SOEWN EARTH

The Earth Reliant Artist



Trace Willans All Natural Mixed Media







Sunday, May 30, 2010

Market Demo's

And this is where I will be on Saturday. The Barnmarket as the Feature Artist no less. Well doing a little Natural Dye Demo. And Sunday I will be here Eastside Market so I hope all you Hobartians will visit.

Netherlands

Yes another order through this morning so the 4 oval buttons in the last post are off to the Netherlands. I wish I could deliver by hand. Now wouldn't that be the funnest thing.
I so wish to do more travelling. I think coastlines and islands of the world is a very nice aim to have in life.
I best get in to the studio and make more buttons, They seem to be selling like hotcakes.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Buttons on Etsy

6 Round Scale Smoke Fired Buttons

6 round smoothies

4 Smooth Rounds


4 smooth ovals

6 smooth ovals

I have just finished adding some new buttons to my Etsy shop and they are such pretty ones.

Buttons

Tomorrow morning I will be popping down to the post office to send some of my lovely buttons to Sweden!!!! How exciting is that? This is my first sale to Europe and just to think of my buttons all the way over there is well frankly unbelievable. I wonder what they will be doing. Will they send photos? Let me know how they are getting on? Will they be happy?

Friday, May 28, 2010

Manna from Heaven

Or at least from Indi@.
A small wee wyllie ago, in fact just before I was about to head off to Melbourne I received the most delightful package in the mail for the amazing and ever wonderful miss India Flint. Such a gorgeous bag of goodies and so remiss of me to leave it this long for a thankyou. I have some yummy bits of blankie and some silk as well as little shell sequins and a book all about little hand made paper envelopes. Of which if you purchase one of my small items you would get it in one of my very own wee envelpopes. Oh and the lovely picture postcard of Indias last exhibition.
Perhaps their will be pics of what happens with some of this stuff, a few of the sequins have already made thier way onto the feral.

Dolly-Buttons on Etsy

The girls are going live!!! I am currently in the process of uploading two of the girls onto Etsy so check them out real soon.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Girls

There are now two Miss Dolly Buttons available in my cube at Incube8r . And I have two to list in my Etsy shop just as soon as I can get the photo thing sorted out. Thought it had been cracked when my son kind sent me a card reader only for some reason it couldn't see my card even though it was supposed to.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Molly comes home again

After a lovely time in Hobart Molly and I have returned home. This Molly in her hotel bed resting up.
A lovely lunch at Jackman + Mc Ross bakery in Battery Point.

Posing with the dog at a memorial to Louis Bernacchi the first Australian to winter in Antarctica.

and just hanging around on the waterfront.

Before afternoon tea in Salamanca Square. Mmmm The best Chocolate, Date and Almond Cake ever.
But after lunch today I will be into the studio to finish of some buttons I am working on. They will be going into the kiln tomorrow so i can get them smoked before the markets at the beginning of June in Hobart. 

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Hobart

Molly has had a lovely day today, she had it the best as she gets carried I on the other hand have very sore feets. I walked the whole length of the Market up one side and down the other, I bought some nice tea and some lovely apples and then I got sucked into the wool shop and am now the proud owner of two skeins of alpaca, wool, silk yarn with which I will knit up a beautiful scarf. But it won't be cheap. Then I went and had soup and a bread roll in Salamanca Square. Then a visit to all the art gallerys. Then home for a cup of tea and put my feet up before heading into town where I found a great book in A&Rs on special for a measley $10 it's a lovely cookbook by JUde Blereau called wholefood for the family. I have her other one as well but that is back in the West so it is nice to have one here as well.
Now apparently it's time to go have a drink before dinner, it's a hard life on holidays.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Molly

Well here she is as promised. Miss Molly Dolly-Button hanging out in the studio.

Checking out the range of brushes on the desk.

Seeing what was happening in the display cabinet.

And out the front.
Dolly and I will be posting more pictures next week of the fun times we will be having in Hobart this weekend.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Home

Well and truly home now, I have rested and done a veritable mountain of washing, mostly I must admit lengths of lovely fabric. And tempting as it is to stay home and do some cleaning (yeah right) I think I will head into the studio and start preparing for my next markets which will be the Barnmarket on Saturday June 5th and The Eastside makers Market on Sunday June 6th.
This is a lovely new vest I will have for sale. The front and this is the best colour likeness.

A close up of the top.


And the back though it is not this blue. This is a longer vest with not so much wrap at the front.



And my lovely stall at the Abbotsford convent.



The other end of the table.




