by Splink on Flickr
Daisychain ABC sampler by Alicia Paulson
Crewel yarns from Knitsquirrel via Pinterest
Woolly Embroidery published by Chronicle Books
Thrifted crewel by Woolly Fabulous on Flickr
Pincushions made from crewel work pieces. By Woolly Fabulous.
Erin has declared 2013 the "year of embroidery" and I would have to agree with her! To encourage your yearlong pursuits of the thread arts, may I direct you to the Etsy shop of Rebecca Ringquist ... Dropcloth offers some fun and instructive samplers.
"In the summer of 2010, on a whim, I designed and printed an embroidery sampler, and sold over a hundred of them at the Squam Art Sale. Word got around the blog-o-sphere, and one thing led to another. Seven more have been designed and printed as multiples since. I am so grateful for the popular interest in these samplers. Although they are separate from my studio practice, they certainly are informed by my artwork and most definitely help support my artwork."
Speaking of her studio practice, feast your eyes on these gorgeous pieces:
Watch the great video about Rebecca over on CreativeBug.
Giovannella Brusatin gave this sampler to Janine on a recent trip to Amsterdam.
In Issue #16 we investigate knitting, knotting and needlework. To celebrate the release of our winter issue, we've partnered with STASH Needle Art Lounge and Sublime Stitching to host an Embroidery Bee. Experienced embroiderers will enjoy meeting new crafters and those new to the craft will receive a taste of this creative pursuit. A desire to embroider is not required for this event—join us to say hi and share a treat! Copies of Issue #16 will be available for purchase.
STASH Needle Art Lounge (#1B, 1215 13 Street SE in Inglewood)
Saturday, January 19 from 1:00-4:00pm
Light refreshments will be served
While the creative and curious of all ages are welcome to attend, STASH is a working studio and little people will require supervision.
STASH photos from Janine's recent visit.
Object + Handmade, a lovely popup fair of craft, design, gifts and treats, opens tonight in Vancouver! The event is located in Maai Living, 157 West Hastings. Copies of UPPERCASE magazine are available for purchase; the magazine makes a great gift given in tandem with something artisanal or homemade.
Object + Handmade is open tonight from 5-10pm and Saturday/Sunday from 11am to 7pm. Alas, I am here in Calgary so please send me your Instagrams or Tweets to @uppercasemag if you are there!
Shauna and James from Trigger sift through my random piles of ephemera and paper bits and pieces.
Finished Eclecto notebooks made with magazine makeready, lined paper that I designed and customized with ephemera.
Today Shauna and James from Calgary advertising and design agency Trigger, stopped by for some mid-day creative fun. Throughout November, we've been hosting Thursday noon-hour creative workshops in UPPERCASE—offering designers a break from their usual routines and a chance to play. Today's session also offered me a nice pause from my desk; I've been glued to my computer—issue #16 is going to the printer next week!
I had a chance to rifle through some ephemera... enjoy!
Detail from a fire insurance certificate from 1904.
A little box of anagram paper letters.
Lucky initials for somebody!
Some makeready from an old issue and the diecut and foil-stamped Eclecto spines.
Fire insurance for $500 and $6 deductible on a 1.5 story shingle roof. No lightning coverage. 1904.
Francisca Prieto emailed to let us know about her new work and open house at her studio in Cockpit Yard, London, November 30 – December 2 . I had the pleasure of meeting Francisca earlier this year on my trip to the London Book fair and Meet and Greet at Ray Stitch. Stay tuned for a post about Francisca coming up later today.
For details about the open house visit the Cockpit Arts website—it's a great site, nicely designed with plenty of information and links to discover.
Light fixtures on display from Stéphane Hubert Design.
Stephane and Jaime
Stéphane Hubert and Jaime Panoff are the intriguing married couple that make up Stéphane Hubert Design, a company specializing in custom made furniture and lighting sourced from primarily reclaimed sources. What amazed me while talking with them, was not just that the majority of materials they use are reclaimed (and a lot from New York), but that they were able to tell those visiting their booth where a lot of that specific product's wood was taken from. Past and present examples include wood taken from a New York City water tank, antique pine beams taken from 1800s townhouses, wood from the 1890s taken from the General Electric Factory in New Jersey, wood from the Coney Island Boardwalk, etc.
Stéphane, originally from France, but calling the United States his home for the past five years, uses the sourced wood to create custom lamps, kitchen utensils, trays and furniture while Jaime uses her PR and Marketing background to help with creative direction. Through Stéphane Hubert Design, their individual aesthetic values come together, Jaime's more modern and clean and Stephane's more focused on their foundation of natural materials.
