beautiful Archives - Try Handmade

Far East Style, Home Town Goods

July 13, 2017 by Valerie Williams 1 Comment

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.

Lavender Field

July 8, 2017 by Erika Jurney 10 Comments

Lavender Field: I’m a self-made crafter and forever a learner.

My style is very unique as I don’t follow any trends, but actually make my own.

I have an insatiable urge to create, create, create stuff with my hands. After all that’s why God gave us hands…. to put them to good and creative use!

Colors, nature and my surroundings in general are my inspiration, and I have this unconscious habit of always picturing ugly things turned beautiful.

The variety of styles I create reflect exactly that: my love for variety. Variety in jewelry, clothes, music, decor, food and styles in general.

And check out her attention to detail in her custom work. Nice!

Aleta Wynn Yarrow

June 26, 2017 by Erika Jurney 3 Comments

Aleta Wynn Yarrow: I am drawn to transitions in the landscape: passing clouds, twilight, autumn and spring. It is during transition that we are most vulnerable, and in our vulnerable hour our blessings are the most precious.

Landscape as a metaphor for emotional experience is the uniting thread in Aleta Wynn Yarrow’s work. Night represents intuition, mystery and enchantment. Autumn reminds us that what is beautiful does not always last. The story of Spring is that renewal sometimes happens swiftly. Yarrow’s work exists in the shadow land between technique and vision; emotion and intellect; the physical realm and the emotional one.

studio k

June 25, 2017 by Erika Jurney 1 Comment

Another great find in the Try Handmade Inbox…

studio k: aspiring to replace the common with something more beautiful

I am an architectural designer with an interest in all aspects of design. The New York City Map Cuts was my first large art piece. It was created to simplify the daily image of the Manhattan map that every New Yorker sees repetitively throughout any day. By simplifying the map into just an image it revealed much more information than a map crowded with words and symbols and color ever could. The information of city planning, the nature of the city block, and the importance of open space is greatly emphasized in my map cuts, especially the images in white. I love the idea of making a familiar object/image even more beautiful by simply taking away the unnecessary.

Southern California, USA

June 21, 2017 by Emily Anderson 4 Comments

Did you hear the news? The unemployment rate is at an all-time high here in the U.S. and the outlook is pretty grim. But there is a silver lining to this story. According to some experts, there’s a big jump in small business start-ups. That means a lot of people are using their own creativity to make a living. In the spirit of this, I wanted to give some props to people in one of the hardest hit areas of the country–Southern California, where in some parts unemployment is as high as 30%. It’s reassuring to know that there are so many industrious people crafting, building, designing, and making their way through this challenging economy. As my Grandmother always said, they’re “Making lemonade out of lemons.”

White Serenade is a perfect example of making the best of things–she creates spectacular designs from discarded paper and metal. Who would have thought folded paper could be so beautiful? The paper wreaths are so elegant, you can hang them on your wall for the holidays–or all of the time!

Tango Cat Gems is another example of making something completely unexpected out of the simplest of things–jewelry wire. She sculpts these delicate designs using fineweaving techniques. Her work is a reflection of the quality and craftsmanship you can only get when something is made by hand.

The Radokri shop has lots of accessories for weddings, or just when you want to be especially sparkly. Natalija Krimerman opened her online store in 2009 with her husband, and they spend many weekends looking for supplies at estate sales and flea markets. This sweet little feather flower is a great reminder that making and selling your own unique creations is the perfect way to “bloom where you’re planted.”