Above: SassandBide, Style, Tea Collection, Pinterest, itscamillecom, Crushable,
Triangle prints hit the runway for fall style. We couldn’t be more thrilled as we saw tons of geometric pieces to inspire our fall collection while on our inspiration trip for Nordic Design.
Above: From Tea Collection’s trip pics
Will you be following this fall trend? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
We loved seeing all of the artisan ikats in Bali. So naturally we fell in love with this ikat time-lapse video.
Pretty cool, huh?
Our Bali-inspired children’s clothes collection featured the craft of Batik, an art form we saw and practiced while in Bali. Traditional Batiks are created with hot wax, in a dying technique which allows the craftsman to form lush patterns and designs. We wanted to find a way for little citizens to Batik that was safe. Below is our step-by-step guide on how-to Batik- no hot wax needed! All you need is glue, paint, a t-shirt and an open mind!
I chose to Batik a shirt- however you can Batik any cloth materials. Think of how much fun it would be to Batik pillow cases?
You'll need a shirt, a piece of cardboard to stick between your shirt, acrylic paints, washable gel glue, and a paint brush.
The first step is to design your Batik pattern. You’ll use the glue to do this. It can be a little tricky to wield the glue, so you may want to have your little ones practice glue drawing on cardboard first. You can also map out your design first with pencil. I also used a scrap piece of cardboard to put in the shirt so the glue wouldn’t seep through to the back of the shirt.
Where ever you put the glue will be white. The color will show through the negative space. Pretty cool, huh?
The next step is hardest. You have to wait for the glue to dry and this will take at least 24 hours. Playing the waiting game can be hard when you have little citizens eager to paint!
Once the glue is completely dry, break out your acrylic paints, your paint brush, a mixing area, and a water bowl to clean the brush and start painting! While painting, you’ll want to keep the the piece of cardboard inside the shirt for the same reason you kept it in while gluing- you don’t want the paint to leak through to the back of the shirt.
Once the Batik is painted, leave it in a safe place where the paint can dry. This will probably take at least 12 hours. Once dry, you can either peel off the glue or put it in the washing machine. I chose the latter as it was much easier and had great results. Check out my finished Batik shirt below.
The picture minimalizes the cool effect the process created. The colors are much more vibrant and the designs pop more in person. All-in-all, this is a great project for those looking to craft a gift for a loved one (Mother’s Day or Father’s Day Batiks?).
Please share your Batiks with our community at Facebook. We’d love to see your little citizens artful, Bali-inspired work!
On our Bali inspiration trip, we met lots of Ikat artists and were overwhelmed with beautiful textiles and designs we saw. So you can imagine how overjoyed we were to find out how on trend Ikat patterns are for Spring.
from left to right, top to bottom: 1) Bunny, Cheer Up! 2) Unknown 3) Dries van Noten 4) Balenciaga 5) Paul & Joe 6) Tea Collection 7) Marie Claire
See more of our Ikat inspiration on our “hello ikat” board on Pinterest.
From high-fashion to light-weight, summer dresses, there are many ways to wear Ikat. How will you be wearing Ikat this season?
We were overwhelmed with submissions to our first ever Activity Book Photo contest! Thank you everyone for sharing your creativity with us.
This month’s winner is Topher McCord! We loved the bright orange color he used on our Balinese Mermaid Goddess. Topher will receive a $100 Tea Gift Certificate.
Our honorable mentions include Jorden’s Gamelan (on left) and Noah’s Stubborn Dragon (on right).
Browse all entries on our Flickr page.
Interested in entering the contest for next month? Take a picture of your child’s completed activity book picture and send it to us at blog@teacollection.com with “Activity Book Entry” in the subject line. We pick one winner each month to receive a $100 Tea gift certificate. We’ll also post all honorable mentions on our blog page and all submissions will be posted on our Flickr page.
Download all of our activity book pages by visiting our cultural activity printouts blog tag.
I loved these illustrations explaining the legong dance poses and costumes.
Island of Bali. Miguel Covarrubias. Illustration.
Covarrubias in Bali. Adriana Williams and Yu-Chee Chong. EDM, Singapore. Pages 130, 131.
images and sources via Gustavo Thomas Theatre
Today’s Google Doodle marks Diego Rivera’s 100th birthday. If you’re a frequent visitor of Tea’s blog, you know our Modern Mexico children’s clothes collection draws inspiration from the Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
Join us in celebrating this great day by making some art of your own. Below are Tea’s Diego and Frida Activity Book pages from our Modern Mexico Activity book. Take a minute to download these for your children for an educational, fun activity.
Download and color our Diego and Frida activity book pages today! We want to see your artwork. Please post your completed pages in the comments section below or on our Facebook.
Spring has sprung in many parts of the country, and this week we’re celebrating by focusing on skateboarding at Tea. Our Spring collection has many urban-inspired, skateboard-friendly pieces that encourage play and hold up well under exuberant activity! To get started and set the tone, we thought we’d share these amazing photographs by local San Francisco artist Andrew Paynter, who traveled around the world photographing skateboarders:
This calendar, created by Spanish designer Oscar Diaz, uses the capillary action of paper to draw ink out of the bottle. Designed to migrate across the sheet daily, the ink fills in each set of numbers with color to represent each day of the month. Different months are represented by a range of colors – greens and yellows in Spring, and reds in Summer. The ink calendar has been exhibited at various design shows around Europe – I wish it was actually in production!
Surrealism is my favorite art movement (so far). Based mainly out of Europe and Latin America, Surrealism began in the 1920s, and spanned across multiple mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, and theater. Often referencing the unconscious and subconscious, Surrealist art has a strange dream-like quality, pushing the boundaries of “normal” situations and combining images and scenes that are not often encountered in one space.
left to right: Salvador Dali, Meret Oppenheim, Max Ernst, (second row) Renee Magritte, Frida Kahlo, Jean Miro, (third row) Leonora Carrington, Man Ray, Leonor Fini
This season we have several pieces influenced by both modern and historical surrealist art, which Katy will post about this week.