cardboard box

2010-01-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

This sounds like just the sort of awesome event Auckland needs more of!!

2009-10-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

How awesome are these hot chips? That's right, very awesome! They were made by my good friend Luci Everett as illustrations to accompany reviews of hot chips in Melbourne, to be seen in the next issue of Cardboard Box, look forward to it!

2009-09-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

YAY! Zinefest Wellington! 21st November @ Mighty Mighty..

Auckland Zinefest.

2009-08-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

This Saturday Cardboardbox will have a table at the Auckland Zinefest. From 12.30 (I think) until 4.30 (again, I think)
Should be a fun time, come and see us it is at Cross Street Studios!

Whoop whoop!

Kraftbomb

2009-07-25T21:52:00.001-07:00

It was super cool to be back at Kraftbomb today, lovely day for it and there was a good crowd..

I decided to mix up the way we display the zines this time, brought some very appropriate cardboard boxes to store the copies in, with copies specifically for fondling (there's always a lot of this!) on the edge of the table..

The BRAND NEW (well basically..) Issue Four!

I had all 30 of my lightbulbs with cosies from the Launch for Issue Three (hung in Oui Boutique's window) for sale, they went down amazingly and all sold out - hilarious!

Nicola was at the snow this weekend so I had Jamie-lee of Nifty Thrifty fame along for company, she brought along some of the lacy knickers and tea towels that she makes with Ashleigh under their 'Thieves Like Us' label - was great to have both her and the merch along!

2009-07-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

Check out the Wellington City Library's blog for a glowing review of CBB #3 posted by Carmel.. Thanks!!

Launch!!

2009-07-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who braved the cold and the rain to come and help us celebrate Issue Four of Cardboard Box!!

P.s. Issue Four is now available through endemicworld.com so if you didn't make it to the launch there are still options..

2009-06-22T22:36:00.001-07:00

It's that time again!!

Issue Four of Cardboard Box is being picked up from the printers this Thursday and so to celebrate we're having another launch! Hosted again by Lou and Robert at OUi Boutique in St Kevin's Arcade on KRd, next Thursday, July 2nd, from 5:30 - 7pm. Come along to pick up a brand new copy of your very own, check out Nicola's new line of jewellery (pictured) and be in first for OUi Boutique's Winter Sale!!

Hope to see you there.. xxx

2009-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Some Cool Crochet/Knitwear

2009-06-17T14:43:00.001-07:00

My buddy Alysha is doing her Honours year in Fashion at AUT, focussing on knitwear, I popped by her studio yesterday and took some pics of the GREAT stuff she's doing..

This is hyperbolic crochet, you crochet to mathematical algorithms and end up with this exaggerated, coral-like form of crochet..

Which she is then using to construct this.. SO awesome

This is something she's been working on recently, the red is a big sheet of knitted fabric she constructed on the machine, the technician calls it the 'nipple' technique, through slipping stitches (I think!) you end up with the bumps in the fabric, it's all so inspiring!

2009-06-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

by Elena Wenn, final year of Fine Arts at Elam

GUERILLA KNITTING ON KRD

2009-06-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

At 5:30am on Thursday the 11th of June I got my cousins Jasmine (a prolific knitter/crafter) and Jordan (an amazing photographer) up to help install and document my latest project - Guerilla Knitting for K Rd. I was commissioned by the K Rd Business Association to knit adornment for the trees along K Rd. It was such a fun, exhilarating experience! The knickers are in a tree outside Leo O'Malley's..

I knitted 100 lightbulbs and strung them through this tree in Beresford Square..

This little bluebird and nest are stitched into one of the Nikau Palms at the traffic lights outside St Kevin's Arcade..

We put 6 toadstools into the bark in the long traffic island opposite This is Not a Love Shop, there were 5 left when we went back to take some shots in the light at 8:30am, 3 when Barbara (from the Business Association) got to work, 2 that afternoon and they're now all gone!

