FK Guest Contributor Jade Suine chats to Alischa of letterpress blog, Bespoke Press.

Tell us a little about your blog and why you started it?
Our blog is a little journey into our letterpress studio here in sunny Brisbane. Letterpress is quite a dangerous craftsmanship and as such we are unable to allow visitors into the studio whilst in production. Our blog allows us to invite readers into the studio for a little visit, (hopefully with a cup of tea and choccy biscuit).

What do you love most about blogging?
Sharing our stories and being able to have a voice and educate the masses on letterpress!

Does your blog generate a lot of interest in your process?
It definitely helps to educate. Most people are intrigued about letterpress but are not really sure how it all works or the blood, sweat and tears involved in designing and printing for this process. We are also holding all of this history of letterpress and the origins of print in our hands. We are its protector and its advocate; it is our vision to keep this craft alive by being able to educate others about it. It really is such an amazing way to ensure that the letterpress revival is a long and fabulous one!

Do your readers inspire your work?
We love to get their feedback so much. It almost seems like they are these fabulous invisible friends whose opinions and comments we value! It is such a joy to actually get to meet readers. We have been at the Finders Keepers market previously and have had conversations with blog readers who we have not met before. It is quite funny when they say, “how was your holiday”, “how is Miss Ruby Tuesday”, (our ever-faithful studio dog), and “gosh I love this story you just wrote”. It seems quite amazing that we can be complete strangers yet know so much about each other’s lives. It truly is a magical thing.

Do you have any tips or hints about successfully running your own blog that you would like to share?
We have chosen not to advertise on our blog, it would make our design ugly. We  value beauty over income! Also trying to keep our blog fresh can be a challenge but we try hard. We find that our readers love when we also steer off the topic of letterpress and talk a little about our other adventures. Sharing vintage finds, road trips, or trips to the beach with the dog all make for interesting stories!

Is there a pattern in your posting habits?
Usually we post most days. Some days we get quite busy in the studio so it can become tricky to find time each and every day, but we try hard! We have a blogging break on the weekend.

How do you manage to balance your creative work and keeping the blog up-to-date?
It can be tricky. Usually I am coding posts at midnight in preparation for the next day. Taking constant photos of our work allows us to have a nice little library of images to choose from. This certainly helps make blogging time quicker!

Can you share with us your 5 favourite blogs?
Only five, gosh I couldn’t choose! I have a great big list of blogs that I rotate through. I usually visit each blog every couple of days and check in on what is new. It would almost be a fulltime job to read them all each day!

www.bespokepress.blogspot.com

FK chats to Arcade Projects’ Cubicle; A collaboration between Mel from Roger + Peach, Frankie from
The Design Kids, Melissa from Henryetta, Matt from Matthew Roland, and Megan from The Ever Dazzling.

1. Tell us about your labels
Mel – Roger + Peach is a small handmade women’s wear and accessories label of the girly, cute and feminine variety that has been brought into existence slowly but surely by myself.
Frankie – The Design Kids provides a platform for Australian design graduates and working graphic designers to sell one off/ limited edition pieces. We produce cutting edge design products just for you! Tshirts, posters, giant calendars, badges, mo tape, birthday and Christmas cards, zines – you name it, we make it!
Melissa – Henryetta is a sustainable women’s wear clothing label, dedicated to using only natural and environmentally friendly fabrics, processes and ethical practices.
Matt – Matthew Roland is my little way to share my brain and my thoughts. I love the idea that one of my little drawings could brighten someone’s day even just for a minute or two.
Megan – The Ever Dazzling is a label with an appreciation for the pretty things in life with no age limits. Pieces that will make your nana smile just as much as they would your little sister.

2. What lead you to creating your own label?
Frankie – Being a huge lover of typography and seeing a potential in homewears, and finding small projects and designs that may never see the light of day and making them happen.
Melissa – Trying to contribute in anyway possible to lessen our impact on the environment, while creating something I love.
Matt – I’ve always been one of those people who makes ridiculously unachievable plans for projects that probably won’t ever happen. Matthew Roland really really helps me to put all my thoughts aside and just work on those plans and create.
Megan – What started as a blog name in 2009 quickly stemmed through to a label for the mix of pieces I created as means of university procrastination. A focus on fun animal brooches and paper goods with an emphasis on the usability.

