It all starts with ink
There once was a green eyed girl who lived in a crooked cedar house deep in the mountain forests of BC. Rumour has it she came into the world hollering at the top of her lungs and carrying a golden quill in her hand. She quickly lowered her volume but nonetheless had much to express; from the age of six she was able to transform the ink from the well into stories, guiding the black streams into words and pictures on the page the way the earth guides waterfalls into rivers. Attracted to familiar tales like the Gingerbread Man, she would rewrite and re-illustrate the endings of folk tales to suit her taste, enjoying the delicious tension of surprising the reader at the end with a gingerbread man gone rogue and scaring all his pursuers away.
To this day all my designs come from original India ink drawings on paper.
To me nothing compares to the presence of hand applied ink; it's a skill I'm proud to keep alive.
So yes, my name is Mezari. I’m a wallpaper designer, textile printer, and ink artist, and the owner of Mezari Atelier & Boutique in Montreal.
I create fine art wallpapers and home textiles sought after by creative souls who love stories, textile history and art. My prints may appear prim and proper at first glance but are full of mischief.
They're meant to make your home feel more like you. Maximum you.
If you have a taste for quality materials, enjoy a bold print, and grew up sprinkling salt on slugs, I believe we’ll understand each other quite perfectly.
Where you've seen my work
Origins & Sneakery
I graduated from Concordia University’s Fibres program in 2013 where I was introduced to historical wallpaper and textile patterns. Studying prints like the toile de Jouy, Arts & Crafts era wallpapers, or the French arabesques, I found myself tempted to rework them the way I used to “hack” the Gingerbread Man as a kid, following the footsteps of trailblazers like Sheila Bridges, known for her iconic Harlem Toile.
Wallpaper patterns are a wondrous vessel for sneaking a new story into a familiar framework. Kind of like how film directors will rework a Shakespeare play into the present day; there are hundreds of iterations & interpretations.
A prim and improper house of design
My work may appear prim and proper at first glance, but it’s quite full of mischief. Scissors cutting flowers, saltshakers killing slugs, and chainsaws in the branches…you'll need to do a double take 'cause nothing’s quite as it seems.
Perhaps it’s the reality of growing up in the wilderness that I see the nasty brutish side of nature; perhaps I like to pull a bait & switch when people approach my work; perhaps it’s a way to undermine the narrative of european design & perspective as the gold standard in this world. It’s all three, really.
Genuine silkscreened articles
Mezari Atelier is one of the only design houses in Canada creating hand silkscreened wallpapers and textile collections using traditional methods. We also handpaint some colours and backgrounds, using a specialized technique that can't be reproduced in larger facilities. Each item is a true original.
All of our textiles are printed in house using the highest quality water based textile inks (no solvents!). We print exclusively on natural fibres- organic cotton, linen and silk in the hopes you'll pass down these unique treasures to the grandbabies.
Our products are washfast guaranteed.
Handprinted for your marvellous maison
Our collection of washable wallpapers are hand silkscreened in Chicago IL, by a team of artisans that have been handprinting wallpapers since the 1960s. These wallpapers are Class A fire rated, and require paste-the-paper installation.
Bespoke wallpapers
Because I insist on doing things the long, hard way...
Yes I know they invented digitally printed wallpapers. The world zigs, and I zag.
These wallpapers use a mix of handpainting with some hand silkscreened underlayers.
They take up to 3 months to complete and the placement of the images can be customized to your space. For this collection we use paper ground manufactured in Montreal from recycled cotton.
This is the same factory where we bring all of our fabric scraps for recycling, because we gotta keep the 19th century vibes alive.
Services to the trade
We love working with interior designers, architects, and interior decorators. We provide fabric yardage, custom colours, and art features for your residential and commercial projects.
Please contact us for more information!