Women from history: Hilla Becher
By Jasmine Mansbridge
Relationships fascinate me. The fact that two people choose each other and then make a life together is pretty amazing. So, when I was asked to write a series of posts about significant creative women from history for CWC, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the great creative partnerships/relationships in art history... with the idea that there might be something to be learned from them!
In this first blog post I have chosen to look at the relationship of German conceptual artists, Hilla and Bernd Becher. Hilla and Bernd met when they began working together in Dusseldorf in 1957 and they married several years later. Cameras in tow, they adventured about the countryside, united by a shared fascination with the decaying forms of early industrialisation. Over time their singular aim became to preserve what they felt was a disappearing part of modern history. Hilla and Bernd together, were compelled to capture these utilitarian monuments via their preferred medium of photography.
I must admit that it was the photography of Hilla and Bernd and their subject matter that first drew my attention to them. The stark objective way they captured their audience of man made structures, which included water towers, mills and furnaces very much appealed to my aesthetic. The exhibited photographs of these structures were often set into “typologies” or grids, so as to allow for viewers to make comparisons about similarities and differences between the different structures and for them to be able to see the detail and careful workmanship that had gone into the making of many of them.
The Becher’s first began using their documentary style of photography in Germany’s Rhur valley, which was close to home and over the years they then travelled to many other declining industrial centres, in Britain, France, Belgium and the United States.
There is not a lot written about Hilla and Bernd’s relationship outside of the boundaries of their art making. If they lived and worked today, they may have a blog, or an instagram account (!) and so there would be, perhaps, more direct insight into what made them tick as a couple.
So, for the purposes of this post I am relying on mere presumption about the Becher’s personal relationship. They spent decades working together and appear to have consistently shared a singular vision and artistic focus. This is an impressive achievement for one person alone, even more so for a couple. I wonder if the boundaries they imposed on their work contributed to their success in both art and love? If this sustained common goal gave their relationship both stability and longevity?
Hilla and Bernd are also rare in the fact that they appear to be true equals in their art making process. This is apparent when you listen to the talk they recorded for Arch types. Given the times in which they worked, Hilla could easily have only been Bernd’s artistic assistant, and may have accepted that role happily. But, by all accounts theirs was a partnership, a collaboration. The two of them working methodically to create an impressive body of artwork. They obviously valued each others skills and each felt they needed the other to complete the task at hand. They don’t appear to have had solo projects and if they did, they were not the main focus for either of them. This sense of equality surely contributed to their success.
The Bechers felt passionate about the preserving of history and viewed their work as important. I wonder if this dedication enabled them to put aside any differences that may have arisen between them. Was the cause behind their photography greater to them than any kind of competitive artistic ego? In the same way couples will often put aside differences for the sake of their children. I imagine that maybe Hilla and Bernd did this for their works of photography.
Bernd taught photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf for 20 years, until 1996. It was due to internal policy, that Hilla was unable to be employed alongside her husband, although she is said to have been instrumental to the running of the photography department. Hilla obviously accepted this and there is nothing I could find written to suggest she was unsatisfied with the arrangement. Hilla’s position highlights the challenge presented to female artists in the past (and lingering into the present). The formidable Becher partnership endured until Bernd’s death in 2007 and since her husband’s passing, Hilla has continued to exhibit their work, using the couple’s existing photographs.
When looking at the Becher relationship I felt there were many questions left unanswered. I wonder if the personal details of their relationship were off limits and if it was something they agreed not to talk about. If this is the case I understand. I am comfortable sharing many aspects of my own life, but I respect my husband's need for privacy and do not talk much about “us”. Hilla and Bernd were certainly are an intriguing couple who produced a flawless body of work. For further reading, I'd recommend this book about the Bechers titled Life and Work by Susanne Lange.
I'm very interested to hear from those of you who are in personal relationships with other artists. Have you ever collaborated on a project? How did that go? What are the ups and downs of this? Tell us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
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Jasmine Mansbridge is a painter and mum to four (almost five) kids. She regularly blogs about the intersection of creative work and family life at www.jasminemansbridge.com, and you can also find her on Instagram @jasminemansbridge.
Owning It: A Creative’s Guide to Copyright, Contracts and the Law - pre-order now!
Today is the day, ladies! The HIGHLY anticipated Owning It: A Creative's Guide to Copyright, Contracts and the Law by lawyer and former CWC speaker Sharon Givoni is finally available to order.
