Behind the scenes

Welcome to 2013! 

What an amazing year Arthouse has ahead of it.

I thought I would share some of the behind the scenes work that is happening to communicate the direction of the business and some of the fun things that will take place over the next 12 months.

For those of you who know me and the business you will remember that Arthouse was once a hobby that grew into the main income source for my family and as a business it has organically grown over the past 3 years surprising me every day with its resilience in a hard economic climate, the lessons it teaches me and the amazing people it connects me with.

2013 will see the business change from a small business into a big business over the next 12 months as I foster wholesale accounts to grow the business and move into streamlined designs.

One of the really exciting events for Arthouse this year is the Sydney Life In Style trade show in February that will see the business exposed to thousands of potential Stockists.

To start this process we had to do some photo shoots and I have included some of the behind the scenes shots from this really fun experience.

Necia is a dear friend of mine and offered to help me out with the shoot, so armed with some really amazing jewellery, a talented photographer (also a dear friend) and heaps of enthusiasm we created a fantastic Hero Shot for the trade fair.

It was my first experience directing a fashion shoot and I love the result but am glad I had two other talented women to help me through the process!

 

The business will move from an Art based business into the Fashion arena over the next 12 months and as such will mean we will start to produce runs of work rather than all one off designs. This still means I will make every bead and each piece will be unique but will allow me to grow the business in size and create consistency for Stockists in designs.

With the focus on the product this year it will also mean there will be some changes to the website which you will start to see soon.

It is really important that I don’t lose sight of what Arthouse is while it grows and that is a vehicle for me to share my passion for Handmade Australian Art that is affordable and will last for generations and as such I will continue to market the business through community Art markets like The Olive Tree Markets in Newcastle and the Artists Markets in Port Macquarie. This will always be important to me as it connects me with the people who love the work and allows me to stay grounded within the business.

I am hoping that I continue to learn from amazing people this year and develop my skills to propel the business and hopefully enrich others by passing on the love.

Thanks for your support during 2012 and I look forward to the journey going forward.

 

Cheers, Skye

The Past, The Present and The Process

 

 

Being Artistic and creating things of beauty for me is an organic process.

It starts as an idea that is inspired by things you see, things that are said to you and sometimes from emotions that you feel but it is never straight forward.

It will never be a matter of just making something from a book and I don’t have the ability to just copy something else as I need to imprint my ideas, thoughts and feelings onto the work.

This is something I have been thinking about for the past couple of days as a result of selling a piece of jewellery on the weekend.

I had a lovely customer come to my stall in Newcastle on the weekend and fall in love with a necklace called “Grandpa’s Oyster Farm”.

I have had the piece for quite a while and I made it shortly after my grandfather died as it was inspired from memories of him and his oyster farm when I was little.

My grandfather and I loved each other very much and he was a man who always worked hard but had the ability to look at nature and see the beauty, whether it was a leaf, the clouds, the river or a tree. He used to tell my mother she was lucky to be able to do this also and it is something I am grateful for that she passed to me.

 

When I think of my grandfather I think of the sound of the wind in the trees, the lapping of the water on the boat, the sound of oyster shells hitting the metal as they were poured out of hessian sacks and the smell of salt.

It was all these things that I had wrapped into the necklace I had made and it is surprising how emotionally attached I was to that necklace.

When I sold it on the weekend I felt a sense of loss for the memories but then I realised that the beautiful customer who purchased it was now going to benefit from the memories of my grandfather and I am grateful that someone else in the world will have a piece of my family history all wrapped up in a gorgeous necklace.

Another Lesson Learnt

 

Over the last 8 weeks I have had an amazing journey and learnt some really important life lessons. I thought today I would share some of these with you so you can understand the passion and drive that goes into a small Australian Boutique business like Arthouse Industries.

So…it all started 8 weeks ago when I resigned from my high paying, secure job that paid the bills and had a big title you could hide behind. I had always been able to  have Arthouse Industries as a hobby or something that satisfied my creative needs but the business had never had any pressure on it to do things like pay bills!

At that point I made a decision to make Arthouse Industries an amazing Australian business with an amazing story behind it but I won’t bore you all with that today. What I will do is share with you something that makes this journey so much easier for me and I have been reminded of in the last couple of days.

Running a small business by yourself can be very lonely, especially when you have been surrounded by a team of over 100 a day for the past decade and I have come to understand and embrace networking and customer interaction like never before.

