Hi Bush Modern friends,
Since the release of the book last November, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d crawled back into our bushy Warrandyte hillside never to be seen again.
Truthfully, we were both pretty exhausted. The making — and then the promoting — of Bush Modern filled every spare gap in our already busy lives for at least a couple of years. So, after the high of the launch parties and the pre-Christmas sales push, we travelled south to Tasmania for our usual summer family visit and really, properly switched off.
We arrived back in Melbourne to the news that the first edition of Bush Modern had sold out (!) and that Thames & Hudson had approved a reprint. A fantastic outcome — and thanks to you all.
It’s a niche subject, so we never expected wide reach, which makes it all the more meaningful to see the book finding its way into homes and stores around the country. We’ve been sent photos of it spotted in all sorts of places, which continues to feel slightly surreal.
We also shipped books to locations as diverse as Norway and Arizona. The webshop has now closed, but we’re holding a small amount of new stock — so if you’re based overseas and interested, feel free to get in touch and we can look into shipping options. We’re hopeful that the book might find a broader international release, eventually.
Since the book launched, we’ve also received a number of thoughtful tips about homes we missed. While we’re not planning a second book, we’ll continue to visit and photograph select houses, and share them on this newsletter from time to time. It feels like a natural continuation of the project.
Which brings us to what else is coming up.
We have a couple of author talks scheduled — at Realm Library on May 19, and at Eltham Library for Open House Melbourne on July 25 — but the most exciting development is something a little different.
Next month, we’ll be curating an exhibition at Stonygrad as part of Melbourne Design Week — a real-life extension of the book. Thanks to the generous home-owners, the house will be open to the public for a weekend, showcasing curated pieces by artists and designers.
We’ll share more detail on this very soon, but for now, we hope you’ll pencil in the weekend of May 23–24 for a rare opportunity to experience one of the most memorable homes from Bush Modern in a new way.
More to come.
Jess & Sean