Squid Vicious

the first year i met ladi, we joined our love for crafting to make a mutual craft exchange. that was probably our first heart to heart craft experience. since then, trips to scrap, zine-making, knitting lessons, and a weekly tuesday night craft session have evolved through our friendship.


this year i decided to initiate another fall craft exchange. she hasn't decided what she wants yet, but i know i want a hat. i was searching ravelry and came across the most blazingly glorious hat i have ever seen in my entire life. i am desperate for it.

the giant squid hat.

personal interjection... and apologies

while september seems like a distant memory, somehow october snuck up on me and disappeared about as quickly.

the last month has been about getting my life in some semblance of order. i've gotten a flexible job with good pay and it's walking distance to my house which is a plus. another couple of perks being that i get to play dress up with customers and do one of the things i love best: provide excellent customer service. i know, i'm a validation slut. i will get it anywhere and everywhere i can. now, moving on.

i've also gotten an internship at a design co-op called the mission statement. this co-op features ten different clothing, jewelry, and accessory designers who showcase their work in the space and also work there 3-4 days a month. hidden in the back is a studio where i'll be working with the women who run the mission statement to fabricate their custom designs as well as their off-the-rack pieces. wooot.

now for a couple other tidbits:
i just learned about two great resources for diy goods and education!

Parcell Press
the "one stop online zine shop", this distro has got zines, comics, books, etc. etc. etc. and a bloggy blog (now on my blogroll thankyouverymuch) to keep up with those diy gallavanting folk in the zinescene.

Scintillant Studio
a small jewelry studio in the heart of the mission (!) that offers workshops in metalsmithing and blacksmithing for those zesty folk who like to work with their hands. they also offer open studio time for current and former students to make their magic. who can beat that?


now that i've had a significant hiatus, earmarked by an icky cold, i hope to get back into the blogging game before this webspace gets cobwebby and makes us all sneeze.

Questions and Artgasms

for the last few weeks I have been thinking about jewelry, fashion, wearable art and textile arts... asking myself questions about product and productivity. why and what i want to make, and how. for what audience? in what capacity would it be available to them? am i addressing the needs of a community, or am i dispensing my point of view for the purpose of its relevance to be reflected back to me? how do i imbue a feeling into a manipulated fiber, metal, or other object? if i do, how literal or conceptual do i want to make it? would it still be wearable? how much time would i devote to half-baked projects? how will i go about my own creative evolution?

perhaps these are questions that are questions only in the sense that their answers remain unknown until they make themselves known. perhaps they are not questions for me to verbalize, to let roll around in my brain, let alone on my tongue; and far be it for me to pose them to another living soul! and yet. they nag. surely it's less work to allow myself to be carried away in the swell, and be washed upon the shore when the sea of contemplations has had its merry way with me. but my instinct is to struggle!

whether these lingering ideas are bringing me closer to or further from creating is a point of debate. being a fabricatin', product-oriented individual i rarely give much time to sheer pontificating. and if i could help it now, i would - it would at least lessen, to a degree, a bit of my own anxiety as a designer/artist/fabricator/creative spirit - to quell the bitty beast inside of me that screeches about hungry-like, as it seems fed only insomuch as my eyes can feast on some finished project born of my own two hands.

this could be seen as the long, overworked, explanatory prose that gives voice to the fact that i'm not posting pictures of things i'm making right now, since i've made it clear that i'm not making anything (!). it also provides a segue to the artgasm i had this week at California College of the Arts' (CCA) textile exhibit. the exhibit that has compelled me not only to embrace and go deeper with my own thoughts about art for arts sake and the significance and purpose of "product," but also to research some textiles programs that i could apply to in the future. yes, i thought it was that good.



