Blog - Cotton & Flax

portland

Featured Stockist: Mantel in Portland, OR

Beautiful merchandising - Mantel in PortlandI’m happy to announce a new retail stockist in my hometown of Portland, Oregon: Mantel. This lovely brick and mortar shop carries beautiful gifts; a mixture of handcrafted work, minimal design objects for the home, and high quality jewelry and other accessories.

Beautiful retail shop - Mantel in PortlandMantel - retail shop in Portland Karen McClelland founded MANTEL in 2016, and she brings an eye for design and craftsmanship to curating a collection of homewares and lifestyle products. Located in a refurbished historical building, MANTEL offers an eclectic mix of products ranging from modern ceramics and jewelry to rebuilt mid-century radios. You’ll find a selection of Cotton & Flax tea towels and coasters tucked alongside other handmade work from west coast makers like Melanie Abrantes, Betsy + Iya, and The Granite.

Mantel - Retail shop in Portland, OR Cotton & Flax tea towel Beautiful retail display - Mantel PDXMantel - Store MerchandiseThe owner of the shop has roots in Portland — she was a ceramics teacher in the Portland Public Schools system for several years. Her dedication to Portland’s young artists continues in her new shop: Karen plans to dedicate a portion of her store to artwork (she’s hoping for ceramics) made by students of nearby Jefferson High School. The student artists will get 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of their items. What a lovely opportunity for young makers!

Mantel - gift shop in PortlandIf you live near the Kenton neighborhood in Portland, stop by Mantel to grab gifts, or a special piece for yourself!

Creating patterned notebooks with Scout Books

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

If you follow Cotton & Flax on social media, you may have seen previews of a new product that debuts on Monday: patterned pocket-sized notebooks! I was so excited to partner with Scout Books to expand their collection of artist-designed notebooks, and to add these new pieces to the Cotton & Flax collection.

While I was in Portland in April, I met with the team at Scout Books as we worked to put the finishing touches on our collaboration. I had the pleasure of touring the Scout Books headquarters, and getting a look behind the scenes in their offices and workshop. You may have seen the photos I took over on Instagram, and Meg from Scout Books sent over a few extra photos for me to share.

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

Scout Books creates custom notebooks using 100% recycled papers in their SE Portland studio. After combing their archives, I was impressed with the wide variety of projects they’ve taken on over the years – so many awesome notebooks designs created in collaboration with some of my favorite artists!

The collection we created for this collaboration consists of seven notebooks, four gold and three light blue. The team at Scout Books worked with me to match the gold ochre and light blue inks with the fabrics I use for my collection. After looking around the Scout Books studio, I was really impressed with how efficient their setup is. It was so cool to see the presses in action, and to see how the notebooks were made.

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

Cotton & Flax at Scout Books

The new notebooks will officially debut in the shop on Monday! If you’re planning to attend the National Stationery Show in New York this week, stop by booth #1340 to say hello to the Scout Books team, and see these notebooks in person. I’m a huge stationery nerd, so I wish I could be there in person – instead, I’ll just be cheering from the sidelines, and following along on Instagram.

Don’t forget to sign up for email updates, so you’ll be first to know when the new notebooks go on sale.

Art Print collaboration with Schoolhouse Electric

Schoolhouse Electric Fall

Before I founded Cotton & Flax, I worked primarily as a fine artist, selling my prints, drawings, and collages online under my full name, Erin Dollar. Since then, Cotton & Flax has taken up most of my free time, and I haven’t released new artwork for sale since 2011. This week, I can finally share an awesome collaboration I did with Schoolhouse Electric, a fantastic lighting and home decor company based in my hometown, Portland, Oregon. They just released their new Fall catalog today, and guess who has a print featured in their new collection?

Underground - Erin Dollar

This is an image I created back in 2011, when I was exploring imagery surrounding old stratigraphic charts, and the mysteries of what’s buried underground. You can see that I was also developing some patterns in this image, as each layer features a different tone and pattern.

Schoolhouse Electric

If you live in Portland, stop by the Schoolhouse Electric showroom to see all the art they’ve added to their collection. I am excited to be featured among talented artists like Becca Stadtlander and Shanna Murray! If you don’t live near Portland, you can check out all their new art offerings online!

Studio Tour – Pinball Publishing

I was lucky to get a small tour of the Pinball Publishing studios while I was in Portland a few weeks ago. They make tons of amazing work using both offset lithography and letterpress, including their famous Scout Books (my boyfriend loves the 33 Bottles of Beer Journal!)

