What I have been up to.

Hello! I'm alive! I've been:

• working in our new shop space, which is much busier with curious people popping in  - not buying necessarily but keeping us busy!
• working on a wedding dress revamp. It may be summer here but this snowy white fluff ball of tulle feels like a snow blizzard, only hot to be stuck under! I can't show you photos yet as the bride hasn't seen it, Patience..
• doing a gig! Yes in spite of swearing that this year I would not overdo it, I did a comedy show called Sing it Wrong on Saturday night, which is a bunch of stand up comics writing silly, satirical lyrics to popular songs. It is such a lot of fun to do and watch, my fave comedy show in my city. No pics tho.
• writing a show! Yes, Clever and Constance sing Songs for Grownups is coming along very well.

The show I CAN share about. The weekend before last, Hans and I did a photo shoot as we only had photos together from our Sweeney Todd Little Priest number, which would scare anyone away!

Yes, the ukulele is used in the making of this show. We have a Hawaiian inspired number, and another classic that isn't generally associated with the ukulele, but it is fabulous!
Other songs are accompanied by more traditional backing tracks, a couple of which are being arranged by Hans' brother. Such a Clever family!
Locals who are interested in our Fringe Festival show, you can click here to see the dates and times
So, my evenings go - write some lyrics and/or rewrite lyrics already written, then bead bead bead the dress.
I have now finished beading, I think, and just have some construction things to do - put zip in, finish adjustments to lining and rehem. The dress was purchased new but needed a lot of tidying up and resizing and refining, and as is so often the case, the huge underskirt with train was bagged into a lining. But, it was 10cm longer on one side than the other! So, I thought I would undo the lining and finish it separately, and narrow hem the skirt. But now I am thinking I might bias hem the bits I've shortened, catching in both layers, and hand stitch to the lining.


Either way I have until Saturday to get it done as it is going back home on the plane with Ms Bride.
So, I'm off to catch some much needed sleep as I've got a couple of long sewing bees to get through yet.

Moooving Made on Marion to Tory

We have moved our business! Back in April 2016, 17 Marion St was sold to a developer whose plans for it did not include us. So, we had to find an alternative space, and after a long and frustrating search, we hit the jackpot!! We are now open at 1/100 Tory St. This is right opposite Moore Wilson’s which is the Wellington foodie mecca, and super busy.
Moving 200sqm of accumulated stock and STUFF was no mean feat. And over the summer break too, when getting movers and skip suppliers and sorting out power and phone and internet was a heck of a ride. And our new shop needed to be gutted and refinished from two smaller spaces, too. By golly those tradies did a fantastic job. In five weeks they turned two cafes into one shop.

The top two shots are the corner cafe and the bottom two are the secret one tucked in beside it that is now mostly our studio

It was really sad saying goodbye to Marion St, where Golding Handcrafts opened in 1997, the fourth location since 1968 and our base for nearly five years, but it was very timely too – the November quake damaged parts of the Marion Square Parking building opposite us causing it to close, the Post Office to permanently close and several other businesses to close temporarily, and the pedestrian access from Cuba St to be cordoned off. Overnight it went from a vibrant hub of design activity to a ghost street.

This space has not been empty since 1997. MrC took these pics and as a result got sent back to retrieve the fabric in the right corner of the left photo! It has reels of thread on it, naturally...

So, every cloud has a silver lining for someone. And we have a clean, bright shop in a building that is very safe when the ground shakes, and is in an exciting and vibrant pocket of the city.

Some shots of our new space, featuring my sister Jo!

We could not have achieved this huge task without the army of volunteers who turned up to pack and then unpack. Thank you so much to you all: To Kim (and her husband’s muffins!), Polly, Zara, Angie, Julia, Debbie, Andrew, Richard, Emily, Richard, Jane, Leslie, Fiona, Chrissy, Jo, Zoe, Ron and Jenny, Kirsten, Leimomi, Karen, Karyn, Glenn, Mel, Lucille, Jehanne, Kat, Grace, Felix; you are all heroes xo