eva zeisel

a lifetime of inspiration. so much has been written i won't even try... just listen, watch and read at these locations:

Eva Zeisel's TED Talk
NPR's Visual Arts

enjoy!

so we've heard it said "flaws are beautiful"

our flaws make us beautiful. they make us real.

in craft, "flaws" are the introduction of humanity. so why eliminate humanity? celebrate the fact that someone made it for someone else to discover as unique and precious. this is a parallel philosophy to the style of weaving i've been doing. saori. saori celebrates choice and the journey of creativity. there are no mistakes. there is only beauty to be interpreted. there is only another perspective to gain, another venue to open our oh-so-conventional minds.

so when i saw these shoes by saucy hella on dezeen, i had to share. now i know they're meticulously crafted, made of the best materials as all campers are, but hella does an incredible job of introducing a human element into her products. oh the humanity.

so in a quote from hella:
"In the designs sometimes elegance was underscored, sometimes we, the team of Jongeriuslab, opened up a new world of possible closures, a new rhythm in patterns or we infused the shoe with the idea of imperfection and randomness, qualities of which I think contemporary times is in need of.”

and in the words of c. valentine kirby:

"I must make my creation good and honest and true, so that it may be a credit to me and live after I am dead, revealing to others something of the pleasure which I found in its making."

so when you're feeling the looming ceiling of perfectionism shorten your breath and tighten your chest, be ok with your "faults". be ok with trying something new, making "mistakes" and putting yourself out there. we all have regrets, but regrets stem from the idea that we actually made a "mistake" and mistakes are what make us wiser, stronger, better able to position ourselves in the world and deal with our cards. it's called personal growth... evolution and you know you want it.

jekyll and hyde

so today happens to be a VERY big day.

i had to tell the wonderful people where i work that i'm moving on... spending the next couple months culminating my being, seeking inspiration and taking care of business before heading to grad school. soooo excited! sooooo sad to leave!

"slow" design

just want to put this notion out there. after a few conversations with friends (thank you adam. thank you dan), a few things have become very apparent:

1. people actually care about HOW things are done (i.e. american apparel)
2. people want to be good (growth of the eco-goods industry, rite-aid to barney's)
3. people will pay for these things

so let's run over the objectives found in the "slow food" movement:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an "Ark of Taste" for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• promoting "taste education"
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces

with very minimal tweaking, i think we have a very good starting point for the "slow" design movement ;)

un mas

thought collision :: a tribute to larry david?

let us consider the collision of solipsism ("my mind is the only thing i know that exists"), baudrillard ("the subject becomes seduced by the object"), descartes ("thought exists and cannot be separate from me, therefore i exist) and seinfeld (the levels episode)....

we start with a blank canvas and use objects to create our spacial reality. our space becomes a home (or studio, garage, etc.) with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc. which we define with archetypal tables, chairs, dinnerware and appliances.

as designers/architects/engineers/etc. we get to create objects that define reality. what is our reality? what do we want it to be? what should it be?

metro north or dance til you're dead

everything can be made into a pattern. any scratch, piece of trash, heartbeat, alarm, drop of rain, the clockwork of life, train schedules... and it can be translated in any form. visually, audibly, etc. i have a feeling this isn't making sense, so if you care to understand, proceed and if not, that's cool too. enjoy the pattern created from lovely industrial structures seen along the metro north railway from new haven ct. to gorgeous grand central station nyc.

so you're here.

let's say we monitor your heart beat with a heart rate monitor or your steps via a pedometer throughout the day. over time, one could assume that it remains fairly regular, with spikes every so often representing extreme instances (ie. you were really excited because you got into grad school or you were really sad because a loved one passed away).

let's take that data and transfer it to audio. all of a sudden you have a song representing your life. hook some lighting up to it that reacts to the audio and all of a sudden you have a multimedia experience.

take that information and use it as input for software (a pinch of magic fairy dust) that generates cards for a loom's warp. use the cards on a loom to create a tapestry and all of a sudden you have a rug, blanket, etc. that represents your life.

then take that tapestery and.....

friday! nyc! patterns! woo!

from a fresh sketchbook

april's heroine :: leah buechley

there's so much to learn. and i want to know it all NOW... guess that's why we have the rest of our lives. ok, engage prefontal cortex...

leah buechly hails from mit media lab's high-low tech group. she's an expert in electronic textiles, created a cloth printed pcb, and designed the commercial lilypad arduino kit.

awwwesome.

in complete awe :: barbara jenson

this afternoon during a crusade through google, i stumbled upon "Smart Textiles" out of the University College of Boras in Sweden... the program seems to be an incredible opportunity for students in the textile/fashion industry interested in smart textiles.
Barbara Jenson ravaged my soul in the best kind of way. so giddy. so overwhelmed with all the possibilities. it's solar powered. it's beautiful. i'm not going into anymore details, just check her out.

truth or dare?

truth? boooring.
i dare you to go to www.onepaisley.com

one for friday

update :: sherbert whirlwind

i finished the fabric for the garment(s) that i briefly presented back in january or was it february? i can't recall... very excited about the progress. i'm considering moving away from a dress and towards a summer parka/jacket/thing. think peace, love and wovens.
additionally, i'm working on printed fabric to create a piece as bottom layer. i wove the fabric loosely to allow for visibility of prints beneath. so much to do. so many projects. this full-time job thing is really getting in the way.

lovely laura marling

this image is taken from her song "my manic and i" watch it here. also check out "ghosts"....makes me want to get creepy with construction paper and felt.