Ink & Spindle fabrics

Ink & Spindle are a boutique textile studio in Melbourne. I first ran across their fabrics at the Melbourne Design Market. That particular trip was noted for my purchase of cushions, as I went home with my spare bag full of three cushions and two cushion kits.

Ink & Spindle have many lovely designs however at the moment they are experiencing a supply issue and the available designs are limited. They make use of organic base fabrics and environmentally friendly, solvent free inks. The fabrics are screen printed by hand! I love the natural tones and bold prints, and am trying to figure out how I can convince C that we should use their fabrics to make curtains for our new bedroom.

These three patterns will be heading my way shortly. I am still looking for inspiration for the fabric for my footstool (no sense in rushing into things!), and I am thinking that I will grab the blue version of the Kangaroo Paw print once it is back in stock.

Rooftops on Tamarillo
Kangaroo Paw in Red Orange and Snow
Ginkgo in Black & White on Yak
Images

Montage in Northbridge

I was excited to learn today that Montage will be back again. This time around they will have a pop up shop in Northbridge. Montage are a collective of designers and artists from Perth. They have some lovely handmade pieces! I am looking forward to seeing what they have on offer.

The details from the On William website are copied as follows:
Montage Collective : Pop Up Shop
Posted by The William Street Collective Inc
From: 1st of July 2011
To: 31st of July 2011
Hours: Mon - Thurs : 10am-6pm
Friday : 10am-8pm
Friday : 10am-6pm
Sun: 11am-5pm
More Info: http://www.montagecollective.blogspot.com

If you go to their blog then you will learn that the address is 224 William Street.

E and I made it to the Fremantle Pop Up and we have a whole month to make sure that we get to the Northbridge Pop Up. We should manage it.

Image

Wandering up William Street

Yesterday evening I went for a wander up William Street. We had been in Northbridge for the afternoon for a team bonding session and after I felt that I had bonded enough with my work colleagues I set off in search of a shopping adventure. Yeah!

My first stop was New Edition Bookshop. I had not been into the store since it opened, more a reflection of how infrequently I go shopping these days.
(I just looked for the blog post that I wrote about the opening and learnt that it was back in December that they opened. I really must get out more.)

I love to read and I have an ever expanding collection of books. I tend to head to a certain (solvent) generic book store and pick up a book or two from their shelves. Lately though I have struggled to be inspired by the selection and it takes me a while to find something that I would like to read. Last night, whilst standing in front of the shelves of literature and New Edition I felt spoiled for choice! Eventually I settled on The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas but I now know where I will be heading when I have finished the 1243 pages.

New Edition list a Top 10 Books on their website. I was disturbed to realise that the only book on the list that I have read is not The Very Hungry Caterpiller as you might expect, but rather Lolita.

I could have stayed all evening in New Edition however I thought that I should check out the rest of the On William group.

Right at the end of my trek was William Topp. I was inspired by all of the pretty homewares and was reminded by their Otto & Spike selection of beanies and scarves and warm things that I in fact owned an Otto & Spike beanie that had not been worn yet this winter.

In amongst their collection of pretty items, including many Australian designed and made pieces, I was intrigued to find a couple of glass Sunbeam Mix Master bowls similar to the one that I have! I now know where to go if I (or C) ever break my small mixing bowl.

I added to my crafty book collection and purchase Vintage Fabric Accessories by Kaoru Ishikawa. It is a lovely collection of patterns for girly accessories like clasp purses, card wallets and bags. The book has gorgeous photos of different versions of the items in many fabrics as well as some great photos to illustrate step by step the process of following the patterns. Hopefully they will be simple and detailed enough for a novice like me to follow!

The other stores that I popped into were tu and Wild Lily Empire. The items that struck my eye in tu were gorgeous little onesies made in Australia by Urchin. The beautiful Australian made personal care products of Tonic Australia stood out for me in Wild Lily Empire.

1, 2

Going to market again

The year is rolling on and it is time for the next Upmarket!

Made on the Left is just after that, in a new venue in the Perth CBD.

June 26
Perth Upmarket
10am to 4pm at Winthrop Hall, The University of Western Australia

July 10
Made on the Left
11am to 5pm at one40william, Perth

Out on a Limb

E and I headed out today to check out a new lunch venue and shops! We made our way to Maylands and Sherbert Cafe and Bake Shop.

