https://makeitwork.cargo.site make it, work Thu, 01 Oct 2020 02:23:02 +0000 https://makeitwork.cargo.site en https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Home-page Wed, 19 Aug 2020 01:04:58 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Home-page make it, workfor people who make stuff, for work About︎ Side ProjectsMotivation and making time AN INTERVIEW WITHSALLY TABART 2019 ︎︎ InternshipsSurvival techniques AN INTERVIEW WITHHELENA RUSE 2019 ︎︎ TransparencyBeing honest andopen in your process AN INTERVIEW WITHHOLLY BANFIELD 2019 ︎ FreelancingFeel free to feel free(lance)AN INTERVIEW WITHGRETA ROBENSTONE 2019 ︎︎ Vulnerability...and makingAN INTERVIEW WITHTILLY LAWLESS 2019 ︎ FeedbackIt’s not that seriousAN INTERVIEW WITHAARON CHEN 2019 ︎ https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Side-Projects Tue, 01 Sep 2020 07:31:42 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Side-Projects Take me home, country roads︎ Side Projects AN INTERVIEW WITH SALLY TABART  Six years ago, Sally started Ladies of Leisure as a side project with a then acquaintance. Here, you can listen to or read our interview as we talk through LOL’s beginnings as a print publication to the workshop and community space it is now, social media, motivation, making time, and wrapping it all up with a dollop of good advice you can take with you into your own side projects. ︎︎︎︎ ︎︎︎︎EM: Who are you and what do you do? ST: I actually really never know how to answer the ‘what I do’ question, because officially, I have a full time job; I am newly the managing editor of The Design Files which is a big design publication in Australia, but I have done a lot of things over my life. I've worked in film production, I've started a kind of side project called Ladies of Leisure which is a community-based group for, not just women but I guess, people who would like to explore themselves. So I find it hard to kind of funnel what I do into one category. I like to think that I like having conversations with people. When I was 22, so 6 years ago, I had a acquaintance, Savannah, so someone that I met a couple of times, and I don’t know, when you're that age I think I think you're so open to meeting new people, and your eyes are kind of wide and bright and excited, and we kind of just a resonated on level where I think we were both wanting to do things beyond what we were doing at Uni and really excited and interested by this big new creative world that we had recently entered in, and were just kind of in the paddling pool of. So [Savannah] had this idea to do a publication called Ladies Of Leisure, so we did the first three editions together -it's funny ‘cos at the time feminism, and women-centric publication is such a over churned idea now and it's very like commercialised, but at the time there was nothing, like it was around the time Rookie had just launched, and it was a really fun thing to do because it felt so new and so exciting. We did the first three publications over, I think, four years, and over time we started doing these workshops where -because we’d have launch parties for our magazines, and all these people would come and we didn't know who they were or where they were coming from, so we had the idea to start a kind of workshop series that place to go to bring people together. The first iteration of that workshop series was in a place called, Places for -Spaces for ...things? I can’t remember now. And we did the first series of workshops from there. I was actually in New York at the time so Sav was running them, but we worked on the programming together and it went really well! And then the next year, we did another workshop series, so over 10 days we did a workshop every day with different hosts and that was I think the moment that we realised that it was something that really people wanted because they all sold out immediately. It took a couple more years, but we always had the back of our minds that we wanted to have a physical space, and an opportunity came up with some guys we knew who had a bar, and there was a space they were renting above the bar... and so we took it! It’s been so good, I can't believe how good it’s been actually. EM: I did want to ask about how at the start of Ladies of Leisure which was very much is a side project for you how you made room and made time for it with other stuff going on, with a job, that kind of thing? ST: In those moments where it was difficult it was really just because we wanted to! I think if you have a side project or if you have something that's not paying you any money, you have to love it. You really have to love it. It has to come from something -you have to be motivated by more than just financial gain or even acclaim. It is it was about so much more than that for us and I think it's really kept us both afloat emotionally and spiritually in a away for the last 6 years, because we haven't made a cent off Ladies of Leisure. Everything that we make goes back into our business, which I don't even know if you can call it a business, it goes back into our project, and a lot of time goes into it, but I think the way that we make that time is that we genuinely want to be doing it and we genuinely feel like we are doing something good and people want it. So I guess that's how we make the time. When we first