This information session is for emerging and established makers seeking to expand their market reach in the retail sector. Carmel McKie, Craft Victoria's Retail Manager will run through best practice guidelines to help makers maximize their product potential. Guest speakers Gaye Naismith of Gaye Abandon and Victoria Mason will discuss their individual experiences across various sales platforms, including wholesale, trade fairs and international supply.
Date: Monday 11 October, 6-7.30pm
Venue: Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Bookings: SOLD OUT - call 03 9650 7775 to register for the waiting list
Cost: $20 / $10 Craft Victoria Members
Presenters:
Carmel McKie
Carmel began volunteering for Craft Victoria when she moved to Melbourne at the start of 2007. Her current role began in mid 2008 after establishing herself as the Assistant Retail Manager. She is responsible for the overall management of COUNTER, including overseeing daily operations, facilitation of professional development sessions for Craft Victoria Members and a curated window exhibition program. She is mid way through a Master of Arts Management at the University of Melbourne and has a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Art) from Edith Cowan University in Perth.
Victoria Mason
Victoria Mason is a Melbourne based jeweller whose current collections reflect a love of nostalgia and family crafts as well as a keen understanding of different jewellery techniques. She shares affection for ordinary house-hold items with one of her favourite artists, the late Howard Arkley, whose reinterpretation of familiar suburban scenes and objects show a similar reference to Australian domesticity. Miniature teaspoons as earrings, a pencil sharpening pendant or a tape measure curled into the shape of a heart are created in silver and sometimes take months to complete. Her 18 years as a jeweller has seen her study a Bachelor of Visual Arts at SCA, complete a Jewellery Apprenticship & Gemmology. Victoria sells her work through retail, online, trade fairs and design markets, and currently works from a light filled studio in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
Gaye Naismith
Gaye was born in the south, and grew up in the north of New Zealand, moving to Wellington to study photography before coming to Australia (sewing machine in hand) in her early twenties. Through her twenties she pursued her interests in photography and making clothes, and sustained herself through a wide assortment of jobs including stints working as a milliners assistant for Wendy Mead and Liza Steadman. In her thirties Gaye returned to study, completing an Honours degree in Visual Arts and a Masters in Cultural Studies at Monash University and worked as a moving and still image cataloguer for a number of years. In her forties she decided she wanted to develop her ongoing sewing activities into her primary occupation and to this end completed a NEIS small business course in 2005. She kicked off her business making wallets, purses, and clothing, selling her products primarily through craft markets. In 2006 she teamed up with Melanie Hill (Textile Allsorts), to create the Body Parts Winter Accessories range which transforms recycled, felted wool jumpers into snug handmade winter accessories. The Gaye Abandon and Body Parts ranges have continued to build and are sold at markets, through retailers across Australia and online.
