Black Swan Blog

Well, it’s almost here… the second Craft 2.0 in Christchurch, Sat June 6th, 11am–3pm at Our City Otautahi on Worcester Blvd. There’ll be free goodies bags for the first 50 adults and 50 kids through the door (which I helped stuff today with many exciting goodies), which had people lining up out the door and over the bridge last year, so get in quick!

I’ve also been working on a few new designs of my pendants necklaces…

My stall will be upstairs in the gorgeous old debating chamber on the day. Hope to see you all there!

Look what turned up in the Zest section of the Press today, as part of the Craft 2.0 marketing campaign…

That’s my wee fern photo brooch on the left, and I’ve even been quoted! Thanks heaps to Katy and Lucy for the extra pre-Craft 2.0 promotion! It should be a good day…

Wow, the Fly My Pretties gig at the Theatre Royal last Friday night was just spectacular! With a narrated story and accompanying illustrations interlaced with music for the first half, and footage from the National Archives to accompay the second, it wasn’t a surprise that the crowd were on their feet on several occasions! To top the evening off there were tasty Fly My Pretties cocktails (42below, L&P and mint, mmm…) and gorgeous teatowels!

Being the good patron that I am, I didn’t sneak in my camera in… although I kinda wished I had!
To my consolation, there are at least some great pics from the gig up on Fly My Pretties facebook page…

What better way to spend a balmy Chistchurch afternoon than with a trip to Lyttelton… a well made soy flat white, gourmet veggie sandwich and a side of locally made craft.
My primary purpose was to pop in and visit my new stockist Pocket. Carolyn has a lovely wee store, tucked away down an alleyway off London Street. It’s great to look around and recognise the wares of so many local makers on display. I’m really starting to the get the feeling that craft is the new black…

Apparently my brooches have been a real hit with the males, which I find curious…

Another lovely shop worth visiting is Portico, at 48 London Street, which will be stocking my Cherry Blossom design brooches sometime in the near future. Maree from Portico, also gave me a great tip-off to a little old abandoned house up on the hill, as we got talking about photography. She has an image on display at the moment in COCA… so many talented people about!

The black swan had a very busy weekend, involved in a team for the 48hr film competition. This is the second time that I’ve taken part, and as I anticipated it was a blast!
For those that haven’t heard of 48hrs before, you are given a genre (by random selection), character (name and trait), prop and a line of dialogue and then you have 48hrs to make a short film between 1 and 7mins long… so you have to brainstorm, write, shoot, edit, and of course find all the relavant people and props to help make it happen!
We had revenge as our genre, Alex Puddle who was an exaggerator, a rock and the line “it doesn’t fit”.
The photo below was my best prop contribution… a shot taken of the family in our story, which I gave a little bit of a tweak in Photoshop, and was then filmed in later footage.
It’s an amazing way to spend a weekend, working with other creative types under ridiculously tight deadlines, and you come out the other side feeling like you’ve made instant friends for life. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Check out more info about 48hrs at 48hours.co.nz

Review from our heat screening:

"The director is quoted to saying: Less is more. I think he's bang on.
Short and sweet. Some great acting by the lead male, all in the eyes
and actions. Not much is said but when it is, its there only to driveforward
the story. Great angles, close ups and even the colour of thesoup.
Every second used well, nothing dragging. Also, great spin onthe genre
as our lead character has his family enact their painfulrevenge ever so
subtlety on him. I'm gonna give this one my first 5/5!" ...yay!