3. Who or what inspires your work?
As a collective; Inspiration comes from warm evenings and ice-creams, afternoon tea and family holidays, light rain and huge umbrellas, cute houses and Japanese barcodes, my 1971 Olympus, handpainted signs, roadtrips, those fun moments that you wish you could keep a snippet of forever.

4. What do you propose to do for your upcoming Arcade Space & what can we expect to discover?
For the Arcade Space you can expect; that giant calendar you can scribble all over, plenty of pastels, homemade cushions, original illustrations, presents for that friend’s birthday you forgot all about, typographic posters for your home, sweet little notebooks, rose tees.. and more!

www.rogerandpeach.net
www.thedesignkids.com.au
www.matthewroland.com
www.theeverdazzling.com

Pictured from above  1. The Ever Dazzling 2. The Design Kids 3. Roger + Peach 4. Matthew Roland

FK talks to Sydney based Jen Allison about her amazing origami based artwork.

How would you describe the style of your work?
My style is dictated by my medium – paper, and my technique – origami. I don’t use origami in a traditional way, my work is usually simple in design with clean lines and bold colours. Sometimes the concept of the work is more important than the style… and it’s often these ones that end up with the most style!

What is your background and how did you get to where you are today?
I have been working with paper for 9 years or so. I used to do a lot of collage works, but then 4 years ago I was given a book about origami and my work evolved into the 3rd dimension. Origami has endless possibilities and I do think I’m just getting started with it really.

Where do you find inspiration for your pieces?
I find inspiration in day to day life, the big issues as well as the trivial things. Some of my works have a social bent. Going to new places always inspires me and seeing creative people creating awesome things all over the world.

Where did you like to go in Melbourne for inspiration?
Although I am based in Sydney now, I lived in Melbourne a while back and I love the arts scene there. The Rose St Artist’s Market is a great little design market filled with good people making very good things. In Melbourne there are a lot of shops and galleries that support artists at the grassroots level and it’s always good to see what’s being produced by the locals.

What do you love most about working with paper?
I like the clean lines of paper and I also like that it’s not as common or traditional as other mediums… although it’s getting quite popular which is uber exciting. I like the traditions and rules of origami - it suits me to work with a discipline. I love the 3D aspect and it’s also very convenient – one can fold on the bus if need be!

How has your creative style developed and what is your working process?
My works developed from drawing and painting a lot to making collages and now folding. I think my creative style is sort of innate, I don’t think it’s changed much since I was a kid! I have never been afraid of bright colours and my work has always been kind of androgynous. My working process is to suddenly, out of the blue, come up with an idea and then develop it. I can’t force ideas, I don’t work like that.

What has been your favourite project to work on?
I always enjoy the personalised commission pieces that I make. They’re usually a combination of a client’s ideas and my own and it’s nice to collaborate. I will usually use the client’s own photographs and often the works are gifts so it’s nice to know you’re working on something that will mean a lot to someone.

How was your debut collection at Finders Keepers Sydney?
FK Sydney was tip-top! It was good to get my Christmas shopping done actually…

www.jenallison.net

FK talks to Dan from Little Gonzales about his label and work, and what we can expect to see this weekend at Sydney.

Tell us about Little Gonzales.
My name is Dan Gray, Little Gonzales is my moniker I work under. I do illustration, screen-printing, painting, a little photography and some design. I’m also part of a creative collective called The Groop.

What is the story behind the name Little Gonzales?
It comes from a childhood nickname. When I was little, my dad used to called me Speedy Gonzales.

What is your background and what do you love most about what you do?
When it comes to my art, I am pretty self-taught – I was actually planning on being a doctor at uni! Fortunately I came to my senses and realised I needed to be doing something I loved, which was being creative. I love being able to indulge in my imagination constantly. Seeing it come to life in my illustrations and prints is rewarding. Seeing people react, smile or laugh to my art is even better. I also love the constant journey of being creative, it’s forever learning, exploring and trying new things.