when: Thursday
where: Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts Oakland Campus
who: students, faculty and staff of the CCA Textiles Program
what: an interesting and inspiring look into the textiles program at CCA. when i walked in the first thing i saw was a full-sized buck head made of sticks (acting as a frame for the model) and pulled-taught material. it was uncanny how realistic it was. the hand-embroidered wall hanging of jim jones and his special purple cup resonated with me not only as a possible modern-day kitsch consumer item, but also as reference to our reverence for those thinly veiled, self-proclaimed demi gods who are eye-catching in their flamboyance but ultimately little more than a bit of concentrated handiwork.
in contrast, a circle skirt of found white fabric machine stitched all around, and hand-embroidered around the waist had a strange historical quality to it. it reminded me of recovered materials from the turn of the century - like a child's sunday skirt - well cared for in its time, but yellowed and limp from the relentlessness of dust and the pressure of time.
finally, another piece that i absolutely loved was a series of three-dimensional hearts by Anne Wolf which channeled her hopes, fears and frustrations over multiple miscarriages and her baby's heart problems. these hearts made in different ways out of her old denim jeans were some realistic, some puzzle-like, yet each exuded a sense of loving, careful craft. each well-thought hope, dream, and love for her babies and their heartbeats stitched neatly - almost painstakingly - into and through the denim.

fashion blogs! the good, the bad, and the rest will have to wait

when i think of fashion blogs i think of fun, entertaining picture book-like blogs that express creativity and arouse visual interest and inspiration in the reader/viewer. they can be personal, industry-focused or just plain pictures (like one of my favorites, the sartorialist).

what i like about the sartorialist is that it's simple - minimal commentary, great shots of people sporting unique looks - the images really speak for themselves. the quality and taste level of the images shown on the site are enough to let the audience know that we are respected as viewers. i have to emphasize that these photos are simple, delicate, tasteful, and yet have their own stories to share. these stories are brief but articulate, like a well-written haiku, or words spoken by a sage.

there are blogs, on the other hand, like fashion indie, who resort to scandalizing displays of tastelessness "just because it's friday." in the "just because it's friday" post i saw today i was appalled at the play on those inspirational/motivational posters. you know, the ones that show a picture, a large word (like "teamwork") and a small blurb at the bottom elucidating the significance of said large word. all right. pretty uninspired template to begin with. but not half as bad as the images and messages contained within. three out of eight of these frames contain purely size-ist jokes: boring, normative, and just plain cruel. the other five frames are supposed to be funny because the text frames the image subjects as stupider than we (the viewers) supposedly are. all in all, not what i would expect from a fashion blog. i say, if you're gonna post something like that, don't bother posting. it's purely insulting.

which brings me to my next point, the book i'm reading called fashion as communication by a brit named malcolm barnard. i haven't gotten too deep into it yet, though the author has thus far discussed fashion as a form of communication, cultural reproduction, and (if you're one to take a conflict theorist stance) of course then follows the ways in which fashion is used to reproduce dynamics of power and privilege. i knew that some day my love for fashion and design and my invariably sociological mind would find a happy marriage - and apparently these are the days!

more to come regarding sociology, fashion, and shifting oppressive paradigms!

Incidental Accessory

so I've been commissioned to make a backdrop for a USnaps.com photobooth. i was testing out my grommet setter - you know, for setting metal rings into fabric, vinyl, etc etc - on some scrap fabric to see whether the fabric was thick enough to hold a grommet. done and done. but then i had this five foot long piece of scrap fabric with grommets at either end of it. and you know, scrap fabric is always kind of tricky because apart from putting it aside to make yarn, a quilt, or patch up old clothes, it seems to be just a space-wasting nuisance to me. oh, but not this particular piece. i got to fooling around with it and made little old me a new necklace. wonk!

