Allsorts of fun

Let me introduce you to my latest new pieces to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public at the Fremantle Arts Centre Bazaar this weekend. They are vintage wallpaper, polymer clay and resin brooches and although you can't quite see it from this angle they are a little bit liquorice allsort-y as the backs of the brooches are black. Yum yum yum. And they will be available in three different sizes for varying appetites...

I love a good cappuccino...

Today was spent in the warm late spring weather under a marquee at the Vincent Cappuccino Festival. Plenty of North Perth people were out to enjoy the sunshine and among them was Songy of www.stylediscovery.com.au who took some great photos with her kick-a*se camera. See if you can spot Odd Girl Out in the collage in her post: Style Discovery

Speaking of bloggers, An9ie is a girl who gets out and about for her own blog and the one she does for the Community News Group - check out her very comprehensive summary of Made on the Left here.

Everything's coming up roses this time for me...

Sorry about the lack of posts, peeps...it's market season for sure now! Three days ago was the second installment of the Made on the Left Market which went very well, but I think the organising committee (Me, Dara, Ali J, Jacquie, Beth and Rosanna) was ready to fall in a big heap at the end of it. Or into a big glass of wine - take your pick. Lucky it's held at a pub eh?

I'm in the process of gathering together photos of the day from various sellers to provide to Handmade Magazine, who are interested in doing a wrap up, and also for a post on the madeontheleft blog so bear with me.

It's funny how different products sell at different markets. At the Perth Upmarket, I did a roaring trade in vintage lockets.

At Distracted, my 'bobby' necklaces which usually attract smiles and exclamations but never sold before, took off.

And at Made on the Left...well, everything was coming up roses with these products proving very popular.

I wonder what will do well at the Vincent Cappuccino Festival market in less than two weeks time? I've been ordering up a storm supply wise on Etsy to cover all eventualities and it will be interesting to see what the new trend is.

My Flexible Friend

I've been working on new pieces for tomorrow's Distracted market at Aranmore College Hall.

I've been itching the use the vintage wallpaper I gathered on my last trip to Melbourne and yesterday I worked out a new item that I'm very happy with. I sewed the vinyl wallpaper to handpainted silk using circles and circles of stitching, attached a loop of fabric to the back and threaded them on to two strands of ribbon.

I had flexibility in mind, so they can be worn as a necklace, headpiece/fascinator (I was thinking Melbourne Cup actually, dahhhlings), wrist corsage and they could even be pinned to wear as a brooch or decorate a belt. Because they are ultralight they are really versatile and a bit of a step away from my usual chunky polymer ways. I'm quite excited about them actually!



This is the only blue/green version, and there are two different orange/pink/yellow ones made from some delightful 70s wallpaper and silk. The other fun thing is you can scrunch the flowers up to make them more 'closed' than they are here - love interactive features!

My next mission...to get a better model. I'm losing too much time to photoshopping out my wrinkles these days - eeek!!!

Going to Town...the Town Hall that is

Here I am at Perth Upmarket on Sunday...in my wonderful new apron made by the lovely Sam of Fatty DeMonsey Delightful Designs. I always look worried in photos...not quite sure why. Squinty eyes maybe? Thanks to all the lovely customers who came down, and well done to Justine for her organisation of the event. Special thank to my mum for sewing my groovy wallpaper like backstand cover and tablecloth and covering my pinboards, and to Moz for jigsawing my great new display stands xxx.

Given the feedback from customers, I'll definitely be making some more of the red rose and black necklace I am modelling in time for my next market - Distracted in Leederville on October 26.

Vintageous

A highly fortuitous and unexpected stop at an antiques shop has led me down another path...vintage button necklaces. I spent an hour pouring over a huge bowl of necklaces and pulled out some treasures, which have now been fashioned into necklaces...coming soon to a market near you.

Take a walk on the cute side

I've added some cute options for my stock for upcoming markets. I don't usually do cute. Whimsical, maybe. Kooky, indeed. But cute is a road less travelled for this chicky babe.

