Luana Rubin's Designer Collections
Luana Rubin is a
designer, artist, writer and entrepreneur living in Boulder, Colorado. She is
the head buyer and President of eQuilter.com, which she co-owns with her husband
and partner Paul Rubin. Her background in textile and garment design, and
training in the fine arts, has given her a creative edge as an internet
entrepreneur.
Luana has a 25 year background in art, design and retail. Her eye for color and
design was recognized when she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design in
Los Angeles under full scholarship. Her first design job was designing silk
textiles and dresses, which took her to Asia on business trips. There she took a
position in Hong Kong with an international manufacturing group, starting her
career in import design. She lived in Hong Kong, traveling to 10 Asian countries
for her design work. Later she moved to New York and worked on 7th Avenue as an
import design specialist - designing textiles, sweaters, and high-end
contemporary ladieswear while traveling to Asia and Europe.
Luana is now a licensed designer for Robert Kaufman Fabrics of
California, and her first collection, "Sweet Stuff"
for Kaufman was introduced at the Spring Quilt Market 2003, shipping in
September 2003. Luana's choice of unique themes and realistic images make her
designs irresistible and very collectible.
Her
Camelot fabrics (produced by Timeless
Treasures)
and quilt kit were featured in McCalls Quilting Magazine's April 2003
issue, and her Tarot Art Quilt "Empress" was in the April 2003 issue of
Quilters Newsletter. Luana's "Empress" and 3 other quilts were in the Tarot
and Potluck exhibits, at the Spring 2003 Chicago Quilt Festival.
Her articles on Astrology for Quilters have also been featured in 2 recent
issues of McCalls Quilting Magazine. (Aug '02 and Feb '03) Luana has also
written vendor reviews for the Fabshopnet quarterly newsletter - a quilt
industry trade publication.
Luana was also
chosen as a designer for the 2003 & 2004 Bernina Fashion Shows - "Fantasy"
and "Celebration". Her one-of-a-kind ensembles were draped on a dressform
with fabrics from eQuilter.com.
The 2003 gown
was featured in the Jan/Feb 2004 issue of McCalls Quilting magazine and
the 2004 ensemble will be in the Jan 2005 issue of Sew News.
See Luana's
Bernina Fashion Show page here.
Luana's design/art studio is on the 2nd floor over the eQuilter warehouse in
Boulder. This is where she works on her textile designs, art quilts, wearable
art and paintings. Luana's artwork started as a fashion illustrator, and
progressed to detailed studies in portraiture and figure painting. She has
studied with many well known painters over the years, including Frank Covino
(Classic Italian Oil Portraiture), Buffalo Kaplinski (watercolor landscapes) and
Julia Jordan (watercolor florals). Luana works in watercolor, pastels and
oils. Her favorite subjects are figures and faces, flowers and travel scenes.
Luana and Paul live with their 3 children (Mason - 13, Sammy - 6, and baby
Sophie) next to the Celestial Seasonings herbal tea factory. When the windows
are open, it smells like the tea flavor of the day! 2 cats, a sheltie and an
aquarium also share this vegetarian household. The flower garden in back is
packed with perennials, bulbs, flowering bushes and trees, which are an endless
inspiration for Luana's paintings and textile designs. (Her favorites are lilacs
and stargazer lilies!)
Luana traveled to China to adopt Sophie in April '02.
Luana's
travel diary and photos
Paul and Luana are also committed to giving a percentage of sales to charity.
2% of sales at
eQuilter go to charity, and the company gave $69,000 in 2002.
Luana's other
collections:
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