On Saturday 5 December join Megan Morton in celebrating eight of the most talented Australian makers, as she hosts The Maker + The Market to align with the book launch of The Maker by craft-queen Tamara Maynes.
Taking place at The School in Sydney’s Rosebery from 10am-to-5pm, eight creatives (who feature in Tamara’s book) will be hosting a stall each, demonstrating their creative process and showcasing the fruits of their labour. The stalls will cover a diverse cross-section of mediums ranging from ceramics, leather, paper mache, paper-sculpture, shibori dyeing and extreme knitting.
Forty Nine Studio
“The day won’t be a standard market,” explains Tamara. “But more of a curated celebratory event focused around the book, with eight of the very special makers featured in my book at the market telling their stories and sharing their creative process.”
Makers include Jacqui Fink, a crafter of hand knitted oversized textiles and installations; Pepa Martin, creators of limited edition, hand bound and dyed shibori leather products; and Forty Nine Studio, designers of ceramic tableware, bowls, serving dishes and platters that are designed for everyday use.
Jacqui Fink
Tamara, the brains behind the pages of the soon to be released The Maker will be there on the day, sharing her experiences of documenting the special projects that are inside the cover. From 4pm The School will host drinks and a book signing.
Each week we shine the spotlight on some of Australia’s best designers, artists and stylists and have them share with us what’s making them tick; anything from the best advice they’ve ever received to their favourite holiday destination. Today we chat to Megan Morton, prolific stylist, designer and author and founder of The School.
1. Who is your favourite musician? Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.
2. What is your favourite holiday destination? I hate it when people say amazing places (who doesn’t love Sicily, Paris and India?!) but unequally love Tasmania and Queensland.
3. The best gift you’ve ever received? My three children.
4. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? If you’re going to do something, just do it well.
5. What is your favourite piece of furniture you own? At the moment I love my new four poster bed from Incy Interiors and I have made it my own with grey dipped socks. It also makes for a great bed-robe! I air my maxi skirts seasonally on its handy four posts.
Megan Morton’sThe School has long-held some of the most exciting, creative and just plain kooky workshops around. From knitting and styling to cooking and clay-making, there’s something for everyone, problem is it’s Sydney based. Well, it was…
Now, Megan’s taken The School on the road, with her masterclasses popping up in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and even, New York!
This October, the best of the Southern Hemisphere will come to NYC in one jam-packed weekend. So if you’re one of our American readers, or you just happen to be that side of the world come 10 and 11 October, here’s what you can expect.
Beginners calligraphy with Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls; Paper cut garlands with Miso; Instagram debunked with Stephanie Somebody; Science of styling with Megan Morton; Clay collisions with Shino Takeda; Extreme knitting with Jacqui Fink; and Florography with Ashley Woodson Bailey.
Prices start from $160, with the workshops taking place in some absolutely dazzling and incredible spaces. See the full schedule here.
While indoor plants used to be seen as a bit uncool, they’re now anything but and the trend for them seems to keep on growing. In response to this, some seriously great pots and planters are springing up on the Australian market, not least these lightweight beauties by Design Twins, launched this week. The good news is, Interiors Addict readers can get $30 off for the next 24 hours!
One of half of the duo, Crystal Bailey, said they’ve been heavily inspired by Scandinavian and industrial design, which is very similar to their popular concrete homewares.
The Design Twins’ initial concrete homewares have been flying off the shelves
“Our favourites are our Dot and Cross pots, because they suit any space of any home and will guarantee life to any room, once a beautiful plant is added. They also have uses for storing toys in children’s rooms, in the pool area for holding towels, or for storing linen in the bedroom.”
The pots are hand painted in Sydney and made from fibre clay, designed for indoor and covered outdoor areas. You should allow four weeks for delivery.
Available in 28 styles and three different sizes, there is sure to be one to suit any interior. The hardest part will be choosing which.
Get $3o off any order of the new lightweight pots for 24 hours only, until 4pm AEDT tomorrow (Thursday 5 February 2015) using the promo code INTERIORS30 at checkout.
We love supporting small businesses in the interiors and homewares industry and last year, one couple (in love and business) stood out. They were Crystal Bailey and Mitchel Lindsay from Design Twins and we are a bit smug with ourselves for having been the first blog to feature their gorgeous concrete wares!
Crystal and Mitch of Design Twins
The business was in fact, only launched six months ago in June. “The adventure has become a dream come true,” Crystal says. “We spent the start of the year working on original designs that no one had ever seen before and decided to make them all out of an industrial obsession with concrete! It turned out to be so much fun that we would start selling them at the markets. We started to gain a fair amount of interest on social media when we started participating in Interiors Addict’s 7 Vignettes challenge (thank you for being the reason I woke up so early, half asleep in my PJs to take a styled shot!), so setting up a website seemed like a natural thing to do. Once our website was live, our orders were so huge, that we had to move out of our tiny little apartment and into a home with a workshop. It was bittersweet, because we still miss that cute little place on the beach!”
