Newtown Festival 2011

The sun was shining this Sunday for the 75,000 visitors of the Newtown festival!

Curbside Collective were there, right in the middle of the Local Vocal Village, easily visible thanks to the amazing tent built out of reused materials picked up at The Bower by John, our chairman of the Board: the structure was made out of palettes and the top out of an advertising banner which provided shade to everyone. A big thanks again from everybody, John!

Fiona and Emmanuel ran workshops during all day to show people what Curb Collective do at 107, seconded by Amanda, Cathy, Jeanette, Peter and Lesley who came to give them a hand at various stages throughout the day. We worked on an occasional chair collected weeks ago by The Bower and on a beautiful white rocking chair found by Fiona... on her way to the festival!

The Curbside Collective spirit has definitely gotten under her skin!

What's more, people were welcomed to bring their own pieces of furniture to learn one or two tricks on them. Many thanks to the lady who brought us 'thank you' chocolates, such a lovely surprise!

In front of the stall, John was building an impressive sculpture out of dozens of little bits of woods found in the backyard of The Bower, with the aim of building a huge arch for the ARC. Come to admire it, it's in front of The Bower at the moment!

It was a very busy day for each of us. We talked to a lot of people and were positively impressed by the number of signatureson our mailing-list  from people wanting to be kept in touch with the activities of Curbside Collective. If you forgot to write your name down, it's not too late! Just send an email to gm@bower.org.au and we'll add you to it!

- Claire M

Curb Collective Week 11

Now that we know we will participate both in the Newtown festival and in the Finders Keepers Market, it was high time for our group to find a name. After a lot of propositions, one finally stood up amongst the others as it reflects different aspects of who we are and that we do during the course : we are a group attached to the reuse of objects nobody wants anymore, transforming the trash into treasure... We are CURB COLLECTIVE!!

With this new name in mind and only two weeks before our first display at the Newtown Festival, we were faster than ever this week! We are trying to finish as many projects as possible, working in groups to be quicker: time is running out, we will sell our furniture in only 5 weeks!

Richard, Dominique and I worked on the beautiful French metal chairs. After dozens of tries with all the lovely fabric we have, we finally took the decision to have the seats brightly striped, and the backs covered with flowers and birds. It was a good time to remember what Maaike had taught us a few weeks ago about reupholstering with a striped fabric. Indeed, the stripes have to be perfectly parallel to the side of the seat and to be perfectly straight, which means you have to apply the same pressure on each side, or they can quickly become bumpy and wavy. And to finalise the chairs, we added an orange dust cover. Next and final step next week: to assemble everything!

Mark finished his black velvet chair: after the cushion he had made a couple of weeks ago, he added a lovely bow to its back this week with the shiny diamante studs we ordered from China. Now this chair is fully finished! If you love it, come to admire it next weekend a the Newtown festival!

Mikki and Stuart took care on a large chair: they put a mountain of flock on it before adding the dakron so that it would be very comfortable. We can't wait to know what fabric they will choose to give it its final look!

Jeannette and Michael went on with the armchair they started two weeks ago: they put linseed oil and re-webbed it. It is now completely unrecognisable when you compare it to the poor armchair The Bower received as a donation months ago!

Do you remember the set of 4 red stools we finished a month ago? Min put linseed oil on it, with the project to have a set of two stools completely different to the four first ones: these two will be more classical and more sober, fitting in any house!

We are sure that new amazing furniture will be created in the short period of time before the festival and the market! And it's absolutely wonderful to be a part of it!

- Claire M