This image features upcycled toy man pendant on silver toned chain, 'rescuing' some wee Matryoshka polymer clay pendants (entirely made my moi) on gold toned necklaces.

It will be interesting to see what sort of feedback these get at the markets, I may have to push the cute barrow out some more...

IKEA obsession

I try not to love it. It just feels so wrong. I know it's just another mega corporation responsible for many of the ills of the world. But really, how can I resist when IKEA has the coolest frames like this for only $39.95?* Showcasing my latest Vintage Wallpaper Pendant creations which will be onsale at Perth Upmarket.

*I am not employed, bribed or encouraged by IKEA to give them any publicity at all. However, if they would like to a) hire me as a highly paid marketing guru or b)send me large denomination gift vouchers, I would be open to discussion.

Going Upmarket

I'm pretty excited (and apprehensive!) about the Christmas marketing season, which kicks off next Sunday 14 September 12pm at the fabulous location of the Perth Town Hall with the first Perth Upmarket. I was in Spotlight the other day (1 September) and they were putting up the aisles of Christmas decorations. Huh? It was only last Christmas last time I looked.

Anyway, the Perth Upmarket is a new market that has been put together by the lovely Justine, who apart from being an organiser extraordinaire, also has a line of her own children's clothes, Oli B. Designs. Many of me old muckers from the Made on the Left market are going to be represented at the market, plus my good buddy Issy from the wonderful Pinch and Spoon, so the products there should be great, but I think I'm most excited about the delicious looking cupcake stall....mmmmm, caaaaaakke!

I'll be unveiling some new lines at the Perth Upmarket which will be photographed and added to this blog just as soon as I finish them.

Little ladies ready to step out

Matrysoshka Pendants 1, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

Inspired by some of the other clever polymer clay artists on Etsy including J2aney and Polyclarific, I thought I'd take a step away from my customary BIG designs and try my hand at something little and delicate (yep, definitely playing against type there!).

I'm thinking these cute little Matryoshka pendants will make nice necklaces for younger girls. Moz and I were in St Petersburg almost exactly a year ago and went to the market where we bought a beautiful handpainted set of dolls which now adorn our office mantlepiece.

Vintage wallpaper rounds

A group of vintage wallpaper rounds, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

...part two of my adventures in resin. These are going to become brooches very shortly.

At last count, I have four confirmed markets and two possible ones (and perhaps more) coming up between now and Christmas, so I'm going to need to build up a lot more stock. These are just a start...

Adventures in resin

Wallflower necklace in orange lotus, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

This is the result of my latest adventure in resin - vintage wallpaper set underneath a shiny coating. The finetuning continues, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Etsy front page Queen

Etsy Front Page 7/28/08 DaraArt, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

I am officially declaring that DaraArt is the Etsy front page queen!

Here is another of her nifty treasuries featuring yours truely and some of the other Made on the Left gang.

Thanks Dara!

The end of year market rush

This is my page on the retailers section of the Perth Upmarket website, a great new market that I will be taking part in at the Perth Town Hall on Sunday September 14. As far as I know, this is the first time a market will be held in the venue since the early days of the Swan River Settlement, when people used to sell (I'm guessing) chickens and apples in the undercroft. I'm thinking the stock will be slightly higher end in this century's incarnation!

It's also been confirmed that I will have a stall at the North Perth Festival, which will be held for the first time in groovy Angove Street North Perth on November 30. In the meantime, the other Made on the Left committee members and I are trying to lock away the date and location for the second Made on the Left Market, which we are also aiming to do in the next few months. Good Times...!

Thumbs up for the Made on the Left Market!

Odd Girl Out stall Made on the Left 2, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

Wow - what a good night's sleep I had after the Made on the Left Market yesterday. The Hydey was packed to the rafters from about 10.30am to just after 3pm when it quietened down just a little, but it was almost at the stage where you couldn't move at lunchtime.

All the sellers had great products and a fantastic range, and the reaction from everyone was so positive it made all the hard work worth it. As an added bonus, the Odd Girl Out stall did really well too and I think we've finally worked out the best setup.