What a massive project this has been and you - the CWC audience - have been overwhelmingly supportive throughout the whole process.
I'm excited to share with you here some images from within the book, featuring the works of many female creatives such as Hours After, Fromage La Rue, The Gently Unfurling Sneak, The Bell Jar, Nancybird, Marnie Hawson. In fact, there are over 140 images by local creatives within the book, which makes it as much a delight to look at as it is informative to read.
Much more detail about what is inside this 560-page tome can be found at the Creative Minds website, and for a little more insight into how it all came together, you can check us out on The Design Files today... thanks Lucy and Lisa for the feature!
The book is available to pre-order through our shop from today, and copies will be posted out from 9 April 2015. Join our mailing list or stay tuned to our social media for details of the upcoming book launch too - you're all invited!
My Advice: The biggest lesson from 2014…
By Andrea McArthur
Now that we are well into 2015, I thought I'd ask three creatives - Heleena Arabatzis, Textile Print Artist of Ulterior Motif; Bec Mutch, Coworking space founder of The Cowork Collective; and Ilona Topolcsanyi, Ceramic Artist of Cone 11 - for their ultiamte piece of business advice based on what they experienced and learned in 2014.
Heleena Arabatzis, textile print artist, Ulterior Motif
Upon reflection, 2014 was certainly a lesson-filled year. My top lesson learned was one surrounding ‘working life’. Like most creative’s starting out, the path is pebbled usually in the same pattern: graduate, intern, full time gig, do what you really love on the side, juggle both roles, hope that your talents are taken seriously enough you can ditch the 'PAYG job' and focus on the 'love job' for the rest of your days.
Finding the core thing that I actually wanted to do for the rest of my life, and realising that I wasn’t fit for the ‘common’ path was simultaneously liberating & daunting… as was revealing this to my family, partner & boss.
[I surmised] my career intents are not based on world domination, the masses, the high-rise climb, the trends etc, [and this] manifested an honest search for answers to restore feeling where numbness unwilling resided. After several quiet moments, I effortlessly refined it to three elements: Motherhood, Travel and Creation. The first two are still works in progress but getting back to practising the act & art of creating happened to be a swifter one. I left my textile art-room assistant PAYG job to jet off. As a way of procuring extra savings, I went to market with my Ulterior Motif designs, all made as part my graduation showcase. To my complete amazement, Ulterior Motif products were ver well received by local audiences! It truly is the height of satisfaction interacting with others and just exploring an artistic spin on the world (even if it is just displayed on a cushion). [This experience] has ultimately grounded my feet… for now…
Finally, with a new found view on (working) life, I plan on having the most fruitful creative year in 2015!
Bec Mutch, founder of The Cowork Collective
It’s funny, when you start something new, naivety can be your greatest friend. That boundless positivity it delivers, helping you block out all the naysayers, gloss over the doubts and the voices in your head that whisper of disaster. Without it I’m not sure many of us would launch new projects at all. And so we start, we plan and take steps and commit, and our positivity and naivety feeding us along the way.
At some point though our vision generally gets a battering, and we are faced with a reality that we may not like and a choice to give up or keep going. I distinctly remember sitting alone at 421 Lygon St on a day when I thought we might need to give up the lease and walk away. I was filled with anger and frustration that my grand vision [of a unique coworking space] was imploding. I wondered what I’d do next if it did all fall apart, and knew that nothing had changed. I still wanted to create a space that felt positive, inspiring and supportive that blended together the best elements of working from home, a corporate office and a creative studio.
So I kept going, and my family and friends kept offering their support, and I began meeting amazing people whose ideas and encouragement gave me reasons to believe it might all be worth it. The doors opened on December 1st 2014, six months after the lease was signed and the renovation budget had tripled. Although there were times when the adventure felt like a relentless chore, I still knew I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Giving myself permission to do something I really wanted to do was one thing. Sticking with it when things got ugly was a revelation. Now I want to shout from the rooftops that it’s so worth it. That even though the roadblocks and challenges along the way may leave you drowning in waves of doubt, if you keep going you’ll end up in a place far better than the one you first imagined.
