazy places, including a traffic island.

 
Format HQ, 145 Hindley St.

 
Our tables at the zine fair.

 
Busy, busy, busy at the zine fair.

 
Panel discussion about Indie Publishing during the Academy of DIY.

 
The car-wall art installation.

 
Yummy zabuccino and lemony custard brioche, Cibo Espresso.

 
Museum humour.

End note: I'll be putting the rest of the Adelaide photos up on my Flickr site shortly, just as soon as I get through sorting them... :)