started Ladies of Leisure the steps where pretty easy; find people to write, edit their writing, and put it in a magazine. And that was kind of a task that could be finished, that you could break down into time. I think that now if we were to do that, I could find time to do that, it might take a long time but, it's just about allocating extra time after work or before or whatever. Often I’ll get up at 6 and spend a couple of hours on my emails, or writing for LOL. I think it was a Coppola who said that “the muse finds you,” if you do something at the same time every day, and I really resonate with that. I like to allocate specific time to do things because I find that my work is better when I know that's what I’ve got to do in that time. EM: What role has social media played in the growth of Ladies of Leisure if at all? ST: I think that it has given us a kind of drop pin, if you will, a physical kind of internet presence that we can update easily, because having website is hard to put stuff on, and you can't do it as frequently, so it gives us a place to share with our community and definitely it’s because we've got, I think we've got 28,000 followers or something, which I guess isn’t that many these days -but it's still something. So, people do approach us for opportunities and it helps you get that first foot in the door because you can be like, “Hey, I’m from Ladies of Leisure, you may not have heard of us, but you can go to our Instagram page,” and you can see that it's something. But, we've had many conversations about Instagram and how we want to approach it, and how we want it to influence us or, not, really. We don't post every day, we don't have any sort of schedule. I think especially with the algorithm and the way that it’s changed -I don't want to be a slave to a medium that will inevitably die, and all of our audience that we built on that will go with it. So, I think the way that I approach social media now and especially with Ladies of Leisure is, it’s a useful tool for right now, but in no way am I going to hedge my bets on that as a primary source of anything. It's a kind of necessary thing to have but I don't think that anybody should equate success with what they have on social media. EM: What advice do you have for creatives who are looking to start a side project, and who look at something like Ladies of Leisure that has grown, and have aspirations for it? ST: I would say don't start a side project because you want to start a side project. I don't think that there will be any longevity in that and you won't do it if you don't love it. I think you need to interrogate yourself and really figure out why you want to do something, and the best way that that is done. You just have to start, you don't have to -I think of really important thing to know is that you don't have to have an audience to start something. I feel like I've had so many side projects in my life, and Ladies of Leisure is one that other people have resonated with but, all of them I've just started because I needed to do something, I needed to get something out of me and just put it in the world even if there wasn't people looking at it. So the advice I would give is to not get to hung up on whether or not people are paying attention because I think that if you really care about something and you're doing it because you care about it that is the most important thing, and if you do it for long enough people are going to take notice. You shouldn’t try and work backwards, there's no kind of back door to getting into that side project thing. You just have to start from the from the very beginning when nobody knows you are and you don't know what you're doing, and be okay with that. Sally’s interview was part of the first iteration of make it, work released in October, 2019.You can find more about Sally’s side project Ladies of Leisure here. Many thanks to Sally for her time and pearls of wisdom.  https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Freelancing Tue, 01 Sep 2020 08:49:59 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Freelancing Home sweet home︎ On freelancingAN INTERVIEW WITH GRETA ROBENSTONE  As a freelance editor Greta has worked on all kinds of video content, with her documentary and narrative work shown at film festivals across the country - most recently at MIFF 2019 with short film Kids on Fire. Greta has a heap of good advice about freelance work, based on her first hand experience. Here we'll talk how to signify the change between work/play, work spaces, protecting yourself and your work as freelancer, and why you don't have to do everything all at once. Read, or listen, to the interview below.  