Going Chopin?

These sheet music wallets were a hit at the Christmas markets and now are available online here.

Beachside Textures

Lyssy May is officially back on deck for 2010! Farewell to a lovely relaxing holiday but hello to a welcome bargain - all designs in the deckchair collection are now just $55 each!

Taking a break!

A flood of work

It has been a chaotic couple of weeks. Apart from the usual Christmas pressures to have orders out the door there has been the added drama of a burst water main near Ironside Studios last Friday night which resulted in major flooding through the studios. Lyssy May's escaped relatively unharmed, thanks mainly to those who were there lifting vunerable items out of harms way and my studio floor being higher on one side than the other. A massive thanks to Susan especially who helped raise the alarm and prepared me for the worst when I arrived on Saturday morning. Plus a postal strike isn't helping to calm the nerves but it is looking like everything is still on track for pre-Xmas delivery - phew!

Helping to get me through has been Anna Yau (pictured) who is a recent RMIT Advanced Diploma textile graduate and an absolutely brilliant help to one frazzled handbag designer. Anna is currently looking for Melbourne based work in any area relating to textiles, particularly screen printing or fabric design/construction. Email me if you'd like her details as I can highly recommend her!

Am here!

Lyssy May has not moved from the sewing machine for 2 weeks - Christmas orders and today's Market 3031 have been top billing on the list of priorities. Please forgive my lack of blog updates but I have been trifle weary at the end of the day to talk let alone type.

Today's market in Bellair St Kensington near the train station was fantastic despite a couple of sprinkles of rain - there was a lovely atmosphere under the trees and every time the train pulled in it delivered a new batch of browsers. A big thank you to the organisers and all the locals who were keen as jelly beans for handmade goodies!

Tomorrow I'll be at the City of Melbourne Christmas Market at the North Melbourne Meat Market, 5 Blackwood St from 11 am to 8 pm. Quite a few things I thought I had plenty of sold out today but I promise to still have some nice things on display plus there are heaps of amazing artists and designers with stalls so well worth the drop by.

All in the family

There's always lots to be done at Lyssy May so I was very lucky to have a helping hand from my cousin's daughter, Olivia, seen here stamping carry bags for my market stalls. Olivia's love of art and craft knows no bounds and she was very thorough in sorting buttons, threading beads and tracing appliques needed for Christmas orders. She said she had a fun day helping and I had equally as much fun sharing some time with someone who loves creating things as much as I did at her age. Thanks Olivia!

Suits me to a Tea

Just added to lyssymay.com, a range of 3 shoulder bags called Tea House which have been made from handblocked fabrics. These fabrics were crafted by a family of 9th generation Ajrakh Block-Printers in the desert region of Gujarat, India.

The traditions of using colours derived from nature (such as indigo, turmeric, madder root, iron & red mud) and hand-carved teak printing blocks are still practised today by this family. It is always special to work with materials that have their own story before being a part of Lyssy May's own narrative.

The fabric alone does not need any embellishment so I have added a fabric button (made from calico with feather stitching) to the strap. These buttons were fun to make- more will be coming on other designs soon!