Personal Interjection Plus

the last few weeks have kept me pretty busy, what between physical and emotional cleansing, designing some new skirts, doing homework, piecing together work, and of course my ever-evolving social calendar. add to that tap dance class and i have barely had the chance to make time for being depressed.

so i haven't been producing as much as i'd like to. looks like i'll have to wait till the next round of Mission Indie Mart to be a vendor and make some buck for my wares. but something worth mentioning here: i'll be working at the Aunt Lute publishing table at the Radical Women Conference this weekend. we'll be selling Aunt Lute books to the amazing folk who grace the conference. i'm more than a little excited to be surrounded by a sea of female revolutionaries...the energy will much resemble that of the Bay Area Girl's Rock Camp benefit: empowering and inspiring with electricity in the air.

oh yes, and one more thing: the fashion event i am styling this thursday. it's called Planet X. Not only will i be responsible for doing the last check to make sure the models are perfect and sending them out on the runway, but i will also be actually dressing and styling the male models, since the design company rep won't be there to choose their outfits. shweet. total big deal for me. just the adrenaline rush i've been looking for.

and since i can't leave you without an image...here's a great piece of handiwork i saw the other day. barbie bondage!

Maximum Rock N Roll Artgasm

this week i was asked to co-lead a zine making workshop at a benefit for the Bay Area Girls Rock Camp - the Bay Area's permutation of the Girls Rock Camp that originated in Portland. this past summer was their first year of camp and they're doing awesome - this week they are moving into a real live office space, and paying themselves! it gives me hope that personally and politically sustainable grassroots programs are alive and kicking. the icing on the cake is that the benefit was at a sweet non-profit, all ages music venue in Berkeley called the Gilman. will definitely be making my way over there in the near future.



the zine making workshop was a fabulous mayhem-magical amalgam of puff paint, cut & paste, markers, and of course creative genius. we rolled in with our own zine, the Ultamini Guide to Zines, for people to take home and stay inspired. and we were asked to lead the workshop at next year's rock camp!




Now to the Artgasm portion of the evening...

when: Saturday night
where: Benefit for Girls Rock Camp, the Gilman in Berkeley
who: Purple Rhinestone Eagle
what: a trio of hard-driving, incredibly talented, invariably Loud women rockers from portland. the combination of the almost-falsetto lead vocals, a healthy dose of rage, and the intense heart thumping beats reminded me of one of my favorite female rock bands of all time, sleater-kinney. it made me want to dance, scream, rock, and be back in college again. good times.

bad day, good mood

let's just call this a personal interjection, since things like these will appear only so often, and since it is not specifically design/ craft/ textile/ art related.

some days i feel like i'm being sucked into the vortex of my life and all i can expect myself to do is swim around in it, finding rest in the form of an occasional buoy. if i can avoid the emotional undertow, all the better (usually i can't). but sometimes i manage to wake up in this mood. and i revel in those days.

Artgasm

my last few days have been rife with sensory-titillating artworks.
consider this an e-dossier of this week's artgasm-worthy work.

when: Sunday morning
where: Ashby fleamarket, Berkeley
who: Goldiloks
what: a collection of wearable and visual art based on collage. goldilocks dresses old windows, shadowboxes, and woodblocks in stimulating color palates. conceptually, she incorporates elements of pop culture and the idea of lost memories (dare i say both reflective of the broader concept of inherited cultural histories) into her work. she also decorates baked goods! talk about mixed media. you can read a little article about her at ill-literacy dot com, or you can look at her flickr account to see all of her amazing work. she is most definitely working it.




when: Sunday afternoon
where: Gallery Route One, Point Reyes CA
who: Pam Bolton and Cindy Cleary
what: an amazing collaborative installation piece which focuses on our interactions with and connections to trees. in addition to trees, stumps, and rocks carefully placed throughout the space there were paintings which incorporated some element of trees - leaves, natural bark dyes, whathaveyou - and which were an equally stunning addition to the space. i wish i had taken some pictures. but this brief and inadequate video will have to serve as your glimpse into a show that can really only be taken in using all five senses. i know, it's not fair to you.



when: Tuesday evening
where: Yoshi's Restaurant and Jazz Cafe, Oakland
who: José González
what: "José González from Sweden" is how this classical guitar virtuoso (as jazmine describes him) introduced himself to us at the beginning of his set. he then proceeded to lull my mind into a melodic, lyrical trance while simultaneously managing to galvanize my body through his percussive inclinations. some of the songs would work well as lullabies, while others were torrential in their vibrant angst. and yet throughout, his fingers and hands worked with ease; only the curve of his neck, the crooked focus of his face on the fretboard, gave any indication of how consumed he was by the instrument. also, one of the percussionists played a mouth piano! (also called a melodica.) i just can't get enough.

