Thank You - Charity Donations

Just before the end of last week I made 3 amazing deposits to 3 different charities! If you an Emerge lover then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about! Over the last 7 months ( Since the launch date of 27th July 2011) my customers have been able to choose which of the 3 different charities they wanted me to donate 30% of the proceeds of their purchase to.


The 3 Charities are:


* The New Zealand Red Cross
* The Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
* Adopt a Christchurch Family




The Emerge range is made from liquefaction silt, collected from my home in Woolston. Here is a link to  the Emerge pieces which gives a great explanation about it all.


   Mudbird Emerge Range




So it is with great pleasure, to announce that with the help of all you lovely people from ALL over the world, we have raised very close to $3000 to give to these charities! That is amazing and also very humbling to think of all the support you have given my business as well along the way. I am still continuing to make the Emerge range, and still letting my customers choose their charity.


Thank you once again x Gill

One Year On - 22nd February 2012

A personal count:  I didn't sleep well last night, very restless and I dreamt about February 22nd. Not vivid memories of the day but what the date February 22nd really means. With the 1 year anniversary & memorial of the tragic earthquake (that took over 180 lives) being held tomorrow, it is I'm sure on the mind and heart of everyone.


It's still really, really hard not to be affected by the stories of the survivors and the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Christchurch on February 22nd 2011. Tear still flow freely when I read stories, look at photos of past and present Christchurch and sometimes even when traveling through the city, a visual reminder of what has been taken from our city. It's not familiar anymore and it's filled with grief.


I think some people still have a lot to process and a lot to talk about (well I do!), and a lot to heal from. If it was a 'one off' event we might have been able to move on, heal, and restore our lives back to normal - but with constant reminders of wet liquefaction still coming out of the cracks in the ground at our house, constant shakes (some larger than I'd like) and possibility of it all happening again on a larger scale, it's quite hard to forget. I don't want to wallow in it and I don't lie in bed worrying that another one is about to hit, but I don't think it's over.  The morning of the February quake day, I left the house with my baby to meet up with my husband for lunch. As I left the house I 'felt' a quake was coming so I took my box of newly glazed ceramics off the bench and put them on the floor in the hallway. I think they were the only things not broken! (I have done similar things with other larger shakes and was not surprised at all when the 23rd December shake struck)


The DAY: I remember when the earthquake struck one year ago, and how I was holding onto my husband in the middle of a flooring store with 100kg rolls of lino breaking out of the chains that held them to the wall, and crashing to the floor. I kept on thinking why wasnt my husband standing still, he was rolling the baby stroller around the shop, trying to dodge falling things and keep us safe. I just hung onto him for dear life. I grabbed my phone...12.51 pm and my first thought was of my 2 children, then aged 4 & 6 at Kindergarten and School. I did a quick calculation... was it still lunch time? Were they outside? Were they safe? We were about 20 mins drive to pick them up, but it took over 4 hours to get to them, not to mention the scary aftershocks that were rolling in. Seeing people crying in their cars was pretty common.  I got a call from my Aunty in Australia telling us people had died in the CBD - it was hard to believe as I was just in a huge crawling traffic jam in suburbia. If I had known it would have taken that long to get there, I would have gotten out and run all the way to my children. As we got closer to them the roads got worse, the liquefaction, flooding and giant holes in the road were everywhere.... I remember a little bit of rain starting to fall which made it even drearier.


 My husband dropped me of 1/2 a block from my daughters school while he went to get our son. I ran thru raw sewerage, mud and dodged holes in the broken roads to get her - my heart has never beaten so fast as it had been hours since the quake. I fought the panic now I was getting closer to her. I knew she was safe but I just wanted to get her. I remember crossing back over the road gripping her hand and someone pulled over in a 4wd offering to help me, give me a lift somewhere. The disaster made everyone in Christchurch one giant family that day and the months following. We all had the same thing in common and it was a strange thing, you could look into someones eyes and you knew they had felt the terror too. My poor 4 year old had been through too much and had to wait outside by the gate in the cold with a Kindy teacher for 4 hours... there was liquefaction everywhere in the Kindy grounds and inside was very unsafe.


