You're invited to our next event!
You're invited to our next event!
Coming from a fine art background, Angie Réhe studied fashion at RMIT in the late 1980s and since then has worked as a designer and freelance illustrator for some of Australia’s favourite fashion brands, including Megan Park and Gorman.
Now established as one of Melbourne's top fashion illustrators, and with a suite of side projects such as The Patsy Fox Drawing Salon, Angie's story will be of great interest to anyone who aspires to carve a niche for themselves in the design world.
Saturday 6 April, 2pm-4pm Frankie & Swiss studio, South Yarra, Melbourne.
Book Review - This I Know - Susannah Conway
by Janine Fitzpatrick
This I Know (notes on unraveling the heart) is a book which explores grief, creativity and growth in a thought-provoking series of essays.
In 2005 Susannah Conway's partner died from a sudden heart attack. Conway gives a moving portrayal of how grief freezes your soul in time and unravels your heart as you work your way through the pain.
As a photographer, writer, blogger and journalist Conway shares how her creative life became a sustaining force in overcoming the loss of the man she loved.
While the book deals with a deeply moving subject it isn't a dark read. Instead the book offers an authentic and ultimately positive look at how difficult experiences can be transcended.
The writing in This I Know has a gentle lyric to it which is complemented perfectly by Conway's beautiful Polaroid photos dotted throughout each chapter. These dreamy watercolour images capturing different snippets of time and emotion give a calming quality to the book.
Conway explores a number of issues in the book. Birth, body image, strength in stillness, finding comfort in your very own "tribe of one", obtaining a sense of belonging and living a creative life are just a few of the topics Conway tackles.
"if you were to take away the paintbrushes and the cameras, the loom, the guitar and the stage, you'd be left with a bunch of people who are compelled to act on their creative impulses. You are left with artists. I believe we are all artists at our core."
Conway shares how each creative medium adds a different element to her life.
"When you're floundering in grief, photography can get you out of the house, while writing is a key for a different door."
Each chapter concludes with a reflection activity for the reader to complete. There are an assortment of tasks including Conway urging you to write not just the standard "letter to your younger self" but a letter to the present you from the woman you will be in twenty, forty, fifty years . Or having you create pretty "treat cards" for yourself, highlighting the things you love. On a regular basis you slip out a card and activate the treat on it be it taking a bubble bath or eating in a nice restaurant, whatever will bring a little joy into your world.
This I Know is a beautiful book, part memoir, part gentle self-help. It acts as a guidebook to uncovering creativity in your everyday life and moving through the challenges of your existence.
Janine Fitzpatrick blogs at Shambolic Living where readers get to feel far happier about their lives when they experience the chaos of hers. She is coming to terms with being the mother of two teenagers, has given up on the dream of a tidy house and still plans to write a book one day.
Women from History: Best Modern Sydney
Marion Hall Best (nee Burkitt) attended Thea Proctor’s art and design classes in Sydney. Another country girl. Along with her painter sister Dora Sweetapple. Marion studied architecture for a year and became intrigued with the ideas of Harry Seidler and Buckminster Fuller. This was a time when women were seen merely as decorators. Marion always thought of herself as a designer.
She became very good at bouncing walls apart. She set up shop in Queen Street Woollahra as Sydney's first interior designer and became an expert in all things modern.
From 1951, Best worked as a founding member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia (SIDA) to encourage public recognition of designers and to improve professional standards.
Best became known for her exhibition rooms, or 'personality' rooms. In these room she was able to express her new ideas untroubled by pesky clients or market demands.
In this case, a 'Room for Peter Sculthorpe.' The vivid green glazes showcase a Jack Meyer's musical sculpture, Magistretti table, Tobia Scarpa leather seats, and Architectural Fibreglass indoor/outdoor furniture.
Glazes became her forte. Layers of transparent paint thoughtfully applied to walls.
This stunning guest cottage in Castlecrag was designed for clients who were very open to Best's High Style.
She admitted "I just did to architectural finishes what friends who were artists were doing to their paintings". Friends like Justin O’Brien. The undercoat was an equal mixture of flat and enamel house paint, and the contrasting glaze a coat of Dulux gloss stained with translucent artists’ oils.
"It was the glazing technique that made the colours sing with such freedom and varying depth only possible with this new found technique. I was interested in Justin O'Brien's technique in oil painting of overlaying a heavy colour over a singing light one such as olive over a brilliant yellow, then scraping it off to a varying scale of transparency. The same with the reds overlaid over pink or greens or rich yellow, whichever he had in mind, and scraped away to such varying transparency of colour, tone and movement. It was this subtlety that made me realise the importance in glazing technique of the choice in undercoat colour for maximum subtlety or brilliance. There was no end to this beautiful discovery, and the variety and contrast of scale from light to dark is thrilling."