Charmed, I'm Sure

i found some old shrinky dink stuff that i made during a fit of creative boredom one afternoon in the suburbs at a friends house, long long ago. (okay, not that long. last year.) most of it was entirely useless for anything remotely interesting, with the exception of two little keys i made...
i figured i'd make them into dangling earrings for my friend ladi since she rocks the plastic earring look, and wears it well.

of course, once one little key was at the bottom of the earring, it looked sort of sad. alone. graceless. "let's give it friends!" was the general consensus, and ladi, being the ever-prepared crafter/thrifter/finder of random junk that she is, pointed me straight to a jar full of little plastic charms. a dream was born, and so were these earrings.

accessorize my fist!

...or any part of my body, really.

the problem with having worked with a jewelry designer for a year - being taken to trade shows and learning techniques in handcrafting high quality jewelry myself - is that i am now severely disappointed by most all 'handmade' jewelry in my price range. (ah, if ever i thought that the adage 'ignorance is bliss' wasn't true!)

my best jewelry score (and a tried and true conversation piece) are my Chee-Me-No earrings, made by Lisa Cimino. scored through a trade show. i'm sure they were expensive but i don't even remember how much they cost - it was worth the price! i'll never let these go. she even made the posts bigger to match my earlobe gauge. fabulous.

the other go-to piece of show-stopping jewelry is my jerry rigged cascading gold chain necklace, which i made by (cleverly!) stringing three gold chains together and creating multiple cascading layers.

i often fantasize about making my own accessories, about having a jewelry bench to sit at, with fire and soldering pick in hand, making all kind of adornment for myself. alas, with those expensive tools out of my reach at the moment, i will have to settle for what i can find from the meager offerings at bead stores in san francisco, dick blick, and jewelry suppliers online (without breaking the bank). hopefully what i come up will be as original and amazing as i'm convinced it will be. pictures to come.

first item on the wishlist: a hand saw! will have to pick that up tomorrow. it's great for making jump rings.

today's steal deal...and a bit of jeopardy.

recently, i've been daily and devoutly scouring my mainstay thriftstores for that perfect fall boot. while i haven't found anything in that department, today i found a beautiful, deep navy blue pair of nickels - as always, the italian made shoes hypnotize me. with a cross back, ankle strap, charming gold buckles and closed toes, these scream sexy librarian. always the feminine look i strive for. and what's better? what makes this today's steal deal? the shoes were three dollars at thriftown. three dollars.



in other news, my friend jazmine has started a blog called what's ur damage. in her first post she introduces herself by listing her 7 dream categories if her life were a game of Jeopardy.
so, in case you didn't feel you knew me, here are mine. what are yours?

1. superficial fashion and textile snobbery
2. armchair psychoanalysis
3. craigslist W4W
4. virgo astrology
5. sex education
6. the world of chocolate
7. sociological musings

upcoming: pictures of silk wallets! and my latest skirt design! information on my new website! more exclamation points!

keeping up appearances

attempting to stay up-to-date with the happenings in the spring collection. this mostly means checking out Women's Wear Daily on a regular basis and gagging or gazing at the realized visions of so many designers.

i still haven't worked my way through everything i like and don't like...
but here are a few memorable moments thus far.

first, the chic grease-monkey butch look which i love!
by amanda wakeley - london shows
next, i saw this look by Eley Kishimoto (also London shows)
and thought 'wow, that's me!'
at least, this is my fashion spirit.
edgy, strong, a little hard, with a touch of femininity for contrast.


and finally.
i love prints!
and toying with that fine line between abject and absolutely gorgeous.
nicole miller.

Short-Range Missiles

i've been sucked into the world of style blogging for the last two hours and haven't gotten around to detailing my goals for the next couple weeks, so i suppose i'll do it here.