This particular item's wood was sourced from the General Electric Factory in New Jersey.
Thus concludes Yvonne's coverage of Unique NYC. Thank you to Yvonne for her fine photographs and to Marat for helping to promote UPPERCASE at the event this past weekend.
Caroline Zucchero Hurley photographed by Yvonne Rock.
Inspired by new colours and patterns she came across during a trip to Bali last year, Caroline Zucchero Hurley, who also happens to have a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, began to create beach throws, pillow covers and necklaces. What makes her items unique, is that she is using her background of painting by actually painting on her creations. I loved this. And, all of her items looked so cheerful too. For so many in the creative field, we can easily spend hours isolated in our studios. Caroline combatted this strange feeling of isolated existence by teaching at a pre-school part-time and now shares her passion through meaningful interaction with the children. After learning about her pre-school work, her appreciation of simple shapes and bright and bold colours made even more sense. She is also just so warm and all of her items are so beautiful—make sure to check her out if you missed her at Unique NYC.
Cheerful details throughout.
Girls' dresses upcycled from vintage men's dress shirts on display from Kallio.
The cutest upcycled children's hats.
While attending Unique NYC, I had the chance to speak with Karina Kallio of Kallio, a very new children's clothing line in their second season. Kallio began after Karina, who originally worked in concept and apparel design, saw how much waste there was within the industry and wanted to combat it as well as raise awareness. Kallio does this by locally sourcing vintage men's clothing and upcycles them into playful dresses, hats, fleece capes, booties, and more. Through upcycling, "generations connect through clothing" and it promotes the idea that things should continue as opposed to being disposed of. I was taken with every detail.
Karina Kallio photographed by Yvonne Rock
Visitors explore all of the many amazing creatives with work on display at Unique NYC.
Have you checked out the Unique NYC event in the Chelsea yet? It continues through Sunday at the 548 Center; so, you still have time! I had the chance to attend on behalf of UPPERCASE magazine and I hope the following highlights from today will motivate even more enthusiastic shoppers to attend tomorrow.
It is an amazing chance to discover many local artisans as well as shop all of their unique items—all in one place! Get that holiday shopping started early here!
Support local business! Featured here is Smith & Chang General Goods' booth.
The lovely Caroline Zucchero Hurley and her truly special jewelry and painted fabrics. I'm very much looking forward to sharing more details of her work with you this week.
Cheerful shoppers chat with the very personable and friendy Susy Jack (more to come!).
Pretty jewelry showcased by Sewaphine. I loved all of their many colors.
UPPERCASE on display!
Beautifully designed bookmarks from Unique! I couldn't help but take one (or two).
UPPERCASE subscription cards.
Unique NYC continues tomorrow (Sunday, November 18) from 11-6pm. Look for more posts from Yvonne over the coming days.
Susy Jack broken plate tea towel
Make Shop Live random bottle cap pin cushion kit.
Confetti ring by Stephanie Putter Jewellery
This Saturday and Sunday is Unique NYC, a weekend long community shopping event that showcases local, modern, made-in-America designs, fashion, art, and food. Above are some items from the vendors' websites that I liked! (Alas, I can't personally attend, but look for UPPERCASE postcards and photographer Yvonne Rock who will be documenting the event for the UPPERCASE blog.)
November 17 and 18 from 11am to 6pm
Center 548 (548 West 22nd Street)
Tickets are $10 at the door and you get a free tote bag plus there's an open bar, DIY projects, complimentary massages... and 10% of the proceeds go to a local non-profit World Up. Show your New York artisans some love this weekend, I'm sure they would appreciate it greatly!
The show WAAR (where) features sustainable products and design. I love these balls of fabric yarn made from recycled old saris. I would love to have one, just to admire its beauty.
I am taking so many photos that I can't keep pace here on the blog! So although I'm back the hotel after a nice Meet and Greet and Athenaeum (thank you Reny and Anneke and everyone who came through the rain!), these photos are from Eindhoven. In the atrium adjacent to the Art Hotel was the Dutch Design Freak exhibition. Some highlights:
Envelope Book
Jurianne Matter
Label Aleph
I'm leaving on Wednesday! So lots of big and little things to do today. I wanted to bring some sort of lightweight gift to give away at the Meet and Greet in Athenaeum next Monday and I had a few dozen of these mini coloured pencils that I've been saving for something. When I noticed that my inkjet labels were exactly the right size to wrap around the tubes, I had quick but cute solution. Half an hour with things I already had lying around? Perfect!
