Petal & Pins

Category: exhibitions

July 24, 2018

Life Instyle Melbourne 2018

petal & pins at LIS rose card

For Spring/Summer I’ve created a brand new card collection with pretty colours and whimsical designs with apple blossom, jonquils, sea shells and Flemish butterflies!

I’m also delighted to introduce a range of linen tea towels and new designs to our popular Love Letters & Christmas Collections.

You may have seen some sneak peeks on the petal & pins instagram of these new designs and I’ll be showing the full range including our signature collection the Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe® at Life Instyle Melbourne next week at stand 2249.

If you are retailer you have a chance to win $1000 to spend at the event by registering to attend here.

The ultimate destination for all things in style.

“Life Instyle is a boutique trade event for leading buyers with a discerning eye for quality and style. With a strong focus on creative excellence and innovative design, Life Instyle has become a highly anticipated and sought after event within the retail industry and a centre of activity for buyers with their finger on the pulse.

Explore a mix of beautiful designer brands featuring premium homeware, giftware, lifestyle and kids products all within an inspiring and fresh sourcing environment.

With two shows per year, visitors, including leading local and international buyers, interior designers, stylists and the media, all come from around Australia and beyond to source from the most exclusive brands in the country and enjoy the relaxed ambience and open floor plans that have become the trade mark of Life Instyle.”

Life Instyle Melbourne 2018 email footer

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August 23, 2017

The Seed Of An Idea

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Hello! this is me in our Life Instyle trade fair stand at the beginning of August.

In a few weeks it will be five years since I began this blog – I would never have thought then that I would be showing my designs at a trade fair (or sharing a photo of myself!)

Some people start a blog with a pronouncement of what it will – or won’t – be.  I didn’t really have a plan but I knew it was about taking the seed of an idea that was playing in my head and letting it take shape and grow.

Of course writing this blog has done that and  more – loosely around the themes of my garden and design work with a bit of life, loss, friendship, and travel thrown in. 

And now here we are. I’ve spent the last two weeks sleeving cards and packing orders to send to stockists and Mr petal & pins has made multiple trips to the post office and is updating the online shop with our new collections (all while juggling the start of a new job!)

So thank you for following along, I’ll continue to write and share snippets from my garden and studio here but I also invite you to subscribe to our petal & pins newsletter to be the first to hear about new releases, design markets where we can meet up and special VIP offers (Subscribe now and receive 15% off your first order!)

petal & pins stationery and art prints

‘Our stylishly playful stationery and art prints are designed with flowers and foliage from our Tasmanian garden.

Sandra draws on her background as a fashion designer to create ephemeral artworks that she photographs for the petal & pins collection including our signature range the Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe®.

Established in 2012, our studio looks out onto the rambling garden that inspires our designs and a ‘live in the moment, find joy in the things around us ethos.

petal & pins stationery and art prints are imaginative, unique and always enchanting.

We invite you to share our story…’

Sandra & Simon X

6 Comments
August 23, 2016

An Invitation

“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck”
Emma Goldman 1869 -1940

Hobart designers Sandra Alcorn & Amanda Sheen celebrate spring, friendship and its connection to the garden at Salamanca pop up shop  from 22nd September – 5th October.

Designer Sandra Alcorn’s garden inspires her miniature flower couture and under the petal & pins label she designs and produces a range of greeting cards and art prints featuring these ephemeral dresses.  For spring 2016 petal & pins launch their Garden Party Collection and new print range Atelier Pétale featuring floral millinery.

Jewellery designer Amanda Sheen brings her hallmark style of organic shapes and playfulness to design a range of jewellery, objects and accessories using silver, gold  and mixed media from classic pieces to statement collars that will add an air of haute couture to the simplest little black dress.

Sandra & Amanda often spend time together in the garden – they celebrate summer days with a gin & tonic, autumn with fruit bottling sessions, their birthdays together in winter and spring with flower adorned teacakes.

No matter what the season there is endless conversation and most likely champagne! From all this sprung the idea of the shared pop up and they invite you to come and see their work.