1) silk wallets!
i scored a load of houndstooth silk - probably tie samples - from SCRAP a couple weeks ago, along with the necessary vinyl facing to make my bi-fold wallets (see past posts). this is the first time i'll be working with silk in any capacity, really. the pattern, colors, and texture lend itself to a sophisticated look, though hopefully still fun!



2) work on my damned website!
for my birthday my fabulous sister entitled me to a domain name of my choice, custom web design, an easy-to-use content management system, and back-end support for a whole year. why do i not have a website yet? ok, it's only been three weeks. but still. i don't know what the domain name is going to be yet. but today, as i tried to squeeze my feet into a half-size too small pair of calf-high onitsuka tiger sneakers (god did i want them to be my size...picture to come), i decided on the tagline for the site: "No Pain for Fashion!"


3) draft skirt slopers for sister, housemate!
despite my miniscule workspace of 65 square feet, i must plug along in my patternmaking practice. i have clients! but it's just that much more work to lug all my stuff into my housemate's room, work on the floor, move back to my room, iron on the floor in my room, blah blah blah. see the mental block i create? it's a hump i have to work through. as my housemate micah once said, "if christian siriano can do it, so can you!" (you can see christian's segment in the last episode of PR Season 4 at minute five, here.) so. in order to get better, earn money, practice skills, and have fun designing, i just have to suck it up and work with the space i've got, cause it ain't gonna change any time soon.

good goals.
on another note, all this skirt-age is making me ache for a new pair of tall boots...something with a unique look that isn't too modern or trendy, timeless but rare, comfortable and fabulous. is that too much to ask?

for one reason or another, each of these caught my eye...

since my pattern making and design class curriculum starts with skirts, i had to complete two skirts of my own design to finish the first section and get on to the fabulous and exciting moulage.*




the first is an exaggerated empire waist skirt with dart releases down the front, two kick pleats in the back, and inseam pockets. sewn in a purple bull denim with a little bit of stretch. a zipper down the center back.
















the second is a mini pencil skirt with a three inch wide straight waistband, pleating in the front to create volume, inseam pockets, and pleats in the back instead of darts. made of a grey plaid fabric.















*Moulage is the foundation of the pattern drafting system taught by the Ecole Guerre-Lavigne in Paris. This is a system of measuring the figure, calculating, and drafting a pattern that will fit the torso like a second skin, incorporating any of the infinite variations of shape the human figure can take. (http://www.thesewingplace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1994)

100 Butches: welcome to crushlandia

Elisha Lim has a special place in my heart, partly for her self proclaimed experiment with "sustainable unemployment," but mostly for her comic series 100 Butches, where she details many influential lovers, friends, crushes, and admiration-worthy women from her childhood to adulthood. It's reminiscent of those crushed-out notebook scribbles from middle school, albeit a more detailed (and perhaps thoughtful) creative process is involved.

100 Butches is a perfect example of what inspires me: it's an artistic expression of the personal, handmade with lo-fi techniques (all elements of my beloved DIY movement) and thus necessarily frames the artist in a political context because inevitably, her positionality in the world is reflected in her art. (in this case, the paradigm is gender complication and women. butches - a personal favorite.)

you can read a short interview with her at the blog Art Threat.

Felt Me Up

i'm a sucker for flamboyant accessories. recently i've been exploring my love for things of a golden hue, but this felted wool jewelry caught my eye as soon as i turned the page in American Craft magazine. amazing... the artist is Hisano Takei. You can check her out at her website.

