THE GRAND ADVENTURE!

When one door closes, another always opens. Last Friday I said good bye to my downtown job, and decided to take time off to travel. The Korakia Pensionne served as a good reminder of the charm of Southern Spain. But, weekend trips are never enough. So, rather than two weeks, I decided on almost two months.

I will be travelling to Barcelona in a few hours, and am excited for the start of my Grand Adventure. It will be my version of Eat, Pray, Love. Not sure what to call it yet or what I will discover. I am sure that I will take tons of photos, visit friends across the world, sightsee with my parents, enjoy Barcelona nightlife with former coworkers, and then join an art workshop for textiles in India. No Ashrams for me. But, there will be churches and temples, lake palaces and ancient fortresses.

The Grand Announcement is that I will be going to Spain, Dubai and then India! Looking forward to seeing the world, and venturing to the great unknown!

Follow along on instagram @bigggerbrighterbolder and I will return in November with a brand new and boldly inspired BigBrightBold.

BLOCK SHOP TEXTILES: MODERN BLOCK PRINTING

BEHIND THE SCENES: BLOCKSHOP

Had the awesome opportunity to visit the downtown Studio of Block Shop textiles. The founder, Hopie Stockman shared her sketchbook and sources of inspiration, while I got to photograph the art filled studio. 

Block Shop began as an art project in 2010. Lily, a visual artist, was studying painting in Jaipur when her search for the best natural dyes led her to the print shop of a fifth-generation master printer. After creating a series of unstructured paintings on cotton-silk fabric, Lily sent prototypes to her sister Hopie in California. Six months later, Hopie traveled to India to see the process for herself, and formed a partnership with what is now our cooperative of printers.

BLOCK SHOP TEXTILES

According to the Block Shop Textiles bio, "Block Shop is a textile company that marries the traditional Indian hand block printing process with a modern California aesthetic. The products are a collaboration between sisters Hopie and Lily Stockman in Los Angeles and a family of printers and dyers in Rajasthan. The entire process is manual: first, they design on paper, print with wooden blocks, and dye in small batches – the same way it’s been done in India for more than three centuries. No two textiles are exactly alike."

The Block Shop textiles are definitely BigBrightBold products. The founders took a traditional craft and made it modern by getting inspired by bold moves. From the architectural details along Jaipur's rooftops to the geometries of the Bauhaus founders, the patterns blend old and new, tradition and craft, Indian and western into large statement pieces that look just as good on the wall as they do draped on the body. The colors are bold, but since each piece is printed by hand, the hues remain perfectly imperfect. The shapes have imprinted textures, traces from printing and drying in the Indian sun. Circles, stripes and diamonds create modern twists on tradition. They feel like global pieces of art, each a modern pattern that evokes India in a new way. 

I agree with Lily, one of the founders, that "The word "scarf" does little justice; each textile is an art object, a one-of-a-kind textile so elegant and sumptuous and yet incredibly durable and versatile. Just like the kinda women we envision wearing these bad boys. Draping one around my neck feels like assuming a lion's mantle."

STUDIO TOUR: BLOCK SHOP TEXTILES

Excited to share a tour of downtown LA's vibrant Block Shop Headquarters. Located in a historic building along a prominant street, the studio's artisinal goods match their artistic environment.