Space 008 Salamanca Arts Centre Hobart Tasmania

22nd September – 5th October Mon to Sun 10 to 4

Opening night  Thursday 22nd  5pm to 7pm

petal & pins pink hellebore and purple iris cards

4 Comments
July 30, 2016

Fashionable Flowers

dresses in an exhibitionmannequindress detail

On a recent trip to Melbourne I saw the 200 Years of Australian Fashion exhibition at the NGV and this wedding dress (circa 1952) designed by Beril Jents was just one of the dresses that not surprisingly caught my eye.

Over the years I’ve made a garden full of flowers from fabric myself – from evening and wedding dress embellishments to adornments for lapels or hats. Just lately I’ve been making ‘spring blossom’ out of paper for part of our petal & pins display at our second trade fair appearance.

We’re launching our new Garden Party card collection, a Black Label range of notecard sets and I have designed a new collection of limited edition prints we’ve called Atelier Pétale featuring a vintage fashion inspired sketch with hats I’ve styled from flowers from our garden.

So our garden flowers continue to inspire me creatively and petal & pins continues to grow! We head to Melbourne next week for the trade fair and Mr Petal & Pins and I are getting excited, thank you for following us on this journey you are part of our story!

 

 

3 Comments
May 12, 2016

petal & pins at Bowerbird

We are back from our first big mainland market – the Bowerbird Bazaar! Held twice a year in Adelaide, South Australia over three days Bowerbird Bazaar is a celebration of Australian artists, designers and creative collaborations.

This year there were 150+ designers and makers exhibiting, Insitu displays – six rooms featuring stallholder product, creative workshops and demonstrations, a Saturday Speakers Corner for talks by design professionals, gift wrapping for a gold coin donation (to support breast cancer research) and delicious local food and drinks.

Jane and the Bowerbird team’s organisation and promotion before the event blew us away and we knew we were in for a fantastic and fun 3 days.

I was very excited to be chosen to be interviewed for their Meet The Maker series on their blog in the weeks leading up to the market.

Without further ado, let me show you some photos from the weekend.

Bowerbird BazaarThe friendly front desk girls greeted market goers and behind them a lovely avenue of trees that on Sunday became an enchanting setting for a Mother’s Day high tea.

Posters, banners and booklets featured gorgeous artwork by Adelaide designers Andrew Smart and Heath Riggs.
Fairy lights, trees and lawn created a fair ground feel in the food and bar area.
Bowerbird banner and pop up flowershop fairy light chandelier A display by visual merchandising students and one of the Insitu rooms.visual merchandising display room installation at Bowerbird BazaarSunday’s high tea was opposite our stand and I couldn’t resist going over to take some photos of the tables set with vintage china and glass cake stands, champagne coupes and pretty floral arrangements.
Mother's Day high tea table setting the petal & pins stand at Bowerbird Bazaar petal and pins art prints

It was serendipity that I saw this digitally printed French denim from one of my fabric suppliers just as I was thinking about our stand design – it made the perfect backdrop for our Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

As always  it was fun designing our display but it takes ingenuity to make it transportable – I think we rose to the challenge well – all this packed down into 3 suitcases and one of my old art school folios with our stock for the two plane trips to get there and back.

It was a great weekend, we had fun meeting people, some lovely conversations, gained a new stockist plus some leads to follow up  and our suitcases were a little lighter coming home!

And then there were our evening strolls looking at Adelaide’s beautiful old houses and gardens – but I’ll keep that tale for another day…

6 Comments
February 14, 2015

Teddy Bear Muse

Last November, in anticipation of seeing the exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, I created two Gaultier inspired designs for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

For fans of “the enfant terrible of French fashion” it will be no surprise that one of these was a corset.

For inspiration I chose the conical bra style he first showed in the early 1980s and which was famously worn by pop icon Madonna on her Blonde Ambition World Tour.

Here is my take on it for my garden fairy and some photos I took at the exhibition.

corset

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibitionIn the exhibition monograph, Jean Paul Gaultier thanks many including his teddy bear – which features in the exhibition wearing the cone bra he fashioned for it as a child!

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk:

“…thanks also to my teddy bear Nana who was my first model and without whom my whole career not to speak of the cone breasts, would not have been possible…”

In my post Good Things Come To Those That Wait I spoke of waiting for several years to see this exhibition. It was first shown in Montreal in 2011, then in Dallas, San Francisco, Madrid, Rotterdam, Stockholm, New York, London and finally Melbourne in 2014.

