White Nest are a really great stockist of Curio and Curio on the Mornington Peninsula, outside Melbourne. A couple of weeks ago Lee called me from the Airport having spent a couple of days up in Sydney at the trade shows.
She'd ordered some fluro skinny kids jeans from a French company and couldn't find any t-shirts she liked, so she called me. White Nest were already stocking our 'Takin' Shapes' range of homewares and prints, where I've used simple shapes with bold bright and fluro colours for some standout pieces ( See previous post below ).
I was assigned the task of downsizing and adjusting those existing designs so that they would work on 40 kids t-shirts.
On Tuesday morning I started cutting stencils ( all of this is taught in my workshops ), last night I finished the printing and this morning I heat set each t-shirt by hand. You may be asking yourself 'How does he make any money?' and you'd be right to question it.
One design, one colour print x 40 could take as little as 1 hour to print, these kids t-shirts were in lots of different colours and a few had 3 colours which is why it took so long. For me it's about doing as much as I can to separate myself from the rest of the pack. It's always about the point of difference and USP. Who else could have turn that around in such a short space of time whilst being responsible for each part of the process.
These are my skills and it's important that I use them otherwise there is no point. I believe that it's my ability to change design direction very quickly, that will ensure a bright future. I'm not about to get hamstrung by convention or mislead by to days herd mentality.
Here's some photos I took of the design process and shots of the final printed t-shirts on a quick media release that I sent out after finishing the t-shirts.
Have a wicked even!
Nick
Finally I've finished the 4 Combi Buses for the Westacotte's + I've had a busy day in the shop. Sold 10 prints which is just amazing as yesterday I made just about enough for a bag of chips, for the me the Doris and Jack to share!
We can have FISH! tonight! Whoooop! Whoooop!
The 4 Combi's
Clair and I have just launched a new limited edition homewares and art print range, which is currently being sold into a select number of our stockists and is also now available on line at Curio and Curio.
Basically Danni Minogue popped into our store a few weeks ago, and bought a few of my 'Monkey' prints + cushions, which was amazing. She asked if did the monkey as a stencil,
and this was the start of my journey back to hand cut stencil prints, and our new range of cushions and art prints, 'Takin' Shapes'.
Each design in the new range has been cut by hand. The small dots cushion took about 3 hours to cut, but the response from our stockists to the new range made it worth while. The idea is that by using a paper cut stencil, the designs becomes limited to the life of the stencil, and I have no idea how long they will last. I find as a designer most of the designs give me the most enjoyment at the start and I get bored of printing the same designs over and over again.
We want to try and introduce a new small range every few months, which will keep things fresh and exciting for both of us and our stockists. I've got over 100 exposed designs on screens so the ability to add elements to existing designs like the Two Ruffians 'Flash Of Colour' art print I did yesterday, opens up a lot of exciting possibilities.
'Takin' Shapes'
'Flash Of Colour'
Have a lovely weekend.
Nick
It's constant around here at the moment, which is great, but I'd love a sack full of money
for a little holiday. These are my new A6 'Small Prints' they're hand printed by me, with a little love, but not as much as most people! I say I print with a twinkle in my eye and a sense of devilment!!!
I got an email the other day which described me as a creative entrepreneur which made me really happy. Seriously, I've been up all night adding and designing the new pages on my website. Yesterday I printed and took photos for the web, amongst other things. Ideas and my work don't just happen by magic, so it's nice to think that I'm being observed in a positive way.
I hope you like my new prints.
Until Next time....
It was blowing a gale in Flinders yesterday so Curio and Curio was a little quiet, but luckily a few shoppers braved the weather.
as the shop was quiet I drew a few condiments that had been suggested to me the day earlier, and I finally drew the Combi for Mrs Westacott's boys.
Here they are.
All of these will be available to buy online shortly.
I've also designed a small homewares range which I'll blog about next week once they've
been snapped up by my stockists. It's the usual collaboration between Curio & Curio and Two Ruffians. My designs using their colours, a formula that seems to be working.
The reason I can talk too much about this, is because I'm taking a gorilla approach to designing, with quick short burst, that the copy cats wont see coming. I've had my fingers burnt recently, where my generosity and contacts have been used by someone to create a competitor in my wake.
But they wont even see me coming, and my new idea is brilliant.
Can't wait to show you all how and what it is, once my stockist have bought next week.
Now I've got printing to do.
Until Next week.
Back in November I was asked by the lovely girls at Harvest Textiles to be their artist in residence and teach a weekend workshop in the Harvest Workroom. It was a huge success and I loved teach something I'd taught myself. It was very rewarding.
As a result of the this experience and from be asked by customers I've set up my own small screen printing workshops called 'Mobile Print Workshops' where I teach a small group of up to 4 people the basics of screen printing from their home. I come to you. Easy! check out my website for details.
Here are some photos from my time at the Harvest Workroom. Check out the printed storage cubes that the girls made. Some had never screen printed before. Brilliant!
Country Style magazine photo shoot at Curio and Curio back in September, with local Snapper Armelle Habib, Me, Clair and Jack.