2+2=4, 2x2=4

as a friend of mine said recently about my 24th year, "2 + 2 = 4 and 2x2=4, that's kinda cool. i'm no mathematician, but i think that will never happen again." i have a weird aversion, personally, to even numbers. in my mind, 23 was the perfect number. but i haven't given up on 24! in fact my list of personal challenges for this year is going to be no small feat to accomplish. but 24 is off to an auspicious start regardless...

having been unemployed the last three months and generally questioning what next steps i should take in my life, i have been turning over and over the possibilities. these include, but are not limited to going to vocational school to learn a trade and extend my unemployment, cashing in any money i have saved away and moving to a beach city, and getting a job as a bartender and spending my days sewing.

after some consideration and talking to my closest friends for a little bit of understanding about how big life decisions are made, i think i've figured it out. i woke up one morning and like an epiphany it came to me--what i really want is to learn more in the field of design. my classes at apparel arts have been a good learning experience for me, but taking them once a week isn't really bringing me the structure and breadth of knowledge i ultimately want from an education in design. so. i'm going back to school, full time at City College of San Francisco, and availing myself of their ever-growing fashion design program. i'll be pursuing certificates in fashion design as well as image consulting. very exciting, immediately gratifying, and affordable.


to help me with this decision, the universe has given me a little nudge in the right direction. last thursday night at a gallery reception for artist susanne winterling, i wore for the first time the very first skirt i made through my patternmaking and design class. there i met del geronimo, a photographer who is helping to put on a fashion show called planet x in san francisco. after spending some time admiring my accessories and generally chit chatting, he asked me whether i'd be interested in being the stylist for the show. the stylist! if ever there was a carrot to dangle in this horses face...well. that was a friggin golden carrot. of course i said yes.

a special outfit, a golden opportunity, and a decision is made. it's my first week of being 24, and i'm no mathematician, but i think i'm off to a good start.

Zine Sympo Debrief

i always enjoy a visit to portland, but tabling at the Zine Symposium two weekends ago was pretty much the best time i've had there. tons of queers, zines taking over as the main form of paper currency, and happy customers! what more could i have asked for? let's face it: i wanted to live there.

next year's plan...a cross-country diy craft/music/zine fair roadtrip!

My Mini Distro

i apologize! it's been almost a month since i've last posted. i know this is not the etiquette for a dedicated and diligent blogger, but alas.

i went to southern california for a couple weeks in august and i've been back home in san francisco just long enough to get everything together and head off to portland for the PDX Zine Symposium tomorrow. i'm bringing wallets, tote bags, and two different zines. additionally, in "my micro distro" i'll be showcasing a zine about asian women in rock by Amy, and a 3-song EP by Jazmine.

i've been thinking about collaborations lately - it's been over a year since ideas for a collaborative queer women of color zine has danced like so many sugar plum fairies in my head. i did my part to pump people up, get the word out, and contribute. and i gathered quite a bit of writing from various friends, acquaintances, and total strangers. so where's the zine? that's where the leader lost her light. although i laid the groundwork for a potentially amazing contribution to the literary dialogue of folks from the margins, i lost the initiative to see the project through.

now that i've gotten people excited about distributing their work within a larger creative community, i remember the initial thrill i achieved by bringing folks together and agreeing to collaborate on that first zine. there's very little in this world that is more powerful to me than collectivity. so what now? this is the beginning of My Mini Distro - a small scale distribution organization (read: me) with the intent to bring people out of their creative hiding spaces and into a community of artists and crafters. more details to come...

Fanny. Pack.

the fanny pack, like most things from the late seventies, eighties, and early nineties, is making a comeback. in leather, nylon, and novelty prints; from gucci to jansport; the fanny pack is everywhere. and despite its recent return, hipsacks, bum bags, and belt packs have really never left the style radar. and now that i've dusted off my old fanny pack from the trove of childhood frippery, i use it all the time.

but the fanny pack need refreshing. it needs...it needs...well what exactly it needs is what i am figuring out.

a good fanny pack in houndstooth, perhaps. plaid. solid fabrics with silkscreens. funky fabric combinations and contrast stitching, of course, as is signature to the AsterFig handmade style. i'm sitting at my drawing board and it's all being cultivated.

of course, i can't leave this post without mentioning raging fun-loving booty bass crew FannyPack.

speaking of etsy...

while i don't have an up-and-running store on etsy at the moment, a good friend of mine, Sarah Greenberg, does. we worked together for a year making jewelry for another designer, but she's a jeweler in her own right and creates beautiful ocean-inspired silver pieces under the name of Shore Jewelry.

