One of the most common questions that we hear at Of The Earth is whether we can print a personal message on our handmade seed paper goods. We do accommodate all kinds of custom orders, and we love these requests.
We are introducing more products that help streamline these requests, by using customizable templates. This allows the favors to ship more quickly, within three days, and eliminates proofing costs.
These personalized seed paper circles have room for both the bride and groom’s name (or, of course, both brides or grooms!) as well as the wedding date.
For a simpler favor, we also have seed paper circles available in three colors with custom initials. These favors are also extremely affordable, starting at just $0.58 apiece.
Another option for personalized favors with initials are these cute 2″ seed paper squares with a frame of watercolor branches. These are printed on the back with planting instructions.
These customized seed paper hexagons pair our handmade seed paper with a modern calligraphy font. They can also be printed with a variety of font styles.
This is our newest customizable design for seed paper hearts. The botanical print has several options, as does the font used for the names of the bride and groom. These can be ordered with or without the planting instructions on the reverse side.
The best feature of all of these favors is that your guests can plant them afterward to sprout wildflowers, and watch your love grow and bloom.
Of The Earth customers had a busy summer. Here are some images that they shared recently of how they used our products. They include wedding invitations, delicate jewelry, custom art, seeded goods and more!
In ancient Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of a rainbow. She makes a rainbow bridge to travel between the heavens and waters below to fetch drinks for the gods in Olympus. The freedom to travel between these worlds allows her to be the messenger, the communicator between mortals and immortals. Folks usually ‘wish upon a star,’ but next time I see a rainbow, I’ll give my hopes to Iris so she can carry them where they need to be heard.
Speaking of rainbows and communication, I think of Lori Graham as our very own ‘Iris in Residence.’ She’s our color impresario, the master dyer and co-owner of Of The Earth. She creates glorious rainbows of ribbons using sustainable practices. She obsesses about shades, and recently I took an opportunity to speak with her about color.
Q: Lori, besides the lovely ribbons of cotton and silk for Of The Earth, do you dye other materials?
Lori: Yes, I used to dye wool and cotton fabric using natural and chemical dyes.
Q: What were your favorite colors when you were younger?
Lori: When I was young, it was pink pink pink! Pink duvet, bedspread, pink lace – all pink – all the time. Then in my early twenties, lots of black. Now it’s orange.
Earth Silk Color 089Earth Silk Color 053Earth Silk ribbon adorns a bridesmaid dressEarth Silk Color 099Earth Silk Color 092
Q: When new Pantone colors are released, do you generally agree with their trend sense?
Lori: I am interested in their bridal color forecast. That’s what I pay attention to because that’s what my clients will ask for. But I’m not always jazzed about the Pantone forecast and dread the “muted” or ambiguous tones that I’ll need to develop. For example, ‘seafoam’ (324, 324-5, 534, or 515?) and ‘merlot’ (093, 030, 247-5, or 232-5?) Both can be imagined in so many different ways.
Q: What is the most difficult color to achieve?
Lori: Right now I would have to say it’s “warm black.”
Earth Silk Color 079Earth Silk Color 241
Black is a finicky mixture of colors and achieving the subtle differences in black shades is more of an art than a science. You’ve probably seen how when bleach splashes on black clothes, you get a lighter blotch, but it’s not grey or “pale black.” You may see a green, purple, orange, or blue blotch.
Lori continues: Regardless of ingredient inconsistencies, we are determined to create true colors for our clients. In the past, ‘warm black’ may have been a two step process. But more alterations and futzing is required when the original ingredients are different. So, we keep copious notes and are constantly working to ensure that our shades match our swatches. Our colors are definitely a secret recipe!
Q: Do you dream in color, and when you dress up to go out, what is your happiest celebration color?
Lori: Yes, I definitely dream in color and I feel best wearing the colors of a candle’s flame: red, bright orange, fiery yellow and teal blue of the hottest part.