What or who inspires your work?
I’m very inspired by my childhood and things which relate to my inner child – I love stories by Roald Dahl, the brothers Grimm, Hayao Miyazaki and his amazing movies like Spirited Away. Illustrators like Jon Burgerman and Geoff Mcfetridge. Those successful, creative people who seem to have a finger in every pie, it inspires me to drive onwards and upwards. Travelling is always a great eye-opener – I love Japan and Paris.

My brothers and sisters all have pretty wild imaginations too – I would like to partly blame them!

When you’re not working on Little Gonzales what are you most likely doing?
Listening to my latest musical find (I am a music obsessive), going out to see a band or watching 30 Rock. I don’t get much time but I like to read and watch as many movies as I can, it helps any creative block!

What projects are you working on and what can we expect to find at the upcoming Sydney Finders Keepers?
I’m doing some works for a few exhibitions coming up next year. I’ve also been asked to create some art and paint the reception for a very awesome Sydney radio station. I just finished an animation course recently, so I’m working on some videos and hopefully a short film in the future.

At Finders Keepers I’ll have a range of screen-printed cards, stationery, tshirts, bags and limited edition prints and artworks. Most will be available for the first time ever, so come say hi!

www.littlegonzales.com

FK talks to Sydney based label &company, and their collective of designers.

Tell us about your label &company.
&company is a design studio for emerging designers. We host events and exhibitions showcasing new works, and also produce a homewares range. We give our designers a brief to work to, provide mentoring, facilitate manufacturing and look after the distribution of products – leaving the designers to do what they do best: design. Our very first range, Food&company, will be hitting the shops soon, so make sure you keep an eye out for it!

What is your background and how did this concept come about?
I have a Bachelor of Design (Product and Textiles), and have been lecturing in tertiary design courses for the last 5 years. I watched a lot of my peers and students who were exceptionally talented designers graduate, only to be faced with a difficult and often invisible industry; jobs are hard to find and not every designer wants to be an entrepreneur and open their own studio straight away! Perhaps this is particularly so for object/product graduates. Sadly, I’ve seen many designers take on soulless corporate-web-design work to pay the bills. It just didn’t seem right. I’ve always enjoyed working on the big picture, project managing and curating events, drawing on the philosophy that many hands make for exceptionally interesting work. &company has allowed me to build a platform for local talent, and to showcase this talent to a broader audience.

You have a number of designers under your label – where do you find these smaller designers and what qualities do you look for?
The first designers we worked with were students, friends, and other talented folk whose work we had seen, loved and wanted to work with. With each new event we host, our designer mailing list grows longer and longer. &company is interested in designs that can be loved and used everyday – an intermingling of the practical and the poetic – useful, thoughtful, responsible, beautiful. We look for designers who are passionate about what they do, and willing to work hard to see their designs come to life. &company is also committed to supporting local industry and designing with a responsible ethos – that means our designers need to be open minded and a little ingenious when faced with the challenges and opportunities of local production. We try not to be too prescriptive because we want designers to bring their own style to the range. Which is why we co-label all our designs ‘Designers Name &company’.

What do you enjoy the most about working as a collective?
Well, technically &company isn’t a collective. We like to think of ourselves more as a satellite network of designers and artists. Working this way allows for many, many people to come on board, and for collaborations to form at different levels, on the designers’ terms. Some designers get involved in exhibitions and markets, while others focus on designing for the range, or come in as guest curatorial assistants and speakers. &company welcomes all kinds of talented people within and beyond design. We also collaborate with other organisations – we just wrapped up a special Sydney Design project with Gaffa gallery and The Company We Keep, called See-Saw.

What inspires you about working with others?
There are so many young designers doing great work – to bring them together and share their talent with the community is just so exciting! Whilst big chunks of my time are spent at my desk in the studio, it is always inspiring to head out to meet designers, manufacturers, galleries, retailers (and all the other people who bring &company to life) – it’s such a rush to meet people who are really passionate about what they do, and a real privilege to be let into their world and their process of thinking and creating. A mentor once described &company as a boat with a captain. While I love this analogy, the collaborative focus of &company has highlighted another truth: The boat doesn’t leave shore without a crew. The designers we present are a fundamental part of who we are, they inspire us to keep doing what we do.

