‘look what we made’ is now available for pre-order

Folks, we are pumped. No – scratch that. What’s the feeling you get when you unexpectedly see a double rainbow and it’s your birthday and you just won Tattslotto, too? Well, whatever that feeling is, we’re feeling it – because we’ve gone and made a brand new book! Look What We Made is a big, chunky thing, ideally suited to your coffee table (or wherever you keep your most beautiful-looking publications), and it’s all about the new generation of Australian makers – 38 of them, in fact.

Yep, we’ve searched high and low for the most inspiring folks creating cool stuff around the country, asked them a whole bunch of questions about their skills, inspirations, and day-to-day lives, and photographed them doing their thing – whether that thing is crafted from metal, clay, fabric, yarn, glass, paint, plastic, wood… or belted out on a few electric guitars.

Flip through the 256 pages of Look What We Made and you’ll get to have a good old stickybeak inside Alice Nightingale’s dressmaking studio; discover how Sydney twin sisters Maricor and Maricar Manolo have made a career out of stitching embroidered illustrations; learn all about how to make your own punk album with Melbourne band Lazertits; see Adelaide shoemaker Beccy Bromilow craft a pair of clodhoppers by hand; read lettering artist Gemma O’Brien’s top tips for making cash from creativity; learn how to get something worthwhile out of social media with crochet legend Phil Ferguson, aka ChiliPhilly; and stacks more.

Including page after page of smashing photography and printed on super-strokeable paper, Look What We Made is an affectionate (yet honest) tribute to the handmade way of life – and we really hope you dig it as much as we dug making it. Scroll down to take a peek at a handful of snaps from inside, then pop over this way to pre-order a copy for you or a creatively inclined mate. P.S. It’s just $26.95.

Lettering artist and type designer Gemma O’Brien sees lettering and type everywhere she goes. Thankfully she gets to make it for a living, too. Photo: Carine Thevenau.

Bilbies, ironbark and some pretty horrible florals are the starting point for Alice Nightingale’s handmade fashions. Photo: Savannah van der Niet.

Beccy Bromilow feels better when she’s making. Every shoe she crafts bears the mark of her hands (and a little stillness in her mind). Photos: Andre Castellucci.

Twin sisters Maricor and Maricar Manolo have stitched a creative life together, making embroidery illustrations from a home studio in Sydney. Photo: Carine Thevenau.

Want to memorialise your kitty with an inked portrait on skin? Jessica Holmes – Western Australia’s resident ‘cattooist’ – is your lady. Photos: Tyler Brown.

Jeweller Rosaleen Ryan makes memories you can wear, with resin casting and flowers from her mum’s garden. Photo: Hilary Walker.

Sisters Fatuma and Laurinda Ndenzako spend their time creating beautiful things: African-Australian fashions with big bright prints and a nod to the Melbourne sense of style. Photos: Stephanie Rose Wood.

Perth maker Renee Melia doesn’t have a five-year plan. She does, however, have a whole lot of cute illustrations and an affinity for shrink plastic. Photo: Tyler Brown.

Like what you see? Then best swing past our online store to pre-order a copy of Look What We Made.