Makes for a thrilling apartment.
"Colours were never thoughtlessly used. If one wants to be spun into orbit on fabulous vibrant colour, with an emerald room off a vermilion room, the effects can be magical if other colours in the right scale and tone appear in paintings or through open doors, or mirrors; but is must be planned, and it must look free and not contrived. Whether high or low tone, the same applies. So too the pattern - they can mix, as Matisse has shown us but it is for the highly trained to do and not a salesman of wallpapers. Never for novelty and only a very high plane of intellectual artistry."
Thoroughly modern Marion.
Julia Ritson is a Melbourne artist. Her paintings investigate colour, abstraction and a long-standing fascination with the grid. Julia has enriched and extended her studio practice with a series of limited edition art scarves. She also produces an online journal dedicated to art and scarves and architecture.
Think before you type: by Sharon Givoni
Today, Intellectual Property Lawyer Sharon Givoni (our speaker at the most recent CWC) shares in more detail one of the cases she referenced in her presentation, as well as offers some tips for using social media as a creative business owner. She has written another excellent article about using your own name as a business name for Full Members to access. Thanks, Sharon!
By Sharon Givoni*
In the creative field people are always getting inspiration from other sources.
But what happens when you think someone has taken a little too much inspiration from you and is actually copying you? What can you do?
Well, one thing that you probably should not do is talk about it online on Facebook or other social media outlets, as a recent case between two fashion designers has demonstrated.
What happened in the case?
Leah Madden owns a swimwear brand some of you might be familiar with called White Sands.
She discovered in the marketplace what she thought to be a “rip off” of some items in her 2009 “Shipwrecked” swimwear collection.
Thinking that well-known swimwear company Seafolly had copied from her, she posted an album on her Facebook page entitled “The most sincere form of flattery?”.
She then posted several side-by-side comparison shots of models wearing White Sands and Seafolly swimwear, and below each image Madden wrote descriptions such as: “White Sands 2009 / Seafolly 2010”.
She also added comments such as:
- “Seriously, almost an entire line-line ripoff of my Shipwrecked collection.”
- “I know, the buyer from ‘sunburn’ (who, as it turns out, works for seafolly) Came to my suite at RAFW and photographed every one of these styles.”
- “Ripping off is always going to happen, but sending in a dummy ‘buyer’ to get photos is super sneaky!”
What happened next?
The Facebook statements were read by many people, and received quite the response. People said:
“Nasty! Shame on 'em! Won't be buying Seafolly. WHITESANDS all the way. X”
“seafolly own everything! sunburn, miraclesuit and gottex and they used to own jets but sold it recently! and unfortunately they do rip off everyone, they have copied a design 2 chillies has been doing for years! a little frilly triangle, its so bad!”
“Disgusting! How people look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.”
Media Attention – hungry for more…
Madden then sent emails to media outlets also, using the same words “The most sincere form of flattery?” in the subject line of each email.
Responses from readers included:
“This sort of thing is happening ALL the time. Large corporations no longer have ‘designers’ but ‘product developers’ that source indie designs, copy and mass produce them.”.
“Yeah right Seafolly – you really expect us to believe this garbage?...”
How did Seafolly respond?
In response, Seafolly circulated a press release of their own saying they DID NOT copy at all.
Even though White Sands said that they had never specifically accused Seafolly of plagiarism, the damage had been done by what she had said and Seafolly sued her for misleading and deceptive conduct and other things.
At court, even though Madden argued that she had only expressed an “opinion” – not a statement of fact – the judge disagreed.
Seafolly’s CEO said that:
“This day of internet, where things go viral, once things are released into the public space, no amount of logical reasoning actually matters… Once she put that up there, I was finished anyway… the damage had been done.”
No winners
Ultimately Seafolly succeeded in its arguments concerning misleading and deceptive conduct. White Sands was ordered by the court to pay Seafolly damages in the sum of $25,000 AND Seafolly’s costs of the court application.
Did anyone win though? I would say no. The public airing of their 'catfight' led to both companies attracting some level of negative publicity.
Lessons to learn from this example
- Think before you speak (or at least think before you type, especially when it comes to social media).
- Just because you do not expressly say something, if you imply it, that can be just as bad, legally speaking.
- Always get legal advice!
DISCLAIMER: This article is of a general nature only and must not be relied upon as a substitute for tailored legal advice.
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CWC Full Members can log in and access another article by Sharon entitled 'Protecting your own name as a trademark' over here.
*Sharon Givoni is an intellectual property lawyer. She assists many creative businesses Australia-wide including members of Creative Women’s Circle. She can be contacted by email (sharon@iplegal.com.au) and her website is located at www.sharongivoni.com.au. She has a reputation being very approachable and for giving legal advice using plain English. Call her on 0410 557 907.
