Introducing Herbert Co.

Well, one Etsy shop just wasn't enough for me, so now I have two. Oh, and a full time job as an environmental scientist in the city, with a commute that sometimes reaches 3 hours a day...

Anyway, this idea popped up after making a set of three prints on vintage atlas pages for my dear Scottish friend who lived in Melbourne but then moved to Zurich (hence the set of three different maps). I know a lot of people make these prints on old dictionary pages on Etsy already, but my only mark of difference is that I use only Australian maps/street directories, that are at least 20 years old. My idea is that custom prints can be made for people, that have a specific interest in something, and ties to a particular place in Australia. Here are a few examples that are now in Herbert Co.

They look great framed - here's one I did for my brother's girlfriend (who hasn't seen it yet, hope she doesn't read this before Saturday ;)

So there it is, two shops, lots to keep me busy - but that is what life is all about....epoch has been picking up, lots of photographing, wrapping and posting the last couple of days. It's been a good time to  be inside though, we've had huge storms here the last two days - and had a few hours without power yesterday - good opportunity to sit in front of the fire and play with the little black dog.

marnie xx

a little less impact

this week has been a busy one with a big work deadline, but i've managed to fit in a bit of marketing/shop stuff around the edges. i'm only a few days from opening my second etsy shop, printing vintage images on vintage maps, and tonight should see me working away on my guillotine.

some new recycled cards arrived in the mail this week from rikyandnina (from etsy as it's very hard to find brown recycled card from australia sadly - is it better to buy recycled, but ship it from overseas???). my motto for epoch (and the new shop) is to package everything in recycled packaging (reusing boxes etc), then wrap in brown paper, and all my business cards are on post-consumer recycled card. i did manage to source recycled brown envelopes for shop #2 from an australian company called Eco Digital, which is great for trying to minimise the footprint of the business.

last weekend was also a busy one, i attended an auction in woodend for three estates - one of which was the local policeman in romsey. a lot of his gorgeous belongings dated from the 1930s, and i picked up a few interesting things - a depression era vacuum oil crate bookshelf, a box of picture frames (with a couple of interesting oil paintings, one a nude!), vintage lanterns, teapots, vintage esky (about to hit the shop tonight so i can clear it out of my study!), a 1937 trophy, and some adorable cake/coffee/flour tins. 

i managed to fit a long walk in with the little black dog post auction, coming eye to eye with a mob of about 100 kangaroos - lucky he didn't seem interested in chasing them...

and a lovely sunset from our front verandah to cap off a great weekend....

marnie xx