This bra we stitched onto this tree opposite St Kevin's Arcade, it didn't even last till lunchtime that day until someone stole it! I was totally expecting theft but not so soon and not in broad daylight.. crazy!

Check out my blog for more extensive documentation of the project, Jordan took some truly great images!

- Sharon

Auckland Zinefest!

2009-06-07T01:10:00.001-07:00

Zinefest is finally coming to Auckland the lovely people behind it - Tessa and Nick - would love to have your help! Contact them at akzinefest@gmail.com or check out their blog

Issue FOUR People

2009-06-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

These two hotties are Jamie-Lee (of Nifty Thrifty fame) and Ashlee who together make cool stuff like lacy knickers under their label 'Theives Like Us', we will be featuring a page on their work..

My buddy Rachel has just gotten back from performing in 'The Burn' in Wellington, a fantastic play that was part of the 2009 Comedy Festival Programme. They also performed up here in Auckland from the 2nd - 9th of May. Alex and I were lucky enough to be there on opening night and the review Alex subsequently wrote up will be featuring in Issue Four.. keep your eyes peeled.

Our well informed resident album reviewer Matthew Windsor has reviewed this chap's new album - Dictaphone Blue's 'On The Down and In'. Even though he is a friend of Matt's you can rest assured it is not biased in any way, the album genuinely is great.

Cool Zine Launch!

2009-04-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

These are some awesome zines (that I have yet to read but am sure are awesome!) that I picked up at a zine launch Nicola and I just attended at AUT as part of the Graphic Design students course work. It was so well laid out with most of the zines being free and most having very cool large scale signs! Very inspiring. I'd love to write up some reviews on them when I get some time.. will definitely be attending all the rest of these great shows!

My Favourite Artist

2009-04-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

A wee while ago I met with one of my favourite artists ever - Megan Hansen-Knarhoi, I have loved her work for such a long time! She works with wool, (my favourite medium) creating work by cross-stitching or french knitting. I am now writing up an article on our meeting so keep your eyes peeled for Issue Four! In the meantime you can check out more of her fantastic work here. Or check out today's (April 22nd) issue of Viva in the Herald - there's a cool article on 'The Art of Craft' which features work by alot of my favourite New Zealand crafters and a work that we discussed and that I LOVE titled 'Jesus' (the above image is a close-up of it) is pictured too. Cool!

That's 'Jesus' down in the bottom right hand corner.. also on this crappy little scan you can see a sushi kit by Esther Lamb under 'Ask Alice' which I love, and a Lonely Hearts cardigan and one of those awesome 'Who is Dead Martin' necklaces from Miss Crabb which I want!

My Crazy (in a good way) Dad

2009-04-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

My dad works at a badge making factory, not the most mentally taxing and highly paid job but at least he comes home with badges like this beauty that he whipped up the other day for me! Without me asking I might add!

"je suis Artiste decoupage"

2009-04-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

Aoyama Hina...or Hina Aoyama?

Yay, Nicola's first post!! I just had to share the loveliest pictures that I found today from France based, Japanese Artist, Hina Aoyama... She is AMAZING!!!
She does all of her cut outs with tiny scissors!
"Je suis dans l'amour"

WOW

2009-03-31T16:00:00.001-07:00

I found some pretty cool stuff last night reading through all the posts I've missed reading on the frankie blog recently..

Petite Watermelons! These are so so cute, I can't wait to make some! Little mini watermelons made from lime skins, jelly and choc chips..

Also these works by an artist called Jen Maestre who is taking part in the Jen11 show. Amazing.

Kraftbomb!

2009-03-28T23:55:00.000-07:00

It was a quiet Kraftbomb for us today with sales being quite slow but it was good to be back all the same..

Pre zines

Issue Three

Our stall, in between the 'loan sharks' - awesome soft toy sharks with bling, dollar signs for eyes and cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, and the cute bib necklaces you can see a bit of down in the corner there.

Issue Three on endemic world!

2009-03-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

Issue Three is officially avaliable through endemic world! They are even running a special at the moment to get all three of our issues for $18, so go and check it out especially as endemic is now the only place Issue One is available!