What’s the next stages for &company?
We’re pretty good at keeping busy! At the moment we’re manufacturing our first range, and will be shipping it to select stores soon. This Friday (September 17th), we are taking part in Object’s PARK(ing) Day (check out the link and come along!), with a fantastic installation by Marion Gelbart, Sarah Spackman and Harriet Watts – if you can’t get to the CBD on friday, it will be moved to Gaffa gallery for the following fortnight. Early next year we are guest curating a special show at Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design. And, we’re about to start a series of New Designer Briefings, so if you know any talented designers who might like to get involved, please send them our way!

www.andcompany.com.au

FK chats to Melbourne’s card geniuses, Able and Game

Able and Game is quite well known given the short time frame you’ve been up and running. Can you tell us where the name comes from?
Coming up with a business name that you like is really hard. I think one of the reasons I decided to really push Able and Game was because I liked the name and didn’t want to let it go to waste! The two words come from Gareth and my initials with an E stuck on the end to form a word, Anna is the Able and Gareth is the Game.
What are your backgrounds and how did you get started?
I have a background in fine art and did my Bachelor degree in painting and drawing at the University of Ballarat. Gareth has a degree in computer science from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. After university I worked as a secondary teacher and had an accessory label called Anna Laura and Gareth has previously worked as a business analyst, application developer and software engineer and currently works freelance as a web application developer.

We love your quirky cards! Where does the inspiration come from?
So many different places and each card has its own a unique story. We also get some help from friends and family. My sister is good at coming up with ideas, particularly for our train station cards. Our ‘I would give up my superfast internet card – for the weekend’ came about after our DSL modem broke a few years back and we had to go back to dial up for a week while waiting for a replacement modem. I think we both came out in hives and remember it as the worst week ever.

What was the hardest part about starting your label?
Working from home on your own is hard, it can be isolating and you often end up wasting time online because you want some human interaction. Suddenly you’re wasting half an hour on facebook looking at the wedding album of someone you don’t even know. Sure you can put it under “research for wedding cards” but with no one to tell you off you can suddenly justify a whole bunch of stuff that really is a waste of time.

Tell us your top 3 things to do in Melbourne to get inspired.
Walking around the city at night when it is quiet, but not too late. Sunday nights are good because there are not too many people around. The other night I walked from Carlton down to Flinders Street and although it was a bit chilly it was a nice way to relax and take in the buildings and public art. On the weekend we do markets on both Saturday and Sunday. We have a regular stall at Rose Street Market and have some of good friends who also have stalls. It is great fun to catch up after five days of working alone by talking shop and looking at new products people have made. We often head to a pub afterwards for dinner and drinks and by Monday you feel pretty recharged to start the week ahead. Melbourne also has loads of things on during the week, which is good for people like us who work on the weekend. Gogo dancing and gallery openings, anything you can do with a drink and a friend is always going to make a good night!

What’s the next stage for Able and Game?
We are always thinking of new cards, trying to come up with that perfect card that make someone tell his friend his cheeks are hurting from laughing so much. We also have some new stationery items as well as a few giftware items. I keep dreaming of the day we can hire someone else and I can have a co-worker. I have a feeling whoever it will be will need to be able to listen to my inane gibbering about card ideas, cats and television shows.

www.ableandgame.com

FK talks to Keir and Asha of Melbourne label, Angus & Celeste who will be debuting at our upcoming Sydney markets!

Tell us about your jewellery and homewares label Angus & Celeste and what we can expect to find.
Our jewellery and homewares label was born and out our need to create works that were not too big, while we were living in a very small terrace house in the inner city of Melbourne. What was originally a small range of jewellery soon expanded to a range of home wares that now makes up a bulk of what we do. We needed more space so we bought a house and moved to the hills.