We made the slow journey home in disbelief. We were assessing the liquefaction and wondering what home was like. Unfortunately we were hit hard with the silt, not 100% coverage of our property like others in the eastern suburbs, but pretty darn bad. I remember seeing what was left of my daughters pink bike poking out of a huge silt volcano and I thought oh no... Inside was like a war zone, I shudder to think how well I would have fared if I had been inside when it happened, let alone my wee baby boy who was 6.5 months old at the time. With the upright force of 2.2 G's, our heavy cabinets and big bookshelves just sheared off the earthquake brackets on the walls then were thrown forward. Desks thrown over and other heavy items a metre out from the wall. We went inside the obstacle course and picked up the biggest broken things, the kids played outside in the silt. I tried to stop them but realised they were distracted and happy, so left them to it, unaware of what was inside. We left the house to stay on the outskirts of CHCH at my sister's house and came back a week later to start the clean up. We have a wooden home with wooden floors and it just moves with the quakes - and boy does it MOVE!...which is actually far more frightening than experiencing one on a concrete floor home. The noise gets you every time. Liquefaction flooded under the floorboards on top of the polythene, making it like living above  a swimming pool of silt, I'm thankful at least it wasn't a concrete pad otherwise the house would be no longer. We've got raised and sunken piles but overall I don't think its 'that bad'.

A personal necklace I made to wear for tomorrow's 1 Year anniversary.

AFTER: I am so fortunate not to have lost anyone close to me, but I have friends that lost best friends and family. I cannot imagine the grief they are feeling right now with Wednesday looming closer.


My 2 eldest children seem to have come out ok. My wee baby was only 7 weeks old when we awoke to the confusion and terror of the September 4, 2010 earthquake - he is now 19 months old and all but those first 7 weeks of his life have been filled with earthquakes and aftershocks. He slept through both the September & February earthquakes, but screamed in fear during the 2 earthquakes in June as books and objects fell off the shelves around him. It was heartbreaking to hear. I managed to run and scoop him up outside during the Dec 23rd 6.0 quake so he wasn't too frightened.


It's been a very weird existence... I never thought I'd be part of something like this. I never knew Christchurch was so earthquake prone... but after much research it's actually a very common thing. This is the 3rd time the Cathedral has lost its spire from earthquakes, there are so many reports of violent earthquakes in CHCH city since the 1800's, with reports petering out in the 1940s's. Why didn't we know?


The quakes have become part of life, although they are never ever welcome. There are still the ones that cause your heart to stop and the adrenaline surge in the night as you wait to see if it will escalate, and there are the ones where you have to look at the mirror moving or the trees to see if it was one. We know what magnitude earthquake at what depth causes liquefaction at our home, it's happened 3 times now. After the shock and stress the February mess caused we got rid of it all. But after June I decided to do something positive with the silt and use it in my cermaics.  We even kept a wee corner of it in the property. We'll never run out of the stuff tho, it's all under the floorboards and I just need to dig below the grass to find pockets of it.


 And the rest they say is History! From the business side of my life, The Emerge range was born and then released on July 27th 2011- it was my way of coping, an excellent and therapeutic way to move forward and have a purpose after that tragic day. It became a personal thing also. I wanted to create and give back, in order to help others move forward. I never imagined the positive impact my designs would have on people, not only from Christchurch but all over the world.. to have a little bit of home in their hands - but not as a dreadful reminder, but as beauty, created from the ashes. Mudbird has become quite the appropriate name, altho the name was thought of well before the earthquakes.


My heart goes out to those who have to deal with the enormous grief and loss all over again tomorrow -  Wednesday the 22nd, but especiually to the survivors, the ones who were trapped in crushed buildings and brickwork. I hope they know they are not forgotten, as their lives must be so much harder, bearing physical scars of that day and the memories. We all have stories to tell, we could fill 1000's of pages of our thoughts, tears, feelings, emotions and experiences that day, and sometimes I think the rest of NZ must be so sick of it all by now - but it was a huge thing to live thru, something so shocking it's hard to forget and its still raw. It was a tragedy that rocked the whole country, and the country came right in behind us with support which was amazing.


