Easter

Wow, how great is the Easter holiday break? Getting four days off in a row is just the best - you can wind down, relax but you also have time to get stuff done. And I did sooo much - I baked (non-religious) buns (super old recipe from me here) and a pavlova, hung out with friends and family, enjoyed the autumn sunshine, went to a (city) beach, did some house painting and weeding AND did lots of sewing - some more work on a quilt pattern I'm developing, and I made two tunics from Lotta Jansdotta's Everyday Style book, which I bought ages ago - they're so comfortable, can't wait to make more (though excuse the dodgy phone/mirror selfie!) And I got heaps of sleep, so I now feel totally relaxed. Happy Tuesday :)

Lotta Inspiration

Lately I've been thinking about how I came to screen printing and what inspired me to start experimenting with my own designs and prints. Back in 2005 and 2006 the handmade & craft world was starting to get big and there were lots of inspiring books and blogs. When stumbled across Lotta Jansdotter, probably reading about her in a blog, I knew I'd found someone special.

Lotta is from Sweden,  a country which has a rich history of beautiful and stylish design, and she is much loved by the Japanese, also known for simple, natural and useful design. Lotta creates minimalist and often hand drawn designs and then prints many of her patterns onto fabric, often beautiful, raw flax linen. Back then she was into block printing, screen printing, stencilling and more. I bought lots of her books and swooned over pictures of her great studio workspace. 

Lotta's moved around a bit - she's from Sweden, lived in San Francisco for many years and is now based in Brooklyn, New York. When my boyfriend and I were planning a US trip last year, I couldn't believe my luck when I realised one of Lotta's few open studio days would coincide with us being in Brooklyn. Little did I know, she was also teaching a class at the studio on that day and I could have booked into it - somehow I missed this vital detail. But I was pretty happy just looking around at her workspace, seeing some of her beautiful products and I even saw Lotta herself, while she was teaching. 

Here are some of the photos I took there, and the last photo is of some Lotta fabric I bought years ago, totally love and just can't bare to chop up :)

X Susan