just the ticket

Whether you are dressing up or down, surly these are just the ticket to top off the outfit. Introducing vintage stud earrings and brooches, made in the studio behind us. Some are lovely and simple, others are fancy with pretty flowers and made of sweet shapes.   

Perhaps these are not for you, but what a great gift they'll make. Pop in and take a look.

dani m arrives in store

dani m has been designing and making objects, vessels and jewellery in Melbourne since 2001. Made from Southern Ice porcelain, all pieces have the lovely impressions of being made by hand, they feel soft to touch and are light to hold.

We have short cups, milk jugs and what could be used as either sake cups or little boiled egg cups. A new little product is the sweet, white spoon, perhaps just to make the first crack in the egg, and later to sprinkle with salt? Or, just lovely to hold and display.

And, so you don't just have to have useful items there is a beautiful range of faceted  jewels to keep the jewellery lovers happy- stud earrings and gorgeous pendants.

Colours are soft almost pastel, pinks, turquoise and blue with white and black to keep in touch perhaps with the Melbourne market and to complete the classic feel of these products.

You just may feel compelled to have to buy yourself a small collection.

  

Just what your jacket needs this winter

NEW IN STORE. We are excited about these little gems, accessories in the shapes of gameboys, pretzels, biscuits and birds!

We warmly welcome 'Small Rhino' hailing from Tasmania and producing beautifully packaged wooden brooches and necklaces.

Made of engraved timber and finished with enamel colour detail.

There are three birds available with Art Deco styling, a dove, sparrow and a cardinal in grey tones or original black and white.

And to go alongside, see the edible goodness of 'biscotto', everyones favorite beer snack the 'pretzel' and the vintage 'gameboy' .

Pop in and check out the goodies.

are we cold yet?

We love 'Otto and Spike' and it would seem that a number of other Borough dwelling peeps follow us in supporting their enthusiasm, in collecting beautiful yarns and creating yummy woolen knits to keep us toasty during winter.

This week we had a window display set up to show off their good work! We love it so much we're trying to work out how we can make one to keep! Stop by and check out their work soon.

 

Vintage books & worn out jeans

This collection of 'Rebound' recycled hardback books are nothing new to five boroughs, but will always be a product that we are proud to represent, not just because they are made by dear friends but also for their sheer brilliance. 

Preloved books with spines and pages removed are rebound using 100% tree free paper made from recycled denim. 

Pages are blank for notes and drawings, but some of the original pages are still present for curiosity's sake.

Just to make sure nothing is wasted, the spines are then reinvented into bookmarks.

Check out our ever changing collection.

squizzy tailor territory, 3057

Out from the depths of Brunswick comes another label that is sure to be made a household name in no time- Otto and Spike. We are happy to welcome the brand which hails from literally around the corner. 

Proud of their heritage they are producing a number of beautifully finished products using machinery from far back as 1890 with the newest from 1990. In fact one of the machines has been knitting beanies for 115 years! 

With recycling on almost everyones mind these clever people have even found a way of getting premium, surplus New Zealand yarn to use alongside technical man made fibers, to produce their garments from.

We are now stocking the 'Squizzy' hat- which has a similar shape to those worn by women in the 1920's and carries the finishing touch of a sweet, colour matched buckle.  The hat is also lined with a fleece making it extra lovely and warm.

The 'Grandpa' scarf, who is known as the soul mate to Squizzy, are both knitted from 100% Merino Lambswool and Shetland Pure New Wool.  The design for the scarf was inspired by a blanket that was found at an Op Shop. It turned out a WW2 Veteran had made it during their rehabilitation, a part of their therapy included weaving. So, the design was converted from a weave to a knit and makes for a lush warm scarf. A homey scarf available in: Forest, Golden, Cherry and Airforce.

Next, some may think the maker has a preference for, as they have labelled it 'Number 1'. Knitted on their 1070's "Lucky" machine it is made as one long tube and measuring a whopping 185cm allowing the wearer to wrap, fold or pin in lots of different ways, with the 

icing on the cake being that the ends have been left open which means when it's really icy you can pop your hands away out of the cold wind! Made in soft grey/black stripes that increase in size, it is sure to match anything you're going to wear this winter. 

Ta da they've thought of it all! 

hook, line and sinker- what a collection

Well, after ruling, drilling and then twisting in 319 gold plated cup hooks we finally have our wall of keyrings completed. Well completed in the sense of any good collector- until the next one comes along!

There are some favorites, some of which were included in the previous post. These are mostly from the 1950s and are of Dutch decent. There are little promotional packages of foods, bottles, lots of hair spray, toilet paper, biscuits, fobs and a few cup hooks that are still empty!

which bag will you get?

And the winer this week is the kustom.....

For those that have already shopped at Five Boroughs you will have noticed the hand drawn, recycled brown bags that all your goodies are packed into, and for those that haven't heres but a snippet of the illustrations hand drawn onto each of the bags.

Naughty children, spanners, a bit of typography or maybe a pelican! 

New in store: we have just received a delivery of colour from our friend in the good 'ol USA Maplexo, these will help brighten up your day!

A new stockist is providing us with inspiration for warm meals and ideas to fill our bellies; The Hungry Girls Cookbook, now available, Volumes 1 and 2.

Winter vegie pasties- below.

warm welcome to sir rabbit and friends

Looking for some affordable art for your walls? Look no further, 'stick meon' has come up with some fabulous vinyl creatures to adorn your walls, whether you are renting (no nails) or doing up your childs bedroom (or in fact your own!) we now have the range available. These will surely catch your imagination and soon you'll have little birdies fluttering above doorways and rabbits dressed for dinner popping out from behind your couch.

Proudly made and designed in Melbourne, 'ho hum-hummingbirds', 'peeping cardinals', well dressed 'Sir rabbit' in floral or spotted jackets and the 'oh little bird.'

Keep your eyes peeled as they are sure to fly, and hop out the door!  

improvement in the studio

There have been a few things that we still haven't managed to find time for since opening the shop and today we almost finished one on the long list of jobs- we are giving you a sneak peek to see what you all think of a growing collection we have: 

Can you guess what they are? Oh, and we'll post the finished piece so you can feast your eyes!

something for your diaries

Make note people, next Wednesday will see us climbing to The Order of Melbourne not only for a well deserved beverage but to take part in bidding for handmade jewellery from this years N.M.I.T Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (or, the Jewellery diploma!) 

You can start looking at 6pm, then the bidding will kick off at 7pm. 

Not only will you be able to pick yourself up something hand crafted but you'll be taking part in the fundraising needed for their Graduate show held later this year. 

Order of Melbourne

Level 2 / 401 Swanston Street, Melbourne (Cnr Lt La Trobe Street)

it's a wrap

After receiving requests for wrapping paper in our store, we embarked on todays little project, hand screen printing our very own. We have used a fun collection of colours to print some of our most current designs and they seem good enough to collect. 

Printed on recycled brown paper, then trimmed to a standard of 600mm x 800mm

They look even better in real life and are available for $4.50 a piece. 

and the hours

I found it quite hard to capture the hours, as Sunday is such a beautiful day and the sun is shining bright! Mmm lovely.

You can see a bit of our hand screen printed wallpaper which sits behind the door. It kind of looks like millions of tiny umbrellas or little mushrooms- but then some people thinks it looks like little spaceships! What ever takes your fancy.

This week we received a box of goodies from our Tasmanian friends take a peek below. The necklaces are made of lovely little wooden beads strung onto ribbon with a great acrylic bird cage and bird cut out. They all come in their own little gloss white box- super!

Along with those goodies we got another delivery of their plain painted beads in red, white and natural. And another great selection of the brooches they do- thank you!

DIY Signage

For those who have managed to make the trip out to Five Boroughs you will know to look out for the duck egg blue repeat design on our window. For those who haven't made it out, now when you do, you can look out for the duck egg blue and cream repeat design that we finished off today.

We even have our shop hours on the door! Something we have been hanging out to have up for a little while now. We love graphics and typography, so we are happy to have a bit more on the front of our shop. 

We'll update a photo of the hours tomorrow.

Oh and for the chocolate lovers, we have just received another order of the wonderful Rewind Coco Smooth (hot chocolate) so pop on in and grab your loved one- or yourself a great canister filled with the good stuff. 

