MADAME BUTTERFLY'S CREATIVE CABINET
A creative type interview
September, 2006
hammer & daisy

This month's 'Creative types' are Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison the designers behind the label hammer & daisy, a Melbourne based business creating handmade books, journals, albums and stationary products. We asked lots of fun questions to find out all about them and their fast-growing enterprise!

Tell us a little bit about hammer & daisy...
We initially began hammer & daisy as a small, rather ill conceived, gardening business to support the making of our collaborative limited edition artists’ books. Our gardening business was, not surprisingly, short lived however we kept the name. hammer & daisy in its current guise began in early 2003 after we received a Freedman Foundation Traveling Scholarship for Emerging Artists to study two different binding techniques at the Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland, in 2002. Upon our return we adapted one of the exposed spine binding techniques to create our line of hammer & daisy square knot journals. Our line of hammer & daisy handmade fabric covered journals has since grown to include a small concertina journal, A6 journal pouch, pencil case, A7 scribbler and owl pinnie.

Each element of our handmade journals, pouches, pencil cases and more, are handmade. We hand fold the paper of every concertina journal and the holes along the spine of every square knot are individually hole punched, one page at a time. The covers are cut from various fabrics, ironed and glued, ready to be assembled at a later date and the small brass wires that rest in each saddle section are hand bent into tiny right angles. The spine of  each square knot journal is made up by a series of knots, a single A4 journal requires 168 square knots.

We really do love making them and we hope you like them too.

How did you get started and what were your influences?
We began creating our line of blank journals primarily for our own enjoyment. As we both used many sketch books and working journals as part of our art practice, it seemed a natural progression to make journals to retail in small, specialist outlets and boutiques, as well as our online store.

We wanted to make the kind of blank journals we would like to use however couldn’t find. The square knot journals are designed to sit completely flat when open so you can use the entire page spread, with no wasted space in the spine or on the reverse side. This makes them ideal for writing, drawing, lists, collages, random scribbles and thoughts.

Each handmade goodie is made out of our own necessity. A need for a pincushion when making the pencil cases and A6 journal pouches saw us coming up with the recent line of Owl Pinnies.

What do you love about what you make and do?
We both love that we get to work with our hands on a daily basis from our home based studio. It allows us to work with paper and fabric, two  equal loves, in a comfortable environment. Our small hammer & daisy business directly supports the making of our lithographic offset prints, collaborative artists’ books and low tech zines. We make our hammer & daisy goodies because we enjoy the whole process from start to finish. The familiarity of the process makes it an enjoyable one.

What designs/styles do you love the most?
We love finding new fabrics to use in a wide variety of styles.  No one particular style is favoured as we love using sometimes matching, sometimes clashing, fabric pieces together to create new combinations. Embroidered doilies, old curtains, cushion covers, and tablecloths once cut down look quite different, they take on a new lease of life, a new function. A hideous skirt can make a beautiful journal cover. We also use quilting fabrics from the UK and US, reprinted vintage designs from the 20’s & 30’s for their beautiful muted colours, and Japanese kimonos, their wide sleeves and decorative lining make them especially adaptable to becoming a journal pouch or cover. Reinventing a fabrics function, combing new fabrics with old finds is part of the fun. Each and every journal, pouch and pencil case is a one of a kind, unique piece, with no two (thus far) using the same combination of fabrics. The front and back of each item features different designs and patterns. No two pieces are ever the same.

Who or what is inspiring you right now?
The chance to exhibit our hammer & daisy goodies is inspiring. For a window at Craft Victoria in Flinders Lane, Melbourne (Monday the 28th, August through to Sunday the 10th, September, 2006) we have installed a mini white forest of trees made from 9mm ply and 14mm MDF, to create a habitat for a display of our owl pinnies entitled A Parliament of Owls. Creating a forest of snow white trees for the owls to perch upon has been a fun and inspiring project.

We are inspired by the addictive, meticulous process. Of working with our hands and the old world charm of bookbinding. A finished pile of neatly bound and wrapped journals is our inspiration to make more. Libraries and Books also prove an invaluable source of inspiration and ideas.

Lucky finds from our daily travels are equally exciting. Finding new fabrics, beautiful tablecloths and other vintage remnants to fashion into a journal cover or pencil case is also inspiring. We work with inconsistencies in the fabrics as this is a part of the history of the fabric. Some feature age spots or small holes where threads have been removed. A 1950’s tea towel from abroad, with its heavy weight, coarse texture and great design in lurid colours can be transformed into an ideal cover. It is these very elements of the process that we find inspiring. Friends and family are also on the hunt for fabric and button delights. We currently have a wonderful stockpile of  bright and pearly buttons from a friend’s travels to Hong Kong.

What are your favourite colours to live with and work with?
Olive green, canary yellow, grey, chocolate brown, ochre, sage, peppermint, violet, cadmium orange, cerulean blue and a perfect pink ... ahh, we could go on and on, there are too many to list.

What are you reading right now?
Anything from Agatha Christie to books on the natural world such as A Photographic Guide to Mammals of Australia. Specifically, on the top of the pile: Wild Minds - What animals really think by Marc Hauser, The New Life, Orhan Pamuk, Sigmar Polke - The Three Lies of Painting, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Murakami, Penguin Lost, Andrey Kurkov, and rediscovering Tove Jansson’s Moomin books from Primary School years. We are also big fans of audio books for when we are working in the studio... a rather daggy, though much loved secret.

What are you listening to?
On high rotation, anything by Gogol Bordello, the soundtracks to The Man Without a Past and Gadjo Dilo. We are also loving... the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Devendra Banhart, The Clash, Guided by Voices, The Mountain Goats, Iris De Ment, Sister Rosetta Tharpe recordings from 1938-41, Sons and Daughters, Texicali Rose, and many, many more.

What are you watching?
At the movies... An Inconvenient Truth, Unfolding Florence -The many lives of Florence Broadhurst, Ballet Russes, Hidden, New Orleans Music in Exile.

On DVD... Everything is Illuminated, All About My Mother, Goodbye Lenin, The City of the Lost Children, The Man Without A Past, Spirited Away, Black Cat White Cat, Vertigo, and Down By Law. Episodes of Black Books, Planet Earth, The Long Way Round and Jeeves & Wooster... the Nero Wolfe and Poirot mysteries also get a look in. In short, we’ll watch anything.

A few of your favourite things?
Many, many books, a blank sheet of paper, a new novel to read, a patch of blue sky on a grey day, our pets and all the beloved cats in the local neighbourhood, motorbikes, too much coffee, the smell of freshly watered violets growing in the front garden, our trusty mac and ipod, travel, the smell of a sharpened pencil... and all those unexpected daily moments, treats and treasures.

If you could travel through time, where would you go, who would you visit?
Anywhere and any time. The prospect of travel is always thrilling. On a whim we’d love to head to Turkey if we could tomorrow, or Russia. And, as we’ve been watching The Long Way Round (again) on DVD, Mongolia and Alaska, are now also pretty high up on the list as well. As to the time period... pretty fond of them all, it’s too hard to choose.

Your perfect way to spend a weekend?
Anything... so long as it involves a sleep in on Sunday, with the newspapers and coffee in bed.

Have you any great advice for aspiring artisans or crafts people?
Do what you love... and work really hard at it... with that, nothing can fail.

You can find them and their fabulous products here, and at their wonderful blogs, high up in the trees and elsewhere. And Don't forget if you're in Melbourne, the hammer & daisy exhibition, A Parliament of Owls is showing In the window at Craft Victoria, 41 Flinders Lane, Melbourne from 28th August to the 10th September.

Madam Butterfly Gallery