Soigne is a couture term that relates to the quality of a piece of work. Vogue’s definition is finely crafted, highly finished, superbly done. The work of this trio of artisans embodies this definition in substance, craftsmanship and design.

Marilyn Charbonneau’s talent with a needle and thread has evolved through many years of practice, and she has perfected her skill through study, taking courses in design and custom tailoring. Her work is meticulous and superbly crafted, and displays a careful attention to detail. Marilyn’s cushions range from the practical to the luxurious, varying in size and shape, and using either polyester or thick feather filling. Fabrics span durable heavyweight tapestries to lustrous raw silk and embellishments include fine quality trims and elegant beads. More recently Marilyn has begun to create women’s scarves in an exciting array of fine fabrics, all crafted with Marilyn’s unique flair for the use of shape, colour, texture and pattern.

Heidi den Hartog creates fine jewellery from her studio in the basement of her century-old home in Peterborough, Ontario. A graduate of Mackenzie High School in Deep River, Heidi went on to take courses in jewellery design and fabrication at George Brown College School of Art in Toronto. Her beautiful sterling silver designs often incorporate semi-precious stones such as turquoise, Austrian and Swarovski crystal, Brazilian citrioni, pearls, hematite, amethyst, garnet and jade among others. Heidi’s inspiration comes from things Oriental where slender lines and simplicity are the focus of design.

The combination of fabric, beadwork and trims remains the focus for the handmade lampshades crafted by Heidi and her sister, Tracy Kasaboski. Tracy resides in the Deep River area, and when she is not busy with two children, turns her talents to creating beautiful lampshades from metallic organzas, raw silks and other fine fabric. Each shade is hand-sewn, unique in design and has been paired with a brass base suited to the shade’s size and shape.

Sock monkeys are a whimsical tangent for Soigne. As a craft sock monkeys have probably been around for about a century, but became widely popular in the 1920s when the Nelson Knitting Mills of Illinois packaged instructions for making them using their red-heeled socks. Like their great-grandparents, Soigne’s sock monkeys are hand-made in the traditional method, but with an added quirkiness that we hope makes each monkey a delightful treasure.