Guerilla Knitting!

2009-03-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Robert from OUi Boutique sent me the link to an AWESOME article about guerilla knitting!! It got me all excited! The article follows Magda Sayeg on her first 'yarn bombing' mission in London, having covered cities around the world with her knitting already.

Here are some statues in Southbank who have been given the knitted treatment, and below, the lady herself in action..

To read the whole article and find out more on this fantastic project click here.

Pics from THE LAUNCH

2009-03-13T22:09:00.001-07:00

Brace yourself, there's quite a few!

We were super happy with the turnout! Thanks to everyone who came and was a part of making it a very exciting night for us. We had heaps of fun & sold plenty of zines..

Super organised Sally had some of her cards up her sleeve to pop onto the table with our zines. We had a few of Issue Two avaliable as well as the very lurid Issue Three.

These are some pics of Zena Kim's work.. The cute little suitcases were made out of card, while the tall faux wood bookshelf was made out of cardboard boxes! SO cohesive right?!

Here are some awesome new purses Lou's recently whipped up, I MUST have the flowery velvety one!

Here are my lightbulb cosies chilling out in the window. I am so so happy with them, they were such a great project, I just want to keep making them!

Zena in front of her work.. she also had some awesome B&W pics hung on the wall.

Sally Shand, CBB #3 featured artist, whom it was ever so lovely to finally meet in person in front of one of her prints. Thanks for making the trip up Sally! It was so awesome to have you there to help celebrate. Here's to many more art swaps and collaborations..

Ivana Rosandic, co-author of Cheap Thrills featured in Issue Two checking out Rachel's article 'Media Madness'.

Sarah, author of the Pot Luck article in Issue One, and Mimsy Cable, check out Issue Four for an erotic fiction themed interview conducted by Sarah with Mimsy!

Jennifer, featured artist in Issue One with Johnny.

Sophie Corban, stoked (we hope!) with her double page spread in Issue Three. Check out more of her awesome work on the seed gallery website here

Rachel Dredge, woman of opinions featured in Issue's One, Two and Three, Rochelle, co-author of Cheap Thrills, Nicola, co-editor of CBB and looking smokin with newly darkened hair, Jamie-Lee, behind the ever so handy Nifty Thrifty articles featured in Issue's One and Two, and Steph.

Joanna Alpe checking out her interview featured in Issue Two.

Awwwww! Nicola with her big sis Carolyn.

Yunmi and Karen Michaud, crochet artist/jeweller featured in Issue's One and Two.

Nicola with our Super Computer Lady Jess Allen who was kind enough to lay up our pages for us ready to print - thanks buddy! We couldn't have done it without you xx

The collaborators - Zena Kim, Sally Shand, Louise Clarke and Robert Sly who made the whole launch possible (THANK YOU!!) and me, Sharon Russell and Nicola McNabb. YUSS!!

LAUNCH!!

2009-03-11T01:22:00.001-07:00

Here's the invite to our launch that Lou from Oui whipped up.

Yup, those are my cosies! We just spent two hours this evening installing them and (though I say so myself) they are looking GREAT! I am a bit nervous to see if they all fall and smash overnight though.. eek.

Zena Kim is an unexpected (for me anyway) edition to the launch but after seeing her work for the first time tonight I have to say an awesome one! Her work is amazing and oh so cohesive, to see why come along tommorrow night!

Kraftbomb!

2009-03-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

Catch us at our first Kraftbomb of the year - 29th of March! Yuss!

Gallery Nothing

2009-03-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

I was pretty upset when I found out that the awesome internet based publication Nothing Mag had finished for good but knew it couldn't be too long before the geniuses behind it (whoever they may be) came up with something just as great - enter Gallery Nothing, a site packed with New Zealand and international photographers, with all works for sale. Two past interviewees from CBB (Natasha Cantwell, #2 and Jo Galvin, #3) both have work featured, along with these two inspiring artists:

Gigi Cifali (England)

'Hornsey Baths' 2007

'Soho Marshall Pool' 2007

And Sarah Berners (Australia)

'Butcher's Wives #3' 2007

'Skin Job #4' 2008

Check it out!