Before we had lunch, we visited a shop called Out on a Limb. A couple of handmade designers whose blogs that I follow, Red Revival and Eucalypt Homewares, have recently supplied goods to the store.

The store states that their "ethos is to sell predominantly australian and new zealand made eco friendly sustainable products and to support local artisan talents to create an interesting mix of gifts and homewares". Awesome!

E and I found many beautiful items to admire while we were there. I came away with a stack of Blueberry Paper cards. There were so many lovely designs to choose from and so I grabbed a handful!

The collection was eclectic, with an assortment of homewares, clothing and accessories. For more details best go to their facebook page, as they seem to update this with information on what is in stock.

Image

April Market

After the fun of the Angelo Street Fiesta in South Perth comes the Angove Street Fiesta in North Perth. I am hoping to find some more handmade goodies and yummy scrummy things to eat.

April 10
Angove Street Festival
10am to 4pm at Angove Street, North Perth

E and I are planning to head there and I think that she has a list of garage sales for us to attend as well! Should be fun.

Getting ready for winter...

It has been very warm here in Perth, with temperatures above 30C here for the last four months it feels like! Tomorrow is meant to be 21C and raining and so in honour of the coming winter I randomly ordered some tights. I am now looking forward to them showing up, and the weather being cool enough to wear tights.

I was inspired by this post. I had seen Tightology previously and checked out their website but I am fairly sure that the collection I looked at last year was mostly footless tights. In winter I like to have my feet covered and so the previous collection did not tempt me. I try to buy tights that are made in Australia and Tightology tick a few boxes. Their legwear is made in Australia using organic materials. The packaging is 100% recycled. Environmental inks. Awesome!

Here are the two styles that I ordered. Strangely I steered away from the green and yellow and have ended up with the muted colours of red and grey. Now, if they had blue tights with a pattern that I liked...



Images

Montage

A few weeks ago now E and I travelled to Fremantle to check out the Montage pop up shop. Sadly this pop up is closed now (I am a little slow with my postings) however they promise to come again soon and I look forward to it!

Montage are a collection of local designers and artists. In their pop up were many pretty things. I sadly had to make purchases of a practical nature and ended up with a birthday card and ironing board! The card was for someone else but the ironing board was for C and I. I picked up a lovely black and white print from Modern Homewares, similar to the picture above. Unfortunately our ironing board is just a little bit too big - it is a lunky thing - and so on my list of "exciting things to buy" is a new one.

If you are in Perth and like your local designers then please check out the Montage blog and keep an ear open for their next pop up. We have seen many of the collective at various handmade markets but it was great to see their products in a shop, rather than a 6 hour mad market. There should be more of it here in Perth!

Image

Markets this month

It has been a little quiet on the shopping front lately, we are in the process of building a house and my shopping budget is fairly grim. I feel too that I have barely had time to even window shop! Where does the time go?

There are a few shopping events that I am looking forward to, and they are our March markets. I missed them last year as I travelled to Sydney and Tasmania for a friend's wedding.

These markets are always good to pick up some handmade treasures and I am anticipating finding some things to tickle my fancy.

March 20
Perth Upmarket
10am to 4pm at Winthrop Hall, The University of Western Australia
Made on the Left William Street Festival
10am to 4pm in the James Street Mall, Northbridge

March 27
Unwrapped South Perth
12pm to 6pm at Angelo Street, South Perth

Aussie made sportswear

On a recent trip down south, N took me to Brava, a shoe and sports clothing shop in Albany. My eye was caught by a cute white lycra jacket and I was even more excited to see that it was made in Australia! As lovely as the white was I do not think it very practical for exercise and I found that the jacket also comes in red or black.

I settled on black as it suits my conservative nature and also I thought that the red was too pink. Besides, the black I can wear to hockey in the winter as it will complement my uniform.

I am definitely keen to keep an eye out for more of the Bella Bustiere product. I had thought that all sportswear was Made in China (or Thailand etc) and I hadn't looked too hard to find something locally made. I do not think that their entire range is MiA (and the website does not list where items are made) and so I shall have to be selective.

There are a few stockists here in Perth or you can buy online on the website. Maybe the clothes will inspire me to exercise more frequently!!

