Carry Me: Swarm Bags

I've coveted Leslie Oschman's painted canvas bags for quite a while now. I thought I'd take a peek to see if she had any new ones posted on her site and I saw these great, new bags that she's made. They're made from vintage fabrics and linens, with vintage embroidery hoops as handles. I just love them! So now I want one of these too. Images from the Swarm web site. 

What a Doll!

I've been meaning to make Lois a doll, for about, oh, 3 years now so I'm always noticing cute dolls for ideas. Some dolls I especially love are Alicia Paulson's dolls, Jess Brown's dolls, and Emily Martin's dolls. I also like the fairly simple dolls in the Martha Stewart craft book (and online here). I was back to thinking about dolls recently, so I thought I'd take a peek at Emily Martin's dolls again. I remembered she made them on the Martha Stewart show, so I wanted to re-watch the video. But once I went to her blog, I saw these two ADORABLE dress up dolls, which I had not seen before. The kitting kitty and the Pretend Bear Doll. Seriously?!! For the kitty, that wee skein of yarn and needles, the little purse, coat... for the bear, the mask, little bandit eyes, the cape, and the cute shoes on their itsy bitsy feet! These two take the cake now for favorite dolls. Emily Martin is so talented and just adorable herself. I just love her vintage blog. 

Photos by Emily Martin, from her blog. 

Tea Party on Columbia Road

Last Saturday I went to Jessie and Buddug's summer tea party at their shop on Columbia Road. It was great to say hello to them again, and I got to show Jessie my embroidered Amsterdam in person, which was nice since we could only get so far in class. The shop looks wonderful, and as usual, is filled with beautiful and inspiring creations by Jessie and Buddug, including a great dollhouse. Jessie's dad custom built the dollhouse, and Jessie and Buddug have filled it with handmade miniatures. It's beautifully displayed in the window. It was hard to get pictures of it with the reflections from the street, so if you're in London, go see it in person (though there is one picture of a bed in the dollhouse, below). Here's a peek in the shop. To see more pictures of the shop from my previous visit, click here. 

Embroidered Storybooks with Jessie Chorley

I've been in an embroidery mood lately. I wanted to make some days of the week tea towels, but I didn't want the usual kitchen / household motifs on them, so I started to go with a Paris theme, but they looked boring and Paris is not boring, so I scratched that idea. Then I went to Anthropologie to look at their tea towels because I always love their embroidered tea towels. I got some good ideas there and made a few tea towels (maybe I'll post pictures of those soon), and I've been on an embroidery roll since. I've mostly been looking through embroidery books, like Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion, A Rainbow of Stitches, and Doodle Stitching, and seeing what I can find online. One of the most inspiring embroidery artists is Jessie Chorley. You might remember her work from my post on her shop. Her style to me is dreamy and whimsical and magical. So while I was stitching away at one of my tea towels, I thought of her work and thought I'd see if she had any upcoming workshops (I had read a while back that she hosted workshops) and lucky me, she was having a storybook workshop. It was wonderful. She showed us some of her storybooks, talked to us about gathering ideas for a theme, ideas for constructing the books, and showed us some of her stitching techniques. She set up the table in the middle of the shop and we were stitching away in no time, and sipping tea and nibbling cake of course. Here are some pictures from the dreamy afternoon. These first 4 images, including the top image, are examples of Jessie's work. (Also, it wasn't really this dark in the shop, that's just the way I processed these photos.)

Our beautifully messy table, tea and cake included. I love craft mess.

I decided on an Amsterdam theme for my storybook. I'll post more pictures when I have more done.

What the other women were working on...

And what Jessie worked on while we were there...

I hope I can take another one of her workshops with my mom one day. She will love it! If you're in London, here's her workshop information. Happy stitching.

Print Workshop at Urban Outfitters

My friend Chris from San Francisco will be in town soon promoting her book, Print Workshop, at the Spitalfields Urban Outiftters. Chris will be signing books and demonstrating some of the great at-home printing techniques featured in the book. I'll be there too, so if you're in London, mark your calendar for Thursday, May 19 at 1PM. Chris is awesome and so is her book, so don't miss it!

Swarm at Anthropologie

We're headed to Amsterdam soon, and one place I'd love to visit while we're there is Leslie Oschmann's studio, Swarm. It's by appointment only, so I don't know that I'll be able go, but I did recently stop by Anthropologie on King's Road here in London to see her current exhibit there. Having worked for Anthropologie for 8 years, and leaving as the visual director, of course her creations fit right in in their gallery space. I love the way she finds so many ways to rework old canvases, from her bags, to the great collage in mismatched frames (above), to her new series of plates. But I think my favorite piece in the exhibit was a book-nook of a chair. Two chairs, re-worked into a chair and bookshelf all in one. Creative indeed. So if you're in London, go check out the exhibit this week (it's up until May 10).

Kicking Back with Papier Mache

A while back my friend MN over at Interior Divine told me about Papier Mache magazine, a quarterly online Children's magazine. I've been wanting to make Lois a doll and remembered seeing some really cute ones in one of their magazines. I thought I'd peek back for some doll-making inspiration, but then I just got lost in reading the magazine and looking at all the pretty pictures! It's a very fun, creative magazine. Don't you think so too? These images are from issue three, where I saw those cute dolls made by Jess Brown. A handful of the first images here are from an article on her, her work, and her home. And I could just look at her web site and blog all day. I'm in love with all of her dolls! 

This image above is from Jess's blog. The dolly on the right is wearing the Liberty fabric I just used for coasters. Looks very cute on a doll. And the images below are just a few other random images I like from issue three. 

Swarm

Leslie Oschmann's work has made the blog rounds for quite a while now (on Decor8 a few years ago, and more recently places like SFgirlbybay). I try not to rehash products that have already been featured by other very popular bloggers, but I just love everything Leslie makes! She gives new life to old artist canvases by repurposing them into great bags and beautiful chairs. Check out her web site, Swarm, to see more of her great work. Anthropologie carries her bags and chairs, which I saw in person over the weekend, and now I love them even more.