We really like to use lots of bright colour and love the way this works against the ultra white porcelain clay body. We try and give all our pieces a real sense of fun. We will be launching a new range of large vases at the Finders Keepers in May that will incorporate a series of  our new illustrations.

How was Angus & Celeste started and how has the journey been in developing your label.
Angus and Celeste began as a way for us to work together and utilise our different and varied skills. Our label is very much a collaboration. This was challenged after the birth of our son four years ago, as fitting parenting into the running of a label meant for some very busy and chaotic times. It has been a slow yet steady development, we never give up and make every spare moment count. Becoming parents quite unexpectedly really changed our work ethic. No more aimless mucking around and just pure hard work. We just love making new products and feel very energised and excited when new things are ready to show people. As soon as we finish one thing we are beginning the next. We have a very faithful client base who like to visit us to see what we are up to.

Explain your mantra ‘filling the void between traditional and modern’.
We try to create in a vacuum and not follow trends and fashions. We combine modern ceramic techniques with traditional production methods to create something that walks a line between handmade and highly refined. We are both incredibly inspired by things from the past, yet we are also inspired by modern design and shapes. There is a wealth of imagery in the archives of engravings and pattern that has been looking for reinvention, we try and give these images a new lease of life by changing their context and combine them with our own original illustrations and photographic imagery.

How does your partnership work and what have you learnt working with each other?
More often than not, we each have favourite products and they are usually different! If Keir thinks a pattern should be blue then Asha will say it should be red! This can sometimes be challenging, however we have learnt to take each others opinions and criticisms on board and it usually makes for a better final product. There is a little bit of both of is in everything we do, which makes us more dynamic and usually means that our range appeals to lots of people.

Where do you go in Melbourne to get creative?
We work from our studio at home and any opportunity to get out of the house is greatly welcomed! Work usually overtakes every bit of space and any surface that is free. We both go to libraries and bookshops a lot and books are usually a great source of inspiration. We live on the edge of a big forest now where we go for lots of walks and usually come home with leaves rocks and things we found along the way. The forest is fun!

What can we look forward to seeing in the future from Angus & Celeste?
We are really going to develop the homewares side of our label as we both really enjoy this aspect of our work. Larger scale pieces are definetly on the cards as well as a constant re invention of everything we currently do. We are both have a tendency for getting bored easily so we are always working on new products. This year will see a release of some things for gardens and this is very exciting for us.

www.angusandceleste.com.au

FK chats to Shannon from her Melbourne label, Aunty Cookie

Tell us about your label, Aunty Cookie and what we can expect to discover.
AuntyCookie is a crafty little label I created about 6 years ago. What started with illustrations quickly grew to screen printed fabrics, limited edition cute stuff, cushions, patterns, kits and craft panels. My products are available online aswell as through retailers australia wide and overseas. My aim is to creates fresh and graphic wares with a sense of humour, all handmade and totally not precious!

What is your background and how did you get started?
I have had a few jobs which have most certainly influenced the way I work – although at the time I hated most of them!! I have a Bachelor of Fine Art where I majored in drawing from Victorian College of the Arts. Straight after uni I started working in the advertising & marketing department for a big fat fabric company creating their junkmail. From there I worked for a Nursery Company creating kids bedding, it was there that I started creating patterns and really learning how to design commercially. I left there to have my oldest daughter and began freelancing, doing pattern creation, corporate design, food packaging and book illustration.
As cliche as it sounds I needed a creative outlet and blogging filled that space. My freelance work has always been so  client directed that making things for myself or my kids has been a nice break from that. I also hadnt drawn in the eight or so years since leaving uni – so starting a blog was forcing me to draw again. So I started the auntycookie blog and things kind of grew from there.

