Every season, as a company we explore a theme that gets carried throughout everything we do, from the stories we tell in the magazine to the product you’ll find at the Market. This season’s theme is rhythm. Not just in the sense of how music moves us, but how rhythm impacts our lives and the world around us, in both subtle and drastic ways—how seasons arrive and fade into one another, how our daily cadences keep us balanced, how the sun rises and falls, then rises again. Rhythm is all around us.
In this video, Jo shares her thoughts behind the theme and walks us through how the shop has been transformed.
Our display team has the challenge of bringing to life the seasonal theme and all of its complexities by creating a visual experience throughout the Market. This season, they chose to illustrate the theme of rhythm through the use of yarn and fabric. In the fall issue of Magnolia Journal, one of our favorite stories opens with a passage that reads, “Thread by thread, the weaving of fabric tells a story of rhythm. A story about two separate threads—the warp and the weft—that come together to make something beautiful. A story that might just mirror our own.”
We’re excited to show you an in-depth look at the details and thought behind this season’s install!
HAND-DYED YARN
The visual display team wanted to communicate the changing of the season through color. By mixing fabric dyes, they created custom colors of yellow, brown, pink and deep purple to hand-dye yarn that you’ll see in various displays throughout the Market.
They began the process with warm water and pre-made dye, then experimented with mixing different colors. Oftentimes, the string had to be placed in a bath of different colors 2-3 times until it was just right. To ensure the efficient reproduction and match of each color, the team created sample boards and recipe guides. In total, 105 custom colored dyes were created.
After the string was removed from the dye bath, it was left to dry and wound into a ball. The ball was then fed through a custom winding device to create the 125 cedar cones you’ll see displayed around the Market, including our display wall at the front entrance, which reads, “Embrace the Rhythm of the Season.”
THE PROCESS OF THE LOOM
The visual display team used an American loom to create this display in the front of the Market, beginning with a process called winding the warp, which prepares the string to be fed into the loom. They prepared 300 pieces of string in total—some to thread into the display wall, and the rest to feed into the woven rug attached to the loom.
After cutting the string, the team began a process called dressing the loom. This requires tying the string from the back to the front of the loom, then threading the string through four loom passages per string to reach the front. After dressing was complete, they tied over 100 strings to the rug on the loom. The team then added hand-sewn lines of color to the rug to reflect the colors on the display wall. A pulley that hangs from the ceiling connects the remaining strings from the loom to the display wall.
The rug tied to the loom here is Philip NeutralOpens in new tab, from our collection of Magnolia Home rugs crafted by Loloi.
HAND-WOVEN LANTERNS
The team customized vintage lamps shades into one-of-a-kind shapes. After assembling the lampshades, they treated them with a light brown paint and hung them from the ceiling. Over 2,000 feet of string was placed in a tan dye bath to get a soft, white color. After drying, this string was wrapped over the lampshades to create the “warp” thread.
Then, the team custom-dyed over 1,000 feet of organic flat cotton yarn. This yarn was woven into the white, creating a unique, visual pattern. The colors transition from a deep ochre to a rich plum and pink, intended to be reminiscent of the ever-changing colors that we see throughout the fall season.
If you’re in Waco this upcoming season, we hope that you’ll come visit us to see what’s new at Magnolia! Let us know what you think of this season’s theme and the install in the comments below.
To learn more about the safety measures we are taking in our entities during this time, click here.Opens in new tab
