We chat to six of the lovely ladies, Lis, Peta, Maryla, Rebecca, Michelle and Laura, from THE MELBOURNE ALTERNATIVE CRAFTERS. Be sure to check out their bonzana Bend and Snap Market stall featuring a selection of the most talented crafters in town at our upcoming market date at 1000 £ Bend on Sunday 26th May 11:00am to 4:00pm. Plus they will be hosting our May Crafternoon Corner with a pop up Winter Wonderland with a sweet selection of inspired projects to get your crafty mittens on.
We speak with Lis from Petites Curiosités about her gorgeous designs, as well as craft shed lockdowns and all of her inspirational curiosities and curios.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
French eyes wide open
Hidden creative spaces
Art everywhere
Tell us a little about the origins of Petites Curiosités.
I love making: for any occasion, birthdays, parties, (my) wedding, for my step daughters, for my family and friends… I was posting all my little creations on facebook and twitter and I got lots of positive reactions and got people interested in buying them, asking for my Etsy shop. That’s how I realised I could try to sell my handmade-with-love products!
Describe your creative process.
I read a lot (internet+books) until I explode of inspirations and run to the shops to get the new material I need. I lock myself in my crafty shed listening to some good music.
I always get out quite low as I give myself 100% to my craft. I always have a notebook with me for any ideas that would come. I love learning new techniques, so I try once, twice, until it is perfected and then get to another new techniques. Curiosity is my Word.
What inspires you the most?
1. Bright colours, kids’ stuff, textures. I also love happy, colourful and clean designs.
2. I love second-hand French markets (brocantes, puces). Anything that remind me of my home country 
3. Creative Mornings are a good boost of inspiration – not related to crafts but more about entrepreneurship.
Name some of your most favourite local artists and designers.
I just moved to Melbourne recently. I couldn’t tell you a lot. As a graphic designer and maker, I love Beci Orpin, everything she does is awsome. Love her.
What are your ultimate dreams for Petites Curiosités?
I’d love to have a shop on Etsy and sell my Petites Curiosités. Next step I will create my own fabric design with spoonflower. I will also expand my range of products with some more accessories and kid’s toys. I have so many ideas
What will will we find from Petites Curiosités at our May Bend and Snap Market?
You will find cup cosies, small polka dots pockets, large funky pouches, felt jellewery (and felt finger puppets if I have enough time), charm necklaces and love heart paper garland! All cute, small and colourful! Come and visit me!
We explore shoe fetishes and pyrography with Peta of Girlpeta.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
girlpeta unique forms
for your every step forward
girlpeta the shoe maker
Tell us a little about the origins of girlpeta.
girlpeta started from my love for beautiful shoes and unique and individual pieces relating to footwear. With a background in Footwear production/ repairs /medical I have started a label where I can do some collaborative work with other designers and crafters, and custom footwear.
Describe your creative process.
My creative process generally starts from visualising the shape and form of a shoe last. Taking a simple form and creating something unique or an insane idea, I love to see how I can make something completely unexpected. The goal is always to try something new testing the boundaries of what you can do with shoes and everything involving shoes and thats how the pyrography shoe lasts started.
What inspires you the most?
I draw a lot of inspiration from other designers, pattern making books, magazines, footwear books, other areas of leather craft and wood making, and old manufacturing techniques.
Name some of your most favourite local artists and designers.
Preston Zly, Knots and Knits, Sarah J Coombes, Phong Chi Lai and James Jean.
What will will we find from girlpeta at our May Bend and Snap Market?
girlpeta will be displaying a range of pyrography shoe lasts. Not wanting to destroy beautiful functioning wooden shoe lasts, I salvaged some beautiful sample lasts from a last maker in Melbourne, giving them a second life and making them a centre piece with some beautiful designs. There may even be a couple of surprise shoe designs as well.
Now onto Maryla with free flowing flowers and fancies.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
The landscape inspires
Recycled threads beads satisfies
Creative ideas flow
Tell us a little about the origins of your work.
