My Story
Monkeybear is a handwork studio that enjoys making every item with our hands. From fabrics design to hand screen printing and sewing every piece ourselves is the key to making Monkeybear unique and touching.
Behind Monkeybear is Sai who started the studio 7 years ago making handmade textile products. Weaving, printing, embroidery and dying are all key techniques in the work.
We are greatly inspired by the freedom of nature around us . Everyday life activities are key in making playful designs and products.
All designs of Monkeybear begin from hand drawn sketches and end up on silk screens that we print by hand. After the printing processes, fabrics with unique patterns are sewed by us in our small studio in Skå, Sweden. We love the unique quality of hand printing and the beauty in imperfection.
All inks are water based, produced in Sweden and hand mixed. They are printed on sustainable and durable base cloths such as linen and organic cotton. I also use good quality up-cycle fabric that has been left over from factory production line.
First, we sketch it
All printing starts here. From sketching, it’s developed to final design and then making original film.
Original film will be prepared in studio and are all hand drawn. At this point the pattern will show all the handmade details.
Last step in this process is expose the original to the screen blocks. Also this part of the process is done in my studio.
Then we screen it
Most of the fabrics from Monkeybear are printed in my studio with small printing table.
Fabrics are pre-washed and ready on printing table. Repeated pattern is small to make process easy to handle with one person. This process is slow. It is needed to print in the grid system and waiting the colours to be dry before next round could start.
Then we sew it
Final step - Cutting & Sewing
The idea of keeping large stock is not my cup of tea. I find the way to produce right amount helping reducing waste.
All cutting and sewing are in our small studio with simple tools.
I believe in slow design and each piece I make is made one at a time by hand.