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎GR: The thing about freelance for me at the moment, that is both the most exciting thing and the most daunting thing, is that there's no consistency. So I feel like I can never say no to jobs because I never know if it’ll be really quiet the next week, it might be really quiet in 2 weeks. I think a lot of time people get -from an editor’s perspective, a lot of clients put a lot of planning into the pre-production and that might take them a few weeks, and then they might get an editor last so I tend to only ever get jobs one or two weeks in advance, so my calendar always looks pretty empty after that which is a bit daunting sometimes. EM: When you started your degree, you're a Freelancer now, you had crack at freelancing straight away -and then a couple of things happening between then and you’re back to it now. So can you tell us a little bit about your working journey from from then to now? GR: Sure thing, editing was definitely something that I had a bit of interest in at uni, and then I finished uni, I had a retail job on the side and was trying to do a couple freelance jobs here and there, wherever I could get them but I definitely still needed that retail job for side money, and wasn't prepared to take the big leap -so for probably a year I balanced the two, and I wasn't very disciplined with my time. I think going from school and then uni, you're so deadline-driven and there's outside forces telling you to get things in, planning out schedules for you to have drafts and things in, and then just being on my own, trying to work, being tired after work, trying to do freelance work, it was a bit of a challenge. I didn't do a great job balancing it, there were a lot of times where I would put off all day doing this work, that was pretty simple and then at night just be forced to do it when I’d rather be doing anything else. So I was doing that for about a year balancing the two, then I got really tired of my retail job and thought ‘all right, I'll just give it a go.’ The pressure of trying to get freelance work, trying to be efficient with my freelance work, with my time -I just never really got the balance of it right. It was a bit of a struggle looking for more regular part-time/full-time work as an editor, which was maybe a bit less creative that I had initially wanted but I did end up finding a really good kind of middle ground job where I was just editing content for an organisation that made content for not-for-profits. So did that for a couple of years, until the end of last year when I decided that I needed a change! I applied for an assistant editor position on a feature film through Film Victoria. I luckily got it, and was able to quit my job and work on a film for a few months, and I’ve just given freelancing another go! And it's had a lot better results for me this time. EM: What would you say is the difference between then when you first had a go at it and now? GR: The biggest difference to me was through working full-time for two years, working a desk job, although there are a few things about it that aren’t very inspiring -it is really good at getting you used to working at 9-5, sitting down at a desk, doing what you need to do. Because of that I can now in my own time just sit down and do it, I'm not just making a million cups of tea, and cleaning my house, and finding anything else in the world to do apart from sit down at my desk. I know that I wake up in the morning and make breakfast, I always put my shoes on, ‘cause that is some sort of signifier in my head that I am ready to work. I do my eyebrows, put my shoes on, and then I go sit at my desk upstairs. I've got a really good space in my house, at the opposite end of my house, so I'm not just working out of my bedroom. Like, I do get up, get dressed, and go sit down at my desk, and because I’m used to that full time work before, I'm able to just get stuff done. EM:  The procrasticleaning is real. (laughs) GR: There’s benefits! EM: You mentioned you have a space separate away from your bedroom, is it super important when you're a freelancer to have that space where you can work? What are the key features of that space that mean you are ready to go when you sit down? GR: I think in any job, creative or any other field, I think for your own mental health having a separation between your work and you're play time is really important and having things that signify that, whether it's changing your clothes when you get home, or having a cup of tea when you get home from work, or taking the dogs for a walk, just something to signify that change -and that's important a different way when you're working from home. I'm probably a lot more relaxed than I would be if I was working in an office somewhere, but it's also important to still have those signifiers because I don't want to be switched on working all the time. Having an office setup my house that's at the opposite side of my house is really nice, obviously that’s not a thing you can always plan for that just happens to be where the spare room in my house is -but I have a really beautiful desk in there, I have a monitor in there that I work from -so I’ve got a laptop stand and it's really critical for your back if you're going to be spending a lot of time on the computer. I did my neck when I first started working full-time at a desk. My osteo was like, ‘you have to get a keyboard and a laptop stand right now,’ and that was a really good point! So, looking after physical self is really important for you ability to keep working, especially when you're working freelance and you probably don't have sick leave. So having all those things set up, obviously I take my laptop back to my room to watch shows and my laptop travels around the house, but I do have equipment that just stays in my room and makes me feel like I've got a desk that I'm going to. I've got my books and all my camera stuff in there so it is it's just like