Petal & Pins

Category: small creative business

June 15, 2018

Just A Card

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I was excited for our lapel pins to arrive, just in time to wear at our upcoming trade fair in Melbourne!

Have you heard of the Just A Card Campaign? It came about when British artist & designer Sarah Hamilton saw the quote “If everyone who’d complimented our beautiful gallery had bought ‘just a card‘ we’d still be open” by store keepers who’d recently closed their gallery.

This prompted a call to action! Designer/Makers and independent shops and galleries needed a voice and so in 2015 Sarah started the wonderful Just A Card campaign.

Sarah says “when you buy JUST A CARD, just a book, just a gift etc from an independent shop or creative business you’re not just buying a card…you’re supporting passion, skill, creativity, originality and community” – I couldn’t put it better myself!

Many of the shops that sell my work are small independent stores with passionate owners, so my sucess is also linked to their sucess.

While the Just A Card Campaign started in Britian it’s message has resonated globally with designers, makers, and independent shops and galleries and next week is a 3rd Birthday celebration of just how far it’s come.

Coming from a small island off an island  (my old atlas doesn’t even name it!) by necessity gives me a “there’s a whole world out there” focus on where I’d like petal & pins to be so I’ll be participating in their Five Day Instagram Challenge and I invite you to follow along – @petalandpins

How can you get involved?

  • Follow Just A Card on twitter and Instagram
  • Download a poster and put it up in your event or shop.
  • Like, comment or share the social media posts of designers, makers and independent shops and galleries whose work you love.
  • Re-post this blog post!

And finally as Sarah says – by all means compliment people, it makes the world a far sunnier place, but if you can, please, buy ‘just a card‘!

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December 20, 2017

Seasonal

In November Mr Petal & Pins and I headed to Adelaide to do our 4th Bowerbird Design Market.

We love this event for all sorts of reasons – and although it’s work it’s also lots of fun, although not so much the 4am start to catch our flights (2) to get to Adelaide in time to set up!

We get to share our story and products directly to consumers and chat with other designers and makers from all around the country running creative businesses just like us.

And then there is the food…our favourite this time was from The Seasonal Garden Cafe. Their endeavour is to celebrate seasonal produce serving simple, peasant food that is guided by what is available from their cafe garden and from the gardens of local growers – and they certainly delivered that in a very delicous way!

Equally impressive was their stand display so I took some photos to share with you.

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March 17, 2017

Vintage Niche

petal & pins at Niche market

Vintage Niche Market – Design & Wine.

Niche is held three times each year in Launceston, the heart of the Tamar Valley wine growing region in Tasmania.

Saturday March the 18th Niche is celebrating ‘Vintage’: the time of year when grapes are harvested and our wineries start serious production of the region’s famous cool climate pinot, riesling and sav blanc varities.

petal & pins is joining other Tasmanian designers + makers and a small selection of wineries representing the Tamar Valley Wine Route to celebrate and 20% of all sales goes to support childrens disability service St Giles.

If you’re in the region why not drop in and say hello!

 

Vintage Niche Market

Saturday 18th March 2017

8am to 3pm 

Albert Hall, Launceston

 

 

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March 12, 2017

Challenge & Inspire

International Womens Day 2017

I celebrated International Womens Day by chatting to my dear friend Deb on the phone while we both had a cup of tea – it’s a bit of a tradition now that we do this on International Womens Day and you can read about how this tradition grew in my post Serendipity & Teacups.

 I’ve met and been inspired by a lot of amazing women over the years teachers, colleagues, customers and peers and I met a whole new bunch of amazing women recently when I attended Katie Hunt’s Paper Camp  in Los Angeles.

Paper Camp Tradeshow Bootcamp is a 2 day workshop for small independent stationery designers wanting to wholesale  their designs in the US and thinking of showing at the National Stationery Show trade fair in New York – (a girl’s got to dream!)

It was all sorts of amazing – the practical and insightful program delivered by Katie and the other wonderful ‘camp councillors’ generous with their knowledge and  experience , the open armed friendliness and conversations with the other ‘campers’ over meals and a wind down glass of wine each evening.

Two days of stationery talk and learning with other people as passionate about it as me was more incredible than I could have imagined and importantly SO useful for turning ideas and dreams into plans and moving forward.

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Our list of stockists is growing and this year includes our first UK one! – Atelier 19 in Chelternam and a new US one, Lavender Hill Florals in Indiana so if there isn’t one near you yet hopefully there will be soon.

To see if there is see our stockists list or browse our range on the petal & pins online shop – we ship worldwide!

PS. the lady with the violet hat is from our new Atelier Pétale range and of course the perfect floral choice for International Womens Day!

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