Holiday Gift Guide: For Him: Mountain Luxe | Elysian Studios
Holiday Gift Guide: For Him: Mountain Luxe
Categories: accessories, ETSY, gifts, Holidays, Rocky Mountains, shopping
Stylish and rugged, some gifts for him inspired by the Rocky Mountains!
From top left, clockwise:
Aviator Sunglasses by Carrera (Nordstrom): Around town or on the hill, protect his peepers from the intense reflection off the snow. A stylish stripe races across the top and down the arms of these shades, with Carrera’s signature inset at the bridge.
Small Batch Bourbon (Small Batch): A delicious cocktail after a hard day of playing outside is a wonderful gift, and a small batch bourbon is a complex balance of taste and flavor. You can find a selection at your local liquor retailer.
Handmade Soap in Mahogany (mosoSOAP): No girly shower gel: An old-fashioned soap for an old-fashioned shower. Added spices of cardamom, vanilla bourbon and allspice round out the rich woody scent in this handcrafted soap available through Etsy.com.
National Park Graphic Poster (Ranger Doug’s): For his office or man-cave, he can dream about the mountains even if he can’t be on them. An entire series of original WPA Designed Posters are available at this website.
Snow Shoes (REI): He’ll love being able to trek easily in the fresh mountain air with a pair of snowshoes. Providing excellent value, the Atlas 830 snowshoes are great for beginning and experienced snowshoers alike, offering traction and float on flat terrain and packed trails.
Sorel 1964 Pac Boots (Zappos): A great pair of waterproof boots take him through all kinds of terrain, and these are stylish enough to take him to a casual dinner or drinks with friends.
Rag Wool and Leather Gloves (Hickoree’s Hard Goods): Premium Rag Wool will keep his hands warm, and the leather palms allow him to hold onto his gear in the cold. Hickoree’s Hard Goods is a great site for all kinds of manly goods.
More Gift Guides to come!
Thread painting is a technique I have recently discovered, and I am thrilled at the bridge it creates between traditional visual art and textiles, a genre known as “Art Quilts”. With this technique, drawing and painting can be done with thread and fabric instead of pens, pastels and paints. For the textile and multi-media artist, the technique will create a whole new world of possibilities for your work! Here’s some examples of what it looks like: 1.”City Chair” by Melanie Testa, 2. “Fancy Pear” by Terry White, 3.”Market Day, Sarlat” by Leni Levenson Wiener. As an textural accent, background pattern, or to create an object (like the light), thread painting is extremely versatile! 
What you will need: A sewing machine, a “darning foot” (also called a “free motion foot”), lots of thread (2-3 spools of whatever color you are using). I had to go to a specialty sewing machine store for this foot, but they had it readily available. For this technique, you must drop the feed-dogs to allow the fabric to move freely, so read your manual to learn how! There are techniques that implement tracing paper or freezer paper and a hoop to stabilize the work (see resources below for more info). Puckering will be an obstacle to overcome, but I found I had little problem if I used a thicker background material. When I tried it on linen, I did have some puckering. It will be a process you will gain control over with time and practice. I promise…it’s lots of fun! (1. “Darning Foot” by Janome, 2. Darning foot on the machine, 3. Close-up of darning foot, 4. Darning foot at work!) 