Cardinale Montano loves The Artist’s Way, a book by Julia Cameron that is celebrated by creative types all over. Over a recent phone call she told me more about why she enjoys the book, “No matter what you do you should keep that creative force...you can even make pancakes creatively!”
That sense of creative electricity is very apparent in her bag line, Lineflax & Roving, a line of seemingly indestructible, and still wonderfully charming, handbags, and the subject of our August Artist Spotlight.
To learn more about Cardinale and her work I had the pleasure of a phone call with her where she disclosed more about her upbringing, her creative mantras (included what’s mentioned above), and where she sees her work headed next.
We All Made Things By Hand
Cardinale grew up in a home with a German mother, Italian-American father, and 3 siblings all very close in age. Handwork was very common in the household, with her and her siblings all knitting, sewing, and handworking by the time they were 5 & 6.
Her upbringing was also very artistic and creative which, like handwork, took root early to blossom throughout the rest of her life and career.
Cardinale was married and had her children in her 20’s. After becoming a mother, she knew that she wanted to continue to carry sewing through her life and her children’s lives as she made their clothing as well as her own. It was around this time that she befriended Kate Hixon of Hixon Design Consultants in Great Barrington (more on Kate later).
The Shift
In 2014, with her kids grown up, Cardinale had a shift in her thinking. She had previously started seeing where sewing projects could take her as a business, but nothing was ever too formal. At this point she decided to take the leap to see what happens.
Enter her friend Kate (whom I mentioned earlier). Kate approached Cardinale about a spare room in her office space in GB. She asked Cardinale to, “please fill the space! If anything I want to just hear a sewing machine and know art is being made.”
Artistically, Cardinale began with weaving and hand dying line flax, and roving (where her business’ name was founded).
Birthed From A Bin
One day, Cardinale found a piece of fabric in a bin that was very functional, and figured she could make a bag out of it. When she showed this to Kate, Kate responded with a very certain, “you need to go with this.”
The fabric is Greenguard Certified Vinyl, the highest level of certification possible for this material. This means the vinyl needs to meet the strictest chemical emission standards.
And as an added bonus, Greenguard certified vinyl is inherently 100% USA made.
Cardinale decided her bags should continue with this theme of 100% USA Made, and made a conscious decision to source the rest of the material from around the country.
From here, the bags we know from Lineflax & Roving were born.
The Rest Is Woven Into History
With her line of bags proving to be very successful, Cardinale is looking ahead at what’s next. She mentioned to me how in the future she would love to extend the work to artisans locally, so she can free up some time to teach handwork of future generations.
We talked about how basic sewing, hand skills, alterations, etc, are taught less and less in schools and they are all still very valuable tools to learn (even myself a right down the middle Millennial never had a home economics class even offered in high school).
As two artists who spent the last year and a half (but who’s counting) we’ve had stuck in our homes, Cardinale and I naturally began our mutual exchange of looking back and what inspiring us to press on.
For Cardinale, and at large for Lineflax & Roving, one mindset shift in particular has kept her going.
“You’ve got to maintain that creativity and integrity that you have, and that soul connection you have in everything you do.
“If you can maintain that, you can get through anything.”
Lineflax & Roving is available in person at The Shop in South Egremont, and on her website.
