Thank You!

Thank you SO much to everyone that made it out on the day! There were a whopping 5,500 of you that walked through our doors and supported our event and each designer. Everywhere I looked were people holding shopping bags or boxes of new goodies to carefully take home.

A massive thank you of course to our vendors, we couldn't have done it without your talent! To each of our volunteers; you guys were awesome, to our sponsors Frankie Magazine, Foxes.co.nz and 95bFM, to our hosts THE EDGE and to Teza for giving out all the yummy free drinks — you all deserve a high five!

Photo's are currently being uploaded and we'll be able to share these with you soon! Thanks also to our great photographer Alex from ACB Photography, you did an awesome job.

Thank you! It was an awesome day and a huge success.

it's TOMORROW!!

Yup, the 11th June Auckland Art & Craft Fair is happening tomorrow!! So much still to do but there's a little bit of electricity in the air (or maybe that's the humidity from the rain, yikes) and excitement too....

Parking is easy in the Civic car park which is directly under the venue and you can walk right into the Fair, without even seeing the sky. Entry is from Mayoral Drive and as we're the only thing happening at the Aotea Centre there should be lots of spaces.

See you there!

11am to 3pm
Aotea Centre

Right, now back to packing all our goodies, it's like the ultimate game of tetris....

Frankie sorts you out...

Our AMAZING sponsors and good friends at Frankie Magazine are sending across the ditch some awesome prizes (again) for our Fair! We'll be giving away these prize packs on the day; how do you get one? Two ways: buy something on the day and get an entry form or vote for your favourite table!

We'll also have loads of other cool prizes and giveaways too so make sure you come along and check it out.

Saturday 11th June
11am to 3pm
Aotea Centre, Auckland Central

Each Frankie pack contains a copy of Sweet Treats, The Photo Album AND a 12 month subscription; that's 6 issues of Frankie goodness in your letterbox for free — your postie will be jealous.

Thanks Frankie, top job.

Artist Interview: Hunter Gatherer

We are Hunter Gatherer. A husband and wife team who love nothing more than rummaging around op shops & garage sales. We started a little over a year ago with our vintage inspired bow's and since then have moved rapidly into bow ties, painted necklaces, illustrated tee's, tote's and postcards, precious stone necklaces & now an abundance of vintage clothing gathered from New Zealand, North America and beyond! We love to take something reminiscent of the past ( or actually from the past ) and recreate it into something we hope will be loved and treasured. 

What inspires you? Things old and new, furry animals, paper, fabrics, picnics, tree houses, pirates, the sea shore, tunes, tattoos, mexico & travels, whimsy & love.

Do you have any future plans for your work, could you describe them? We are hoping to expand into silver cast jewelery, and more illustrated pieces. 

Where are your favourite places on-line? Frankie, we heart, here comes the sun, two happy hearts

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't busy making your wares? Rummaging in Op Shops & garage sales for our own goodies!, playing piano accordion & drums, cooking delicious food, drinking cider with friends, going on adventures & getting tattooed.

Artist Interview: Flossy's Fancy

Flossy’s Fancy is a one-man-band business that squeezes into my daily life as much as possible. 

I was constantly finding and collecting vintage embroidered items, doilies and tray cloths etc, not to use as intended, but because they were beautiful with great colours. 

I knew they were destined for another purpose. 

My first bunny softie was made with some of this embroidery as the body, and from there they just multiplied (as bunnies tend to do) and this aesthetic has since branched into various other handmade creations. I’m a bit sentimental and love salvaging and re using things, so I’ll especially gravitate to pieces with marks or holes that I can rescue. It’s satisfying giving something a new life or purpose. 

What inspires you? Trawling through antique and op shops. Lots of inspiration comes randomly from all sorts of places though. Lately I’m looking at lots of amazing photography. 

Natural history diagrams, drawings and displays. I like dark Victorian cabinets and drawers with the idea of all variety of things lurking inside to peek at. 

Travel to new places. Empty beaches. Music

I’m definitely strongly inspired by vintage stuff! I think it’s the nostalgic associations, along with the focus on workmanship, technique and skill these things encompass. From prints and designs of vintage fashion to mundane everyday items and there worn, washed out colours and patterns. I get caught up in details and textures. 

Do you have any future plans for your work, could you describe them? I want to be more prolific. Enough so that I might be on a couple of online sites like Foxes and Etsy, and even stock a few shops. 

Where are your favourite places on-line?www.abeautifulmess.typepad.com, www.finelittleday.com, www.eatdrinkchic.com, www.spoonfulzine.com, www.olivesfriendpop.com, www.fortysixthatgrace.blogspot.com

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't busy making your wares? I seem to be into baking at the moment. Not so great at it but I enjoy the process. Sewing for myself, friends and family as theres always a backlog of that. Getting out and about. Camping in the warmer months and nesting indoors with a movie and some treats in the cooler months. 

Artist Interview: Poppy&Bee

My name is Natalie and I am the 'Crochet Queen' at Poppy&Bee Crochet Handcrafts. I create delicious crochet goodies for wearing and loving. This winter the range is all about hats and gloves, using soft alpaca, possum and merino.

