winter pieces

Our winter range is instore at our beautiful stockists, online and available at the upcoming Brisbane Finders Keepers.

little break turns BIG

I am sorry to have a blog sometimes, as I neglect to keep posting, and life runs away and away. Little did I know that living in Vietnam would stretch me so far... really I came here with the hope of learning an instrument and crafternoon-ing every weekend. Actually I feel so spread thin that at the moment it feels like nothing is right. I give my all here and Kindling feels left behind.
Just last week I went to Bangkok to pick up my son, who is living here with me now too, rather then us back and forth-ing so much. Full on world for him to enter, but he takes it in his stride and he loves the food, so we are OK.
Some random shots of everything not Kindling......

Saturday at the pagodas

It was grey and a little cold, but I had such a lovely day, cruising the countryside, with friends, we walked and ate simple food cooked in simple ways on little chairs, breathing lovely crisp clean air and I gazed at leaves and trees and listened to the rustling of life and green all around me.

so exciting!

We did it, found screens, ink and an amazing crew at Boo who have supported us to expose some screens. We have a new most awesome cutting/printing table.
We mixed colours and played with ink. And then there was a whole new range of masks. Next stop 'loungewear' I will post some samples over the next weeks.

Does anyone recommend ink brands over this way ?? -  The waterbased inks so far stink so bad, I am sure they are high in solvents and I would like to find better ones.

Finders Keepers Melbourne

It's the weekend next after this one. The lovely Lydia and James will be running the Kindling space... drop in for a hi... we have some beautiful new vests, dresses and illustrations ready.... and we will be offering 10% sweetness discount for anyone that mentions this post.

some faves

A cloud project

Hola beautiful friends, I love the sky but I can't ever see it in Hanoi. I just returned to Vietnam after a little holiday in Cambodia, where the most amazing thing (that made me very very high) was the sky I could see everyday, with white clouds and birds flying and warm breezes. Now I am back in the grey bubble and rather then get SAD like before I would like to ask you all to email me a photo of your blue sky.... It could be one you have already, or you could just go outside and take one right now of the heavens.... I will print them all and collage them onto my bedroom wall......... ...please let me know where you took the photo...more then one is great! Then I will have a big blue sky every time I wake up.... plus a reminder of you all ... and be sky high... hehehe... xxx Nina

Cambodia lovin

KeoK’jay t’s and belts - upcycled fabrics, screen printed and organic- photo by KeoK'jay

KeoK’jay bracelet and p’gaa skirt - photo by KeoK'jay

So glad to have spent two weeks in Cambodia, being loved up by the sun and inspired up to the max with the multitude of amazing creative organisations I discovered everywhere.
I have never been in a place where there was so much awareness and support for marginalised people to be empowered through creative industry training and jobs. In addition the amount of super cool products upcycled from post consumer waste was awesome.
Love love love these organisations.... to name a few:
Friends
Dorsu
Keokay
Smarteria

A bit of ghetto-printing class in Hanoi

We are wanting to introduce screen printing into our production team, so I have been scouring Hanoi to find suppliers of screens, ink and someone who can expose them for me. So far I have found screens and ink. The screens range from $2-5 each. Kind of a crazy dream really. It is hard to find the rest thou as even with a translator, words like 'exposure' can translate to funny meanings! Even getting the man at the ink shop to answer my questions about the type of ink was difficult... he said 'it's a long story, you will have to pay me'So just for fun we had a go with paper. The end product at the moment is for the amazing carbon activated facemasks  that Blue Sphere invented for the motorcyclists in Asia.

Living on the edge!

So I have been living in Hanoi for now two months and this is my first blog post since I left... Sorry for such delayed replies to your questions..  It is hectic and I am literally living a double life ( a real body here and a virtual one thru the computer with my family and Kindling) but I am loving it all and am pretty stoked that somehow this has happened.

 My house: I live with 3 other AYAD's (Australian youth Ambassadors for Development) - 2 Agricultural Scientists and 1 Finance consultant.... and it's awesome. We found a lovely place in inner city that is private a quiet and clean! aswell as being well situated to a plethora of street food and fun. They are a great mix and I feel a bit lucky to have fallen in with such an
inspired crowd.

 My job: I work about 10kms south of the centre in a small company that rents from a really big factory. Our company 'Blue Sphere' is a social enterprise. That means they operate for the prime goal of improving the financial and social status of their employes which in our case are deaf people.

I have been learning both Vietnamese sign and vietnamese...sign being the most easy and fun. For me this job is a bit of a dream - I am designing for the organisation to improve their offerings but also training and capacity building with their staff. The team (7 in all) is so fun and interested to learn anything at all. They are super loyal and I was craving for so long to work more within a team.. now I am part of of one and I am stoked.

My life: It's a bit expat-ty... So far I am yet to make a firm Vietnamese friend - the language barrier makes them quite shy to attempt or return communication... so I end up hanging with whiteys alot... which is awesome too - Hanoi is the hub for all the International NGO's and Arts councils so there is a pretty unique group of people here. A very concentrated bunch of interesting inspired people living in one city. Lots of arts and music - too much to see actually - and partys... the alcohol here is ridiculously cheap... but what strikes me most is that everyone has really cool jobs, or are working on great projects, for great organisations, making a real difference. Apart from the Embassy workers we are all here in an aid capacity, on a volunteers living allowance so in a way everyone is kinda equal. Its strange and fantastic all at once.

I have been riding a motorbike - getting pretty fluid in the crazy traffic. It took a while and a lot of adrenaline to get there but I am finally feeling pretty comfortable. In a way I can't imagine going back to straight laced traffic conditions, or living conditions, or eating conditions.

Living on the edge is making me smile alot.