Grain Summer Workshops at Open Satellite!

Do you know any Seattle-area teens curious about design?

Grain is leading two two-week design workshops for teens (12 - 15 years old) at Bellevue's Open Satellite residency space this summer and we are looking participants!

Teens will walk away with a design process tool kit that includes concept development, learning how to refine ideas, creating prototypes, and developing presentation skills. The hands-on workshop will culminate in a weekend public showcase of teen prototypes and products that will coincide with the Bellevue Arts Museum's Art Fair.

The workshops will run June 28th - July 10th and July 12th - July 23rd with the special weekend exhibition at Open Satellite July 24th - 25th.

For more info, please contact Open Satellite Public Programs Manager, Laura O'Quin at laura [at] opensatellite.org or at 425.454.7355.

Ty in Better Homes and Gardens!

Better Homes and Gardens contacted us a while back about an article that they were putting together on indoor air quality. The article was inspired by a recent study that found US homes often have higher levels of air pollutants than found outdoors. This is due to off-gassing building materials, paints, and products as well as mold and dust.

We are proud to have Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition suggested as safe alternatives to traditional off-gassing products in May's issue (see above and below). Check out the full article Breathe Easy on pages 213 - 218.

Below is a detail showing the Ty recommendation:

Target's Red Hot Shop

For the whole month of April, Target and Daily Candy are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day with 10 products that help support a more sustainable lifestyle in Target's Red Hot Shop. We are thrilled to have Ty D.I.Y. Edition included in the mix!

Free shipping through April!

Happy spring! We are offering free shipping on everything in the shop (besides furniture) for the entire month of April.

Ty D.I.Y. Edition in Pregnancy & Newborn!

We just found out that Ty D.I.Y. Edition will be featured in Pregnancy & Newborn's April issue! Above and below is a sneak peak.

Chi-Chi and Sololá in the blogosphere

We are super excited by all the great posts on Chi-Chi and Sololá that keep popping up. Above is a post by Jennifer from yesterday on Ecouterre (Jasmin wrote about Sololá in January). Check out more on Design Milk, Notcouture, and Frizzi Frizzi.

Thanks to everyone who has placed orders through our shop. We just received new shipments from Guatemala so look forward to more images soon.

UPDATE 04/02/10: Check out Laura Cassidy's post on her Wear What When blog at Seattle Metropolitan.

Ty featured on Oprah.com!!

Huge thanks to Simran Sethi for the great post on our Ty recyclable shower curtain in the second part of her article The New Loo on Oprah.com, in which Simran greens her bathroom.

Simran notes the 108 volatile organic compounds that make typical vinyl shower curtains so dangerous, and writes about Grain:

"Their Ty shower curtain is one of my most cherished bathroom items. It moves and breathes like a natural fiber, resists mold and mildew and is made from HDPE, a commonly recycled plastic."

This post was part of a yearlong project in which Simran (known as the "green messenger" by Vanity Fair) will be greening her first home, a 1925 historic two-story house in Lawrence, Kansas. Read more of Simran's posts on Oprah.com here or on her own website here.

To celebrate this post, we are offering a 15% discount on our Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition recyclable shower curtains now until the end of March. Just enter "OPRAH" at checkout to receive the discount!

Chi-Chi joins Sololá in our shop!

Our Chi-Chi necklaces, made in collaboration with artisans in Guatemala, are finally up in our shop!! They join our Sololá purses also made in Guatemala from upcycled vintage textiles.

To read/see more about Chi-Chi and Sololá, check out our long overdue press release and/or download some high-res images here.

Above is Chi-Chi short multi cluster. Below is Chi-Chi long green cluster, Sololá small multi, and Sololá large multi.

Ty D.I.Y. Edition at RISD Works!

We just had to share the photo we received from RISD Works of their in store display of Ty D.I.Y. Edition. Kind of the best example ever! Thanks Matthew!

Best Ty D.I.Y. Edition photos ever!

We have received some great pictures of customized Ty D.I.Y. Edition's since they were launched last November, but these (found on Stomper Girl) really take the cake.

As designers, nothing makes us happier than seeing our product out in the world being enjoyed like this by super cute kids.

