While I was in Sydney, I was able to visit the fantastic yearly spectacle of Sculpture by the sea. It is an exhibition along the coastal walk by Bondi beach, which showcases eye-catching sculptures by artists for members of the public to enjoy. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to visit. Another example of art entertaining and inspiring the masses!
Giant marble
Fish tank
Stairway to heaven
Melbourne is definitely the design, crafts and cafe hub of Australia! Reknowned for it’s “bohemian” cultural scene, the city centre is crowded with tight alleyways filled with food outlets, streets lined with inspiring design stores and art installations.
I got a lot of ideas for craft projects during my week in Melbourne, ranging from clever hand-made jewellery to candle holders and paper crafts. I also created a long mental shopping list of lots of lovely goodies for the home!
I wished Becky had been with me many times, with so many delicious cakes, she would have been in heaven! Acland street is home to cake shops where the window displays are full to the brim with baked goodies, and a short drive away is Sorrento, the home of the vanilla slice.
Melbourne also has it’s fair share of street art – in the hip St Kilda district, the allotments were creatively decorated with all sorts of household items (bread bins for post boxes), and more knitting!
Melbourne – the home of cake
Hand-made allotment sign post
Knitted bicycle parking
Not strictly crafts, or country-specific, I thought I should still mention some baking I got up to in New Zealand. If any of you have spent time in a campervan (let alone six weeks!) you will know that meal times require some culinary creativity! It really felt like a treat when we stopped at a site with kitchen facilities, and every time, it was an opportunity to use an oven and bake a cake. (Banana bread is a great one for storing on the road).
On the North Island, we stayed for a week with friends. On our arrival, we were greeted with a lovely hand-made poster by three-year-old Joel. The poster stayed with us as our only campervan artwork for the following month, and was truly cherished! What a perfect, memorable gift (and pocket-friendly for the parents too!)
Joel also initiated an aeroplane loaf, after he misheard “plain bread” and got too excited to say no to!
Welcome poster
Plane bread
For me, Chile was a stand-out country in South America in terms of graphic design. Santiago has many great examples of well-thought-out leaflets, posters and displays. There are nice finishing touches everywhere in the city, such as the riverside gardens, and the beginnings of a love padlock bridge.
I also visited Valparaiso, which is a small hill-side coastal town, well-known for its pretty pastel buildings, hill trams and painted staircases. This little town has the best collection of street art I have seen in my travels, every spare wall was painted, and with talent too, no tagging to be found. It was here that I came across a lovely little sweet shop, I stopped to watch the sweets being made – cut from long bars (just like British rock!) Sweets in a decorated jar are a great idea as a hand-finished gift, and I really liked how the shop had gone a step further by making those jars into lights – what a great idea!
Sweet jar light
Sweets in the making
Ingredients display
Valparaiso street art
Sophie and I went on a little outing last weekend to Hampton Court for The Handmade Fair to take part in some classes, get some crafty inspiration and shop! It is the first big craft fair of its kind so we were really looking forward to getting involved and meeting fellow crafters. We took advantage of the full experience ticket which meant that we could choose a Supertheatre session, Grand Make and a Skills Workshop as well as enjoy all the other stuff that was going on. We started off with a jewellery class courtesy of London Jewellery School where we learnt how to make a memory wire bracelet; it was a simple project but looked really effective and very relaxing to create. Perfect for a handmade Christmas or birthday present.
We then went for a browse around the shopping villages where there were over 150 exhibitors, selling everything from wool and fabrics to cake sprinkles and printed cards. Between us we bought a dress making pattern, a ceramic Christmas decoration and some illustrated cards. One of the highlights was The Painted House who sell brilliant patterned paint rollers for fabrics and wallpaper – you can even use them to add a design to a lampshade. Such a great idea and they had some pretty patterns, we’ve definitely bookmarked them for later purchases! Another stall that stood out was Sarah Hamilton Prints who uses a fresh, bright Scandinavian style to create beautiful prints, mugs, tea trays and more.
Gift wrapping with Jane Means was up next; the celebrity gift wrap expert taught us how to make two styles of bow and other tips and tricks to improve the look of our presents. Lastly we headed into the Supertheatre for the Mollie Makes Mash Up which was a Ready Steady Cook style show where two eminent crafters were given a metre squared piece of fabric and told to make a piece/s in 45 minutes with the audience then picking a winner. One of the ‘contestants’ was Momtaz Begum-Hossain who organises The Make Escape, a bi-monthly craft night in Hackney which has a great following. Momtaz decided to go for an apron and head scarf which looked great and have inspired us to get the sewing machine to put together some quick projects. On the other side was Ellie Jarvis who runs print and textile design workshop Clovelly Silk with her parents. Ellie showed us several interesting ideas you could put together with a simple piece of fabric (no sewing/glueing allowed!) and knots – an over the shoulder bag, a cushion cover and a shrug. It showed us that all those scraps of material we have hanging around can quickly and easily be made into something beautiful!
After all of that shopping and learning, we were ready to hit the road but not before we had a look at the record breaking attempt to create the world’s largest line of pom-poms! #worldpomination
