STORY online store is now open for business!

Drum-roll please!!!

Monique Germon's new and elegant online store called STORY is now up and running and features a collection I've designed and hand made for her including these cushions and the two tea cosies I posted images of here previously.

Monique's philosophy is so down-to-earth and centered on integrity and beauty and she generously offers free postage within Australia for any purchases and includes a packet of Green Patch seeds with every parcel! What a lovely thing to do! (International postage rates are calculated at time of purchase/checkout...so wherever you are in the world you can enjoy STORY too)

I'm so in love with Monique's shimmery Emilia Earhart collar and look forward to being one of her first customers myself...it'll be perfect to wear to my sister's wedding next week!

Here is some information from the source:

"S T O R Y is the curation of ideas through product, word & the exploration of a new kind of narrative.

We take pleasure in exhibiting the work of individuals who make a significant contribution through the production of exceptional art & design.

We also take great pleasure in exhibiting the brands of like-minded others that produce items that transcend conventional market standards.

S T O R Y reveres authenticity above all & pays homage to this as a style unto itself. In other words, were born rural and remain so.

Most importantly, we honour the act of storytelling as an art form.

M O N I Q U E  G E R M O N
P R O P R I E T O R  / C R E A T I V E  D I R E C T O R"

And the practical info:
 W W W . S T O R Y - T H E S T O R E . C O M
Site link: http://story-thestore.com/

Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Story/152910184735457

Twitter Link: http://twitter.com/#!/storythestore

SUMMER BUSINESS HOURS
Phone/email communications & mail outs / Tuesday - Thursday 11 - 5pm
ALL INTERNET TRADE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS a day / 7 DAYS a week

Rose-Mount Tea Cosy, for my partner Rainier's parents.

While I await the birth of my first child I'm doing whatever I feel like and taking a little break from some orders that are taking longer than I'd hoped to finish, to complete a few things that I started last year! In other words, I'm procrastinating a bit!!

This cosy I started last year for my partner Rainier's parents, who love green and have a wonderful garden and farm with some lovely bushland on it in Mole Creek, northern Tasmania. Their farm is called Rose-Mount which I've embroidered with the date of their house on one side...




And on the other side I've embroidered Rainier's parent's initials and some roses...




I'll post some pics of the cosy in the garden at Rose-Mount soon....I'm being induced tomorrow night so I won't be very talkative on this blog for a week or two after baby arrives, unless I'm blessed with some extraordinary quantity of energy and find myself still sewing tea cosies in between changing nappies, breast feeding and naps!?!

Thanks to everyone who checks out my blog and apologies that it hasn't been very interesting of late, I've been a bit preoccupied..... ;-)

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, March, Stage 3

I've freehand machine embroidered the outline of the peony flower, slightly different from the one on the previous cosy because I really like the shapes of the petals.
Now I'm working on the hand embroidered 'colouring-in' bits before I embroider the three blue wrens and the client's initials so this side will be done and I can get onto the other side.



Close-up of the stitching...

Finally...I've made some new tea cosies to show off!

I finished these two coises yesterday and mailed them to my friend Monique Germon's new collaborative retail enterprise, POP-UP CO-OP which is open for one month in the town of Bowral, south of Sydney.

I've been wanting to try freehand machine embroidering in a more 'drawing-ly' manner, so I referenced a lovely Bennison linen printed Toile which has this Pagoda/pavilion building on it..and in my thread drawing on the tea cosy, I have stitched a sprouting tea plant in a pot, to symbolise the cycle of sustainable production, consumption and renewal which I always associate with tea drinking and gardening!





This is the other side of the cosy, where I embroidered the Chinese character for 'Tea' (courtesy of the internet....so please tell me if I've got it wrong?)


This cosy is a follow-on from all the Mexican Teaparty scarves I've been making. This cosy is a little more 'Spring-y' with the flowers on one side. I wanted the skull side to feel a little more Piratical and "You'll NEVER stop me drinking tea, nya ha haaaaaaaaaaa!!" ('til I die), etc etc....and I like my tea cosies to carry meaningful messages!

Tea Bags!

