Map of the Human Heart & Mother Earth.

My process of design these days is very organic. In the case of these pillows, I had in my possession the materials and a rather vague sense of what I would create from them. What I find so interesting about working with these rich and rarefied goods is that the impetus to cut into them is tempered by my appreciation of their essential value.

How do I not waste even the smallest bit?

These skins were raised in a regenerative agricultural process that returns carbon to our soil. Taking carbon from the atmosphere, depositing it back into the earth, and aiding in the , then, healthy soil’s ability to hold onto water and provide for nutrition rich soil to sustain life as we know it. Not a small job. All the more reason to honor the shape, the texture, the process, in a manner that reveres the work that brought them to me.

With that thought, I created the Patch & the Newquay pillows.

Unable to cut into shapes, I appliqued the unique shearlings, and used every inch, upon pieces of upcycled Levi’s denim that would serve as the canvas.

I bound the edges in a striped bias binding of cotton that creates a distinct division between the denim & the hide.

The resulting pieces feel like cartography to me. I have long loved maps and the insight that they provide. Maps pre-GPS were the key to autonomy & liberation from my young self into the bigger world. Thomas Guides, the road map of Los Angeles; atlases that charted our family road trips as a child; London Tube maps & NYC subway maps—one didn’t exist without them. Mere relics today, but ‘back in the day’ they were as essential as a Covid19 mask.

The Newquay & Patch pillows give a nod to the land upon which the animals grazed.

Not unlike a topographical map, these pillows hold an awareness of elevation, distinct landscapes, and varying fibers which create depth, texture, and interest.

The Patch pillow with pieced upcycled Levi’s denim

There is also a coastal feeling that I experience with these pieces, which is probably not a surprise to those that know me. The coast is never far from mind. The Patch is a favorite break in West Marin with perfect long boarding waves. Newquay is an idyllic beach on the Cornish Coast of England where I once learned to surf, during a gap year. The setting was breathtaking— ‘patch’work quilts of agrarian life were suspended on rugged, coastal cliffs above stunning and unpopulated beaches.

See our pillows here and reach out if you care for us to create a unique design that maps your life experience.

Pieced upcycled Levi’s denim, the Newquay pillow