New Cuffhome Colorways!
We are knee deep in working on the newest Cuffhome Collection that will be filled with some great new murals and a bunch of by the roll options. While that is in development we decided to update all our existing designs with new colorways! You will see, not only, our long time designs Unfinished and Brushstrokes, but our more recent murals all available in these new colors!
Since we can’t show you the new designs just yet - enjoy these new colorways. If you want samples of any of these designs shoot us an email at info@blackcrowstudios.com and we will get them out to you right away!
Introducing LILAC, MIMOSA, MOBY DICK, SEA GLASS, AND QUARTZ
LILAC - Pictured: Tide, Unfinished, Sediment, and Terrazzo
MIMOSA - Pictured: Terrazzo, Rift, and Tide
MOBY DICK - Pictured: Tide, Terrazzo, Unfinished, Brushstrokes
SEAGLASS - Pictured: Rift, Tide, Sediment, and Terrazzo
Black Lives Matter — This is a long one.
If you follow us on instagram (@blackcrowstudios) then it is not a surprise to see this post.
You know where I stand and where this company stands. I am, and BCS is, firmly anti-racist and in full support of Black Lives Matter. This shouldn’t even have to be said - it is fucking 2020 - this shouldn’t be a topic up for discussion.
I am not posting this to prove that I am woke. I am posting this because I know I have a platform and it is my responsibility to use it to effect change.
I know that we, as a society, have left racism up to black people and all POC in our country to fix with justifications of, I’m not involved - it doesn’t happen to me so how can I speak about it? It is such a big problem systemically how can I help, etc.?
It hit me recently that this is not their fight to fight - this is our responsibility to fix. The system is built for us - we need to TEAR IT THE FUCK DOWN, BURN IT TO THE GROUND AND REBUILD IT SO IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE EQUALLY!
Written by @banksy on IG
The power of my platform hit me on Black Out Tuesday - a day when we were posting a black square to show solidarity with the Black Community and to allow black voices to be seen and not lost in the sea of posts. Well as I scrolled through my feed I saw almost nothing but black squares and all of us liking each others black squares - like good job - a self congratulatory “look at what we can do! We aren’t the problem!” {eye roll}. It was, in one sense, nice to see pretty much everyone participating and stating their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but on the other hand it was sad to see that there were no black voices in my feed, or none that I saw that day. Most of that lack of diversity is directly from our industry, but also based on the stupid algorithms. Seeing that so clearly in my feed I used my platform to share posts from people of color so they would be seen by the people in my feed who probably, just like me, were not seeing them. I had that plan already in place, but it wasn’t so blatantly clear how much that was needed until I was scrolling through my feed. Wasn’t that the point? To use our platforms to lift other people and voices up. This is how we can use the privilege we were born with to be real allies in this battle and to lift others up.
I have to say I was really disappointed in a lot of what I saw on IG. I looked at my fellow wallcovering companies and saw a huge lack of support, or a lack of speaking out, acknowledgment and amplification of other voices. A single post, a basic simple supportive caption. We have gotten away with that for far too long. There is one in particular that has a huge social media platform - far bigger than mine - and yet they basically said nothing of significance. They have people looking to them and listening and they chose not to say anything and to not use that platform to lift others - which was really shocking to me. They will have the excuse to say “I was staying silent so others could be heard”, but as I have stated, not using your platform to help the cause is hurting the cause, because we need to use our privilege and platform to AMPLIFY those voices we are not seeing and hearing in our daily lives. Instead they are choosing to not get involved. They are choosing to leave it on others to deal with. I don’t think that is acceptable at this time and especially not with this issue. I believe if you have a platform and you support the cause, then you use that platform - who cares who it pisses off.
WE HAVE TO DO BETTER!! WE HAVE TO SPEAK UP AND DEMAND MORE DIVERSITY IN THIS INDUSTRY!