I started Poppy&Bee (named for my children's nicknames) at the beginning of 2011, in order to share the joy of wearing high quality handmade crochet garments with everyone. 

Poppy&Bee is definitely a dream come true, and I am pleased to be invited to participate in the Auckland Art & Craft Fair. Come and say hi when you visit us in June!

What inspires you? Being a practitioner of crochet is inspiring just because quite often I've found that ones is not expected to be able to create anything useful AND beautiful with crochet. I love to say that I have made something with my own two hands that can be both practical and delicious to wear at the same time. 

I am inspired by seeing a new yarn in a store, a glimpse of an interesting hat in the street and my own heritage of handcrafting women motivates me to keep learning in order to continue their legacy.

Do you have any future plans for your work, could you describe them? As winter draws to a close and the demand for scrummy warm hats wanes I want to move into developing a range of accessories as well as summer garments such as mesh tunics, swimwear cover-ups and wraps. 

My goal for this year is to have Poppy&Bee's range in at least two boutique stores that are able to share my vision of high quality handmade yarn garments with a wider audience.

Where are your favourite places on-line? Goodness - I seem to be online all the time! As well as maintainging my own site, my Felt shop, my blog and Facebook page I enjoy reading lots of crochet related blogs, http://attic24.typepad.com being a favourite. I spend a LOT of time on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com) researching yarn and patterns and talking with other yarn artists.

I love Felt and Etsy of course, both for fun and for inspiration.

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't busy making your wares? I try to make time for hobbies, but crochet is so addictive and fun (even when I'm doing it for work!) that I do tend to spend a lot of time doing that. I have recently joined the local Aikido club with my son so that gives me the chance to burn off some energy! I love reading and surfing the net, as well as spending time with my family and friends.

Artist Interview: Bliss in a Teacup

My name is Becka, and along with my husband Richard, I create various housewares, bookmarks, guitar picks and also jewellery out of reclaimed wood and other various (usually) reused materials. We currently live in Waterview, looking over the mangroves with our little grey and white cat, Ursula.

We both love design, wood and being creative so Bliss in a Teacup was born a couple of years ago as a way to collaborate together creatively. We've made various things over the years, such as chalkboards, embroidered clocks and the like, all depending on what materials we have on hand at any given time. However, we've come to really love working with wood and designing jewellery so hope to head further down that path. 

As we've just moved home to New Zealand from Canada, we're currently in the process of setting up our studio so we can also venture into printmaking and properly explore shaping wood into jewellery pieces. Exciting times ahead!

What inspires you? So many things! The wood itself that we work with, especially when jewellery making, as the grain, colour and texture is always so rich. We both really love Modernist design, but also a warm and cozy cabin type feel, which I hope is reflected in the work we do. We also love old quilts, misty/moody landscapes and taking something familiar but giving it a bit of a twist. 

Do you have any future plans for your work, could you describe them? As I mentioned earlier, we're hoping to move into printmaking a bit. Both screen printing, lino/wood cuts and eventually letterpress printing as Richard has a background in art and printing. We'd love to be able to make our own art prints, and also offer our services to independent creatives, bands, etc for posters or other design-y type things!

Where are your favourite places on-line?Some regular blog visits are -

http://forme-foryou.com/, http://fieldguided.blogspot.com/, Pinterest, http://www.old-chum.com/, 

http://tinyhappy.typepad.com/

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't busy making your wares? Since moving home, I have started back working as a teacher so that takes up almost all of my time now! But aside from that, I enjoy cooking, veggie gardening, knitting, thrifting, neighbourhood walks and smelling the smoke from all the chimneys on our street now that winter is settling in. 

Artist Interview: •▲ LUU ▲•

I'm Luzette, a new in town mexican girl that is loving life in NZ. Back in Mexico, I used to live in Tijuana, a very eclectic city with a lot of talented and creative people, instead of what the news say everyday about it being a violent city. My work bases in getting in contact with nature, we engage in daily activities which prevents us from harmonizing with our natural environment.

A Terrarium is the perfect solution to bring nature to your home or office, the objective is to make conscious that something so small  has life and that with minimal effort we help ourselves to be in direct contact with nature. Mobiles are hand crafted and unique pieces of art that turn your home, office, car into a space with ethnic colourful and artsy decoration. The uniqueness of every Mobile relies in the fact that every wooden piece on them is collected from Mother Natures ""wastes"" (sticks, logs, wood) that are no longer used and are considered trash.

So this is a perfect way to honour nature and instead of leaving it in the streets as trash convert it into beautiful art things, combining as well patterns and colours that are intended for have us remember all the ancient cultures throughout the world.

What inspires you? Every day life, sacred geometry,  nature patterns, ancient civilizations knowledge, be close to nature ... consciousness awakening.

Do you have any future plans for your work, could you describe them? Furniture, jewellery, bags taking advantage of "wastes" and recycle them to make unique pieces of art... lots of ideas, I will let them flow...

Where are your favourite places on-line? ●  www.tixinda.com.mx  ●   www.dfcasa.com  ●   www.ffffound.com  ●   www.behance.net  ●   

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't busy making your wares? I love movies, be in nature, practice yoga and camping. I'm getting to know the city with my lovely boyfriend and finding new interesting places and take photos everywhere.