Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.
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Retro style handmade armchair upholstered with best quality fabrics with beautiful combination of the lovely colors. Thai Hmong fabrics, floral printed fabrics and Turkish velvet fabrics are used in upholstering the armchair. The wood construction and the foam rubber are brand new. The frame is made of kiln dried hardwood. Very comfortable and lovely piece suitable for homes, offices, cafes etc.
Uptown Jane‘s pillow is so comfy and stylish. Match it with a cup of coffee and a good book and you’ll be all set.
Today I’m taking you to Riverside, California, hometown of Landon Donovan, mid-fielder for the U.S. Soccer Team. As you should know, the U.S. lost in a stunning defeat to Ghana, 2-1. I feel badly for the players because they’re not getting a lot of support, instead criticism is flying from every direction. Frankly, I’m more upset about the un-sportsman-like behavior of the commentators, owners, and media than I am about the loss itself. Oh well, we can still celebrate Donovan’s hometown with these handmade finds.
Ruthie Padro specializes in creating unique jewelry with using Swarovski crystals, charms, and handmade miniatures. She’s been creating and crafting since she was a child and, like many people, very thankful that Etsy gives her an outlet to showcase her designs. The Alice’s Teacup Necklace is her signature piece, but she also customizes the classic Dr. Scholl’s flip-flops.
ShellRose has been an artist for over twenty years, and she has done a number of large-scale murals, and window displays. She works with watercolor, acrylic, and other media. She uses nature to inspire her creations, and sometimes infuses an element of the magical into her pieces. This painting is titled “Just Treading Water”, and as the artist says, to move forward, we must first open our eyes! You can see her creative process and how she created this painting below.
In-vita Paper Studio is a one-girl stationery design studio located in sunny southern California. The owner and creator lived in Russia for two years where she taught Art in a High School. I love that she says her passion is stationery design, as I am a believer in the art of letter writing. In-Vita Paper Studio is also eco-friendly, using only FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, which is my favorite way to make green paper choices. For the luxe white cardstock,100% recycled content with 30% PCW (post-consumer waste) is used. I picked this particular design because I wanted our American Soccer Team to know that we are all very proud of them, and they should be proud as well.
Normally my shopping instincts are sharply honed onto pretty things to wear: clothes, shoes, jewelry, anything I can sew a flower on to, that sort of thing. But every now and then my eye is caught by beautiful home accessories, and I get the itch to beautify my living space, not just my closet!
Sue Henry is a sculptor and ceramic artist whose work moved over to textiles when her children came along. A dusty studio filled with fragile, breakable things was no longer practical with little ones running about. She decided to take up carving linoleum blocks – the tactile experience reminded her of her first love, working in clay.
Sue has been an artist all her life, and remembers her first creative instinct being about creating comfortable places to live. As a little girl, she wanted to be an architect and an interior designer. It just seemed like a natural next step to print her designs on textiles to create beautiful, functional home goods.
Seeing the lovely things that Sue makes really got me thinking about how I’ve been neglecting my living spaces lately. Her designs are full of movement and energy, and I love the bold colors she uses, which really make the designs stand out.
Every item at Tulusa Home Goods begins with a linoleum block hand carved by Sue. She is inspired by her travels to India and South East Asia, and her love of cooking, architecture, and design. The designs are printed on cotton or linen canvas with solvent-free block printing ink. The pillows are stuffed with organic kapok, a fluffy, soft, and environmentally friendly alternative to polyfill. The textiles are designed to be functional and durable, and are machine washable.
Included in the collection at Tulusa are pillows of all sizes, including large meditation pillows, and table linens of all types. Sue’s favorite part of the creative process is carving the linoleum block, so there’s really no limit to what she can print on, once she completes a design.
Right now, the most popular item at Tulusa Home Goods is the Ganesha pillow. Ganesha is a Hindu deity who is the remover of obstacles, and the bringer of good fortune and new beginnings. A good friend to have around as we approach the busy holiday season and the new year, wouldn’t you say?
You can find Tulusa Home Goods at Sue’s online shop, and you can also contact her for custom orders or to be invited to her December pop-up shop in Alexandria, Virginia.
Papaver Vert: Patty Benson started Papaver Vert in 2007 making her small apartment shared with her husband, into a small creative studio in Northern California. Based on form, function and bold color, Patty’s work utilizes the time consuming technique of crocheting and wet felting wool to create tactile pieces with a contemporary twist.
Learning how to crochet a few years ago, she immediately found a medium that combined her love of wool with her love of home decor. Feeling that home accessories shouldn’t just be limited to ceramic or glass, and that felted wool doesn’t have to mean something old-school, she loves the idea of taking the ancient technique of felting to design something entirely new.
Patty loves that wool is a renewable resource and she stands behind a non-mass produced sensibility. Each piece is lovingly handmade in her studio and she figures the more attention put into the craft, the better the quality, the longer it will last and the less need to buy more, more, more.
