Designer Spotlight: Tammis Keefe

I spend a lot of time around Google these days searching and skimming and collecting information about designers and their works.  As I have mentioned, with my recent love (obsession?) for Mad Men, I've become especially interested in mid-century modern and Sixties designs.  Recently I've found a new textile artist that I've fallen head-over-heels for, Tammis Keefe.

Tammis Keefe "Cage Free"

The "Cafe Free" print is the first design I found.  The color palette, the simple shapes, the birds: I was in.  It just screams mid-century.  Unfortunately for me, there isn't a lot of information on Tammis.  Wikipedia doesn't even have an article!  After scouring a few websites I did find some information on her, though. 

"Born Margaret Thomas Keefe on December 27, 1913 in Los Angeles, her father, Thomas Keefe, had passed away the week before she was born. Her family called her Peg, a common nickname for Margaret. Tammis (gaelic for Thomas) grew up in Los Angeles where she lived with her mother, aunts and grandparents. Handkerchiefs, linen kitchen towels and scarves are what Tammis Keefe is known for today because of their availability. However, she designed for home furnishing fabrics (Goodall Industries and Golding Decorative Fabrics), wallpaper, all manner of kitchen linens in addition to towels including tablecloths, placemats with matching napkin sets and cocktail napkins."

Tammis died at age 46 from cancer, but many of her designs are continuing to be reproduced with all proceeds going towards cancer research.  Her legacy, although not as mainstream as other designers, leaves an impact on our industry.  Seriously, look at these designs... so precious!

{Images from here}

According to ebay, many of these scarves are readily available and decently priced so I'm definitely going to have to snag a few!  I hope I can find some of the cute lobster/crab ones because I think those are my favorite