I have always struggled with the fact that this industry as a whole (generalizing) doesn’t really stand up for much. It feels like people only want to look at “pretty” and not the ugliness of the world - we don’t acknowledge it and sure as hell don’t comment on it, especially not through our business platforms. It has always sat poorly with me.
I don’t expect everyone to speak out as much as I have, but I expect more than what I saw from many companies. This goes for many brands, one single post and back to business as usual, some didn’t acknowledge any of this at all - NOTHING. I don’t understand how it is possible to stay silent on these issues. We should all be outraged - and I think we all are - but have a fucking spine and stand up for this shit publicly.
Every single time I posted about Black Lives Matter I lost followers on IG. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. That is fine - they can go - I am not going to be afraid of using my voice to speak out on things I deeply care about and believe in. I use the platform of my business because it has the real reach that I do not individually. If this pisses people off or makes them uncomfortable, so be it. What I hope with my outspokenness and using the reach of my business does, is to show other people and brands that it is ok to speak out. I hope it inspires others be open and real about what they believe in and fight for it - using whatever means they have.
It is no longer acceptable for businesses to stay silent when they have the power to effect change, in our industry, and as a whole.
Take care of yourselves and BURN THE SYSTEM DOWN AND KEEP FUCKING FIGHTING!!
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
COVID-19 Update
This is a quick update on what is going on with us at this time.
As of Friday March 20th the entire state of California is under a Shelter in Place mandate until April 19th (as of now, possibly longer).
Our original plan had been to move whatever work that could be done remotely to be done from home and minimal in studio time for running our production. Now that this mandate is in place all our suppliers are also closed and so all production of orders has been stopped.
We are moving fully to work from home. We will still be able to answer emails, get quotes out, and we can even do most of the design process we go through with clients from home as well. We just can’t move anything into production at this time. So we are still here ready to work with you!!
The next few days might be a little rocky as we try to get all of us up and running, so bear with us if we respond a bit slower than normal.
In all honesty there probably won’t be a ton of orders needing to move forward during this time anyway since the entire world is in this same situation. So we are going to spend our time updating our existing collections, prepping new collections that are in the pipeline, and working on new ideas.
I am embracing the excitement of having time to work on new ideas so that I don’t dwell on the fear of how long this will last and what the future will look like as we come out of this.
To everyone out there - stay inside, stay safe, and stay healthy! We will get through this together.
xoxo
Tracy
Chateau d’Orquevaux
I wrote this while on the plane to Paris. If you catch my IG stories you may have seen that I am staying in a small village’ in rural France for an artist residency. I will be spending an entire month living in a Chateau in the French countryside with a group of artists doing the thing I never seem to have the time to do - experiment with new mediums of art. As Black Crow Studio grows each year, I strive to develop new ideas, keep my clients happy, while making sure the business is running smoothly. What often gets pushed aside is time to experiment artistically and develop my ideas.
So that is my plan - to experiment - to try to develop an idea I’ve been wanting to work on for the last year. It is a totally different idea than I have ever done before and in all honesty I have no idea if it will even work out, but I think this is the place and opportunity to go for it.
The residency program at Chateaux d’Orquevaux offers the opportunity for me to disconnect from the stress of daily life and pursue my creative calling. I look forward to having the space to be creative and release myself from the hectic pace of my daily life. I relish the isolation and disconnection and the idea of living in the moment and taking in every drop of the experience, to store it deep in my soul and bring it back with me. And I yearn to be part of the diverse community of artists that the residency offers.
I am working on ideas for a new collection that harkens back to my fashion design background. When I was in college, studying fashion design and textile design, I won a scholarship to study for a year at L’ecole de le Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. It was an incredible and very difficult experience. The fact that this residency is coming up at a time when I am looking back at how to intertwine that experience in my current work was very fitting. I will be back in a country that set my soul on fire, using what I learned to breathe life into the creative process. I have never been more excited and more terrified about a collection. Will I ever be able to create something that matches (let alone exceeds) the vision of it I see in my mind??
