Shop Hop Holiday Party- December 21st 6-8pm
Shop in style and relax with some bubbly and nibbles while you Hop from shop to shop.
Local Maker Spotlight: The Ladies edition
The spotlight is on 4 local makers Calliope, Humble Salve, JFish Designs, and gâté comme des filles chocolats.
Back By Popular Demand... More Blogs We Love!
Our last blog post spotlighting SF Bay Blogs We Love was so popular, we decided to do a Part Deux. For your blog rolling pleasure, here are a few more to add to your morning coffee routine. These gals are based around the country (from LA to Brooklyn), have awesome taste, and are sure to help bust you out of any creative rut you might be in. We hope you take a linking to them like we did!
Handful of Salt aims to be the home of the modern artisanal movement. It covers tons of stuff from the intersection of craft and design. The founder, Reginna Connell, has wonderful taste – it's very well curated. 
Jennifer Chong is a designer who posts inspiring, gorgeous photography documenting her beautiful finds from around the country. Her blog is a great resource for recipes, as well as finding undiscovered restaurants and shops.
The Post Punk Kitchen was created by Isa Chandra Moskowitz in her cramped Brooklyn kitchen in 2003. It's an awesome resource for fun, healthy and delicious vegan recipes. The site always makes us smile, and has been known to get us out of our food ruts.
The Jealous Curator is by a fine artist and designer who wanted a place to show gorgeous contemporary artwork that "made her jealous." It's great for a quick injection of culture and art, especially if you enjoy a bit of self deprecation.
An Artist Reception and Q&A with Tallulah Terryll
We're really looking forward to having Tallulah Terryll's art up in the shop beginning on September 27th! Please come by from 6-8 p.m. to welcome her to the Old Oakland and see her show, "Willow Paintings" (up through November 1). Tallulah is an old friend of Kerri's (the shop owner) and an amazingly talented artist. She uses handmade stencils, paint, and Chine-collé techniques to create stunning mixed media works with lots of color.
We visited her studio in August, and were excited to see what she's got in the works. It's always fun to go behind-the-scenes with local artists and see where the magic happens. Plus, she sent us off with some zucchini from her garden, and a bottle of homemade jam (what a peach!). Here's a Q&A with her so you can get to know her work better:
What are your works inspired by, and where do you get the ideas for your patterns?
I'm inspired by snippets from nature. I look for the small, repetitive building blocks. Almost all of the work in this show is based on a photograph of the cell structure of willow bark I found in a biology book that had been untouched in a library for decades.
How do you generate the patterns, and what materials do you use for your works?
First I make a drawing, usually directly on the stencil material but sometimes I transfer it onto the stencil material later. I cut it out using a surgical scalpel. I then use watercolor, acrylic and inks with the stencil with many brush techniques and layers onto a sheet of paper.
We hear you spent some time in Japan. Can you tell us about the eastern influences in your work?
I think the thing most people jump to compare my work to is the beautiful Japanese textiles, and that totally makes sense. Of course, I also really love the textiles from Scandinavia, South Asia, and the Middle East as well. What was really significant about Japan for me was how well made everything was. There is such great craftsmanship and such pride in it.
What's your arts background?
I got my BFA from Cornish College of the Arts. It is a really tiny school in Seattle with fine art, theatre, music, dance and design programs. That is where I fell in love with printmaking. Then in 2006 I moved to Oakland, where I've been lucky to meet and befriend a great number of talented and inspirational artists.
We love that you're local. How can we support your work as an artist?
Come out to my shows. Get your friends to join you. Sign up for my email list. And, of course, if you feel so inclined, you could add some of my work to your collection!
Vegan Goodness in Chickpea Quarterly Magazine
We're now proudly carrying Chickpea Magazine in the shop! It's a beautifully designed vegan print quarterly inspired by the hipsterfood – a popular blog started by Cara and Bob (pictured below) who post all kinds of expertly photographed vegan eats and recipes for their foodie followers.
Chickpea showcases a their favorite things in the vegan world at the moment, whether a personal story, a new book, a great recipe, or photographs that capture the essence of the season at hand. The magazine supports a whole-foods, plant-based way of life, but offers recipes that anyone can try.
We have the summer issue in the shop currently, and we can attest that it's a goodie. The features include fresh fruit desserts, a trip to the berry patch, a vegan travel guide to the south, a summer skin survival guide, refreshing chilled soups, and a tribute to the farmer's market.
And, of course, we'll have the Fall Issue in the shop this October. Some of the features include: make your own hard apple cider, fair trade vanilla, jam-making, dating omnivores, DIY candle holders, an ode to oats, and a Portland, OR city guide. We can't wait to check it out – it's sure to be chalk full of autumnal inspiration.
