It’s Crafty Business time again and this month we’re getting snap happy. Photography is a stumbling block for many small crafty businesses and good photos are essential for online selling, so although we’ve done this topic before, it’s one well worth revisiting.
We’re going to set up a makeshift home studio using simple, inexpensive equipment, and we’ll look at how to compose a photograph and get the best out of your camera. Professional photography is a bit beyond the reach of most of us when we’re starting out, but we’ll learn a few tips and tricks that can help you brush up on your product photography until you can afford to hire a pro!
We’ll need some products to test out our wee photography studio, so bring along some of your work to model – whether it’s tiny and sparkly or bulky and textured, we’re up for a challenge!
Have a think about what type of product you’ve had trouble photographing. What aspect of photography do you find most difficult? Post questions or comments on the Crafty Business blog or on the Facebook wall and we’ll do our best to cover them on Monday (and follow up with notes here, for those who can’t make it along).
So, come along to Board of Design at 16 Bedford Row, Christchurch, at 7pm on Monday 2 August and join us for crafty company, business support and a glass of wine. And feel free to bring your knitting…
Wellington-based illustrator, toy maker and artist Minu is exhibiting her latest body of work, Fragile Shadows, at the New Zealand Art Show 2010 this weekend at the TSB Bank Arena on Queens Wharf, Jervois Quay in Wellington.
Minu’s archetypal characters and scenes depict strange and magical stories, triggering shared memories, handing the story back to the viewer for him or her to complete the tale. She is passionate about the concept of non-definitive storytelling.
The show is open daily from 10am till 5pm from Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August, and admission is $10 (children under 14 are free).
The third issue of the lovely Extra Curricular comes out on 5 August, and editor Ellie has set up pre-orders on Felt so your copy can take the first trip to the post office next week!
Extra Curricular is a publication dedicated to showcasing people who do interesting creative projects in their spare time as well as encouraging those who wish they did.
Whether they have a 9–5 job, a fledgling business or a young family, the people profiled in Extra Curricular are connected by their passion for keeping the right side of the brain active in their off-hours. They do it for the love of it – driven by a creative urge, they stay up late and work weekends in order to complete their latest side project.
This issue includes a photography ‘featurette’, an article about roller derby, a piece on why craft is good for you, interviews with Amy from Victoria n’ Bird, Olivia from Lily’s Make Believe, Louise from Bibliographica and plenty more goodness!
Extra Curricular is printed in full colour with vegetable based inks on beautiful recycled stock. If you’ve got the first two issues, you won’t want to miss issue #3…and if you haven’t, it’s time you discovered it – pre-order yours now!
Jumping Off is an exhibition of jewellery pieces made by Jo Crompton of Wishing Tree and Karen Atherton. Both artists work in sterling silver and copper, setting semi-precious stones, and exploring texture and different surface treatments and joining methods.
Jumping Off is Jo and Karen’s first exhibition of their work as individuals and is open from 10am till 5pm daily at the Cloisters Gallery in the Arts Centre of Christchurch from 27 July until 2 August – head along and check it out!
Voting is open for the People’s Choice NetGuide Web Awards, and we want to get Felt in the running for Best Trading Site – that’s the best New Zealand-based site for buying, selling or trading goods. We’re taking on the big guys in this category, so Felt really needs your vote! Head over to the voting page and vote Felt.co.nz for Best Trading Site!
Based in Dunedin, Helen Riley-Duddin of hjrd Design is a mum, wife, designer, maker and lecturer, teaching in Communication Design and Interior Design. Nine months ago she launched her range of magnetic wallscapes and now spends much of her studio time developing new designs and working on commission pieces while caring for her daughter Jemima.
What do you make?
I make a variety of things, but my Felt shop is currently focused on what I call Magnetic Wallscapes – something somwhere halfway between art and play, in that they’re dynamic decor – not traditional art, nor are they toys…
How did you get into your craft?
I think it’s been a life-long exploration of what I can do with my hands, mind, and the simple materials I find. From a young age I made and sold jewellery, cards, clocks, calendars; along the way hoarding treasures like copper telephone wires and paper scraps in preparation for some future idea.
