Saviours of the Lost Arts: Craft Fair

Head down to King George Square on Tuesday 1 June 9am - 6pm, where local craft makers will be demonstrating their skills and selling an amazing variety of handmade products. Voodoo Rabbit will be there so come on by and say hi.

Othere stall holders will include:
Sisters of Stitch, Weva Deva, Threads and More, Roslyn Little, Qld Embroiderers Guild, Art in Bark Association, Creative Arty Facts, Urban Sewing, Fauves, Zillmere Women's Group, The Mountain Spinnery, Jenny King Designs, Biddy Bags, Good Boy Cracky, Women's Creative Centre, Queensland Bookbinders, Lady Sveta, Udessi, Qld Spinners Weavers/Fibre, Yulia, Red Seed Studio, Micah, Up In Annie's Room, Bris-Style, TAFE

Look What I Made :)

I just returned home from participating in a workshop as part of the Saviour of the Lost Arts program. The workshop was Stencil Printing Using Sustainable Fabrics presented by Sam and Ellie from Red Seed Studio.

Here is my contact stencil applied to an eco hemp tote bag, I then applied the ink to the design using a stippling brush.

Here is the finished bag, it just needs to be ironed so that the ink sets. It is for Cloud who is a very sick little bunny at the moment:(
- Ky

Fabric Friday: Cherries, Cherries and more Cherries

Since last August the bunnies have been sourcing as many Cherry themed fabrics as we can lay our little paws on. We have amassed a nice little collection and in keeping with this weeks rockabilly theme I thought I would show them all off.

Top
Nostalgic Memories on yellow or blue by Yuwa
Cherry Picked Gingham by Wilmington Prints
Cherry Picked Labels by Wilmington Prints

Middle
Berry Delicious on aqua by Moda
Vintage Cherries by Michael Miller
Classic Cherries on Black- Japanese Cotton Fabric

Bottom
Okiniri by Kiyohara & Co Ltd
Lovely Punch Girls - Kitties by Lecien
Patchwork Berries by Kokka

We adore each and every one of these prints and would love the opportunity to keep them all to ourselves (especially Cloud) but alas we must let them go.
Any one of these prints could be used to make or embellish an awesome outfit, apron, bag, quilt, the options are endless. What would you make?

Ky

My Creative Space...

Creativity has been a bit light on this week as my sewing room is a mess in the aftermath of the Kustom Kraft market last weekend, full of boxes of fabric and buttons waiting to be unpacked.

My latest Spoonflower fabric swatches arrived yesterday. Please forgive the foldline through the middle of the samples, my ironing board was under 5 layers of stuff when I was taking the photos.

This set is from my Cherry Tattoo Collection and the print is very imaginatively called Flaming Cherry Tattoo Large. It is available in 4 colourways.

This one is from a new collection I am starting called 8-bit love, it is called Heart of Darts and was designed in collaboration with my partner Polymonkey. He has a program on his iPhone called 32x32 and creates 8-bit doodles on it obsessively. I decided I should take them and incorporate them into fabric designs.

Don't forget to check out Kirsty's blog for some more creative spaces.

Ky

Saviours of the Lost Arts

If you live in or around the Brisbane area make sure that you check out the Saviours of the Lost Arts - an initiative of Brisbane City Council providing lovers of craft, senior residents, young and emerging craft workers and professional artisans the opportunity to showcase and share their arts and crafts. It started yesterday (May 24th) and will run until June 5th. Best of all, it is free.

There will be a number of make and take workshops, demonstrations, panel discussions and a market. The majority of events will take place at the Bleeding Heart Gallery (166 Ann Street, Brisbane) but there is also a suburban program.

The market will take place at King George Square (in front of City Hall) on Tuesday June 1st from 10am - 6pm. Voodoo Rabbit will have a stall and we would love it if you could drop by to say hello!

Ky

SQUEEEEEEEEE!

OMG this is just too cute to not share!



Make sure you watch it all the way to the end for maximum "Squeee!"

Cloud

Kustom Kraft Market - 23 May 2010

We had a great market day yesterday at Kustom Krafts. The stall set up was totally overhauled for this market and we think it made a huge difference.

This is what our stall used to look like:

Pretty underwhelming wasn't it! We've now progressed to this:

To start, we made bunting. We didn't have it at our previous market stalls. I drew the bunny head shape and Ky cut it out of felt using the Klik n Kut machine. Ky made the bunting last week and then glued the shapes to the triangles. Pretty nifty, even if we do say so ourselves! We used the same bunny head shape for our product tags.