And a nice shot of the buttons under the counter at Buttonmania in Melbourne. Heres hoping they are really popular and more need to be ordered.



And this is Miss Polly Dolly-Button. She will be exploring Melbourne with my friend Naomi, here she is at Craft Victoria. She would dearly have liked to have been photographed inside with koalas but that kind of thing is frowned upon.

Here is Miss Polly at the old Collingwood football grounds, while out walking the dogs.


And no day out would be complete without a little shopping in Brunswick St Fitzroy. Lucky Miss Polly got to be part of the window display at this fabulous frock shop.


Check it out next time you are down that way. They had wonderful stuff in wool and some lovely Australian made as well.
I will be bringing you more pictures of Miss Polly as they come to hand and soon there will also be pics of her sister Miss Molly Dolly-Button out and about in Tasmania. This weekend she is off to Hobart.
More relatives will be available in my Etsy Shop real soon.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Hey Big Spender

Well I was not quite as frugal today as I would have liked to be. I was doing really well for a while there. Went into Buttonmania and now if you happen to wander in you will see some of my buttons proudly displayed under the counter and I should even be able to show you a photo tomorrow. We popped into The Vic Crafts shop and saw some very nice stuff. Then we had a lovely lunch at O Bento in the Sofitel Centre. And then.............. She, the woman who I thought was my best friend, She took me to the Job Warehouse and thats where I came unstuck. I was wearing The Feral (I suppose you will need a photo of that as well, licks pencil and adds to list) and Nathan mistaking it for a fur started conversing and we got onto fabrics suitable for natural dyeing and well one thing lead to another and before you knew it we were walking out the door with two large bags and a bolt of fabric.
So now I have to go home a create lots of new stuff. I must admit that I can't wait to get into the dyepots.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Post Market

It's a very chilly Monday morning here in Melbourne, but thats ok. The heater is on, the work is over and today we go shopping. Or more likely is looking and lusting without buying. But thats fun too.
Ivanhoe market was pretty darn dismal this time, hardly any people came to visit and of my two sales of the day one of them was another stall holder, so sadly I won't be going back there again. Though I did have a lovely chat with a woman who was interested in me running some classes, so that was good.
You can't just take money off people and have a venue available, there needs to be some form of marketing or it's all going to fizzle. A darn shame really as there were some nice people with some very nice stuff.
The Abbotsford Market on the other hand went off. It was wonderful, saw lots of people who said lots of nice things and some of them even gave me money to take some of my treasures away. So this morning its not just the warm glow from the heater I am feeling.
Today I am off into town to flash my wares at Buttonmania and fingers crossed they will be interested in stocking me. Also going to buy some fixings so I can have some lovely new pendants ready for the next market.
So next month I will be back at the Convent in Abbotsford onSunday June 20 but at the moment no venue for the saturday, so if anyone knows of a great market in the Melbourne area where I will be loved please let me know. I do so want to be able to keep coming back.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

WOW

Greetings and Congratulations!You've Been Stalked! Your smoke fired buttons have been featured on our website, Etsy Stalker. http://etsystalker.com/?p=9338We hope you'll check it out and let us know what you think!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Melbourne

I am off to Melbourne again today. I will be at the Ivanhoe market on Saturday and the Makers Market at the Convent in Abbotsford on Sunday. I hope it will be much better than last week. I have two new vests finished that I will be bringing up with me, a new journal and heaps of new buttons which I have just finished cleaning ready to pack. Once all the goodies are settled into my case then I will be able to pack just a few clothes on top, which is a bit trickier now the weather is starting to cool down and I am wearing more layers.
And just wait till I put up the pictures of the currypunk fungus (Pitosporous Australiensis) dyeing it has been so giving yeilding the most amazing fluro yellows/oranges.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Twitter

Yes folks I have succumbed. I have a twitter account. Not really sure what it means but apparently it is a must have. Soon I may even figure out how to put a link on the side. But I wouldnt hold my breath.
Did the homespun market today and depressingly didnt even cover the cost of my stall, sometimes I wonder why I do it all. On a brighter note I am off to Melbourne next week fingers crossed there will be more eco friendly buyers up there.
Oh and my cube paid for itself this month so thats gotta be a bonus.
Now for a relaxing day tomorrow for Mothers Day.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Who wants to Play


My stall at Niche


And the other half.


Well Niche is over and I am quite pleased with the result. Lots of lovely people stopped to chat and tell me how much they loved what I am doing and quite a few of you enquired about classes. So could anyone who is interested in a monthly class both in Melb and in Launceston could you please contact me and I will start the process of putting something together.