April 15th marks the Pink Full Moon and lunar eclipse! The lunar eclipse will begin at 2am with the moon glowing a vibrant pink/reddish hue. So keep your gaze to the starry sky for this cosmic display. This is also the day we will be on a plane to India, maybe we’ll get an even closer glimpse =) Until then, here are some beautiful art collages by Jesse Treece of moons that will take you on a different trip!
We couldn’t be more excited to work and collaborate with Bangkok’s dream team on our first lookbook! The location was lush and beautiful in contrast of the big bustling city that it was in. The vibrant colors of our clothing line, and indigenous fabrics and patterns just radiated amongst all the greenery.
Find these amazing pieces in the shop!
Photographer: Cynthia Barbachano
Makeup artist: Khao Kwankao
Styling: New Crop
I’ve had a chance to get connected with Mihaela Noroc of Beauty Around the World Project, and though we were not able to organize a date we could both be in Bangkok, I still have to share her amazing project! The Beauty Around the World project combines her passion for fashion photography with her passion for travel. Her intentions are to travel to 35 countries in 16 months and capture the diverse beauty of local women in all the places she discovers. Such cultural beauties fill her tumblr, and it’s such an inspiring space to appreciate and celebrate our cultural differences and similarities.
We’re scheduled to return back to the U.S. in August and I’m already bracing myself for the transition. I am however looking forward to being able to grow my book collection again. The images above are by Neil Krug one of our all time favorite photographers. His photography book is something we always had on our coffee table. His images has so much depth, you almost, always see something different each time you look at them.
Danmala designer Kathy creates inspiring art with nature’s abundance of life and beauty. Her process is purely therapeutic for both the creator and the receiver of her art. She transcends into a meditative state as she collects the natural elements around her.
“Her inspiration is given from the golden sound residing within perfect silence. They are reflections of the inexpressible, a gesture which points towards life’s abundance, an unspoken verse of Love. The danmalas remind us all to listen to the unheard voice of nature, creation, and the eternal mystery.”
Meet Sophie, an artist, avid painter, and fellow textile lover of Magic Carpet Yoga Mats. Inspired by traditional and ethnic rug designs, she created an outlet for her passion in painting and transformed her paintings of ethnic rug patterns into sustainably printed yoga mats. Combing art with yoga just made sun salutations that much more beautiful. She’s captured the eyes of art enthusiasts and yogis alike such as Oprah Magazine and Fitness Magazine. Her Magic Carpet Yoga mats have also landed a spot on Anthropologie’s shelves! I think she’s doing a few things right 😉 Sophie is truly a humble and inspiring being, she shares with us advice on following our bliss, and being a creative entrepreneur.
Sophie loving on some textiles
Painting on paper then printed onto a yoga mat
Many creatives struggle with honing in on one craft and mastering it. They find that they are a jack of all trades and a master at none. Did you find yourself at this position before? Or have you always focused on being a painter?
I’ve definitely found myself in this position before! My excitement for different projects often feels impeding to focusing on just one trade, skill, or medium. I focused on painting in college and use these skills in Magic Carpet Yoga Mats, but am also very interested in sculpture, installation, and performance art. My studio mate Faye Kendall and I currently operate as a collective called The Dog and Wolf and actively create collaborative installation work together.
What made you decide on yoga mats as a medium for your beautiful paintings?
The idea for Magic Carpet Yoga Mats initially came as a desire to see rug imagery on yoga mats. Since I am a painter, it then followed to paint these designs.
For starting art-entrepreneurs keeping sane and balance is key. What is your advice for fueling their creative side, and your advice on sharpening their business side.
This is a tricky one! I can’t say I’ve found this balance yet for myself. It always seems like the administrative tasks take up so much more time than anticipated and getting into the studio becomes difficult some weeks. I’ve found that keeping certain days as holy, studio days, can be very helpful. I’m also working on being less hard on myself for not making it into the studio as often as I would like, or for delaying some administrative tasks so that the creative ones may hold precedent.
