WE BUY YOUR KIDS
These days there are a wide range of cushion covers flooding the market in various sizes, prints, colours and price ranges. So when embarking on the idea of producing some cushion covers, we knew that we had to work with an artist who would be able to create some unique artwork that not only suited the process of screen printing, but also would stand out amongst the crowd. We knew that Sonny and Biddy from We Buy Your Kids would be perfect for this Edition, so we set a mission to convince them to work with us. Sonny and Biddy brought to the table their vast knowledge of both practical and digital illustration techniques as well as their screen printing experience, and produced a very original concept for our first East Editions cushion covers.
Here at East Editions we are always looking for the most local, eco friendly and handmade way of producing our editions. For this edition we sourced locally manufactured fabric from Sydney based Hemp Gallery, the fabric we chose is a blend of 55% pure hemp and 45% certified organic cotton. This durable canvas like fabric makes the cushion cover sturdy so it retains it’s shape, but also soft so you can rest your head on it comfortably. Hemp is an environmentally sustainable source of fabric, which does not require the use of herbicides, pesticides or any other toxic agricultural chemicals to cultivate, and hemp is also naturally anti-bacterial, hypo allergenic and a natural insulator.
After sourcing the fabric, we then approached our good friend Shannon at Aisle6ix Industries to work with us to screen print the covers using water based inks, and just to make it a real challenge to print, we decided to let Sonny and Biddy create a two colour design, and do two different colour ways! The vibrant water based inks on the canvas fabric proved a real success, giving the final prints a real natural look and feel with an almost matte finish.
After printing each piece of fabric, we then had the lovely local fashion designer Dena Pezzano hand sew the cushion covers together from her home studio in Annandale, including hidden zippers and woven labels. Dena hand sews everything from wedding dresses to kids hats, and since working with her, we love that we have now become great friends with Dena and her family and look forward to making more things with her in the future.
Big thanks to Sonny and Biddy from We Buy Your Kids for taking the time out of their busy schedule to work with us, Beatrice at Hemp Gallery for her support, Shannon at Aisle6ix for printing everything and being so excited by our whole project, and to Dena for sewing everything and being so patient with us.
We hope you enjoy these process images of this being printed by Sonny and Shannon at Aisle6ix in Sydney.