News from simoneandginko land...

I've been busy at simonandginko over the past couple of months! Here's some of the things I have been doing:

A stylish capsule collection of the Lolly range of simoneandginko jewellery is now available exclusively at Lulamae. Check out the range at their Melbourne Central store! It features three spring fresh colour combinations - pink/maroon and white/green in chunky bangles, square and oval bangles and rings, as well as pale blue/dark blue in oval bangles. I'm really happy with these colours and I have been experimenting with more, such as yellow and white, for some summery action! I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to breaking out the colour for the warmer months.

Four bangles and rings from the Dirty Pastels range are now available for sale at Some Like It Hot in the Degraves subway near Flinders St Station. Check them out in the window display!

Last weekend simoneandginko had a stall at the Makers Market at RMIT Brunswick campus, as part of the Craft Cubed festival. Haven't heard of Craft Cubed before? Check out the Craft Victoria page for more info. It is nearly over for the year but make sure you get in early to book next year's activities, including fabulous speakers and workshops as well as open studios.

As part of the Makers Market, simoneandginko jewellery was featured in the Arts section of the Age newspaper on Friday 23 August! This was a lovely surprise and I think the jewellery came up really well on the page.

The Makers Market coincided with my launch of a new colour in the Deco range - a classic black and white. These brooches would go great with an evening dress for some deco glamour...

simoneandginko also ran a competition as part of the Makers Market to win a free bangle. The lucky winner will be announced tomorrow.

And finally... simoneandginko has begun new mouldmaking and resin bangle classes with Candu at their purpose-built workshop space in Swan St, Richmond. Sign up and learn how to make a mould of your favourite bangle, and then cast a bangle in resin! Bookings are at Candu or send me a message on my contact page if you would like more information.

Getting custom-printed tights

Recently I put together a folio for entry to a fashion design course. One of my pieces drew on some fabric patterns I had designed to be printed onto tights. The theme of the designs was 1980s Berlin punk, so I titled the collection "Ein Berliner" after the famous speech that US President Kennedy had given to the West Berliners, where, by saying in solidarity with the audience "ich bin ein berliner", he had actually said "I am a doughnut" and not his intended "I am a Berliner". Fact or fiction, it is a great story! I took inspiration for the colours and motifs from spray paint graffiti colours and paste-ups, as well as images of punk and post-punk fashion.

I had simulated my designs onto photographs of tights, which looked pretty good, but I really wanted to see how they looked on an actual pair of tights. The particular design I selected was a spray painted stencil of lips, scanned and digitally coloured.

I found a site in Germany called Funnylegs that custom-prints your own tights. It is pretty simple to use, although a lot of the information is in German, and fortunately they send their products all over the world. Another site that also looked good was Digital Art Wear, which has a wide range of custom digitally-printed clothing, but unfortunately they only appear to ship products within the USA.

I had the tights printed at Funnylegs and I think they came up pretty well! My other designs included a digitally manipulated sketch of a doughnut, overlaid and coloured to look like an animal print, and a paste-up letter F that was duplicated and overlaid with checks to create a punk-like tartan.

If you're interested in getting your own design printed on tights, I'd encourage you to have a go! It is a lot of fun, and it is very satisfying to see your print on a final product. Of course, if you would like one of my designs custom-printed on tights for you, please contact me.

Working with resin: Making the Deco range

Just over a month ago I launched the Deco range of resin brooches. The concept behind this range was to pick up on the glorious, rich colours and larger-than-life jewellery style of the art deco era. The idea began with some pieces of an old chandelier I picked up at a market stall.

I started by creating silicone moulds from the brooches. It was my first time using silicone so I was relieved by how easy it was to work with. After telling myself "the first silicone pour will probably be a disaster", I was actually really happy with the moulds from first go.

Mixing silicone - these shots from my latest experiment...

From then it was a process of mixing colours and pouring resin. This is the fun part of the process - particularly the moment when you pop out the new piece from the mould, and decide that yes, you really are happy with it. I played around with colours a bit until I got some that I was happy with.

Then was the sanding process, smoothing all the rough edges and making them look pretty! This can be the tedious bit, but once you get into the sanding it can be quite meditative.

Finally I found a strong enough epoxy glue to secure the brooch backs to the brooches. So far they're holding strong! I also managed to glue several of my fingers together...

I've been really pleased with how the Deco range has turned out. From the first idea to the finished piece, it was really what I had envisaged all along. This might sound unsurprising, but working with silicone moulds and resin pours isn't always as easy as it sounds. I'm lucky that my first three collections have turned out so well, because it doesn't always happen this way.

Right now I'm experimenting with ideas for a new range, and oh boy they look pretty average right now. So bad in fact that I've had to throw out both moulds and resin pours - something I really don't like to do because I'm very conscious of the impact of it on the environment. Anyone who has heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch doesn't want to contribute any more waste than they have to! Experimenting is part of the creative process though, so don't let this put you off.

