These days it can seem like Portland, OR, gets all the design buzz. But as we discovered while mining talent for our upcoming New England Market, its sister city on the East Coast is not to be ignored. Indeed many small productions like Black Point Mercantile are helping to put Portland, Maine, on the design map.
Black Point Mercantile is a collaborative effort by Sara Lemieux and Skylar Kelly, artists with combined backgrounds in virtually every creative form, from dance to oil painting, fashion, graphic design, film and photography. Today the duo operates out of former movie theater in Portland’s Old Port, crafting bespoke canvas pieces for individual designers and small boutiques.
Each Black Point Mercantile floor cloth or bag is painstakingly handmade in a process that merges tried-and-true, old fashion techniques with the best of modern advancements. The company's signature graphics, which are derived from both western and coastal American icons, are all hand painted.
Remodelista's New England Market will afford a rare opportunity to shop for a broad array of Black Point Mercantile goods in person.
Above: Several of Black Point Mercantile's western motifs include, from left to right: Serapé, North Star, and Red Mesa. These canvases come in seven sizes ranging from 2x3 to 9x12; $275 - $2,677.
Above: Cross; starting at $234.
The labor intensive process of creating a Black Point Mercantile original floor cloth starts with a large piece of heavy cotton duck. This is then cut and prepped on both sides with acrylic sizing which shrinks and adds structure to the cloth. All designs are sketched out in pencil and then hand painted with durable, mildew, stain and fade resistant paints.
Above: Stitched with "high tenacity nylon thread, " each hem is sewn using techniques derived from 1930's Swiss tarps. A special resin bonds the hems for protection against ears and moisture. As a final step, each floor cloth is buffed with a proprietary bland of waxes and sterilized with silver leaf.
Above: Canvas totes sports an array of contemporary, nautical-inspired motifs.
Above: Black Point Mercantile floor clothes can also be found at Sharktooth and available at John Derian.
Above: Sand Painting in 5x7 size; $889, and Saddle in 6x9; $1,256.
Above: Mixed Signals, Black Point Mercantile's latest design, is premiering at the Remodelista New England market.
See more of Black Point Mercantile's work here.
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