I'm taking a weensie break this week from creating things for Etsy, so as not to neglect those who have been there for me since the very beginning; the Half Moon Creek Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska. So I'm working on this new jacket now, but it makes me think back to the very beginning... (cue Pee Wee's Playhouse dream sequence music)
It all started when I came up with the idea for the scarves. I wanted to do something a little different, but knitting scarves to sell to friends was too hard on the wrists. One night I drank a mocha freeze from Costco (the first coffee ever) and couldn't sleep the entire night. In the morning was the first scarf ever, and it was beautiful. There were more of course, and in the first week (May 2003), someone approached me to have a booth at a Summer Solstice Festival to raise money for the Abused Women's Aid in Crisis shelter, and due to the cause I couldn't resist. So I spent many more sleepless nights making scarves, so that I would have 50 made in time for the festival in mid June. Then I decided I couldn't JUST have scarves, so the jackets and cards were born, starting with this one. In the beginning, there was just a title ("Survivor"), with no other quotes or sayings sewn in. I made three jackets for the festival, and I sold one to a woman who adored it.
At the festival I met the women from Half Moon Creek Gallery, who asked me if I would be interested in selling at their store. They have been so nurturing and supportive of me through the years, that I've resisted growing my business to include other avenues for sale until Etsy. At this time I still sell the jackets exclusively through Half Moon Creek.
I tried to keep a notebook of the jackets I've done over the years, but about two years ago I realized I'd fallen thoroughly behind. I still love to flip through the jackets I did document though, and I took some pictures to share with my loyal reader(s):
Notes from "The Artist, the Lover, and the Poet", from September 2003. The poem printed inside the jacket reads
"But I, too, want to be a poet
to erase from my days
confusion & poverty
fiction & a sharp tongue
To sing again
with the tones of adolescence
demanding vengeance
against my enemies, with words
clear & austere
To end this tumultuous quest
for reasonable solutions
to situations mysterious & sore
To have the height to view
myself as I view others
with lenience & love
To be free of the need
to make a waste of money
when my passion,
first and last,
is for the ecstatic lash
of the poetic line
and no visible recompense"
- Fanny Howe
"Bell Song" from July 2003, which included a free-hand machine quilted poem inside by Marge Piercy.
It all started when I came up with the idea for the scarves. I wanted to do something a little different, but knitting scarves to sell to friends was too hard on the wrists. One night I drank a mocha freeze from Costco (the first coffee ever) and couldn't sleep the entire night. In the morning was the first scarf ever, and it was beautiful. There were more of course, and in the first week (May 2003), someone approached me to have a booth at a Summer Solstice Festival to raise money for the Abused Women's Aid in Crisis shelter, and due to the cause I couldn't resist. So I spent many more sleepless nights making scarves, so that I would have 50 made in time for the festival in mid June. Then I decided I couldn't JUST have scarves, so the jackets and cards were born, starting with this one. In the beginning, there was just a title ("Survivor"), with no other quotes or sayings sewn in. I made three jackets for the festival, and I sold one to a woman who adored it.
At the festival I met the women from Half Moon Creek Gallery, who asked me if I would be interested in selling at their store. They have been so nurturing and supportive of me through the years, that I've resisted growing my business to include other avenues for sale until Etsy. At this time I still sell the jackets exclusively through Half Moon Creek.
I tried to keep a notebook of the jackets I've done over the years, but about two years ago I realized I'd fallen thoroughly behind. I still love to flip through the jackets I did document though, and I took some pictures to share with my loyal reader(s):
Notes from "The Artist, the Lover, and the Poet", from September 2003. The poem printed inside the jacket reads
"But I, too, want to be a poet
to erase from my days
confusion & poverty
fiction & a sharp tongue
To sing again
with the tones of adolescence
demanding vengeance
against my enemies, with words
clear & austere
To end this tumultuous quest
for reasonable solutions
to situations mysterious & sore
To have the height to view
myself as I view others
with lenience & love
To be free of the need
to make a waste of money
when my passion,
first and last,
is for the ecstatic lash
of the poetic line
and no visible recompense"
- Fanny Howe
"Bell Song" from July 2003, which included a free-hand machine quilted poem inside by Marge Piercy.
Oh! And I mustn't forget "Amy Vanderbilt Says", complete with actual printed advice from Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette (1952). This classy number included gems as "A lady's bow is a slight inclination of the head, usually accompanied by a smile" and "Social conventions can do very little to protect a girl really bent on getting into difficulties."
So that's it for me. Thanks for joining me in my reverie.
Be inspired!
~Tasha
Posts
4 comments:
i am speechless at the embroidered lettering...totally...see i can't type anymore...
When I finally show you how EASY it is, the magic will be lost!
I remember that show, you flew me up to help and it was lots of fun....remember the shelves you designed? I still remember the martini purse with the plumed edge, you are so creative.
where are you, are you lost in your cubicle and can't find your way out...
Post a Comment