Handmade Archives - ETHAN ALLEN - THE ART OF MAKING HOME

5Sep2017

Anniversary, Birthday, Celebrate, Craftsmanship, Decorating, Design Center, Ethan Allen, Handmade, Heritage, Home Decor, Home Furnishing, Interior Decorating, Interior Style, Made in America, Style

WE’RE 85 … AND YOUNG AT HEART

September 5, 2017 /

by Ethan Allen Design Team

It’s our anniversary! This fall we’re celebrating 85 years of craftsmanship, innovation, style, service, and quality. We picked Labor Day to kick off the party—a day that honors the great tradition of the American worker. Appropriately, we’re celebrating 85 years of jobs well done. We’re so incredibly proud of our workers—from the craftspeople who make our wood pieces to the designers who help our customers create beautiful rooms.

Throughout September we’ll be celebrating our history (look for highlights of our timeline), our favorite anniversary palette (beautiful black and gold), and the creativity of our artisans. We’ll be sharing entertaining “then and now” stories and going behind the scenes inside our photo studio and manufacturing plants.

Don’t worry. We’ll still be sharing our Design Stars’ stories and serving up fresh decorating ideas, but we’ve got some serious celebrating to do this September.

We may be 85, but we can party with the best of them—come along for the ride!

—The Ethan Allen Design Team

Video Portfolio

Bed, Bedroom, Craftsmanship, Decor, Decorating, Ethan Allen, Handmade, Interior design, Interiors, Made in America, Quincy, Vermont

HOW WE MAKE A BED

August 31, 2017 /

by Ethan Allen Design Team

A beautifully made bed is a pleasure to behold, with its sumptuous layers and gorgeous mix of textures. It all starts with the bed, of course—and no one makes beds like we do. The bestselling Quincy is just one of the beds we manufacture right in our own American workshops. And we do it all: from sourcing timber to applying finishes by hand. Take a look and see for yourself how we bring the Quincy bed to life—from wood … to wonderful.

29Aug2017

Behind The Design

Accents, Accessories, Artisans, Block Printing, Craftsmanship, Decor, Decorating, Design, Ethan Allen, Handmade, Home Decor, Interior design, Interiors, Made in America, Pillows, Print Making

BLOCK BEAUTY

August 29, 2017 /

by Ethan Allen Design Team

The ancient art of block printing has been around for 2,000 years. As a traditional method of textile design, it’s held up surprisingly well. Block printing is essentially the transfer of an image or design (in this case, coral) to a surface (a soft, white linen-and-cotton blend fabric) from a carved material (rubber, although wood is widely used) covered in ink (ours is water-based and nontoxic).

PRINTING OUR PILLOW, STEP BY STEP
An artist starts by carving the coral design into a piece of rubber to create a stamp that can be used again and again. The stamp is then glued to a piece of plexiglass, and ink is rolled out onto the raised stamp, ensuring the pigment is applied evenly. The pillow face fabric is placed on a padded surface, and the plexiglass is then turned over and positioned onto the fabric, inked side down. Pressure is evenly applied to the back of the plexiglass. While the fabric is held down, the plexiglass is then cleanly lifted away. The fabric is hung to dry before being sewn into the finished pillow.

Our Fan Coral Pillow is a contemporary example of the time-honored technique that’s widely associated with India, China, and Japan. The beauty and fine details of the natural sea fan coral are printed by hand onto cloth to produce an original, strikingly modern design—done the old-fashioned way. Our gorgeous block-printed pillows are made close to home, in a workshop in downtown Chicago. Each print is inked by hand, so variations will occur—only adding to the natural beauty of the piece.