Meet the Makers #2... Black Agnes

Welcome to the second installment of 'Meet the Makers'!
This time we put a few questions to Christine, the super talented and lovely lady behind jewellery range, Black Agnes
Her work varies from the ever popular and very feminine petite pendulum crystal earrings to harder edged militaria style brooches and necklaces (these ones have quite a steam punk feel to them).
We love it all!

Where do you call home and make your jewellery e.g.garden shed, kitchen table?

My home is an industrial-style house in Jville, built in the 1940s/50s which looks like no other house on the street! It is also a large renovation project...

I have a studio which I have nicknamed‘The Lightbox’due to it being glass on 3 sides, but confess that
my materials and my making often overflow into other parts of the house.

Tell us about your latest collection and the inspiration behind it.  

I love combining metal and textile in my jewellery and am particularly drawn to aesthetics that hint at another era. 

In my latest collection ‘Everyday Hero’ the pieces take on a medal-like quality with the inclusion of boldly-striped tapes anchoring each medallion.

What is your favorite piece from this season/collection and why?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a necklace girl through and through, but this season I am loving these tiny Accolade medal brooches which also look great in tandem and can be worn on anything from a t-shirt to a dress or tailored jacket. 

I like to have a little arsenal of stories at the ready for when someone asks me what I have done to be worthy of my medals ;-)

If you had to choose three words to sum up the spirit of your label what would they be?

Fearless, quirky, 21st century Victoriana!

Mixing modern and historic references is something we love to do at emma too with each season taking inspiration from beloved clothing, objects, music & people from bygone eras. 
Must be why we like Black Agnes as we do. Thanks Christine, always exciting to see what you will create next! 

Meet the makers #1.... Shh by Sadie

Today is the first of what is to become a regular slot on the emma blog!
We ask a few questions of the designers/ makers/ general clever crafty types whose wares we stock in our emma boutiques.
There'll be fashion designers, jewellery makers, card printers, scarf knitters and more!
First up is the lovely Sadie whose nothing but bones necklaces have been a best seller since we first started stocking her jewellery brand Shh By Sadie back in March this year.

Where do you call home and make your jewellery? 
 I’m lucky enough to call two places ‘home’ – here in Wellington and south Wales in the UK.
In NZ I make my jewellery at my kitchen table in Oriental Bay, with a pretty awesome view of the harbour in front of me. I take a lot of my beads with me to Wales when I visit (I’m yet to learn the art of travelling lightly!). When I’m there and making necklaces my mum kindly acts as my ‘dummy’. She loves jewellery as much as I do, but doesn’t understand my obsession with skull beads! I call my dad my bead scout. When I recently visited Wales he took me on daytrips so that I could visit the bead shops he’d found. It was a LOT of fun!

 Tell us about your latest collection/pieces and the inspiration behind it. 
I love attention-seeking jewellery and I’ve recently become a big fan of layering necklaces. My latest pieces are chains and necklaces that can be mixed and matched - worn alone or layered together to make a statement. I want people to have fun with the pieces.

What is your favorite piece and why?
 My favourite piece is my Chunky Chain, in Barbie pink. I find myself wearing it way too often, but I do love a splash of pink!

If you had to choose three words to sum up the spirit of your label what would they be?
Fun, colourful and playful.  

Thanks Sadie, we love your fun and playful jewellery and think it's great teamed up with our new summer collection too.

Summer 2012/13 inspiration

Seeing as we're in the depths of winter thought it might be nice to 'escape' the chills and ills and share some of the images that inspired me for summer 12/13. Loving 1950s resort glam, prettiness, vintage prints and parasols!! (also just saw this blog from Jennie http://alittle-vintage.blogspot.co.nz/...we used some great vintage cats eye glasses in our summer shoot,  will post very soon)

Sweet 1960s

Getting excited about the new winter '12 season and have lots of inspiration courtesy of some very cool women from the music and fashion scene of the 1960s...