Professionally my background is in communication design, where I usually design two-dimensionally, typically for print. I think my ‘wallscape’ craft emerged from my background in this and my hands-on-can-do explorations. It was the transition from working full-time to becoming a new parent that sparked the idea for designing dynamic wall decor; sharing our space with the delightful chaos of a growing child where losing floor space to play things was inevitable! I wanted to design something to reclaim an adult aesthetic in living areas with a playful approach.
Clockwise from left: Helen and Jemima in the studio; coastal cabbage tree, 2005; Helen’s stash!
Do you have formal training or qualifications in your craft? I still don’t really think of my work as a ‘craft’ in itself, I guess it’s some new handmade combination of graphic design, interior design, sewing and paper craft. I studied in Design and Marketing and have Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce degrees which most definitely informs the work I do now.
Your favourite materials, tools and processes? My wallscapes only use vintage wallpapers and fabric offcuts; I love the hunt in sourcing my treasured materials. The concept behind using these materials was to make a statement about context; by salvaging them and using them in an unintended way they’re liberated from their original associations or garments to better appreciate their colours and textures. This is also particularly ironic for the vintage wallpapers which were intended for walls, but in their wholeness are almost unbearable in a contemporary setting until their context is redefined in wallscape form! In this way they offer a nostalgic celebration of former homeware aesthetics. I adore the tactility of these mixed materials and often find myself studying closely their patterns, prints and textures.
As for favourite tools it has to be my hands and eyes! And my iMac of course. I find myself trying various approaches but revert to the most basic tools and what I can achieve with my own hands. I guess I often think of that saying ‘a good workman never blames his tools’ … I love the control I can achieve without using complex tools or machines which with my impatience often disappoints!
What inspires you? This is always difficult to define, but I know it’s a combination of certain influences; Nostalgia for the simple joys, sense of wonder and youthful imagination that is childhood – watching my daughter grow and learn evokes this. I grew up on an organic market garden in coastal Kakanui which instilled me with an appreciation for the truly natural, looking to nature’s forms, colours and textures for inspiration and a ‘making-something-out-of-nothing’ methodology. The prints, patterns and textures found in my salvaged materials are often a great inspiration.
Describe your workspace:
My workspace is at home, but separate to the house. It’s essentially a ramshackle sleep-out tacked on the end of our garage, but it’s set amongst the garden in our backyard and after tossing the curtains, ripping up the carpet, painting the walls white (with some magnetic areas of course!) it’s transformed to a space I love to work. I have three main work areas; office, production (at my favourite red formica table), and jewellery workbench. Amongst the creative chaos are several places for Jemima to perch and potter while I work. I quickly learned how important it was to have a place separate from our living space to work in. When I’m home most of the time working and looking after Jemima it’s really good to be able to ‘go to work’ and ‘come home again’ keeping home and work separate. I love my studio.
Five words that describe your mind: Intrigued, chaotic, analytical (yes, that’s right next to chaotic!) optimistic, empathetic, intuitive. And clearly indecisive – that makes seven.
What are you currently listening to?
Right now, it’s the blissful peace of Jemima sleeping. But most often beaming through the studio are The Woolshed Sessions, Delgirl, Wellington Ukulele Orchestra and LCD Soundsystem.
Recommend an album: It has to be the Woolshed Sessions – most definitely most played!
Is there a philosophy behind your work? Absolutely, it’s about context and narratives. The materials I use have their own histories or stories which are sort of edited in their transformation to becoming my wallscapes. These are designed to be rearranged as a form of story-telling for adults; we change them around to suit our mood, to work with the decor, to set a scene in our daily lives. This process of interacting with them evokes that sense of play, imagination and engagement we experienced when we were younger – it’s like telling stories with the materials of our childhoods; the clothes we used to wear within the walls of our homes that were furnished with wallpapers of the era.
I like the thought of my work empowering others creatively; install the wallscapes your way, colour the illustrations as you see them in your imagination…
Your favourite childhood book?
A book called The Best Nest was right up there with the Dr Seuss classics. Also I have to mention The Giant Jam Sandwich as I won that in a colouring competition!
What are you reading now? Prizes – selected short stories by Janet Frame. And selected textbooks on design research [with my teacher's hat on].
Your hero/heroine: My Mum would have to be my crafting heroine; supremely talented in all manner of made things; from home baking, gardening to spinning, knitting, weaving, sewing… self-taught but an amazing teacher.