After struggling a bit with my latest range, it is nice to go back to my existing collections and feel some pride for my vision and for the final products!

If you've got any questions about using resin and silicone, including where to find supplies, leave a message on my contact page. Or join a class! Because it can be very rewarding once you know the basics.

White Nights and Inspirations

 Flinders Street Station

I've had a lot going on lately... family illnesses and so on. After such an intense time, it is nice to get back to the blog and a little bit of creative normality.

Melbourne had a White Night a few months ago, mid February it was, a hot night with music, art and street performance from dusk till dawn. White Nights have been happening in other places around the world - including Saint Petersburg, Paris and Tel Aviv - but this was the first time we had experienced one in Australia.

I was impressed! The city was packed, so it made it difficult sometimes to see all the things there were to see, and find all the things that there were to find, but the volume of people added to the buzz. And it was a good sign for art in Melbourne - I have never seen so many people going into the National Gallery before.

I've been inspired by the colour, the lights and the fun to create a new jewellery range based on White Night. I might even include some textile and fashion designs in the mix! Watch this space for more news to come...

Buildings along Flinders Street 

 Busker in Hosier Lane

Flinders Lane

Money for the busker, Swanston Street

Princes Bridge

Foam artwork installation, National Gallery of Victoria (photo from NGV website)

Going back to India

Some of you may recall that I spent a couple of weeks in India - eleven days in fact - at the start of this year for a wedding. It was an amazing, crazy, stressful, overwhelming, exciting visit. India is one of those places that doesn't do well in short visits. You spend a lot of time sitting in traffic, looking at your watch, or at the airport waiting for a delayed internal flight. Not to mention that trying to understand such a new and different place as India in less than two weeks isn't very realistic. I saw some amazing things, but I also felt bewildered a lot of the time.

The upshot of it all is, that after taking a break from my studies after one hectic semester of textile design, I have decided to go back to India. It has been more an impulse than a carefully considered plan. I feel like I need to go somewhere that is completely not like Melbourne, that will take me out of my comfort zone and throw me into some challenging and unexpected situations. And I like the idea of going somewhere that values introspection and meditation as a new (for me, anyway) way of approaching life.

India is also an amazing place to see textiles. The birthplace of paisley and so many other motifs that are part of our everyday attire these days, last time I was there I saw so much colour, and pattern, and cloth, everywhere I went. If this doesn't inspire me to return to textiles, I don't know what will!

I'm heading off on my big adventure in just a few days time. I'll try to post blogs when I get a chance, and in the meantime I wish you all success and enjoyment in your creative endeavours! I'll be back in December.

An Indian wedding

I was lucky enough to travel to India recently for a close friend's wedding. She and I have known each other since we were fourteen, so it was really lovely to be there to see her get married. And it was a privilege to be part of an Indian wedding in the extraordinary city of Calcutta.

One part of the wedding I was particularly inspired by was the henna ceremony, or mehendi, where the bride (and in this case, several of the bride's friends) had her forearms, hands and feet covered in delicate henna patterns. The artist drew all the patterns freehand, and altered her styles depending on the person. She used the henna pen skilfully to change the pattern with thinner and thicker applications at different points.

Each part of the wedding involved the bride wearing a different sari - some more casual, some more formal, and some, like the saffron coloured sari seemed intentional for the purpose of the ceremony (a turmeric bath). My friend's relatives helpfully explained the ceremonies to the few of us foreigners attending.

The final part of the wedding began at 11:30 at night on the first day of 'wedding season'. Seven of us piled  into a car designed for a smaller number of people, and drove through the streets of Calcutta to the wedding, passing by many 'wedding houses' decorated with lights and big signs, and spotting many wedding cars decked out in flowers and ribbons. We arrived at the house around 9pm, to be fed and to visit the bride and groom, each sitting in different rooms on different levels of the house.

At around 11:30 we gathered in a room on the top floor of the house, where the groom was brought in and after sitting down with the priest, and being given a special hat for the ceremony, was guided to stand on a rather large stone. The bride was carried in by her male relatives, and carried around the groom several times (possibly seven) amidst shouting and laughter by many of the onlookers. The bride and groom then exchanged garlands, before being seated on the floor. Several ceremonies ensued, culminating in the fire - the witness to the ceremony - around which they walked seven times. Finally the bride and groom rolled a stone along seven leaves, and then vermillion was placed on the bride's forehead to signify that she was now a married woman.

I was inspired by all the colours, images and patterns used in the wedding. Everything was so heavily decorated and so many different patterns and colours were used together, something you rarely see in more austere Western style designs, and certainly Western weddings. It has given me lots of ideas!