Twiggy and those lurvely eyelashes, Patti Boyd's sweet style & staunch attitude ( love that knitted beret:), Pamela Courson's rock'n'roll love life, Mary Quant's innovation of shape and amazing style and the photography of John French...inspiring!!!

loving them lightbulbs...

Just look, aren't they cool! These Plumen low energy lightbulbs first caught my eye on that ever-inspiring blog Fancy! just about the time I was starting to work on our new Cuba St shop, it felt like perfect timing and it was. So after a day deliberating over cord lengths and hook positions with Steve (awesome sparky) we have light! Come on in to 268 for a closer look:)

p.s. we're in good company Plumen just created an amazing light installation at London Fashion Week , jealous.

We're open on Cuba Street!

Yep, it was a hot and steamy night (well actually it was a pretty typical chilly Welly spring evening) shared by loads of lovely folk who well and truly celebrated the opening of our new shop and the release of our summer collection Vacationer.

We had sensational wine sponsored by Te Mata Estate and yummy nibbles from Martha's Pantry.

Thank you to all for welcoming us into 'town' and especially my family and friends for supporting, believing and helping me live my dream.emxx

Lovely new issue 6!!!

Extra-Curricular's latest lovely issue is in-store at emma now.Lots of inspiring stitchery + plenty more to keep you reading for ages.

Bill Cunningham inspires me

Last weekend, Bella and I went to a documentary about Bill Cunningham, the New York based photographer who chronicles Street Style for the NY Times and does it on a bike, with a film camera at the age of 80. What a guy, we loved it. It was amazing not only for the fashion but it took us away to the streets of New York and Paris as seen through the eyes of a truly good, honest and creative man. If you're ever feeling a bit weary of the world this is a tonic:

http://youtu.be/NYqiLJBXbss

Hot off the presses!!!

...yep the latest issue of the gorgeous Extra-curricular magazine is out and instore at emma now!

Issue #5 has a great featurette on ceramics & we love the cover artwork by Golden Ink Collective's Abby Seymour, beautiful work & they even have a new online store!

http://www.goldenink.com.au/

There's new fashion and recipe pages as well as an article on Auckland synchronized swimming group 'The wet hot beauties'.

Wonder if they've heard about our own Swanwear bathers-perfect combo.

The last issue of Extra-curricular sold out, it's a strictly limited run see, so pop in, grab one and get creative.

emx

Busy, busy blossoms...

Where are the days going in 2011??

Busy times at emma so not a lot of blog time but winter production is in full swing, yippee!

So no time to waste, but thought you should know about lawyer/passionate cook Delaney Mes of blog Heartbreak Pie . She makes tasty food that's sure to inspire and she's a fan of emma!

So being that we share a love of food/baking/cooking & eating with her we thought it great she wanted to wear emma on her first TV appearance on Good Morning.

She looks very kitchen chic in our Blossom dress teamed with an adorable apron from her sister.

Check out how great she looks, bet Sarah was jealous-hee,hee!

http://tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/s2011-150211-delaneymes1-video-4028615

Happy New Year!!

2010's going to be a great year and we're happy to say, that after a lovely sunny holiday in Waikanae, our Berhampore shop is open again!

We are back to normal trading hours from today (Tuesday 11th Jan) which are 10am to 5pm all week and 10am-4pm on Saturdays.

There's lots to look forward to this year with a new season release just around the corner but before then there's still quite a lot of summer fun to be had.

Thanks to all you lovely ladies, and some lovely lads too, who have helped 'emma' along the way and look forward to seeing you all again this new year.

emx

Viva les macarons xx

Something in the universe was speaking to me last week and when in Christchurch, after visiting lovely Tipi at Where The Fox Lives, all the stars had aligned and I found myself outside a wee shop/ slice of heaven called J'aime les macarons

A romance was begun and if flavours suchas rose, bitter chocolate, sour cherry & champagne, salt butter and caramel, among a host of others, make your tastebuds water then you've come to the right place. They also fly mixed boxes up to Moore Wilsons, Wellington on Fridays & Saturdays (saviour!!)

