home studio philadelphia.

this evening we were treated to a delightful succession of home studio invitations from a couple of my favourite philly craft-makers, giant dwarf and something's hiding in here. our evening began with a visit to sue's two half apartments (one for living and sleeping, one for crafting and cooking). the building is set up in a very strange way but has all the charm that i would expect someone with sue's design style to gravitate towards. even though i have my own office/studio back at our home in toronto, i envied her spaces - halfway between separated and in-home makes a lot of sense to me. oh, and her collection of vintage fabrics, vintage trims and new felts is incredible. although the visit was mostly social, i was there on a bit of business, too. i have been charged with the exciting task of picking a fifteen-colour palette of fancy felt for sue's upcoming artist series. it made me totally neurotic to try to pick a scale of fifteen colours that defined the sweetie pie press. instead, i narrowed it down to a sort of vintage, 1970's scheme that echoed the make-up of the first giant triangle for my hive series project. here's my first stab (as hand modelled by aitor):

sue gave me the torturous option of revision so there may be changes. it did help to compare my picking to that of her first artist bundle's creators, shauna and stephen. their work with colour and palette is remarkable. so is the pleasant feeling i get from hanging out with them. after years of passing craft fair (and bar thereafter) friendship, it was so lovely to get to visit their perfect home and sip drinks, chat and snack. what a lovely night!

something made me not want to take pictures. a night off, perhaps? but sue took some great pictures of their home and our treats. it will give you a sense of how extremely apt they are at decoration and display. also, what generous hosts they are and fun people to spend time with. thank you all for a thoroughly delightful evening. we got to feel grown-up, solid and less filthy for an evening. now to get some rest for tomorrow's potentially drizzly craft fair on trenton avenue (don't worry, the attached kinetic sculpture derby is even better in mud)...