Veronica Murphy, proprietor of Stash Needle Art Lounge in Calgary's Inglewood neighbourhood.
Stash is a few blocks off of the main street in Inglewood at 1B, 1215 – 13th Street SE, nestled in corner of the Woodstone Studios building.
The welcoming centre of Stash, where you can sit, knit and chat over a cup of tea.
A store copy of Dottie Angel, at the ready to inspire you as you sit down and be crafty.
The store's display fixtures are all repurpose vintage finds, showing everything to desirable effect.
A record player sets a relaxing retro vibe.
Old suitcases hide workshop supplies.
A wander over to Stash will be worth your while; as you can see, the place is full of beautiful vignettes, enticing yarns and a relaxed atmosphere. Stash offers various workshops from introductions to knitting and crochet to project-specific classes.
Follow the Stash blog, Pinterest and Twitter for the latest.
Sometimes I come across something so perfect and amazing in its concept and execution that I have the following two reactions, often one right after the other:
Broken china with floral patterns made into mosaic floral arrangements? The concept is so simple, but artist Anna Tilson does it perfectly. Perhaps I'll just save my pennies and someday purchase one of her mosaics.
I'm in love with that pink and orange shard!
Discovered thanks to a Google search prompted by the last post, "Brighton" + "mosaics".
Images from Vintage Lacemaking, a website dedicated to the history of lace. (I adjusted the contrast and cropping of the images a bit for our viewing pleasure.)
What began as a Facebook group conversation about the challenges of working for oneself and building a creative business developed into a gathering of creatives on a small island off the west cost of Canada this past August. Presenters included Fiona Richards (Cartolina Cards), illustrator Douglas Jones, Leslie Shewring (A Creative Mint), Tamara Komuniecki (Delish Magazine) and more. Kari Woo, a jeweller living in Canmore, shares more about the Forage Symposium:
Bryan and Mariko, Feedlot Studios
photo by Jenn Chic
Mariko Paterson McCrae, ceramic artist a co-owner of Feedlot Studios on Gabriola Island courageously came forward early in the conversation to offer her studio as our venue. Luckily for everyone Feedlot is co-owned by Mariko’s husband, graphic designer Bryan McCrae, who was very much the all-things-technical support team. This magnificent setting provided the perfect retreat ambience for this fine gathering and a stellar behind-the-scenes crew of local artists, supporters, and small businesses helped to bring it all together.
A Gathering of Ideas + Makers, the symposium was an opportunity for inspiration and learning. Three days of jam-packed content included topics on how to use social media successfully, where to find funding for creative projects, partnership and collaboration and how to find your audience. We discussed the pros and cons of consignment vs. wholesale venues; brick and mortar vs. online; outsourcing production vs. keeping it in-house. Panels deliberated about time and money management, delegating, prioritizing and balancing family life with work.
Thanks to size and magic of our venue it felt like we were sitting around someone’s (albeit large) living room facilitating the intimacy of our discussions. Panelists were open and honest, sometimes standing on the edge of vulnerability. They shared both victory moments and challenges, advice about what to do and what not to do based on lessons learned, as well as valuable technical and industry information.
Personally, I already see the tangible outcomes that my attendance is having on both my creative and business practices. The nuggets that I gleaned from this bounty of information were solid affirmations with philosophical and practical implications. We are all scared, but who cares? Get over it. Just do what you want to do. Do your research and figure it out. Be prepared for success!
UPPERCASE was happy to provide complimentary magazines to Forage participants. Up next: more about Kari Woo.
It's a lovely bit of serendipity when your work life and hobby collide. My major form of making is knitting. I love how two simple stitches—knit and purl—can be combined to create the most intricate lacework or simple, practical pieces. UPPERCASE friend Blue Sky Alpacas has released a new set of patterns featuring illustration instead of photography. When I first saw these they reminded me of flipping through Simplicity pattern books with my mom.
These stunning packages were art directed by Blue Sky owner Linda Niemeyer, designed by Amy Westburg, and photographed and illustrated by Nate Hager, Creative Imaging Specialist at Blue Sky.
The projects use one or two balls of Blue Sky's Royal Petites—perfect for holiday knitting projects! I took the samples that the Blue Sky team sent along up to the mountains on a recent holiday. This lovely, soft and luminescent yarn is an absolute joy to work with.
Blue Sky Alpacas also sent along samples of their other yarns for me to play with.
Cover by Christy Batta
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UPPERCASE is a quarterly print magazine inspired by craft, design and illustration. A playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of handmade are some elements common in each issue. The magazine boasts high-quality paper and printing, a unique design aesthetic and incredible attention to detail.
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