While perusing pinterest yesterday I happened upon a pin I adore. These little purses in the image below stopped me dead in my tracks. My jaw may or may not have dropped (ok it totally did!) and I was in awe. This image is from Harvest Textiles in Melbourne, Australia.

Harvest Textiles was established in 2010 and is run by a team women who are passionate about quality handmade textiles, learning, sustainability and community. They run screen printing and textile workshops, host guest lectures & seminars, exhibits, pop up shops and Artist in Residency programs from their workroom in Melbourne, Australia (I am clearly very jealous).

Products, projects and process at Harvest Textiles.

This place looks like a textile and craft workspace haven (I so wish we had something like this in Chicago). They have such a vibrant community filled with artists and creative individuals who want to go through the motions of textile design by hand. Most textile design for the industry is done digitally but Harvest Textiles does everything the old school way, using screens, stencils, squeegees and arm strength! To me, that really is the joy of textile design and screen printing - working with your hands and sharing that process with others.

Screen Printing Workshop at Harvest Textiles.

Harvest Textiles has many wonderful Artist in Residences that have passed through their work room; Some of which include the colorful Emily Green, the porcelain work of Sophie Morris, the team at Full Drop Co., illustrative pieces by Alice Oehr and many, many more! Their blog is chock full of collaborations, events, samples of student work, photos of workshops and other wonderful things to explore. Check out their flickr page which is loaded with wonderful photographs of these creative people at work. Their products are beautiful and if I had some spare change I would buy everything!

Luckily I have a reason to fly to Melbourne, Australia within the next three years, but I am now putting this wonderful place on my to do list when I visit down under!