Studio Notes

Over the past few weeks, my studio has looked like a silk explosion – I’ve been deep in my largest batch of Tie Prints ever. This time I started with over 300 vintage ties (!!), so having a good system was absolutely essential.

Step One: Deconstruction + Pre-Sorting

First things first: all of the ties get fully deconstructed, with the silk carefully preserved. Once that’s done, I do a rough pre-sort by colour and value. Here’s a peek at the piles I ended up with – it’s like a beautiful, chaotic rainbow of potential.

Step Two: Pressing (aka The Stinky Step)

Each tie piece needs to be pressed before anything else can happen. Not gonna lie – this step comes with some... aromas. As soon as the steam hits the silk, various scents rise up: old colognes, dusty storage vibes, and mysterious eau de vintage. It’s all part of the charm (sort of).

Step Three: Breaking It Down

Most ties break down into three sections: the wide end, the skinny end, and the middle. As I press, I stack each piece neatly by section, keeping everything in order. Later on, I’ll want to reunite all the pieces of each tie, so staying organized now makes a big difference.

Step Four: Cutting with Care

Next up: cutting! I aim for as little waste as possible, so I embrace the natural irregularities of the fabric. I cut a few different lengths of ‘bars’ or strips, depending on what the tie gives me. Again, everything stays in the same order – I’m always thinking a few steps ahead.

Step Five: Mini Test Scarves

Here’s where things get exciting: I make a batch of test scarves using one piece from each tie. These little testers are my new minis – compact, colourful, and full of clues about what’s working (and what’s not).

The print (aka the dyes that are transferred from the silk to the wool) is often not what you'd expect just from looking at the tie fabric – this is especially true with blues. Sneaky!

Step Six: The Great Tie Cull

Once the testers are done, I analyze them to death. If any tie isn’t working nicely, all of its pieces get pulled out. The remaining pieces are re-sorted into new groups based on colour and value. This time I ended up with four groups: lights, mediums, high contrast, and darks.

Step Seven: The Fun Begins

Finally, the real magic starts: composing each full-sized scarf. I lay out the tie pieces, referring back to the testers for guidance. Once I’m happy with the flow and feel, the pieces are picked up in order and reassembled on a length of wool gauze, ready for the print transfer process.

The prep is long, repetitive work – but honestly, it’s the perfect time to catch up on podcasts or binge-listen to a good TV series. And by the time I get to the composition stage, I’m so ready to dive into the creative part.

✨ Finished scarves + minis are online now! ✨

Every late December into early January, I set aside time to deep-clean + reset my studio – organizing, sorting + preparing for a fresh creative start.

At the same time, I gather up all of the tiny bits of 'Treasure' – those precious leftover wool pieces too small for planned collections but too special to discard. 

I love to use these bits to create Allsorts Cushions – especially Improv Squares. It's not the most efficient process, but the results are always worth it. Plus, it's the perfect way to ease back into my studio routine. 

Once I've collected all of the Treasure, the first step is sorting – by colour, size and potential pairing possibilities. Here you can see a pile of random (unsorted) scraps surrounded by stacks of colours that I'm creating as I sort. 

I use the smallest pieces to create the first border or layer. For each square, I need four related pieces of wool + I try to find ones that are the right length to minimize waste.  My goal is to make each square unique + end up with wide range of combinations + obvious variety.  At the same time, I'm committed to using only Treasure – without pulling anything new from my shelves or bins. These self-imposed constraints push me to find creative solutions leading to unexpected colour combinations I never would have planned.

Once all the pieces are sewn together, I trim the edges. Then loosely sort + arrange all of the squares by colour – in preparation for the next step.

Then it's time to start composing each cushion - deciding on colours for the second borders or layers, balancing contrast + picking out the perfect centres.  Again, I look for four wool pieces that are the right size + similar enough in colour and value to work together. 

I compose each cushion one at a time + carefully keep all of the blocks in order as I sew + trim.  Over the course of several days, I create as many pleasing compositions as I can. I always have blocks left over + I set them aside as a head start for next time. 

After two weeks of sorting, piecing + sewing, I created 13 new Allsorts Squares cushions.  And the best part? At least two of them have sparked ideas for brand-new collections. I can't wait to see where they lead – stay tuned!

By special request, here's a quick video my niece took, showing how I like to tie scarves. This is the method I share in person at shows...

I thought it would be fun to document the behind the scenes of my booth set up at Circle Craft a couple of weeks ago...  

One of the things I love about setting up in Vancouver is that I ship everything to the show + my crate is waiting in my booth when I arrive.  At most shows I first need to unload everything from my van parked outside, dollying several trips back + forth, which adds an hour or so. 

When I arrive to set up my booth at a show, there is 'pipe + drape" {essentially curtains on rickety stands}, a bare concrete floor + a power outlet. That's it! Everything else – including lighting, flooring, shelving, etc. – is provided by me!

Being self sufficient in packing, hauling, setting up + tearing down is important.  I do all this by myself.

This series of photos show my progress throughout the day as the booth comes together. Of course there were a few tweaks made over the course of the show...but this was my basic set up. It's hard to believe that everything you see {+ all of the other cushions hiding in the back!} fit into my crate!

When the show is over, the 'tear down' happens much faster!  It only takes me about 2.5 hours to take everything apart + get it all packed back up in my crate for shipping. Possibly not as neatly as the first time, but there is usually a bit of extra space available! ;-)