Spotlight: Mishmash Designs

Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Michelle Vella I live in Sth Morang Victoria. My partners name is Bruno and we have 6 sons, Rhys 20, Leigh 18, Alex 15, Ben 14, Samuel, 11 and Max 10. I work at Spoltight Sth Morang, I managed the craft Department there for two years but stepped down as it was way to much for me (Hours) although I am a work freak. I now organise all events at Spolight including all craft workshops..I love it. I love to spend time with my family and I love to go for a swim and also enjoy walking.

What's your best advice for someone starting up? 

My best adive to starting up would be to stay positive, things don't happen over night. Take your time in taking photos and listing your items. I am very focussed on customer support so always answer emails as soon as possible. List new items regulary.

Do you have any advertising/promotion tips for sellers to be successful?

Twitter is a great place to promote your items in your store - twitter.com/mishmashdesigns. Also having a blog is a great idea - mishmashdesigns.blogspot.com. Blogs are great for free giveaways. I think Business cards are great to have as well. Also remebering that family and friends are a great way to get you name out there.

Can you share any lessons that you have learned the hard way?

I can remember when I first started I put the incorrect email down as my paypal. I was so excited when I received my first sale that I didn't even notice that I hadn't been paid for days. So now I always make sure to take my time through listing and enter correct information. Also a good lesson is communication. If you are running late with an order it's always best to be honest and communicate with your customer. Normally people are very understanding but just like to know what is going on.

To read the full interview visit the
Mishmash Designs's spotlight page

Spotlight: Owls are Hunting

Tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello! My name is Jo and I live in Canberra and I actually like it! I do! Canberra gets a tough press! I moved here just over a year ago from a teeny tiny village in the Yorkshire Dales in England where I worked for a bespoke furniture design company who designed for big posh clients like Harrods and Selfridges. I love interiors and homewares so I’ve set up a little business in Canberra (with just the one employee - me!) making lamps and lampshades.

What resources 'have or do you' use to help your creative pursuits (i.e. groups, classes, shops, websites etc)?
We have a fantastic fabric shop in Canberra called Addicted to Fabric so if I’m ever struggling for inspiration I head over there and always find something amazing. I also follow some great design blogs to keep up to date with current trends, and I’m slightly addicted to Twitter – it keeps me connected with other crafters and goings on in the craft world.

What's your best advice for someone starting up?
Be confident in your designs. Stick to your guns. Don’t under value your items – people who buy handmade are cool, intelligent people who want something unique and understand the time and effort and thought that has gone into an item. That’s why they’re buying it!

Do you have any advertising/promotion tips for sellers to be successful?
Firstly: Photography. You need to really take the time to get decent photos of your items. I’m no expert at this at all and I’m still learning with each new picture I take.

Secondly: Take advantage of all the free media stuff that’s out there! Get a blog (I have one! It’s theowlsarehunting.blogspot.com), get a twitter account, get a facebook page, get a flickr account. The more places your name and pictures crop up the more people will find out about you and your lovely products.

Thirdly: Keep your madeit shop looking gorgeous and well stocked. Not only is it a great place to sell your items but it’s also a great place to be spotted by boutique owners, journalists and stylists.

To read the full interview visit the
Owls are Hunting's spotlight page

Spotlight: twirling betty

Tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi there, I’m Christen and I live with my husband and two little girls in Port Melbourne. I grew up in Warrandyte (in the bush about 45 minutes from Melbourne) and after moving around quite a bit I’m thrilled to have ended up in a place where seagulls fly over my house and I can walk to the beach or city. Before I had kids I was a lawyer in a large commercial law firm in Canberra. Loved the people but the rest not so much. So when all our stars aligned and we moved to live in Rome for three years, I chucked it in. I had the time of my life in Rome and basically just swanned around shopping at amazing fresh food markets, visiting art galleries and Roman ruins and learning Italian. Yep, it was truly la dolce vita! I had my first baby, Sophia, there (that in itself was quite the experience) and I remain TOTALLY obsessed with Italy. I miss Rome terribly but feel I’m on the mend as I only cry with nostalgia about once a week now!

Where do you get your inspiration and what is your creative process?

