Fab purchases in Ballarat!

I thought I'd share some of my fabulous purchases from the op-shops and vintage stores in Ballarat.... I had a wonderful day shopping and it was fun finding some new places for second-hand plates and clothing.

A very big THANK YOU to the gorgeous Julie from Ballarat Vintage Style (check out her blog - I'm very jealous of the wonderful clothes she finds and would love to rifle through her wardrobe!) for meeting with some strange woman (me!) wanting to know the best vintage shops to visit!!

I found the fab retro plates above, with many of the designs manufactured by Broadhust and designed by Kathie Winkle. I just love her designs - classic retro patterns and colours :-)

It's funny how sometimes I buy in colour combinations - it's totally accidental, but when I got home I realised the plates grouped themselves perfectly into specific colour combinations!

Also quite funny were my other purchases....I'm not really a red person, but I was really drawn to the red costume ring from Dear Prudence (this shop is definitely worth a visit) and this fantastic vintage red bag from Ruby Rouge. I then found a red and white polka-dot dress - phew - that's quite enough red for one day!

Ballarat Art Gallery

I was delighted last week when The Art Gallery of Ballarat contacted me to stock my Me Old China range of jewellery! The gallery shop is having a bit of a revamp and I'm really excited that my work will be part of the new-look shop amongst many other fantastic Australian designer products.

It had been several years since I was last in Ballarat and so visiting the gallery was a great chance for a long overdue visit. I had forgotton what a lovely city it is with original colonial style buildings and wide tree-lined streets.

For any non-Australians Ballarat is an old mining town where Gold was discovered in 1851 (the second largest gold nugget ever found in a Australia was found in Ballarat in 1858!) At one point during the gold explosion there were up to 20,000 diggers in the shafts of the Ballarat Goldfields all searching for gold.

Thanks again to the Art Gallery of Ballarat for their support and enthusiasm for my work!