Octopus Tote Bag by Chavah's Garden

These tote bags are 100% organic cotton canvas, with handles that are a soft thick woven cotton. Colorfast and washable. Best to air dry. They're great for carrying light loads: a couple of books, a bottle of wine while going over to friends for dinner, a bunch of files or papers, a light load of groceries. The printing ink is non-toxic so it's safe to carry some veggies in when going to market.

Chavah's Garden is the work of artist Sydney C' de Baca of Seattle, Washington.

A number of years ago I started painting my favorite recipes as gifts for friends——salad dressings, soups, my mother’s spicy guacamole recipe. I loved painting vegetable portraits, and eventually branched out to animals and the rest of the natural world, capturing their colorful, quirky beauty in my watercolor style. Then I remembered my grandmother’s fabulous flour sack tea towels and, in a moment of you-got-your-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate inspiration, my business was born.

Flour sack fabric is 100% cotton but also has a special element that makes it almost miraculously absorbent. The threads are spun at different tensions so when it's woven together it has a seersucker rippling effect. It is luscious and practical, hence my passion for it. I wrote six or seven factories for samples before finding the real McCoy. I print my own fabric products in studio with eco-friendly ink that is permanent after we heat set it. Beautiful usefulness if ever there was.

Find more of Sydney's work here.