The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

Month: December 2013

Garden Gate: Episode 28 – L’Immaginaria

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cardialCHEX TV Air Date: Friday, Dec. 27, 2014

Click here to view this episode of The Garden Gate.

On this episode of The Garden Gate, I’m speaking with local artist Lisa Martini-Dunk about her wonderful scratch board art.

Lisa is inspired by nature and by her imagination to create her stunning works of art, and lives in East City (Peterborough).

Lisa begins with an idea and then a sketch. Once she’s happy with the image she begins to create her work. Using a special black paper board she scratches away the black parts to leave the image behind. Almost working in reverse. ?Then special paint is used to add colour. She will transfer the image to her computer where she is able to define or “punch up” the colours. ?She will print the card and then hand coat them with a product to bring out the sheen. ?You’d think she was done then, but no, she chooses a paper that specially matches the image or colours on the paper. What a wonderful and thoughtful gift.

We carry her beautiful cards. Each is a limited edition with only approx. 20 of each image being printed.

 

Garden Gate: Episode 27 – SolMate Socks

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daffodilChex TV airdate, Fri. Dec. 13, 2013

Click here to view this episode of The Garden Gate.

On this episode of The Garden Gate I spoke about our wonderful socks! ?Yes, we sell socks! ?

A few years ago while travelling in the US, I found these socks in a little shop with American made crafts. ?I fell in love with them and wore them a lot! ?I loved coming home from work and pulling on my comfy socks each night. ?As the cold winter nights progressed I would stare at my cozy feet (on the coffee table-sorry mom!) and wonder if this would be something that my customers would also like…

So I did some research and found out where they were from and excitedly placed my first order. I was so happy when they arrived and snagged a couple more pairs for myself. ?Customers responded well and also fell in love with them. See them on our website here.

As I was doing research for this Garden Gate episode I found out more about this company that I didn’t know previously. ?Marianne Wakerlin started knitting at a young age making colourful socks and scarves for friends and family. ?Years and 100’s of socks later she decided to turn her craft into a business. ?She now has a family run knitting mill in Vermont making the socks for her.

They do their best to reduce waste during the production process. Some socks don’t come out quite right so they are reused and made into hats! So far they have made close to 5000 hats out of sock seconds! But, there are still scraps from the hat making process and these are given away for free for re-purposing. ?They also send knitting waste to a rug maker turning over 5000lbs of knitting waste into rugs! ?In addition they take advantage of a program run by UPS and Native Energy to purchase Carbon offsets.

As many of our customers will tell you, these socks make them happy when they wear them. (We’ve nicknamed them Happy Socks!) ?I now have 7 pairs and wear them everyday – so I’m always happy! ?I hope you’ll drop in soon to see our wonderful socks, because LIFE’S TOO SHORT FOR MATCHING SOCKS!

 

The Avant-Garden Shop