Behind the Scenes

2015 was a year of fun challenges for Cotton & Flax. I tackled another trade show (NY Now), expanded into licensing my designs, taught workshops, and moved into a lovely little studio in Northeast Los Angeles. This month, I moved out of that wonderful studio, and promptly realized that I never shared the full studio tour here on the blog! Whoops! Time flies — hopefully you’ll still enjoy this glimpse into Cotton & Flax HQ.

I persuaded my friend Jessica Comingore to hop up on a ladder to photograph me at work over the summer — she was a great sport while shooting this studio series for West Elm’s blog.
One of the things I loved most about this studio was the light! The huge windows kept things bright and sunny all day long. A great environment for happy plants and a happy artist. This long table is where I cut down fabric and sew printed fabrics into finished products.

I did tons of printing in this studio, and my printing table is was the perfect place to print each panel of fabric that was made into a Cotton & Flax product.

You might be surprised that my studio was only 220 sq. ft! I was able to do tons of printing projects here, and while this screenprinting area isn’t spacious, it was a great exercise in making the most of a small space. You can see my screen storage area under the printing table, where I stored all the screens that featured Cotton & Flax designs.

I stored products and fabric on shelves along one of the long walls, and it was nice to see my work on display on a regular basis.

The large tabletop is perfect for spreading out and working on large projects. I kept a painted portrait of my cat Frida over my desk, which was painted by my studiomate, Keiko Brodeur.

I’ll really miss this studio! I moved the studio down to San Diego this month, and I’m already missing the vibrant neighborhood of Highland Park, and the friendly faces of my studiomates. I’ve moved into a small studio in San Diego, and I’m excited to get it unpacked, and hopefully share another tour of Cotton & Flax HQ when everything gets settled in.

I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your support of Cotton & Flax this year! I feel so lucky to pursue my creative work full time, and I couldn’t do it without my community behind me. Thanks for your kind words on social media, for telling your friends and family about my work, and for adding Cotton & Flax pieces to your homes!

It’s a busy time of year, and many of us are feeling overwhelmed by everything going on around us. I’ve been fighting the stress of this crazy year by spending time at home with loved ones, donating to organizations that support civil liberties, and buying holiday gifts from my favorite local artists and neighborhood shops that I want to see thrive. There are tons of reasons to shop small, and I hope you’ll join me in supporting the small businesses and causes that you love this season.

Happy holidays!

It’s been a busy few months at Cotton & Flax, as I moved into a new studio space, and transitioned from my home studio to a shared studio environment. I love the new studio so much – it’s twice the size of my tiny home studio, and I get to see my friends, Keiko, Malachi, and Lisa on a daily basis.

I’ll be sharing a studio tour soon – my friend Jessica was kind enough to come shoot the space on an exceptionally tidy day. Until then, you can see sneak peeks over on Instagram!

After four years of cutting, printing, and sewing Cotton & Flax products from my home studio, I’m excited to share that I’m moving into a new studio this month! The studio space is part of a larger shared studio that also houses illustrator and stationery maker Small Adventure (who you may know as one of my long-time maker friends who I’ve done in-person sales and events with in the past), as well as comic artist Malachi Ward and and writer Lisa Butterworth.

I’m still getting things set up in the studio, but I’ll be posting updates over on Instagram as the space comes together! Looking forward to hosting some classes and other events in the studio soon.

April was a big teaching month for me! I taught two workshops, one private workshop at an awesome creative company downtown, another at Makers Mess. Sharing my love of printmaking with others is such a privilege, and I can’t wait til my next workshop (TBD, likely sometime in July here in Los Angeles).

Another April highlight was chatting with Sarah Cooley for her podcast, From Maker to Manufacturing. We covered a lot of ground in our chat, and it was great to talk about the sometimes maddening process of growing Cotton & Flax from a smaller e-commerce brand to having my work carried in shops all over the United States.

This month, I have a lot of travel plans — visiting New York to check out a few trade shows, and then headed back to Portland to spend some time with friends and family. I’ll be ramping up studio production quite a bit, as well, to get new products ready for West Coast Craft, which takes place June 11th and 12th in San Francisco. Can’t wait for all the fun projects I have in store for summer!