A MODify/d Trunk Show This Saturday! And a Q&A with Lisa and Candice
Lisa Solomon and Candice Gold of Modify/D are two very talented local ladies with a passion for turning high-end fabric scraps (think cashmere and lush jersey cotton) into all manner of wearable and and usable things for the home. Their stuffies, pillows, dog beds, and infinity scarves are always a big hit in the shop. Be sure to drop by the shop THIS SATURDAY the 7th between the hours of 12 and 6 p.m. to meet them in person and peruse the MODIFY/D TRUNK SHOW! Lisa and Candice will be workin' the shop and have a bunch of their merch on hand, including their beloved owl stuffies. Here's a Q&A with the gals to whet your appetite:
You have such fun products. How do you come up with new ideas?
A lot of the inspiration comes from what fabric we get. We look at a swatch and say, "Oh, that will make a great pillow!," or, "That is perfect for an elephant ear, " or, "That pocket is so cute! We have to find a way to use it," or, "We can just take the hood off of that sweater and make a head/scarf thing…"
So all of your items repurpose garments that would have been discarded otherwise?
YES. We work directly with companies and get their extra yardage, damages, discards, samples, overruns, etc. It's fun because we never know what we are going to get. And we try really hard to use up what we are given with very little waste. We even keep tiny scraps to make patches, or scrap flower pins… we even save tiny scraps to use as stuffing. Most of our cashmere and sweater materials come from White + Warren in New York. Most of our knitwear and denim comes from Isda & Co. in San Francisco.
What are your favorite MODify/d products right now?
Hmmm. Always a fan of the stuffies. They are so cute and each one turns out a bit differently since they are hand-cut. Also, we're really loving our super soft infinity scarves, made from an amazing bunch of really lovely high-end jersey. Finally – our Jacquard Pillows are definitely high on the list. We got these super pretty swatches in, and it was fun to match the knit with menswear.
How did MODify/d get started?
Candice and I have been friends for quite awhile now. We're both interested in fashion (shoes in particular), design, and the environment, and Candice has a history of working in the garment industry. At some point she was working with a cashmere sweater company and showed me the boxes of stuff that were going to end up being thrown away. It seemed criminal to allow such amazing fabric to end up in the landfill… so MODify/d was born. It's great because we have really similar aesthetics. We are also driven to try and make a difference (even if it's small. You have to start somewhere, right?).
What are your arts and apparel backgrounds?
I'm a mixed media artist who moonlights as a professor and freelance graphic designer. I'm currently working on an exhibition that is exploring the number 1000 – sen in Japanese, with an installation featuring 1000 doilies in 100 colors pinned to the wall. Candice is an apparel industry executive (she owned her own company in New York) and is currently a consultant with Isda & Co. in San Francisco.
The Shop's in Sunset Magazine!
Everyone gets five minutes of fame... and it must be our time to shine, because we're featured in this month's Sunset Magazine! Over the summer, a couple of nice ladies paid us a visit to interview us and take some pics of the shop, and we've been crossing our fingers ever since that we'd appear in a forthcoming issue. Well, it happened, and here we are alongside Umamimart and Crown Nine in a feature about "retail reinvention" in Old Oakland.
Here are the nice things they had to say about Marion and Rose:
At Marion and Rose's Workshop, the filter is "well crafted, American-made, heirloom quality" gifts and accessories, says owner Kerri Lee Johnson. That translates into Faribault wool blankets (from Minnesota), Peg & Awl waxed-canvas satchels (from Philadephia), and California-made Native State line of skin-care products. "The girls behind Native State just moved to Oakland," says Johnson. "They're excited to be here."
Be sure to pick up your issue – it's on newsstands now!
Our Email Newsletter is Back!
We have so many summertime sale goodies, we were inspired to revive our email newsletter! It's back in action, and you can check it out here. If you're not yet on our email list, definitely sign up to get all of our latest updates, check out our new merch, be alerted about sale items, and see our latest Instagram photos. We'd love to keep in touch with you in the coming months as we get fun new products in for Fall.
Reinvent Your Desk or Office Space – Our Back-To-School Stuff is On Sale!
The summer months are coming to a close, and with September right around the corner, it's time to dust off your dreams, get reinspired, and go out and kick some butt. Whether you are headed back to school or jump starting a new project, it's a good time to clear out the old clutter and reinvent your work or study space.
Lucky for you, we're throwing a big sale in August to make way for new Fall merchandise, and all of our desk and office friendly back-to-school stuff is 20% off. The cute things in the photo above are sure to make your shopping list:
Lunch Bags by Peg & Awl
Made of sturdy, wipe-down-able waxed canvas.
America the Beautiful Field Notes
Limited edition and ready for note taking and doodling.
Woolen Laptop and iPad Bags
Technology looks so much better when accessorized.
Handwoven Trash Basket by Peterboro
Made by a family in New Hampshire for 150 years.
JFish Wall Planters
Slipcasted ceramics made at the Berkeley Potters Guild.