We love your typographic style! Who or what inspires your work?
My design influences come from everywhere – I am inspired by so much stuff I see! Blogs, Blogs and more blogs, walking about my neighborhood, flicking through kids books at the library, getting lost in peoples photographs on flickr.com, loitering in the newsagent. I am endlessly inspired by my real life by crafty mates, by handmade wares, by music & TV, by stupid conversations – anything! I lean towards the graphic and typography so I’m attracted to signage and text based artwork. Im not a ‘take a walk in nature and collect leaves’ type of gal! I flick through a lot of craft & design blogs daily so I have instant access to new trends, colours and products from around the world instantly. Its so easy to get lost amongst it all. I would say that a small part of each of my fabrics designs and products are influenced by web trawling.

Whats the Aunty Cookie label best known for and where have you grown from there?
It would be best known for the Ampersand Cushion I guess – thats my most popular item. I have a hard time keeping it in stock and its been around for over a year now.
The label itself and my approach to it as a business has definitly grown and matured over the past few years. I am focusing now more on homewares where as at the start is was more kiddy cute kinda playful stuff.

Growth wise – I am pretty damn happy to be moving away from working for others and am able to concentrate on my own brand. I am lazy in terms of business plans or having much direction! My vague yearly plan is a new fabric design per year – maybe 2-3 new homewares products and then little bits and bobs in-between.  Theme wise I am moving more towards my whole range working well together. So items all have elements of text, the colours match and fit together.

What do you love the most about Melbourne?
The weather. The food. The fact I can walk everywhere. The laneways. That all my family & mates are here!

What are your plans for Aunty Cookie in 2011?
Well I’ve just had my third little girl – Harriet. So my plan for next year is to hang with her, create some new designs – hopefully get some work done on the side and pretty much just keep chugging along. Maybe picking up some new retailers along the way maybe doing a few markets!

www.auntycookie.com

FK talks to Alischa from Bespoke about the wonderful world of letterpress and the launch of their latest Illustrators Project which launches today!

Tell us about your letter press business Bespoke Letterpress Boutique?
We are based in Brisbane designing and hand printing couture letterpress invitations, stationery and beautiful paperie. Our range includes wedding invitations, notecards and limited edition prints.

We print on two antique letterpress based from the ground floor of our seaside Queenslander home. Our presses are called Charlie & Herbie. Charlie is the back-bone of our studio – he was built in Cleveland, Ohio back in 1893 and he is a sometimes quite a grumpy old man. But being 116 years old, we don’t really blame him. Herbie is our most recent addition and he is just a baby having been built in 1973 and was one of the last ever letterpress printing presses built. Both presses have been salvaged, restored and bought back to life once again.

To print, we foot pump Charlie via a foot treadle. Its hard work, using your weight to force nearly 1 tonne of metal into action! The press then rotates to open and close. As it opens you hand feed a  single piece of paper into the press, the press then closes, you pull a leaver and it makes the impression. As it opens again you quickly remove the gorgeously printed sheet of paper and insert a new sheet – it takes a great deal of concentration and coordination to ensure your fingers dont get left behind, all the while your still pumping away with your foot and pulling levers. We repeat this process for each colour which is printed to produce the final piece. Its hard laborious and slow work, but the results are so spectacular – its worth every moment of the blood, sweat and very sore muscles!!

We are also very particular about the papers we print on. We only print on 100% cotton papers which are tree free, chlorine free and have been made from reclaimed fibers from the cotton industry. We dont believe that beautiful things need to be made at the expense of the environment, and an added bonus they are such the most divine papers, its like a mix of silk, linen and fluffy clouds all combined into one!

What is your background and how did you get started?
I have been a graphic designer for just on 10 years and way back in the early days, I studied Graphic Design through Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts in Sydney, and the National School of Design at Swinburne University in Melbourne. After a long career working as a commercial designer in the international blockbuster film industry, a yearning for a quieter and more beautiful life saw a sea change as we moved to a rumbling old timber queenslander by the sea just north of Brisbane.

With a chance to follow my heart, a dream to create beautiful things and a desire to reinvent a dying craftsmanship saw the beginning little steps to set up my own business and launch Bespoke Letterpress Boutique. And I have never looked back, I love the chance to step back in time, get my hands inky, and create the most gorgeous beautiful vintage inspired designs.

