A Special Project

I have some talented friends and Jay Dee Dearness is no exception.

Now freshly refurbished, these vintage armchairs originally belonged to her late great-grandmother.

At the time of her passing, the chairs were in desperate need of TLC and Jay Dee, being the artistic soul that she is, decided to design a fabric especially to recover the chairs.

To help keep her grandmother's memory alive, the pattern was developed from a motif taken from the stain-glass windows of the grandmother's Queenslander home. The colour we printed was quite subtle but overall created a lovely effect and texture.

Jay Dee (on right) arrived at the Thea & Sami studio prepared with large screen, inks and fabric and with a knowledge of screen-printing because skilled labour is short around these parts.

Ready-set-go! I'm certain that Jay Dee must be proud to be the screen-printer as well as the designer of the fabric. You can read more about the project over at Jay Dee's blog.

We also printed the design on tea-towels. The white on natural linen looks so different, doesn't it?

Now, before you all start asking if we screen-print for other people, the answer is regrettably N-O because printing for Thea & Sami is keeping us busy enough! However, I can recommend other fabric printers or teach you how to screen-print. Check out my website for available class dates.

Why print for Jay Dee? Well, if you must know, she has helped me out in my hour of (screen-printing) need in the past so called in the favour. Oh dear, I don't mean to make her sound like "the Godmother" as I am grateful for my sweet friends.

Jay Dee is an artist, printmaker and Brisbane gallery owner so you may like to visit her other blog too: Myrtle Street Gallery.

I See Red

Am I the only one who is seeing red? I seem to be using more red ink than any other colour lately. I have become obsessed with screen-printing red designs.

What joy! After having these 2 vintage armchairs in my studio for almost two years, I have finally fulfilled my dream of having them covered with Thea & Sami fabric. Emily Tappenden did a wonderful job of cutting and sewing the covers.



You may remember the original chair from a previous post. Lovely bones but really needing a face-lift. Ha, that reminds me of that old Aussie song "Nice legs, shame about the face". Am I the only one old enough to remember that?



Don't you love before and after shots?


This is the close-up of our fretwork print on hemp/organic cotton. Is anybody else loving the red because I really want to add this to our collection of eco-interior design fabrics?

Yay! Tomorrow, I am expecting our shipment of 100% organic cotton twill and organic cotton canvas.