PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

signed copy $45

available early May 2011

Working on an intimate Veuve Clicquot event, and stumbled across some fab words by entrepreneur Madame Clicquot:

I am going to tell you a secret…you more than anyone resemble me, you who have such audacity. It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life…to dare things before others…I am called today the Grand Lady of Champagne! Look around you, this chateau, these unfaltering hills, I can be bolder than you realise. The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity. Perhaps you too will be famous…!!

Last year I featured on Keith Johnson’s (Anthropologie’s found object buyer) TV show, Man Shops Globe. Look out for the Australian airing: April 20th at 8pm on Channel Stvdio!!!

Read all about my appearance in collaborations on thesocietyinc.com.au.

But just because I’m not on it, don’t stop watching it! Lots more exciting adventures and shopping with Keith Johnson every Wednesday at 7pm on Stvdio: Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Syria…

On February 8th this year we will launch our new online store & reveal our more permanent store focusing on my globetrotting finds, and other loves, hardware & haberdashery.

We have a new fit-out and more floorspace devoted to the shop as we have moved our office, design studio & reference library upstairs (which is our base for all my goings-on).

The products will reflect my interpretation of hardware & haberdashery which will cover:

Toolkits & tackleboxes, ship chandlery, drygoods, oddities & curiosities, tinctures & apothecary amongst my treasures seeked far & wide and will be continually updated with new product from local & global artisans & manufacturers as well as my own range of products.

The Society inc. is a combination of 2 of my favourite things: Hardware & Haberdashery.

My definition of these might differ from most- often utilitarian but always beautiful. It evokes the memory of an old mixed business store, its shelves & labeled drawers (under the counter as well) filled with handmade, global treasures, honest&humble, local, green, fairtrade, unusual & just-arrived! A magical, make-believe space that transports you to a time-forgotten of merchants & traders (though they still exist in other parts of the world): Apothecary, Tinctures & Alchemy, Drapers & Mills, Smiths, Tinkers, Peddlers & Keepers, Cutlers, Sailmakers, Chandlery & Wrights. The Society inc. reflects my globetrotting adventures, beachcombing, bowerbird nature & gypsy curiosity in inspiration, collecting & treasure hunting.

We are hidden in the back streets of Paddington, a new look & revival of a traditional corner store that once-upon-a-time serviced 40 houses in the local area (however we are very global & online).

The store, with its Belgium hardware shop fittings from the late 1800s and custom-made floor to ceiling shelves with Putnam rolling ladders, is the ultimate backdrop for goods & chattels, with the likes of leather braided whips, canvas satchels, whittled handled tools, hand forged nails, toolbags & tackleboxes, moulded wire, espadrilles & Wellingtons, simple glassware shapes, letterpress, seeds & gardening paraphernalia, knots & pulleys, bristle brushes, flotsam+jetsam, stencils, enamel jugs, brass drawer pulls (my own designs), MoP buttons, sailcloth buckets, original recipe cleaning products, linen by-the-yard, vintage ribbons, dressmakers pins & scissors, rope & shackles, ideas & inspiration a-plenty tossed in with oddities & curiosities.

I encourage the use of colour & paint ideas in your interiors, at the shop & through my best-selling books: Etcetera (out now) & Nomad (Coming out in Nov 2011). My paint range developed wth Murobond now boasts eleven themes of 10-colour palettes (so 110 colours as well as 12 chalkboard paints & the ultimate front door colours- with stencils to write your numbers).

The Society inc. will be offering conversations & workshops with Sibella Court & friends. These will be held regularly (once or twice a month depending on world exploration & gallivanting) either at the shop or at other interesting venues in the Sydney area. These ‘in conversations with’ will cover a broad spectrum of topics from styling, book writing, colour, commercial interiors, tying knots & display as well as continuing to host the much-loved irregular fleamarkets.

To give you a taste, these will be some that will be held in the first half of the year:

• Styling with sticks, stones & bones
• Displaying your collections
• Arranging a wall & mantle piece
• Knot tying: make a monkey fist doorstop
• Window treatments with ease
• Replacing hardware: a quick fix
• Paint inspiration and coming up with your palette
• Rope staircase
• Making your own flower press
• Writing books
• Cheap & quick lampshades
• Making cardboard frame with Noelle

Attendees will be encouraged to butt in, ask questions & generally have a personal, hands-on experience (and a glass of wine!). Please join our newsletter to stay in the loop!

Enjoy! Sibella