Etsy Interactive + Merchandising workshop
An exhibition entitled Etsy Interactive featuring many works from Australian Etsy retailers - including CWC Member Kerrie Oliver of Lloyd Told George (whose piece Urchin, above, will feature) - will run at Fracture Gallery @ Federation Square until 31 March. More info about the exhibition is on the LMFF site.
In addition, the Etsy Australian Team have a few events happening during L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. A "Merchandising for Etsy Success" workshop will be presented by Etsy's Senior Merchandising Specialist, Emily Bidwell on Wednesday 20 March in Melbourne.
Emily will be talking about the importance of photography, styling tools, seasonal trends and tips on getting noticed by Etsy's onsite curators.
Full Members of the CWC can WIN a ticket to the workshop! To be in the running, simply log in to your CWC account, visit this page and enter your contact details by 6pm Friday 15 March 2013 (that's tomorrow!). Two winners will be chosen at random (to receive one ticket each) and notified by email and SMS on Saturday 16 March.
Women in the World: A Follow Up with Lara Cameron
By Joanna Francis You'll remember that late last year, we caught up with Lara Cameron of Melbourne fabric design studio Ink & Spindle, before she took off on a study tour to Nepal. Lara was part of a tour organised by Steph Woollard, founder of Seven Women, a not-for-profit working with women with disabilities. Today, Lara is joining us again to share with us a little about her experiences in Nepal (illustrated with some of her photos!).
Lara, welcome home! Can you remind us of the purpose of your trip to Nepal, and tell us about where you visited and what you did?
Where do I start?! The whole trip felt like a lifetime worth of experiences jam packed into a mere 3 weeks! I guess generally the purpose of the trip was to learn about fair trade enterprises and production in Nepal. We visited a whole host of different fair trade businesses (felt workshops, silversmiths, craft producers, up-cyclers). We learnt about their processes, their challenges, who they employed and how they were making a difference in Nepalese society.
We also spent lots of time getting to know the Nepalese people, learning about their way of life, both in cities and rural areas. Nepalese people are renowned for being friendly and cheerful and that definitely seems to be true. They have an infectiously warm and positive nature. Their lives don't revolve around working, but instead they are centred around family and community. Although these people might be 'poor' by western standards they seem truly happier. This might sound flippant and naive but it really does seem that the simpler your life is the happier you can be. As humans (particularly Westerners) we find it so hard to be content, but having less opportunities, lofty ambitions or obsession with material goods can be somewhat liberating.
Can you tell us a little about meeting the women involved and seeing how Seven Women is supporting disadvantaged women?
Seven Women is basically set up to empower women who are disadvantaged or living with a disability. Steph is passionate about establishing business models that promote self reliance, rather than long term dependence on external aid. Her original centre EPSA used to make a lot of felt craft goods that Steph would wholesale here in Australia. Now they wholesale goods to the local market and are functioning independently, which is great.
Steph has just recently established a new Seven Women centre which is where we spent a lot of time during our trip. The new centre can house up to 10 women and also has a workspace for even more women and a shop front (plus a rooftop terrace and a veggie patch!). We had the great privilege of being able to assist in fitting out the new house and also meeting a lot of the women who live and work there. They are absolutely gorgeous, warm hearted people and a joy to work with.
Is there someone that you met that particularly inspired you, or shared their story with you of how their life had been changed by their involvement?
Well Steph is definitely an inspiring individual, but I have to say I was also very inspired by a social entrepreneur we were introduced to named Sanu Kaji. Sanu established the Foundation for Sustainable Technologies and is possibly the most endearing, enthusiastic and inspirational person we met over there! Sanu has dedicated the latter part of his career designing sustainable fuel alternatives for the Nepalese people, in particular his unique "Briquettes" which are made from a compressed combination of waste paper and biomass (sawdust, grass, leaves or rice husks etc). 1.5kg of his briquettes is the equivalent to 5-8kg of timber in terms of cooking capacity, and he is training people to make their own.
What were some of the obvious challenges in working in an international context like this?
Gosh, where do I start? Communication is an obvious one. There are very few people in Nepal who have fluent English skills, so explaining the finer details of things is definitely a challenge. The Nepalese people also have that tendency to never say no. Very frustrating when you're trying to figure out if or when something can be done! Culturally there are challenges too - they can have a different perspective on what constitutes "good quality"; Steph has worked very closely with her team to make sure they're producing what a Western market would find acceptable. The other massive challenge is rolling blackouts! Most places in Kathmandu only have power about half of the day, and sometimes that allocation is largely at night time! This definitely affects productivity and turn around times - no wonder Western customers get flabbergasted when something takes 3 months longer to produce than they expected!
Did you have the opportunity to share some of what you've learnt through developing your own creative business here in Melbourne?
