Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two by Tess McCabe of Melbourne's Creative Women's Circle.  Photo by Martina Gemmola, Flowers by Cecilia Fox, Art direction and styling by Tess McCabe.

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two by Tess McCabe.  This page spread features Melbourne illustrator Dawn Tan!  Photo by Martina Gemmola, Flowers by Cecilia Fox, Art direction and styling by Tess McCabe.

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two by Tess McCabe.  This page spread features Sydney stylist Megan Morton. Photo by Martina Gemmola, Flowers by Cecilia Fox, Art direction and styling by Tess McCabe.

If you've been reading TDF for more than a couple of years. you'll probably know the name Tess McCabe.  A graphic designer by day, Tess is perhaps better known for her all consuming side project - the Creative Women's Circle. Since taking over the reigns of this initiative in 2008, Tess has turned CWC into such a vibrant and active community of creative women, with an annual calendar of inspiring speaker events, and a content rich website full of really useful information for creative women in business.  Though much of her work is done in collaboration with lots of likeminded creative ladies, I must say incredible growth of CWC over the past few years really is a testament to Tess's own unwavering work ethic and determination.  This is a girl who knows how to get things done!

Inspired by the incredible network of women she has met through CWC, in 2011 Tess self published a book entitled Conversations with Creative Women.  The first edition, featuring a diverse group of creative local women (including yours truly!) sold out within 6 months!  TOP WORK TESS!

So, due to popular demand, Tess has followed up this year with Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two!  Once again, the book is so thoughtfully curated, featuring exclusive interviews with 16 creative Australian women from a variety of creative industries about their diverse career paths.  Volume Two features stylist Megan Morton, graphic designer studio Ortolan, footwear designer Georgia Hobart of Hobes, ceramicist and founder of Mud Australia Shelley Simpson, letterpress stationery designer Alischa Herrmann of Bespoke Letterpress, interior designer Anna Spiro and photographer Olga Bennett, amongst others!  The book presents a brilliant snapshot of Australia's vibrant community of creative women, and in the spirit of CWC, is full of wisdom and generous advice.

To bring her second book to life, Tess has once again collaborated with a great group of illustrators, who have contributed original illustrations to accompany each interview, as well as co-ordinating a small team of collaborators to assist with photography, publicity and editing.

Preorders for Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two open TODAY!  It's priced at $44.00 (plus postage).

The book will be printed in a limited edition of just 1200 copies, and did I mention it completely sold out last time!?  It's well worth pre-ordering if you're keen to grab a copy. It's also of course an excellent way to support this self-funded venture! As an added incentive, customers who pre-order before the end of September can choose for their book to arrive wrapped in a beautiful custom designed fabric by Emily Green, Lara Cameron or Catherine Campbell, and printed locally by Frankie & Swiss!   Pre-order here.

Alternatively, Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two will be officially released on Friday 15th November online, and at selected retailers nationally.  We'll be stocking a limited number of copies at TDF Open House too...!

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two by Tess McCabe.  Photo by Martina Gemmola, Flowers by Cecilia Fox, Art direction and styling by Tess McCabe.

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two by Tess McCabe.  Photo by Martina Gemmola, Flowers by Cecilia Fox, Art direction and styling by Tess McCabe.