nothing.. then everything...

Our Etsy shop is finally back up. I have been slack, but I guess its hard to be motivated sometimes. Here are a few examples of our original exhibition works that are in the shop.

Fabric panel with Gocco print of hillshoist, digital print of succulent, on gingham.

Fabric Panel with Gocco prints of teacup and saucer on off-white rayon

Fabric Panel with digital print of succulents, with gingham buttons on seersucker

Fabric Panel with Gocco print of clothesline, fabric cutouts of fox and chickens

Fabric Panel with Gocco weed print, birds and tree cutouts on babyheads

With life being a bit crazy, we haven't got to any markets yet, although most of the good ones in our part of the state shut down for winter. We're now hoping it'll give us time to get organised. Some of the elements from the above works will feature heavily in our newer stuff. The hillhoist image is our fave, along with the weeds. We are still deciding on other main images. We will then be screen printing onto new fabrics, recycled fabrics with and without patterns, as like above - then producing items with it. Perhaps even selling fabric squares. We're thinking cushion covers, aprons, bags - although something a bit different, tea towels, camera cases etc..

One of our bigger projects for the markets is our yo-yo pieces. Carly spotted this in Inside Out magazine and made me one for my 30th birthday.





It hangs in my window, proudly, - not to mention looking gorgeous (photos to come) and we were inspired. We considered the idea that people would also like these pieces and started our mission. We knew we had to start a stock pile and have been sewing hundreds of the little things. Thanks to the 'Clover' Yo-Yo maker its a lot easier.



(for an excellent demonstration visit Bloomin' Workshop). We have been using a combination of recycled fabric and new fabric - sticking mainly to cottons, cotton blends. We also found inspiration in a book that Carly acquired..







We are planning to market not only as a wall hanging but as a table runner, with custom orders welcome. We are not using buttons as seem above.

Carly screen printed some fabric using the weed image and then made it into yo-yo's. It looks great and we were excited at the idea of truly custom yo-yo's. We hope to include a few of these within the finished pieces to give it a unique look.



So thats what we've been up to and , again, stayed tuned...

...inspiration

by Leia
Carly and myself took ourselves off to Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne recently. We had a great time. There was a lot of your more tradition crafts, but our favourite was 'The Incubator' which featured "the freshest indie craters...the best Australian contemporary craft and design.." - basically all the stuff we love from the bloggers we read and Etsy sites. One of the highlights for us was visiting the Ink & Spindle stall,



where we both purchased some little scrap/sample bundles of their fabrics. They were such a friendly, down to earth bunch. We also went to a talk by one of the girls, Bianca, on Home-based craft businesses, which as excellent. I have posted a project, below, featuring some of the fabric purchased, but will post some more stuff as things get made...

Any who.. here are some (mobile phone) photos from the day, there were these little displays dotted around the place... enjoy...



The weird and wonderful green bits and pieces are crocheted..






Paper Babushka dolls...











yes its knitted...














One little, but fairly labour intensive project I did recently was a Moopy Bunny softie, from the 'More Softies' book. Carly needed one, and I hate following patterns, so this was a real labour of love. Softies look easy. But I am quite happy with the finished result and I would do another, now I know the tricks involved. I used some new fabric, some old, some recycled and the body is fabric purchased from Lara (from Ink & Spindle, mentioned above).









And we do realise we should be posting about our actual products, which will be happening very soon.

new look for new direction...

Presenting the new look and new concept - following our Etsy shop, we are now using our names. Luckily the blog address has always been carlyandleia. We thought a customised background was in order too - but not without struggle - I am now beginning to understand html code (aahhhhhhhhhhhhh).

Anyway - the next venture for our little team is markets. Due to the economic crisis - mainly the US and its dollar - Etsy seems to have slowed down(being based in the US) and we have decided that we need something more local. We considering markets between Ballarat and Bendigo - such as Maldon, Castlemiane, Daylesford etc etc. We have a plan which is slowly moving ahead.

*Stayed tune for some more info on market dates, examples of products etc.

presenting...

our new on-line store.....

carlyandleia.etsy.com




As mentioned, Carly and I have long been followers, and thought it would be ideal to try and sell some of the works. We also plan, depending on the success, to continue making our fabric panels, but try to expand and make new products. At the moment we have 9 items listed and will continue to add more each week.

online store comming soon

With the extremely hot weather its been hard to be bothered sitting in my hot computer room, and with all the big programs on our computer the tiny little fan just doesn't cope in the heat. But I will be picking a cool night, grabbing the fan and scanning for hours so that our Etsy shop can become a reality. There is even a shop in Bendigo interested in selling our badges which Carly has sourced for us. So now the New Year is here, we'll have to get working!!!
Cheers
Leia

its all over...red rover...

Common Thread
proudly presents,

works by Carly Preston and Leia Martin.

Through a collaborative process 87 fabric pieces were produced.
Part hand-stitched/part machine stitched, using new and recycled materials.
Utilising many different methods including Screening Printing, Stenciling, Photographic Prints, Photo Transfers, Etches, Mono Prints, Lazytran, Laminating, Stamping and Laser Print Fabric.

As you can see the works were hang, rather than stitiched together, to form a patchwork effect. We decided that, mainly due to dismantling reasons, this would be just as effective. Some of the works would have lost some effects around the borders if stitched together too.



REWIND... to just days before - working away in the space...


We referred to ourselves as the 'girls in the bubble' (...band in bubble, regurgitator... no?..anyway...) people just wondered down the walkway and watched us working away, we felt very much on show. One lovely old gentleman poked his head in the door one day, as we were eating our lunch, and said... ' whats that piece called "woman eating sandwich?"



Carly's old Singer, which proved an absolute workhorse in getting everything sewn...

... buttons, buttons everywhere...





We really made ourselves at home... we did just about everything there but sleep...









Finally, it finds its way onto the walls...







Lots and lots of double sided tape...







This was a great feeling... All up!



..and..

The Opening...




Of course the Singer had pride of place on the day






and we have badges and catalogues for sale...
These were done by a very talented and very efficient local Graphic Designer, Lyndsay Meager.









And afternoon tea...






...bo chic...


... with a little wine...






...relaxing....










Our exhibition was Carbon Neutral. Through the WWF and Climate Friendly we purchased a carbon credit worth 1 tonne for each of us, which is the average amount one person uses in a month with powering there house and car. Climate Friendly then uses the money for the renewable energy companies to cover the additional cost of generating renewable, clean energy. Essentially they balance out the higher cost of green energy production allowing it to compete with traditional coal generated power.

This isn't the end for Common Thread either. Hope to get some more detailed photos of parts of our works up and also get the catalogue photographed and up. Even more exciting is we will be endevouring to start up our own business and shop.... well, an Etsy shop anyway. For those of you who I haven't given the 'Etsy' spiel too, its basically Ebay but for everything handmade and homemade. Its internation but based in the US and only charges a minimal fee for listings, pretty much non for profit. It has everything from quilting, to jewellery, clothing, photos, art, toys, soaps, body products and so much more. We may even do more depending on how this lot goes.
So stayed tuned....