The Royal Easter Show is the biggest agricultural show in Sydney and the ‘pinnacle’ agricultural show in the state of NSW, encompassing agriculture, entertainment, arts and crafts and much more. It draws nearly a million visitors each Easter.

The District Exhibits are one of the wonders of the show, enormous displays of fresh produce, each assembled by a region of eastern Australia. They are very much the craft of hands, assembled in a hectic world and involving significant collaboration by folk in each region. It takes months of planning to devise a theme and find the produce (which has to come from that region). (I should have counted, but there are about six regions in total). As you can see, installation involves significant time, every apple set just so, every element playing its part.

Everything you see - houses, fields, butterflies, flowers - is made from fresh produce (fruit, vegetables, seeds, wool and more), sometimes reimagined in the most remarkable ways.

There’s tremendous ingenuity, as, in this display for instance, raw ingredients become butterflies, a pumpkin becomes a snail shell and eggs form its trail. They are judged on the quality of the produce (not easy in the last few years due to drought) and the artistic qualities of the displays.

With each display are people from the volunteer group involved in making it, usually selling examples of their region’s produce - a bowl of fresh watermelon or pineapple, cheese and biscuits, apples, bananas - the proceeds of which will go towards the cost of next year’s display.

There’s a Quicktime 360 degree view of the exhibits in 2004 here.

There were some other engaging examples of craft at the Show, including children’s craft and recycled craft, but rather than pack them in here I’ll post about them soonish.

If your area has a show with hand-made craft on display, particularly more unusual examples (I wonder if any shows now feature floral carpets?) and you have a link with pictures for others to enjoy, please share in the comments.

(Floral carpets were done by arranging flowers - usually just the heads - and leaves into patterns on a tray, and were a class at some Australian country shows last century. Think of how shells are patterned on shell-covered boxes, and they were something like that, a mosaic of flowers).

All photos above were taken by this post’s author.

great post and tutorial at Echoes of a dream blog

Simmy writes I did a tongue-in-cheek post about getting over the granny square addiction by just making a few and turning them into pincushions. I thought your readers, who like me want to make that blanket but haven’t quite got the stamina to see it through, might be interested:

D.I.Y. Design it Yourself, edited by Ellen Lupton (check out her website), published by Princeton Architectural Press.

A fabulous book that has been out for a while now, I am sure you have seen it around and read reviews before. I will be looking at from the DIY making stuff perspective rather than a pure design perspective. This book has quite a bit on marketing yourself which I think is really important for all of you crafty business people out there.

This book, according to the intro , is for everyone who wants to publish their words, images or ideas anywhere to an audience of any size even if its just you. The questions are asked and answered - Why DIY? Why this book now? and what is design? While the beginning of the books discusses the heavy issues of design, this book is about everyday design and bringing design into your life. Using basic design principals to package your ideas. The book is a collaboration by students and faculty of the design program at MICA, with additional featured projects by invited guests.

The first practical chapter is totally relevant to the whipup audience - blogs. Pretty basic info about starting a blog, what a blog is for and some online blogging tools, but what caught my eye here was the small tip on planning your blog. I do think this is important when thinking about starting up a blog is to think about who is going to read it, what the purpose of it will be and also your level of html skills will determine what sort of blog you have.

Other chapters I though particularly useful for the crafty DIY geek in us all, include making your own blank book, with ideas on different types of binding, covers, materials to use (eg. large paint chip cards, recycled book cover, chopsticks! and wood). Printing your own books, zines, artists books etc is also covered, with suggestions on types of folds (I see accordion folded books in a totally new way now).

The sections I thought was really useful for the crafty businessperson is branding, logos and business cards., press kits, presentations and newsletters. The importance of making a strong identity for your product, including web design, online stores and labeling.

As well as all that practical advice there are also lots of fun ideas for making use of skills you already have or indeed thinking about what skills you might need in order to achieve a certain result. Such as embroidery, drawing and screen printing on t-shirts, tote bags, envelopes and home wares. Love this book.

Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com.

Lucy from my byrd house writes in asking for advice on digitising patterns…

I have several patterns on paper now that I would like to publish but don’t have a clue how to get them digitized or what software to buy to do it myself.
Thanks for any imput.

Karrie from girl on the rocks has started up a whiplash group over at flickr - great idea … check it out.

Good luck! can’t wait to see all the fab entries and showcase some here on whipup!

Check out why, and continue to support this terrific indie handcraft shop. ::shanalogic

AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY • DESIGNER CLOTHING • KNITWEAR • TEXTILES • CHILDREN’S WEAR • ACCESSORIES • JEWELLERY • AFFORDABLE ART • HOMEWARES

when: May 3 to May 5 - times vary - check the website ::Melbourne Made

where: St James Anglican Church Hall, Cnr High Street and Burke Road, Glen Iris, Melway ref 59 G8

contact: Email: melanie (at) creativewomen.com.au

how much: Gold coin donation going to the Melanoma Awareness Foundation for awareness, support and research

Thank you to everyone for entering, sorry if your entry did not make it to the final eight. It was a tough decision, there were lots of great entries. And now I want to see which one YOU the readers like best, to that end I will be running three polls to see which banner is going to be the new WhipUp Banner.

The last of the promised three polls. Giving everybody a chance to share their opinion. I am amazed by the spread of opinion out there. Keep on the participatory spirit.

You will need to go the banner competition page to view the eight finalists. And you will also need to refresh yourself with WhipUp’s manifesto.

The second poll is WhipUp’s Manifesto - please ensure that when voting you are thinking about some of the key points in the manifesto.