New press page and press!

It has been a busy couple of weeks from christmas orders coming in to new products for the events I've been doing! I also have been getting a little press and finally found the time to make myself a proper page! I was featured on Sightunseen in their weekly Saturday Selects! I was so excited to see my Of a Kind vases on their website! Super cool. Also, this past week Design Sponge added my image to their "30 Photos to Celebrate Summer" Article! Whoo-hoo! I think its been a pretty good month so far :)

Check out more press on my new page here. 

Sightunseen Blog

Design Sponge Blog

Special Edition for Of a Kind

My Petite Cork Vases just launched this past Friday for Of a Kind! It was my largest order yet, being 80 vases, and 40 sets. I collaborated with their team to come up with adorable set of vases on their site. They use a special cork that has larger graduals and even carries a glass vial for fresh flowers (something I haven't done yet until now!)

Purchase this set here. There is only a limited supply! 

Check out my profile on their site as well as the two personal editorials they wrote about. So exciting!! 

Front page on their website, pretty exciting!

The petite cork vase set! 

The vials that come with the vase so you can add fresh flowers

They would look great anywhere…. especially your own home ;)

Enter to win in my giveaway!!!

Hello All! After all of the success and excitement over my succulent photo that was regramed by Design Sponge, I decided to have a giveaway of exactly that! I printed that photo using Social Print Studio (an awesome shop where you can print IG photos!) I have 3 dated and signed succulent photos and the grand prize will win a framed photo and small cork planter!! 

All you need to do is like the photo on instagram, follow me on IG or Facebook, and tell me where you would put the framed image or cork planter. 

That's all! I hope you guys all enter. Good Luck :) 

Framed Image! Win this and a small planter :) 

Small Cork Planter that you will win! 

Cork 101

People always ask me questions about cork because it is still a very uncommon material to use. About a month ago I made a Cork 101 page for anyone that was curious! The story was picked up by the design blog Notcot yesterday and was posted on their website! Thanks Notcot! 

To learn more about the history of cork and why it is sustainable, check out the page here! 

Fullosophie + Melanie Abrantes Designs

I am excited to announce that I will be teaching again, but now in the bay area! This time though, it won't be lathing! Meet Fullosophie, I happened to find them through my internet trolling and approached them to teach some workshops. They do awesome classes with different artisans and I felt like they were a perfect match for me! I will be teaching a succulent garden workshop (learn the basics and get a cool cork planter) as well as a spoon carving class! You can see the full list of workshops here: www.fullosophie.com. 

PS Through the photo that I posted for this workshop, the blog Design Sponge regrammed my picture and over 250+ followers tagged along! I was so honored to be featured by them! It turned out that my picture broke the record of most likes ever on their DS feed! Yippeeee!

Succulent Galore at Flora Grubbs

What you will create! Learn the basics of keeping the plants alive and designing a mini landscape!

Viva Brazil! My trip abroad!

This past couple of months have been CRAZY. I moved to Oakland (I will post images soon!!), went to ICFF in NYC for the first time, opened my very own STUDIO and ended with a bang by going to BRAZIL! My trip was motivated mostly by the 2014 World Cup or in portuguese, Cupo do Mundo but I myself am half brazilian-portuguese and have been wanting to go visit my family there for some time. It was a wonderful experience and I was so happy to have gone. Stressing about work yes (I was gone for TWO weeks!), but how much of that can you actually do when you are surrounded by luscious plants and the lovely beach? Not much. 

I was surprised by the amazing design scene that I saw there. I was in Rio de Janeiro which Ive heard was lacking next to its metropolitan city sister, São Paulo. But with the help of my two Tias (aunts), who had been keeping an eye out for me, we found some pretty awesome studios and boutique shops. Mostly in the Jardim Botanico and Impanema, a couple of them being Dona Coisa, Denise Stewart Ceramicas, and Arkana Arte e Decoração . Below is a brief visual story of the trip. You can also catch a glimpse through my instagram, @melaneiabrantesdesign. I hashtagged it #melxbrazil. Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy!

XO mel 

Me at the Lagoon 

Fifa World Cup 

Jardim Botanico 

Jardim Botanico

Rick and Erin in the forest of Jardim Botanico

Sugar Loafs and the beautiful view of Rio

Impanema Beach Sidewalk

Leblon Beach 

USA vs Germany game! On the beaches of Copacabana!

Dona Coisa

design store

Denise Stewart Ceramic Studio

Vintage stores 

Parque Lage

Buzios, a beach town three hours out of Rio. LOVED the Hammocks!

Lobby in my Hotel, all furniture made in brazil

Traditional brazilian crafts in Buzios 

Thanks Rio! You were grand XO

BRIKA + Melanie Abrantes Designs

When BRIKA approached me to be apart of their amazing group of designers, I couldnt have been more excited! BRIKA is an online creative community that celebrates craft, storytelling and the belief that our lives are as beautiful as we wish to make them.  I was so excited and pleased to be picked as a designer for their website, they do an amazing job at representing YOUR story. You can see how they did my story with my feature on their website, here: http://www.brika.com/melanie-abrantes. I talk about where I started, my favorite tools and everything in between! Enjoy!

Nue Market May 10-11

I am excited to announce that I will be hosting a market for new emerging designers called Nue Market on May 10&11! It is a two day market that includes cool and fun workshops. One of them being a hanging macrame workshop that will have on my cork planters! It has been a lot of hard work to get this project going, I definitely couldn't have done it without my partners in crime, Eileen and Chris. Cant wait to see what the final results will be! Check out the workshops here and find out more information on Nue Market on our website and in the information below. 

XXO

Melanie

Parachute Market March 22-23!

I will be in another sale at the end of the month, March 22-23, in downtown Los Angeles! Please join me at Parachute Market, there are a lot of amazing designers and artists that will be there as well! You can learn more about it here: http://parachutemarket.com/

New Shop! Yay!

I am excited to announce that I have my shop up and running! It was a goal of mine to launch it in the month of February (particularly before my birthday on Feb. 19). I have a small selection up and running of cork and wood products right now, I plan to update it at least once a month with new stuff. Each one is one of a kind using the highest grade materials!

I definitely want to say thank you to all my friends for listening to my complaints and helping out. I couldn't be more grateful to have such a supportive group!!! Especially Adrian, Dan, Carlyle, Philip, Eileen, Karla, Ann, Katie, Marissa, Kristen and Natalie! And of course Rick, the man who bought my business (I am an official LLC!) as my christmas present. What a catch right??! 

Hope you take a look around and see something you like! :) Thank you!