Embroidery and textile art is my creative outlet, a great way to wind down, relax and feel a sense of achievement.
Describe your creative process.
My work is free form and depends on what threads and beads and buttons and jewellery I have. I like the challenge of using what I have and watching something form out of unrelated bits.
What inspires you the most?
Flowers and colour.
What are your ultimate dreams for your work.
I would like to spend more time making items for people who like my work and who would buy the occasional piece.
What will will we find from you at our May Bend and Snap Market?
Embroidered brooches and necklaces and small framed textile works. All will have recycled material, beads, parts of costume jewellery eg one lone earring missing its other half.
Up-cycling goddess, Rebecca from Little Boxes on her up-cycling alchemy.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
Its Little Boxes
We make candles and fizzies
See you May 26th
Tell us a little about the origins of Little Boxes.
Little Boxes started as a hobby when I would make candles for myself. I also love recycling. I discovered I had a real passion for creating candles using recycled jars and that lead to making LOTS of candles, playing with different kinds of containers and eventually turning them into beautiful scented gifts for friends and family. The idea of gift giving led to the name “little boxes”. Who doesn’t love getting cute little pressies in little boxes?
Describe your creative process.
It’s hard to put the creative process in words. I find my inspiration from everyday events. I usually go hunting for different kinds of jars and containers that I can turn into candles. When I come across a beautiful vintage jar, I like to make that the highlight and work around it. Finally, I end up with a unique piece that reflects my style while giving the vintage pieces their due respect.
What inspires you the most?
People I meet.
Name some of your most favourite local artists and designers.
Unfortunately I haven’t been in Melbourne long enough to have favourite local artists. I am originally from Bangladesh and my favourite artist that inspired me the most is Anusheh Anadil. I love her “up cycling” focused designs.
What are your ultimate dreams for Little Boxes?
My ultimate dream for Little Boxes is to be as big as / bigger than Lush one-day hehe.
What will will we find from Little Boxes at our May Bend and Snap Market?
You’ll find some of my new scented and unscented candles – that come in a variety of jars and our new line of bath bombs. But I’d say the highlight will be the scented soy candles in vintage Fowlers Vacola jars. These unique jars are local (Melbournian) too.
We speak with the super sculpturess Michelle from One Small Duck.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
creator of things
Dreamed and real, inside and out
organized chaos
Tell us a little about the origins of one small duck one the stormy sea of life; art of M.Harford.
One small duck comes from a combination of things one being my sister’s nick name for me is ducky. And the fact that I have a rubber duck collection going. It seemed like a good enough holding name until I get myself established. Its nicely nerdy.
Describe your creative process.
It varies depending on what medium I’m working with. When it comes to working with metal I tend to start with what I have materials and sort of put it together like a jigsaw puzzle. I’ll have some idea of what I want but it tends to evolve as it goes, often not looking anything like what I intended.
I find anything involving sculpture you to tend to be at the mercy of what ever medium you work with. No matter how well you plan a piece you need to understand and adapt to that medium. Sometimes you change the medium, sometimes you change the piece.
What inspires you the most?
Exploring new mediums, trying to do something new with something old, re-imaging, imagining, the world around me, the worlds I create within, social and self analysis and the way the two interact.
Name some of your most favourite local artists and designers.
Some that I’ve stumbled across are the good people at Squish Face Studio and Daddy Long Legs, awesome mini top hats.
What are your ultimate dreams for one small duck one the stormy sea of life; art of M.Harford ?
Rocking the boat? World domination? Free coffee? Pet dragons? A never ending supply of cupcakes? I want to make my craft my main source of income while I continue to build up and expand my art career. I hope to branch out into comics/graphic novels (both mine and drawing for other people), learn animation and create my own short films, cartoon series and make music videos for musicians and bands. And still do sculpture and crafty things.
What will will we find from one small duck one the stormy sea of life; art of M.Harford at our May Bend and Snap Market?
Hand made goodies made from recycled and new materials that you are unlikely find anywhere else.
And me drinking excessive amounts of coffee and bouncing around like a loon. most likely in a strange hat.