SLOW

2009-03-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

CBB went along to this show at Tim Melville Gallery last night. Two artists - Elliot Collins and Linden Simmons - who both featured in Issue One of CBB were exhibiting alongside Wayne Youle in a show which 'utilized and addressed aspects of the watercolour medium' which basically means it was awesome.

Linden's mini, intricate watercolours (loved the framing!) were of his trademark scenes of tragedies cut from The New Zealand Herald and he was heard regailing a fellow attendee with the story behind each.

Elliot's works were large scale maths-like grids with certain squares filled in with colour, all three had awesome names like 'Growing up really fucking hurts'. Check out more of Elliot's work on the Tim Melville website here

2009-03-02T20:49:00.000-08:00

The date is set!!

Thursday 12th March, 5:30pm at OUi Boutique in St Kevin's Arcade on Krd.

Come along if you'd like to be one of the first to purchase our brand spanking new issue (#3!) and just celebrate the zine in general. As I've previously posted there'll be awesome CBB affiliated art and jewellery to gaze at in awe so please do come along.

Wine will be served too.. of course!

Oh and p.s. our page is live on endemic world now! Check out the zines and our profile here.

Yard Sale

2009-03-02T20:42:00.001-08:00

Some friends of ours (Jamie-lee and Ashleigh) live in the old Cherry Bomb Comics building (41 New North Road, Eden Terrace - right up the top end) and are having a sweet yard sale on Saturday March 7th from 10 - 1pm.

Head along if you'd like to purchase for yourself 2nd hand clothing, home baking, art and handmade crafts or general bric-a-brac. Issue Two of CBB will also be on sale. I can definitely recommend heading along, if just for the handmade lacy knickers that the gals make under their label 'Thieves Like Us'.

Oh and of course there's live music by Caoimhe and Saan.

Eveline Tarunadjaja

2009-03-01T13:22:00.001-08:00

I discovered this awesome Melbourne blog site over the weekend - threethousand.com.au which is updated daily with short reviews and blurbs on places to eat, galleries to visit, markets to attend and general cool things to do over there, it got me very excited about my mid year move to Melbourne! I also got excited when it led me to this amazing Melbourne based illustrator with a crazy last name..

Check out more of her great work featuring long haired (and short haired) ladies at lovexevol.com. I'm in love.

More LAUNCH news..

2009-02-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

CBB is finally having an official Launch Party at OUi Boutique in St Kevin's Arcade on Krd, Auckland, to co-incide with our 3rd issue! Date to be announced..

Not only will Sharon have 30 lightbulbs with knitted cosies (not switched on, they're kind of a fire hazard!) hanging in the window, Sally Shand - an Issue Three featured artist - have her work on the wall but Nicola is now exhibiting some of her new necklaces as well! We are very excited, everything has turned out quite cohesive!

A while ago Nicola started casting tree roots in solid silver, which she is now turning into necklaces. They are so intricate, the casting process picks up all the little bumps on the root so they look very lifelike and pretty much awesome so come along if you want one all your own!

These are my lightbulb cosies in progress - 12 down, 18 to go! It's so great to be given a chance to do this on a large scale because I really enjoyed doing the four that were featured in Issue Two, but 30!! Very cool..

Oh and there's a pretty big possibility that any purchaser of CBB #3 will also get an individually screenprinted poster of their very own too..

Swap-A-Cloth

2009-02-15T00:36:00.000-08:00

If your wardrobe looks anything like my sister's you should probably head along to Swap-A-Cloth, held at 8A Mount Eden Road, Saturday 21st February, from 10-4pm, as you'll have a lot of pre-loved (clean!) clothing to choose from to put in a bag to take along!

Take $5 with you and swap to your heart's content till your bag is refilled - you may not diminish any piles of clothing cluttering up your room but at least the piles will be of new clothes!

