Month: August 2017

Back in September 2013, I decided to make a soft-toy shark. I was enjoying my life in my tiny, colourful flat, spending most evenings crafting and watching wonderfully terrible movies (most of which involved sharks), and I had a delicious new nephew for whom to make something cool.

I themed my shark design around Chuck Taylor sneakers – his name is Charlie – so I used some cool sneaker-patterned fabric, and shoelaces for the teeth.

As the design evolved, I realised that it wasn’t actually suitable for a newborn – but it was a great deal of fun to make!

Fast-forward past the launch of Copper Catkin, with fat quarters for sale on my stall, I needed a few soft toys as examples of what you can make with small amounts of fabric – it’s not just for quilting! My shark (and my two soft-toy mudskippers) stepped into the limelight to entertain and amuse.

Not long after the shark began to accompany us regularly to markets, my baby niece arrived. To connect her design to her older brother’s, and because she was born around Christmas, I made her a trifle shark fabric design. I added a sharkstorm element because I was (still) obsessed with Sharknado.

And now, the design is available in fabric, jewellery, custom-printed accessories, and more 🙂

The Underwater Unexpected collection was the third winner of my ‘inspiration’ competition, just over a year ago. This has been one of my most successful designs EVER, so I thought its anniversary was a good opportunity to talk a little about its origins. 

Some time ago, a friend-of-a-friend was selling her beautiful creations to raise funds to pay vet bills for her bunny. We ended up becoming friends, and I have greatly enjoyed her posts about her bunnies, succulents… and axolotls! So when Beka suggested that I draw axolotls as a fabric design, I knew it was a winner. They’re weird, they’re recognisable, and they’re fun to draw.

As a fabric design, though, they needed something else. Beka began suggesting some really wonderful, bizarre sea creatures – and I got drawing!

During the design process, I decided that I needed to make my own plaid background – and that turned out to be a great decision! The axolotl print remains one of my top sellers, and my biggest ‘wow’ moments for customers. Thanks, Beka! 😀

Plaids and stripes have always been an important part of my personal design aesthetic, especially when I mix patterns in the same outfit.

I carried my quirky colour scheme into my wedding outfits, too, including designing the invitations, and the fabric for my reception blouse.

​​Stripes came into my fabric designs when my clever husband suggested that I use barcode font to spell ‘Drayer Steampunk Wedding’, which I used to create the stripe that was used as the background for our ‘thank you’ artwork after the event. 

After the concept of the barcode stripe took hold, I used it to design a whole series of stripes, including my signature retro stripe which now decorates my fancy gazebo. 

​I wanted a plaid background for my designs – so I made one, in order to avoid accidentally using an actual tartan.

I was scrolling through Facebook last year, as you do, when an amazing photograph of an amazing rock crammed full of fossilised ammonites appeared in my news feed. I just *knew* that I had to draw it! I Googled for inspiration photos, and soon, I had enough to get me started.

It turned out to be quite difficult to replicate the look of the fossil in my simple, flat-colour-and-black-linework style, but it was really satisfying to achieve – and it makes a great fabric design!

A year ago, my nephew was turning three, and I was designing an artwork for his wall. People had been asking me for a Kiwiana range recently, and wee Mr. almost-3 was a big fan of robots at the time, so that’s what I made. The number of characters was driven by the letters in his name – and the stripe in the background, as with many of my stripes, is actually derived from a word, written in barcode font. In this case, it’s my nephew’s name.

As anticipated, this ended up being one of my most popular designs. One of my favourite things about NZ is how much we love and value our native flora and fauna. 

One year on, I have this range available in every product line that I make – jewellery, custom-printed fabrics and accessories, colourables, and hand-made craft accessories.

When you walk around a busy craft market, you don’t often get the chance to take everything in. There are so many amazing things to see that it can be a sort of sensory overload. This feeling is why I always recommend that people take one walk all the way around first, then come back for a second, more detailed look. If you only go around once, there’s so much you can miss!

We’re going to break up our visit into manageable chunks. This post will cover the entranceway and the lobby.