she'll be a featured designer at secession art and design gallery in san francisco from july 15 to august 28 - a really big deal for her! and very exciting.

an example of her work:

hammered and oxidized silver coins with .01 chocolate diamonds... we used to share a studio space and knowing how much dedicated handwork goes into each of her pieces is inspiring. good work, Sarah.

sf zinefesticular

this past weekend i stopped by the san francisco zine fest and among all of the amazing small presses, zines, crafters and the like, i was most excited about 1984 printing. women-owned, recycled paper, vegetarian inks, etcetera et al, and so forth ad nauseum. definitely where i'll be getting my future zines printed.

meanwhile i'm having a bit of behind-the-table anxiety about portland which is, more than anything, lighting a fire under my ass to produce. the next few days will consist of some hardcore cutting and sewing.

the bifold wallets that i started selling fall of '06 on etsy are making a comeback. the difference now is that i've committed to one design instead of trying to entertain myself by reinventing the wheel every time.
i'm happy with these.



bifold layout. raw edges sewn with a satin stitch. inward facing pockets, two on one side, one on the other. with a durable interfacing for stiffness.
i used to call this something like the "party pack" because you could stick it in your back pocket when you go out and not have to carry a purse...but the ones i've made for me and my ever-enthusiastic craft tester/recipient ladi get daily use...

knitting take-out

ladi and i talked so many months ago about making her a knitting needle holder. and i finally did it... gotta nip that procrastination problem in the bud someday soon.

prototypia apronia, etc.

lovely housemate micah modeling the apron...


this was rather painless, considering i didn't design it; i got the pattern from Simple Sewing, a gift from friends for my last birthday.

i spent the day at the library thinking about blogging, business, zines, and spirituality. i perused bloglandia for a couple hours looking for good poetry/short story/literature blogs to regular. but no luck. most poets who are truly making careers out of it are busy submitting to journals/mags and not trying to give it up to the masses gratis.

a convoluted description of my mood today:
on my way back from the library i saw a woman with all of her stuff in suitcases in the middle of the street - it looked as though her set up had crashed in on itself, causing everything to sprawl across the center island on guerrero st. someone was helping her, and when she finally got all of it together again she said to him "i just need to be alone right now." moments of chaos producing that moment of self-awareness, a clarity in personal need...
when she said that, i thought i feel the exact same way. minus my shit spread out in the middle of the road.

Sixty-five Square Feet

that's the size of my room.
and where i do all of my work.
cutting/sewing fabric for anything bigger than wallet-sized drives me crazy.
...i often co-opt my housemate's floorspace.





my space has gone through a number of organizational permutations since i've inhabited it. the most recent is the most functional and lovely. found a bookshelf in the garage, drilled some particle board to the top and voila! a sewing table tall enough for me to sit on a stool at.

















traded in the cumbersome reading chair for a rocker. makes me feel my inner spirit's age when i sit in it and knit. yes, that's a stereotype-perpetuating, age-ist comment. but i do feel like a granny with the pillowcase i got at a dead granny's estate sale and my knitting. at 23, it makes me feel special.



because she's sitting in my lap and purring right now - here's a picture of our house cat, Tillandsia Barracuda Foxheart. Tilly for short.


these last few days i have been sewing.
i'm resurrecting the bi-fold wallets for the zine symposium in august. still coming up with the rest of my sewn inventory. i've made prototypes for a cute reversible apron about which my primary concerns are: price points for this particular venue and production time. also made a prototype for a tool/knitting needle/what-have-you roll-up case, about which my primary concern is boredom. truth is it's not that interesting to sew a rectangle to a square to another square, then sew twenty separate straight lines.
pictures to come...

unwitting year in review

i have been perusing all of my writing from...well forever for poetry and dreams to anthologize in zine form. typically i don't look back to three, four, five years ago to read all of life's excruciating minutiae i felt it was necessary to detail at the time. but now.

a couple things from last summer, just about this time, that i found interesting:

28 july 2007
mikah sent me a text message about feeling small yet incredibly full. i feel small, and that's about it. maybe it's not worth it to worry about such unimportant things. maybe. self-analysis, petty critiques of people i know, when the great full moon is pulling the ocean tide out of my reach and clouds are gathering to shed rain on this earth and atmospheres and people and human nature are singular to this planet, at this moment...we think. i will never be bigger than my body, but my heart, i believe, can exist outside of myself enough to grow up big. i am waiting for my heart to grow up.