To make the day even better there will be screenprinting, sewing machines and other do-it-yourself crafts to modify existing items, that, along with the drinks and home baked goodies that will be available and the fact that it's all for charity should be all the reasons you need to head along!

Contact Felicity Perry - felicity.perry@gmail.com for more information.

Exciting News!!

2009-02-11T23:38:00.000-08:00

I went into OUi Boutique (where the zine is stocked along with World Sweet World and Makeshift) in St Kevin's Arcade today to take some sweet pics to accompany the interview for Issue Three with Lou, the owner, who is so awesome that she's offered to have a CBB #3 Launch Party at the shop! Which we are both very excited about! As this can only happen once we have Issue Three out it means we've just got one more reason to keep working away at it.

We've officially got all content so thanks to everyone who is contributing, it's going to be a great Issue!

See you all at the Launch!

Back On!

2009-02-05T21:22:00.001-08:00

CBB #3 is officially back on! Keep your eyes peeled..

taking a break

2008-12-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

I pinched this image off Swonderful's blog because it's so beautifully shot and the zines look so nice and pristine!

So, we've decided to take a bit of a summer break due to financial issues amongst other things, we will aim to have Issue Three out by the end of February but we'll have to see what happens. Don't worry though Cardboard Box will be back.. hopefully catch us as Cross Street Carnival on February the 14th, if we don't accepted we'll still be there with bells on - it's going to be an awesome day!

Issue Three

2008-12-18T01:07:00.003-08:00

So Issue Three is well under way and we've got some exciting people featuring! Some of our lovely artists whose work we will have the pleasure of showing off include Sophie Corban, recent graduate of a BVA at AUT (what Nicola and I both did) and also a very good friend. She's been snapped up by dealer gallery Seed in Newmarket already and it's not hard to see why with her edgy work:

Sally Shand originally contacted us about the art swap advertised in Issue One but her work was so amazing (self described as like 'frankie') we just had to get her to feature!

Jo Galvin is an artist/photographer/curator involved in some cool projects around Auckland, her photography blows me away, it's so beautifully shot..

Oh and Kraftbomb is coming up this Sunday - Grey Lynn Community Centre from 11-2pm so come along and buy a copy of Issue Two or one of the 6 Issue One's we have left - we'd love to see you there! It's the Christmas edition so it's sure to be good.

the stall..

2008-12-12T14:21:00.000-08:00

Craftwerk was such an awesome night, sold plenty of zines.. Also Oui Boutique in St Kevin's now stocks CBB which is very exciting for us, Marita Hewitt who featured in Issue One has her amazing work up at Oui right now - check it out!

Craftwerk

2008-12-04T23:01:00.001-08:00

We just got into Craftwerk! Yuss!! Come and check out our stall this Thursday night in St Kevins Arcade..

a wee mention

2008-12-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

A big thank you to Julia from Studio Home Creative who stumbled across CBB in Queenstown and put up a lovely post about it on her blog - check it out!

HOARD

2008-12-01T22:30:00.001-08:00

I thought it was high time I reviewed another zine purchased at Zinefest - well two actually - Issues One and Two of HOARD. Nicola brought Issues Three and Four but these ones jumped out at me because they both document collections of items that I have been known to hoard myself. Infact I am a chronic hoarder of all things useful and more often otherwise and these zines send such a massive wave of nostalgia over me it's amazing.

In the intro to Issue One - Stamps, writer Hurricane wants me to join him in 'this several part series where I waste my time and space on collections so you don't have to' but actually he succeeds in the opposite - I want to drag my stamp collection (in an official album of course) out of the cupboard and get back into it!!

The stamps are all well organised, according to countries and what's pictured on the stamps - planes, outerspace and animals etc..

I actually have the entire butterfly collection pictured here..

Yeah.. so when I was overseas when I was younger I collected sugar, as well as sand (which produced a solitary bad-ass moment when I got caught taking a few crumbs off the Pyramids!) and coins, so this one brings back memories too..

I love the backgrounds of maths and refill paper!