We were abuzz in the workroom this week. A bride-to-be in Colorado ordered favors with a customized “Meant to Bee” message on the back. I wonder if the couple met through a shared interest in gardening. Regardless, these little treats are sweet as honey and I hope their wedding guests love them.
We have hexagons with bees and a “Plant Me!” message on the back. Let us know if you’d like to join the hive!
This time of year always has us scrambling; rushing to pack and ship orders in time for the holidays, rushing to get gifts wrapped for friends and family, rushing to complete our end of year inventory, rushing up and down I-5 to visit our loved ones.
Now that the new year has begun the next rush is on. Our annual local bridal show begins next weekend at the Washington State Convention center which was built right over I-5 where it passes through the center of downtown Seattle. We have new designs to add to our existing line of plantable invitations. We have new equipment going into this bridal season that we bought at last year’s Stationery Show in NY. We have just 7 more days to put the finishing touches on the invitations that we hope resonate with our Seattle customers.
Once that show is over we begin building a new (sturdier) crate for the NY Gift Show that runs Jan 31 – Feb 4 at the Javits center. At the end of February we are excited to be participating for the first time in the largest show of its kind in the nation: The SewExpo http://www.sewexpo.com/. We are excited to be part of the show and look forward to meeting many of you there.
We are excited to see what these next few months bring but want to give a quick shout out to a couple of our 2014 customers who shared their photos with us.
Here is a photo of our Earth Silk ribbon that Heather Edgar sent.
She runs her own business: Evergreen Flower Co. of Columbus, Ohio and was kind enough to send these beautiful photographs. Thanks Heather!
Earth Silk ribbon on a flower bouquet.
One thing we love about the Seattle Wedding Show is the special connections we make with our local brides. We met Rebecca and Thomas at last year’s wedding show along with Rebecca’s mom. They were that couple you meet who you can see married forever, their shared energy and enthusiasm were infectious. We had a great time working with them on all of their wedding plans, this pair was doing it all! They loved that we offered so many do it yourself options as they were planning to do just as much as they could (including making their own rings). After their event they shared their wedding web site with us (which is where this photo is from). You should take a look!
Seattle couple assembles Of The Earth invitations at home.
Lastly we were excited to work on these holiday cards with a great creative team from Darien, Connecticut. Thanks for letting us share your project Jim! GW Hoffman
2015 update! We just got a note from Andrea asking to have her images removed from our blog so that they could submit them to Martha Stewart! Best of luck Andrea!!
When Andrea Miles of A Miles Designs approached us about her wedding we were excited and eager to help. She had a distinct vision and color palette, but used our ideas and suggestions to elevate her design elements to a level we could have not imagined. Needless to say, we loved the finished product so much we asked her for an interview about the process. Read on for more about the details of Andrea’s wedding and her latest use of our products in her own line for children!
How did you discover Of The Earth?
I found you on Etsy and fell in love with the hand dyed silk ribbon in Tickle. I ordered a few yards and basically designed/dyed the bridesmaids dresses around it. It was the first thing I bought for the wedding and it inspired the bridesmaids dresses that our girls (our daughters) wore that day.
What were your initial product needs for your wedding?
It was decided that I could use some interfacing to make it more rigid in the area that went around their waists, so it became their belt/sash. The length that tied was left soft. When I ordered the roll of 2.5″, there was quite a bit left over and it was the perfect thing to tie around all of the bouquets. I noticed that they had various widths and bought a roll of a thinner width to replace the white satin ribbon that was stitched on the edge of my veil. Again, there was a large surplus of this thinner width, so I used the extra on the invitations. We had our invitations rolled up and inserted into glass bottles. wrapped around these bottles was a square that looked like the Brady Bunch (9 squares, mom in top middle, dad in bottom middle, my children in the left squares, my husband’s in the right squares and in the middle square in the same font as the TV show it said “bridal bunch”). The thinner silk ribbon was tied around the bottles to hold these in place.
How was our input helpful during your planning process?
