Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
10 things for summer:
home mini golf (I know a certain someone who would faint if he received this for his birthday at the end of the summer)
cold coffee press
lawn sculpture
white sangria wine cube (yes it IS good. with ice and sliced nectarines. and normally I insist on a cork. If you still can’t get over the box, try this recipe).
table top grill
garden torch
bird table and bird box
sublime outdoor furniture
stones
garden pinwheel
that’s my son on the cover of the Walker Art Center June/July magazine. The image was taken at the opening of the Walker on the Green -artist designed mini-golf exhibition.
Monday, June 30th, 2008
I save up piles of images and magazines and sketches and then once in awhile I sit down and go through them and paste them into my sketchbook. I really should update it regularly -it would be so much more helpful to my process and I wouldn’t have to keep sifting and searching through the piles. I always tell my students to sit down at the end of each day and reflect on their work and update their books. Time seems to get away from me though and I end up doing it in chunks.
After a week away I’m back quietly working here on my sketchbook and more wholesale orders and various other things that I will talk about soon. While it was nice to be away, it feels good to be back to work.
It felt especially good to be able to ride my bike to work downtown and back again in the beautiful (non-humid) summer weather we’re having. I hope you had a chance to get outside today too.
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
You might be surprised to find out that I like the color pink. For awhile when I was little I had an all pink bedroom (except for white walls, which we had in every room and which I still prefer to this day). It wasn’t girly or frilly, but everything was a varying shade of pink. My favorite pinks have a lot of grey or blue in them. Right now my younger son’s favorite color is pink. I’m sure that will change as he gets older and realizes that boys aren’t supposed to like pink. I wish pink wasn’t so tied to being a girl color in our culture.
I’ve talked before about how color is very emotional for me. There are just some colors that feel right. I think many people are like that. Sometimes I’m affected by trends (anyone else jump on the brown bandwagon a few years ago?) but those likes always fade and I come back to my favorite colors. I have found in architecture that you can’t push a color on someone. If I’m using color I tend to design with an idea in mind -cool or warm, intense or subtle, and then work with the client to come up with the actual color.
I am always drawn to neutrals, probably because they stem from natural materials, but certain colors will evoke that emotional response, especially when combined with the right neutral (usually grey, my favorite).When I designed this jacket the intent was that the interior be a vibrant contrast to the grey exterior because you really only see a bit of it. I really like the grey with the magenta, which is probably my favorite shade of pink.
Friday, June 13th, 2008
glass light book
I have been blown away this week with the amazing contributions to s t i l l. I could spend hours going through all the photographs. Originally I had set up the group with the intention of closing it after one week, but with close to 500 members and such beautiful work, I am reluctant to do so. So I will leave the group open, although I won’t be contributing each day as I did this week.
I ended up focusing primarily on different light qualities. The hardest part for me is always what to photograph. I think I would rather just photograph the light itself instead of an object. My favorite photographer is Uta Barth and many of her photographs have an empty foreground. Because she has focused on the foreground which is empty, what you see is the background that is full of light and out of focus. I think this lack of subject, which brings the viewer and point of focus to the same point, is what makes these so compelling to me.
I have so much to learn.
I’ll leave you with some of my favorites from the group. Hope you have a great weekend!
ヤサシイクウキ
still.1
film.232
curtains
waiting
still
s t i l l
wall of numbers
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
cat table bowl
A current goal of mine is to learn more about my camera(s) and to experiment with taking still life shots. I would like to try taking some different types of photos of my clothing as well -less documentation like and more natural. I love this type of photo that Maria takes. I think it’s nice to have both together to describe each piece.
What I have found so far is that taking still life images is hard! At least for me. Right now I’m trying to figure out why it seems so hard and I think the main reason is that in posing objects I have a hard time figuring out what to include in the image to make it feel natural.
In experimenting I realized that seeing the image on the screen of the camera as opposed to seeing it with my eye up to the viewfinder makes it easier for me to frame. I just move the camera around until I get it framed just right. It makes me think of drawing class long ago, when the instructor gave us empty slide carriers to hold up to frame the image we wanted to draw. That means using my canon powershot instead of the D40 but I think I will try this for awhile.
So in the interest of learning I’m going to dedicate next week to taking still life photographs. You can join me here if you would like. I would love to see your photos. I’m going to focus on light (and absence of light) as well as emulating particular photographers and photographs I admire. It would be great to have a critical discussion and dialog about the photos.
added: I was just thinking….technically this photo isn’t still. Fritz jumped up just as I was snapping it. But I like it.
