Frida Kahlo, one of the greatest Mexican artists in history and one of the highest selling women in art, only became well known to the public decades after her death. Today, she became a feminism icon inspiring people around the world, she persevered her passion for arts throughout her difficult life and turned her pain into beauty.
Frida was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico and died in 1954 at the age of 47, reported to have died from a pulmonary embolism. She never visited Australia in life, but she's widely loved by Australian today, in 2016, the Art Gallery of New South Wales presented an exhibition of 40 artworks of Frida and her husband Diego, it was a hit.
As a matter of fact, the country Mexico that Frida was from shares quite of a lot of common characteristics with Australia, both lands have great varieties of gorgeous plants and wonderful wildlife, bold and vibrant colours are greatly appreciation by people from both countries.
I myself, with no exception, had been a huge fan of Frida and I decided to create a pattern with Frida illustration and some Australian elements, and this is how 'Frida Down Under' was born.
I started with Frida's portrait, her iconic bushy unibrow and upper lip mustache are not to be missed, oh yes, the flower crown is another prominent feature!!! My initial thought was to draw Waratahs for the flower crown but since my husband Allen was working on quite a lot of protea & waratah sketches at the same time, I decided to go with peonies instead.
Frida had many pets, most well known ones includes the spider monkeys and the Amazon parrots. I decided to draw a Koala and a Scarlet Macaw. I was a bit cheeky with the Koala as I found one on Allen's sketch book that he drew before, I had it traced on illustrator and went on to draw my own Macaw.
Instead of having the flowers and plants prints scattered around, I drew the flower arch, it was inspired by Natalie Ness, one of my fellow stallholders at the Rocks, who has the most amazing stall display by using a flower arch on top of her cash counter. I drew banksias, gum flowers, grevilleas and chrysanthemums for the flower arch, these are some of the very popular plants grown in Australia.
It took roughly 3 weeks of turnaround time from submitting my design til receipt of the fabrics, had butterflies revealing them but the printing turned out to be fabulous!!
Frida Down Under bags were launched in Oct. 2021 and are now available in below styles of bags / purses, I'm glad that they are loved by so many of you!!! Thank you for your support of small businesses like ours!!
Hello everyone !! How are you doing ? I’ve been quiet for a while, took the longest break since early last year, I did a lot of gardening, a lot of bakery, a lot of decluttering, a little reading and a lot of Netflixing, the past Jan. has been a very laidback and healing month, which I really needed.
For those who have been following my IG & FB stories, you know that we have been working on some new products for the last two weeks, truly excited and they are available online now.
Here’s the Karen wristlet wallet, the wallet I had always on my mind!! They are made with double kiss lock frames, which means .... a small kisslock bag inside the outer kisslock bag!!! Plus there are 12 card slots and 4 side pockets (2 large 2 small), simply the perfect everyday wallet!!
Honestly the sewing part of interior lining with multiple pockets were driving me crazy, but I know this will be the wallet that we all need, one that can hold a lot and in a very organised way, another product that I’m very proud of 😉
While American have their Micky Mouse, Japanese have Hello Kitty, Finnish have Moomin, for Aussies, we have our very popular Gumnut babies and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
May Gibbs (1877-1969) is one of Australia’s most treasured illustrators and the first female cartoonist in Australia.
May Gibbs’ Gumnut Babies was published in late 1916 and was an instant hit. Other bush babies were born in the following two years, including Gum Blossom Babies, Boronia Babies, Flannel Flower Babies and Wattle Babies.
These bush babies were now firmly established as part of Australian folklore.
Gibbs later published The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie in 1918, which has become the iconic Australian children’s story till these days. It is a story of two gumnut babies and their escape from the villain Banksia men.
Gibbs’ beautifully illustrated fantasy tales brought the vivid sights and sounds of the Aussie bush alive, the stories are filled with excitement, adventures and magic that have fascinated generations of children.
Thanks for the recently released May Gibbs fabrics, we are happy to bring you back the childhood memories of the gumnut babies and other bushbabies through your daily-used bags!!! Available now in small wood clutch bag, wristlet bags and coin purses.
I love my work and my business as it is always enjoyable to play with colourful materials and exciting to work on something new!
Now our most popular Fiona wristlet is available in colourful full leather version!
It remains the same size as the original Fiona wristlet but the bag body and wrist strap are made from beautiful Italian cow leather or calf leather. Interior of the bag is made from cotton fabric and it comes with a slip pocket. It also comes with the detachable shoulder chain strap.
The Fiona leather wristlet is now available in 11 fashionable colours all of which are high quality, elegant & luxurious, and work perfect for minimalist. It provides enough room for all the essential belongings such as phone, cosmetic items, wallet, credit cards, and keys.
I believe we all have different color preferences in different age stages in life.
Black was everything to me back in the days when I was still a teenager. Oh black, such a colour symbolising sophistication, elegance and mature.
Then I turned to the mysterious purple for quite a long time. I think I still quite like purple till today, though not the very favourite one anymore.
When I was still selling bridal clutches on Etsy years ago, there was one color that really stood out in my sales summary ... Grey!!!
Unbelievable huh? That’s a myth I never solved during the years.... Out of superstition, I bought lots of clothing and jewellery that were in grey colour and was quite fond of it, the grey color did bring me much luck.
Then later on came to the year we established Pink Oasis, I bet you can tell, my favourite color then was PINK!!!
In the last two years, I’ve been addicted to mustard and I still am today. Such a vibrant and lively color! I know I said that I’ll be venturing some new colour but I’m still not ready to let go this one yet.
So, What’s your favourite colour now?
Do you know that our very popular wristlet bag was actually designed by Allen, not me?
We used to walked to the coffee shop nearby for breakfast or brunch every now and then, well, I don’t have pocket with every piece of my outfits, most of the dresses are pocketless!!
So … my dearest husband was helping to hold my phone, keys and cards until one day he decided enough is enough... ‘you need a coffee bag !!!’
He worked out this bag that’s
Okay, It proves that occasionally man does know what women want!!!
Between me and Allen, he is definitely a better illustrator. The other day I asked him to make a flower sketch then I’ll trace and adjust it with Adobe Illustrator, we had been talking about our own fabric designs and we really needed to get it started.
So, this is it, Allen drew the Waratah. Wow!! Look at all the details!! That’s a lot of work for me with Adobe!! Guess what? I decided to draw a simplified and abstract version, here below is my work!! Which one do you think it’s gonna turn into great floral pattern for handbags?
Anyway, I need to give a big round of applause to Allen, thanks for your drawing and thanks for always being supportive, though I decided to go with my version ^_
Later I had my Waratah floral pattern traced onto a black leather piece, I then cut out the silhouette and sewed it onto the mustard leather, it’s quite a lot of work but it looks great, isn’t it? Next step I will do some other colours combination, any thoughts?
Waratah Leather Bag | LEARN MORE
Our oversize wooden frame clutch holds a lot, spacious enough for phone, large wallet, cosmetic items, credit cards, keys and other stuffs that you may need for a casual outing about town.
Two ways use
Fully interfaced, the bag is always in the good shape
Reinforced bag bottom made with genuine leather and installed with bag feet studs
Wooden purse frame with cut-out handle, magnetic closure
Slip pocket inside to hold credit cards or coins
Comes with detachable and adjustable leather strap