I did! I think that was my favourite part actually - getting to work alongside the women and teach them things! I went over there with a prototype for a new product - laptop sleeves made from handmade Nepalese felt. The felt they work with is just so lovely and textured and beautiful in its own right, so I thought that we should develop a product that really showcased this. I found myself sitting on the floor of the new Seven Women centre, surrounded by these cheerful and cheeky women and bits of felt and scissors and chalk and patterns, laughing at my poor Nepalese skills and our haphazard communication, generally having a ball. That was great.
Did that experience change or have any impact on the way you view your business practices here?
It did make me appreciate what we have here and how much easier it can be to produce something locally. After seeing first hand how difficult it can be to source the right things and communicate effectively to have a quality product made in a country where "quality" has a different meaning... I feel very lucky that we have the ability to produce in-house and don't have to rely on overseas labour to do what we do.
From an emotional/personal perspective I'd like to think that witnessing the Nepalese way of life changed my perspective on life here a bit. I'd like to have a bit more relaxed pace of life, feel less like I need to constantly be keeping up with trends and what everyone else is doing, and focus more on home and family and friendships to give life meaning.
Will you have any continuing involvement with Seven Women?
I definitely plan to. I still need to ensure the new product line gets produced properly, and I'd definitely like to keep working with Steph on her product range - either hands on or just providing feedback and advice from time to time.
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If you'd like more information about the work of Seven Women or their study tours to Nepal, please go to their website to find out more. And thanks Lara for sharing your experiences with us.
Joanna Francis spends most of her time hanging out with her two year old son. But she also works for a children’s foundation and has recently started her own little business making baby quilts. In the past, Joanna has worked as an aid worker in several developing countries, and is passionate about the rights of women and children. You can visit her and her blog at www.miettehandmade.com
Interview: First of the year
By Andrea McArthur
Welcome! This year I am honoured to be bringing you the "Interviews" column and background information on some of our highly regarded Creative Women's Circle Full Members. I must say that after looking through the Database I have been forming some major creative crushes on the members.
What truly inspires and interests me for this blog series is finding out people's unique journey, what drives them to be creative and to stay inspired. This is what I'll be digging for in the interviews to come.
Firstly I will be using this space to introduce myself, so that you can get to know me a little better.
What led you down your current path?
I have always known that I wanted to work in a creative field, my mother was an Art School dropout and vowed that I would finish what she had started. Back when I was in high school Graphic Design was then called Commercial Art. So after graduating I enrolled into the Bachelor of Design Studies –Graphic Design at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. I found my first job (Graphic Design Junior, In-house at Thiess) as part of a Professional Practise unit with the College. From there it has been a road of many studios and in-house departments. True for many creatives I need to stay motivated and 4 years ago I found myself teaching Graphic Design at a private college, Shillington College. Over the years the most fulfilling aspect of this job is watching the "light bulb" moment happen for students. Teaching is a rewarding path which I currently juggle part time, whilst freelancing and taking contract studio positions. I honestly believe that all creatives should take the challenge to work for themselves at least once in their career, I know that it has been an eye opener for me.
Where do you feel most inspired?
Currently I am working on a personal project called "Mrs Gibbs" with a good friend and colleague Renee Rogers. We have bought basic screen printing materials and have had two sessions of printing to date. I am loving the back to basics aspect and the nature of craft inherent in a hand created art. The freedom to experiment and make mistakes is inspiring me at the moment.
Who do you admire?
It's going to sound corny but some of my students have been the biggest inspiration to me in the last few years. Yes I continue to have creative crushes on beautiful typographers like Jessica Hische and Gemma O'Brien aka Mrs Eaves but these young creatives blow my mind.
What has been your most favourite project in recent years?
My most favourite project is probably one of the smallest and most incomplete designs that I have worked on. However, I was given a lot of creative freedom and was able to concept up several very complete ideas with an element of hand lettering. This has also been one of the most discussed pieces in my folio in recent interviews. The project was a freelance job for Volt Design, for an Artisan travelling exhibition called "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor".
What does a typical day at work involve for you?
At the moment I am juggling a short contract position at an in-house department, rushing off to teaching 2 nights a week and catching up on my freelance client work whenever I can. Phew!
5 Questions in 5 minutes – Getting Personal:
Studio Sounds, what's playing? Art of Sleeping, new Brisbane band on the block.
What are you currently reading? The Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.
What are you looking forward to? Getting back to full time client work and investing more time in building my website and side projects.
Can you share your go to resource for inspiration? designspiration.net and Twitter (@andyjane_mc).
What is your local areas best kept secret? The South Side Tea Rooms, Morningside and The Rabbit Hole Ideation Cafe co-working hub, Fortitude Valley.
Do you also have a creative crush on a Creative Womens Circle Full Member? If so and you would like to learn more about them or have a specific question that you would like to ask them, please email me hello@andyjane.com and I may be able to facilitate your crush.