inspiration everywhere

On a recent trip to Melbourne to take my daughter to the Royal Children's Hospital, I was reminded just how inspiring some of the little shops in the lane ways can be. Although we were only there for 24 hours, and mostly at the hospital, the city abounds with beauty -  even from the taxi window!

This is the Reading Room at the State Library of Victoria- a beautiful space with stunning architecture and the library always has a number of excellent exhibitions on show plus a great cafe.

As a maker we often wonder about the voyage some of our pieces take after they leave our hands. Recently, Natalie from Nest in Penguin, was able to tell me that she sold our folded book called  'Long Journey' as a birthday present for a woman turning 70!  It was so special to hear that, as I often imagine who each book will go to during the process of quietly folding them and, of course, who in the past has held and read them before I work on them.

This is a photo from the 'Nest' facebook page showing one of our handmade nests and one of the white framed pieces that we sent up to this beautiful little store last week. We are currently working on some new ideas using book pages and of course a few Easter pieces. Looking forward to this special time of year.

A New Year

The New Year always brings fresh hope and a time to reflect on the past twelve months. The photos below show some of our pieces in two of our favourite stores that stock our work - Nest in Penguin and Ecoco in Launceston. While looking back over the last year we can see that 'two in a teacup' has ever so slowly and gently made a little progress! From making things at home for our family and friends to selling some of our work in three stores in Tasmania, and of course our little stall at the Exeter Market. We are still, very much, a tiny little business but step by step we are gaining some confidence and are hoping that 2012 will bring new ideas and be full of inspiration and making. 

  

 

   One of our vintage books from the Forgotten Tales - New Stories series at Nest.

                         A swallow garland made from old book pages at Ecoco

May this year bring health, happiness, love and special family times together with a dash of creative inspiration for everyone - because really, that is all that matters.

Christmas is coming!

If only there was a way of slowing down the days in these next few weeks before Christmas! We have been busy filling orders for Christmas cards, tags and gift pegs over the last couple of weeks and although we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, we still have quite a way to go yet!

I do love this time of year - warmer temperatures, longer sunlight hours, holidays on the horizon and the wonderful moments of a shared family Christmas to look forward to. 

 

These are some of the pegs we have recently made for an order which I think are going to be used for an advent string. Now, it is back to the making table and soon we will have the fun of working out this years wrapping for our presents and decorating the Christmas tree.

Forgotten Tales - New Stories

 Finally, after months of contemplating, we have taken our vintage book works out into the market place to see how they go! In Hobart the book sculptures are in Store and Co (must pop in and take a picture of them) and now they have a new home in Launceston at Ecoco. The following photographs are from the Ecoco face book page. It is wonderful to have them in such beautiful stores. We are hoping the feedback from customers will be positive.

 

  This is a photo of a very old book that has hand cut pages with a slightly torn or deckle edge and an original inscription in beautiful handwriting in the front of the book - quite charming.  We will only have the books in one store in each place as we want them to retain their special quality.

We are soon to fill a new order for our handmade nests to 'Nest' in Penguin so now it is twigs and vines on every flat surface in the house rather than vintage books for a while!

Bunjil Nest

 

 On a recent visit to the Ian Potter Gallery - NGV in Melbourne we saw this amazingly beautiful Bunjil Nest. It is about two metres wide, and mirrors the size of a real eagle's nest, but this nest holds 600 messages from students who took part in an innovative project inspired by environmentalist David Suzuki. Each nest has been carefully made with hundreds of sticks, all inscribed with messages of hope, love and peace.

The students were asked to convey something they had learnt, or to express their hopes, wishes or concerns for the future and so their messages were often very moving and profound.

The nest celebrates Bunjil, the wedge-tail eagle who is regarded as the spirit creator of the Kulin nation, which includes the Wurundjeri people. They believe Bunjil keeps a watchful eye over people and offers guidance to those who choose to listen. 

Being a lover of nests, it was wonderful to see such a large scale, beautifully constructed nest that celebrated a community vision of the children's hope for the future.

 

It was lovely to see some of our work on the 'Nest' facebook page a few weeks ago.