esdesign Textile Design Award 2015 - Elise Brimer

This years' esdesign textile design award recipient is the super talented Elise Brimer at Massey University.We think it is so important to nurture and support the budding talent in New Zealand's design industry across all formats, so this esdesign prize is just one way that we feel we can congratulate awesome work like Elise's!

Here's a little about her collection, 'Common Thread' ;

In this collection, I wanted to encapsulate the energetic unity between the people of various cultures who call New Zealand home. New Zealand’s demographic is compiled of people from all areas of the world. Whether we are a citizen by birth or have migrated here - as equals we share the commonality of having a New Zealand identity. To communicate this I explored textile processes that are habitual to the five most numerous ethnicities that make up New Zealand’s ethnic demographic - Maori, Chinese, Samoan, Indian and New Zealand European. I experimented with Maori flax weaving, Chinese embroidery, Samoan tapa cloth processes, Indian block printing and French tapestry weaving and identified motifs which became key visual resources. These motifs were abstracted to avoid developing imagery that could offend people to whom these motifs have great cultural significance to. I have titled my collection Common Thread to infer the commonalities we share as New Zealanders whilst referencing my exploration and incorporation of motifs from textile processes primarily involving cloth and thread.

esdesign Textile Design Award 2013 'Baobab' by Alani McKenna

Alana's Boabab print was inspired by Baobab cafe in Newtown, Wellington. The main aspect of the print is the Baobab tree which is surrounded by African animals and observational drawings of the plants and leaves in the cafe's outside courtyard. All of which were drawn in a graphic linear style. Wanting to include some of the inside she pulled the colours from an image taken of the light shades inside the cafe.

This is the main piece of a screen printed collection for a sight based paper, that is part of the Textile Design Degree at Massey University.

The esdesign prize was created a few years ago to showcase Massey Textile Student’s work that is created as part of their course work.  Each year the students present their work and a winning fabric is selected. esdesign then reimburse the client for the cost of their fabric and printing.  The fabric is then made into product, sold through esdesign and the profit is given back to the winning student.

Alani hand screen-printed her fabric and we have made it into 8 beautiful cushions backed in a coordinating wool felt.  They also have lovely feather inners.  These are limited edition and ONLY 8 have been made.  They are now for sale and would make fabulous Christmas presents at $105 each.  Don’t miss out.

Bird Shades by Joug Design

This week we've had a flock of screen-printed linen lampshades hit the store from Joug Design, all featuring gorgeous native NZ bird illustrations. Come and check them out!

Feature Fabric Friday: Cloth

We're super excited to be able to share with you these divine hand screen printed fabrics by Australian textile company Cloth. We have long admired their gorgeous designs, and their furnishing fabrics are now readily available to the New Zealand market! They use water-based, non toxic inks and print onto great quality organic hemp and linen base cloths. Admire below, and contact us for more information!

Retro Wallpaper & Fabric Clearance

 Our cherished retro fabric and wallpaper designer 'Melinamade' has sadly stopped printing, so all the pieces we have left of her lovingly hand screen-printed goodies are up for grabs in store now!

It really is a matter of first in first served, as the remnants of both fabric and paper have been priced depending on their size, and are ready for new homes. They are perfect for cushions, lampshades, or stretched over canvases, and in most instances the remnants are large enough for all these applications. Once it's gone there's no more, so get in quick for your slice of retro heaven!

Award season at esdesign ........

Well Done Brit - Thank you to the Dominion for running a bit of a story about the new esdesign award. From Brit's fabric we made 10 limited edition cushions so pop on down and check them out before they all go - they make great Christmas pressies.