I think my sugar collection is gone forever but at least with this zine I get to relive the feeling of satisfaction I had upon returning to NZ laden with sugar sachets!

Kraftbomb!

2008-12-01T21:45:00.003-08:00

In my mad rush out of the door in an intensely hungover state on Sunday morning I stupidly forgot my camera but rest assured.. our stall looked great!

It was our most successful outing to Kraftbomb yet and we sold a record number of zines, with at least three people I can remember specifically purchasing Issues One AND Two - one of whom was fellow Kraftbomb-er Miss Deb who makes awesome sock monkeys - we're hoping you aren't regretting succumbing to our persuasive pitch!! Such a positive experience.

We have just been confirmed for the Christmas edition of Kraftbomb (21st of Dec) which sounds like it's going to be epic so come along and find all your friends and family members awesome Christmas presents - a few issues of CBB perhaps?!

#2

2008-11-26T17:47:00.001-08:00

Yuss!!

Our first review!

2008-11-23T22:43:00.000-08:00

Sarah Gauntlett from Nzgirl.com popped by our stall at the last Kraftbomb to pick up a copy of Issue One to review..

The review is now up as part of The Art's Insider: November and we have the pleasure of featuring alongside other fellow Kraftbombers. I love how inclusive calling us nzgirls is! Follow this to check it out..

Thanks Sarah!

Neighbour Cats!

2008-11-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

Neighbour Cats one of the awesome zines Nicola and I brought at Zinefest.. It is basically exactly what the title would suggest, with every cat in the neighbourhood of the writer getting a portrait of themselves, an in depth character description, notes on colouring (both making spotting them easier if you were to say, go looking for them as I am severely tempted to do on my next Wellington trip!) and a friendliness rating.

Each cover features a different cat and I love the little guy on the front of mine! The zine is printed onto that great refill paper that little kids use to learn to write on - the triple thickness lines with a dotted line through the middle.

This is a map giving exact cat locations, each cat corresponding with a letter.

Jobbles (A.) is undoubtedly my fave, he comes first in the zine and is followed by his neighbours including Gate-Face, who in desperate attempts for affection tries to squeese himself through his gate, Dogloo Cat, who lives in an igloo shaped doghouse and apparently isn't too friendly and Lexi who unfortunately has no hair.

Awesome!

November Kraftbomb

2008-11-19T00:01:00.001-08:00

This Kraftbomb will be especially exciting for us because it will be the launch of the much anticipated (by us anyway!) Issue Two! We've put together all the pages, designed a great cover to rival the success of the brown paper of Issue One and are all ready to go except it needs to be laid up by our super computer lady Jess and then printed.. minor details..

Our All Expenses Paid Business Trip

2008-11-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

CBB loves Wellington! And to be completely honest that works the other way too - our trip was such a positive experience, our zine has been so well received down there, it was quite overwhelming..

We spent the weekend visiting stockists and even adding another one to our list - Good as Gold on Victoria St - such a great store! We had a great brainstorm/diagram drawing session while scoffing cinnamon gelato on the waterfront where we finally sorted the problematic second cover, talked about the zine every opportunity we got and placed a whole heap of business cards around the city.

Here's Iko Iko's final copy hanging out on the shelf, only found after a depressing 10mins of browsing where we thought they didn't stock it after all! We got chatting to the gals behind the counter about CBB and a zine made by a group of (I think) 5 girls down there called Flouro, we even got a 10% discount on the kick-ass necklaces we both brought!

I was so excited to check out Swonderful as I had heard good things and religiously check their blog out, also they stock a rather ludicrous number of zines for us which is awesome! If the displaying of the signs we sent down to accompany the zines was a competition Swonderful would most definately win..

Zinefest was awesome! Nicola and I combined brought epic quantities of zines, they'll make for some great reading for weeks to come. I think we can be forgiven for not going to any of the talks, severe hangovers had been coming on all day and spending up large on zines really takes it out of you. We'll try and post reviews on the zines we brought, my favourite of which I can already tell you is - 'Neighbour Cats' for 50c.