A favourite quote:
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)
Do you have any pets?
We do, Ted the big fat cat. His name has proved troublesome with Jemima learning to talk though: books say ‘Teddy’ and ‘Cat’, but Teddy IS the cat!
If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? The red one without a doubt!
I’ve always loved making my own bags, and I’m one of those women who think one can’t have too many bags. Some of my handmade bags have been rather hasty projects for (almost) instant satisfaction, some took some more time to make and turned out to become much-used favourites. I make them mostly from natural fibres, so they’re washable. There’s nothing worse than having to give up your beloved bag because it is taking on a grimy tinge. That aside, by making your own bag you can show off your individuality and creativity without having to slave for weeks on end.
Knitted bags can be as stylish, funky or elegant as you like – it all depends on what yarns and embellishments you have in mind and how technical you want the knitting to be. 25 Bags to Knit has bags for all levels – beginners to advanced knitters. I don’t like all of the designs, but it’s good that the book caters for a range of tastes. None of the bags are too elaborate, but are made to look more complicated than they are with a colourful array of yarns, patterns and embellishments. One that I really like is the simple orange clutch from the paperback cover with its simple moss stitch pattern and cute embroidered daisies. I want to knit it without handles, line it with cotton and put a zip in to make a small pencil case.
Techniques used in the book include a lot of simple knit/purl patterns, some intarsia and Fair Isle and even knitting with beads and sequins and some simple embroidery. The bags range from plain shoulder bags to funky bags with a beachy feel, from children’s backpacks to evening glamour. Most are variations of a simple flat pouch with handles, and almost all of the bags would make great stash busters or show off small amounts of your handspun.
Measurements, be it gauge, yarn weights or needles, are imperial as well as decimal. There is also a handy conversion chart at the back of the book. Abbreviations can be found in a table, but also, and I love this fact, beside each of the instructions, so knitters have all abbreviations for a project right where they need them.
I would have liked some innovative solutions for bag closures. Sometimes it’s okay to use a bag that can’t be closed at all, but I usually like to be able to snap the opening together or just zip it. But that’s a small niggle, and I’m sure experienced crafters will find a way. Overall, I think 25 Bags to Knit is a beautiful book that has a variety of projects for knitters of all skill levels.
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Reviewed by Sabine Schneider. Sabine started writing when she was about seven and only minutes later started to cook and crochet. Since then she’s been writing, cooking and crafting steadily, producing (more or less) attractive results. Born in Germany, Sabine has trained as a cook, kindergarten teacher and graphic artist and worked in Germany, England and France. For the last decade she’s been here in New Zealand, working as a graphic artist, writer, baker and cook. She creates gorgeous hand painted yarns (sold on Felt), as well as bags, beanies and eclectic wrist cuffs.
Crafternoon Tea is on again this Saturday 17 July, with a sweet spread of handmade goodies by Patrooshka, Amy’s Buttons, Sew Funky, Kute Kiwi, Julz-fg, A Little Vintage and many more. Head along for your monthly crafty shopping fix from 10am till 3pm at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall on the corner of Sandringham and New North Roads in crafty Kingsland, Auckland.
The most exciting handmade shopping event on the Christchurch calendar is here!
From 11am till 3pm this Sunday 11 July at Our City O-Tautahi, A Craft Affair will feature the crème de la crème of the Christchurch craft scene – all in one place for one day only. Formerly known as Craft2.0 Christchurch, this year A Craft Affair has more than 40 stalls filled with homewares, jewellery, toys, art, accessories, clothing, paper goods and all manner of handmade loveliness.
As if all this crafty goodness isn’t enough to get you counting the hours till Sunday morning, consider the cupcakes!
Not only can you treat yourself to beautiful sweet indulgences from The Cupcake Parlour and the divine She Chocolat, but with every purchase you make at A Craft Affair, you stand a chance of winning sweet spot prizes from The Cupcake Parlour or the latest issue of the very lovely Peppermint magazine.
And of course, don’t forget to stop by the Felt display and say hi! Meet up with friends or bring your family along for a fabulous day out at Our City O-Tautahi on the corner of Worcester Boulevard and Oxford Terrace in central Christchurch – just a block from the Square. See you there!
