The Olive Grove is a "designer/marker/retail Co-operative" that features clothing, textiles, accessories and art. Everything's hand made, and there are monthly screen printing classes held there. So if you like screen printing and hand dyed/printed fabrics, then chances are there'll be something that'll catch your eye, or inspire you to get involved in the arts and crafts community.
The fact that it's a co-operative means that there's a breadth of styles and products, but generally speaking, they tend to fall into the trendy side of comfortable homeware/decoration/clothing. Many of the designs are limited run or unique, so the stock tends to vary from visit to visit. Although they too change, there is a degree of continuity in some of the artistic themes that appear in the shop. There will usually be some kind of reappropriated textile badges and/or wall hangings; cards/badges/pictures with old time-y alcohol or other European advertisements on them; and placards/badges/canvases with famous or witty quotes, or even the odd song lyric printed in plain typefaces.
The shop is a goldmine for gift hunting, and for people looking for the finishing touches to home decoration. The clothes are also beautifully made, albeit from a generally looser fitting template than some of the other local designers scattered along Sydney Rd. Given that it's all hand crafted there are some irregularities amongst the craft items, but this is all part of the charm.
The shop is a goldmine for gift hunting, and for people looking for the finishing touches to home decoration. read more