If you have Ty D.I.Y. Edition photos that you'd like to share, please forward to shop [at] graindesign.com. We'd love to see what you've come up with!

A+ Recap

It was a long week at the New York International Gift Fair. Our little display in the "A+: The Young Designers' Platform" was busy busy. We met a lot of great people and wrote some nice orders. The best part was getting to meet many of our buyers for the first time in person. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Above is our pedestal with Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition hanging in the background and non-profit Trash For Teaching.

The A+ wall text. You can read it in full in the press release here.

A view of Munire Kirmaci, Appree Co. and Loyal Luxe.

Marie-Pier Guilmain, Munrie Kirmaci and Jiyeon Ahn.

Ekdesign's pedestal.

A view of A+ from far corner of the booth with work by Munire Kirmaci upfront.

Steve from Trash For Teaching giving James and my Mom another lecture.

Our Electric Love rings (made of reclaimed electrical wire) in pink and white.

A view of our pedestal from above...

and with Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition hanging in the background.

A detail of our Sololá purses.

Display by Trash For Teaching. These are building block kits made from garment industry waste. All proceeds from their sale go to supporting the non-profit which brings waste materials into the Los Angeles school district to be used in art making programs.

Loyal Luxe's flat-pack cat house.

Lighting by Luca 12:00.

Appree Co.'s leaf shaped sticky notes.

Jiyeon Ahn of Luca 12:00 with an Electric Love ring at our pedestal.

Marie-Pier Guilmain, Maud Beauchamp, James Minola, Munire Kirmaci and Sangwoo Nam.

James Minola, Jiyeon Ahn, Munire Kirmaci and Sangwoo Nam.

And lastly... A detail of our Chi-Chi necklace prototype. Chi-Chi is handmade by artisans in Guatemala. It should be available for purchase in our shop in late March/early April.

It's Javits time...

The New York International Gift Fair starts tomorrow!

We had a chance to walk some of Accent on Design today while booths were getting set up and spotted a few great new designs, such as Ross Menuez's felt Icosa Lamp and silk-screened Kuma Pillows at Areaware.

Our booth is #3985A in A+: The Young Designers Platform. The show is up Sunday January 31st - Thursday February 4th.

Hope to see you there!

25% of sales to American Red Cross!

In an effort to help with the relief efforts in Haiti, we will be donating 25% of sales from our Grain Shop and Supermarket shop until January 25th, 2010 to the American Red Cross.

Don't need anything from Grain? Donate $10 to the American Red Cross directly by texting "HAITI" to 9-0-9-9-9.

Thanks!

UPDATE 1/25/10: We were able to send $100 to the American Red Cross' Haiti Relief and Development fund today! Thanks Kenneth, Roger, Megan, Heather, Frank, Jessica, Aimee and Mary!

Upgrade Party for Haiti

Our East Coast Grain'ers just hosted their first "Upgrade Party" to raise money for Haiti. Women brought in their unwanted clothes and bought clothes from each other to "upgrade" their wardrobe the triple bottom line way - good for people, cheap, and re-used.

In just a few short hours, we raised over $200! All the proceeds went to Partners in Health to help provide medical supplies on the ground directly to those in Haiti.

Sami is now working with DC's Art Commission to host a larger event at their next salon to raise more funds! So stay tuned!

We're going to New York!

We are thrilled to be one of the six designers invited to participate in the "A+: The Young Designers' Platform" section of Accent on Design at the New York International Gift Fair later this month. We will be sharing a booth (curated by the American Design Club) from January 31st to February 4th with the following participants:

Sangwoo Nam, Appree Co. Sangwoo Nam is a young designer from Seoul, South Korea whose functional home accessories include the “Leaf-it” self-stick memo notes in the color and shapes of tree leaves, and Waterdrop Magnetic, round translucent magnets of various sizes which function as magnets while providing an indirect link to nature.

Jung Woo Lee, ekdesign Jung Woo Lee, principal product and graphic designer at ekdesign in Seoul, South Korea, strives to incorporate expressive design into a variety of functional office products, including cardboard file folders and USB media players.

