This last Sunday, my husband and I took our son to the Annual Origami Festival at the CSULB Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden.  The normally tranquil space, its large pond filled with jewel colored koi, had been transformed into a bustling garden full of happy, paper folding families.  Origami aficionados and amateurs alike were busily creating flowers, boxes, cranes,… hats, brooches, pterodactyls,… whatever their fingers could fold.

I was killing time, wandering around while my son tried to convince a very overstuffed koi fish to take one more piece of fish chow, when I ran across a lovely sight…

A loom!  Now, I’m not a weaver, but I did once take a class, and I find the whole process fascinating.  As I stood in front of this loom and stared at the work in progress, I wondered what on earth the yarn was made of.  I couldn’t figure it out.  Was it jute?  No, not rough enough.  Was it wool?  No, no fibers sticking out.  Well, what the heck was it?? Read the rest of this entry »

I often time spend a bit of time trying to come up with a good post title.  You know, something quirky or alliterative.  However, Q Collection left me no choice but to go with the obvious…

I mean, when you name your new chair line the “Kiss My Arse Recliner“, what is left for a poor blogger to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Lack of sleep, tight deadline, ever expanding to-do list,… yep, typical Friday.  How about you?

Meanwhile, lots o’ pretty interesting stuff spied on the web this week.

image by jewelweeds

I’m entranced by these lovely hand blocked organic cotton linens from Jewelweeds. (mochatini)

Great, ethereal looking Tonic pendant lamp, made of 100% post consumer acrylic. (chictip)

More fun cardboard fort analysis! (BuildBlog)

Grandma’s old National Geographic collection transformed into a shelf. (Craft)

How to design in “Itty Bitty” spaces. (Inspired Design Daily)

Love the colorful glass bottle walls in this post. (re-nest)

Cute task lamp made of recycled egg cartons. (Dezeen)

Wishing everyone a relaxing, restful weekend.  See you Monday!

Water use in the textile industry is massive – as in trillions of gallons massive.  Hundreds of gallons of water are required to dye even small amounts of fabric, and that water then needs extensive filtration to become drinkable again.  With potable water becoming a scarcer and scarcer commodity, how do we save more water for us, and still sustain the textile industry?  Well, why not take water out of the equation altogether…

The U.S. based company Air Dye has managed to do exactly that, by creating a new technology that can dye fabric without using a single drop of water!  This is an amazing advancement, and one we desperately need in the textile industry.  There is one problem though – other than getting the word out and encouraging fabric companies to give it a try… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s funny how things work out.  I sent a quick note to Harmony Susalla of Harmony Art yesterday, just to let her know I had posted about her new fabric releases, and what did I get back in reply?  A terrific break down of the creative process that she had started writing as a guest post for TIR a while back, but never sent.  I’m so happy my little email reminded her, because it’s a really interesting post that I’m happy to be sharing with you.  Enjoy! – RH

People often ask me where the inspiration for my designs come from.  In my previous life, when I worked for a design house, they would send us out “trend shopping” the goal of which was to be inspired by what we saw at stores…. often high-end boutiques.  Trend shopping was my least favorite part of my job.  I know many people (primarily women) would love to be given a company credit card and told to “get inspired” but I always found this task to be rather soul-less.  What’s the joy in creating your own version of what has already been done?

Now that I am my own art director, I make it a habit to go “trend hiking” on a weekly basis.  I always bring along my camera instead of a VISA and look for new inspiration in the natural world around me.  Designs such as Fields of Honey are a direct result of such adventures.

Read the rest of this entry »

I love starting the day with a delicious looking image like this in my in-box!  Harmony Art now has the beautiful “Evelyn & Janette” in stock, and it’s available through PM Organics and soon to be available through Organic Fabric Online (AU) and Pure Fabricz (EU).

Harmony Art has also released a version I covet, called simply  “Evelyn” on which only the black flowers appear.

And of course, I can’t forget the wonderful “Ginkgo” print that I mentioned before in one of my very first posts, but was not yet in stock. This one is available through Organic Cotton Plus, NearSea Naturals, PM Organics and soon to be available through Pure Fabricz (EU).

Now if I could only take a minute to run out and get some granola, my tummy would stop reminding me that I’ve been staring at these images for far too long this morning.

I recently viewed an exhibit of beautiful Silk Road treasures, some of them over 3,800 years old.  It was amazing to see the rich colors and patterns still vivid on so many of the ancient textiles.  The people who created them had no synthetic dyes, yet they accomplished such bright reds, warm yellows and strong blues, all produced from natural materials.

Since 1856, when the first aniline dye was invented by William Henry Perkin, the use of natural dyes has seen a steady decline – supplanted by cheaper and easier to produce synthetics.  It is only recently, with the renewed interest in more sustainable forms of textile production, that the world has started to rediscover how amazing natural dyes can be.

All images by David Handschuh

Even with the renewed interest though, the use of natural dyes in the United States has thus far been on a very small scale.  Really little more than a loose network of dedicated textile artisans and crafters, up to their elbows in vats of tea and berry juice.  Small scale that is, until Noon Design Studio came along… Read the rest of this entry »

Or as the Irish might say – Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

Image of Harmony Art organic cotton fabric - Eyes of the World.

In honor of St. Patrick (and the fact that it’s my birthday) I’m going to go have a little breakfast and a day off, but you will still be getting a great post today on green kitchens, courtesy of Susan, from Susan Serra and Associates

And in the tradition of giving gifts to others on your birthday, please accept this bit of inspired silliness… Read the rest of this entry »

Silk is one of those grey areas of green design.  Although a natural and sustainable fiber in many ways, most silk production still requires killing the larval stage of the moth, in order to preserve the cocoon.  This issue makes this otherwise exquisite fabric a great deal less appealing to many consumers.

However, there is an equally beautiful solution, and that is “Peace Silk”, which is used by Rajboori to make their amazing line of bed linens and throw pillows. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought it would be nice to do a little series of posts this week on some of the beautiful craft work that comes out of Japan.  Perhaps no other country is so obsessed with both the past and the future at once, so it’s the perfect place to explore when it comes to using historical materials and methods to create more sustainable products.

All images via Kurikan

First in our series is the cloth ware company Kurakin.

After receiving a research offer from the government to see if it could find a way to use food scraps as colorants, the Tsuyakin Kogyo Company, of Ichinomiya, Japan, developed the “nokori dye” method.  Read the rest of this entry »