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| 2007 - and ever since... |
Living in Canada has changed the way I enjoy one of my favourite places in the world - an Ocean Beach... I no longer associate it with basking sun, air vibrating from the heat, hot white sand and bright water (and certainly, no Martinis!). Those images, ingrained into my memory since my twenties, have been replaced with a Northern steal-grey landscape, violet waves, lengthy tide and low skies. Air became cooler, the horizon became wider and less defined...
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| Pacific Rim sunset |
When I think of the Shore, images of rugged lines and stormy waters come to mind....
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| Shore line, Vancouver Island |
I am so fortunate to having discovered these shores and their untamed beauty, and even somewhat adjusted my skin to the windchill, taught my eyes to catch every rare glimpse of the sun...
More than ever, I felt inspired to create a Beach line, reflecting my changed aesthetics, and a pursuit of softness, warming and life in this rough landscape, alongside all the other living creatures of land and water...
QtBeach was a dream - from the memories of a Northwestern Island summer, to longing for Spring over the cold seasons, to thinking of flying birds, setting sun, fleece, sand, and tirelessly wavy water.
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| On a cold early Spring day I dreamed of Summer... |
QtBeach comes in glowing, mostly warm or saturated colours - Sand, Pebble Grey, Sunset, Night Blue, Lime Green and others... Sun, peeking through the oceanic fog lights up every shade on this windswept corner of the land, every tiny blossom, feather, riping berries, raindrops...
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| Sunset |
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| Lime Green |
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| Pebble Grey |
The basic, sharply rectangular shape of the tote is used to create resisting structure, strong, timeless and reinforced. I also made wide and long straps, to even wear it across the body. Instead of screen-printing animals, and embedding their direct images on the bags, I thought of how they moved instead. Cyclical movement of wings in flight, tales in the water, or bodies, gently rocked by the waves, have their motion recorded in the symmetric pleats; water glistens in the sequins and blossoms peek out of shade in the brightly coloured peek-a-boo zips...
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| Pink |
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| Sea Blue |
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| Night Blue |
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| Lime Green/ Fuchsia |
Overall design turned out soft, flowy, but strong, as the landscape continuously waiting for the sun to warm it... I could not have found better inspiration...
It is great for the Beach, Picnics, Markets, Travel. Packs up and disappears when not needed.
**QtBeach totes in most colours are now available at the Webshop and PoppyHair Boutique in Vancouver.
Posted by Jolanta http://jolavdesigns.com
I really love the colors! I do. Your inspiration sounds wonderful when the ocean is something that I miss so badly in my new hometown... One of these will be mine....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ann -
ReplyDeletethe colours came from the memories (and I so do not see these bags as 'girly' - lol!)... I love the beach too, and I miss it immediately when I am away from it.