In the Studio: Dip Dyeing and Straddling Screens

(1. Box of blank t-shirts received in the mail; 2. Dyeing day at the studio; 3. Dip dyed and washed waiting to be printed; 4. Designing the graphics; 5. Thrifted paintings bought for the frames. Used the frames for screens; 6. Screen burning kit; 7. Burning the first image; 8. When the bulb died, I found this to use; 9. Straddling the screen to hold it in place. Attractive, I know; 10. Printed shirts!)

The studio has been busy this past week! Mostly, I have been I have been working on this project for Health Simple Is, my Aunt Sue's nutrition business. We had a show at Room Full of Sisters in Auburn, NY and guess who joined us? None other than Miss Kirsten Nunez from Studs and Pearls!

I have missed this girl so much! We had a great time hanging out and of course, she brought a car full of projects so we could both work. Because we're crazy craft ladies.

A shot of our section of table above.

Have you ever screen printed before? Or dip-dyed anything? 

♥ K

p.s. To get immediate studio updates, follow me on Instagram: @mackenziegelina

Gallery Show - Wanderlost

It was a night full of art, knitting, food, a community painting and lots of hugs. A few Fridays ago, we had the opening to my show - Wanderlost. Being my first solo show as a college graduate, I was sooo incredibly nervous and excited but it turned out wonderfully and so many people came out to show support.

These are just a few images from the night.

(Credit to Ms. Teska and my mom for the photos!)

The show will be up at the North Rose-Wolcott High School until May 31st available for viewing during school hours. 

 Above is the community painting that we created. How great is it!?

Thank you thank you for all of you who came out to support! And special thanks to Ms. Teska, Mrs. Allen and my mom who helped me through this entire gallery process! You guys are the best!!!

♥ K

***Drumroll Please***

*Cuts pretty orange grand opening ribbon*

And we're open! 

I wish I had a real grand opening ribbon that I could cut, but a virtual one is going to have to do for now! Check out the new Etsy shop here.

In honor of Grand Opening Day (which is what today will be officially known as), I propose that we have a ***giveaway*** Woot woot! 

I will giveaway one print - your choice - from the shop. 

---------- Andddd *game show voice* here are the rules: -----------

The giveaway will last for one week, ending midnight on April 15th (EST). The winner will be announced on my blog on April 16th. He/she should contact me for which print they'd like and shipping information. 

To enter the contest, you must comment on this post with your name and the name of your favorite print.

To get extra names in the giveaway, you can do the following:

- share this giveaway on your blog

- like my facebook page here

- follow me on twitter here

In your comment, please write what you have done. If you have previously liked my facebook page or followed me on twitter, it counts too - just make sure you write it in your comment! 

Good luck! 

♥ K

Semester Update #3: The Finale

The Finale of the semester was a little crazy and really weird. I had to deal with the fact that this part was going to whoooosh by and in no time, I would no longer be at RISD, my home for the last 5.5 years. That was (and still is) a hard reality to face. 

There was:

 - knitting

- goofing around

- walks around Providence

- major tired-ness

- LOTS of tea

- thesis writing in the woods

- sewing until my eyes and arms hurt

- broken headphone cords with one week left (immediately followed by screaming)

- notes to classmates 

- much laughing 

- super late nights/early mornings in studio

Though all those memories don't seem wonderful, they were. I miss all my textiles girls and guys and the late night bonding that could only happen in the midst of exhaustion. It was an amazing experience that I couldn't imagine being complete without each one of them.

Look for one more update to complete this mini series of Semester Updates!

♥ K

Semester Update #2

This edition of Semester Updates includes embroidery projects, dyeing fabric, road trips back home, knitting, yarn shopping and beer (to keep us sane). It didn't get too tiring at this point in the game but it was the beginning of the real stressful stuff that makes Thesis Project so wonderful. This was the point when projects started forming and the finishing began. 

See Semester Update #1 here and look for two more updates to come! 

♥ Kenzie

And I'm back!

Hellooooo SOS-ers! 

Though my blog has been on hiatus for the past... has it been a year?, I am finally back! There has been a lot of changing in this past year or so, but I am ready to jump back in with ya'll.

The biggest change? I am officially a college graduate. Damn.

Still adjusting to that one. I'll elaborate on that later.

I'm going to try to update you on my last months of college through photos.

Part 1:

This will happen in sections as there are a lot of photos and I like to keep the suspense. But, along with more life photos, expect some changes around here! All good ones, I promise.

Glad to be back!

♥ K

String Theory

I know it may seem funny, but I'm not all about color ALL the time. I do love me some classic black and white and that is exactly what String Theory loves too. 

String Theory is run by two amazing designers from Montreal, Canada. Using their limited color palette and seemingly simple patterns, they create these beautiful scarves and shawls that transform an outfit. Check out their winter collection here or purchase one of your own here.