A few weeks later, the couple started receiving a large amount of interest from stockists around the country and decided to move Design Twins into a warehouse, where they juggled business with other jobs and family and then Crystal found out she was six weeks pregnant on her 30th birthday!
(I told you they had a big year!)
“The following month, we moved home and our warehouse again, but it all finally works perfectly and we are working on a brand new collection,” says Crystal. “It’s definitely the hardest we have ever worked, but everything has been so worth it. We have had our products featured in our favourite magazines such as Real Living, Marie Claire and Inside Out and currently have our products stocked in the most beautiful homewares stores such as Fenton & Fenton, Ahoy Trader and The Minimalist. We were also invited to teach sold out concrete classes at The School by Megan Morton.”
In October, Design Twins exhibited at Grand Designs Live and they had a sale event on Temple & Webster.
“All of this, with huge amounts of online orders, and it’s been one crazy, fun, exhausting but rewarding year for us! Everything happened so naturally that we actually can’t explain how it all happened, but we have always remained inspired by others, constantly designing and true to ourselves.”
Crystal credits stylist Megan Morton for the initial inspiration to launch the business, after attending one of her workshops, which she described as life-changing.
For anyone who’s missed out on taking a vignette class with interior stylist and one time 7 Vignettes judge, Kara Rosenlund, this could be your golden opportunity.
Held at Megan Morton’s The School in Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney across May and June, the class will give you all the confidence you need to identify the best conditions to shoot in, construct your vignette arrangements and generally make beautiful images.
The class is a mix of practical and theory and promises to tackle your ‘inner Instagram demons,’ so when it comes to 7 Vignettes time, you’ll have no reason to be afraid!
Everyone’s favourite stylist and craft queen, Megan Morton, LOVES Christmas and is heading to NYC with her family to celebrate this year. Here’s what’s on her wishlist…
“All proceeds from the oranges (and the other beautiful felted fruits!) go to the Asylum Seekers’ Resource Centre and make wonderful newborn gifts or fabulously exciting gift toppers!”
2. Vetiver scented drawer liners, $65, from Hermes
Those attending Megan Morton’s science of styling workshops in Melbourne in October will experience award-winning design firm Hecker Guthrie’s headquarters.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for design and styling lovers to take my class in a never-been-open-to-the-public before setting as well as having the bonus of being co-hosted by the Interior Designer of the Year himself, Mr Paul Hecker,” Megan says.
Whether or not you’re a horsey person is not the point. If you love fun and gorgeous things, head down to stylist Megan Morton’s The School for the Horses Birthday Fete next month!
Did you know all horses celebrate their birthday on 1 August (in the Southern Hemisphere anyway)? I didn’t, and I’m loving this discovery! To celebrate, The School is putting on a serious show over the weekend of 3 and 4 August. “Even if you have been to a Horses Birthday Fête before, I promise you this one will be different,” says stylist Megan, and you just know she means it!
If you’re ready to tackle your kids’ rooms once and for all and are up for an intensive all-you-need-to-know, three-hour decorating workshop with stylist Megan Morton and interior designers Arent & Pyke, clear your diary for Thursday night! Megan fans will know she has just launched her latest book on the topic, I Love My Room, and Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke are a mum-to-be and a mum-of-one respectively, as well as being award-winning interior designers.
“What this is not is a repeat of the book in any way, nor is it a master class,” says Megan. “What it is is a potentially house-changing decorating workshop dedicated to one of the most hazardous rooms in the house — your kid’s bedroom!”
This class will cover the pitfalls and the opportunities of kids rooms. “Children’s bedrooms are loaded with trapdoors, as anyone who lives with them well knows! Explore the potential of yours with a class that talks to all age groups, styles and budgets. How to make the most of the area, how to avoid common traps and how to think like a kids room decorator are all covered,” Megan explains. Special guests Arent & Pyke will show and share their best ideas for rooms that can work for all budgets. “All in all it will be inspiring, great learning and could potentially save you hundreds of decorating dollars on the real rooms of the house!”
I have always wanted to meet Kara Rosenlund, the stylist and owner of Frankie the caravan, from which she runs her Travelling Wares store. Only problem is, she is in up in Queensland. However, this weekend, she will be in Sydney, at Megan Morton’s The School, on both days! She sets off on Wednesday and is bringing Frankie, with lots of lovely wares for sale, with her! I ‘m so not missing this so I’ll be there on the Sunday. If you see me, say hi!
