New Works

Paintings by Phil.

Both are watercolor and ink on Arches paper.

Both will be up for sale at Night of 1000 Drawings at Artists Space in NYC on December 13th.  Proceeds support future endeavors at Artists Space.

Enjoy and be well!

Below are two of several envelope-style pouches from the maria+bea headquarters.  We made these a while ago to bring to the Big She-Bang held in NYC but never got around to posting them.  There a a bazillion more pictures on the flickr page if you are interested.

Both pouches are approximately 8" x 6".  The first is a mustard yellow felt with brown felt applique, random white stitching, and a found button.

The second used to be a brown plaid skirt with gray felt applique, random brown stitching, and another found button.

The remainder of these pouches can be found at Smith in Southampton.

It's an axe. It's a tree. It definitely is not Superman.

Below is a recent piece produced by Phil.  

It is watercolor and ink on paper.  

Enjoy.

Birds Can Fly. These Bags Can't.

Yes, birds are everywhere nowadays. Yes, we are contributing to the ubiquity of birds. Yes, we still like birds even if they seem trite.
With that out of the way I would like to say that the red bag was made with our dear friend Mr. William Lane in mind, and coincidentally he now uses this bag. This bag features felt applique birds perched on embroidered wires, black interior with pocket, and white embroidered maria+bea signature.
The brown bag has white felt applique birds perched on embroidered wires, sage interior with pocket, and brown embroidered maria+bea signature. This bag was made with no one in mind, we hope it doesn't follow that no one makes use of this bag.
This post will most likely be our last bag related post for a while. We are concentrating on some new projects/endeavors that we will post as soon as they are worthy of posting.
Ta-ta for now.

I am resisting the temptation to post more textile goodies tonight.  Don't worry folks you will not be disappointed.  I can say, with maybe just a little biased, that I am super excited about tonight's post.  

Here are a few snapshots of a work in progress from the maria+bea camp.  It is not a collaborative project, but rather a painting Amanda has been toiling away on.  I will keep you all up to date as this work progresses.  

Also, keep an eye out for more new bags and such.

p.s. this painting is about as tall as I am.

9 out of 10 pirates prefer maria-bea

Hello Again!  Two new bags for you to feast your eyes upon.  We will be updating the blog very soon with some non-bag related items, I am sure you are frozen with anticipation, but until then we have two more bags in the series of bags which is known in the maria-bea circle as the pirate series.  [editor's note: we don't really have a pirate series, that was made up for dramatic effect.]  Who doesn't love pirates, honestly?  Especially pirates who carry all their booty in fun tote bags.  While pirates tend to love these bags we will let you in on a little secret, you don't have to be a pirate to own one.

Not just a Dragon! Not just a Fly!

As promised - we here at maria + bea never fail to deliver on a promise - below is another peek at one of our handmade tote bags.  The design for this bag started as something quite different, but we are thankful for happy accidents.  That happy accident produced a happy smile on our faces and we hope it does the same for you.  

This bag is 12" x 12" and constructed of reused fabric with a felt applique, embroidered flight line, interior pocket, and of course the embroidered maria bea signature.  To avoid being redundant I won't mention that all our bags can be found at Smith in Southampton.  I also won't mention that you all should visit the store if you have the chance.  Whew, I'm glad I didn't have to mention all of that.  Until next time, be well everybody!

p.s. - If you are interested please follow our link to see more pictures of this bag.

More Tote Bags for Your Eyes!

It has been quite a while since our last update, which is the bad news, but the good news is we have many new happenings.  First, we finished another batch of tote bags, which are once again for sale at Smith in Southampton, NY.  We will be updating the blog with pictures of the new batch every few days for the following weeks to come.

The first of our new creations is a 12" x 12" blue plaid bag with a skull and cross-scissors felt applique, interior pocket, and embroidered signature on the inside.  For more photos check out our link to the left.

In addition to the new bags we have added a few fine art pieces to our Flickr page, some are collaborative and some are not.  At the right is a one line ink drawing on paper created by Amanda.  

Hope you enjoy our new work, we will see you very soon!

Batch Number One Complete!

It was a long and anxiety ridden journey with a great learning curve but it was most joyful, and we are happy to say that we have completed our first batch of tote bags.  We completed a total of five bags and we are squealing with delight but teeming with sadness as we think about releasing our babies into the world outside our small studio.  We hope they find good homes and are as loved by you as they were by us.  To view our newly birthed bags click here.

We are also happy to announce our bags will be for sale at Smith located at 28 Nugent St. in Southampton, NY.  Check out Smith's myspace page here, and if you are in the neighborhood you should certainly stop by and discover the wonders that exist within, and as always support the local artists.

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome!

Welcome to the maiden voyage of maria + bea!  The proverbial bottle of champagne has been broken across the bow of our sea worthy vessel and our sails have been hoisted for what we hope will be a long journey.

I will quell my long-windedness to allow our work to speak for itself.  We are in the process of creating a series of hand-made tote bags with our original embroidered designs, to view the first completed work in this series click here.  We hope you enjoy our first installment and we look forward to seeing some of you landlubbers out on the high seas.