Ode to Heather Moore

I'm not sure how I first discovered Heather Moore, the fabulous illustrator and designer of Skinny LaMinx, perhaps I found her in a magazine or a blog. Regardless of how I found her, I'm so glad I did because I just love her work. So much that I imported her products from South Africa- quite a distance, since I'm based on the East coast of the United States. It was so worth it, her items have been among my best sellers as they are unique and just beautifully made.

Heather lives in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied English and Drama and "fell" into illustration when asked to produce the illustrations for a book. When creating her designs, she uses a lot of "cut-out" shapes in her work, "enjoying the clean edges and slightly wonky end result." She turns her designs and "paper-cuts" into a screenprint with the help of a computer and then has them printed in waterbased inks by a small screenprinter down the street from her studio. Her designs are printed on locally produced 100% cotton hopsack. Her influences are from Scandinavian and Japanese designs from the 50s and 60s. She also loves Irish designer Orla Kiely and New York designer Jonathan Adler.

I love the clean lines and wit found her designs and the colors are just perfect. Her aesthetic fits in a old home (sitting perfectly next to beautifully worn antique wood furniture) and in a clean, modern home. The red "Eep" tea towel just pops a black and white kitchen with stainless steel. I love finding beauty in the mundane. I do dishes about a dozen times a day (at least it seems to be that much) and I love using her tea / dish towels- it just makes me happy. I also love that her tea towels and aprons have stories behind them. She used a collection of her own and "borrowed" spoons as a design- for her "Borrowed Spoons" tea towels and apron- see the photo above. Also check out the photo of her vintage mugs- they served as the inspiration for her "Mugs" tea towel. I love this towel and her mug collection is just fantastic! Her tea towels wash beautifully and just get better with time.

In her words after having just read Alain de Bottons, The Architecture of Happiness, "beautiful aesthetics help us to connect with those things about ourselves that we value and aspire to, and can remind us that human beings are filled with great potential to imagine and create amazing things. Well-chosen colors and surfaces and well-crafted things of quality can remind us of our best selves: individually, culturally and as a species. So a tea towel can do lots more than just dry the dishes!"