It sounds corny but I really do derive inspiration from everything around me. Since I’ve started creating stuff, I notice colours, textures and patterns everywhere I go. I also find looking at art so nourishing and uplifting and love to flick through the books I brought back from Italy with me. It’s not as if I then go off and create a renaissance-inspired piece (sun visor in red velvet and gold brocade anyone?) but I find it just gets ideas flowing. I take more modern inspiration from the many craft and design blogs that I subscribe to and read pretty much religiously. There are some absolutely amazing people making stuff and blogging about it out there. Quite awe inspiring.

My creative process is really as simple as contemplating the materials I have and trying to come up with new ways to use them. Many of what I consider my best ideas have popped into my head either while I’m in the shower, drying my hair (a long process) or feeding Olive. I suppose these are the times when I’m not necessarily occupied with the other demands of the day and can really let my mind roam without interruption.

How long have you been creating and how did you get into craft/art?

Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention and Sophia’s baby mohawk hair necessitated firm action. I searched high and low for clips I liked that would stay in her fine hair but everything I found was just too pink and fluffy for me. So I went and bought a few pieces of fabric I liked and then started experimenting with fabric and glue and after a few failed attempts, managed to come up with some clips in the fabrics I liked. Things just went on from there.

The funny thing is, until I made my first hairclip for Sophia 4 years or so ago, I really did assume that the creative gene that ran through all the women on my mum’s side in particular had skipped me. I always played piano and studied languages though school and uni but that was really the extent of any kind of right brain activities. In hindsight, the demands of studying for such a long time and then working in a high pressure job I think meant that I just didn’t have any space for anything else in my life. When I was pregnant with my second baby, Olive, I was bitten really badly with the crafty bug. I’m as shocked as anyone really that the creative drive didn’t recede, as I had thought it might, with the hormonal surges of pregnancy! In fact, Olive has just turned one and if anything, my urge to create is just getting stronger and stronger. I’m not really sure how I ever lived without art and craft and in my life.

To read the full interview visit the
Twirling Betty's spotlight page


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Every fortnight madeit spotlights a new designer about their art & craft, advice for success and much more. Be inspired!

Spotlight: Chicken Ink. Creative

Tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello! Wow this is exciting! I’m Tania and I live in the lakeside town of Paynesville on the Gippsland Lakes (it’s the boating capital of Victoria - Google it. It’s great!). My husband, daughter and I escaped - eh I mean... ‘relocated’ here from Melbourne a little over a year ago. I am a stay at home Mum to my beautiful, darling Madeleine (nearly 2), and I also teach general business studies casually at the local community college. My background is in financial services management and training (I know, a totally different world to craft, right?). Oh and I am amateur photographer. Oh and crafter.....of course!



Can you explain your craft/art and the material you like to use?

Fabric, fabric, fabric - and all it’s lovely accoutrements! My items are designed to add beautiful fabric goodness into people’s everyday lives. Bags, fabric covered diaries and notebooks and the like, softies/cushions, soft blocks and more - nice stuff for women and kids. Some buyers are even lucky enough to buy an item embellished with one of my grandmother’s vintage buttons; some of them would have to be over 60 years old!


Where do you get your inspiration and what is your creative process?
From everywhere! Books, magazines, blogs, TV (sometimes but not often), when I am out and about... I like to see what people are wearing and carrying; colour combos, shapes, patterns, styles. Sometimes I just daydream. I always carry a notebook and pen with me to capture those inspirational moments! Once I have an idea, I research different techniques then pull all these together to come up with my own way of doing things.

I test my new designs in calico first, just to make sure that it works in real life the same way that it does in my head. Then I select lots of fabric combos - I always make items in bulk quantities as I feel that it is a better and more efficient use of time and resources to make product in batches (think green!) But each will be different - be it a variation in size, fabric, embellishments etc. I rarely make 2 things the same.

And as I sew, the ghost of my maternal grandmother sits on my shoulder telling me to “baste it and press it as you go if you want a professional finish”- she is a very insistent woman not easily ignored!


To read the full interview visit the
Chicken Ink. Creative's spotlight page

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Every fortnight madeit spotlights a new designer about their art & craft, advice for success and much more. Be inspired!