If you’ve got the dream, you’ve got what it takes to bring it to life. Just keep going…
Ilona Topolcsanyi, Ceramic Artist of Cone 11
For Cone 11 ceramics, 2014 was a year of great beginnings as we developed relationships with some of Australia’s most passionate and renowned chefs. Early in the year we were asked to make an exclusive collection of one-off plates for the Harvest Festival curated by The Gallery of Modern Art, where top chefs including Peter Gilmore, Josh Lopez, James Viles, Dan Hunter and Ryan Squires used our tableware to plate up their amazing creations. From this arose a series of major collaborations that would see us developing tableware for restaurants across Australia. The most significant of these (I’m chuffed to say…) was the making of 250 pieces for the G20 working party dinner at the Gallery Of Modern Art in QLD. Yes - Barack Obama himself has eaten dinner off my plate!
It was an exciting and prosperous year for us and many of these projects are gently flowing on into 2015. With the excitement of these commissions comes a little stress, a lot of hard work, many failures but an even greater number of successes with many valuable lessons learnt along the way. The most important for me were learning about setting some limits, knowing when to say 'no', understanding my boundaries and estimating how much work can realistically be taken on without burning out. Above all I developed a new appreciation for leaving time for a little personal creative play – keeping myself in touch with the love of what I do and the passion that drove me into this creative practice in the first place.
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Andrea McArthur (www.andyjane.com) has a passion for all things visual and works as an Art Director and Designer in Brisbane. Type is her true love and goes weak at the knees over strategic design. You’ll find her sharing on Instagram @andyjanemc.
A guide to quoting and invoicing
By Jes Egan
Having worked in the management side of the creative industry for almost all of my working career, I’ve never really thought about quoting for work or invoicing once it's done. It has always just been taken care of for me! However, in my current job I lecture ‘business by design’ at Billy Blue College of Design, and earlier this trimester I asked my usual question in the first class: ‘What do you want to learn about business?’. Overwhelmingly the responses were ‘How do I charge for my time?’ and ‘How do I put a quote together?’.
It struck me that knowing what to charge, and how to charge, is something that creative and small business owners often struggle with. So here is my guide for quoting and invoice for your creative work.
Determining your rate
Putting a value on your work or your skills can be a very hard thing to do. My advice? Value yourself and what you do. People pay for you for something they don’t have the skill set to do, so try to give a value to your time. There a couple of ways to do this:
1. Think about how long that job is going to take you to complete, considering every step and every action. For example, if it’s going to take you 10 hours and you’re charging the client $100, you’re making only $10 an hour. That's not event minimum wage! Decide what your hourly rate should be and start from there.
2. Review what other ‘similar’ individuals or businesses charge for their time. Don’t necessarily copy this rate, but use it as a guide. If others are charging between $40-$80 per hour then think about where you sit within the spectrum of skills compared to those people. Are you just starting out and maybe not as experienced as some of those charging the higher end of that range? Then charge a lower rate than those until you become more experienced, or vice versa.
3. Sometimes (and it should be only sometimes) you might decide quote 'low' just win a job, because it's for a client that you really want to work with, or you’re trying to crack into a new industry or gain experience or skills you don't already have. I say that this is okay, as long as it doesn’t become the norm. Remember value yourself and your time.
Preparing your quote in writing
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a client request something extra during the course of a job (adding to your time or the skills and experience you bring to the work), and then refused to pay for it because the details of the initial quote were ambiguous. When it comes to project quotes, the devil is in the detail. Unless your quote clearly outlines what is and isn't included for the total price you're quoting (before any actual work begins), if the final fee is above what the client expects, it can be a difficult conversation to have.
The key is to be very, very detailed in your quote and if a request for additional tasks or the scope of the job changes after the original quote is approved, then it's good practise to provide them with an additional quote or 'change request’ and have this approved also.
With any quote, ensure you get the client to sign it off and/or supply you with a purchase order before you start the work. I know that sometimes this admin side of business can get in the way of doing the real creative work, but it is important - a few minutes to do this correctly can save you so much time and hassle in the long run.
Here’s an example of what kind of information I might include in a quote.
Preparing an invoice
An invoice is what you send to the client in anticipation of a payment milestone or completion of a job. It details the work that has been completed (or details of a deposit before starting a job) and includes your business details, bank account details, payment terms and other essential tax information.
Here’s an example of what an invoice could look like:
While it might be tempting to simplify your invoice down to a single final 'amount due' total, I personally find that an invoice which contains almost as much detail as the original quote can alleviate many client queries and objections (and possibly the delay of payment). You don't have to list a blow-by-blow account of the work completed, but a client will generally appreciate some detail of what is being invoiced for.