Have a great weekend.

almost good enough to eat

A little while ago I met a girl, the girl was asking for used (but clean) milk cartons, somewhat strange at the time. The girl turned out to be lovely and we soon became friends. The girl owned up to making soaps in a backyard and was recycling milk cartons as her moulds. We soon bought, and swapped items and I can confidently say will never go back to using your average soap. How could you once cleaning off the daily grind with mixes of; Cedarwood, Orange and Organic red lentils; orange is a sweet, warm, sensuous, radiant oil that is high in Vitamin C and carotene; Peppermint, Rosemary and Organic green clay; which has a cooling action, reducing sunburn and inflammation, the fragrance is uplifting and stimulating; Fennel, Blackpepper clove and Poppyseed, blended together they make this soap ideal for the face and body of a dry and mature type skin, this soap is also great as a shaving bar!

This has been a fortunate relationship for the general public as we now sell it at our store, thats right we're happy to sell it to you- there's enough for everyone to smell fabulous! 

Boasting 100% plant based product, with pure essential oils, and vegan. With nothing nasty like mineral oils, petrochemicals, artificial colours or fragrances. 

The soap was just the starter, there since had been added a Bath Scrub (above) which is made of Organic Brown Sugar and Rice with a fragrance of Rose geranium and Orange; brown rice polishes your body and the sugar acts as a stimulating exfoliant leaving your skin feeling amazingly smooth and revitalised. And below is the range of Body and Bath Oils; Organic Lavender, Rosemary and Orange or Rose Geranium and Orange. Too good! Come in and smell for yourself. 

better than maple syrup, comes maple xo

This week we welcome another designer 'Maple xo', this time from Portland, USA. Continuing the recycled theme from the newspaper this smart cookie takes second hand skateboards and turns them into items that you will want to adorn your body with, such as bracelets and earrings. You can wear big hoops or small hoops and stack the beautifully coloured laminated Ply bracelets up your arms. All pieces showing the signs of their pre loved beginning.

Assorted colours and finishes so no two are the same.

surprise surprise

If you missed the article in The Age last weekend, here's the link

http://www.theage.com.au/news/house--home/surprise-surprise/2008/03/06/1204779968781.html

It's often funny to see how an article appears, there was a lot of smiling and suggestions of 'try and look like your having fun!' 

However, it's a great little article and people have been flooding in. So thank you Ann. And to the people that haven't made it up to the unlikely shopping strip, come on and make the effort, its well worth it.

Also, we had one of the beautiful, 'Make Stuff' lamp featured in the A2 section of 'The Age' yesterday. These classic lamps come from Jan Juc, mixing vintage wallpaper screen printed lamp shades and plywood stands. Available under names such as 'Tree lamp,' 'Pitch lamp' and the sweet 'Penguin'.

Sheriff of the boroughs

IN STORE:

If you like to give orders, this little badge grants you the authority to be the sheriff of anything that you wish. Be sure not to abuse its power.

Acrylic Sheriff badge by Dick & Dora

Western themed, screenprinted 'Thank you' gift card by 'Holly Daze' and 'Lark' keyring with vintage sheriff motif and super cowboys either side in clear tag. 

Lots of orders for new work have been placed so we are keenly waiting their arrival, we sure to keep you posted! Enjoy the long weekend.

resin jewels

Five Boroughs welcomes a new comer this week- Brunswick based jeweller, 'Marguerite'. 

Using lovely vintage fabrics to create buttons, brooches, pendants, earrings and cufflinks. We took a few snaps to give you something to dream about over the weekend. 

Buttons are made so you can sew them on to any crafty project you may be doing and are able to even go through your washing machine! Happy people.

Earrings come with sterling silver studs. Cufflinks have plated silver backs. 

cherry blossom bells

Off to Sydney for a family wedding on the weekend, our big brother was getting hitched. His wife is Japanese and they had a cherry blossom theme. 

The gathering was at the yacht club at Rushcutters, over looking the harbour.

They had perfect weather and a good handful of little helpers. 

They are lucky enough to know a fabulous chef who pitched in and made a hundred cupcakes pictured above.


This is mum san, who travelled all the way from a little island off the bottom of Japan, travelling with an aunt, cousin and nephew- called Zen who at three years old and dressed in a  matching Hawaiian suit had all the ladies falling over themselves.

The evening was full of celebrations and happy tears, but back to work now and its great to be a sister in law.