If you’re one of the people cheerfully queuing up for our #goodyvouchers, you will have time to notice the presence of the adorably vintage Betsy the coffee truck from RIPE Coffee.

Next, we have a newcomer to our August market, ​Jonny Ocean Trading – Suppliers of World famous Kampot Pepper. Freya will be here again in September, so don’t miss out – pepper and its accoutrements make a great gift for the people who have everything! 

“We are an Ethical Business trading in high quality exotic fine food and that pays the local farmers in developing countries an equitable price for the highest quality and most unique natural products.
​Kampot Pepper is a rare spice, known to be one of the most distinctive in the world; it’s a pepper like you’ve never tasted before, appreciated for its delicacy and sweetness by fine food enthusiasts across the world.”

Find us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kampotpeppernz/ 

Some lucky people received some of our Goody Vouchers in the lollipop lucky dip – we hope you enjoyed your gifts, treats, or discounts!

As we move into the foyer, we are met with the first group of stalls. On our left, Ken and Richelle from Neko Ngeru, who are currently celebrating finding a location for their Cat Adoption Café – you can help support their efforts here. Ken and Richelle support many cat rescues, including Petone Winter Markets’ chosen charity, Outpawed.

Find out more about us here:
​http://nekongeru.nz/home/

Next to Neko Ngeru, we have Elle from Doodlebum – ​The art, illustrations and melodic doodles of a stay at home mum, with some crafty jewellery and candles thrown in for good measure. True to her name, Elle was doodling 🙂

“I spend most of my spare time creating things, and you will always find me with at least one drawing book and pen case within harms reach!
I started Doodlebum as a hobby business after my daughter was born, but in 2016 I managed to take it to that next level and run it full time! I am proud of what I’ve achieved but there is still a long way to go and many more exciting plans to come over the coming years.

​I create my own colouring books and artwork , soy wax melts and candles and super sparkly nail polish jewellery.“

You can find out more about me and my stall here:
www.facebook.com/doodlebumelle

On the other side of the entrance is Adi from MARTYGIRLskinfood. 

“I handmake 100% natural skincare using foraged weeds & herbs from the roadside then infusing in oils and making hydrosols that are incorporated into all of my products! My products – all 26 of them – are healing, ethical, but funky – and they work! I have named them after geological features of the Wairarapa; Lake Ferry Lady Body silk, Featherston Fox Body Mousse, Longbush Lad SPF face cream!”

Find out more about me and what I make here:
www.martygirl.com
www.facebook.com/MARTYGIRLskinfood

Kim from Coracle Creations is next to Adi, and also comes over from the Wairarapa.

You can find out more about me and my creations here:
@coraclecreations on Instagram
https://www.facebook.com/Letsgetcreating/

The third stall on the right as you enter the foyer, next to Kim, is Nic’s Fudge’n Hell – an ever-changing selection of intriguing and delicious fudge and other sweet treats.

You can find out more about me here:
​https://www.facebook.com/Fudgenhell/ ​

As you move towards the entrance to the main hall, you are presented with a cornucopia of delicious treats from Outpawed, the charity that we are supporting as part of the Petone Winter Markets.

You can find out more about Outpawed here:
www.facebook.com/outpawed/ 
givealittle.co.nz/org/outpawed 
outpawed.co.nz/
www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/86021928/seven-months-after-opening-poriruas-outpawed-trust-set-to-desex-100th-cat

We were lucky enough to have a visit for part of the day from three adorable little kittens, who will be available from Outpawed very soon!

The Copper Catkin stall is also market headquarters, so if you’re looking for Petone Winter Markets tote bag, or the Koha jars for our performers, this is the place to go!

Please don’t forget Koha for our performers – they’re busking, so every dollar counts! Here’s the lovely Willow, taking the jar around.

Copper Catkin is my website, and you can find out more about me and my work on Facebook, too:
www.facebook.com/CopperCatkin
www.facebook.com/CopperCatkinConsulting/

Continue your visit by clicking one of the images below to see more of August’s stallholders.

