Etsy Find of the Day: Gillian Bates

I fell hard for British "designer/maker" Gillian Bates's embroidered art pieces after I saw them on the UK-based Not Mass Produced recently. Happily, I just discovered that Bates also has an Etsy shop where she sells postcard-sized reproductions of her charming and intricate stitchery-on-canvas art. Above: Marine Court With Lady

Brighton Pier

Marine Court

Eastbourne Pier

Four 99s Please!

I Love Ice Cream

Each 4-by-6-inch postcard is printed onto tactile cotton canvas and costs just $5. Generously matted, framed, and hung in a grouping of three or more, these would have a lot of impact for very little expense. (Who says you can't fill your home with interesting art when you're on a tight budget?)

Check out all of Bates's Etsy offerings right here -- and see more of her work here.

How to: Make a Snowflakes-and-Oranges Window Hanging

I'm off to run a bunch of errands this morning. (Ugh -- DMV, anyone?) In the meantime, I'll leave you with a rerun of a fun and simple holiday craft project from last year, in case any of you missed it:

Atomic Garden, one of my favorite shops here in Oakland, has the prettiest window displays. Just like the store itself, they're simple, natural, and lovely.

The eco-friendly housewares-and-clothing boutique's current window candy is a clever and beautiful assemblage of crocheted snowflakes, yarn pom-poms, and dried oranges hung from a gently gnarled tree branch.

Here's how to make one of your own -- perfect for dressing a window for the holidays or simply brightening up the view during the dreary winter days ahead.

You'll need:
* A tree branch measuring three-quarters of an inch or more in diameter and about the width of the window you want to hang it in. (Pick up a fallen branch the next time you're out for a walk or a hike, save one when you trim your trees, or buy one from a floral-supply shop or online.)

* Two to three ceiling hooks for suspending the branch. (You could also slip the branch into wall-mounted curtain brackets.)

* A spool of fine twine, waxed cord, or fishing line.

* A large, sturdy needle, such as an embroidery or darning needle.

* A selection of crocheted snowflakes. (You can create your own if you're especially crafty or simply use cloth doilies -- I spotted several for a couple bucks apiece at my local fabric store yesterday -- paper snowflakes made from medium- to heavyweight paper, or snowflake-shaped ornaments.)

* Fabric starch or craft glue.

* A section of golfball- to tennis-ball-sized pom-poms. (Make your own with yarn, craft them from tissue paper, pick up a bag of fuzzy pom-poms at a craft store, or simply substitute a few white ball ornaments.)

* Dried orange slices. (They're easy to make at home, or you can buy them from a specialty grocer. Dried pineapple slices would also work.)

Instructions:
* Screw the hooks into the ceiling, making sure they're anchored well. Loop lengths of twine, cord, or fishing line over the hooks, tying them securely. Tie the other ends around the tree branch so that it hangs across the top of your window. (Or simply remove the curtain rod from the window and slip the ends of the branch into the curtain brackets.)

* Depending on the width of your branch and how many snowflakes, pom-poms, and oranges you want to hang, tie several lengths of cord around the branch with the ends trailing down. Vary the lengths randomly so that the longest hits the bottom of the window and the others are shorter.

* If you're using cloth snowflakes or doilies, douse them with laundry starch or dab them with craft glue mixed with a bit of water and pin them flat so that they dry stiff.

* Once they're dry, tie the snowflakes onto the cord at varying heights.

* Using your sturdy needle with the cord threaded through, hang the pom-poms at varying heights. If your window is wider than it is tall, one pom-pom per length of cord is fine. If the window is tall and narrow, hang a few pom-poms from each cord, spacing them out randomly and tying the cord beneath each to keep it in place. (If you're using ball ornaments, simply thread the cord through the loop at the top of the ornament and tie it securely.)

* Finally, thread the remaining lengths of cord with orange slices. Poke the threaded needle through the flesh of the orange near the top and tie the cord to hold the orange slices in place.

Enjoy!

(Thanks to Jamie and Erin at Atomic Garden for walking me through this.)

Readers: If you have a simple DIY project to share, send me photos and instructions and I'll be happy to feature it here!

Mark Your Calendar: Diem Chau and Danielle Giudici Wallis at Mark Wolfe Contemporary

Opening tonight, November 6, at Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art in San Francisco: Simultaneous solo exhibitions from Seattle's Diem Chau and local sculptor Danielle Giudici Wallis.

Chau (previously blogged here), creates incredibly intricate and beautiful embroidered china and impossibly tiny and delicate carvings from crayons and pencils. Her work "drifts into new territory by exploring the periphery of the narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain." I simply think it's breathtaking.

Giudici Wallis's "surrealistic sculptural works explore 'place' and domesticity through the use of architectural references," toying with "the distance between private and public, interior and exterior, and physical versus psychological space."