Can you see all the bunny heads? We love the way they tied the whole look of the stall together. We put all of our smaller lengths of fabrics onto half size bolts and then arranged them into tubs. We stacked them up so they looked like shelves in a real store. It saved room on the table top for us to feature our handmade cushions and bags.

The best modification would have to be our new rack for displaying our fat quarters. It is made from the sides of a recycled wooden cot that we added a hinge to and then painted. Putting the fat quarters up this way was a vast improvement from having them piled up on the table like we used to do. It kept the table tidy, drew attention to our stall (nice and colourful) and also helped us to maximise our space.

So what do you think?

Cloud

Fabric Friday: A Little Bit Goth

At Voodoo Rabbit we like to think of ourselves as a "little bit goth" so when we were shopping for fabric in Japan we just had to get this beautiful print from Kokka. Gothic crosses and french style fleur de lys - a winning combination in our eyes!

Crosses & Fleur de Lys by Kokka

It is a Cotton (45%) Linen (55%) blend and the heavy weight of the fabric would make it perfect for bag making or homewares. You could even use if for more structured garments like a skirt or a corset.

This fabric, designed by Etsuko Furuya for Kokka's Echino range is absolutely stunning. Her Cobweb design would have to be one of our all time favourites and it is the reason we decided to hunt down Kokka fabrics to include in our range.

Echino Cobweb by Kokka

All fabrics are available from here.

Click on the 'Kokka' button under 'Fabrics by Brand' to see the whole range of these delicious fabrics.

Cloud

Voodoo Rabbit fabric on Boing Boing

Our Gingham Invaded fabric has been featured in a Spoonflower writeup on Boing Boing, I think this means that we have made it in the geek world:)
Read the article here.

My Creative Space

Preparations for the Kustom Kraft market on Sunday are in full swing and we have been very busy little rabbits. Cloud has been making use of some of my Spoonflower swatches to create these awesome buttons.

We got a rubber stamp made up so that we can stamp our paper bags with our details. Unfortunately we had to remove the rabbit from the logo as he probably wouldn't have shown up very well in just one colour. Still looks pretty awesome though!

I've been playing around with making some rabbit shaped price tags. I have a large computer controlled cutting machine that I have been playing with to create these.

And because you can never have too many projects on the go at once, here is a work in progress shot of the top I am making to wear on Sunday to the market. It features my Skull pinstripe fabric printed at Spoonflower. It still requires the arm holes and sides to be bound and then about a gazillion eyelets will be inserted along each side seam so that the sides can be laced up. Last but not least some buttons need to be sewn down the front.

Don't forget to check out Kirsty's blog for some more creative spaces.

Ky

Wishlist Wednesday

Continuing with the vampire/true love forever theme, here are some awesome products to die for.

A cute little vampire bat flutters into your bedroom window, but is he as harmless as he looks?

Batling Pin Brooch - Purple Red by Static White's Stitchery

Suddenly an ominous shadow appears on your wall, who's there?

Nosferatu Shadow Vinyl Wall Art Graphic Horror Vampire by PillBoxDesigns

The next thing you know there is a creepy dead guy proclaiming you as his long lost love and offering you his heart. Hopefully not quite this literally.

I GIVE YOU MY HEART... by Midnitemuse

How will the story end?
With a broken heart...

Sutured heart necklace sterling silver by idlehandsdesigns

in a bloody mess...

Red/Silver Glitter Blood choker Necklace Extra Drippy-Dark by Von Erickson

...or married happily ever after?

Cirque De Noir black and white veil by Sisters Of The Moon

Ky

The Vampire Novel - A Roundup

Once upon a time you had to search high and low for a vampire novel but now days you can't turn around without tripping over a new angsty teen romance vampire novel. Honestly they have popped up overnight like mushrooms. My theory is that after a certain vampire saga (I read the first two novels and could not bring myself to continue) was published and became very successful all of the publishers went, "Wow! Vampires = Money!" so they went back through the files and found every vampire novel that had ever been rejected and published them all at once. The genre is now all but ruined for me, so I am going to reminisce about the old days of vampire novels (not that I necessarily liked all of these either).

The Vampire Diaries
by L. J. Smith
This was one of the first vampire series I discovered way back in high school (over 10 years ago now). It is your typical girl meets vampire/s love triangle story. Back in high school I thought this was the most awesome series ever but I'm too scared to read it again now as I am pretty sure that I will find it quite bad.

Anno Dracula
by Kim Newman
What if Van Helsing and co had failed and Dracula had survived to run amok in London? Well this novel explains, in particularly gory detail, what happens next. Vampirism is running rampant through London and Jack the Ripper is preying on Vampire prostitutes. I've read this many times and really enjoyed it, I will have to read it again soon and see if it lives up to my memory.



Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries
by Charlaine Harris
I found these 3 or 4 years ago when I was looking for a book to read on a holiday I was about to take. It was definitely a new take on the vampire novel for me and I have since read all of the books in the series many, many times and I have all of the audio books. I have read/listened to them so many times that I am now starting to get disturbed by the amount of violence Ms Harris likes to inflict on her main character. I mean honestly how many times can one woman be beaten up, raped, and almost killed?

Queen Betsy Series
By Mary Janice Davidson
Very funny series though not much substance. I love the character of Betsy, she is sassy and won't take crap from anyone. Her description of her boss and workplace is just classic. Unfortunately the books tend to be on the Mills and Boon side with the author trying to find flimsy excuses to have steamy sex scenes. I love the cover art.

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series
By Laurell K. Hamilton
I cannot stand Anita Blake, she is not likeable in any way. She has a chip on her shoulder. I mean I know she's short but that is no excuse. All she seems to do is run into a situation, then antagonise everyone so that they get annoyed enough at her to attack so that she can righteously slay them. I read the first book and didn't find anything worthy of continuing with the series.

So in closing I would have to say that although I love a good vampire novel they are few and far between. Maybe I have read too many and become jaded. Or I could just be fussy.

Ky

Fabric Friday: Do you have a Dysfunctional Family?

Let it be know that we love our range of ironic and humourous fabrics here at Voodoo Rabbit, and in keeping with that theme, we are now stocking Michael Miller's wonderfully sarcastic Dysfunctional Family.

What long suffering parental unit wouldn't love an apron or a shopping bag made with this fabric? We plan to make deliciously ironic cushion covers with this fabric for Voodoo Rabbit Stitches, so if you don't sew you won't miss out on the fun either.

If you prefer to DIY you can buy in Australian dollars here or US dollars here.

Wednesday Wishlist

For all of you geeky lovers out there, this one is for you. I'd like to dedicate this post to my very own geek, Polymonkey.

The Science of Love - laser cut heart necklace with brain contours by Morphologica

Stolen Heart Brooch by yourorgangrinder

Have you been touched by his noodley appendage? Not particularly love related but it is a joke that only geeky people will get.
Flying Spaghetti Monster Ornament by Livinginthepast


Not available to buy but this awesome quilt was made by Lucy for her boyfriend Jesse. Now that's love. Found via Sprite Stitch

Ky

Voodoo Rabbit Stitches

We have started stocking our new Etsy shop, Voodoo Rabbit Stitches. This store will only feature goods handmade by me and Cloud.

Crazy toys by Cloud (yep this is the only one so far but I will crack the whip on the weekend and get her to make some more)

Tote Bags featuring Voodoo Rabbit Original Fabric designs

Homewares - featuring both commercial fabrics from our fabric store as well as Original Voodoo Rabbit fabrics.

We will continue to add new items as they are created and eventually any handmade items currently listed at Voodoo Rabbit will be moved over to Voodoo Rabbit Stitches.

Ky

My Creative Space

My creative space (and my dining table) was completely taken over by Cloud. This last week she has been busy finalising the design of her Rabbit Plushie. He has been an ongoing project of hers for at least six months now. There were a number of attempts before she was happy with him.

This one was the first 'non-stumpy' version:

Sacrificial bunny (he just doesn't know it yet)

He got his legs chopped off & and became part of the bunny carnage below:

Bunny carnage

The bunny propped against the sewing machine also was pulled apart - Cloud wasn't happy with his legs / feet. After one final design alteration to his legs, Cloud cut out the final pattern and got him ready to sew. He looked a bit Hellraiser at this point:

All pinned up and ready to sew

Finished, photographed and ready to be listed.

He's now done! It is always funny whenever Cloud sews. Sometimes it can be a total disaster. Then the crazy creative impulses she buries away in her brain manifest themselves and we end up with our Voodoo Rabbit Plushie. He is going to be sold in our new store - Voodoo Rabbit Stitches - which will be just for our handmade items.

Ky

Wednesday Wishlist

I am craving bacon.  It is my all time favourite crispy treat. So much so, that I joined Voodoo Rabbit up to Team Bacon! on Etsy :D

Here's a tribute to the best meat there is (apologies if you're a vegetarian)

The Persistence of Bacon - A Tribute To Salvador Dali and Bacon in Acrylic on Canvas by MindlessPursuits

Needle Felted Slice of Bacon Bookmark by FeltLikeHelping

 

bacon belt buckle - LEAN and MEAN by LomesomeRoadStudio

 Eggs and bacon skull and crossbones necklace by Metalwing

iPod Shuffle Bacon Bits Case by Antjes

 If you want more Bacon! love go to the team blog.

Cloud