a mini office for me. EM: I wanted to talk to you about something you mentioned the first time I saw you talk, you had a year of just saying yes to stuff. That's a really cool concept. Can you talk about how that helped you? GR: I think it got to a point at the start of last year, I was thinking maybe I want to start moving on from this job that I've been working for a while soon, but whenever I looked at my CV to go to send people -there's nothing creative on it since uni, and that's when, you know, 2013 to 2018 not having any any real creative projects is getting to be quite a while. If I was going to step away from my job soon I’d need other things on there, and also wanted to prove myself a bit that I still could do those things. There are always things going; on the internet, or among friends, there are always people posting things that they need help with, so many that it's pretty easy to tune them out. So I started actually seeking them out more, and said yes to a couple of music videos that people had shot, someone else had a doco trailer they wanted edited, and so I just got a couple of those under my belt, and then a couple of short films, and then things just start to spiral because people pass your name on ‘cause they like what you did on one thing, or they've heard about you. Then also I started to get more confidence because then I knew I could actually edit narrative, I didn't just have to do doco, I could be a bit more creative. I built up quite a collection of side projects outside of my main work, and then I felt good about applying for jobs -and I got one pretty quickly that I didn't think I’d get! So it definitely itself paid off, there were a lot of times last year, and still are when I come home from work, and then work another 3 or 4 hours at night on a project that I wasn’t getting paid for -some of them were exciting, some of them were definitely less exciting, but it was all worth it in the end. EM: Moving away from what we just talked about, how do you go about protecting yourself and your work in terms of communicating with clients, setting contracts, invoices -that kind of thing? GR: I think when you’re freelancing protecting yourself is such a big thing. You actually just have to look after everything for yourself because there's no one else, don't have a safety net which is scary -but also for anyone who has worked under a boss and wished they didn't have that boss you can imagine that’s some real perks working for yourself as well. A big thing with clients for me is email etiquette -and just being extra clear in your communications. So a good tip that I got, or have sort of gleaned from working is that if you have a phone conversation with a client where you're talking about anything important, be it deadlines, the quote, anything that you need from them or they need from you -that everyone might forget the details of, dates for shoots, whose responsibility certain tasks are... once you had that phone conversation I think it's really important to back it up with an email where you just outline what was said, just having that written communication so that, you know, that's a really good safety blanket to have. Then also with things like quotes and invoices, I think it's really important to put the terms of your payment in your initial quote because that's what the people are agreeing to, that you’re entering into  and agreement with. So I might write, ‘please pay within 2 weeks’ on my invoice, but people probably still won’t pay for a month or a month and a half. It's really a bit of a wild wild west out there so as much as you can try and make things clear from the outset, that will help you to try and get people to pay you on time. EM: It’s one of the more glamorous parts of of being a freelancing, chasing up invoices! GR: Yeah. No one likes -You always feel sad sending an email saying ‘can you please pay me,’ even if it's well within your rights. It’s hard not to feel desperate but it's definitely a big part of working freelance. EM: What do you wish you knew when you started? GR: I think even after school and then especially after uni, I always put a lot of pressure on myself, time pressure. I really wanted to just jump straight into making stuff and like, everyone kind of wants to be some sort of prodigal creative talent and have all these great film ideas that you pull out of thin air, and the longer I work, the more I think I’d actually have much better ideas now because of the life experience I have now that I didn't have even, you know, when I was at uni 5 years ago. I can only imagine that's going to keep getting greater, so I'm not putting huge pressure on myself any more to try and make things straight away because I'm not worried that the world is going to pass me by and I won’t have a chance to make it. I think I’ve got time now, you will always find time later, like you don't actually have to do everything all at once -and being able to relax into that and know that everything that I was doing was building up my skills that mean I'm now more capable of doing these creative projects that I'm still thinking up and that have returned to me is exciting. Greta’s interview was part of the first iteration of make it, work released in October, 2019. You can find more about Greta and her work here. Many thanks to Greta for taking the time to talk with us. https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Internships Tue, 01 Sep 2020 08:57:35 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Internships #takemeback︎ InternshipsAN INTERVIEW WITH HELENA RUSE  Helena writes for The Project (Channel 10) and creates at Leftovers Sketch Comedy, with her newest web series INTERNMENT exploring the lows and... lows of internships. Here we talk about Helena’s work and her own interning experiences, what a good internship looks like, how to find the right one, and why having a crack at your own projects is a great way to learn instead. Listen, or read, the interview below.  