After an extended hiatus from blogging to re-energize and get some projects built (and ride my bike in Tuscany), I am back with renewed focus and lots of ideas.  It seems fitting that my first post of the Fall season features the handmade, woven works of Maruca Design…some of you probably know by now that I love textiles, and someday – someday! – with any luck I’ll pull my floor loom out of storage, learn to spin fiber and start weaving again.  In the meantime, I’ve been focusing on drawing inspiration from the everyday things around me, in particular the colors, textures and light that Fall brings.  Along with work from my fellow makers.

On Friday I spent several hours at the Maruca Design studio here in Boulder.  Their annual sale provides a rare opportunity to poke around their fun workspace and purchase beautiful jacquard handbags at a seriously discounted rate.  They also have boxes of fabric scraps sold by the pound and yardage of woven fabrics in multiple patterns and colorways.  Heaven, right?  I had to resist buying fabrics for some yet-to-be-determined project, but I did make a mental note of everything there and how I could use it.

I couldn’t resist some of their handbags, however, so I stocked up for future holiday gifts, or maybe just to keep for myself…we’ll see.  If you missed the sale and want to purchase a Maruca bag locally, they are sold at the Boulder Arts Cooperative.  If you live elsewhere, Maruca has a list of vendors on their website.  Their bags can even be found in my hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts.