Easter weekend

Mr J enjoys a babycino at The Collingwood Children's Farm Cafe

 

 

 Architectural details of Abbotsford Convent

We've just enjoyed a lovely Easter long weekend, with one of the days spent visiting the Collingwood Children's Farm.  I've been to the farm once or twice before, but it is certainly a very different experience visiting the farm through the eyes of a toddler.

Our 20 month old beautiful boy was just so excited to see chooks running around, cows being milked, farm cats lazing about, sheep shading under tree's and happy to be stroked prodded, guinea pigs to pet, and goats to be fed.  Combine this with lots of space to run around, pigeons to chase AND a babycino and muffin at The Farm Cafe - and he was one happy little boy.

Abbotsford Convent is right next door and is always worth a visit to admire its imposing structure.  The Children's Farm and Convent are fabulous places to visit, and a perfect mini escape for a few hours.  They feel a million miles from the city, despite being just a few kms from the heart of Melbourne town.

Mercator open studios - Abbotsford Convent

Yesterday I headed along to the open studios at the newly refurbished Mercator Building at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent. The main building at the convent is already home to illustrators, writers, painters, art therapists and various health practitioners who work in dorms that once housed the Sisters of the Good Shepherd from 1863 to 1975.

Floor tile detailing and some of the beautiful stained-glass window patterns in the main convent building.

The Mercator building is the newest development in the Abbotsford Convent's transformation in becoming a creative arts community. It houses 10 light-filled open studios set in the historic buildings and beautiful surroundings of the Convent, and includes jewellery designers, industrial designers, glass artisits, ceramicists, printers etc.

The open studio was a great opportunity to meet the designer-makers who have made it their home and take a peek into their creative workspaces (I always love seeing how other creative people work!).

One of the best studios in the building is home to the amazing lighting designer Volker Haug. A huge double room with ceiling windows and a section of see-through floor, original brickwork and exposed beams show-off Volkers unique pared back and industrial-styled lighting creations.

Some of Volker Haug's lighting creations

Industrial designer Dhiren Bhagwandas was next door with another huge studio space! Lots of windows for natural light and again the space had a mix of original features but with a contemporary and simple aesthetic.

Helen Punton the creative source behind the fabulous Zaishu also occupys a delightful studio and gallery space showcasing her eco-designed slot seat/tables and line of hand-printed fabric-based products.
The seat/tables are simple in design, but beautifully executed and considered - from the involvement and collaboration with other artists and designers, to their sustainable ethos and manufacturing process. Beautiful and smart - that's what makes good design! Zaishu also has a blog for more information.

Some of the historic outbuildings found around the convent.

I am so, so envious of the space the tenants have to work in, but mostly of the artistic community they share. I envy their opportunity to work with such a diverse and creative mix of people, who can inspire each other and offer the potential for collaboration. I dream to be able to share a studio space like this and to be able to work and talk design with people.....rather than my cat! What a fantastic place to work!

The public are welcome to visit the studio's in order to purchase directly or discuss design projects with the artisans. It's probably best to contact the relevant studio to find out opening hours first.

A big thank you to Volker, Dhiren and Helen for allowing me to take photo's of their studio's to share on this blog.

You can also read more about the Mercator Studio's here:

market lessons learnt

Still feel like I’ve got first-market-hangover, but slowly getting over it. I’ve learnt lots from this first market..... the main one being how hard it is to sell your own work!

It’s actually quite horrible - and I’d much rather hide behind an on-line shop than face people. I’m just no good at selling my own work – and say all the wrong things! It’s really hard to try and make small-talk and inform people about the process without it sounding like a sales pitch – so very often I said nothing.

When I sold one of my new wall-plates I panicked and then didn’t wrap it properly, had the wrong size bag and after the customer left I felt awful that I made such a mess of it! One of the good things of selling on-line is you can be ‘hidden’ from the selling process and almost separate yourself from it. You can take the time to make sure everything is packaged correctly and looks nice - which is really important to me, but at the market I felt under pressure and realised I had no space to easily wrap and package the goods apart from the floor!

The pricing of my products has a big impact on sales and I think even though it is a market selling all hand-made / designed products there is still an expectation that these will be at fairly cheap prices. When you sell through a retailer (as I am) you need to make sure your prices are consistent with their selling price (you can’t undercut them) and so it does make the pricing very difficult to tailor to a market.

Ho-hum. It was a good learning process for me anyway – and I hope that things can only get better for next time!

Post market blues

I am suffering today from ‘post-market blues’ – I wonder if this is a common syndrome craft-market sellers suffer from?....

Yesterday was my first ever market stall selling the products I make for Me Old China and also my own range of greetings cards – it was a beautiful sunny day at Abbotsford Convent and I was sweltering under the shade of 2 garden umbrella’s! I had two great stall neighbours – The Cats Meow and Babushka Baby and they made me feel quite at home in the market environment. After several weeks of preparation and madly trying to get everything ready, I now feel slightly deflated and very tired after the event.

Thank you to all my lovely friends who came along to say “Hello” – it meant a lot to me and I was really grateful for everyone’s support, interest, feedback and encouragement. Thanks also to the lovely Miss M for helping me man the stall for a few hours. :)