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.
29 July 2008
24 July 2008
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.
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.
22 July 2008
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...
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...
18 July 2008
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.
17 July 2008
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.
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.
16 July 2008
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...
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...
14 July 2008
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...
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...
13 July 2008
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!
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.
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