Ink & Spindle are designers and printers Tegan Rose and Lara Cameron, and are no strangers to many of us in the craft/design biz in Australia – they have been around since 2008 showing off their fabulous hand-printed textiles. I first came across their blog a few years back, and was quite taken by their posts and pics on the day to day running of their studio, little peeks at new work, and other great posts like this one on pricing your creative work. Gorgeous AND useful!

Ink and Spindle endeavour at every stage of their processes to be Earth-friendly, by using organic, sustainable, and fairtrade basecloths, by using water-based inks, and by using recycled and biodegradable packaging. They also offset their carbon emissions through support of Carbon Neutral.

Anyhow, I thought it would be good to know a bit more about these lovely people (besides the fact that Tegan has the most fabulous tattoo I’ve seen in some time), so I asked them a few questions.


rooftops – deep red

birch – robin’s egg blue

What are your childhood experiences and memories of craft and/or design?

Teegs: I grew up a shy, quiet child on a property in country Victoria, so I suppose my childhood was fairly unconventional. I don’t remember ever being introduced to making, but mum tells me I always had a pencil in my hand or would be knitting scarves for my dolls, or trying to fire my clay creations in our open fire, or insisting on repainting different rooms in the house…Thinking back over this makes me realise my parents gave me a lot of creative freedom!
Lara: Throughout my childhood I tried in pretty much every form of craft that I could get my hands on – each birthday or Christmas would bring supplies catering to some new pursuit or another. Sewing, knitting, candle making, beading, sculpting, ceramics, papier mache, flower pressing, china painting, calligraphy… the list goes on.

Are there any creative people in your family background? Especially any that influenced you?

Teegs: Definitely. My mother was hugely encouraging, if not strictly creative herself. I think she noticed my interests & I have very early memories of her coming home with derwents, paint-by-numbers sets, calligraphy pens, watercolours & their corresponding how-to books. She would take me in to town to the local Spotlight & I would spend ages poring over which fabric/yarn/cross stitch/pattern/beading thing to take home. I remember being about 8 or 9, mum let me absolutely destroy the kitchen & her favourite pots – We kept bees & I collected the beeswax, proceeded to melt it all down, strain out the dead bees (there were lots!) & make some very special, wonky, unattractive, one of a kind hand dipped candles. I look back now & think how lucky I was (and still am) to have such a supportive mother. She’s the best. My step father was/is equally as encouraging. He taught me to use all kinds of tools from a pretty young age & let me fossick & build things in the shed. And my mother’s mother taught me to cross stitch, long stitch, knit properly, prepare fleece, spin & dye yarn, make silk paper.
Lara: My Oma was my main creative influence in an otherwise fairly academic focused family. She was very much into oil painting and she was intent on teaching me to draw with perspective at a very young age. I still remember her asking me to draw an ornate dining chair and being very happy with the result – that made me feel great. Otherwise, my mother used to knit and sew a lot of clothes for me (and my one and only doll) and taught me to sew on her heavy old Elna Zig Zag. And of course she encouraged me to pursue anything that I wanted to.

leuca – inky blue and moss

flowering gum – black & white, on hemp/yak blend fabric


What is your worst experience as a crafter/designer, and how did you overcome it?

Being ripped off by a large company or two. That was pretty awful. We contacted an IP lawyer & did what we could. Unfortunately it seems that the textiles industry has a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of policy when it comes to ‘original’ design.

What has been the hardest single obstacle to your biz?

Less of an obstacle & more of an ongoing issue really, but it would have to be managing cashflow. It’s a tricky one for any small business! It can be particularly hard after the Christmas break when we’ve taken two weeks off work but all the bills still need to be paid. It can take a month or two just to get back on track.

kanagaroo paw – red-orange and snow

wrens – inky blue

What has been the icing on the cake for your biz?

We’re so lucky – there’s been a lot of icing. Maybe one of the funnest things was having our fabric featured on Nina’s bed in last season of Melbourne-made TV series Offspring. From a business perspective, being able to build fantastic longterm relationships with other local designers or getting our business to a level where we could attend an industry Trade Show – which we did last year.

Who do you admire (other artists/designers; other people generally)? What/who are your biggest influences, past or present?

Teegs: Easy, Lara is amazing & I’m lucky to have her as my business partner/bestie. We see each other so much we have practically developed our own form of twinspeak! Emily of Nancybird is my hero though, I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that I would like to grow up to be her. Influence is a tricky one, I studied Fine Art for 5 years, so that has to influence me – though I rarely pick up a paintbrush these days. I suppose broadly, it is the Australian environment, growing up surrounded by nothing but native trees, birds & frogs. Whenever I sit down to design my mind takes me to the surrounds of my childhood home. I guess even after a decade of living in the city, it’s a case of you can take the girl out of the country…
Lara: I’ve always been inspired by Julie Paterson from Cloth, Stuart Russell of Spacecraft, and Scandinavian born designer Lotta Jansdotter. They are people doing the thing that I’ve always wanted to do, and if on the off chance we get mentioned in the same sentence as one of them I get very excited! As for influences, mine are very similar to Teegs’ – native flora and fauna, organic forms, and of course our beloved hometown of Melbourne. I think it’s important to love & appreciate where you live rather than dreaming of far off lands.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Do a business plan. And then revise it yearly. We love the GOSPA system for reviewing & planning (Google it!). It can be so easy to be swept along by your day to day and lose sight of what you personally want to achieve. You need to love what you’re creating and sometimes the market pushes you in directions you don’t necessarily enjoy. Doing a planning session helps you to reshift your focus and make the good stuff happen.
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cushion – flowering gum and lace fans

Inklet tee – trams and bicycles



And besides beautiful fabrics, Ink & Spindle make homewares, fabric packs and kits, and have recently collaborated with Twiglet to create a children’s wear range called Inklet!
Ink and Spindle produce work out of their studio space in Kensington Melbourne, and occasionally have open days so you can see what they do (I so wish I lived in Melbourne!). You can find out more about Ink and Spindle on their website here.
Thanks very much to Tegan & Lara for sharing their images and ideas.