Here's CBB on Cherry Bomb's stall, Tui definately had the widest spread collection of zines and books, very impressive.

Madame Fancy Pants is a stockist Mel approached for us so it was great to go in and meet the lovely ladies who run the shop who informed us that Wellington City Library had brought a copy off them for their permanent collection - exciting!

Some great graffiti spotted on Cuba Street!

Mintie's Market

2008-11-10T18:16:00.001-08:00

So this weekend Nicola and I head to Wellington! We can't wait to check out all our stockists, hit up Zinefest (I've just designed some cute business cards to be on hand for networking purposes!) and now we've been told by our awesome friend Mel that we may just have a stall at the newly set-up Mintie's Market on the Sunday! Even if we don't end up with a stall we will still be there with bells on.. oh to live in Wellington..

ISSUE #2

2008-10-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Issue Two is totally under way already and we've got some of our favourite artists lined up to interview and feature work from.. Here's a taste of what to expect..

This great illustration is by the very talented Henrietta Harris, Nicola and I went to a solo show of her work at Satellite Gallery a few months ago and were in awe.. she has her fingers in alot of pies doing everything from painting to poster designs.

Joy Kampia O'Shell is now officially my favourite crochet artist ever, she has produced the most amazing, intricate meals, one-off dresses and an assortment of other domestic items all hand crocheted!

Natasha Cantwell has been one of my favourite photographers ever since I stumbled across her work at EA Gallery a few years ago. I am so excited to be featuring her work!

This time around 'The Catalogue' (that seriously needs a better name!) will be put together in association with toggle, I've asked Esther Lamb who runs the site with Shelley to name her three favourite artists whose work features on their site. Trixie Delicious will be featured - here are some of her vintage bone china plates with hand-painted text that have gained alot of great publicity!

CBB's second Kraftbomb

2008-10-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Once again another very sweet location! Same basic set up as last time except instead of a fitted bed sheet we went for a duvet cover.. The zines went down well once again, it's pretty exciting having people pay to read something you've put together!

The fan out of zines experienced a bit of an upgrade!

The one thing that was lacking last time was a sign so we had to make this one, an enlargement of ones we've been sending out to stockists.

Kraftbomb was totally awesome in the new (and bigger) space this time, so many more stall holders all selling great stuff!

Cherry Bomb and Zinefest

2008-10-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

CBB is now officially stocked with Cherry Bomb Comics!! They don't have a physical address anymore but still sell through their online shop so check it out if you'd like to purchase CBB or any of the other great zines the ladies stock.

Tui from Cherry Bomb is kindly taking our zine to Zine Fest down in Wellington, (I'll post the poster as soon as I get sent it!) so this leaves Nicola and I free to go on an all expenses paid (by us!) business/research trip to Wellington to spend up large on zines.

It's going to be an awesome day (November 15th) with the event being held at Wesley Church Hall, 75 Taranaki Street from 11-3pm. There will be heaps of zines for sale, even Wellington City Library will be there with their collection, talks, workshops, food and t-shirts and badges for sale! Come and check it out if you're in Wellington, if you're not - get there somehow!

October Kraftbomb

2008-10-13T18:42:00.001-07:00

October Kraftbomb is set to be bigger and better than ever and CBB will be there with bells on!

It's to be held at the new time of 11am-2pm and in a bigger room too..

Our friend from art school Vicki will be a new addition to the list of stall holders - check out her home-made marmalade! mmm

Also, Jess (CBB's computer lady and blog reviewer) and Olivia (who awesomely brought two copies last time..) will be there selling their cute little things once again..

CAN'T WAIT!!

more stockists

2008-10-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

Here are our zines all packaged up and ready to be taken into Iko Iko and Conch where they are now officially stored! We've also made up some signs with a little blurb about us on them to accompany zines to stores and they're tres cute.

