it's a start

following up on my last episode of mynewspainadventure, I had left you all somewhere in the sierras, gold country, Grass Valley, with a vision of starting up a business, a vision that is constantly morphing, depending on whether we turn right or left, and what inspires us.

remember Keesha? during our first encounter visiting the town, she said: “let’s start a green business together”...so we did, we are, actually you are in the presence of it’s birth. After playing around with names, meanings and translations, we fell back on “alucina” and changed “designs” to “design studio”, it’s a very common slang word used in Spain, literally translates to hallucinate, but has an array of meanings: wow, amazing, believe it, check it out, and so on.

the world is changing and so are we, we are designers, we specialize, we create, we are bringing back old things, the ones that make sense. I bought a brand new sewing machine, with the bad plastic vocs included, just one of many tools to incorporate to our ability to do things, just like the rotating sander, although that one was a refurbished piece.

even before I found a place to move into, I had made a list of furnishings from “craiglist”, in an effort to be as green as possible, I wanted to recycle anything I could and avoid creating more waste, initially I was just looking for my own personal use, but then decided to incorporate that into the business, and I’m not the only one, I have discovered some very talented artisans and at home moms doing the “shabby chic”, which is actually a new word in my vocabulary, Keesha has a better name to differentiate our style: eco chic, which is not new, but it'll do for now.

mostly have been using the non toxic milk paints, which requires sanding, however after my first crib, decided that anything with multiple styles and rails, or decorative carvings will require †o splurge on Annie’s Chalk paint, which is great, but it’s expensive and it’s an import. If someone here on the continent can’t figure out how to make this paint, or perhaps that will be a new venture.

I have been happy to find a few (not many) items “made in the usa” like the kapok pillows, and some organic fabrics, I have also discovered some old sources that have sadly gone out of business, like woodshanti cabinets.

the concept of making organic cotton quilts, was also born from my search for bedding, while there’s enough suppliers of sheets, when I looked at organic wool blankets, or duvets, they are very high and mostly imports. 

one of my favorite discoveries was ellie pooh elephant dung card stock

we are still polishing up our website, so feel free to make comments or suggestions