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎HR: What do I do? That’s a good question. I do comedy, I guess you’d say. Sketch comedy mainly, but also transitioning into web series and hopefully in the future something a little bit more broad. So I suppose... I am... a maker of things. EM: What was your interning experience like? HR: My interning experience was - I’m gonna say bad. But also in hindsight it wasn't that bad. As in, it didn’t give me any skills (laughs) and it was so far from what I was expecting, however it was just doing work for free. So it wasn't as bad as some of the scenarios in our show - That was definitely an exaggeration of the truth, all those scenarios in our show. But the actual feeling behind it was I think quite accurate. Both myself and Pippa and our director Andrew, we’ve all had internships or unpaid experiences that haven't really been helpful… and also maybe slightly humiliating at times. So nothing in [INTERNMENT] was a 100% true, but it came from a feeling that was true. EM: Is there anything good that came from any internships? HR: I’ve actually thought about this a lot recently because all the things I am doing now are from an experience I had earlier in my life or something that I've done, so you know, even making sketches and everything has now led to me where I'm working now. All that kind of stuff has been helpful even if I didn’t think it back in the day. So with my internship it was something I had to do for uni, so whatever I say now it doesn't matter - I had to do it anyway. I think internships are actually really important, I wish I did more of them, or I wish I sought out something that was going to be beneficial to me, or maybe somewhere I would have met a lot more people, or maybe not even an internship, just something that I would have volunteered my time towards. But my specific internship felt like a lot of manual labour, and I don’t really feel I got a lot back from that. I think it is important to try and find those internship roles because that's where you meet people and that's where -the whole -this whole industry is meeting people, and knowing people. So I wish I tried a bit harder with that. EM: As you mentioned for you it was part of study, and it is for a lot of people. Do you think it's essential? Do you think internships are an essential part of making creative work? HR: If they were better, sure. But, no. I think all my skills I developed through just doing our own thing, like a couple years ago, and developing through that way. So no I don't think it's essential, and I think -I feel like a lot of older people say, ‘you've got to do that free, you've got to do that early hard work, do the internships’ all that kind of stuff. I think, nah (laughs) Like, volunteering so much free time when you're not that passionate about the workplace that you're in, the internships that you’re in, feels like a waste of time. But, as I said before, if you found a good one -which I'm sure there are, I just didn't have one, then, no. I guess everyone has a different avenue. So it's just making the most of what you do or what you can get. But I -there was so much value for me making my own stuff and doing it myself. EM: You have written about what -and experienced what, a not great internship can look like. What does a good internship look like? HR: Probably, finding a mentor. Probably, gaining some awareness of -I mean I think a lot of people (this is also just in this specific field of film and television) I think probably a lot of the time, people may not know how a show fully works or how some sector of this art world works like as a job rather than a hobby. So it would be like finding out how things actually work, gaining a skill, and meeting people is, it would be an ideal internship. EM: I think people are largely willing to give up the time to help students and artists because if you are in a position to give an internship you have also done one before. HR: Yeah I agree. I don't think anyone's trying to make this suck for anyone but it's the nature of free work, and then it becoming that awkward thing -I know so many people who have done an internship or volunteered themselves for a while and then it just goes on. So they've been there for a year and haven’t been paid it all, and that's when a company or a person or whoever giving that internship should be like, ‘Okay, this person -they may feel awkward coming up to me and asking for money,’ or asking for something else. They have to be the ones to offer something else. I think that the main painful part of all that is just offering so much time for free and not many people