Kia Kaha Christchurch, stay strong  xoxo

Thank you!

Well hello there... this is a long time coming.... trying to find the time to sit down and get this started. What better kick in the pants than a facebook fans & customer Thank you & Merry Christmas giveaway!

Here is a peak of what is on offer!

Adjustable green ring by http://www.Mudbird.co.nz/ on an antique bronze band & cute Cherry Brooch from Random little things

Hummingbird Coffee - I thought this was fantastic, made especially for the Re:START project in Cashel Mall, Christchurch. Money from each sale goes towards the new Court Theatre!

Also Mammalissa's Cocoa Butter... smells so good you'll be tempted to eat it! Cute wee labels from Mixing ink and the FANTASTIC Kiwi Diary from Kiwi diary

"The Kiwi Diary 2012 is a carefully curated 250 page window into Aotearoa's cultural soul. Containing all you need in a diary like a year planner and address book. Every page journeys through the collective New Zealand mind: with every page adorned with art, stories, environmental tips, recipes, music, quotes, jokes and mindfood, the inspiration cycle keeps flowing! The Kiwi Diary is Kiwi culture by the road-less travelled, and epitomises Aotearoa-style, plugging you into inspiration, entertainment and info on the good things in life, along with plenty of space for you to diarise the amazingness of 2012"

...and of course, my new Coral Leaf drop earrings available from http://www.mudbird.co.nz/ and http://www.mudbird.felt.co.nz/

I was the lucky recipient of some of these goodies from The Craft Collective raffle and so I want to pay it forward to someone at Christmas time and added a couple of my own designs. All these goodies total over $140!!! Sorry, this is only available for New Zealand addresses :-)

So why you ask... let me tell you...

It doesn’t seem that long ago when my baby boy turned 1, just a few months ago it seems, and I've just realised that Mudbird has officially turned 1. I remember making, making, making, as much as I could when I was heavily pregnant and wanting to be prepared to launch my Felt shop after he was born. Since then I've participated in about 10 markets, bought 2 kilns, endured over 14,000 aftershocks since the BIG Earthquake in September last year, lost lots of stock due to breakages and 3x caged trailer loads worth of personal belongings... all due to breakage and the dreaded silt which flooded into our storage garage & property and destroyed everything in its path twice, been interviewed in the Christchurch Press/Zest newspaper, launched a website & built a studio outside plus many other amazing things!

Funnily enough, my 1^st Felt sale was a donation I made to ‘Felt like Helping Out’, a Felt store set up to raise money for the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal - since then I have made 100 sales which isn’t bad considering the difficulties I have faced this year- and the fact I work at home with my 1yr old with my eldest son just had his first term at school with his big sister (7).

It was this time last year I was in the middle of prepping for my 2nd Christmas market withThe Craft Collective in the lovely Poplar Lane area in Christchurch CBD. I had my 1st 2 markets there, right next to Julia from Relique Jewellery, who has helped me heaps over the year and fun to have markets next to. Sadly a lot of that area was lost in the 22nd February earthquake - but I've still got all the memories.

Big changes, big challenges and it really has been quite amazing! Also together with all you wonderful folk, we have also raised substantial amounts for the 3 Charities I chose to support through the sales of my Emerge Range.

So I’ve been reflecting on and realising the success of my brand – feels like it fell into my lap and it’s very humbling indeed, but in reality I have worked so very hard to get here. I’m usually up past midnight most nights, with the occasional 2am finish. 18 hour days have been tough, especially since I’m a full time Mum as well. I follow in my mother’s footsteps who is such a hard worker & has achieved so much in her lifetime, still achieving at 70! Next year will be a bit different, bit better planned out, studio times ‘booked’ in and markets spaced out (I mean who books four in a row without looking at a calendar!!) ;-)

So to say a HUGE Thank you for all your support & custom through my Felt shop, my Facebook page and my website I want to have this wee ‘Giveway’. it truly has been an amazing year in all aspects and I would not be here with out you all.

To be in to WIN... Enter your details by submitting your name and email address below under "view comments". Or if you prefer, you can email me at MUDBIRD and/or sign up to my newsletter here and just leave a comment below.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

xx Gill