when i was in school i took textile design for a year as part of my art course. it wasn’t really textile design, i didn’t actually do any screen printing and everything was kind of laissez-faire in that high school art kind of way. but i did gain a lot of respect for textile designers due to the finer points of the craft.
so i’m always excited to discover new people who make beautiful things in the textile field. Israeli designer Lee Coren got in touch with me about her pattern collection which she screen prints onto scarves, clutches and totes. you can buy pieces from her collection at her Etsy shop.
The main collection is called ‘Local Environment’ – in which I took forgotten local icons that are most common in typical Israeli cities, such as curved window bars and plastic shutters, and brought them back to life in a fresh perspective through modern textiles patterns, that will then return to the city as quality scarves and bags.
if you’re a reader of design & decor blogs or blogs of any kind really (and i assume you are because, well, you’re here) then you’ll probably be familiar with Skinny Laminx. Heather’s wonderful textile & design work is one of our proudest south african exports – and she’s based right here in Cape Town which makes me doubly proud because our city is rad, huh?
so if you follow Skinny Laminx on twitter or facebook you might have seen that their shop on Bree Street is celebrating its first birthday this week. Heather mailed me a little while ago with a cool idea to make a special music mix for the shop in celebration of their birthday (and to spice up the shop’s playlist, which is currently made up of a lot of songs from my mixes – rad!) and i jumped at the chance because i can’t resist a great mix.
but that’s not all. in the spirit of celebration and giving, the Skinny laMix comes with a bonus GIVEAWAY! Heather is giving one lucky reader an Alexander Sack in Pollen Pebble Print (say that three times fast) as pictured above. all you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what your favourite song is at the moment. i’ll be closing the giveaway & drawing a winner at random on Monday 17 December, so get commenting!
as for what inspired the mix itself, Heather gave me a pretty great brief:
I’m a sucker for beardy, Byrdsy men on a harmony, lanky boys with hair in their eyes doing something jangly, and sunny girls singing about trees. You know the kind of thing.
if you’re after more Skinny Laminx: international readers can shop at etsy, and south africans can order at her local online shop or visit the shop on Bree Street. i have had my eyes on her rough diamond cushion for some time now… oh and i couldn’t end this post without showing you the cute video made to celebrate their birthday:
* click on free download. close the pop up window, if there is one, and wait a few seconds before entering a captcha code to start the download. here’s an alternative download link. same drill: click on free download, close the pop up window if there is one, click the download link again on the next page. you might have to wait a few seconds before it starts downloading.
Hermine is a Belgian textile designer who just presented her graduation collection at the school of arts in Ghent. here you can see some of her pieces photographed by the very talented Eefje. i love her colour palette, and would really kill for one of those fluffy carpets. make sure to pay Hermine’s blog a visit to see more of her process as well as what inspires her. plus, her plants are lovely… who doesn’t love a plant lover?
The travel diaries of early 20th century artist Rockwell Kent provide a starting point for designer Charlotte Linton’s Greenland Collection. Taking inspiration from the paintings and drawings Kent created whilst living amongst Inuit communities, Charlotte blends her usual mix of landscape, wildlife and culture with Kent’s exuberant colour palette in her eclectic printed scarf collection.
This season, Charlotte’s fictional muse Ermantrude follows in Kent’s footsteps arriving in Nuuk Greenland to undertake a cross-country expedition. Under the glow of the Northern lights, Ermantrude learns of Greenlandic mythology, the traditional crafts of the Inuit and their ingenuity with fur, and listens to the song of the Bowhead Whale.
