sunday!

Hope to see you there!

Here are just a few of the vendors who will be there:

Marcie McGoldrick

Wren Handmade

Winter Water Factory

Maptotes

Sesame Letterpress

Chez Sucre Chez

Foxy & Winston

Perch!

ps. I just realized that Divine Studios is just across the street from the Gifted Market, so come on out and make a day of it!

Everyday...

(here it is so you can actually read it)

In the mad dash toward the holidays, I keep forgetting to post about this. Thanks to the lovely Jan at Poppytalk, my Maple Seed Pod Tea Towel and a couple of (seemingly overgrown compared to the tea towel....) sachets were featured in the December issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. I think it's still out, I should check.

Thanks Jan!

Also, don't forget tomorrow is the last day for international shipping to arrive by Christmas!

new in the shop

New things in the shop. I'm really excited about these new styles and colors. There are still a few more that I need to list and I'll try to get to it soon. Christmas shipping deadlines are fast approaching. I would recommend Dec 10th (thursday!) as the last day for international shipments and Dec 17th (next thursday) for domestic. We'll be heading out of town on monday the 21st, so get your orders in!

Now back to the grindstone! Don't forget the Holiday Craft Sale is this Sunday!

sneak peek....

new designs....come see them at Laundry Night!

I'll have them in the shop soon for those of you who are too far away.

Hope to see you tomorrow, don't forget, we'll be there until 9pm so stop by after work!

Laundry Night! Curated Market

LAUNDRY NIGHT – curated market, cake walk and esoterica at the washeteria

monday, november 30th from 1 – 9pm

open house gallery

201 mulberry street at spring

new york, new york 10012

1pm & 6pm aromatic attunement (repeat)

4pm cake walk for smiley friends ages 10 and under

curated Market – shopping for tastemakers and nosy neighbors

Jewelry by Dawn

OW Socks – socks are simple cute pets for everyday life to make our feet happy

Jewelweeds – handcrafted sustainable textiles with block printing and hand embroidery

EIEIO Studio – ready-to-wrap currently featured on Oprah's November O List

PubliQueLiving – home accessories, elegance for the design-minded individual

Canopy Verde – modern, earth-friendly bags and totes

Random Acts by Miwako – artist and chef from Oakland. She knits like there's no tomorrow.

UM by Josh Jakus – felt zipper bags, experiential connections between form and function

Sharon Wickham Photographs

KepuCosa – hand knit winter accessories, made from recycled yarn

Healing Crystals – handmade natural jewelry

YOSH olfactory sense – artisanal fragrances. Preview the 2010 Evanescent Collection.

esoterica at the washeteria – air your dirty laundry

Aromatic Attunements - 1pm & 6pm (repeat)

Do you enjoy the sweet smell of success? Do you want to be filthy rich or are you waiting for Prince Charming? We 'll be smelling mood elevating essences and anchoring them with an affirmation to bring your energy into alignment. Join us for guided meditations with aromas lead by Yosh Han, perfumer and clairvoyant. Complimentary aura readings throughout the day.

About the curators:

OW is a seamless Ameba-Unit which started spreading all over the world in 2007. Phototgrapher/Filmmaker Sven Wiederholt is Czar of this unit. His members are located all over the and are ready for the next project. Its projects are currently ranging from film to products. However, OW itself does not know what will happen next. OW will keep transforming, just like an Ameba.

Yosh Han is the creator of YOSH olfactory sense, a boutique fragrance company and consultancy specializing in artisanal perfumes. These fragrances can be found at the most exclusive boutiques including Barneys New York and Takashimaya.

{A note from me, Yosh was one of my bosses (and a dear friend) when I worked at 826 Valencia as a pirate shop keeper and buyer (among other things) who was responsible for such things as Thumbwrestling Tournaments, Icelandic Film Festivals, and the popularization of all things pirate. Let's just say she knows how to put on an event. I hope to see you there! It's open late so stop by after work and get started on your Christmas shopping!}

the process

(color tests while mixing up big batches of ink)

First of all I need to thank everyone for the well wishes and congratulations from last week. They really warmed my heart! And with that comes apologies to everyone I haven't yet responded to. I will, I promise. My life has been, shall we say—full lately. Illnesses, root canals, deadlines and other assorted dramas have gotten in the way of my organized and thoughtful fall production schedule. For some reason I thought that this year would be the one where I would finally have enough stock made ahead of time so that I wouldn't have to scramble at the last minute. Umm, maybe next year....

On friday, I packed up a big (and heavy) box of goodies to send to Craftland. And have since discovered some muscles I didn't know I had, thanks to the mad dash to the post office 10 blocks away with an awkward 15 lb. box. Ok. I'm a wuss. But, I'm super jealous of Providence peeps who get to actually visit Craftland. If you are anywhere nearby, you should definitely check it out. It's like a magical craft fair that lasts the almost the entire month of December. They have a store too, more here.

