If we consider and care for each object that we keep, we become producers of meaning rather than consumers of goods.
The Book of Hygge
Some of my earliest experiences with creating and offering digitally printed scarves for sale took place while I lived in Riverside, California. I would print these using my in-house ink jet printer onto silk and then sold them at the Art Museum’s Gift Shop.
The designs based on my paintings reproduced really nicely. I learned to use an overlock serger to hem the seams with decorative threads.
Along with digitally printed artwork, I also painted with french dyes on silk along with silkscreen printing, gutta resist techniques, stenciling and shibori (or hand knotting) of naturally dyed multicolored scarves.
The process of carving the stencil blocks, the placing of the dyes along the gutta resist lines, creating the silk screens and steaming the dyed silk was in itself a labor of love. The completed scarves and neckties each have their own story of development from start to finish.
In our appreciation of a well-turned bowl or delicate watercolor, we participate in its creation. Ibid.
Around Thanksgiving of last year, I received an invitation from VIDA to license my artwork and allow them to reproduce my designs digitally onto textile fabrics. They are funded in part by Google and offer artists a means to use their artwork for textile printing of fashion accessories. VIDA as a printer on demand. It also uses environmentally responsible forms of printing. Through literacy for their workers, it is also socially responsible in their community.
The results of VIDA’s work were beautiful!
Through their program, I developed a signature name for my work and prepared a collection page where these are featured by models wearing my designs as scarves.
Each scarf at VIDA is custom made and it will take roughly about a month to a month and a half for it to be received following an order. There’s a selection of these items prepared by VIDA at Geometric Botanicals www.geometricbotanicals.com These are available if there’s a need for an item right away.
Over the last few weeks, I have been preparing designs for household textile articles as well that will include decorative pillows, duvet covers and bedding collections along with other items for the home. Here are a few images of these initial decorative pillows.
A space softened with textiles offers us an entry point into a world of comfort that we can each experience as our own. Ibid.
Many of the inspirational statements I’ve included here are from a book I read a few days ago on the Danish concept of Hygge – The Book of Hygge: The Danish Art of Contentment, Comfort, and Connection . The book shares inspirational insights on an artfulness that can be created for “everyday” living.
Lorien Suarez 