Ten Question Tuesday - Owl + Mouse

Hello! Who are you? Give us the 411 about yourself.
Owl+Mouse Textile Designs is a small company based in Kansas City, Missouri. All textiles are hand-designed, dyed, printed and sewn in a cozy studio by Alice Youngblood and Cristin Llewellyn. We work together as a duo to create unique designs for Owl+Mouse. Currently, we print shirts and scarves however, we would like to explore different paths within the "fiber relm". We met in 2005 as students in the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute. Alice is originally from Greenville, South Carolina and Cristin is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We currently create, explore and live in Kansas City.

When/how did you start your business?
Owl+Mouse was born in the summer of 2009. After graduating and spending time working in the "real world" we decided it would be much more rewarding to work together and create our own designs. We both wanted to make art that would be accessible and affordable to the public. Having backgrounds in fiber naturally led us to a textile business.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Currently we both work other jobs in addition to the work we do for our business. This keeps us quite busy! However, in the spare time that we DO have we enjoy browsing antique stores, drinking coffee, going to yoga, planting our new vegetable garden and playing with our insane cats!

What first made you want to become an artist?
We both grew up in artistic environments and always knew that's what we wanted to do!

What inspires you?
Most of our inspiration comes from the natural world. Our patterns are inspired by organic and whimsical images/ ideas we find in movies, music, books, architecture and everyday life. Although we have different design processes, our ideas and aesthetics usually end up going in a similar direction.

What's your favorite thing about your craft?
Each time we create a new design we are excited to sit down and sew the final project. It is extremely rewarding to watch all of our hard work (designing, dying, printing and cutting) come together. Because we begin with plain white fabric each item we make is unique and individual.

Where would we most likely find you working?
Either in our studio or living room.

What's your favorite music to listen to while you work?
A variety of folk/rock and indie/pop on our laptop! Anything that keeps us moving and motivated!

What's your favorite thing right now?
We’re basically together non-stop so….a sense of humor and patience.

If you could have one wish granted for the craft community, what would it be?
Appreciation for the process and hard work that goes into everything handmade. While participating in local art fairs we have found that the general public have a hard time understanding the uniqueness of handmade. Many times they get frustrated when we run out of a certain size or color and seem to expect that we have unlimited quantities or that each item will be exactly the same. It's the limited editions and differences in each thing we create that makes them one of a kind and wonderful!

Check out the rest of Owl + Mouse's work in their Etsy shop!