I'm experimenting with screenprinting some of my designs. I'll let you know how it goes. I love the maple seed pod tea towels, but boy are they a bitch to print in large quantities. Each pod is printed individually, 9 per towel. Hopefully the screen will work out. I'm a little sad about moving in this direction (if it works out) because I love the imperfections in block printing, the prints always feel so alive to me. They are never exactly the same. We'll see. I think with screenprinting by hand there will be some imperfections too. God, I am such an irrational perfectionist, obsessing about levels of imperfectness. Let's move on.

On monday, November 30th, you can find me at:

LAUNDRY NIGHT – CURATED MARKET, CAKE WALK AND ESOTERICA AT THE WASHETERIA

1 – 9PM

OPEN HOUSE GALLERY

201 MULBERRY STREET AT SPRING

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10012

More info on that coming soon, mark your calendars!

more than you ever wanted to know

I'm very honored to be Etsy's Featured Seller! Check it out here. There is also a whole lot of new stuff in the shop for the occasion!

save the date

Mark your calenders! This is the first craft fair I have confirmed for December, I should be able to let you know about others pretty soon. They'll all be in NYC, but I will have stuff available at Craftland in Providence. (More on that later.)

The Divine sale is really a great one, it's a bit of a hidden gem, not as chaotic as Bust or Renegade and all of the sellers are really excellent. You can see pics from last year here. I hope to see you this year!

*save the date art by the talented Laura Normandin*

New Colors and Styles

I know that I still haven't shared pictures of our California trip (it's been a busy and crazy autumn so far) but I was so inspired by the colors of the landscapes along Highway 1 that I based the colors of my Fall Collection on them. While we were in CA, we had a chance to stop by the Heath factory store (which deserves it's own post) and I picked up a few of their gorgeous tiles to commemorate the colors of the weeds, soil, hills and water.

More to come on the new collection, I've begun listing new things in the shop and will continue to do so in the next few weeks. This collection of sachets are already there.

at the flea tomorrow

Last minute I know. It's a little last minute for me too. I'll be sharing a tent with the lovely Alison Tauber and her goodies. Come visit us! It's going to be a good Flea day and the subways are not going to be working, so you might as well walk on over....

*I'll be debuting a limited selection of my new colors and styles*

Yellow Monday

In honor of Poppytalk's Autumn Color Week, I've listed a new sachet color—Mustard! Available in the shop now.

Poppytalk Handmade Market

I'm back in the Poppytalk Handmade Market. It's always such a wonderfully curated group of artists and this one is no exception. Here are some of my favorites this month:

Repeat's Nasturtium Fat Quarter

I've been a fan of Arounna's work for a long time, and I'm loving her collaboration with Roisin just as much.

My friend Allison Tauber's Foliage Cotton Scarf. It seems like the perfect amount of warmth for this in-between season days.

My love of birch is no secret and I've been coveting this print by Lisa Congdon since seeing the original painting in a sneak peek of her apartment. I would definitely not be disappointed if this ended up in my stocking this Christmas....

Eikcam is new to me, but the combination of beautiful jewelry, ceramics and bits of nature have me hooked.

Oh, and you can check out the Jewelweeds table here.

caught in the act

I wasn't kidding. Can you see the acorn in his mouth?

(I got my picture downloading issues worked out, but it involved getting a new computer (yay!) but that means a big mess of virtual tidying...bear with me, I have lots of exciting things in the works)

wedding bells

I've had a number of wedding related custom orders lately. One of my favorites, and something I wish I had thought of for our wedding, is a chuppah printed with a cascade of maple seed pods. I love the tradition of chuppahs—they are a symbol of the new home that a marriage creates. I also love that it is something that can be re-purposed after the wedding. It can be used as a wall hanging, or a tablecloth to be used for anniversaries or special occasions. 

I won't be listing more in the shop because it's such a specialized item, but if you are interested, please feel free to get in touch, I'd be happy to collaborate on one for your wedding.

Another great idea that I can't take credit for, is sachets as bridesmaid gifts or favors. Again, feel free to contact me for custom quantities and colors, but please be sure to allow enough time for production. I don't really keep large quantities on hand, but I'm happy to create an order for you.

antique lace

Some bits of lace that I bought at an antique mall in california. The top piece is a collar that almost perfectly matches a different collar that Tracy and I bought in NY to use as a cuff for her wedding. Someday I'd like to learn how to crochet this kind of lace. 

You can see one of the two (!) figs growing on little tree at the bottom of the picture. This excited me beyond belief! I never thought that it would fruit so soon! Oh, and my mother confirms that my great-great grandfather was indeed a fig, olive and date specialist, so it truly in my blood. Now I just need date and olive trees and my heritage collection will be complete, well, those and a greenhouse. Someday...

new design

Wow, I never meant to be gone so long. And I can't believe that it's already close to the middle of September. Part of the reason I've been so absent is that we took a really lovely and needed trip to California. The main reason for the trip was a dear friends' wedding, but we stayed a bit longer and got to have some adventures on our own. Ben had never been to California, and I hadn't been back since I moved back east, so we had a wonderful time discovering new things and seeing old friends. Part of the reason I haven't posted about it (even though we took about a million pictures) is some really geeky computer data management issues. I have about half a gig left on my computer and I'm too lazy and overwhelmed by it all to figure out a good (and more permanent) system for downloading and storing all those pictures. Boring. Anyway, when we do figure something out, I'll be sure to share because we saw lots of great and inspiring stuff.