One thing I have learned over the years is that I can trust my creativity and know that it will deliver for me if I give it the space it needs to grow and develop. I trust the process and all I have to do is get out of my own way - that can be the hard part.
I hope to return feeling rested, recharged and energized, ready to start a new, strong series of work form which my new collection will grow.
More photos below - click on the images to scroll through!
Organizations with Support with our $$$
As the Amazon Rainforest burns, I look out at the world and see chaos and uncertainty. I cannot sit back and do nothing. Creating an Instagram post about my outrage is not enough. I look at what I have the ability to do - which in all honesty feels completely insignificant in the grand scheme of what is happening in the world.
I previously wrote about Rebel with a Cause, my desire to make art while making a difference and my decision to dedicate each of my wallpaper collections to a different charity, donating 50% of my personal salary to specific causes that are near and dear to my heart.
This has been a long time in the making. I love the work that I do, but I want to make more of an impact on the world. I chose the charities because the work they do is deeply important to our society. The best contribution I can make is to donate some of the proceeds from my growing business to the following organizations:
If I stand up for what I truly believe in, I am hopeful the design industry will support me. I hope to prove that if a relatively small company like Black Crow Studios can give back, larger companies can do the same and make an even bigger impact. Plus, I feel that people want to know who and what are behind the products they purchase.
I hope my efforts will inspire the design industry to do more.
Rebel with a Cause - our giving back initiative - spans across every item Black Crow Studios creates. We will be releasing Limited Edition prints to benefit each charity, and also have some new collections in development right now that will be part of the cause.
Look for future posts that will highlight each of the charities and the collection with which they will be partnered.
We have also made donations on behalf of our friends and loved ones to:
Helping Hands for the Homeless
The Lupus Foundation
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
Alzheimer's Association
Dystopian Opulence has launched!
It all begins with an idea.
If you haven’t seen it yet - we launched our latest collection, Dystopian Opulence, a few weeks ago and the reaction has been huge!!
The idea for the collection started from minerals. I had done a mineral based collection, in partnership with someone, years ago. This was me revisiting what I had originally done and looking at it from a new viewpoint and using new materials and techniques. It was interesting to revisit a subject, but see it differently based on the growth I had done as an artist and a person.
The collection, while very vast in scope and style, starts pretty straight forward and then transitions into a darker interpretation. As an artist, I am always influenced by what is happening in the world. This collection is a manifestation of all the despair, frustration, and, sadness of where the world is going along with the beauty and majesty of the Earth and what She can create.
We have created a collection that pulls from nature and twists it with colors and textures of the digital interface we use to view “nature” (our phones). Using real minerals, collage, mixed media, and computer glitches, we explore a future that looks at our relationship with technology as we move towards a more digital life and leave behind our connection to nature.
The collection begins with beautiful minerals - created over millions of years—in interesting combinations and then progresses into a technology-driven view of nature.
I’ve never approached my collections as “what would make good wallpaper” I have always come at it from the stance of what feeling or mood am I trying to express. It all starts with the art - I don’t worry about what the end product will be, I just create and explore. I love the part of the process where we take the best ideas and then translate them to my favorite medium - mural style installations - it always blows me away how the scale can make such a huge impact on the design and the way you experience it.
With this collection I had my entire team working on designs along with me. I set the overall theme and mood for the collection and let them explore what that meant to them. Because we all have our own strengths and weaknesses I was able to pull the strongest ideas from each person and then we shaped those into a cohesive collection.
As part of our Rebel with a Cause initiative we will be donating a portion of sales to environmental causes, we have to start protecting the Earth and dealing with the damage we are doing. I felt like this collection, being based on minerals, was best suited for supporting this issue.
At this time we will be donating to Sea Legacy and Natural Resources Defense Council.
You can read an interview I did with California Home + Design about this collection and the Rebel with a Cause initiative. Read it here!
A Rebel with a Cause
It all begins with an idea.
