to markit, to markit

I've just soaked my tired and aching legs in a hot bath after a long innings down at Federation Square today hosting a stall with the Harvest ladies at Markit. Ooooh it feels good.
We had a great stall tucked away from the very cold breezy entrance and slightly apart from the throng which was excellent as we had room to move (as did our customers) and a special heated floor that kept us toasty. It was really busy for most of the day and although it got very squishy in some parts of the market we enjoyed the luxuries that our little corner provided.
We shared an island stall with Indie at Monolog (who launched some fabulous new garments) and apart from our own products we also had our friend Dawn Tan along to help promote and sell the collaboration we recently worked on together at Harvest Workroom - so it was a fun posse on board.
We at Harvest Textiles prepared a small edition range especially for the market and it went flying out the door which was great (we will post some of the limited stock we have left on our online shop in the next little while).
Of course we snacked on the fish tacos from Beatbox Kitchen's Taco Van and made some purchases from Beci Orpin, Sunday Morning Designs and Emily Green (I think it may be official that Jess has Australia's largest Emily Green collection in her jewellery box).
It was a fun day and was good to bump into all you Melbourne folk - so many friendly faces.
Em x

president of cyprus visits lygon street, east brunswick

As we were putting the final touches on our market stock last night the red carpet was rolled out across the road from our studio and the air was heaving with activity...the President of Cyprus visited the Cypriot Club across the road.
There were so many people walking the streets looking official and all of a sudden our humble little pocket of the world was under the spotlight. Some of the welcoming party were wearing traditional costume and I didn't get close enough to get great pics but you can see some examples of the amazing outfits here. How inspiring are they for budding fashion designers?
We love this neighbourhood we have landed in...there is always someone interesting to talk to and meet in the street or some quirky event going on.
We are feeling inspired by the officialdom of the red carpet...maybe we can incorporate one into our next event.
Em x

planning our market stall

We have spent today gearing up for Markit at Federation Square this sunday and we are in total shock because for once we are organised ahead of time with no crazy late nights necessary to pull it off.
We have even had time up our sleeves to have a bit of a play with our market stall set up rather than our usual trick of riding that high wave of adrenaline at the last minute when we make all of our visual display decisions through blood shot eyes at an insanely early hour the actual morning of the market.
We are looking forward to seeing you down there with our sanity intact.
Thanks to the gorgeous Fran who has been beavering away with us the past few weeks and Indie at Monolog who has also helped us out. You guys rock!
Em x

tea and mittens

Yesterday while my 6 year old was busy making an awesome owl clock in Dawn Tan's Little Artist's class my son and I kept ourselves warm and cosy in Popcraft.
Pauline has done such a great job of creating a loungeroom-like atmosphere in her (con)temporary yarn popup store. We sipped cups of tea and met gorgeous little Hattie who was very keen on pulling all of the colourful ribbons off the shelves. Luckily she didn't find the yarn!
Of course while we were there we were seduced by all of the goodies and we couldn't resist buying a couple of pairs of Vion Fullier's lovely mittens. I am going to share the yellow pair with my daughter as they are actually designed as a snug fit for adult's but go well as a loose fit for her.
She headed off happily to school this morning wearing them...I'm wondering if I'll ever get my mitts inside them?!

markiting

Late night printing and swing tag making in preparation for Markit this Sunday.......hope to see you there xx

abstract geometrics with emily green

A big THANK YOU to the super-talented Emily Green for running such a fantastic workshop!

As you can see from the photos, the two evening classes were a blur of printing, painting, cutting, pasting and colour, colour, colour!

Emily began the workshop by taking us through the process she uses to create her signature colour palettes. Once we had all established our palette, we got busy cutting out images from magazines, creating textures, experimenting with water colours and screen printing onto paper.....

Once we had a good selection of colours in various textures, Emily taught us how to turn them into large, abstract collages - don't they look great?

Emily is now going to shrink down everyone's collages and turn them into one-of-a-kind brooches - I'll be sure to post the pics when they are done!

xx Jess

it's the end of the world as we know it......let's make tea towels!

What a fantastic class we had on Saturday! We figured that if it was to be our last day on Earth, why not spend it printing tea towels?

I must confess that we were chatting and giggling so much that the day got away from us and the class ended up running a little longer than usual - luckily no one had any pressing engagements!

How gorgeous is Anne's teapot design? Anne and Megan are both natural screenprinters - it was so lovely watching them gain confidence throughout the afternoon.

Caitlyn's beautiful autumnal design was inspired by some leaves that Megan collected on her way to class.

