Tea Towels & A Long Time Friendship
I met Jocelyne Mange running track at Hillside Secondary School in West Vancouver in 1974. We both loved to run. Our favorite races were the 800 and 1500 meters. Jocelyne was faster than me, but thankfully a year younger, so luckily, I didn’t have to race against her. We went our separate ways after graduation but never lost sight of each other.
After high school, Jocelyne studied art at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, and then later at Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Geneva. After that, she worked as a designer in her parent’s gift product company. Her Canadian themed designs, featuring iconic symbols like maple leaves, bears and moose, were sold in souvenir stores throughout Canada.
Eventually, Jocelyne started her own company called Raingoose Textiles and began hand-printing her outstandingly beautiful designs on high-quality textiles. Today she creates a wide variety of items that are as practical as they are gorgeous, including tea towels, oven mitts, pot holders, tea cozies, zip bags, and aprons to name a few.
It would have been hard for me to predict all those years ago, at Hillside Secondary, how similar our lives would eventually be. We even look and dress similarly. I often copy her clothing purchases because I know whatever she chooses will be perfect for me as well.
More importantly, both of us design and make things for a living and participate in craft shows, and wholesale gift shows. We have also both owned a retail store. I hope you’ll have a chance to visit Jocelyne’s gift store in Dundarave, West Vancouver called Red Horses. You’re unlikely to come out empty handed because her store is as lovely and irresistible as she is.
Today we are proud to carry her products in our lineup and thrilled that she carries ours. We often chuckle about the volume of boxes that travel back and forth between our studios.
So today I am raising a glass to my dear, wise, hardworking, talented friend Jocelyne. She remains a force of nature with energy and passion that is as strong today as it was when I first met her lacing up her runners all those decades ago.
I am so proud of this woman and I dearly hope you will love her work as much as I do.
With Love,
XO Suzanne Zacharias, Co-Founder & Head Tea Drinker, Cedar Mountain Studios
