Etsy Holiday Shop

Back in october I was contacted by Etsy to take part in an amazing project, the Etsy Holiday Shop in New York, a pop-up shopping experience combining workshops, performances, art and of course a selection of items from Etsy sellers, including mine. I only wish they could've fedexed me to New York along with my pillows, as I would've loved to have been there, especially to see the great Reggie Watts!

There's my rainbow houses pillow at the right end of the couch.

You can read more about the shop in the Etsy Blog or check out their flickr photos of the event

Monday moodboard: Recycled cool

My first Monday moodboard. Recycled cool.

Decorative pillow made from vintage Kimono silk, from Kaftansarafan
Recycled tetrapak earrings by Manufactapaper
Recycled circuit board key ring by Recomputing
Recycled leather journal by BrotherWorks

You can check out all the other Monday moodboards at Star of the East's Blog

Thanks Jenny!

Many thanks to Jenny, who featured EarthLab on her blog, today. Jenny has a shop on Etsy, as well as a blog, Jenny the Artist where she features the work of various Etsy artists and crafters, she has a great selection!

Today it was the turn of my blush pink pillow with a houses print.

Thanks Jenny!

African inspired printed pillows

I've always been inspired by African art, and I own a number of beautiful examples, from sculpture to cloth. I love the boldness and simplicity of it, and I think it complements modern design perfectly.

So when I was getting into block printing and saw the beautiful Oshiwa printing blocks I was immediatly hooked. The Oshiwa designs were produced at their workshop in Namibia by three local craftsmen, and you can buy their hand carved wooden printing blocks from the Oshiwa shop on Etsy.

I have used my blocks to produce African inspired pillows, the first pillow is a bird and lizard design on natural linen, and the second features lizards and turtles, it's printed on fairtrade organic cotton from India.

I'm kind of proud of the fact that these pillows combine the skills of craftspeople from three continents, African woodcarvers, Indian weavers, and myself!

Earthlab's starfish pillow featured in Etsy's blog

What a great surprise to see my starfish pillow featured in the Get the Look Decor section of Etsy's blog.
You can read the full article here

Organic cotton collection

I seem to have been so busy making cushions this autumn that I've had no time to talk about it! So here it is, my new organic cotton collection, using fairtrade organic cotton made in India.

I've had a lot of fun combining the different fabrics in my pillow / cushion designs, I love the interplay of textures and the natural, rustic feel given by the small imperfections in the fabric.

These are just two of the designs which use natural earth tones in geometric patterns which fit well into just about any interior. They all use the same range of fabrics, meaning you can mix and match between them and be sure of getting a coordinated look. To see the full range visit my shop

The Oakleaf Pillow

I think the Oakleaf pillow may be one of my favourite designs, I really love the shape and texture of the oakleaves against the white cotton, as well as their mossy green colour. The appliques  actually take me ages to do because I machine stitch all the veins in the leaves, and sewing round the edge to attatch them to the pillow is pretty fiddly!

The result is worth it though.I gave a version of this pillow to my sister in law, her house in Tuscany is called "Querciatello". Quercia in Italian means oak tree, so I thought it was pretty appropriate!

Upgrading to Organic Cotton

I've always wanted to make my business as eco-friendly as possible, and up til now I've used a lot of eco felt made from recycled bottles, a material I love to work with for it's bright colours and
sustainability, people are always surprised and delighted to hear where the felt came from.

But I love the natural look and feel of cotton too, so I am taking a further step towards eco friendliness by introducing organic cotton for the designs which will be in my shop from September.

A statistic you hear a lot is that a massive 25% of the world's pesticides are used on cotton crops. That's truly staggering. These chemicals are extremely nasty, dangerous for the health of the workers who use them and for the environment as a whole. I want to do my part in changing this and I really believe that given a wider range of choices consumers will opt for alternatives too.

After a little research I found a supplier with a good range of organic fairtrade cottons, produced in India, many of them on handlooms. Whenever I've had a spare moment in the last few weeks I've been pulling out my little bundle of fabric samples and poring over them. I particularly love the crossweaves which you can see in the photo, made using two different colours of yarn woven together to make a beautiful grainy texture.

So far the process has been very exciting, and just looking at and touching the fabrics has been a great inspiration. Now I just have to wait for them to arrive so I can begin work, watch this space!

Question Mark Pillow

This question mark pillow is among my favourite designs, and one of the first I made. It's done entirely in recycled eco felt, with a touch of hand embroidery, it's loosely based on the idea of dividing cells.

I dedicated this pillow to my daughter, who asks a lot of questions, such as “can we keep this one, Mummy?”
Her curiosity is endless!

So it’s kind of a question about life (and in the words of the late great Douglas Adams, the universe, and everything). Profound or what?

Summer Sale Time!

July has been summer sale time in my Etsy shop, with 15% off all my products, including my summer beach collection.

I've had a great response to the sale, including a feature in the Etsy Finds email, which brought a lot of new visitors to my shop.

The sale continues until 31st of July :-)

Starfish Pillow

Every week I'm going to be highlighting one of my designs, first up is the Starfish Pillow.
Like most of my designs it was inspired by the natural forms of starfish, as well as the lovely blue and turquoise shades of felt. For a summery feel the main body of the pillow is in fresh white cotton.

If I ever have a beach house, this pillow is going in it!

For more information and photos just check out my Etsy shop.

Recycled Tetrapak Jewelry

Tetrapak is that ubiquitous material used in literally billions of drinks and other food cartons all over the world, it's made of layers of paper, plastic and aluminium foil.

Have you ever opened up one of those cartons to take a look inside? My friend Manuela, did just that one day when her milk finished, and the result is some jewelry of surprising beauty.

She used origami techniques to make the tetrapak into square bead shapes, which she made into earrings. I saw them, liked them, bought them, then asked her to make a necklace too.

I received my necklace today, it's lovely! The worked tetrapak resembles silvery leather. It's very lightweight, and perfect for summer. I love the idea that she uses a material normally discarded and creates something beautiful.

Manuela also makes jewelry using the same techniques on  recycled or handmade paper, if you'd like to know more do take a look at her Etsy shop, Manufactapaper

Etsy Front Page!

A few days ago, Earthlab made the front page on Etsy, yay!
It doesn't happen very often so it made me happy, here's the treasury: