Eco-friendly practice: Simply Phoebe

By Phoebe Miller

I am delighted to join the CWC blog team to bring you a monthly feature profiling individuals and businesses that apply a sustainable or eco-friendly approach to their creative practice.

Aside from the environmental benefits doing more with less and minimising our environmental footprint, what excites me about this topic is the pure creativity and innovation that's usually involved. From the use of unexpected recycled materials to the development of new technology and techniques, I'm constantly being amazed, surprised and inspired by what others are doing.

To kick things off, I thought it only fair that I lay my cards on the table by sharing my own approach to operating an environmentally sustainable creative practice. But before I do, I have to make a disclaimer: I'm by no means an expert! I am constantly learning about ways I can do more with less and further minimise the environmental impact of my business, which will make this column as much a journey of learning and discovery for me, as I hope it is for you!

In the studio. Photo by Mishy Lane for Finders Keepers.

 

Simply Phoebe neckpieces

What do you do? 

I design and make a range of wearable fabric accessories under the name Simply Phoebe.

What are the key elements in your sustainable or eco-friendly approach? 

Firstly, I try to only use fabrics that are vintage, second-hand, remnants (leftovers, oddly sized pieces, seconds, or ends of rolls from fashion collections), and recycled or reclaimed (including second-hand and damaged clothing and manchester).

Secondly, I try to minimise my production waste and always experimenting with different ways to use what waste I do generate. I've used the offcuts created by my overlocker as a stuffing to create the baubles in one of my designs and the ends cut off my fabric tubes to make bangles and looped necklaces.

The Simply Phoebe fabric stash. Photo by Mishy Lane for Finders Keepers.

Where do you source your materials? 

I'm always sourcing! I can't pass an op shop or vintage store without doing a quick scan inside. I've obviously spread the word well because I am often the very appreciative recipient of unwanted fabric stockpiles from friends and family.

I also do custom orders for customers who have a special item of clothing or fabric they'd like made into a neckpiece. One of my most challenging but ultimately rewarding was working with a piece of embroidered vintage Japanese obi fabric.

When I do larger collections for a specific market or stockist and need to secure a certain amount of material, I hit remnant fabric suppliers such as Rathdowne Remnants and upstairs at CLEARIT on Brunswick Street.

 Obi fabric: before

Obi fabric: after

Is there anything you'd like to do or learn to make your work even more eco-friendly or sustainable?

I am interested in possibly designing my own fabric. In order to do this, I'm keen to research sourcing sustainably and ethically made fabric or how I could print onto existing remnant or second-hand fabric, using eco-friendly inks.

Phoebe Miller is a Brisbane-bred, Sydney-fled, Melbourne-embedded gal who enjoys making, spruiking, collecting, exploring, telling her friends where to eat and posting photos of doors on instagram. After several years working in corporate marketing and communications, Phoebe followed the urge to explore her creative side. These days she divides her time between her sustainable fashion accessories label, Simply Phoebe, and freelance PR consulting.

Book Review - No one Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason

By Jodi Wiley After I made a very rash resolution to update my blog every day this year (well, every weekday - I'm not a complete masochist) my husband bought me a book with quite possibly the best title of all time, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason.

The title alone is worth the price of the book as far as I'm concerned. Happily, it's also chock-a-block full of great ideas to fill your blog with interesting content.

A blog is just about mandatory these days for any creative business, self-employed creative or individual wanting to connect with an audience for the purposes of showcasing their work, art, craft, design or writing. But how do you fill those posts with content that others want to read? Where do you get your ideas? And how do you build an audience and get people coming back?

U.S. blogger extraordinaire, Maggie Mason, is probably the best expert on that topic and so the perfect candidate to write this book. Her personal blog Mighty Girl, draws hundreds of thousands of readers a month. Her writing is engaging and conversational and good. It's really good. And laugh-out-loud funny. You can hear her voice in every post and can't help but feel like you know her.

She covers a wide range of topics from fashion to design, travel to personal stories. And her book reflects this diversity of interests. No One Cares What You Had for Lunch is aimed at anyone who wants to blog (rather than a specific blogging sub-set) and so the suggestions are intended to appeal to the widest range of readers. Depending on what kind of blog you write (business, personal or along a particular theme) not all of these ideas will appeal, but many can be tailored to suit your particular style and audience.

As you can see from my bookmarks, I found plenty to re-visit.

Here are some ideas I bookmarked:

#11 'Curate the web': refer and link back to other people's posts when you have a case of writer's block or are going on holidays.

#15 'Fill the gaps': use memory triggers, such as a photo or a book, and write everything you remember about it.

#18 'Spill everything': catalogue the contents of a private space: medicine cabinet, bookshelf, laptop bag, wallet. This can be done photographically or in writing.

Here are some more I like; the abridged versions!

With 100 short chapters, each containing a single writing idea, this is an easy read and a great reference for when you're stuck for ideas for your next post.

And really, how can you resist that title?

Jodi Wiley is an artist, writer, teacher and blogger. She has written freelance articles and book reviews for magazines and newspapers, as well as education curriculum. She has been a finalist for several art and illustration prizes and has won awards for her artwork. Jodi is currently on maternity leave from high school teaching and is on a (quite frankly deranged) quest to update her blog daily: artbywiley.com