Lottie Loves.....

Oooh I'm very excited today to be featured on the fabulous Lottie Loves blog! 

Lottie Loves is written by the very talented Charlotte Rivers - you may not think you've heard of her, but I'm sure most people will know the book 'Reinventing Letterpress' which was written by Charlotte, and was enormously popular!  Charlotte has also written a number of other books from magazine design and packaging, to logo and poster design.

Each week Lottie Loves profiles and interviews various creative people - and this week it's me!  You can head over to read about my creative background, workspace and daily inspiration etc.  Please excuse the not-so-hot pictures of me working..... must remember to brush my hair in future for photographs!!  See the interview here:

A big thank you to Charlotte for including me and my work in her interview series, I'm very flattered indeed :)

Charlotte also has a website, and another very cute blog called Little Lottie Loves charting her own pregnancy and journey into motherhood, as well as featuring some very cute design orientated products for little people!

Easter highs and lows

Hello!  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break and enjoyed the glorious sunshine - how beautiful was it for the long weekend!  It seems a very long time since I last did a blog post - I've had a few ups-and-downs over the last few weeks with work and things, which has left me feeling a bit fed up with everything. Humph.

Firstly, I've been having problems getting paid for a lot of freelance work I've undertaken, and I always resent having to chase payment.  It really ruins a working relationship, and as a freelancer you have to trust that people will honour payment as you are always doing the work up-front.  Any suggestions for how to overcome this??.... I'm sure it's a common problem for freelancers - its a fine line of trusting people / companies whilst also ensuring you aren't left out of pocket and will receive payment.

Secondly, I've been working hard towards getting my own range of melamine plates produced (you might remember I posted a while ago about the samples and different designs I'd been working on).  I selected 10 designs to launch a new range, and ordered multiples of each design to be shipped to me from the UK where they are being produced.  I was really excited when I received my first shipment of goods a few weeks ago - but this quickly turned to disappointment when I realised one of the designs had a fault.  Of course I assumed the fault would be rectified straight away given it was a production issue, and I had paid in full for the goods to be produced and shipped half way round the world.  Sadly this doesn't appear to be the case, and is resulting in e-mails not being returned and long periods without communication.  Its such a frustrating situation, and makes you question the relationship and trust you have worked hard to build up.

On a brighter note I've been badly neglecting my Me Old China Etsy shop due to feelance work and developing the melamine plate range - but I finally got round to listing some new designs at last!  I have lots more designs that have been cut from plates, but I still need to get round to sanding these and transforming them into the pendants.             

These two designs are part of a collection made from this very cute English retro plate called 'South Pacific' - they would have been perfect for the summer if I'd got round to listing them in time!

These two rather funky designs are also from an old English retro plate with a pattern name 'Tyrol'.  They are a little more 1970's in feel - and very bold with the red and yellow florals on the black background! 
And this shows the plate after it has been cut with the pendant shapes.  More designs available over at Etsy!

And I also had my 'Knife & Fork' cut-out plate featured over at Kaboodle as part of an Etsy round-up of designs for Earth day.  Thanks Etsy and Kaboodle - this helped to cheer me up!

Re-Nest

I was super thrilled to see two of my projects featured on the fabulous Re-Nest blog over the last couple of weeks!  Re-nest is part of the equally excellent Apartment Therapy site, but it focuses more on green design and all things eco and recycled.   There's some great ideas and projects featured, as well as interesting homes, gardens and product design. 

My garden planting in teapots and various kitchen paraphernalia was featured in the repurposed planters round-up, and more recently my Me Old China cut-out wall plates were also featured in their own segment!  (Although the only person who has commented so far doesn't seem to keen on the wall plates as you can't use them as plates anymore!)

I was actually out and about in the garden this weekend, making the most of the beautiful autumn sunshine and giving the garden a bit of a clean up.  With all the rain we had over summer my little garden went crazy, with everything growing madly..... sadly including the weeds.  Vines have now been pruned and cut back, leaves swept up, snails disposed and weeds pulled.  The marigolds planted in the teapots for summer had all died, so these have now been replaced with various succulents so they'll still look pretty over winter!  

You can see the posts here:  repurposed planters & wall plates.  A big thank-you to re-nest for including my little projects, I'm very chuffed indeed :)

Me Old China in Inside Out!

Inside Out magazine - May-June 2011

 Illustrated 'Vintage Tableware' side plate

'Polly Put the Kettle On' cut-out wall plate

I was really excited to get the latest copy of Inside Out magazine over the weekend - and see two of my plates featured!

One of my Me Old China 'Polly Put the Kettle On' cut-out wall plates was featured, along with one of my Lucy King Design illustrated 'Vintage Tableware' plates, both used as props in an article about cutlery.  It's great to see your own work featured in such an inspiring and design orientated magazine, so I'm sending a big thank you to Inside Out for including my designs in the lovely styled shots!

Etsy - Earth Day

I was pretty excited to see my Me Old China repurposed and recycled cut-out 'Dinner' plate and 'Knife & Fork' plate featured on Etsy's April Shopping Guide today! 

The plates were part of the 'earth day' round-up on the shopping guide which was e-mailed out to all subscribers.  Its always a pleasure to see my work featured by other people and I'm very grateful to be included amongst so many other fabulous products.  Thanks Etsy!!

You can see these plates and more of my designs at the Me Old China shop over at Etsy :)

Me Old China at Small Space Jewellery

Last week I dropped some new Me Old China jewellery designs to the lovely Small Space Jewellery in Fitzroy.