After I got my first cutting of the 2.5 silk ribbon, I decided that I wanted the girls’ bridesmaid dress to be dyed in a pink ombre. I contacted Kevin because I was totally ignorant on the subject of dying. He was super helpful and pointed me in the right direction. I had to use a different type of dye because I was dying tulle instead of silk, but I could not have done it without his help. I recently contacted him about ribbon for another project, and once again, he went out of his way. My experience with Of The Earth has been one of the best, if not the best, that i have ever had with a business. And trust me, I’ve done a lot of shopping/buying in my day.
Tell us about your Etsy line, A. Miles Designs?
AMiles Designs, my shop on Etsy, has monogrammed and appliqued towel wraps, hoodies, bikini bottoms and stockings right now. but I am adding pom pom shorts (really excited about these!), bandeau swim tops, 4 baby items, and pillows in the very near future.
How do you plan to use the custom ribbons from Of The Earth in your designs?
I love the ribbon because it is hand dyed and has the qualities that go with that. With wear, it gets a slight fray on the edges which I’m crazy about. I knew that I would incorporate the ribbon into a product in my shop on Etsy from the beginning, but I just have not had the time until now.
Here is a quick look at the Northlake Wedding Program for the Center for Urban Horticulture event space. We are using our Earth Silk ribbon blend #016 in conjunction with the lotka seed paper, black print and a light weight slate background. We think this says Whimsical Romance! What do you think?
We often write of the custom orders we create for clients’ worldwide, commissioned projects remain to be some of our favorite and most memorable endeavors. Recently we had the pleasure of working with Jeanette Maurer of The Good Earth Candle Company.
“The Good Earth Candle Company features a thoroughly sustainable product, it is carefully crafted in the US in collaboration with a number of skilled artisans and small companies. All candle components are made of natural and renewable materials.”
Jeanette discovered us at a trade show and worked patiently with us to create the right combination of petals and seeds to pair with her line of soy candles. The paper we make for her acts as both a label and a protective cover for her product.
“The last touch to her candles is the unique cover. Jeanette partnered with a creative “eco” printer Jen Merrill, and Kevin Graham who handcrafted the beautiful paper. The paper is infused with real flowers, ferns and seeds that can be planted into the soil to beautify our wonderful planet even more. Jeanette has passion and pride in everything she creates and is very excited to pass this on through offering high quality, very special, “Eco Elegant” products to her customers.”
Upon completion of the project we chatted with Jeanette about her experience working with us to create unique packaging for her candles.
“Kevin and his team have been amazing! When I came to him with my custom project I was impressed with his ability to seamlessly design and execute the elements for my candle covers. He continues to be gracious, generous and helpful even after our project has technically been completed.”
Thank you, Jeanette! We so enjoyed working with you!
What do we do? We make paper and ribbon, right? Piece of cake. Two products, easy peasy. Well no actually, we have over four thousand inventory items currently featured on our website and thousands more when you consider the custom work we offer. This includes everything from the aforementioned Accommodation Cards to Memorial Invitations. Since starting this business eighteen years ago, we have greatly increased the breadth and depth of our collection. While we continue to expand and take on a variety of products outside wedding planning, invitations and promotional events, we always welcome the opportunity to take on custom projects.
We created this custom silk ribbon for our friends at Tiny Pine Press in California who needed to match a fabric color for invitations and wedding day decorations.
We took on a custom matching dilemma for Susan Hammer of Fontastic in Georgia. Ultimately this order did not go with our hand dyed silk. We could not match the effect created in this Dupioni silk where threads of different colors are woven together and seem to shift color from different angles. We were able to provide a ribbon for her wedding programs, just not one we dyed by hand.
A beautiful custom place card for an English bride. This customer has been working with us for close to a year planning her wedding. Tomorrow is the big day! April, 27 2013. We are very excited for her and all of the couples we have the pleasure of working with.
If you are in need of a custom piece, please contact us directly. Some of our favorite and most innovative works come directly from client commissions.