In the mean time, I wanted to share my new acorn design which will soon be adorning sachets. I've been wanting to add a third design to the sachet repertoire because three's are much better than two's for a collections sake. The acorn was part of an all-over print design I made last winter that never really went anywhere, so I decided to put it into action on it's own. That, and I was reminded when our frisky squirrel neighbor started to try to bury his acorns in our window boxes again yesterday. Which reminds me that I should go and close the screen that I left open when watering the plants. We've already had an almost squirrel break in, and cats have tried too. But that's a story for another day.

(the print in the pic above is just made with a regular old pigment ink pad, which I use to test the print while I'm carving it, haven't had a chance to print it for real. I like to wait until I have a bunch of stuff to print before breaking out the brayer so I don't waste ink. I'll be sure to show you the real thing soon.)

filed under: things I have no business doing right now...

I'm almost finished with a largish project, one that unexpectedly took priority over the last week, but I made time to put this little bit of crocheted art together. It really only took about 20 minutes, but it was definitely not something that needed doing. If you know what I mean. But sometimes you need to just do something that makes you feel good. 

I got the little crocheted piece a few months ago at the Chelsea flea, and had been hanging onto it, not really sure what what it was it was destined to be, until I saw Laura's post on Design*Sponge a few weeks ago. Don't know why it took me until then to figure that out, I've admired Laura's crocheted pieces for a good long while.

I just stitched it onto a scrap of linen with the aid of a small embroidery hoop and then stretched over one of those mini canvases. The whole thing is only 3" x 3". And it makes me happy.

I've listed more maple seed pod tea towels in the shop. Will have them in mustard as soon as I can take some pics.

Giveaway Winner!

I had such a good time doing this giveaway! It feels right cleaning out and finding new homes for my goodies. I'll definitely be doing this again soon. Thanks for everyone who participated, it's very exciting to see all your corners of the world.

The winner is G! (look for an email from me, so I can get your address)

Here are some pictures of the stones on the beach at my favorite place in world.

I have a bunch of new projects to share with you soon. Hope everyone is having a good midsummer. Can't believe it's August already. I swear July is the fastest month of the year.

Flea Finds

and some props I made from this Purl Bee pattern.

projects (for me!)

Since Renegade, I've been itching to do some sewing for myself. That is one thing about having a craft business, I feel guilty (I just wrote 'quilt-y' by mistake, proves my point exactly) about spending time making things that will not generate income, or if I do have extra time, I'm just plain sick of sewing, printing, etc and just need to get out of the house. 

My cousin's wedding a few weeks ago was the perfect opportunity/excuse to make things for myself. I made myself an Alabama Chanin style dress out of some beautiful silk/wool jersey (haven't had a chance to get a good pic, but I'll definitely share them when I do) and this leather clutch. I fell in love with this silvery, soft leather while Jewelweeds shopping at Mood. I certainly had no business pawing through the leather, or the even looking at the silk jerseys, but you know, things happen. I'm usually not one for shiny things, but the silver was so subtle and vintage-y worn. It was really hard to get an accurate picture, it's a little more sandy than it looks in the picture. I kept thinking about the leather, and eventually went back and got it (fyi, the leather is now downstairs at Mood). I cut out the pieces for the purse the night before we left for Boston and sewed it in the car on the way up. Luckily for the clutch (not so much for us) the weather and the traffic was so bad that it took us seven freaking hours to get there. I lined it with some heavier leather that I had to give it more body, the silver leather is quite light and drapey, my sister said that it felt like her puppy's ear which I don't want to think the connection there, but I have a bunch left over and I want to make something that showcases this quality. Maybe something like this. 

Mid-Summer SALE & GIVEAWAY!

In honor of the fact that we are actually having summer weather here in Brooklyn, and my birthday next week, and I'm on a purging kick, Jewelweeds is having a Mid-Summer Sale!

I've been listing many new products in the shop, and to make room for these, I've put a whole bunch of my older items on big sale, quite a few are as much 50% off. The sale will go through August 1st, so get 'em while you can!

And the GIVEAWAY! Also in the spirit of purging and making room for new stuff, I've put together a summery giveaway. It includes: A hand-quilted vintage linen cabbage rose Clutch; Linen Sprig Napkins in ruby red (set of 2), an Organic Lavender Sachet also in ruby red, Linden Berry linen coasters (set of 2) all tucked into a cotton Jewelweeds tote. All together is it a $91.00 value (saying that feels pretty used-salesman...eek!) To enter, please leave a comment here before August 1st, I'll announce the winner on Monday August 3rd!

ps. even if you don't win, you can still purchase the Clutch and the Coasters on sale in the shop...