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
My approach to design, whether it is architecture, clothing, or anything else, has always been to make things that work well, have a simple, timeless design and are made out of quality materials. My goal is to have things last so that we don’t have to produce as much. If things work well and are beautiful, then they can continue to be useful.
While I have always used locally sourced and sustainable products when I can in architecture, I haven’t explored this in my clothing design. For a small design company, organic fabrics are harder to find and much more expensive. In the past year though I have had this nagging feeling that I really should focus more on sourcing some eco-friendly fabrics.
Recently I’ve found a few companies that sell smaller quantities of organic cottons, linens, hemp, etc. and I am really excited to announce that soon some of my pieces will be available in these fabrics. At this time it won’t be a complete line, but the organic pieces will be under the label U N, for U N I F O R M natural.
These pieces will most likely cost a bit more, but I’m going to try to keep costs down as much as I can. I feel like most organic clothing lines are cost prohibitive for the average buyer, and if people can’t afford to buy them, what’s the point in making them?
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Friday, May 30th, 2008
B I G simple summer stripe bag -summer prints COLLECTION
In honor of the last day of my making a garment a day project, I am going to give away one of these B I G bags. Just leave a comment by Sunday, June 1st if you’d like to be eligible to win. I’ll put all the names in a hat and choose one over the weekend and announce the winner here on Monday. You can see more images of the bag here.
Thanks again for all of your encouragement about this project over the past month. I couldn’t have been as productive without it!
One more garment today -update at 4:30pm in my shop.
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Tomorrow is the last day of my little experiment in making a garment a day for my summer prints Collection. So far I’ve made 19 pieces of clothing and accessories. You call see the whole collection here. Seeing all the stripes, I think I should have called it the summer stripes COLLECTION.
It’s been an interesting challenge to me, in that I usually plan more and rework things multiple times. The time constraint has forced me to not think as much and work more directly with each garment. I do miss having the time to reflect on something mid-process though and I consider the things I’ve made to be almost like sketches. They all contain ideas that I will continue to work on.
I guess what I want to take away from this experiment is the immediacy and quickness of making and apply that to my regular process. Going back and forth between making quickly and reflecting seems like a perfect way for me to work.
The update for todays garment (using that grey stripe and buttons above) will be at 4:30 CST and then tomorrow is the last day! In honor of the end of the project, I’ll have a little surprise - so stop back here tomorrow.
Thanks again for all your comments, support and encouragement. It’s made it much more fun than it could have been otherwise.
Oh -and if you’ve possibly managed to miss this news -Jenny Gordy from Wiksten has a beautiful new collection debuting in her shop Saturday, May 31st at noon. She also has a new website and there you can view the incredibly stunning photos of her line photographed by Hannah Huffman.
Monday, May 26th, 2008
Thank you all for the nice comments about the ties. I have been eying up every piece of fabric I own thinking “oh, that would make a good tie”. I need to stop or else start peddling ties door to door.
I can’t believe it is Memorial Day weekend already. It’s early this year I know, but it seems like the snow just melted. I also can’t believe there is just one more week in May and one more week of making one garment a day. It went fast.
There won’t be an update today (Memorial Day) but I will have some women’s things on the other days this week. I’ve found that it’s much easier to make a children’s garment or an accessory in a day than a woman’s dress, but I have a few ideas for some woman’s things so we will see how it goes.
I also ran out of garment labels and didn’t have any ink to print more. The ink just arrived so if you’ve been waiting for an item it will be on it’s way in the next day or two. By the way, that’s my gocco screen for printing my labels above. I love seeing the used screen with all of the various grey shades of ink I’ve used over time. One of these days I will order some woven labels, but I do enjoy the process of printing my own.
A few very random things:
I’ve added a few links on my sidebar. These are sites that I like and I think I will just keep rotating them rather than put up a huge list. Eventually I’ll make a separate link page.
My friend Liz from Minneapolis just started a business selling gift bags for children’s parties. Gimme Bags come all assembled in a display box and there are tons of cute themes.
We went to Walker on the Green at the Walker Art Center on Friday night. If you’re in Minneapolis sometime this summer check it out -mini golf for the design minded. One of these days I’ll do a “why I love Minneapolis” post -the Walker is right at the top of the list.