I really admire this print shop, both for their awesome creative team, and their dedication to making awesome things in a sustainable way. A little about Pinball, in their own words:

Pinball is a Creative Publishing Company.

Our Portland, Oregon headquarters include an integrated printing plant, design studio, editorial offices, and a book manufacturing facility. Within its walls, we combine craft and ingenuity to produce results of the highest quality.

Fueled by a passion for ink, paper, and collaboration, Pinball powers a growing web of interconnected projects, including Scout Books, Print Pinball, and Bangback. With all of these endeavors, we use 100% recycled papers, vegetable-based inks, and renewable energy sources.

Even more awesome: they are super kind to animals! Some of the employees bring their pets to work, like this awesome pup who was acting as shop mascot the day I visited.

I have been dreaming about their insane ink storage area ever since my visit… can you imagine having so much ink?! I wish my studio was even a fraction as awesome as the one at Pinball.

*All photos borrowed from the Pinball Publishing website, except the final two photos, which are my own.

Studio Tour: BT Livermore at Magnetic North

photo taken by BT Livermore

In an effort to stay close to my roots as an artist working in the real world, I want to begin a new feature here on the Cotton & Flax blog: studio tours! While I was visiting Portland, Oregon a few weeks ago, my friend BT Livermore gave me a tour of his new communal studio space in NE Portland, Magnetic North.

BT Livermore is a talented printmaker, sign painter, and illustrator, who I met back in my beard-obsessed post-college days (BT co-owns a moustache wax company called Man’s Face Stuff along with Evan Dumas). He recently moved into a new studio space, called Magnetic North, that also serves as a studio space for artists Mary Kate McDevitt, Fred DiMeglio, KB Sawyer, and Lacey Van Nortwick.

Magnetic North is a great space for these creatives, they have space to tackle a wide range of projects. In addition to having their own desk area, there is space to screenprint, a tabletop letterpress complete with type, a small laboratory corner for creating moustache wax, and lots of table space to spread out and draw or paint.

Printmakers require ink, certainly.

photo taken by BT Livermore

Another of BT’s hand painted signs. And below, a large hand painted sign in progress.

There is a small retail space up front, which sells original art, prints, and even moustache wax.

And outside, you’ll see more hand painted signage inviting you into the shop. Mary Kate McDevitt and Fred DiMeglio created the beautiful window, made using windows reclaimed from a 100+ year old house in Portland. It lets in lots of light, and lends charm to a space already loaded with personality.

Check out the Magnetic North Blog, or visit BT Livermore’s Website, Blog, or Twitter.

Field Trip: Bolt Fabric in Portland, Oregon

Bolt Fabric Boutique Tour - Cotton & Flax

While I was visiting Portland last week, I had an opportunity to visit one of my favorite fabric shops in the Pacific Northwest: Bolt Fabric Boutique. Located in the Alberta Arts District in NE Portland, Bolt is near my old stomping grounds (my old print studio was just blocks away). It’s a great little neighborhood shop, and the employees always make an effort to remember you, and what projects you were last working on.

Bolt Fabric Boutique - Cotton and Flax

Their selection of fabrics is fantastic, the staff has a great curatorial eye, and keeps the shop stocked with all the best new designs. It’s not the largest fabric shop (Fabric Depot out in SE Portland has got them beat, square footage wise), but they manage to fill the space with so many awesome fabrics, it’s hard to leave without buying at least a fat quarter of something.

Liberty of London at Bolt Fabrics - Cotton & Flax

They stock some beautiful Liberty of London prints, of course.

These quilting cottons from Denise Schmidt’s new Chicopee collection caught my eye as well.

Bolt offers a full-range of supplies for sewing, quilting and craft projects, and their fabrics are selected purposefully to be versatile so they can be used in applications ranging from quilts to garments to bags and accessories. They have all the basics (like this rainbow of Gutermann thread above), as well as tools for more advanced projects.

They have a great selection of DIY books, too!

I love that Bolt is committed to sustainable practices. They cut fabric to 1/8th of a yard to help reduce waste, they’ve eliminated packaging when feasible and offer most tapes, elastics, ribbons and embellishments in bulk, so you get exactly what you need without excess packaging or materials. They carry a broad selection of natural fibers, as well as organic and alternative fabrics, such as soy and bamboo.

If you’re in the Portland area, you really should drop by Bolt (2136 NE Alberta St. Portland, OR 97211). Check out their website and their blog to learn more about this awesome shop.