Atelier Make is a Montreal based ceramic design and production studio of artists Maya Ersan & Jamie Robson. Their design aesthetic ranges from minimal to whimsical, bringing beauty and fine craft into daily life. Maya and Jaimie reinterpret traditional ceramic forms with a contemporary twist.
We totally love their minimalist yet still playful and functional approach to creating beautiful everyday objects.
Image source Atelier Make (via)
We wish you all a very Happy Easter! Enjoy the long weekend, no matter what the weather will bring!
And here is a little crafty idea which doesn’t cost much time but is very cute. Select egg cartons and remove all the stickers and labels. Get some acrylic paint and paint the cartons. Let dry. With another colour, paint dots all over the cartons. Once dried, use as gift boxes or for your kids to store the eggs in from the Easter egg hunt.
A week ago I participated in a Shibori fabric dyeing class at the Community College in Rose Bay. It was such a rainy day and I was happy to spent it inside and to learn something new. We used only natural dye such as indigo, turmeric and black tea.
Our teacher’s beautiful hand-dyed fabric.
Our teacher Zoe MacDonell guided us through the techniques for different shapes and patterns. Basically it’s trying to prevent the colour to reach certain areas of the fabric to penetrate. That can be done by folding, tieing, clamping or binding. Rubber bands, synthetic string, buttons or even marbles are great to use. My favourite technique was the diagonal constantine fold which I then wrapped around a metal pole, tied it up with string and rubberbands before I dipped it into the dye. You need to wear gloves otherwise your hands will be stained and indigo in particular is a very strong dye. In fact, the indigo on my fabric is still rubbing off so I am not sure what to use those for. Might just end up in my props cupboard ;-)
There are the so-called mordants, mineral salts which will either enhance, intensify or change the colour. It also helps to fix the dye colour.
We used only three different natural dye but Zoe told us we could also use ground coffee, henna, onion skin or different sorts of leaves. I know that onion skin works well as I use this for Easter eggs. However, you have to extract the colour by cooking the dye out before you can dip the fabric in.
Lightweight natural fabric such as silk, cotton or linen works best. Smaller pieces are easier to handle than bigger ones and, the dyeing process is quite a messy one as you will see from the photos I took.
From raw to colour
Teacher Zoe MacDonell explains the dyeing process.
Black tea to make fabric look aged.
Turmeric and indigo are very strong and vibrant.
Fabric wrapped around a pole and tied with string.
For everyone who would like to start knitting those big loops but don’t know where to get the needles for it. We found them at Koskela in Rosebery.
They also sell wool and Zpaghetti yarn there too. Happy knitting!
I just posted about spring and we are all waiting for summer now but there is also the silly season coming up. If you want to find that extra special card check out upon a fold.
Upon a fold is an online paper shop with beautiful cards and paper you hardly find in shops.
If you want to add a little fun or retro chic to your wardrobe check out the Sydney designer-collaboration bRrainbow. All their products are created using laser-cut and pieced together by hand at their Sydney home studio.
You will find them at the next Young Blood: Designers Market at the Powerhouse Museum, Friday 27 – Sunday 29 July 2012, 10am – 5pm.
I admit, I am not the craftiest person, but when I saw the waterslide decal tutorial for kitchen storage jars by the The Painted Hive, I was sold. This is definitely on my To Do List and my brain already is buzzing with many other options to use this method. AND this is definitely much more stylish than my current solution of using a whiteboard marker.
There is a full step by step tutorial over on The Painted Hive website.