There’s all sorts of cool stuff happening at The School this weekend on account of it being its first birthday. From 10am to 4pm on both days, go along for a visit, a free pavlova party and a free kids craft class. Find out more at The School’s website.
If you took part in the very first 7 Vignettes, my monthly Instagram photo/styling challenge, you’ll remember the lovely Kara Rosenlund was the guest judge. As well as being very generous with her comments and advice on participants’ efforts, we also saw how AMAZING she is at styling vignettes in her home with the most ordinary of objects (sometimes even chooks!).
You probably already know Rachel Castle’s sellout pokadot pillow cases, velvet round cushions and colourful artwork. If you’ve seen the saying Put The Love In The Coconut around the place, you’ve seen her happy creations for her label CASTLE.
Rachel Castle of CASTLE
I’m delighted to finally interview Rachel for Interiors Addict but it’s taken a while because her life, by her own admission, is a little hectic, like most creatives I’d say. Also, her work is so popular that she can’t make enough of it (“I get really cranky customers writing ‘BUT EVERYTHING’S SOLDDDD,’ which is great, but I often feel so bad I’m not making things quick enough!”).
Whether she’s inspired or frustrated though, there’s never a day when Rachel doesn’t want to just make things. “Inspiration is a funny old thing. It comes in the night time when it’s a complete shag to get out of bed and write it down, why is that?! I think the thing for me is to keep it real, to say what I want to say rather than what I think others might like/not like me to say. Having said that I keep the language well and truly nice, unlike in real life!”
Limited edition teatowels, designed to be framed, are an affordable $59
While her work is always vibrant and colourful, that isn’t a conscious decision. “I just know when something looks right to me. With inspiration I think there is an equal part frustration. I am just as frustrated as I am inspired at times, which I think keeps me busy and making things constantly. Sometimes it works, others it doesn’t. That’s just life and I think being aware of this keeps me moving.” Fashion also influences Rachel hugely and she turns to fashion magazines when her brain “feels dull”.
A pineapple piñata, extra large confetti on the floor, walls full of instagram photos and lots of smiling faces: it could only be Megan Morton’s fun book signing celebration party at The School in Sydney.
Remember the #thingsilove seven-day Instgram challenge Megan and I teamed up on last month? MM and her team (including the lovely ‘Sophie the stylist’ who I met for the first time last night!) created two walls full of participants’ most gorgeous photos. It was so much fun checking out the huge collages! Prizes were also given out for the best photos for each day and even special mention rosettes!
Abigail, after a horror 48-hour flight from London, arrived in Melbourne hours before her first round of masterclasses and then flew on to Sydney to deliver her class again at Megan Morton’s The School to a room full of Sydney (and New Zealand!) based designers, stylists and interior fanatics.
Aussie stylist Jane Frosh with Abigail Ahern
Abigail is a fun, creative, headstrong soul who scoffs at rules and appears determined to break them. She doesn’t take herself or her branding too seriously which, I believe, is part of her charm. Her talent is outside the box and unconventional.
Her constant references to Alice In Wonderland had the group hanging off her every word. She mixes up scale and proportion, adding friction and grandeur to an interior. Her moody, muted colour palette is both rock & roll and also warm and comforting.
Stylist Megan Morton, author of the best selling Home Love, has a new book launching next week called Things I Love. I’ve seen it already and it is SUPER GORGEOUS. MM has given me a signed copy to give away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is join in our 7-day Insta-challenge, starting tomorrow!
How to play
You’re probably all over photo challenges by now, but in case you’re not, here’s how it works.
Join instagram
Each day (with tomorrow, 18 October, being the first) take a photo to correspond with the words in the square below
Always use the hashtag #thingsilove.
Always tag @jenbishop_interiorsaddict and @meganmorton
I only just told Queenslanders to get excited because Megan Morton was taking her styling and crafing classes to Brisbane. Now I’ve just learned she’s coming to Melbourne in November too. And in another dream collaboration made in stylist heaven, she’ll be holding her secrets of styling one-day masterclass at Glen Proebstel and Rachael Hart’s The Establishment Studio. Sure to be mega popular with the Melbourne people, I suggest you BOOK NOW before it’s too late.
In a marriage made in interiors and styling heaven, Megan Morton is taking The School to Brisbane, where it will be hosted upstairs at interior designer Anna Spiro’s shop, Black & Spiro. Oh. Em. Gee. The Queenslanders are going to be sooooo excited!
Holly Hipwell’s popular flowerbomb class (see my experience here) and Rachel Castle’s screen printing class are just two of the classes on the agenda for the Brisbane roadshow at the end of October.
Find out more and book here. You know how you say everything always happens in Sydney? Not true! Run, don’t walk.
