Salvaged Beauty

Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods
enhabiten

Story by enhabiten

Published on July 25, 2012 in Shop

Liane Tyrrel  is an artist and designer living in a small cabin in rural New Hampshire. She’s been running her handmade business, enhabiten, for the past four years, and it allows her to indulge daily in her love and affection for muted color, texture and surface. She also loves her three kids, certain poems, thinking about non-linear time, and that moment in conversation where you feel like you’re really getting somewhere.

All my life, I’ve been drawn to natural objects and surfaces with character, texture and colors from nature. Growing up in rural New England fed this inclination. As a small kid in the 1970s, I spent time in an old two room chicken coop, transformed into a simple home, where one of my best friends lived with her sister and mom. This experience gave me an early fondness and connection to things humble and pared-down.

[Clockwise from top left: Hand stitched leather credit card holder by FilmFolkGallery; Industrial hanging light – rustic rope design by LukeLampCo; Reclaimed wood bicycle fender by REDesignShop; Sea and Sky zip pouch by SquidWhaleDesigns.]

Raw materials like clay, bare wood, hand-forged metal, textiles such as hemp and wool, and stitches made by hand with thread, needle and thimble provoke an emotional response in me. Surfaces that reference the woods, the sea and the universe that surrounds us help me to understand my place in the world and give me comfort.

[Clockwise from top: Reclaimed wood lath wall from jerseyicecreamco; Rustic hand built mugs from JustWork; Antique Indian shoes from TheJewelMystique; Vintage crochet lace trim from TeaWorksCottage.]

I love the bones of old houses: things like lathe and old square nails. I appreciate salvaged architectural elements as objects unto themselves.

[Clockwise from top left: 'November Sky' hand dyed muslin yarn by LadyRSanti; Found objects from JetsamandJuniper;  'Salvador' hand dyed fabric by vickiwelsh; Salvaged square nails from MapleTreeProductions.] 

Learning about dyeing with natural materials opened up a whole new world for me. Growing a dye garden, and foraging and gathering what I can in the woods and roadside to use as dye, completes the circle of self-sufficiency.

[Clockwise from top: Reclaimed barnwood door by toddmanring; Architectural salvage chipped wood brackets from ElizabethRosenArt; Oil painting on reclaimed wood by dianthabaker; Reclaimed wood tray by FORTRESSco.]

I love things that show evidence of time passing and traces of the human hand. They deepen my connection to people of the past and strengthen my belief in a meaningful common human experience.

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