This bandana is:
- 100% Japanese cotton
- Made in the USA
- Artist-designed
- Printed using eco-friendly, water-based ink
- LIMITED EDITION! once they are sold out, they are never printed again
- 23”x23"
- Folded & hand-hemmed on three sides, with a fourth being a traditional selvage edge. Just like they used to do! **See sidebar for more info on this unique type of edge!**
Meet the artist behind our November bandana: Jenna Catsos (@pen.and.pine)!
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I am a life-long maker and proud aquarius, committed to do-it-myselfness and quality craftsmanship. Pen+Pine is the marriage of my interests in fine art, education, and the natural world. I am originally from Massachusetts and have found my way to the Pacific Northwest, where I live with my husband and my two cats. I love the excitement, creativity, and challenge of running a small business. A few other things I like: seltzer water, neighborhood walks, library books, rearranging furniture, acquiring house plants, ambitious garden projects, and opening presents. I am also a community organizer and public art enthusiast, involved in the annual Eureka Street Art Festival.
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Pen+Pine is my small illustration company focused on creating swoon-worthy, handmade designs. I hand-draw all of the illustrations, then turn them into products for you to give, receive, and cherish. The aim of Pen+Pine is to use illustration as a way to remind us all to slow down, follow our curiosity, and appreciate the whimsical nature of everyday objects. I hope my illustrations make you stop, smile, and look closer.
I run Pen+Pine from the small shed-turned-studio in my garden on the redwood coast in Northern California.
November 2022 bandana by Pen + Pine
A selvage's main purpose is to prevent unraveling or fraying, which makes a fabric stable and secure. Some fabrics come with frayed edges for aesthetic purposes. A selvage's self-finished edge makes sure that this fraying won't come undone and affect or damage the rest of your fabric.
Find a more detailed history of the bandana here. One of our favorite passages from this history...
As a minimum, you can expect bandanas to be 100% cotton... Some of the best makers offer selvedge bandanas, which have a barely noticeable selvedge line on one or two edges. The edges that are not selvedge will be folded and stitched.
One of the few places you can check the quality of the work is the corners. Has it been stitched together hastily, or is it clean and precise work? If you’re paying for well-made, it’s fair to expect nothing short of perfection.
Hand feel is an excellent guide here. If you like the look of the bandana, pick it up and rub the material between your fingers. Is it soft and supple? That’s a sure sign that the maker has gone out of their way to source top-grade cotton for their bandana. If it feels crisp or papery, mosey on to the next one.
Some well-made bandanas are deeply saturated in colour and could block out the sun on a cloudless day. Others are given a gentler dye treatment and are almost transparent. One isn’t better than the other, it’s just a matter of the maker’s purpose and your preference.
Finally, a well-made bandana, when unfolded and laid flat, should communicate something to you. It might tell a story, or it might evoke some far-away time and place or something nearer and dearer.
Great makers produce bandanas with this kind of intention. The bandana is their canvas, and, like all artists, they want their story to be understood and their work to be appreciated.