A handmade history
We initially began hammer & daisy as a small, rather ill-equipped, gardening business, in the hope that it would provide a little financial aid to the making of our limited edition artists’ books. Our gardening business proved, unsurprisingly, to be a short lived affair. In finding that we greatly favoured the folding of paper to hedge tending and the ridding of weeds from garden bed, by acrobatic leap we transformed it into a journal-making hub. We hung up our spades and trowels and began afresh.
Thus reinvented, hammer & daisy under this new guise could be said to have formed early in 2003 when we adapted an exposed spine, square knot binding technique studied at the Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland. What began as a line of hammer & daisy handmade fabric covered journals quickly grew to include a concertina journal, an A6 journal pouch and pencil case, an A7 scribbler, and a parliament of owl pinnies.
Every element of our handmade journals, pouches, pencil cases and owls was handmade. We folded by hand the paper of every concertina journal and the holes along the spine of every square knot were individually hand-punched, one page at a time. The covers were cut from various fabrics, ironed and glued, ready to be assembled at a later date, and the small brass wires that rested in each saddle section were hand-bent to form tiny right angles. The spine of each each square knot journal was made up by a series of knots, with a single A4 journal requiring 168 square knots.
Finding new fabrics, beautiful tablecloths, and embroidered doillies to fashion into a journal covers or hand sewn pouch proved an enjoyable part of the process. Tea towels from the 1950s sometimes made for fantastical journal covers, we found, and un-wearable skirts could become part of a pouch or pencil case. In addition, we often used quilting fabrics from the UK and US, including reprinted vintage designs from the 30sand 40s with their familiar and beautiful muted colours, and Japanese kimonos, their penchant for a handsome, decorative lining an asset to the fabric hunter. We loved combining new fabrics with old finds, ensuring that each and every piece we made was unique. How could one not?
Along the way, Thelma’s stuffies and pins found room in the caravan craft, and can still be found today through our online store, and Craft upon occasion. Made completely by hand with a full percentage of love by Elaine Haby, oft with her foot on the peddle of her sewing machine and a pin in her mouth, some stuffies sport buttons for noses whilst others display stripes on their stumpy tails. Some have small pockets filled with tiny red felt hearts, others have ears that flop from left to right and back again. Some are rotund and others are lean, and some come with lips that are wide and arms wider still. Differences, quirks and individual mannerisms aside, all leave the sewing room table in search of loving home.
From here, we branched out and added a handful of greeting cards and postcards to the lineup, all suitable to be sent as festive cheerio, to wish someone well, or to even send by way of apology or in the place of a hug. All are full-colour print on a smooth, matte finish, heavy-weight stock with a matching self adhesive white envelope.
Over the years we stocked our handmade wares, Thelma's stuffies and pins, and greeting cards with Art Gallery of Western Australia, Arthur’s Circus, Craft (formerly Craft Victoria), Distracted, Greville Street Bookstore, High Tea with Mrs Woo, Iris & Hazel, Lee Mathews Workroom, Meet Me at Mikes, One Penny Black Expresso Bar, Readings, Safari Living, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Warrnambool Art Gallery, Wilkins & Kent, and others.
That, dear friends, is the story today. hammer & daisy proved above all to be changeable. Today, as the name hammer & daisy grows fainter, we trade under our names. What would the point of a super small business be if it were not one that enabled us to evolve? We are all for the changeable beast!
Please visit our online store to see what we are making today.
Yours beholden to handmade and reinvention,
Gracia & Louise
“I used to hate January as kid because every time I turned on the TV I’d be faced with another ‘back to school’ ad. It was so cruel. Not only because they served a painful reminder that my holidays were drawing to an end, but the fact that I would once again be faced with another year of boring stationary. Which brings me to these far from boring pencil cases by hammer & daisy — each one is handmade from start to finish using beautiful prints and fabrics you won’t find anywhere near a Horror Works store.”
— Michi Girl current forecast, Push the little daisies, Tuesday 24th of January, 2006
“Unproductive Wednesday blues be gone! be shaken! With this here fourth coffee brew be banished. My feet they’re wet from landing in puddles.
