Brooklyn-based French painter and printmaker Amelie Mancini recently discovered a new canvas: napkins and tea towels that she patterns with her own hand-carved linocuts. Amelie grew up in Lyon in a family of "painters, musicians, actors, and psychiatrists" and has a master's degree in fine art and design from the Sorbonne. ("Sounds way fancier than it really is," she insists.) Of her new company, she tells us: "I was looking for ways to join art and everyday objects. I love linocuts and have been printing on paper for years, so all I had to do was figure out the technical aspects of printing on fabric." Actually, that's not all she has mastered. Her Bed-Stuy studio is where everything gets designed, printed, stitched, and shipped.
Above: Amelie's napkins and tea towels are made of what she describes as "a very nice, very absorbent blend of linen and cotton." They come in four patterns (each in two color options); Tropical is shown here; $28 for a set of two.
Above: The Amphora Tea Towel; $22. Amelie says her sources of inspiration range from Sonia Delaunay's textiles to ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman art.
Above: The Tropical Tea Towel; $22. Amelie uses nontoxic, water-based inks that are wash-fast.
Above: Amelie squirrels away rocks, feathers, seashells, and branches (see pouch below) for pattern ideas. Shown here, her Fern Napkin in moss, $28 for a set of two.
Above: The Fern linocut in progress. Amelie begins by drawing a pattern and carving it onto a block of linoleum. She then prints proofs and scans them to create a repeating pattern, which she burns onto a screen. She prints, cuts, and sews all her fabrics in her studio "I also do some woodworking and fabric dying, as well as the less glamorous side of running a business, like invoicing and accounting." A one-woman operation since 2005, when she moved to New York, she recently was able to hire some assistants.
Above: The Fern Napkin in black; $28 for a set of two.
Above: The Fern Tea Towel in moss; $22.
Above: "2014 is the Year of the Cactus," says Amelie of her best-selling pattern. The Cactus Tea Towel is $22.
Above: The Savanna Napkin, $28 for two. "The design was inspired by a woodcut by my grandmother. She was a talented artist and the person who got me into art in the first place."
Above: This just-issued Brass Arrow Spoon, $95, is part of Amelie's collection of arrow-shaped spoons that sell out almost as soon as they're offered. She carved it in wax and then had it cast in solid brass in Manhattan's midtown jewelry district.
Above: Sample patterns and dye colors.
Above: Amelie also makes pillows of 100 percent linen with brass zippers and solid black linen backs. Shown here in her Greenpoint, Brooklyn, apartment: the Amphora and Shingles patterns; $75 each, optional feather/down pillow inserts are $15 each.
Above: A linen-cotton Cactus Pouch; $38.
Above: Amelie's studio. To see more, go to Amelie Mancini and also browse her Etsy shop.
Take a look at what some of Amelie's kindred-spirit neighbors are up to:
- Sketches of Cape Cod: Rebecca Atwood's New Fabric Collection
- Designer Lena Corwin at Home in Fort Greene
- Home Stories: High Style in Brooklyn Heights
- Concrete Planters from Tasi Masi
- Brooklyn's Only Flower Shop in a Bar
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