♥ Kenzie

Annie Larson

^^^ The inspiration ^^^

^^^ The knitwear ^^^

Annie Larson is a knitwear designer and obviously amazing. I love the super bright colors she uses and how happy her models look in the photoshoot. If I had a clothing line, I would love to have bright, happy products like these! 

I also love that she included her inspiration for these pieces on her site. It's so fun and interesting to see where artists get their inspiration from. This time being from a sheet of vintage mix-and-match stickers. Awesome!

Hope you are all enjoying your Monday!

♥ Kenzie

Graduation Weekend

Last weekend was fun, happy, difficult, sad, proud and crazy. 

My freshman class graduated. Minus me.

So a little background if you didn't see this little post:

Last summer after I returned from my trip to Argentina, I decided that I wanted to change my major from Industrial Design (ID) to Textiles. Such a difficult decision.

The reason it was a difficult decision? I was coming back to school as a senior if I continued in ID and as a sophomore if I changed to Textiles. Sophomore year at my school was definitely the hardest and a very emotional year in ID for me, therefore, going back to that and *choosing* to go back to that was daunting. Along with the idea that the people were totally different (as in personalties, age, dress, gender - I had gotten used to hanging out with dudes and tomboys), totally different things to think about in design and that in a year most of my best friends would be leaving RISD without me.

It was a great decision in the end - I love my major now and actually am *truly* enjoying my work. Nonetheless, seeing my friends graduate was hard. I was and am so proud to know such amazing people and see them all so excited and happy for real life. But there were a lot of tears. Mixed happy, sad and a little scared tears. I don't know what RISD is without them and though it is scary to watch them leave, I know that they are going to do **such** amazing things and that I will see them again. They are too great of friends to let slip away :)

It was a great day and here are some happy photos:

I was acting like a proud mama all day :) 

What has been happening in your life lately?

♥ Kenzie

Quick Inspiration

Animals + textiles + so much color = ♥ ♥ ♥

How's everyone doing tonight?

♥ Kenzie

Something for you to ♥ ♥ ♥ ...

So, I know I said that I might not be around a whole lot, but the weekends give be a little more time to provide you with some pretty things to look at. Besides my last post, I wanted to show you my friend's website who is a ***fabulous*** textile designer. 

Her name is Brittany Bennett and you should really go check her out.

Brittany is a senior in my department at RISD. We went to Peru together 2 years ago to help build houses and paint a mural after an earthquake. 

{Our group minus one at the mural we painted in 5 days}

We met and became friends during the planning and going on the trip but I'm happy that I've gotten to know her better as a person and designer since I switched to Textiles. She works really hard and it shows in what she produces. 

Brittany has a love for costume design, faux fur and sparkly fabrics that we both share. Trips to our local fabric store together have proven that as we both stop and stare at the glittering, sequined fabrics and talk about what we could make. It's always fun fabric shopping with her.

She {obviously} is an amazzzzing designer and these are just some of my favorites on the site! I'm very sure she could provide you much inspiration as she has me. 

You can see her work here or check out her tumblr here. 

It's so worth it. 

Hope you're having a great weekend!

♥ Kenzie

Studio/Home Visit

*Warning: Crappy cell phone pictures ahead*

Some of the students in my knitting class and I took a little field trip today to our teacher's home and studio. It was fantastic. 

She has soooo much beautiful yarn that the girls and I were drooling over. 

And six knitting machines. SIX people.

I really loved all the colors and the cute little touches in her studio. 

It was so her and so wonderful. We were all super jealous. 

Little books! So adorable.

This little animal collection was on one of the many shelves of yarn. So cute. 

We were also there to look at her hugeee collection of art and textile books.

This one I found soooo inspiring. 

It's like me in book form - tradition craft with bright colors. 

I loveee quilts.

These are some of the pages that I took pictures of. If you look closely {at my clearer bad photos} the large blocks of color have stitched patterns in them. Subtle and wonderful patterns. 

Once I realized I had taken photos of half the book and wanted to take more, I figured I should probably just put it on my wish list...

Also looked at this book that she had on her coffee table. In. Love. 

Again, bad photo but great illustration.

The fish ones made me realize that I really want to revisit my main inspiration in high school art class - marine life. So many things I still want to do with it...

There were a couple other books I looked at, like this one above, {the first one - which is fabulous} but there was no way to go through them all. It was like a library of wonderful in her house!

We all had a wonderful time drinking tea, eating cookies and getting away from the reality of how much work we had for a minute. We talked about knitting, yarns and fabrics and had a great time - each dreaming about their future homes and studios. 

What a nice night :) 

What have you been up to?

♥ Kenzie