I've recently been making tea themed purses for retailers and to take to market to sell...and jiggedy-jig the ones that came back are now posted on my Etsy store until the end of August.

I've made them all lovingly by hand and the images on each purse I have freehand machine embroidered and then added to with hand embroidered details in most cases. Each purse has a leather or heavy-duty and tactile (velvety), fabric backing, with cotton or linen lining. All the details are with the images on my Etsy Store in case anyone is interested?

There are more images of other purses and bags in this series on my flickr site too, for your viewing pleasure...

Now I have to make 20 tea cosies for an exhibition in Morpeth, New South Wales, for mid-August, as well as a clothing collection for the DEBUT exhibition at Melbourne's Fashion Exposed! Busy busy busy....
Never too busy for a cup of tea though!

Teacosy* Number 12; Molker Milch Leibling at the Dairy, 2009

I finished this tea cosy last night to deliver to the Great Western Tiers Visitor's Centre in Deloraine today. They asked me to lend them a tea cosy because a few people travelling through the area have come in and asked for 'the young woman who makes tea cosies', and they want to be able to give people some information about local artists like myself!

The Deloraine area is becoming well known for its English-style hard cheeses and Dairy industry in general, and so this little tea cosy is a quaint honouring of this industry...and uses Swiss cotton checked fabric I bought at a flea market in Zurich last winter, and the cow's neck collar has the Swiss flag on it (my favourite Gruyere cheese is made locally by a Swiss émigré called Frank Marchant who started Heidi Farm Cheese and who now works for Lactos, a big cheese producing company in the north west of Tasmania (his cheese is the best though!)

Hand embroidered Swiss cotton, with applique silk and old fabric name tags 'Mrs Westbrook', silk, Tasmanian wool interlining, Japanese cotton, brass bell.

Dimensions: 30 x 38cm
Collection: Great Western Tiers Visitor Centre, Deloraine
Photos: The Artist

My Newest Delivery...

Last night I finished stitching this tea cosy which some friends commissioned late last year! Time flies when one isn't looking!

The brief from my client friends was to include their dog, Coco, a peony flower and then the rest was up to me...so knowing my friends as I do, I decided to include Tim's vintage Bugatti as well as something a bit silly and English- the rubber duckie with a crown a la 'Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' record cover...Tim is English and has a great sense of humour and works in special effects for film as well as being an artist.

His partner Carolyn I haven't known for as long. She's an artist also and so I hope I've included enough that is 'her' on the side with the flower (there wasn't enough 'comfortable' room for Coco on the Bugatti side)?!

I'll see what they think when they come to collect it!

Hand and freehand machine embroidery on silk, mangle cloth, Tasmanian wool, Japanese cotton lining.

This cosy has an additional removable woollen interlining in case the cosy isn't snug enough on the teapot...and where my friends live it gets very cold in winter!

Dimensions: 47 x 44cm
Collection: Tim Whiteley & Carolyn Edgecombe, Tasmania
Photos: The Artist

Hybrid Creature Comforts Cosy, 2009

The cautiously shy Hybrid Creature Comforts Cosy (of the Genus Handfabricatus Teacosii), on its quest for cake and tea near the visitor's car park on top of Mount Wellington in Southern Tasmania, in the Autumn evening light....

This tea cosy I made for a swap I'm doing with fellow Tasmanian textile artist extra-ordinaire, Catherine Badcock (AKA Cat-Rabbit), and I took a lot of inspiration from her own amazing work to create a truly personable tea cosy, with a definite personality and feeding habits....

Devonshire Teas are its main diet...with occasional bursts of cup cake feeding frenzies...this cosy has gone feral and has taken to hovering near tourists' cars in the hope of cake crumbs....

Hand embroidery on Thai silk, French silk and French silk curtain braid, American rabbit fur (gift from a friend there), local deer antler from a Tasmanian deer farm, steel support, Tasmanian wool, laser printed cotton lining (my own design, courtesy of Spoonflower.com), dolls eyes and leather.

Height: 60cm
Photos: Tara Badcock (Location: Mt Wellington, Southern Tasmania)
Collection: Catherine Badcock, Tasmania