It was worth the wait – so much so that I went to see it twice on that weekend trip to Melbourne in November!

1 Comment
November 14, 2014

Good Things Come To Those That Wait

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In 2011 the Montreal Museum Of Fine Art curated an exhibition of the work of French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier.

I’ve watched from afar as the exhibition traveled to various locations and now – three years on it is in my neighbourhood – well almost – Melbourne.

So that’s where I am this weekend!

In anticipation I created this Gaultier inspired dress for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

Sx

4 Comments
May 27, 2014

Sometime Somewhere

Spring St Melbourne

graffiti Hosier Lane Melbourne

Cose Ipanema window

A recent trip to Melbourne was a bit longer than the usual weekend jaunt and it made for a more leisurely pace with time to catch up with friends and do some different things.

Mr Petal & Pins and I spent the weeks leading up to going excitedly plotting where we wanted to eat and shop, adding new places to our list of favourites.

Going to La Belle Miette for a box of macarons has started to be a bit of a tradition – one I’m quite happy to cultivate.
Choosing flavours, not to mention which box requires careful consideration!
My posts Macarons Memories & Momentoes and Spilt Wine show how I like to repurpose the boxes.

Taking advantage of the sunshine we took a stroll through Fitzroy Gardens and it brought back memories of a childhood visit when my family drove down to Melbourne and took the boat across to Tasmania.

Fitzroy Gardens

trees Fitzroy Gardens

flowers

The impetus for the whole trip was to see jazz singer Stacey Kent and her band in their first and only Australian concert so on the last evening we walked from our apartment across the river to the Melbourne Recital Hall.

It was a wonderful concert, delightful and very special to hear her sing live. It left a spring in my step (and her tunes in my head) for days and it’s now on my wish list to see them perform again sometime somewhere.

Before flying home the next day we hired a car and went to Heide Museum of Modern Art which I have been keen to get to for a while now.

metal sculpture

sculpture at Heide

Heide

Fiona Hall artists garden at Heide

A feature of this rockery is the experimental espalier across the facade of three Silver Princess trees Eucalyptus caesia. It is designed by Australian artist Fiona Hall and is the second artist’s garden commissioned by Heide.

It was raining so we didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the gardens but lingered in the gallery and had lunch in the cafe.

artwork by Emily Floyd

Heide Gallery

hot chocolate and a short black

It was the perfect way to round out our mini vacation – food, friends, fashion, music and art.

I’ve already earmarked an upcoming exhibition for a return trip to Heide, hopefully on a day that lends itself to a picnic in the gardens.

And then there was the cocktails at New Gold Mountain… we might have to start a new tradition.

5 Comments
November 29, 2012

Ugly Chic

© Sandra Alcorn 2012

© Sandra Alcorn 2012

 

I would have loved to see ‘Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations’ at MOMA in New York earlier in the year but when you live oceans away the next best thing is delving into the book that accompanied the exhibition, it’s a fascinating read with wonderful images.

In the chapter ‘Ugly Chic’ Miuccia Prada says an important part of her work is exploring what beauty means today and deconstructing conventional ideas of beauty. She gives her Fall 2010 collection as an example – an analysis of women’s obsessions with feminine details such as bows and frills but using colours that might be considered by many as ugly.

The French have an epithet  – jolie laide, literally pretty/ugly  the dictionary definition being ‘a good looking ugly woman’. The book describes a jolie laide as “an erotic alchemist whose potent allure – an elixir of nerve, will and ardor – transcends her homeliness”. The examples given being Maria Callas and Schiaparelli’s muse Maria Casares.

I would say the fabulous Diana Vreeland was a jolie laide. Working at Harper’s Bazaar from 1937 to 1962 and then Vogue from 1963 to 1971 her work and style often challenged and expanded ideas of beauty.

One of the exhibitions I did get to see this year was ‘Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland’ which was on at Palazzo Fortuny when I was in Venice. A new documentary  movie about her has also been released – Diana Vreeland:The Eye Has To Travel – so I’m looking forward to seeing that.

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