November 2010

Throughout their working relationship, Shaz Dixon and Shann Whittaker have joined forces on many small projects, but it wasn't until earlier this year that they under-took a large scale collaboration with stunning results. "We had always wanted to work together," shares Shaz. "And so when the stamp collection idea came about, it only seemed natural. With Shann being in wholesale with Tantrum Design and my retail outlet, Style Direct, it was a great combination of ideas."

Taking cues from stamps collected over the years, a homeware range emerged featuring iconic flora and fauna. "There are tea-towels, napkins, wood blocks and of course cushions," describes Shann. "It's very New Zealand orientated and this was done with the aim that it would sit perfectly in any home in NZ or act as a great gift for those overseas." explains Shaz. 

In line with the homeware range, limited edition NZ Canvas Artworks were created. "The entire range was about appreciating the artistic side of a stamp and the work that would have gone into creating each one. Building on this, the canvas artworks were about stamps being appreciated as a piece of ART, rather than just as part of a postmark," shares Shaz. 

With Shaz and Shann's shared passion for New Zealand design and production, their graphic stamp collection pieces are set to take the market by storm; plus the affordable nature of this contemporary range makes it the perfect christmas gift idea!  

We talk to four very talented young ladies behind a new chocolate flavour taking the country by storm.

For those that aren't familiar with Young Enterprise, can you tell us what the scheme involves?
The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme is a national competition that enables secondary school students to plan, manufacture and market a product of our choice.

Did you have many different concepts before settling on the chocolate?
Yes, we did. We had allsorts of concepts, such as multicultural cooking books to hand warmers and everything in between.

What inspired your flavour selection?
When chocolate was brought up in our meeting we wanted to make it! It was a simple idea, however we knew it was going to work if we contracted it out to a manufacturer. So instantly we decided we wanted to go ahead with this, we just needed to make it different to what was on the market. We originally wanted to do a product with a ’Kiwi’ theme, and so we incorporated that into it by looking for the flavour of Kiwiana – which of course then brought us to Kiwifruit and Pavlova!

What challenges did you have to overcome?
The most challenging factor that we faced was finding a chocolate manufacturer. We were in contact with a range of chocolate manufacturers in Christchurch, however it wasn’t really working for us. Although Christchurch has great range of chocolate manufacturers, we needed mass production and a reasonable price. After a lot of research into possible suppliers in Christchurch, we decided the best option for us was to consider all chocolate manufacturers throughout New Zealand, and that’s how we found Donovans in Hamilton. They were really supportive from the word go and offered us competitive pricing on great quality chocolate, and the fact that they had worked on projects like this before meant we knew we had found our supplier.

How did you liaise with your chocolate manufacturer to produce the final product?
We came up with our own ratios of the combination of kiwifruit, Pavlova and chocolate, however Donovan’s made their own and sent down their strongest picks. We then got our close friends and family to sample the products and decided which formula was most loved.

Do sustainable practices come into your product at all?
Yes, our packaging really shows this as we chose a recycled board and vegetable oil based inks. This was really important to us as our school is very into sustainable practices and we understand that it is the way of the future. Pakworld in Christchurch, our packaging suppliers, knew exactly what we were looking for which helped us make up our mind.

Did you have to undertake fundraising to get the product off the ground?
We did consider this option, however we felt that we were spending too much time on pondering ideas for the fundraising and so we ultimately decided that we would get straight into our idea as we all believed in our product. All capital has come from ourselves personally. This also gave us the motivation to work for our money!

The first run of Chocolava was 2500 blocks, how was this received by the general public?
Our original run went very well especially as we had a few teething problems that arose, just like any business starting-up. We are very fortunate that we have a dedicated team and of course friends, family and the school community that have supported us so much by giving us possible retailers and helping us to sell our product. Our first run that we sold only took around two months to clear, and that’s made us get even bigger runs.

To our advantage, since we are selling Kiwiana chocolate, it doesn’t only appeal to the local public however to the tourist industry too. This has really helped us sell into our retailers. At this present moment we have all sorts of retailers from souvenir shops, takeaways and also a supermarket, so as you can imagine the exposure of our product is growing substantially. It also comes down to lots of word of mouth from repeated customers that we are very grateful for.

Nicole Chim, 17, left, Tulsi Ramesh, 18, and Catherine Hair and Kelly Hay, 17, all pupils at Rangi Ruru Girls' School, try the Chocolova block they developed. Photo DEAN KOZANIC/The Press.

For more from Fernza click here.

In December, two local women are bringing together over fifty makers of craft, art and design to share their wares with shoppers and craft collectors, to create a true "craft central" in the Plaza of the Hawke's Bay Opera House. There will be an abundance of items available, from soft toys to beautiful soaps and jewellery. There will also be the inaugural Fruit Bowl Craft Jam, showcasing the work of crafters, artists and designers, which will offer something for everyone.

A taste of the jewellery and designs that will be at the market.

The market will take place over two days, on the weekend of the 4th/5th December. Organisers Jo Pearson and Jess Soutar Barron are both self-confessed craft addicts, and wanted to share their love of international craft markets with locals. "Some of our exhibitors are 'out there' contemporary crafters, but many of them practice traditional crafts like weaving, wood turning, pottery and leather work," says Jo. Stall holders will include locals, as well as exhibitors from throughout New Zealand.
For more details click here

In conjuction with Unitec, Ministry of Art & Design, MoAD are hosting New Zealand's very first Art & Design Week. From the 13 - 21 November this pop-up style show will be a showcase of local creative talents in the fields of furniture, textiles, ceramics and more; including homestyle favourites Annie Sandano, Carry Corp, Ingrid Anderson, Union Design, Rob Tucker and Workroom Design - just to name a few.

Run by printmaker Aroha Lewin and ceramicist Zekiah Heath, MoAD aims to create opportunities for artists, designers and emerging New Zealand design brands with events such as this pop-up show where the public are encouraged to not only view and shop, but take part in events such as artist floor talks and a Pecha Kucha evening on November 18.

Be sure to pop in and check out the work at 110-116 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket. And for more information click here.

The Show Me Shorts Film Festival kicked off in Auckland last week in style with a glamourous opening and awards evening on Friday. The finalists were competing in eight award categories, and judged by film industry writer Kathryn Burnett, director James Cunnigham and actor Tammy Davis. Davis comments that "the quality of films was outstanding; it was challenging for the judging panel to pick the winners, but awesome to see the level of filmmaking that is happening - especially the quality of the student films." The Kodak Best Film award went to Felicity Letcher and Rachel Lorimer for their film 'This Is Her'. This Is Her also picked up the best script to screen play award. For more award results click here. 

The Show Me Shorts Film Festival screens every November in cinemas across New Zealand and showcases the best new Kiwi and Australian short-film making talent. From Auckland to Arrowtown you have from now until the end of the month to find your nearest cinema and check out our talented local film industry.

Well done to all of those who entered and congratulations to all category winners. A tremendous feat!