The other founders and I will be getting together in the next couple of weeks to talk about....gasp for air...planning the next market!

The day before the day after

It's the day before the Made on the Left market and I am feeling relatively well prepared. I spent last night and this morning making 20 pairs of a completely new kind of earring in a style I have named 'Lulu L'Amour' after a fictional 20s flapper with a growly smokers voice and an unfortunate penchant for mint juleps.

Yesterday evening I went to the 10th anniversary celebration of a programme called ArtsEdge, which promotes Arts Eduction in schools. I worked on ArtsEdge maaaaany moons ago and at the celebration they gave me these beautiful flowers to thank me. What a lovely surprise.

The Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra provided the entertainment and had me thinking maybe I should have put more practise in at the piano when I was a kid...they were very good

After the function I raced down to Innaloo (by way of home to pick up Moz) to watch Mamma Mia for my friend Kymbo's birthday.

I have to say, Pierce Brosnan certainly can smoulder but sing he cannot. In fact, the only ones who really could sing in the whole film were the unknown young girls who played the bride (Amanda Seyfried) and her bridesmaids - but I guess they were going the box office names. Funny, I could have sworn Meryl sung fantastically in Postcards from the Edge, but she must have lost it in between. All in all, I don't really think the storyline translated well to a fillum and that sort of high camp would be best left to the stage. And this is coming from someone who is partial to more than a little random Abba too.

Three more sleeps!

Oh no...only three more sleeps until the Made on the Left market and I haven't devoted much time at all to preparing...

All my energy of late has gone into promoting Made on the Left (plus tons of marketing work) and I'm proud to say we achieved lots of coverage from my press releases, including this article about in the local Voice news.

Ali J and Jaquie's fab illustration has got great comments wherever it is distributed and we now have a full complement of stall holders, so I just need to get my Odd Girl Out act into gear by Saturday! Gulp.

I'm hoping to bring the new bobby necklaces (featured in an earlier post) as well as the hairclips that were so popular at the Unwrapped marketplace, and plenty of other things in between.

It will be the first outing for my new hang tags and business cards, which is very exciting for them. They don't get out a lot.

If you are in Perth, come along to the Made on the Left Market at the Hyde Park Hotel West Perth from 11am-4pm this Saturday 12 July. And wish me luck!

Watch out for those needles....

The talented Jacquie from Ramsden Designs has just finished designing the poster for the Made on the Left Market - look at those sassy girls knitting away!

Made on the Left picking up steam

The goblins behind Made on the Left - a new association for promoting creative types in WA - have been rather busy.

Rosanna Elizabeth has written a great profile on Dara - otherwise known as DaraArt - the artist who first came up with the idea of putting this group together. Dara's artistic workings include this lovely piece 'O how brief the time on this green earth':

Read all about her here:

http://madeontheleft.blogspot.com/2008/06/faces-behind-made-on-left-part-1.html

Bobby heads out

Introducting the Bobby collection, a new range of neckware available from Odd Girl Out

Putting my marketing hat on

OK - I've just sent out a media release about Made in the Left, our new association for promoting Western Australian artists, crafters and makers of handmade goodies. If you are curious or would like to write about us, you can see it here:

http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200806/1212500795.html#bookmark

And if you are a WA based crafty type don't forget to visit the Made on the Left website where you can download the application form to take part in the launch event market at the Hyde Park Hotel North Perth on July 12!

New Image for Odd Girl Out

With the help of whizz illustrator and graphic designer Moz Nugent, Odd Girl Out has a new, more streamlined look:

Coming soon, new hang tags ready for Odd Girl Out's retail debut at Little Lost Land, 300 Carlisle St Balaclava Victoria Australia - check it out from June 3 2008.

Left side rules - OK!

Ohhhhh - I've been a very neglectful blogger...but I have a good excuse (promise). I've been working together with some of the other Western Australian handmade crafters to establish a group called Made on the Left Side, which will work to promote unique design from WA.