This morning I had breakfast with a networking group in my local area that is filled with amazing, inspiring women of all ages and backgrounds and each of those interactions adds to my toolbox of knowledge so that I am able to face difficulties with new ideas, be inspired by creative people and sometimes people are able to put you at ease when you don’t know and answer and it is making you anxious.

On Monday I sat on the ground of a friend’s studio and worked out fantastic ideas to help drive the business using her past business experience.

On Tuesday a customer who lives over 400km away called me to say thank you for taking the time to speak with her when we met and let me know she loved what I was doing and thought I was a beautiful person.

Being creative in my business is only a small part of its success. Embracing the people in your life who can contribute positively towards it is a huge part of staying in the game and I am so grateful that when the glass seems half empty I am surrounded by inspiring people who remind me the glass is actually half full!

Thank you to all those people….you know who you are.

 

Skye X

The Things that Inspire Me!

 

 I am always so grateful that I have the abilty to look at nature and appreciate the innate beauty in everything.

One of the things that amazes me is that we are constantly surrounded by beautiful things that happen naturally and without human intervention.

The majority of my inspiration comes from this and I am surprised that the world is not brimming with artists keen to put what they see into paintings and sculptures!

I have been focused on this subject of late producing necklaces of birds, flowers and sea creatures and I am filled with ideas for the weeks to come.

 

These are some of the pictures that I have taken that have inspired me in the studio.

I hope you see the beauty in them as I have.

Skye

XXX

 

A throwaway society!

I have been working a lot lately with recycled materials in the studio producing beautiful jewellery that has history and charm and it has made me think about the things people throw away.

Recently I have found a supply of old watch pieces that someone takes the time to pull apart, package up and sell for artworks and jewellery and it has been beautiful working with them as I know they hold history. Someone wore them on their wrist for who knows how long before they arrived in my studio and I then in turn create jewellery that someone will again wear. Isn’t it nice to think that they have not been thrown away and discarded like so many of the things we buy today?

One of the reasons I love what I make is that I know they are cherished by the people who purchase them and the beads have the potential to be worn for the next 100 years, generation after generation. It’s such a nice thought that they will not become one of the pieces that get thrown out after being worn once or even worse is purchased knowing they will not last.

We have been conditioned as a society to accept that we throw things away after short use and that everything is mass produced and I am so proud to know of many gorgeous artists who make one off pieces that will last a lifetime.

Next time you go to buy something ask yourself the question....

The important things in life!

I have been thinking lately about life, what I am doing and pondering what my future will hold.

I am extremely lucky to have two beautiful boys, a supportive family, a high paying job, great friends and the ability to express myself via my art, but... I am wondering about what parts of my life will be important in a year or 20 years from now.

I found this picture of my Mum and I and it made me question what life is about.

The picture was taken in the caravan park where we lived in a van with my brother and sister. We didn’t have much money and Mum and Dad worked really hard. On the flip side of that my boys have everything they could every dream of, we live with my Mum and Dad so they get way more attention than most kids and because I earn good money they don’t want for anything.

The question I have been asking myself is what will be important to me/ them later in life?

What will remain of me when I die?

How will people remember me?

What part of me do my children respect/ admire?

My youngest son made it clear to me yesterday when he said to me “as long as your happy Mum, that’s all I care about.”

In a year or 20 years I want to be remembered for my undying love for my boys and my passion for my art and realistically the only things that will linger after I am gone will be the values I have instilled in my children and some beautiful glass beads.

If I am lucky my kids will look at a picture like this one and remember to be passionate about life and love every day!

Cheers,

Skye

Bright colours surround us!

 I get so excited about colour and I have found myself making more and more pieces that are bright, bold and exciting.

I am so glad to see that in everything including fasion, homewares and jewellery we are embracing vivid colour.

One of my favourite design companies is Dinosaur Designs and these two pieces remind me of something that would come out of their prodiuction line. Fun, bright and sculptural.

I thnk it is really important to combine unusual shapes with bright colours and you end up with a finished piece that anyone would want to own.

One of the other things I have discovered is that when I am at the torch working on something like this I am happy, like my mind soaks up the colour and it makes me smile.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy making them.

Till next time,

Skye

All of life is an experiment.

The more experiments you make,

the better.

Ralf Waldo Emerson