It’s a saturated marketing online and offline, what is our advice for artists/artisans and creatives alike on making your craft stand out?
My advice here is to be consistent with your branding and have all of your sites (website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) linked to each other. Also, connect with your network of peers online! We are each other’s best allies. 🙂
Lastly, what’s manifetsting for MCYM in 2014?
I am hard at work on new yoga mat designs for this year and next! We are also developing some secret-for-now new products for hot yoga enthusiasts, moms, dads, and more. This summer you will also see some creative partnerships with other designers on our site. Stay tuned!
Photo credit: Olivia Vale Photography & Ana Mercedes Photography, Model is Ceci Alejandra, Styling by Shari Gerstenberger, and make up by Erin Freeman.
I should write Shae Detar a love letter for the beautiful and obscure grandeur she puts out there. A constant inspiration for us, she mixes film photography with paint and her images straddle the fence between watercolor dreams and reality. Pure magic!
Check out more of her work here.
Two beautiful worlds collide with these images. I was captivated by how alien these orbs of spheres looked photographed against beautiful landscapes. In the video Denis explained his background in a demanding sales job, a destructive cycle of drinking to suppress the anxiety of his high pressure lifestyle, and red bulls throughout the day to keep him awake through this monotonous cycle, until one day he saw the light. Literally. They were in the process of moving where in between he found time to pick up a camera and gravitated towards what he found exciting and freeing. Truly an inspiration for creative Independence, and how artists and or creatives alike who find themselves in a cube the majority of their days can start to feel depressed. It’s your intuition telling you there’s something more, something that will liberate you so much it gives you goosebumps. It may not be on the list of “job options” they presented to you in grade school when you were first asked the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” As I get older, I realized this shouldn’t have been a list of options, but a fill in the blank/s exercise.
Learn more about the process of light painting in the video, or see more on Denis Smith’s site.
Sally England reincarnated one of my favorite parts about the 70’s, macrame! Her modern approach combines knotting with some weaving to create bold patterns and textures. I love the simplicity of it all and it’s organic aesthetic. Rope, knots, and sometimes wooden beads feeding our nostalgia for the decade best know as “The Great Awakening”!
I’ve always appreciated the craftsmanship that went into our Hmong textiles. From the meticulous cross-stitching, to the embroidery, and their Batik techniques. Today we decided to learn first hand from Hmong artisans about the Batik techniques that I love so much in not only in our textiles but also in our wanderer ponchos. All I can say is wow, these women have great attention to detail, a deep knowledge to meanings of patterns, along with very steady hands! The Batik dying process includes tools handmade in their village which had different size points for making lines. Kind of reminded me of calligraphy pens! They use it to dip into beeswax that is harvested from their village. The beeswax is melted over a clay pot of fire which in time will turn black. They then draw their traditional patterns on a hand drawn grid all from memory. Specific patterns had different meanings and the one we are drawing below means good luck and protection for a baby, which they use to stitch into a baby carrier. I told her I didn’t have a baby yet, then she replied “When you do, bring your baby to our village”.
After the pattern is drawn, we then dip it into indigo which is harvested from their land. Winhus pictured below is showing us the indigo leaves prior to mixing it with ash and water to create the dye. From here the process can take days to weeks depending on preferred hue of indigo. You dip, then hang dry, and dip again. Once you have achieved the hue you prefer, you then dip the fabric into boiling water to melt off the wax and reveal the contrast of patterns. Ta-da! All the women in this tribe are such talented artisans and take much pride in their work. After months of working on one piece they then take it to the market to sell. Talk about delayed gratification! What a beautiful and slow process each piece is. They mentioned most of the kids in the village have started to lose interest in learning and is most interested in modern technology. Therefore only the older women in the village still hold this knowledge of their traditional Batik technique and through their textiles they work to preserve remnants of their culture.
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