The tax stuff
An ABN (Australian Business Number) is important to have, although it isn’t mandatory if you're a sole trader. However, other businesses may be legally bound to withhold almost half of any payment to you for tax if you don’t quote an ABN on your invoice. Half! You maybe able to claim this back at tax time, but in my opinion it is better to apply for an ABN at the Australian Business Register and have this ready to supply to any potential client.
Registering for GST is another thing to think about if you run a creative business in Australia. If you are expecting to earn less than $75,000 per financial year, then technically you don’t have to register, but if you think you could be nearing that amount then you may need to. Have a look at more info on registering for GST here, and be sure to contact a professional in the area of tax and accounting before you send off your first invoice.
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I know numbers aren’t always the ‘fun’ bit of running a creative business, but they are necessary and it is important to set up good systems from the outset. Of course, professional advice from an accountant, a lawyer, bookkeeper, the ATO or other professional body is always recommended before you jump in head first into quoting or invoicing for your creative work or starting a business - it may save you a whole lot of hassle and pain in the long run. Then you can have some fun with the money that comes in at the end for all of your hard earned work!
Jes is a ‘practical creative’ and a very busy lady, doing the business in a digital agency, being an artist, a university lecturer, and small business owner who can creatively be found cutting up a storm at paperchap.com. Follow Jes on Instagram and Facebook.
High Five launches just in time for International Women's Day 2015
To coincide with International Women's Day (this Sunday, 8 March!), we've launched a new page on our website: High Five.
It's aim is to become a directory of guilds, associations, non-profits and other informal collectives that support, advocate for and promote the work of women in specific creative industries. We're starting small, and in the directory it you will find details about Parlour, which discusses issues and promotes women in Australian architecture; Women of Graphic Design, an international project focused on exhibiting the contributions of women in graphic design and exploring issues of gender-equality in education provided by design institutions; LISTEN, which exists to spark and cultivate a conversation around women’s experiences in Australian music; and others.
Check out the directory here and help us grow it by suggesting other industry-specific organisations aimed at promoting the work of women and inspiring debate about gender equality.
And don't forget to show the world how you are celebrating International Women's Day 2015 this weekend via your social media - hashtags include #seemejoinme and #iwd2015.
The Creative Business Traveller’s Toolkit
By Diana Scully
Last year, I shared with you my tips for relocating yourself (and your creative business) overseas, based on my recent experience doing just that from Melbourne to Los Angeles, taking my interior design business with me.
To be honest, setting up a new home and establishing a new work lifestyle has not been as glamorous as I had initially imagined. Let me be clear, spending time in LA and the US generally has been incredible, exciting and a total adventure, but when your business is set up in Australia, a relocation to a new city brought along some new challenges.
But I've worked hard and want to share with you today my 'business traveller’s toolkit': a repertoire of essential services I needed to stay connected to my lifeline back at home AND remain flexible in the US. I hope these tools will offer the support you require to travel with simplicity, enjoyment and greater peace of mind - for short or long periods of time.
Your essential gear.
These items may appear obvious, but if you aren’t accompanied with the right tools to travel, stay organised and be more flexible, it’s going to be a long unproductive day - every day - on the road. Seriously.
1 / A light-weight, reliable laptop. The market has so many good options so its up to you to choose the right one for you. If international travel is on your agenda, consider an Apple product as their warranty covers you worldwide. Last year, when my computer completely shut down one morning (who knows why!), I was able to visit my local Apple store in Santa Monica and receive assistance on the spot. The issue was rectified immediately (including my streaming tears) and didn’t cost me a dime.
2 / Another obvious one, but a reliable mobile phone that allows for international data roaming and sufficient storage for all the apps you’ll need (see below). Make sure you activate international roaming before your departure to avoid having to sort this out when you arrive in your new location.
3 / A hard disk drive to back up everything! I set up reminder on my laptop to back up my work on a weekly basis. It has been a lifesaver, especially when my laptop shut down completely that one day. Also, a hard drive is a good place to store your ever growing travel photo collection (rather using up valuable storage space on your laptop). You’ll need as a minimum 1 TB of storage.
4 / A good pair of headphones with premium noise reduction feature is a must. For the many occasions I found myself working in public places like cafes, co-work spaces and libraries I needed my headphones to block out any distractions. My headphones also came in handy listening to music and podcasts in long lines, on road trips and in airport lounges.
