This year marks 20 years of Harmony Art.  After much thought and a major dose of procrastination - it is official:  Harmony Art is closed.  Before you get too sad or I start to tear up, I am happy to report that you can still purchase our existing inventory from a few places... most notably Organic Cotton Plus who was the very first distributor to say "YES" to carrying our fabrics (even before I had any produced back in early 2005!) AND introducing the collaboration with my dear Rocky Mountain Bestie, TeresaMade whose path I crossed  years ago when reading about her Green Bag Lady project in a magazine and realizing instantly I wanted to support her cause.  Fast forward more than a decade and I count her as one of my best friends.  She will be offering yardage and simple products using many of my remaining fabrics. 

Enormous and heartfelt thanks to EVERYONE who made this journey possible.  Number one is Sus my partner in every way of more than 30 years but additionally all the friends who have cheered me on, my customers who have purchased my fabric, my distributors who said "yes", my converter who made it possible and thoughtful people who "give a scrap". 

The days ahead will be muddy and bumpy and beautiful --  I imagine but nothing will replace the fond memories of the journey I have been on with YOU!

I was approached by Yana Dee in late summer 2021 about doing a custom polka dot print on organic cotton sateen for them. We worked together for a few months deciding on the spacing/layout/color etc and then the production instructions were sent.  The dots were printed by hand pulled screen so the printers got back to us that the placement we had decided on wouldn't work. The dots were too close together to get the alignment right. So, we adjusted again and waited some more.... and more... and more... and approximately 8 months later we had organic cotton sateen Dee Dot!

The best part for me is watching people bring the fabric to life! You are so creative, clever and thoughtful. If you want to buy some you can order bulk yardage from me, or individual yardage at Organic Cotton Plus.

Ok, how many of you hear "Back in Black" and think of AC/DC? Clearly, I am dating myself. It is true though, we are back in stock of our very popular Moonless Night Black organic cotton sateen (110" width, 300 thread count). If you have been missing it, your wait is over.  Our next fabric Dee Dot is due to arrive later this month and should work beautifully with this solid fabric.  I can't wait to see what y'all do with these fabrics!  Please feel free to send me images of what you have created!

Somehow this year Harmony Art's anniversary slipped by.  January 15, 2022 marked the 17th anniversary of a little organic fabric company that set out to help inspire change in a toxic textile world. It has been an adventure, a source of pride and on occasion stressful. I've made friends, watched some businesses blossom and some throw in the towel.  I must admit this anniversary has me more reflective than most.

Have I had an impact? Does my business add value to the world? Can I compete with the now much bigger companies that have jumped into the organic fabric field? My friend Sue's Buddhist philosophy is "Only don't know" and I guess after 17 years of owning and running my own small business and almost 2 years of pandemic life I feel like those words ring more true than ever.

What I do know for sure is that it has been an honor and joy to work with ALL those who have purchased Harmony Art Organic fabrics over the last 17 years and those who have cheered me on in the process. YOU have made it worthwhile. For YOU I am grateful - today and always.

Over the weekend while walking home from a friend's house, I saw something I have never seen before . . . three redwood trees that have been converted into acorn storage - or granaries - by woodpeckers.  Last week I had a close encounter with a Pileated Woodpecker.  Normally woodpeckers peck at dead trees and Pileated Woodpeckers are not known to fly closer and closer to people.  Are they trying to tell me/us something?  And if so, what could it be?

Desperate times call for desperate measures? It's good to save for a rainy day? Be prepared?  It's probably just coincidence, but I can't help but draw some parallels between my own "granary" of fabric.  As cotton prices are surging suddenly my "stash" of organic cotton fabrics seem to be a good idea as Harmony Art is better prepared than most cotton businesses to weather this current price storm.  We have lots of prints and solids in stock and I am hoping that it will hold us until things settle back down.

I have been feeling a bit blue lately. I think I heard someone this week call it Pre Traumatic Stress Disorder.... that feeling of dread that comes with the smokey air that floats my way, the news of floods in Louisiana and the Northeast, the news about being past the tipping point of climate change - code RED.  Feeling dread.

But trees, no the forest, is my happy place and taking a hike (4.8 miles round trip) to visit this giant did wonders for resetting my attitude and helping me remember that life goes on.  I have much to be grateful for including YOU (reading this), this new run of Twilight Blue organic cotton sateen that arrived safely at long last, and the knowledge that we are ALL connected in ways we can't yet see or understand. 

Tamika is our newest brand ambassador. For her first project she requested our Giraffe organic cotton interlock. Tamika is an aspiring fashion designer.  She started sewing in 2013 after taking a sewing class and has become passionate about fashion design. She dreams of having her designs mass produced and sold in boutiques.  Instagram (@mikanicolay) is the best place to see her wearable art.

I look forward to sharing with you more of Tamika's unique style and fashion items. 

I just love seeing the variety and creativity that you all bring to the Harmony Art organic fabrics!  Here's a link to the projects that Marianne (Adventurous Quilter) our first brand ambassador has been creating with the Harmony Art organic fabrics.

Meet Giraffa O'keefe  - an eye pillow created by Herbal Animals.  The fabric is a 100% GOTS certified organic cotton interlock. This fabric was a co-creation with Herbal Animals founder, Lauren.  She wanted a giraffe design so we worked together to create a design that would work for her needs and then had it hand screen printed at a GOTS certified facility in India. She took half of the production run into her business and I have been selling the rest through Harmony Art.  I love this co-creating process and am always happy to help people bring their vision to life.

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE witnessing the creative ways that different people use our organic  fabrics in different ways! Stay tuned to our next blog post (I promise I'll get it up soon!) . . . where I will introduce you to Tamika our newest brand ambassador who has a whole new take on how to bring this Giraffe fabric to life.

Meanwhile, if you have a fabric concept you want help getting materialized (pun intended!), feel free to contact me.  Let's talk!

This month Harmony Art turns 16. It's been quite a journey!  Many of you have been with me from the start when the idea of printed colorful organic fabrics for home sewers and small businesses was just a concept. I still remember the first company (Cotton Monkey) who embraced our fabrics and created a line of crib sheets around it.  The shift from working with the largest companies in the world (Walmart, Target, etc) to the smallest has been rewarding in ways that are hard to express.  I've been witness to births, deaths, marriages. . . together we have survived cancer, car crashes, floods, fires, political earthquakes, and pandemics.  I just wanted to take a minute to say:

As some of you know, I am married to the Executive Director of the Gualala Arts - a visual and preforming art center in our local community.  As you can imagine, 2020 was a tough year for Gualala Arts as all events from March 13th on had to be canceled or re-imagined.  For their year- end fundraiser I decided to make "take and bake" gingerbread pancake mix sold in reusable mason jars.

I don't normally send gifts for holidays but this year I was inspired to break with my own rules (if 2020 taught us nothing its that we have to be adaptable!) and sent my gingerbread pancake mix to family and a few friends so that if we couldn't be together sharing a meal, we could share in a sweet memory together.  For easier (and safer) shipping I sewed reusable produce bags out of Space Cowboy to ship the mix in.  I also mixed up the cookie cutters to go with the person.

Photos of the sweet memory of the moment have started to flow back to me and it brings me joy to see them and share them with you.