29 July 2007
ladi said to me the other day, "the only people who really know what it means to be white are people of color." love it.

1 august 2007
...i think it's just about taking what you need and leaving the rest for others. that's why i don't need an extravagant house or a car or anything.... i want to move into a house full of vegan activists, buy my food in bulk, eat out less or not at all, make cunt quilts, survive on something as meaningful and frivolous as art. consume less, create more, give more.

funny how things still resonate, or still provide something to think on, or even how i detailed a goal, a desire, and have since manifested it ('bulk food and vegans' is pretty right on the mark)...and am happy. funny how much i am and am not the person i was a year ago. how in a year i will and will not be the person i am now. movement, change. emotional metamorphosis.

where i was last year at this time...

things in shift spring/summer

there's probably no better time to be unemployed than the summer, which is why i am thankful that i was laid off on memorial day - no sooner, no later - to mark the beginning of a new calendar season. while i'm fortunate enough that the government has agreed to pay my bills for the next 5 or so months, there has been some paring down of my life's activities according to the fractional nature of my unemployment check compared to my prior wages.

like break dancing.

i had been taking an awesome breaks class with Crix from the Sisterz of the Underground women's hip hop collective...see.



that's on hold for the moment. well. swimming is cheaper, and a lot cooler for those hazy/hot fire air days!

weird science!

ok, it's really not that weird. and some might argue that the act of creation is not a science. and yet.

my first gauntlets/wristie cuff creations come in a pearlescent moss green. the knit pattern is, appropriately, called pea pod...

quick to knit and fun to slap people with! or warm yer arms. whatever suits you.





on the zine front:
not too long ago my best friend mikah came to visit from the vast expanse that is the pacific northwest. best friendship is fun but also a lot of work. after three days of verbal processing, i suggested we co-create a cathartic zine.
what our collective frustrated/determined/bestfriend energies bore was "get away from me...and other stories," the cover shown here.



and, as promised, a sample of the best yardage i have ever scored from that lovely re-use center we like to call SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts):

fabulous cream colored cotton jersey with t-rex's on it! i'm already envisioning a hoodie pullover vest...

the next excursion

will be
a west coast tour...

san diego, la, then off to portland for the portland zine symposium on the 23rd and 24th of august.

the next five weeks are going to be a rotating madhouse frenzy of knitting, sewing, zine writing, and let's not forget my budding interest in distribution.

i recently met Meals of Baby Cakes, who is not only the percussion section of the band but also a zinester in her own right...i'm trying to light a fire under her ass to get the next issue of her hot-Asian-women-in-rock-and-business zine done so i can bring it with me.

i'm soliciting everyone i know who wants to, has, and will write/make/create a zine to let me sell it/them at the symposium. i'm also looking for music makers who want to sell cds or be included in my zines as a cd insert.

meanwhile i'll still be taking my apparel design classes at Apparel Arts. i'm making the final skirts to complete the first (longest, and most excruciating or so i hear) section of the class after a ridiculous 8 months. the next sections are not painless, but will certainly be less time-consuming...


upcoming: pictures! works in progress, latest zine creation, and the best fabric i've ever found at SCRAP...

...also - the life and times of my housemate micah and my foray into self homeschooling. our class is now in session - The Monumental Me: Toward a Path of Self-Discovery, Self-Reflection, and Self-Re/Creation through Theory and Praxis. if you want to enroll in the class, space is available. virtual students encouraged! we have a virtual commuter already in NYC. course syllabus will be posted soon.