Shopping for Jewellery - Train hits a Cow

It's not every day that your train hits a cow in the middle of the night after a fabulous day in Melbourne  -buying new jewellery, visiting your favorite cafes and shopping at Melbourne's fantastic independant stores - but that was the unfortunate end to my day on Friday!

While the cow is no longer with us - my fabulous sterling silver jewellery from Christine Battacchio certainly is. Christine works from a tiny workshop space tucked neatly beside the kitchen in her Preston home (see photo below). Her vibrant and very individual pieces are a combination of resin and sterling silver and come in a striking range of colours. I originally saw Christine's work at a market in Melbourne and after quite a few requests for rings thought Christine's work would be perfect. Unable to resist her full range I've bought back  a few rings as well as pendants and earrings - in aqua/greens, red and brushed sterling silver.

It was a busy day in Melbourne - after breakfast at Pepper in Flemington it was off to Ikea to buy frames for our Printspace prints, then a little shopping and browsing at Flashback, Catherine Manuell and Manque Design in Westgarth. Manque design was a new discovery for me - simple, well designed clothes with a great little selection of jewellery and other objects (with many of the same designers we stock), it was good to wonder the streets where we lived some fifteen years ago.

Lunch at Palomino and then more shopping at i dream a highway, in the woods & local shop in High Street Northcote. After cake and a visit to Belki in Rathdowne Street it was home time.

While the journey was certainly quite a bit longer than it should have been (made it home by 1am instead of 10 pm ) it was good to be out of rural Victoria and in the grungy, busy streets of Melbourne's inner North (but just for the day!)

christine in her Preston workshop

work in progress