Autumn has always been my favourite season. Growing up in Europe, it was clearly delineated by the falling leaves at the end of summer, and the onset of a real, often snowy, winter. This seasonal change was the thing I missed the most about Europe when we moved to NZ – that is, until we moved to our place in the Western Hills. Here, we have deciduous trees, mushrooms and toadstools, and even an apple tree to harvest. 

I decided to challenge myself to make a more stylised autumnal design this year, so I started drawing leaves. 

I found that they worked really well, in a midwestern USA kind of way, over some of my plaids – so, I went with it. I hope you like them 🙂

Around a year ago now, one of my close friends was having a baby shower. As a non-parent, I always struggle with buying gifts for people’s kids – so I decided to make something a bit different. We were having a dinosaur-themed party, because of her interest in history and geology (and also, DINOSAURS, like, come on. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?), so I knew what my subject matter would be. I also knew the colour scheme, thanks to this inspiration cake from Luxury Cakes. Now, I needed to figure out the details. 

​We knew dinosaurs would be a hit, because she dreamt that I made her a dinosaur mobile for the baby. Which also meant, of course, that we had to make a dinosaur mobile… Which we did.

My husband George and I sat down and brainstormed which dinosaurs would look best, and how to lay out the artwork. I wanted them marching along, carrying signs; my clever husband came up with most of the ideas for the sign wording, and the Dinosaur Activists were born.

I printed them on a big canvas for baby’s wall, and the party went really well 🙂

The Insectivorous Plant collection is made up of a selection of plants that eat insects – Dionaea Muscipula, Drosera Binata, Heliamphora minor, Rafflesia arnoldii, Sarracenia Purpurea, with their victims, flies, and a honey bee.
Hand-drawn on paper and digitally coloured by Cat Drayer (that’s meee!).

I originally decided to do this series as a tongue-in-cheek Valentine’s Day design, inspired by a photo of the sundew in my Facebook feed. At first, I thought it was a curled silver fern frond, but when I realised it was a carnivorous plant, the subversive nature (love you to death – I could just eat you up) of using it as a Valentine’s Day artwork appealed to my sense of humour.
Of course, once I knew that I was doing an insectivorous design, the ideas for additional plants to draw came thick and fast.

The Venus Fly-trap is probably the most famous and recognisable carnivorous plant, so of course, it had to be included in this series. 

The pitcher plant is probably the second most common insectivorous plant to be kept ‘as a pet’. It took me a long time sifting through inspiration pictures to settle on the Heliamphora minor, and it was one of the hardest to colour.

The corpse lily is actually a parasite, not a carnivorous plant, but its bizarre appearance, and the fact that it’s the largest individual flower on earth, secured it a place in the line-up. It also works quite well with the others, because not only does it smell like dead things, but it also attracts flies (which pollinate the flower).

​Sarracenia purpurea is commonly known as the purple pitcher plant, northern pitcher plant, turtle socks, or side-saddle flower. I wanted something with a weird flower and a vertical shape, so this flower rounded out the collection nicely.

The ‘Insectivorous plants’ collection is available in a range of variations – the same colourway on multiple backgrounds, and a variety of other colourways.

We had some really great entries to last months’ colouring competition – and young Holly was our winner! 

You can still enter – online or in person, at the Petone Winter Markets this Saturday! 

The prize is an amazing play-date with kittens at Outpawed Rescue Trust!! 
A 90 minute play date with the kittens, aged approximately between 8 and 16 weeks. Morning/afternoon tea will be provided. The winner may bring up to two friends (or family) to join them. The play date can take place either in Whitby or Newlands (chosen by the winner). There will be one (1) prize per market.

Download the image, print it out, colour it in, scan it as a common file type (such as .pdf, .jpg or .png), then go to the entry form and attach it with your entry details. Indicate how you will make your donation, and you’re in the competition!
We are also accepting entries with gold coin donations at each of at the Petone Winter Markets events.

This is a fundraiser, so we ask that every entrant also makes a donation to Outpawed of at least $1 per entry.