What do you love about running your own business?
Working from home – after what feels a lifetime always having to travel great distances to study and work, it is bliss to just have to walk down a set of stairs and be in the studio. On the downside though, I never leave work and work very late nights 7 days a week! Working from home also means we can spend our days with Ruby our dog in the studio. She has a huge fan party – our business would not be the same without her!

One of the greatest things we have done in our business is to share our journeys and daily adventures in letterpress land on our blog http://bespokepress.blogspot.com – it has been such a great way not only to show the inside workings of a letterpress studio, but also to gain followers and make many designer friends both locally and afar.

What are some of the challenges and things you don’t like?
Dealing with antique machinery is very hard work. They are incredibly difficult and can make life very frustrating. Every day the presses can behave just slightly differently which can effect printing a great deal. You have to be incredibly patient and very much a perfectionist to make a good letterpress artist.

Printing letterpress is also very hard tiring work. Charlie our main press in the studio, is fully hand and foot powered, it takes alot of strength, and results in very sore muscles. Physically its a very demanding career, and certainally not one for the faint hearted. But it really is worth it, Letterpress is truly spectacular and worth every moment of the pain and frustration!

We hand mix each of our own inks – its a process of mixing tiny little percentages of colours and blending to make the colours evolve. You never quite know if the colour is going to be perfect until its fully mixed and its that moment of “oh, oh, oh, ahh, it worked.”

Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Everywhere!! Inspiration can surprise you from the littlest unexpected places. I also huge amount of blogs which I visit daily – they cover everything from interiors, design, floristry and weddings. I am very much visual person and inspired by photographs found from online and in my huge collection of magazines.

We tend not to look much at what other letterpress studios are doing, as we would much more prefer to set our own style rather then follow trends.

What do you love about Brisbane and what are your favourite places to go?
I love the sunny weather and sunny people. I love that you can drive into the city without the big city traffic you find in other cities. I love that if you know where to look you can find $1 parking on the side streets in the city. I love that there is a wonderful creative network of designers, bloggers and artists who are all so supportive of each other – Its a beautiful place to live.

We do love to spend an afternoon at Paddington – exploring the amazing Paddington antique centre, stopping next door and visiting our favourite Jeweller – Artisans Gems & Jewels and then heading down the street for cocktails and the most amazing tapas at Lark in Paddington.

One of our other favourite things to do is to actually get out of Brisbane and explore the surrounding villages – up north to Malany, out west to Daybro and down south to Mount Tamborine and everywhere in between. These little towns always have such a creative feel, gorgeously cute cafes and a magnitude of antique shops to explore. I love the small village atmosphere, and you never know, maybe Bespoke will find itself having a cute little storefront in one of these towns one day!

What is the Bespoke Letterpress Illustrators Project?
We know all too well how hard it can be to get your foot in the door as a young designer, so we have launched the Bespoke Letterpress Illustrators Project. We opened the table for illustrators across the world to submit their work.  The only rules were they must be emerging illustrators and they must produce a three colour illustration, and my oh my, we were overwelmed by hundreds of entries! This was a chance for young illustrators to get their first big break, to be commissioned, and to have their work crafted on a vintage letterpress – a dream usually way beyond reach for most designers.

We narrowed down the selection to 10 gorgeous illustrations which were lovingly hand printed on archival 110% cotton rag stocks as a limited edition run of 150. We printed these on Charlie our foot treadled and hand fed 1893 letterpress. The prints have just launched and are available via our online store http://bespokepress.bigcartel.com

http://www.bespokepress.com.au/

FK talks to Melbourne based Liz Jones about her eco-friendly jewellery range, Betty Jo Designs.

Introduce us to your label, Betty Jo Designs.
Betty Jo Designs is a unique and colourful range of jewellery and clocks. All the pieces are hand made by me (Liz Jones) in my Brunswick studio and are crafted from predominately recycled materials. I source vintage linoleum, unwanted scraps of laminex, pre-loved buttons and buckles and embroidered linen and doilies and transform these unwanted pieces of domestic bric-a-brac into intricately layered brooches, pendants and decorative clocks… all with the memories lovingly attached. No two pieces ever turn out the same, so when you own a Betty Jo designs piece, you know you won’t see one like yours anywhere else.

