Explain your craft and what your label Shelbyville is all about.
The Shelbyville label encompasses a whole variety of handcrafted things: badges, books, zines, pendants, brooches, stickers, postcards, bookplates, envelopes and other stationery items, all single-handedly produced and packaged at home with an admittedly obsessive attention to detail and design. Mostly an eclectic mix of the old + the new, illustration + typography, digital design + handcraftedness, Shelbyville products unmistakably bear the mark of their creator whose ‘real’ day-job is being a graphic designer.
Where did you start out and how has your path changed?
In 2005 Shelbyville began life as a blog, a place where I shared my creative goings-on and the things that inspired me and my work. Over time the Shelbyville label organically developed into an ever-evolving range of products (see above) which then branched out to become first an online store (Etsy/Made It) and then a physical market stall, and now Shelbyville products are stocked in a handful of retail stores across Australia. What began as a spare-time creative pursuit has since taken on a much bigger life of its own, and become an integral part of my design business and source of opportunity.
What is your main inspiration for Shelbyville?
Primarily found vintage objects and materials, including game pieces, toys, ephemera, vintage/found papers, tins, pianola rolls, storybooks, old-fashioned packaging labels, and other such wonderful things. In other ways, I’m also inspired greatly by the burgeoning community of designer-makers and crafters in Australia and around the world who are all doing, creating, and sharing great things.
What has been your biggest challenges in establishing Shelbyville?
Finding enough time to develop Shelbyville to its full potential amid the daily demands of life and work – if only there were more hours in the day.
What materials do you enjoy using and exploring?
I’m incredibly enamoured with paper, especially vintage/found papers and ephemera, but I also love vintage objects of all sorts – anything that carries the character and personality of age and use. I particularly enjoy exploring contemporary uses for the vintage objects and materials I stumble across – turning old Scrabble tiles into brooches, pendants and keyrings; making leatherbound books from old sofa coverings; creating envelopes and postcards from old atlases and storybooks…
Where would you like to see the future of Shelbyville?
I hope to eventually evolve Shelbyville into a self-sustaining business, one that enables me to continue developing as a designer-maker and keeps me connected to the greater creative community.
I love the stickers and story book badges. I just found your blog, it’s really inspiring