Image

Cool lighting

I found the business card of the lighting guy whose light fittings I admired at the Bazaar. The lights (above) are available in timber or polypropylene and a variety of colours. They would definitely be a feature in our new house!

They have many beautiful pieces in their product selection. Here are a few that caught my eye. How cool is that toilet roll holder??





Images

Bazaar at the Fremantle Arts Centre

A couple of weekends ago E and I made our way to Fremantle to check out the Bazaar at Fremantle Arts Centre. It was a fairly mellow event, with a mix of familiar and new stalls! The flavour was definitely Fremantle.

My favourites for the day included the beautiful fabrics of Old Grey House and the card creations of Mokoh. There was a lighting guy too I liked but I have to find his business card.

The gift shop at the Fremantle Arts Centre also stocks many of the artists who were selling at the market, and it was fun to play "Spot the Local Vendor". Maybe I should get out more.

We also browsed through the Home Open exhibit. It features selections from the private collections of a range of Fremantle artists, and the display was fascinating. I definitely recommend a look if you're down that way. I never seem to make the time to visit galleries, although when I go on holidays to other cities it tends to be high on my list of things to do. Maybe that can be one of my new years resolutions. (I made only one for this year and I have not managed to do it, so that is rolling over. Again.)


We topped off our day with a visit to the new B&M Store, where they stock a delightful range of all things felt and beautiful objects. E and I both bought some lovely greeting cards and tried to think of excuses to buy other items. B&M are another reason now to visit that part of High Street Fremantle.

2

Subi Street Festival

After a few false starts I finally met my sister at the Subiaco Street Festival last night! We had planned to get there for the start at 5pm however I was distracted by a retaining wall and did not make it in until 7pm.

So, it was a power shop for me at the market stalls this year!

We met outside Mr Sparrow and went inside to browse their unique and interesting collection. The shop is a little bit out of the way from the main Subi strip but well worth the effort of having a look!

The Subi Street Festival closes off part of Rokeby Road. Between Bagot Road and Hay Street were many food stalls, entertainers, childrens activities and all sorts. From Hay Street to Roberts Road is the Subi Upmarket, home to many different and interesting stalls selling handmade goodies! We powerwalked through the food stalls - due I think to my lateness, as last year we explored the side streets - to get to the other side of Hay Street and the Upmarket.

There were many old favourites at the Upmarket, and some new faces. I was impressed by the beautiful prints and products of Formosa Design, and acquired myself a new t-shirt and cushion cover! E queried my need for a cushion cover, and to be honest I do not need any more to cover my couches, but I did have a spare insert so that it can be added to my collection rather than languish in a drawer somewhere.

You can buy from Formosa online through their website or from their Etsy store.

The t-shirt has small sleeves and is quite long, good to protect my shoulders from the summer sun and according to E the length will hide my butt-crack. Thanks E.

The cushion has a gorgeous blue wren and I could not resist! The fabric is a 100% organic cotton/hemp blend, and ties in well with my Ink & Spindle, Spacecraft and Bholu cushions.


Images

Catching up on markets

E and I are off to the Subi Street Festival including the Subi Upmarket tomorrow night. We went last year and it was the event that inspired me to start blogging about my shopping experiences.

There are so many cool things to buy out there but not enough cupboard space in which to store them, so saving photos and inspiration in a journal is the next best thing to owning them.

On Sunday we are planning to head to Fremantle to check out the new B&M Store and I think that a visit to the Bazaar at Fremantle Arts Centre will also be on the cards!

Hopefully we can get a bit of a kickstart happening for our Christmas gifts. I do not like leaving it until too late, and I haven't even thought about what to buy as yet!

Silk accessory

A few weeks ago I was trying to find Koi Girl. Searches brought up only her sparsely populated Etsy store or strange manga references! So imagine my surprise this morning to see Fashion et al talking up the label and the bags!

I have seen Koi Girl previously at the Perth Upmarket, and at one point it crossed my mind that she might have something stylish that I could use as my wedding bag. I am looking to put my camera, phone and credit card into something for the day, and nothing that I have really suits my outfit! I wanted something local and handmade rather than a MiC specialty.

It looks like she is still around and creating and available to purchase in selected boutiques. I might though have to give her a ring if I am after something special...


Images