All of the colors and patterns of nature were well represented.  Luckily for us, the Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) was in bloom.  The flowers are bluish green in color and totally mesmerizing.  Not only are the flowering plants inspiring, but also are some of the other inhabitants of the greenhouse (little scary spiders with pretty striped legs).  Even the earth on the ground of the greenhouse is worn in a subtle pattern that comes alive once some fallen petals have settled into it.  It reminded me of why I ever started making art in the first place.

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Running a small business as an artist is a challenging thing.  You have to balance creativity with a more reasonable, level headedness that it takes to keep a business afloat!  Switching between studio time, office time, and time on the road travelling can be enough to make us both crazy.  Especially when the phone is ringing and you are elbows deep in a dyebath!  Lately we have been hard at work in our studios creating new limited edition pieces.  This is what got us started in this business in the first place.  Just measure out the dye, fold and clamp the garments and get dyeing, and remember, breathe. . .

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The Dzidefo Women’s Sewing Cooperative is in Kpando, Ghana, a 4 hour journey from the capital of Accra.  There are 8 local women who work there.  The Coop has provided them an opportunity to work and provide their families a better standard of living.  Working side by side each day, I was able to teach them some new techniques that were unfamiliar to them.  I also learned so much from them.  This type of cultural exchange was at times challenging, but ultimately a very rewarding experience!  We produced 30 of my wrap dresses out of African wax print fabric, mostly GTP fabric, which is produced locally.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to pursue this goal and to work with these women, and especially grateful to Maura for holding down the fort while I was away!

Here are a couple of examples of the dress.  I’ll be uploading the ones produced in Ghana in the coming weeks.

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I told my five year old daughter that our household probably has the most rubber bands in the world.  And, I actually think it might be true.  We use alot of rubber bands in our tie-dye process.  And, new for our Spring Line is a shibori pattern called Arashi.  Ahh… Arashi, a wonderful and luscious shibori technique – but talk about rubber band usage!

Taken from the definition off Wikipedia;  Arashi shibori is also known as pole-wrapping shibori. The cloth is wrapped on a diagonal around a pole. Then the cloth is very tightly bound by wrapping thread up and down the pole. Next, the cloth is scrunched on the pole. The result is a pleated cloth with a design on a diagonal. “Arashi” is the Japanese word for storm. The patterns are always on a diagonal in Arashi shibori suggest the driving rain of a heavy storm.

Instead of wrapping thread, we put rubber bands along the length of the fabric (a slightly modern version).  After the cloth is dyed the rubber bands are removed and the results are the storm-like or tiger stripe  pattern.  We have always used this arashi pattern but never throughout our entire spring line.  It  has a very organic look and we love it!  Check out our new in-house dyeing spring line at all our retail shows and open houses.

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The other day I was talking with a friend who was on business in Miami.  It was 86 degrees there.  I felt envious.  While driving my 5 year old daughter to work that same morning the sun was brilliant (regardless of it being 20 degrees).  I felt warm inside and realized how  much I need sunlight for my well being.  That same day I went to work on a project in the studio.  I wanted to make some tie dye SUNS.  I worked out a slightly different clamping technique and was able to achieve the design I was hoping for.

Just that moment in the car with the sun on my face and a few hours in the studio thinking about the sun was enough to take my envy away and make me create something that did not feel like it has been in my visual plane for some time.  There are times that artist work directly with their surroundings, influenced by the browns and grays of winter, the naked trees and snow covered grounds.  And there are times when we work with images and colors that are in stark contrast to the current natural setting.  This can be a slightly awkward yet inspiring and creative process.

Surrounded by the sun with my hands deep in bright yellow dye, I feel warm.  I wonder if this sense of warmth would also come from actually wearing one?

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As I dye color swatches to determine our in-house color story for Spring 2013, the proverb “fortune favors the bold” kept entering my mind.  Since we are dyers we have an amazing palette to work with, basically endless possibilities of color value and saturation.  I dyed some of our favorite and most useful Moon Tide colors (blues and grays), ones that we know will look great on our customer and sell well. The dyed swatches looked nice and pleasing to the eye, but drifted to the realm of boring. I was compelled to dye some more swatches, letting loose the idea of ‘what will sell’ and ‘what will look good’.  I pulled out two of our favorites; copper (orange) and butter cream (yellow) altered the dye recipe slightly and voila; bold, beautiful, daring color staring up at me. The proverb sneaking up on me again, and slowly the voice of reason dissolves.

There are certain choices that you make as a business owner and certain choices you make as an artist.  Finding a way to merge the two is the challenge, the struggle, and the delight.  As I return to my dye bucket, I allow the internal dialogue to continue.

Choose bold, and see what follows.

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Having a business is all about learning from experience.  Our blog will be a snapshot into these experiences.  So follow us into our little worlds as we continue to grow our current Moon Tide line as well as begin to break out into our own original one-of-a-kind pieces.  We rock!

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