Small Space took a selection of Clarice Cliff pieces and Vintage Floral designs, to add to the Willow 'Fancy a Cuppa' collection they already have.

The range above features pendants cut from a Clarice Cliff dinner plate.  I picked up two of these second-hand plates from the local Oxfam shop when I was back in England.  The plate pattern is called 'Tonquin' and was designed by Clarice Cliff in about 1954.  This particular pattern was originally designed for the American market place and was one of her most popular tableware designs, it depicts a traditional English landscape scene and printed in this unusual pinky-red colour. 

The Vintage Floral designs are also taken from a second-hand old English dinner plate.  The sweet floral patterns (taken from the centre of the dinner plate) feature alongside sections taken from the rim of the plate!  You can see the ribbed texture on the bottom of the jewellery pieces, that ran around the very edge of the plate rim.  So as well as adding some textural detail to the pieces, it also helps to reinforce the origins of the jewellery by highlighting their previous use as a domestic dinner plate! 

A big 'Thank You' to Small Space Jewellery for their support with Me Old China! 

Me Old China off to Portobello Lane

I've just sent a package of Me Old China jewellery off to the very lovely Portobello Lane in South Yarra!  It's always exciting to package the jewellery pieces up knowing they are going to a good home and will be sitting with other beautiful jewellery creations.

Portobello Lane have selected quite a few pieces from the 'Fancy A Cuppa' collection, including a range of teacup, kettle and teapot brooches (above) and pendants (below)

And also some Willow pieces from the 'High Tea' collection (below).  The double pendant featuring the doves is one of my favourite pieces - and I was quite tempted to keep it for myself! 

A big thank you to Portobello Lane for their continued support with Me Old China :-)

Me Old China in Green Magazine!

From plateware designer to designing with plates.  Melbourne-based designer and keen vintage collector, Lucy King, has gone full circle, from once designing patterns for tableware company Wedgwood, to utilising cast-off plates to create one-off homeware pieces under the label, Me Old China.

This range is called "Polly Put the Kettle On".

I was very excited to have some of my Me Old China recycled 'Polly Put the Kettle On' cut plates featured in this months edition of Green Magazine! (Issue 17)

I'm a big fan of Green and have been subscribing for several years now.  It's full of the most amazing homes, interior spaces and gardens all with a sustainable element - but also with great design aesthetics and always thoroughly inspiring.

I was absolutely delighted my cut out wall plates were featured in Green, and it's a fantastic way to start the year! 

New stockists for Me Old China!

I'm really excited to announce two new stockists for Me Old China!

The first is a newly opened on-line store called Kindred Gifts.  Kindred Gifts beleive in offering an ethical and sustainable alternative to gift purchasing - and you won't find any mass-produced items in this store!  

The products featured at Kindred Gifts are created by artisans who hand-make their designs often using vintage, recycled or organic resources and packaging, or, follow fair trade principles and contribute to the safe and fair working conditions of communities where the products are made - gotta love that!  

The other new stockist for Me Old China is the gorgeous Portobello Lane in South Yarra.   Portobello Lane is an independant boutique jewellery shop stocking hand crafted pieces from local and international designers.  They have a diverse range of jewellery from whimsical, cute and quirky pieces to selective elegant and sophisticated ranges.

I'm really thrilled to be able to stock my work with these two lovely stores, and it's great to take the opportunity to show my support and say a big 'thank you' to Kindred Gifts and Portobello Lane.  Thanks!   

Me Old China - new Willow jewellery (finally!)

I've finally had time in between a few other jobs I've had on the go, to finish making some new Willow jewellery and upload onto my Etsy shop. 

I always underestimate how much time is involved to create the pieces and get everything listed, but there is such an immense sense of satisfaction when they are all finished and ready to go.  I have some other plates cut and ready to be transformed into jewellery (including a gorgeous Clarice Cliff design) but these will have to wait a while to begin their evolution!     

The image above shows an example of a Willow plate once I've decided where the pieces are to be cut, and the individual pieces removed - so you can see the jewellery really is crafted from discarded dinner plates!  You can see more jewellery at my shop here: 

Me Old China - new cut plates

I had a bit of a rubbish week last week, and I was feeling a bit down in the dumps about my work and what I'm doing..... or rather what I'm not doing!  It resulted in a pretty un-productive week and I just couldn't find the enthusiasm to do very much at all. 

So, I thought I'd start the week off on a more positive vibe and finally get round to posting about the latest collection of Me Old China 'Polly Put The Kettle On' wall plates.

 

As usual the plates are all lovingly rescued from second-hand shops and markets - saved from a life of dusty shelves to be re-born as 'traditional' wall plates, with a quirky twist. 

Each plate features cut-out shapes of old-fashioned teapots, kettles, cuttlery and cups from the plate centres - and this new collection also trials 'feed me' and a 'dinner' plate!    

I'm having trouble finding suitable packaging for the plates though....  I need a box that is the size of a dinner plate, is strong and sturdy to take the weight of the plates, and is suitable to put in the post.  Plus, I only need a small quanity of boxes because the plates aren't mass-produced so I only make a few at a time. 

In true style I've managed to find a product where there are no box sizes for this shape, size or weight  - so I might have to make my own boxes from recycled fruit and veg packaging!  Not very professional I guess, but needs must!

These plates and others are all available from the Me Old China shop.