And a little interview with the captain of the Melbourne Alternative Crafters, Laura, a lovely lady with her finger in all the pies from perfect poetry to cunning craftiness (do check out her Pinterest – guaranteed to inspire any dull afternoon with projects aplenty). We chat to her about one of her many projects, Nerd Craft.
Tell us a little about yourself using a Haiku.
Nerd culture crafted
into beauty, function, and
feminism.
Tell us a little about the origins of Nerd Craft.
Nerd Craft started after I had committed to selling some of my craft at a market. I needed a name so I had to look at the sorts of things I had been making and was planning to make, and find something that they had in common. It was easy to pinpoint – I’m a great big nerd.
Describe your creative process.
I get flashes of inspiration and adrenaline after long periods of dormancy, and I’ll often learn a new craft so I can complete a specific project. I really think this must be the most exciting kind of creative process because it means I’m always learning, and I only become a maker when I have an awesome idea that I love working on.
What inspires you the most?
The majority of my crafting materials come from op shops or things that would otherwise be thrown away, and all the crafts I do have an element of upcycling or recycling about them. I like finding new ways to work old books and paper into new objects of beauty or function, and I particularly like to upcycle old-school comics with strong female characters.
But what inspires me most? Honestly? It’s Pinterest.
Name some of your most favourite local artists and designers.
I always buy from local makers when the need to give a gift comes up. There are too many lovely things being made in Melbs to waste my time in franchise stores. Some artists and designers I enjoy are:
Zahra Zainal
Texta Chainsaw Massacre
Sunday Morning Designs
Side Project One
Son Valise
Wovenspoke
What are your ultimate dreams for Nerd Craft?
I’m rather enjoying just pottering along making the things I want to make. I hope things go on as they are.
What will we find from Nerd Craft at our May Bend and Snap Market?
I’ll be selling copies of my recipe zine Comic Book Cocktails and envelopes made from comic books. I’m also working on some little medals to pin to your chest and bunting.
And we will end part one of this muse-worthy Melbourne Alternative Crafters post with a little lucky chain mail to leave you lusting after more craftiness with few snaps of the utterly beautiful chainmaille jewellery from Diana.
We are also pleased to have THE MELBOURNE ALTERNATIVE CRAFTERS darlings presenting the May edition of our pop-up-snowfield Crafternoon Corner where you can indulge in a number of winter time fun like creating a miniature winter wonderland with DIY snow globe workshop. While you’re at Bend and Snap Market come chill in the Pop Up Snow Field, and take home your own tiny winter world from the DIY snow globe makin’ station.
See you all at our next Bend and Snap Market day at 1000 £ Bend Sunday 26th May 11:00pm to 4:00pm, 361 Little Lonsdale Street in the city for all of the art design fashion vintage with many of our regular stall holders and a load of exciting new additions to our Bend and Snap fold with A LITTLE COY, AGNES & I, ANIMAL VEGETABLE MINERAL, ANTYK BUTYK, BAK SPACE VINTAGE, CANDLE AROMAS, COLOUR ME PLATE, DREAMING CO ♧, GIRLPETA DESIGNS, EELAV MCBEE, HELEN FLEUR DESIGNS, JACK’S CALLING, JEREMY WINGSPAN, JUX, HENNA courtesy of the talented KAJAL, LISA PURCELL, LITTLE BOXES, LOUIE AND THE FOX, MELBOURNE ALTERNATIVE CRAFTERS, ME U, MY GOAT SOAP, NINE YAKS, ONE SMALL DUCK, SEBO HANDMADE JEWELLERY, SPOONFULS OF LOVE, TREAD AND PEDALS and many more emerging artists and designers!!!
Stay tuned for more stall holder interviews and sneaky treats and like us on Facebook for all sorts of sneaky peek treats.
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See you all at market day Sunday 26th May 11:00am to 4:00pm at 1000 £ Bend 361 Little Lonsdale Street in the city.
♥
“Animal Vegetable Mineral is a hybrid of childhood games. Anything in the universe can be categorized into one of the three.