Everyone ended up with such individual, colourful designs - what a talented line-up!

Thanks for a wonderful day ladies!

xx Jess

p.s. Due to overwhelming demand, we have added an extra tea towel class in June!

popcraft goes live

Hooray! Popcraft is finally up and running...a rainy, cold old Melbourne day seems a fitting one on which to launch this beautiful popup yarn store (next door to Harvest Workroom) that will be with us over the next three months.
Pauline Tran Cecil has executed a very special retail space with knitted/woven garments from local designers, jewellery, buttons, unique yarns from both Australia & Japan and knitting needles/accessories.
She is also featuring some super colourful wares collected on her textile tours in her native Vietnam.
Don't be shy to come and visit the space and be sure to check out the knitting workshops on offer.
The store looks beautiful...congratulations Pauline.
Em x

what is popcraft?

You may have noticed over the past day or so a few new workshops appear on our blog and website featuring both hand knitting and machine knitting brought to you by Pop Craft. 

What exactly is Pop Craft?

Well it is the exciting new venture by local textile artist and textile tour operator Pauline Tran-Cecil. 

Over the winter months Pauline will be moving in to the shop front next door to Harvest Workroom and we asked her to fill us in on what she plans to do there.

Tell us about Pop Craft? Pop Craft is a "pop-up" shop presenting yarn, creations from up-and-coming textile designers and textile installations by local artists.  It's also an excuse for me to act out one of my biggest fantasies - buying a huge amount of the most beautiful yarn I have ever encountered!  Not to mention a chance to discuss design ideas with great minds. 

What products will people find there? There will be a wide selection of Marta's Yarn - some of the most wildly coloured yarn. There will also be some very experimental and unusual yarn from Japan. I am also thrilled to be stocking some accessories, garments and jewellery by highly skilled local textile artists. A bonus will be some exuberant and exotic treasures from my recent textile tours to Vietnam.
Tell us about some of the local makers whose work will be featured in the store? Most of these excellent people were my classmates from the Diploma of Studio Textiles at RMIT. Since graduating last November they have been hard at work producing their own ranges -  Carla Gbrac, Stella Jones, Lotta Apted, John Brooks and Michelle Brown. The shop will also feature works by other yarn fanatics such as Vion Fullier, David Pearce and Anna Varendorff.

Throughout winter you will be hosting workshops...can you tell us a little bit about those? Yes, Pop Craft will also act as  a classroom. David Pearce the "knitter extraordinaire" will be conducting beginners classes both in knitting and crochet and intermediate classes in knitting.   Leeana Edwards-Chaouki will be teaching machine knitting classes. I highly recommended her classes to all those who have big knitting aspirations. She is a perfectionist with great positivity!

There is a revolving window display that you have curated. Could you tell us a little about this? Every fortnight there will be a textile installation by a local artist. I don't want to spoil any surprises - come and check them out as they will be spectacular!

What is it that you want to achieve in the three months of having your very own shop?  My vision for this endeavour is to create a fresh and vibrant textile community showcasing local talent and presenting inspirational, contemporary and high quality yarn.  In a sense, this is my way of spreading the love for textiles to the rest of the world.  It has already been a fun and fantastic journey.  Being able to collaborate with other textile nerds has been a formative experience.  Now I'm excited to see the public's reaction to all the hard work we've been putting into our product range!

Anything else to add? Hot tea and a bowl of mandarines awaits you.

Thanks Pauline. Good luck with the venture and we look forward to spending winter with you.
Em x
Pop Craft will be open from May 23 to August 30 2011, from 10am-5pm everyday (except Sunday 10am-4pm) at 510 Lygon Street, East Brunswick, Melbourne (right next door to Harvest Workroom).

Don't miss it!

quack quack...

In preparation for the imminent arrival of the lovely Pauline of Popcraft we spent last night coating the floor of 510 Lygon st in gloopy resin tile paint - and it looks awesome!

All the fumes made us a little loopy - what do you think of Lara's duck impression??

xx Jess

p.s. More details on Popcraft coming soon!

print power

Enjoy the gorgeous prints our most recent Design and Print Your Own Fabric students have conjured up - they are so vibrant and fresh. View a whole lot more of their work on our flickr.
It is always lovely watching people unwind over the course of the workshop, shrugging off the stresses of the modern world and giving in to the creative process.
Thanks to all of the students for a terrific couple of days spent - as per usual lots of laughs and many interesting conversations.
Be sure to visit the links of some of our past students that we have listed on the left sidebar - so many interesting folk come through our studio and we love keeping in touch and sharing the love!