monaluna selvage
What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you ask Jennifer Moore of Monaluna, a fabric designer with her own small company. Jennifer started her surface design company in 2010 after working as a product designer at a toy company and licensing her artwork to other fabric manufacturers. It was during those years of creating designs and artwork that mostly revolved around children’s motifs that she found the inspiration for beginning her own business.
Monaluna, a play on Monoluna or Monkey Moon in Spanish, was born. Wanting her company name to express more than just children’s themes, a friend suggested she translate Monkey Moon into Spanish. She tweaked the name to her liking and decided upon Monaluna.
anika aprons
While having enjoyed licensing her artwork to other companies such as Birch Fabrics and Robert Kaufman, Jennifer thought it would be exciting to develop her own line of fabrics. She works out of her 100 year old farmhouse in Walnut Creek, California. It is there that she manages the entire process from creating the artwork to go onto the fabrics to filling orders. She has her fabrics made in India of 100% organic cotton with AZO free dyes.
Jennifer defines her design style as “modern, whimsical, and funky.” She draws inspiration from mid century motifs. This can be seen in her Happy Summer fabric in which she combines images that evoke family vacations of the past with retro shades of blues and browns. Growing up she was surrounded by the Scandinavian influences of Marimekko designs. Those bold graphics and organic shapes she grew to love during her childhood have translated over the years into her own personal design style.
Happy Summer
Working as a designer with her own company, has been extremely gratifying for Jennifer in more ways than one. She finds not only the creative process of designing motifs for her fabric appealing but seeing what others choose to do with them fulfilling as well. She sees her fabric as a creative tool for other artists whether they be quilters, clothing designers or crafters. The fabric is more than merely an end in itself.
Jennifer sketching with her daughter
Her business also has afforded her the opportunity to work from home and spend more time with her young daughter. While taking care of a small child from home, when that home is her workplace, has been challenging; but, Jennifer seems to enjoy every minute of it. She is hoping to work towards creating four collections a year and potentially move into other realms, such as a line of stationary.
Go to the Beebolt website to find and order several of Monaluna designed fabrics.
I think this was very interesting about Monaluna Designed Fabics. As a consumer, I have wondered what has inspired the designs on the fabrics. Now I know a little about this designer, thank you.