The shows will be up at Mark Wolfe through December 24. Click here for more information.

Etsy Find of the Day: Wonder Thunder

I'm really enjoying these tongue-in-cheek textiles from Etsy seller Wonder Thunder (aka Seattle designers Sasha Barr and Meagan Claire Hall), discovered via Modern Craft. Above: Ice Cream Pillow Cover, $26

Embroidered Yearbook Patches, $10 each

Octopus's Accident Pillow Cover, $25

Mouse Napkins, $32 for four

Carrot Coasters, $10 for two

Broken Fork Mystery Napkins, $32 for four

Haunted Cloud Pillow Cover, $25

Eggway to the Moon Placemats, $22 for two

Check out all of Wonder Thunder's Etsy offerings right here.

Etsy Find of the Day: Selflesh

You know what a sucker I am for art that incorporates stitchery (see Lisa Solomon, Diem Chau, and Cathy Cullis). So of course I'm all over these pieces by Etsy seller Selflesh (aka Rangeley, Maine mixed-media artist Shannon Rankin). I especially love how they use thread to literally depict the bonds of the heart and the way we become ensnared in each other's intricate webs. Strings attached -- there always are. Above: Original Anatomy Map Collage, $45

Original Anatomy Map Collage, $100

Original Anatomy Map Collage, $45

Body hand-embroidered print, $20

Tangled Web map collage print, $20

Seaside Series II set of four prints, $35

Check out all of Rankin's Etsy offerings right here -- and see more of her work here.

Etsy Find of the Day: Nesting Emily Pottery

Organically gorgeous stoneware pottery from Ontario, Canada Etsy seller Nesting Emily. The combination of embroidery and other mediums, or felted wool for any reason at all, gets me every single time. Above: Dreams Vase, $65

Stitch in Time Vase, $45

Silver Birch Tree Vase, $45, and Snowy Walk Vase, $35

Out of Hibernation Vase, Cloud Watching and Chocolate Eating Vase, and Sway Vase, $35 each

See all of Nesting Emily's Etsy offerings right here.

Etsy Find of the Day: Cathy Cullis Mixed-Media Textile Art

I don't know what it is about embroidery used in non-traditional ways (remember Diem Chau's amazing embroidered china?), but I just can't get enough of it right now. So when I saw the delicately beautiful mixed-media needlework pieces (like Midnight Stitches, $70, above) from London's Cathy Cullis, I fell hard and fast.

Cullis layers her creations using stitchery, vintage fabric scraps, book pages, and found papers. The loose threads give these a wistful quality that, quite literally, tugs at my heart. Take a look:

Tea and Cakes, $70

We May Be Trusted, $80

Give and Take My Love, $70

Each piece is mounted on 8-by-10-inch artist board and is ready to frame. See all of the textile art in Cullis' Etsy shop (she has another Etsy storefront called Novembermoon where she sells beautiful handmade fabric dolls and original paintings, too).

And check out more of Cullis' work right here.

The Artful Home: Diem Chau

I'm absolutely fascinated by these embroidered china pieces by Seattle artist Diem Chau, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam when she was a child.

In the artist's own words, her work "combines common mediums and common means to create delicate vignettes of fleeting memory, gesture and form ... exploring the periphery of narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain."

I simply love the interplay of materials -- the hard, glossy porcelain juxtaposed against the soft, delicate, hand-rendered stitchery. In a word: Breathtaking.

Take a look:

See more of Chau's work right here.

eBay Find of the Day: Otomi Textiles

I wrote a few weeks ago about Jacaranda Home's collection of vibrant Otomi fabrics -- and have since discovered that you can find the unusual and colorful bedspreads, table runners, and other textiles from Hidalgo, Mexico's Otomi Indians on eBay as well.

The Mexican Textiles Museum Store is an eBay shop devoted to all things Otomi -- and an offshoot of the Mexican Indigenous Textile Documentation Project, an independent effort "to preserve the endangered textile memory of Mexico" and to help sustain the Otomi women's collective that embroiders these fabrics.

Each handcrafted cotton muslin piece takes weeks for the women to assemble, and the designs are said to be based on ancient cliff paintings from the Tepehua-Otomi Mountains in the area. At top: Multicolored queen bedspread, 75 by 74 inches, "Buy it Now" for $250 or make your best offer (a relatively new eBay feature that allows you to haggle with sellers)

Coral Queen Bedspread, 76 by 73 inches, $250 or best offer

Yellow Queen Bedspread, 71 by 74 inches, $250 or best offer

Blue Table Runner, 17 by 70 inches, $75 or best offer

Pink Wall Hanging, which can also be made into a pillow cover or used to upholster a chair cushion or a footstool, 35 by 28 inches, $80 or best offer

See all of the Otomi textiles in eBay's Mexican Textiles Museum Store.