can afford to do that. EM: Yeah. It’s definitely a privilege to be able to do that in concurrence with your study. So do you have any tips on how to find the right internship? HR: Well, I think -and this is something all mums are going to tell you, but just email people. All the time. I thought [an internship] was something that I had to find either through my uni, which was great, but you don't have to wait for emails or look on people's websites for structured internships ‘cause they may not really exist. Just asking people that you know, because generally people -Like, no one’s seeking an intern, but when someone approaches them and says, ‘hey, I really want to learn, I'll just sit by your side,’ most people I think are very much willing to have you there. And then it means you're probably finding something that is a little bit more specific to you, because you’ve sought it out. EM: How do you survive an internship? HR: I survived my internship because there was a cool goal at the end of it: I got to go to this massive event for free. And that was worth all the painful times. So just give yourself a goal. Or, my internship also ended at the same time as my whole degree, so that was kind of like, ‘yes, sweet, we got there.’ Tell them it's your birthday and then you get a cake or something. Just lie! (laughs.) EM: Offices do that, it’s a good perk! My final question for you, do you have any advice for creatives starting out, whether it be at an internship, or in general? HR: What we were talking about before. If you can, if you have the ability, and the access to make something, even if it's crap, you should definitely make it and put it somewhere to be seen. You can still develop skill by making something and not showing anyone, but I think it's also a huge benefit to you to then show people, or put it somewhere, or showcase it, whatever that may be. Because people often -as much as you can go up to people and offer your skills or whatever, people come up to you, which is also so nice as you're not always running after things. And then you just build up a network, and then from the network you will definitely find work. People can ask you to work on their things, they can come work on yours -like, that's why people go to uni, because you need to find your network. But also, at uni you’re not always going to find your network, like you're not always going to find your niche. So definitely: Make stuff, if you can.Helena’s interview was part of the first iteration of make it, work released in October, 2019. You can watch the INTERNMENT web series and more of Helena’s comedy here.Thanks Helena! https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Vulnerability Tue, 01 Sep 2020 09:04:24 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Vulnerability Honey, I’m home︎︎︎ Vulnerability and makingAN INTERVIEW WITH TILLY LAWLESS Tilly Lawless is a full service sex worker and writer based in Sydney. Her writing has been published in journals such as Meanjin and Archer Magazine but mostly, Tilly prefers to self-publish online. Listen below as we talk with Tilly about vulnerability and making, the interaction with audiences allowed by a personal online space, about the effect on audiences when vulnerability and personal experience is put into art, and finally, the markers we use to determine ‘success.’  ︎︎︎︎Tilly’s interview was part of the first iteration of make it, work released in October, 2019.You can keep up with Tilly and her writing on her instagram.Many thanks to Tilly for taking the time to chat. https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Feedback Tue, 01 Sep 2020 09:07:39 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Feedback Take me home, country roads︎ FeedbackAN INTERVIEW WITH AARON CHEN  Aaron started his comedy career doing funny speeches at school. Since then, over almost 10 years, he's performed sold out national tours, at Splendour in the Grass, and can be found on ABC iview on his show Aaron Chen Tonight. Listen below where we talk with Aaron about feedback and the nature of instant feedback in comedy, why you can’t take all feedback too seriously, and who he runs his work by first.  ︎︎︎︎ Aaron’s interview was part of the first iteration of make it, work released in October, 2019.You can find more about Aaron and his work here.Many thanks to Aaron. https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Transparency Tue, 01 Sep 2020 09:11:39 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Transparency Home is wherever I’m with you︎ TransparencyAN INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY BANFIELD  Maker Holly Banfield started her slow-paced label HB Archive with transparency in mind. In this interview with HB we discuss some ‘why’s: Why does HB Archive operate the way it does? Why should people know where their stuff comes from? Why should makers be transparent in their process? Read on below. ︎︎︎︎EM: Who are you and what you do? HB: I’m Holly Banfield, and I run the clothing label HB Archive, which is obviously my initials - HB. And then the ‘archive’ is the library of products, garments and accessories that I have created over the last 5 or so years. What *I* do is I make them all! EM: You have a passion for using ethical methods and materials - Where did this begin? Was that easy for you to start to do? HB: Not really. I think it's been a really long research process. The way that I do things is quite  slow paced anyway, I like to plan. I  can't jump straight into anything in my life. I have to really plan it. There’s a lot of lists in my world! I did a 3 year degree, studying fashion, and in the last year [of study] the Rana Plaza collapsed, and really I wanted to have nothing to do with fashion after that. I finished my degree and I was like, ‘I hate this, fashion sucks, it's way too fast paced and everything's fucked.’ Yeah. Then I didn’t do anything for a year, and ended up working on the shop floor for the so-called ‘largest ethical women's company in Australia’ - that's like what they like to call themselves, I won’t say who - and I was getting lots of questions from customers, and we were selling lots of polyester, and a majority of our stuff was made off-shore when we were claiming to make it on-shore. I was having to greenwash to my customers. I had the opportunity to meet the designers and the owners of the company and I asked them and they wouldn't have the answers. I just hated that. I started emailing a bunch of small, local brands that I could see were trying, and then I got an internship with an incredible local brand. She was like doing the right thing and making in Melbourne. So from there I started changing the way I did things. EM: How much of what is out there that is labelled ethical, green or sustainable actually is? HB: The brands I'm into don’t use those words, because that’s greenwashing. I don't use the word ‘ethical’ very much in my brand, I try not to. I try to think ‘transparent’ is a very important word, because obviously we know what that means. I think there's so many different branches of what ‘ethical’ could be and what ‘sustainable’ could be. I just like to be honest about what I can control and then what I can't control - That’s why me making it all is good but then, still I use deadstock that I don't know where it comes from, and even though I have the certifications of organic for some of my fabrics, I ask ‘where is the dye from?’ EM: All we can do is the best we can. HB: Yeah. EM: So for consumers who want to buy, wear and contribute to a sustainable cycle - What should they look out for in the art and fashion that they buy? HB: What I do, I look at their ‘About me’ to see where it's made and if they're honest in the ‘About me’ section on their website. If it’s not listed I just close the tab. Sometimes if I have a little bit of time I’ll email them and ask. EM: Why do you think it is important for people to know where the things that they wear come from? HB: Well there's the whole thing of ‘we're all human,’ if you wanted to go down that path. Everyone deserves to have a good life and not be stressed and not be working every single day to try to support their families. And then I think it's important to connect the whole life cycle of the garment that you're wearing because, for me if I know the person who made it, where the fabric has come from, and the thought process that gone in it, I can see there's so much care and detail in each thing that I treasure that item and I love it. But if you’re just buying something from like, Zara for the weekend, you don't really care about it and you don't have the love. EM: You’ve described your process as slow paced. How do you start the planning process? HB: To get a product into the archive where I'm happy with it being on the website takes a couple of years. I don't do seasons. I don't design out of wanting to sell. I design either something I need, or there's someone, like a friend, that is wanting something that I make for them. That adds to my creative process. For instance the jeans that I'm wearing now, I made before I had a brand, they’re now the chore pants. There’s a post on my personal instagram before I had a brand of them captioned “I think I just made the best pants in the world!” They were a white denim, then I made a matching jacket that's become the chore jacket. But so many things have changed - I’ve tweaked the zip and the crotch and the leg shape and the length and how wide the hem is and the pockets. I’ve changed everything over. I think the design process is always adapting. EM: Why did you start making? HB: My earliest memories of sewing, I remember making cat clothes. I made my cat a fleece blanket, I hand sewed elastic under the bottom so it would go around and a big sock for her tail (laughs.) So why did I start sewing? I think I was just a kid who needed to be creative in some way. EM: A little while ago you started posting a transparency series on Instagram - what was the reaction that followed after you started sharing that information? HB: I’ve done quite a few and every time it surprises me by the amount of people I don’t know that message to say ‘thank you so much for sharing, that’s so kind of you, that's really really brave.’ And when I would see people I do know they would bring up a post. It was strange because I thought those were people who knew about that stuff already. The most recent thing that I did was I recorded a video myself one Saturday making my dot bag - I have it online for $75, which I don't make money from really. The smaller things take quite a lot of time because I love facings and doing things kind of backwards when I create. So I was I was recording myself making this bag that I don't really get any profit from, and it wasn't selling it at $75 price point because I think people were like, ‘oh it's just a tote,’ but it takes quite a while to sew each one. It made a lot of people question their other clothes, which is also a really good reaction. I think it's good to look at all of the things in your wardrobe and ask, ‘why is it only this price?’ because if that took that long on fast forward for this girl to make a tote, then what about everything else that I’m buying super cheap? EM: I think that's why what you do is so important, because not many other labels are offering that level of transparency. What kinds of things would you suggest to other makers is important to share with their audiences or customers who might buy but not know about the making process? HB: First off, know your worth. Whether you're doing photography or design or jewellery. You know how much time goes into it, so you should be charging the time it takes. The first internship I did I asked the designer ‘what should I be charging?’ ‘cause I was in uni and people were starting to want me to sew them stuff. They were happy to pay for fabric but they thought because I was their friend that I would make it for free. And back then I probably would ‘cause I didn't know any better. But she said, ‘your friends are your first customers, so if your friends aren’t going to pay for you who's going to pay for you?’ and that was just the best advice I think I could have had at the start. Know your worth. Then also transparency. You know your worth, now you need to teach everyone else why it's that price. EM: What specifically in your transparency series are you shedding light on? HB: It’s based on my costing sheet, I got the template at uni, and then I've adapted it to suit myself. So the things that are in my costing sheet - I don't charge the time it took to create the pattern and edit the pattern because that was the last however many years, or if I alter something for someone I generally don't charge for that either. So it's got the cost of cutting the fabric, the cost of like sewing, pressing, the finishings (which I generally undercut how long it takes to sew on all my press studs, but I also do that in my bed watching TV, so it's a nice time) and then I have it the amount of time that it takes me to sew it, times by a 38 hour working week, so the overheads of that percentage are in there as well. And then I have material; fabrications, fusing, buttons, zips, tags. I get my tags digitally printed onto my own organic canvas and then I press them and sew them in individually because I didn't I couldn't find any that were not on polyester. That's all the things, ‘all the things you forget’ - That’s what I write on my transparency posts.  EM: What advice do you have for creatives starting out who are concerned with transparency and using ethical materials in their craft? HB: Do your research. I'm still in two minds about everything that I do. I try to do the best thing I can but then for example you listen to a podcast somewhere that says you're not meant to be using cotton at all! Just do your best and research everything because there's going to be someone telling you that it's okay and someone telling you that it's not okay. You can't do everything right. That's something that I try not to beat myself up about is that you can only control so much. There's not a brand out there that can be 100% on everything because really, making clothes, we’re still producing stuff. Do your best, maybe figure out the top 3 things are the most important to you and try to stick to them. Everything takes time so if you're starting out, or if you're quite established but you want to change things, it might take a little while. You can look view and shop HB Archive here, and keep up with the label on HB’s instagram. make it, work spoke with Holly in October, 2019.Thank you Holly for your time and invaluable advice! https://makeitwork.cargo.site/About Thu, 01 Oct 2020 02:23:02 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/About make it, work for people whomake stuff, for work Home︎ G’day! make it, work is a resource for creatives created and produced by Ellie Mitchell.The first iteration of make it, work was a five episode podcast series produced in October 2019 as a part of El’s Media degree and was borne of the question, “how do I make It work?” ‘It’ being: Living and working as a creative. By speaking with creatives about the making process, sharing work we loved, and opportunities we found interesting, make it, work sought to answer to this question. Ellie currently works as freelance writer and misc-creative gun for hire from her home on Woiwurrung Country, colonially known as Melbourne. You can learn more about the unceded lands on which this project was produced here. make it, work respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of this land, and pays respect to Elders, past and present.  Get in touch ...with Ellie via instagram or email. Have a squiz at the rest of her portfolio here.  https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Running-on-Cargo Wed, 19 Aug 2020 01:04:58 +0000 make it, work https://makeitwork.cargo.site/Running-on-Cargo Running on Cargo