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I have always been a little standoffish about wallpaper, most likely because I don’t particularly embrace pattern. And anyone who knows me will nod vigorously when I say I struggle with color. So the combination of color and pattern being applied in large swathes to a wall is something I avoid like the plague.

That’s the thing with handmade items. They still have the person’s mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.
― Aimee Bender

Now while I confess a bit of a crush on the subversive punk energy of Timorous Beasties, most of the wallpaper I’ve seen of late toggles between trendy “fun”—the design equivalent of Katy Perry, all extroversion and perkiness—or is a riff on William Morris and his earnest, if ever-so-slightly stodgy, gentility.

But the wallpaper patterns created by San Francisco-based elworthy studio are an exception. From the moody, earthy, muted palette, and patterns that evoke shadow, light, and texture, the feeling is calm, not frenetic, restrained yet sensual. There’s a refreshing grittiness and darkness to the work: a far, far cry from all that girly patterning so in vogue.

Source: handfulofsalt.com

It was designer Steven Miller—no slouch in the taste department—who first showed me the work of Jenny Hacker, a San Francisco-based textile artist. It was a blanket—black on black—with two different textiles fused together, one side organic cotton and the other, felted wool.

A triumph of texture and form, and dramatic, organic, sophisticated, sensual, it was one of the most beguiling pieces of functional art I’ve seen of late.

Doing a little background research for the interview was no mean feat. At a time when so many tread the same art-meets-craft sales circuits and tend their Instagram feeds with greater passion than their craft, this woman was mysterious. A minimalist website was all there was. Even better. A trip out to the deliciously un-hip Excelsior District in San Francisco was a good start.

So was poking around the garage-turned-workshop: a vat of something brewing in the corner, a few bottles holding another experiment (homemade dyes from flowers in the yard), tatami mats on the floor, vintage Knoll chairs, a drool-worthy assortment of books on fashion, Japanese anime figurines… Oh, and an old letterpress nestled beneath a work table.

Source: handfulofsalt.com