This is a secret desire once you try you just have to share with those you love so treat yourself this weekend-go on:)

emx

Gotta love Fabricabrac

Thanks to my trusty helpers, Phoebe and Bella, emma enjoyed another great Fabricabrac.

Although I could only be there to set up I felt our collection of fabric gems was in good hands and with the occasional mandatory cupcake break some great bargains were had and much inspiration shared.

There are so many treasures you have to watch you don't leave with more than you arrive with but I was immediately seduced by this delectable swan/water lily doilly at the table opposite. I don't know yet what I'll eventually make with it but for now it's being ever so pretty helping display brooches on my cabinet at emma.

and then there were more...

Just had to show you the latest members of the emma (OWL) family.

Tea-cosy owl has haunted me for the last couple of months and finally I found one of my own-it's peaceful now and very nice to have settled home on my shelves:)

Then my dear friend Emma (yes, jinks!) sent me this ever so lovely print from Hobart of a very wonderful owl to grace my workroom/shop wall. So perfect, thank you. I haven't had it framed yet, as can't bear to let it fly away for long, but will soon , promise.

What is it about owls that makes us love them so?

Fabric-a-brac is back!

It's all the fun of the fair and it's all about fabric (+buttons, vintage notions, trims, patterns etc...)

How good is that!

There hasn't been a Fabricabrac for awhile so you know they'll be loads of treasures to discover and make your own. They've even got someone on-site to sharpen scissors so bring yours along and they'll be no excuse not to get creatively cutting!

emma's got a table booked and we're busy digging up some choice cuts to tempt and inspire you clever clogs out there:)

Don't forget it's a new venue!

St.Anne's Hall, Emmett St, Newtown.

Saturday 19th June 9-noon.

http://fabricabrac.wordpress.com/

new season collection

Being in the middle of 'redesigning' my website (with the talented help of the lovely Anna Stewart) my updating of the winter collection pics has been somewhat delayed-sorry:)

Thought I'd post them on here over the next few days so you can have a look-see at what's hitting the stores over the next few weeks.

The collection is called elle voyage and my inspiration whirled with thoughts of travelling, near and far, real and imaginary, whilst listening to French songbird Melanie Pain.

So a wee bit of French seduction has helped create this range and there's cosy and chic new numbers to ease you into autumn and beyond!

Hope you like,emx

Sad to see you go...

so have to pay my respects to the ever inspiring World Sweet World magazine, sob...

The final issue has a divine Devon Smith cover and equally lovely contents and you get it now from emma and complete your collection!

Thanks Hannah and Thomas for creating something really special in Wellington and being a uniting force for us who love craft and the powerful positive energy it brings.

I'm sure you're going to create someone really beautiful soon.x

Clogs are go!

Having loved wearing my Funkis yellow summer clogs over the last year I searched in vain to source some winter clogs for my new season shoot which is themed on travel and our dreams and inspiration for these voyages.

On my online travels I did spot these hand painted lovelies that shoot Heidi from the hilltops to high fashion quicker than you can yodel and thought they are pretty 'spech' and worth sharing.x.

http://www.mtclogs.com/index.htm

More birds!

On a recent trip up to Auckland I shimmed over to Kingsland for a look-see.

My fav shopping spot didn't let me down and found the perfect vintage lampshade for my 'nana lounge' lamp, yah!

It may only be one street but Kingsland has a great line-up of stores from clothing & jewellery to eclectic gifts well washed down with Wellington worthy cafes (parochial I know:)

Although I've only been stocking local crafty treasures in the 'nana lounge' so far I couldn't resist some of the cutest cards and badges from Cheryl @ Tuesday Print. She loves birds too I think! Lovely.