5 / The final piece is the ultimate bag. Depending on your style, make sure its comfortable to wear for long periods of time and large enough to factor in cords, adaptors, drink bottle and lunch! For me, this was a back pack with padding for extra support.
Your essential online services.
Now to the good stuff. Here’s the essential digital services I found most useful while away from home. You may already be using some of these, but hopefully you’ll discover a few good new ones to add to your own toolkit if travel is on your agenda this year.
1 / Skype - No explanation needed here. This was my direct line back home either for telephone or video calls. A great option for my clients who called to show me the progress of their home.
2 / WiFi Finder App - Prior to my departure to the US, I never envisaged having difficultly finding WiFi in the US, particularly LA and NYC. However, proven wrong in the first week, access to free WiFi was not as readily available as I had hoped (plus I didn’t find the interiors or the coffee at Starbucks the must conducive to a good day’s work!). Luckily this app helped me locate both free and paid WiFi services on the go.
3 / Dropbox - A place to save and store all your work using their cloud storage system. Firstly, if you ever need more storage, you can simply buy it online (without having to buy another portable hard disc drive). Also, you can create public links to your files to share with clients and travel photos to share with family. The collaborative nature of this service is a winner.
4 / Xero - This is a brilliant service to manage all your accounting and business finance needs online and via a mobile app. When I incur any business expenses as I traval, I simply take a photo using my phone and upload it immediately into my Xero account. Goodbye paper trail! Also, my accountant is able to log into my online account and manage any issues from her own office. This real time aspect allowed for issues to be dealt with in a timely manner and avoid unnecessary phone calls at unusual times of the day. While its not a free service, the various fee options available are very reasonable and certainly a worthwhile investment.
5 / Desk Time App - There have been some times when I can’t fathom working another day in another cafe all alone. So I loved to search for co-work spaces nearby using the Desk Time app. If your budget allows it, a co-work space is a great opportunity not only to give you access to reliable internet and amenities that you’ll need for a great day’s work, but an opportunity to also interact, network and meet new people. While in Santa Monica, I had the opportunity to work at Google’s old headquarters (which is now called ROC). Whilst here, I met some wonderful people, including future clients and one of the celebrities from the US TV series, The Bachelor! I also heard that Jessica Alba had her own private office here, however, I unfortunately never ran into her.
6 / Hoot Suite App - A popular online service to plan and prepare all your social media platforms in advance. While I’m the type of person who likes to prepare social media posts only a day or two ahead, when my husband and I decided to take a road trip along Route 66 for two weeks, I knew that access to WiFi was going to be limited, especially in the desert!
7 / Trello - If you love lists and tools for keeping organised, then you’ll love Trello. This online service allows you to organise projects into boards and even access those boards via a mobile app (which I found perfect when I wanted to snap a photo of a cool armchair and upload it immediately to a client project board). Trello also allows you to invite team members, clients and family to your boards to add comments and upload images.
8 / EventBrite - Prior to leaving for the US, I jumped onto this site to see what events, seminars and gatherings relating to design were on in LA. Fortunately for me, at the time, one of my favourite design bloggers was holding a seminar at her studio on social media and blogging - So I grabbed a ticket and a month later, I was in her studio in LA talking with her! So exciting! A great platform available in many countries around the world to connect you with events in a new city.
While this list of services is not exhaustive (I am yet to find the ultimate app that locates for you the best coffee in the US), they’ve all been super helpful in keeping me connected, organised and productive with work commitments and my nomadic lifestyle. With just about everything now being available online, it meant I could travel more lightly and freely, which is the ideal way to travel (trust me, I learnt this the hard way).
If you have any other great online services to recommend then please share them with us via Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. I’m back in Melbourne at the moment, but off to the US again this year and this time I'm feeling a little more prepared and ready! I hope that these tools empower you to feel in control and secure with your travel/work adventures too.
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Spaces by Diana is all about designing beautiful, personalised homes that reflect the owners. Principal Designer, Diana Scully, is passionate about creating homes that offer good design without the price tag. Diana also has her own lifestyle blog, Spaces + Places, where she regularly writes about inspiring spaces, places to visit and recent travel adventures. This year she has plans to spend time abroad in the US. Follow Diana on Facebook, Instagram and Pint
{Images via Death to the Stock Photo}
Interview: Louise Mulhall of Floralovely
By Keely Malady
Louise Mulhall is a Brisbane based Calligrapher and holder of possibly the most delightful business name I’ve yet encountered – Floralovely. With a background in floristry, it’s not surprising the find that Louise’s whimsical and fresh designs have attracted a strong Instagram and Facebook following, with demand growing for her pointed pen style.
