Your Fabric's Bio

Here's another project I started this summer and will be continuing as long as I keep discovering new fabrics and new designers at the mill. I'm including little cards in each order now with some background on the fabric purchased. While my shop has always had a few sentences for each item explaining the fabrics, I've always felt there is more story I could tell. Part of that happens here on the blog but I also wanted to be sure every customer had the chance to know why their purchase was special.

The cards look like this:




The pretty little scallop cards are from Paper Source, which is a delightful store full of gorgeous paper things. I did try hard to find some scallop cards on Etsy but I could not. Anyway, each card has a short blurb about the designer of the fabric, maybe some quotes from him or her or some reasons why I like the fabric.

For each card I've spent some time browsing the internet looking for information. I've read obituaries, press releases, website "About" pages, and even some sections of books. My hope is that the cards help customers understand what makes their fabric special and gives them a little piece of story they can keep in their minds when someone asks about whatever they've bought. It's the reason people buy handmade, isn't it? They are interested in those stories. I'm happy to oblige!

You are probably trying to read the top cards in the photo, so I'll make it easier for you:

The ________________fabric in your item was designed by Albert Hadley. Hadley was born in Tennessee in 1920 and, after serving in World War II, moved to New York where he earned his BFA and worked as an interior designer. For decades he teamed up with Sister Parish, another designer whose fabrics are available at LilaKids. One of Hadley’s favorite sayings was “Never less, never more.” His prints are usually pretty simple, often using just one color, but they have some perky or unusual element to them which makes them just plain interesting to look at. Some of his clients included Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore, Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer, and the de la Rentas. Hadley died in 2012 but his fabrics are still printed by Hinson and Company. 

Now my packaging includes the tissue paper and hemp cord that I've always used, a tag with my logo and website on it, a little thank you card for the purchaser, and the fabric bio card. The little thank you card has a sweet green floral stamp which HG puts on for me. She takes her job very seriously and works hard to make sure the flower gets in the right place and with the right amount of ink.

I've already heard form one customer how much she liked the card, so I'm very glad to be including them now. I'd love to know what you think!

Waldorf Paper Lanterns

My family had some very sad news last week, which was that my uncle passed away unexpectedly. I spent a couple of days trying to figure out what I could make for his little grandchildren, who range in age from 4 to 10, that would give them an opportunity to remember their grandfather and would also be beautiful. I did a bunch of searches for things like "bereavement gifts for children," which didn't turn up anything I was interested in. Finally I started thinking about Waldorf-oriented things (why this took me so long I don't know, since a core of Waldorf is children + beautiful), and I discovered paper lanterns made from wet-on-wet watercolor paintings. I read that these are usually used for decoration at the winter holiday season, but I think they will work perfectly for this purpose as well.

We have quite a stash of watercolor paintings from school last year, and it turns out making them isn't too difficult, once you get the hang of it. I used directions from here and here. Our paper seems to be much thicker than the paper these writers used, but it still works. Ours is also monochrome because children in the kindergarten only paint with one color at a time.

If you're interested in making them, I have a couple of recommendations.

1. Be sure you are exact as you can be with your cutting and folding. The bigger they are the easier it is to fold.
2. Don't plan on your first one being perfect. You might even try it on regular paper first so you can get the hang of it. 
3. This may be really obvious, but remember they are made of paper, oiled paper at that. I wouldn't leave them unattended or let children do the lighting. 

I boxed them up today and will mail them tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing my extended family next week at the services but I do wish it were for another reason.