James Minola and Chelsea Green, Grain James Minola and Chelsea Green, designers from Bainbridge Island, WA, embrace a mission to unite sustainability and business through design. Grain is a design collaborative which creates and produces home and personal accessories, including the “Ty” recyclable shower curtain, made of ethically-produced, high density polyethylene (HDPE). The new “D.I.Y.” edition comes with an attached permanent marker to draw custom designs on the curtain. Minola and Green, both recipients of several design awards, met while pursuing industrial design degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Marie-Pier Guilmain and Maud Beauchamp, Loyal Luxe Marie-Pier Guilmain and Maud Beauchamp are pet accessory designers based in Mont-St-Hilaire, Canada, whose products are designed and manufactured entirely in Quebec. Their showcase work is the “chalet for cats,” a cardboard house for cats or other small domestic pets. Its innovative yet humorous design is inspired by Canadian-style chalets. Both Guilmain and Beauchamp received industrial design degrees from Montreal University.

Jiyeon Ahn and Jieun Kim, Luca 12:00 This female design duo from Seoul, South Korea, creates playful lighting and other home accessories, in which everyday objects become meaningful in a new context. One of their newest designs is “Soap, a portable light,” through which a unique light lamp – in the shape and color of a bar of soap – is controlled through touch. By rubbing the lamp in the same manner as a bar of soap, users can adjust the luminous intensity, and the soap’s holder acts as a charger.

Munire Kirmaci, munire kirmaci Munire Kirmaci is an industrial, product and spatial designer based in Brooklyn, NY, who designs home accessories as well as interior spaces. Her signature piece is “Salt and Pepper in One,” a stainless steel container which stores and dispenses both salt and pepper in one piece. Kirmaci received a Bachelor of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and a Masters of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute.

We are especially excited to be showing with Munire Kirmaci - an old friend who will definitely help keep us entertained over the five days of Javits action. Big thanks to Jamie and Brian of Iacoli & McAllister (who participated last summer) for inspiring us to apply!

UPDATE 2010-01-19: Here is a link to the official New York International Gift Fair press release.

Electric Love is here!!

Electric Love, our new hand-knotted rings (above and below) are made of reclaimed electrical wire and come in pink or white with more colors on the way. Each ring is handmade with love in our studio on Bainbridge Island. Visit the Grain Shop for more info!

Sololá is here!!

In 2006, while still students at RISD, James, Brit and I were part of an amazing wintersession course taught by Mimi Robinson called Bridging Cultures Through Design. Working with artisan communities in Guatemala, we developed a series of textiles goods celebrating Guatemalan textile traditions. The products went to market and continue to support sustainable incomes for those artisan groups that we collaborated with.

We are excited to now be offering one of the designs from that collaboration, called Sololá, in the Grain Shop! Here is the official description:

Sololá celebrates the artistry of Guatemalan women weavers. Each purse upcycles a vintage huipil (traditional women's blouse woven on the backstrap loom) to create an individual statement. Turned inside-out, the huipils are an explosion of color and handwork. Each purse is assembled by Guatemalan artisans in Antigua from textiles sourced at the famous Chichicastenango Market.

Sololá will be available in two sizes at $38 and $60. Each purse is made in Antigua, Guatemala and is totally unique.

More places to find Ty in 2010...

Ty D.I.Y. Edition will soon be available at the following new retailers throughout the US and Canada:

Green Depot
Green Depot is the nation's largest green building supplier. Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition will be soon be available through their website and in their LIVE store in Manhattan on Bowery (between Spring and Prince).

Carbon Environmental Boutique

Our first Canadian retailer is located in the historic heart of downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Carbon’s mission is threefold – to showcase and support environmental manufacture, to encourage and fortify ethical business practices and to advocate and promote non-toxic living.

Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store
A modern general store for a well-lived life, combining the charm of a country general store with the sophistication of a modern city lifestyle in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

MCA Denver Shop

Founded in 1996, MCA Denver became the city's first contemporary art museum. Two years ago David Adjaye designed it's new LEED GOLD Certified home in lower downtown. As of last week, you can find Ty D.I.Y. Edition's in their great museum shop.

risd|works

Located in Providence, every item featured is designed and made by Rhode Island School of Design alumni and faculty. All profits from risd|works sales are returned to RISD for use in furthering its mission.