Our first event will be a market on July 12 at the Hyde Park Hotel in North Perth, and the application form has been loaded up on the website. So if you live in WA and have some great handmade goods to showcase, get onto it!

Made on the left will also have a blog at http://madeontheleft.blogspot.com/ which will hopefully be much less neglected than this one sometimes is...so please leave a comment.

Aussie Aussie Aussie...Aye Aye Aye

I've just posted some of my stone age necklaces on Madeit, an Australian site selling independent wares. There are some very cool things to be found on Madeit, which is not nearly as big as Etsy yet but still growing.

Jewellery making has taken a back seat to marketing lately but luckily I made a lot of stock last month and have been busy listing it on etsy, such as my series of seventies vintage wallpaper

earrings (shown above).

Fame!

Woohoo - my Stone Age beads just made it to the front page of Etsy! Did you spot them?

Mr Blackbird in Flight

It's a beautiful blue skies Easter Saturday day here in Perth, and I took advantage of the this to take some supplementary photos of my Mr Blackbird necklace before posting him on Etsy. Hope you are all looking forward to the Easter Bunny tomorrow... I'll be at an 8.30am Egg Hunt. Sheesh...kids....whati's the rush??? Happy Easter to those who are celebrating!

Unwrapping my new website

It has been an eventful weekend! Swiftly following Unwrapped Market of yesterday, which was a very well attended event, the lovely Moz has got my web page up and running. Be one of the first to visit it at http://www.oddgirlout.com.au/ . What you see at the moment is precursor of the site to come, and we're interested in finding out what everyone would like to see on the 'real' site, so please feel free to visit and email in your feedback and suggestions.

I'm going to be loading new stock to my Etsy store over the next few days so that the lovely people who visited the Odd Girl Out stall at Unwrapped can find the pieces they saw there.

In the meantime, here's a photo of me holding down the fort at the market.

Listen and Learn

On Wednesday night I attended a talk by Perth jewellery Sophie Kyron as part of the Fremantle Art Centre's Fashion Talks series. I always love going to the FAC, if only to look for signs of ghosts (it's apparently the most haunted building in the Southern Hemisphere) and the talk was held in the lovely inner courtyard area. It was very interesting to hear that Sophie is not a trained jeweller and it seems she almost 'happened upon' her successful business, which creates jewellery sought after by mere mortals and celebs such as Kate Ceberano and Toni Collette.

And as for me...the unwrapped market is drawing ever closer and I've just edited over 100 images of the new jewellery I have created, ready to create a catalogue tomorrow. The wonderful Moz is creating a banner as we speak and with any luck we will be ready to go on Sunday.

Bow Wow - WOW!

Last night I was very pleased to particpate in a fundraiser held by the fabulous 'Ladies Who Disco' at the Geisha Bar in Northbridge. The fabulous DJ Missy held the floor with eighties tunes, which were enjoyed very much both by people who experiences that decade the first time (cough) as the young trendsetters cutting up the dance floor in Madonna and Wham tribute looks.

My jewellery together with fabulous clothing from fashion icons Wheels and Doll Baby was raffled at the end of the night to raise money for our furry friends at the Dog's Refuge Home WA.

Also this week, Ali J has blogged about an article in Xpress Magazine featuring our goodies which will be on show at the Unwrapped Market in South Perth next Sunday 16 March. They used a nice picture of my bluebird necklace in the article, which gave me a buzz.

Celebrities one most resembles trap

Ok, there are about a hundred things I *SHOULD* be doing, such as finishing the financials on my business plan for my small business class tomorrow, writing a marketing plan for my new client, making some of the 250 pieces of jewellery I am trying to finish for the Unwrapped Market on March 16....but instead I'm fooling around on the internet. I found a link to a site called My Heritage, which offers a couple of little tricks, one being facial recognition software that tells you which celebrity you most resemble. In my vanity, hoping to get a result such as 'Cate Blanchett - 98%' or 'Megan Gale - 107%', I uploaded a photo from last Christmas. Drum roll please......

I HAVE A 84% RESEMBLENCE TO CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!!!

Try it yourself at My Heritage .

P.S. It is some kind of consolation that my lovely partner Moz looks 55% like Denise Richards...but not really.

Commission time

I was lucky enough to be commissioned Sandra to make a necklace and matching earrings for her friend's birthday. Sandra is a former teaching colleague of my mum's (both of them retired at the end of last year) and first saw my jewellery when I visited my parents in Melbourne for Christmas. She purchased an orange butterfly necklace for her son's girlfriend for Christmas and apparently it was a hit - so she called up to request this special present, to be given by her and another friend.

I rushed home from an intensive marketing workshop that I conducted with a new client on Thursday morning (both businesses booming at once!) and spent the next five hours rolling, cutting, stamping, brushing, piercing and baking the individual beads to make up the necklaces. The first image shows some of the finished beads arranged on my table ready for stringing.


Unfortunately, in my dedication to the task at hand I neglected to do something very simple - drink enough water - and ended up feeling very ill by the time the beads were ready to be strung. It can be very hot here in Perth and it's pretty important to do something as basic as keep your fluids up, but I tend to become extremely focussed when I am making jewellery and forget basic things like eating and drinking. Believe me - it's about the only time I do forget to eat!! So, the upshot of all this is on Thursday night I went to bed feeling rather ill, necklace unstrung, and my partner ended up eating leftovers instead of the nice Valentine's meal I was going to cook him. I finished my commission the next day after recovering- and here it is, ready to be gift wrapped and packed off to Melbourne. I hope Sandra's friend likes it!

Getting to grips with technology

As part of my "conquering the accessories world marketing masterplan", I decided it was time to get jiggy with all the technology out there to expose my blog to the world. Trouble is, I like the technology, but the technology don't like me much. uhuh. I've had allllll kinds of problems from some wierd website 'kidnapping' my technorati link, to my squidoo lens locking me out. Could it possibly be something to do with being a member of generation X rather than Y?

Anyhoo, back onto stuff I do know how to do, I rushed home and made some of these these bright jade - coloured earrings the other day after a long day at business school and made a little dragonfly from the left overs.



I've been experimenting with a new kind of translucent polymer clay and I'm really happy with the glass-like finish I can get. I've also been experimenting with making rings from this material, as the new clay is much stronger than the old kinds I used to work with, which would just break when used on items like rings that get a fair bit of handling. I'll update you on the experiment when I've reached my conclusions!

Feeling blue?

Today was a veritable FRENZY of blue polymer clay making and baking, as I started the countdown to prepare for my first craft fair/designer show in mid-March. Apparently blue is a 'key colour' for the upcoming season, wouldn't you know!

I'm pretty pleased with the pieces I created today, which are quite different from my usual style. I'm going to be asking for some feedback on them and if they get the general thumbs up, I'll be going into superproduction mode to produce them in a few colours. I loaded the bluebird into my etsy shop oddgirlout.etsy.com this evening and will see if it gets many views.

I think my favourite from today is the bow necklace, although I have to do some work on making the design a little sturdier, as the first one I made broke when I tried to buff it. I made this necklace in blue and black, but haven't photographed the blue version yet.

All the kneading, rolling and buffing has plain tuckerd me out, and I'm off to bed soon - as soon as the fireworks stop (must be for Chinese New Year - Gung hei fat choi! Happy to be a rat).

Is this thing on?

Hello world! tap, tap...[is this thing on?] SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK



Ahem, well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - I'd like to warmly welcome you to the opening of my new blog. I'm sorry it's a bit cold and echoey in here at the moment, we're still in the process of fitting it all out, but once we do I promise you it will be really cozy in here. There will be Odd Girl Out jewellery news (or even jewelry for our North American spelling friends), rants about the weather, random postings on the latest dishes I've been cooking - yes, a little something for everyone.



Now, I do hope you'll bear with with me, I haven't worked one of these things before and it will take me a while to figure out the gears, but I'm sure we'll get there soon.



In the meantime, please help yourself to the fairy bread and cordial in the corner, and do check back soon.

xxx

Odd Girl Out