Happy spring everyone! This month I'd like to introduce to you Danuta Dias of Irish Rose Designs. I also want to be honest - I did NOT know you could even do this with felt. Her work is absolutely GORGEOUS!
Describe your shop. How would you describe your style?
I'd like to imagine my shop, Iris & Rose Designs, has a flower shop
vibe but instead of offering plants, I sell fiber based creations like
flower brooches, luxurious scarves, pillows, lampshades, wreaths, wall
hangings... - all reminiscent of the outdoors adorning your home and
adding luxurious beauty to your wardrobe and home. I try to have an
organic vibe by adding real flowers (when doing shows), lots of little
adornments for hair and felted jewelry. I'd like to add original
watercolors to this in the future as I was a painter prior to
discovering fiber " painting" and that would bring my love of art full
circle.
My style of work is heavily influenced by a combination of nature, its
elements (air, water, land) and art. I draw inspiration from both to
decide on a theme for my work. I’m currently shifting my approach from
“make it/sell it” instant to a more scheduled organized collection
offered twice a year, with a specific color palette and theme. Currently
I’m working to have a collection of @150+ pieces due out in mid-June.
It’s a big switch that requires a lot of control; from staying with the
color palette and theme across the items I’m making to managing the
schedule of rolling something like that out. I find that it helps me to
stay more focused and better organized. Here’s a link to my
prior collection.
The topic of style is interesting to me and I'm starting a blog series
on "Adventures in Real Life Personal Style," where I chat with many
different women on their style. Style is fluid as much as our lives are
and rediscovering or finding an authentic style is a reflection of
being in touch. It's an eye opener to talk about this with others as
what we wear is such a mental conversation for most of us. I hope you
can join me for that series, starting soon on my
website, which is under
construction currently; so please check back soon.
When did you learn to do what you do?
I've always loved art but that took a backseat a few years back to
raising a family which was life changing on many levels as we moms know!
- but was even more so for us due to severe food allergies. I had to
learn how to cook and bake in a new way altogether and make sure I had
control over the ingredients at all times.. After several years of
throwing myself into that experience I was very much spent and stressed
and was yearning for a way to find relaxation and also something that I
alone enjoyed. I found that voice through a dear neighbor who showed me
how to nuno-felt. I truly fell head over heels with the ability to
create practical wearable art and my art therapy has continued now for
several years, with good results!
When I try to make sense of why what I do is so important to me and why
I’m so passionate about it, I realize that I finally had the courage to
own up to myself that making art for me is intrinsic to who I am, how I
relate to the world around me, and how I heal. My grandma was a
seamstress who supported herself through two world wars that way, my
mother is a lace fanatic and a crafter and here I am connecting with
fabric and fiber that continuum of handmade work.
What are your favorite pieces to make?
If we step back, what really fascinates me about working with fibers is
the ability to make something two or three dimensional out of it!
Felting and working with fibers is 5000+ years old technique so I ask
myself ‘what can I make that’s new out of this old medium?’ I’m driven
to find new applications to this medium and yes I started with scarves
and embellishments, which is how a lot of people get introduced into it,
but now I’m constantly trying to find ways to use it in unlikely ways.
That is what makes is challenging and fun for me.
Currently I’m working on more home accents and special projects for
specific clients. I’m loving making felted projects on big scale and
over Easter make a cross shroud for my church that started as 17 feet
long and felted to 13 feet long. It was so big that I had to rinse it
in my bathtub! I’m collaborating to make more pieces for them based on
symbolic holiday colors of the religious calendar. I love the idea of
being able to marry color with spirituality and to bring that beauty to
enhance and honor that experience.
What inspires you?
Children, Adele’s music, nature and its’ melody through birds, texture
of fibers, amazing and real to-the-bone women I’m graced to know in my
life, baking, and a cup of great hot-steaming coffee!
Where would you like your shop to be 5 years from now?
When I launched my Etsy shop a year or so ago, I was so naive and
wanting things right away. In this past year I’ve been humbled by the
amount of work and the learning curve that goes into a creative
enterprise. My goal for Iris & Rose Designs in five years is to be a
“well-oiled creative machine” and what I mean by that is that by then I
have all the non-creative parts of running an online biz figured out so
I can be creating, going to more events, being published in magazines
and being enjoyed by people out there.
How do you spend your time when you're not creating?
Running a household, teaching classes, watching “New Girl”, having get
togethers with friends once in awhile and working on home projects.
What does your workspace look like?
I’m blessed to have the perfect space - a sunroom - to use for my
workspace. It has wall to wall windows on two sides, views of trees,
water and sky and I love, love, being there all the time. This space is
not very orderly though as most of the family loves to sketch, sew or
paint there so I just try to clean it up as best as I can. I have two
big tables to work on and good lighting and a space dedicated for
picture taking. In the future I’d like to get more cabinets to organize
it better and make window shades for it.
What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast?
Oatmeal bar - I make a batch of oatmeal, and set up bunch of bowls with
toppings (brown sugar, coconut, granola, cocoa nibs, sprinkles) for us
to have. Everyone in my family loves it, including me!
Where else can we find your work? Are you doing any craft fairs this year?
I am hoping to do Crocker Holiday Festival in Sacramento and the Bella
Vista Craft Fair, they are reasonably small and short duration shows. I
am looking to doing more East Bay shows (Danville, Walnut Creek, etc)
or even maybe SF Renegade show, if not this year then for sure next
year. Because these shows require more investment in time and money I
would love to break into them with another person to split the bill to
test what the reception is like. Anyone else in the same boat? If so
please contact
me. I would love in the future to do bigger shows on
the East Coast, like Country Living Fair. Ahhh, but that’s dreaming...
Where can we learn more about you? (blog address, other articles/profiles you'd like to link to)
Right now, you can read more about me at Etsy
and my blog. In the summer, you’ll be able to learn more
about me through Blue Line Arts Gallery as I’ll be teaching a “Fiber Fun” class
there in August!
