Upcycled Youth Sweater by Vals Art Studio

Valerie Rosenthal Hebert is a fiber artist and painter from Southern California, who loves working in wool, and wearing it too! “Even though I live in Coronado (just across the bridge from San Diego), I live near the beach, so I wear wool nearly year round. Wool is also my medium of choice, it makes for a versatile canvas on which I stitch my art.” Val’s artist style was hatched at a young age, while watching her mother at her crafting table. Sewing and needlepointing as a child turned into painting and crafting in fiber as a life long hobby. Three years ago, Val started her company, Val’s Art Studio, as a need for fueling her creativity, but also out of a desire to be home with her growing boys. “I promised myself that one day I’d make cute clothes for boys, because when my boys were young, most everything cute was for girls.” Val’s refashioned sweaters are embellished with needle felted “paintings”. Each sweater is one of a kind and completely unique. Each is a work of art.

Some of the gorgeous upcycled, felted sweaters by Val's Art Studio, available at Hello Bluebird.

Along with children’s clothes, Val creates women’s purses, pillows for the home, scarves and wrist warmers, among many other items, all from recycled wool. Val has recently been published in several Somerset Publications, including Altered Couture and Haute Handbags. Future publications include Jewelry Affaire and Somerset Home, and San Diego Home and Garden Magazine.

We are happy to include Val in our pool of very talented artists here at Hello Bluebird.  Once the plows have made their merry journey and you’ve shoveled your sidewalks like good little citizens, we invite you to come in and check out the latest arrivals from Val’s Art Studio!

Am I right?  Last week’s arrivals were met with giggles and glee.  So much girlish whimsy!

First, I unpacked a box of bibs and booties, pristinely packaged and crafted by Bink and Boo.  Her bandito bibs are the cutest and have gotten quite a nice reaction already!  All of her creations are made from vintage tea towel fabrics, and backed with chenille.  Love!

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any sweeter in the shop, another box arrived, this one from a eagerly anticipated artist, Katie Lombardo, of The Wheatfield.  Her prints combine hand-lettered, favorite sayings and vintage-inspired floral illustrations.  The are a bit like Holly Hobby meets Anthropologie–doesn’t get much better than that!

I asked Katie to tell me a little about herself and her work.

She writes:

Hi there! My name is Katie Daisy Lombardo and I am a recent grad from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. After graduating, I was offered a 9-5 design job at a very large corporation. I was really excited by this prospect. I thought, “Finally, a sound way to pay off all these student loans!” After careful consideration, I noticed that my heart was being pulled in a different direction. I have always trusted my intuition, and I wasn’t about to turn my back on it this time. I decided to turn down the job and go full swing as an independent artist by relying on boutiques, markets, fairs, online sales, and faith to keep me afloat. I am so thankful for all of the support I’ve gotten thus far, and know it will continue if I keep true to myself.

Having grown up in a rural area, a large majority of my work is inspired by simple country pleasures. My creativity is sparked by the beauty of nature, reading a book in the grass, swimming in the river, camping with my sweetie, and  stargazing on a mountaintop. When it comes to materials, I only use what’s available in the here and now. If it’s in arm’s reach, you can bet that it’ll be in my art. I also like to incorporate found materials such as doilies, butterfly wings and tea leaves into my creations.

I’m so happy to be a new part of Hello Bluebird and hope that through this shop I can inspire others to live a simpler, more creative life!

I think I can safely say that I’m so happy, too, and inspired by both of these talented new additions to the shop!

Primrose Design: say hello….

I just wanted to highlight this great post by one of my long-time favorite indie artists, Janet of Primrose Design.  She was one of many artists who came to the shop last Thursday to deliver her handmade goods.  Janet was the very first person to consign with my original shop, Blossom Boutique, which I opened nearly 5 years ago (whoa–that long??).  Although it was my dream at that time to open a brick and mortar, I was only able to travel to East coast indie craft fairs and sell from our online shop.  Those were the first days of etsy and the real beginning of the DIY movement, and, finding others like myself and suddenly becoming part of this new community was nothing short of a personal miracle.

Vintage Feedsack Sachet Stacks by Primrose Design

It really hit home last week how far we have come and how intensely influential this community has been in my life.  I participated in a screening of Handmade Nation by Faythe Levine at the Philly Buyers Market with Tara Gentile last Saturday.  We were invited as members of the press (well, Tara was–I was really a tag-a-long with a camera!).  It was quite a moment to sit there beside Tara, who is relatively new to the “scene” but has been embraced so quickly (and deservedly).  It impressed me that the film was filled with familiar faces and artists I have met along the way–many who were also just newbies when we were selling at Bust’s first Holiday Craftacular or Richmond Craft Mafia’s first Spring-Ba-Da-Bing–just like me.  I actually got a little choked up at parts, to see how far this journey has taken so many crafty misfits, and what a wonderful family history we have built for ourselves.

So, thank you, Primrose and so many others, for sticking with me through the ups and downs.  Thank you for your countless stitches and endless hours uploading photos, muddling through html, and writing wonderful posts like this, just to help a sister out.

And welcome, Tara, and so many other newcomers, young and old.  As you already have certainly discovered, this is an amazing family, and I am so proud to be building us a new home.

Fox and Rabbit by Bird and Little Bird

In the “real world,” Annie Riechmann is  a special education teacher as well as a mother to a five year old daughter.  Somehow in the moments between the obligations of daily life, she also manages to craft the most exquisite stuffed toys for her shop, Bird and Little Bird.   She describes her motivation for starting her creative business by noting “Spending most of my time with children has inspired me to think a lot about the quality and craft involved in making toys and clothing for children…I am a big believer in the value of handmade!”

Red and Blue Rabbit by Bird and Little Bird

Annie’s adorable woodland critters are crafted with all natural materials. Toys are stuffed with new, natural cotton stuffing and are lovingly given hand-stitched details. She is also working on a line of sewing patterns for making lovely, handmade toys yourself, which will also be available in our shop.

We are delighted to welcome Bird and Little Bird to Hello Bluebird.