That's SO Fair!

Check out these beautiful textile designs and wearables by Bhalo with a powerful fair trade mission to facilitate women in rural Bangladesh.

"Bhalo is a fair trade design label that aims to create desirable fashion whilst empowering disadvantaged people, especially women, allowing them to work their way out of poverty.

Our cotton is hand loomed and hand embroidered by women in rural Bangladesh, not only giving them much needed employment and training, but providing them with simple things that we take for granted - education/childcare for their children, basic health care, and most of all, dignity. We oppose human exploitation and feel everyone should be given the right to fair employment terms, and given a decent price for their work. Wouldn't you expect the same?"

You can read all their fascinating process, here! I would love to go there in person one day and learn all about their process! One of my dream is to travel from place to place and learn the regional crafts whether it be weaving, carving, dyeing, or casting....It'd be like the show "How it's made" but specifically for arts & crafts from around the world....wait....I think I should totally pitch that idea to Discovery Channel!!

Via Johnny&Stacie

NYIGF Wrap Up

Alright, this is totally late...and we apologize, but here's a quick little photo montage of JOIN's premiere New York Gift Fair two weeks ago. We had a great time, the booth looked cowabunga, and there was great interest in JOIN and L&G's goods, so high five for all!

We're toting up to head on back to Seattle at last... Bye bye NY...for now. Before we jet-set, here's the brief run down of the show:

The good-looking JOIN crew in front of the booth, followed by some action shots throughout the fair:

The collage below is from the breakdown of the show, which was an amazing sight. Thousands of elaborate booths being broken down in 4-6 hours... complete pandemonium yet an amazing orchestration at the same time...just like the Big Apple itself! We'll miss it for sure as we settle back into quiet little Ballard tonight.

L&G on Desire to Inspire!

We're TOTALLY stoked that L&G got a couple of mentions on Desire to Inspire's recent "Wink" (Weekend Links) Posts!
Its quite exciting to find that blogs we find inspiring are actually finding our designs to be inspring in return! That's totally exciting enough to make us raise our fists and go "hurray!"

Our first mention on their Winks (weekend links) post!

Our second Winks mention in the same month! Ok...now we're jumping up and down and running around in circles like maniacs. :)

I'd Like to Tap That: Eclectically Modern Living Space

Amazing space via Office for Word and Image (OWI)....oh so wonderfully eclectic, airy and dynamic. I love the visual impact of the dark & minimal one-walled-kitchen.... The mix dining chairs collection reminds us a little like ours... looks like we're off to a good start....

Piggy Money Shots

Did you guys know our little piggy is a high roller? That's right, our chalk it to me piggy bank loves to take baths in money and generally flaunt his cash every which way possible. Here are a few new shots of him and his dolla-billz. They're available here!

(note: in lieu of actual US currency, we used chocolate coins...time for this little piggy to start earning his keep...)

Getting Dizzy...

With all that needs to happen for the NYIGF, I'm doing a lot of this...


and it's making me feel like this....


But mostly I just like to get lost watching ALL of these great little gif animations, here!

Via Boooooom

L&G Print Materials for NYIGF

Finally got to whip out my original Gocco printer since when I first got it at the age of 8! It was one of things where I lugged all the way from Taiwan and to all the places I ever lived but can only remember using it a handful of times....if that many.

But I wanted to make original L&G cards made out of vintage fliers, and what better way to do this than with the Gocco printer!!I want my future family to look like this....
And here's our product line sheet packet to hand out at the gift fair.
I even bribed some friends with food & wine to help with the assembling them....thanks Lauren, Nathan, Christine & Nick!! I'm lucky to have friends who are always game for all the "work" parties that I host! :D

The Launch!

Those who have visited our site in the last day (you know you look like everyday...) may have noticed a much needed update has been executed to celebrate the release of our new products in time for the NYIGF this Aug 15-19th: Chalk it to me Piggy (v2.0) and Superior Servers.

We're very excited about these two labors of love.

You may have followed Jean's multi-part mini-series on the birth of our Chalk it to me Piggy...well he's finally almost all grown up and ready to take on the world. This proud parent has to say he's looking pretty handsome eh?

Superior servers is another vintage inspired line of brightly color coated serving ware. These dandy serving pieces will class up your dinner service than most parties at your grandma's. Each piece is available in 3 lovely colors that can be mixed and matched to your fancy.
You can go to our website to see it all!

Who's the (em)BOSS..er?!

Ok....I've been pretty brain dead lately so forgive me on that title.

Yup still frantic getting ready for NYIGF but just had to share this little excitement that we'll be bringing with us!!
It's our own special L&G embosser!

We've always been wanting to use one of these babies whenever we find old notary embossers....so this was a perfect frivolous to get, and we're already getting a good use out of it!!

I used it on envelops
vintage postcards...why gold stickers of course!
napkins... I mean..why not, right?! I can spend all day embossing a pile of these.
I might as will emboss a whole roll of toilet paper!
Yeah.... I'm all about doing things in the least time efficient & least economical way. Dylan asks why I do the things I do...like spending too much time writing a blog posts, why we're spending more for vintage postcards and still have to print them and now...embossing several hundred individual business cards & stickers. He tries to suggest that we should focus more on bigger priority things and manage our time better, but I just ignore him when he says stuff like that and pretend that I didn't hear it. I'm sure he does the same thing sometimes, too.
So it's mutually acceptable. :)

JOIN at the NYIGF

Ladies & Gentlemen Studio (yup! that's us!)

L&G is frantically gearing up to head over to NY for the upcoming New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) this August 15-19th. Part of the main reason we're even able to do this is because JOIN:Design Seattle!
We'll be debuting our original items for the first time along with 9 other wonderful studios from the Northwest and represent! Woot! Woot!

Everyone's products will be in booth #3912 in Accent on Design section, and we'll be there looking pretty and excited to share our new stuff!

On top of all this, we were able to get our amazingly talented photographer friend Kyle Johnson to do wonderful portrait shots of each studio for the press release & JOIN catalogue. Check them out! I just love seeing everyone's spaces and how Kyle really captured every personalities. Pat on the back for Kyle!

Iacoli & McAllister (and Mies!...that white furry ball of cuteness on Jamie's lap!)

Grain ( we're still jealous of their studio/home on Bainbridge!)

R&L Goods (aka randL/Chikabird....yay! no more name confusion! Chika & a clone of myself.)

BlkPine Workshop (also owners of Maiden Noir, Cafe Weekend, and too many other things)

Erich Ginder (and his new adorable little baby girl!)

plainMADE (excited that I just ordered one her amazing silk scarves!)

Urbancase (Just look at them amazing wood he uses for his furniture...)

Free Time Industries (I just love the colors of this entire photo and their outfits!)

Can this get any more exciting?? Actually I think exciting doesn't quite cut it.....this is gonna be EPIC!