Down in Wellington you will soon be able to find CBB stocked at Eyeball Kicks, Manky Chops Gallery, Offbeat Originals cafe and Madame Fancy Pants, all on or around Cuba Street and all thanks to Mel. And of course Swonderful and Iko Iko.

Nicola is also sending some away this weekend to an awesome zine store in Melbourne called Sticky Institute just so we can say we're international!

a busy few days..

2008-10-02T02:47:00.001-07:00

Nicola and I have had a pretty hectic few days sorting out stockists now that CBB is finally published - turns out we're not the only people that think our zine is kinda cool!
Some of the awesome places that have agreed to stock CBB include St Paul St Gallery (thanks Leonhard!) Iko Iko (up here AND down in Wellington) Conch Records on Ponsonby Road, and Swonderful boutique in Wellington too.. It's all been pretty exciting - everything is happening so fast!

Our friend Mel who has the good fortune to live down in Wellington has been approaching stores there for CBB too.. as much as I wish I lived in the coolest city in NZ I don't so thanks Mel for doing that for us! Watch this space.. two stores have been confirmed but we haven't heard names yet..

We have officially finished the first run of zines - the re-print is scheduled for Monday! Yuss.

p.s. the drawing is one of Nicola's very own, to be featured on our signs that will accompany zines to stores!

Our First Outing

2008-09-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

What we can probably call the Cardboard Box Launch happened at Kraftbomb this afternoon... we are very stoked with the response to our hard work, some sort of sign would have gone down well but apart from that we are SO happy with how well our little zine went.

Here's Nicola at our stall - maximum air flow was great! Thanks Karla and City for our prime location!

And of course thanks to everyone who purchased a copy - ENJOY.

We had A3 sheets of 10 of our spreads on the table, on top of a very last minute fitted bed sheet that I had to sprint home and get when we realised the paper wouldn't cover the entire surface!

As well as the two piles of the zine we also sold a few brooches each. Check out our stall at Kraftbomb next month - Nicola's promised an addition of Birthday Cards!

Kraftbomb!

2008-09-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

This is a bit late considering Kraftbomb is tommorrow but here's the sweet little flyer for it! We've got a table in the middle.. So excited!

Issue One

2008-09-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

This incredibly well taped up box contains the first run of 100 zines!!

Thanks SO MUCH to Blair who totally suprised us by not just printing the entire run but collating, trimming, saddle stitching and trimming down the brown paper cover, staying on at work into the early hours of the morning that also happened to be his birthday!

Some of the interviews you can look forward to reading are with Lisa Black, Marita Hewitt, Linden Simmons, Elliot Collins, Jennifer Mayer, Karla and City from Kraftbomb and Brian Jonestown Massacre. Thanks to all these people as well as those of you who sent us images, articles and reviews, Issue One would not be looking as amazing as it does without you!

The zine so far..

2008-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

With Issue One pretty much published already (it's getting printed in 2 days!) it's probably about time something was actually put on our blog..
We have been busily working away on our layouts, hassling late contributors and learning a thing or two about computers along the way - thank god for Jess!
Nicola and I always intended for our little zine to be very cut and paste for the very reason that neither of us (especially me) are any good at computers, so here are a few of our layouts ready to be scanned - literally cut with scissors and pasted with glue sticks.

We put an ad on The Big Idea for contributions and Lisa Black was one amazing artist who got back to us, she creates what she calls 'Fixed Animals' - real taxidermy animals that she then inserts mechanical parts into. We were a bit shocked at first having never seen anything like it but her work is very powerful.

My buddy Jen is studying in her final year of photography at AUT where Nicola and I also studied, she is making some pretty great work so of course I had to interview her. In the foreground there is a wee ad that'll be featured about an Art Swap - anyone interested - contact us!

I interviewed the lovely ladies behind Kraftbomb about what goes into organising one of the best craft fairs to hit Auckland recently.. Issue One will be on sale there this Sunday - Grey Lynn Community Centre, 1-4pm.

Ah.. the sweet hook ups of working at a printing factory - the first run of our zine is only going to set us back 2 dozen beers - excellent!