Returning to an art practice that you had once been disappointed by is a courageous move - especially with a young family in tow. But Louise’s late night explorations in modern calligraphy have paid off handsomely, as her delightful creations are in demand for weddings, events and corporate clients. Louise also runs workshops across the east coast, to share her skills and passion with aspiring calligraphers.
Calligraphy is an ancient and evocative art practice, what initially attracted you to it? I initially became interested in calligraphy when I was in high school - I was always the girl at school with the highly decorated “title page” for assignments! For a short while I learnt broad nib calligraphy, but became disheartened when I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. So I put my tools away and didn’t give them another glance until many years later, where I discovered pointed pen calligraphy. This discovery of the tools which complimented my style unleashed my creativity and I fell completely in love.
Having worked in the wedding industry for many years, I could see there was a market for my own style of handwritten place cards and wedding invitations. I researched modern calligraphy online; bought all the recommended books I could find, did online courses and completed a modern calligraphy workshop in Sydney. I spent many, many hours at night once my daughter and subsequent son, were asleep refining my style and working my way through reams of practice paper and ink.
The name 'Floralovely' was intended to capture my love of both flowers and calligraphy, allowing flexibility between these two aspects of my business. Ultimately though, I decided to focus exclusively on my calligraphy business and put my Floristry career into hiatus.
What are the biggest misconceptions about your work?
If you were to look at my Instagram you might be lead to believe that my days are filled with playing with pretty papers and shiny inks when in actual fact my days are usually filled with taking my kids to swimming lessons or playing with play dough! Social media can be quite deceptive in that way.
As my children are still so young, I limit the amount of orders I take for calligraphy as my main job at the moment is Mum. I spend most days with my son and daughter and then work at night while they are asleep.
There’s a lot more involved with my business that just sitting down and writing for a couple of hours. I liaise with clients, order supplies, organise workshop venues and ticketing, create calligraphy drafts in pencil and I spend a lot of time practicing my lettering.
I definitely couldn’t keep working this hard if I didn’t love my job. I feel a great, personal fulfilment being able to write calligraphy for work and still be there for my kids when they need me.
My favourite quote at the moment is from Will Rogers (1879-1935) - “If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.”
What have been your greatest challenges in starting your own business? I’ve found my greatest challenge is managing my time between work and family, which I’m sure is an experience shared with any working mother! Making the most of my child-free days is imperative, as well as a having a tolerance to late nights in the office. I try to stay out of my office on the days that my kids are home with me as I want to make sure my attention is on them and not on my work.
I have also found it challenging to keep on top of the administration work while still allowing myself plenty of writing and creative time. It’s easy to get caught up in emails and admin when you’re doing everything yourself but I need to make sure I have dedicated writing times where I don’t look at the computer.
What part of your day gives you the best 'flow' in your work? I really enjoy when I have a long list of names for a place card order or envelope addressing and I sit down with a cup of tea and just work my way through the list. It is so satisfying to see all the cards or envelopes lined up with the ink drying after I have finished them.
Talk us through a day in the life of Floralovely.
On the two days my children are in daycare/kindy, after the morning chaos and drop offs, I come home and settle into the stream of emails and admin work with a cup of tea.
Once I’m up to date, I’ll review the client brief and start warming up for writing. I’ve found I just can’t sit down and expect to start calligraphy work straight away. I I need to do a few pages of swirls, drills and practice alphabets to get going.
I’ll spend the rest of the day working through the order, whether it’s envelope addressing, place cards or a seating chart and before I know it, it’s time to pick up my littlies!
I mostly practice my calligraphy at night-time in the home office I share with my husband. In these quieter hours I have found the perfect environment that allows me to get my ink ‘flow’ happening. Everything is fairly still, my children are sleeping and I can really concentrate on what I’m doing.
----- Keely Malady is a twenty-something year old graduate architect living in Melbourne. Keely’s blog, Small Talk & Co. aims to hold a space open for a new conversation on the wonders of the small things that make up a life well lived.