Whats your background and how did you end up with your own business?
My background is in teaching and retail but in each of these there was a strong element of creativity and a jewellery design focus. I had been making and selling jewellery since Uni in a part time capacity, but decided in 2006 to focus entirely on Betty Jo Designs. This was a great leap. It involved a lot of traipsing around Melbourne with my goodies showing them to shops and galleries, building up an online presence and evolving my products to suit customer tastes and the market trends. I was fortunate to come across many very supportive retailers who were willing to sell my early work such as Pussycat Black and Scally & Trombone. Having my products for sale on Georgie Love was (and still is) a great way to market and sell my work, and in 2007 I joined a fledgling agency that helped me promote my products interstate and overseas.

Where do you go to find your materials?
I source my materials from all over Melbourne. I salvage old Linoleum from house renovations which often means grabbing it from a skip, hard rubbish collections and inside old kitchen cupboards. I only use the safe stuff with no nasties added! I have built up an amazing network of lino spotters around town and further afield. Rarely a month goes by that I am not notified about some old linoleum sitting forlorn on a nature strip, or sent pieces in packages from interstate.

The rest of my materials are gleaned from many other sources. Markets, fetes, op-shops, junk shops and sometimes on etsy. I spend a lot of time out and about sourcing pre-loved stuff to use in my work, but hey, there could be worse things to be doing. I buy findings and other jewellery bits and pieces from a local supplier, and regularly visit hardware stores for wood and adhesive. There are times I wish I could just pop down to the local craft shop to get my materials, but I guess that would take the fun out of discovering some fantastic vintage lino and saving it from heading to land fill.

What advice would you give others following a similar career path?
I would advise anyone wanting to start their own jewellery business to firstly have a product that has a point of difference in this somewhat crafty saturated fashion environment. If you are able to capture the customers imagination with a unique spin on a fairly common fashion accessory, you then have more of a chance of getting it into the market. Also test your products on places like Etsy, Big Cartel and at a few of the numerous craft markets around at the moment. Don’t give up the day job until you are sure you can generate enough income from your business to make it viable.  If you don’t have any experience, enrol in a short  Business course that will give you skills in the less creative side of running a business. Book work and accounting are not my cup of tea, but it helps to know some basics when you are a sole trader and Tax time rolls around!

How does your surroundings in Melbourne influence your work?
Melbourne, and particularly the inner north has such a creative vibe. It’s not hard to get inspired when you are surrounded by such talented and innovative craftspeople. That said, some of the city and surrounds can be quite drab and industrial, so I am focused on creating colourful work that will brighten up my space, and hopefully the spaces of others. And in a city of black wearing hipsters, a splash of colour on a lapel does wonders! The trend for craft seems to be amplified in Melbourne, and this works well for businesses like mine who have a handmade aesthetic. And the recycling/repurposing mentality of our generation allowed me to jump on the eco-friendly bandwagon. This is demonstrated fantastically by enterprises like the Eco-Innovators showcase in the CBD.

In the inner suburbs of Melbourne, home renovations are prolific, so I am able to rescue a lot of vintage lino and save it from ending up at the tip. And I suppose I can’t mention Melbourne with out mentioning the op-shops, cool second hand emporiums and the awesome Camberwell market. All these places contribute to the little enterprise that is Betty Jo Designs (but maybe not the profit side of things!)

What are your plans for the future for Betty Jo Designs?
In the future I hope to continue doing what I’m doing. That is, working for myself and making everything totally by hand. I am planning on expanding the range for next year, and I would love to get a making buddy, but that may be a little way off yet. I hope to secure some overseas stockists (I have some in NZ) and maybe travel. I also plan on getting a little more tech savvy and continue improving my photography skills. The future  will definitely involve taking my business to the next level, which for  Betty Jo Designs, could mean more sophisticated promotion and marketing, expansion into new retail outlets and diversifying my products while maintaining my signature style. I’m sure new opportunities will pop up – they always seem to.

www.etsy.com/shop/bettyjodesigns