I’ve often struggled with the impact I make in the world. Making wallpaper doesn’t feel like enough. I work in a luxury industry that can, at times, feel very superficial - especially when I see so many people struggling just to pay their bills. When people are fleeing their homes to come to the US for safety, wallpaper design feels so insignificant in the greater scheme of things.
This has been weighing on me for years, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I asked myself how I could take what I am currently doing and leverage it into something that can do more for the world.
In 2017, I started working with the Caliber Foundation, a charity which funds gun buyback programs across the country, by donating 20% of the sales of my Caliber Wallpaper Collection and Art Prints to help get illegal guns off the street. It was liberating to discover I could make murals and fine art in a way that had a real impact, by contributing to a charity with a mission I truly believe in.
In 2019, I feel the strong urge to do even more. I feel pulled to become a Rebel with a Cause. Rebel with a Cause represents a new way for me to continue making art while also making a difference. By dedicating each of my wallpaper collections to a different charity, and donating up to 50% of my personal income from each sale, I feel that not only can I make a difference to the charities that I support, but also serve as an example to our industry encouraging others to take a stand for causes that matter to them.
Please look for our upcoming announcements describing the marriage among our existing collections, original limited edition prints, and causes that empower women, help the homeless, educate kids, aid immigrants, rescue animals, save the planet and offer hope to the addicted. I hope you will join me on this journey of giving back, making a difference, and creating not just a beautiful world but one that we can also be proud of.
Bold, new watercolor art prints
It all begins with an idea.
If you are familiar with our work then you have probably seen many of our watercolor murals, in magazines, online, instagram. If you are not familiar then please check out our installations page to see some incredible wall covering we have done for our clients over the years. The watercolor series was THE idea that made me start this company. I just knew it would be incredible, nothing like it existed at all at the time and I just knew it was a cool idea people would get as excited about as I did. What I envisioned in my mind is nowhere near as badass as the work we actually produce. It took awhile to really perfect the way we create the artwork and the way we reproduce it, but I think we have the best process in the industry. Being an artist, a textile designer, and a printing company (we do all our own printing in house) really gave me insight into all aspects to develop a great process all around. On top of that we are always adding new designs to the watercolor series. That is a way for us to show what is exciting to us, design and art wise, and the artistic direction, we as a studio, are headed in. It’s fun to refresh what is on our site and add new pieces, change it up, see what people are drawn to.
I think that is why that series has continued to be so popular. That it is always changing, developing, and growing and the artwork we have is so vast it allows us to really create a unique design for all our clients. What is on our website is just a small fraction of the work we have and the 1000’s of ways it can be used.
Way back in the day, before we had created all this artwork, clients would send us their paint colors and fabric swatches and we would paint brand new pieces based entirely for those projects. That is what lead to the large archive of artwork we have. That doesn’t happen much anymore since we have such a large selection at this point. (We can still do that, if and when needed.) Now we just create with no rules, direction, or guidelines to follow. We can live in a creative moment and see where it takes us and pull from that what feels fresh and exciting.
With that being said, we have recently added a lot of new pieces to the website, not only in our watercolor galleries, but we revamped our canvas shop and our fine art shop with all new pieces.
DOWNRUSH
LAVENDER SMOKE
The canvases are gorgeous and one of my favorite ways to add color and texture if you can’t do a full mural. You can find our canvas prints here. On top of that, I am really loving the saturated and bold new fine art prints that we are printing on high gloss premium photo paper. Check those out over here.
RIPTIDE A
GYPSY A
CAMEO A
And if you just want to cruise through the artwork on the site start here and then explore from there.
Here are a couple recent custom mural wall covering install images from our amazing clients, who take our artistic vision and implement it into their projects in the most jaw dropping ways. We look good because of you guys!
THUNDER | Designer: Jessica Helgerson Interior Design
GUNMETAL | Designer: Workflow Interiors
LAPIS WAVE | Designer: House of Honey