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison met while they were students at RMIT University. They soon formed a collaborative practice called Gracia + Louise, where they create beautiful artists’ book, prints, zines, postcard collages, and other small projects from their home-based studio in Melbourne, Australia.
Their work is abundantly whimsical and magical as they create a bevy of delights from their free-flowing imagination and abundant source of creativity. Their twitter feed is a great place to step into the delightful world Gracia and Louise have created together as well as get glimpses at the women behind the work.”
— Pattern Pulp, Twitter Influencer: Gracia + Louise, 2nd of December, 2011
“Before making (quite possibly) the cutest pencil cases in the world, Louise Jennison and Gracia Haby were shovelling dirt. To support their collaborative, limited edition artists’ books, they were running a small gardening and odd job business. Although they tossed the pitchforks soon after, they kept the original company name, hammer & daisy, and started creating journals, pouches and pencil cases. Our favourites, the pencil cases, are lined with dark chocolate fabric and matching zips. Some feature handsewn buttons and fabric remnants, ensuring each pencil case is unique. All this love for $28. Anyone for the first day of school?”
— Frankie magazine, Issue 11, June/July, 2006
“….it was the pair’s search for the perfect journal — one that would lie flat, enabling sketching right into the spine — that led to the creation of hammer & daisy. Using skills they learnt during a month-long scholarship at the specialist bookbinding school Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland, Gracia and Louise started their journal making business in 2003.”
— Jan Phyland & Janet de Silva, Handmade in Melbourne: Beautiful Things from 80 Creative People, 2006
In addition to our online store, from time to time, our cards can be found at Solander Gallery (New Zealand), and Minnesota Center for Book Arts (USA).
Previously, our cards have been stocked at Brunswick Street Bookstore, Fitzroy (plus zines); Craft (formerly Craft Victoria), Melbourne (plus Thelma’s handmade); Geelong Gallery, Geelong; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell; Metropolis Bookshop, Melbourne; Milly Sleeping, Carlton (plus zines); MCA store, Sydney (plus zines); Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Brixi, London, UK; Colette, Paris, France (plus zines); and Cow Books, Tokyo, Japan (plus zines).
SELECTED PRESS DETAILS (PRINT & ONLINE)
The curated walls of Amy Borrell, Little Paper Planes blog, June 21, 2012; A little chat with Gracia & Louise, Pretty Paper Things, September 18, 2012; The Good Weekend, The Age, December 3, 2011; Pattern Pulp, December 2011; The Design Files, Guest Blog, October 2011; Desktop magazine: The Culture of Design, September 2011; TAKE.AWAY: Feeding the Creative Beast, August 2011; The 22 Magazine, June 2011; Bloesem, June 2011; Maeve, Issue 2, spring 2010, Nancy's Fancies, p.22; Insideout, January–February 2010, p.62; The Melbourne Design Guide, published 2009; The Jealous Curator, November 2011; I Make Stuff, published 2009; Design*Sponge, August 2008; Swiss Miss, August 2008; Arthur's Circus profile on The Design Files, March 2008; Small Magazine, Winter 2007, issue no.4; Athena Says, October 2007; Tas-ka, September 2007; Maditi Likes, September 2007; Modish, September 2007; Poppy Talk, September 2007; Insideout, September–October 2007, p.30; N.E.E.T., March 2007, p.25; Blanket Magazine, Issue 2: the urban issue, 2007; Handmade in Melbourne, published 2006; Real Living, November 2006, p.11; Madame Butterfly Gallery, September 2006; modamuse, August 2006; decor8, July 2006; Frankie, June–July 2006, p.14; Vogue Living, May–June 2006, p.34; Insideout, March–April 2006, p.150; Michi Girl, Current forecast, January 24 2006; I made it myself, The Age, A2, December 10 2005; Sellout, The Sunday Age, June 19 2005, p. 20; Life & Leisure, The Australian Financial Review, May 6 2005, p.2; House & Garden, February 2005, p.48–52; Interiors, February–March 2005, p.91; Home, Herald Sun, November 27 2004, p.24; Object, Issue 43, 2003, p.62; Insideout, August 2003, p.28.