It begins with a collage.

I start a piece by falling in love with some detail of a paper I have found buried in an antique stall somewhere…sometimes it is the exquisite handwriting on a self folding letter or a stain that may have come from a glass of wine or an old wax seal or the beautiful patina an old document gets after it has been around for a hundred year or the colors of stamps created long ago or a vintage postcard of a far away place…remembrances of things past . When I work with old letters, I am reminded that there is a story behind each one of them…was it a love letter, a bill of sale for a treasured item, a postcard from a family member… brief glimpses into someone’s life story..their travels and hopes.

It could be that as I follow my love for birds and nests and eggs that a small part of a larger etching or print speaks louder to me that the overall rendering the artist has completed. When I work with antique botanicals, I love the idea that this artist has spent hours looking at and recording the tiniest details of a flower, an insect or a butterfly. The joy of collage, for me, comes from being able to take all these seemingly disconnected items and put them together in a way that is new and different.

Then we take these original collages and work them, by hand, on to switchplates, paperweights, coasters and flour sack towels. All the moments in your daily life are an opportunity for delight and self expression. Whether it is the light switch you use several times a day, the paperweight you place on your work space, the coaster you put under your coffee mug every morning or the towel you use daily in your kitchen.
Many of our products are decoupaged by hand
by local artisans. Others are applied
by hand with a heat press.
All our products are created
with love and a commitment
to the tradition
of "made by hand".

Our wish is that you enjoy these
products as much as we enjoy
creating them.

YES WE CAN

Kate Hartley
Design Diva