diary

I’ve been doing some altering on this dress that I made about ten years ago, for my dear friend Gwen.
Not sure if any of you remember back to the Le Rouge days on Hawthorne st.
in Portland, but this is from that era & Gwen was one of the owners of that boutique.
It’s so odd, I didn’t even remember it (don’t remember making it) til she pulled it out on one of
my northwest visits. Working on it is like entering a time capsule of my own life.

I wasn’t so good with cameras or documenting my work back then, and there are quite alot of pieces that just disappeared into the world without a way for me to remember them. It’s pretty strange to look at how my mind was working at that point. I can see it all in the stitches. This was around the beginning of my venture into making clothes for other people. Back then I lived in my van, in closets & basements, moved every few months, dumpstered or stole all of my food.. working graveyard shifts,  battling with depression, addiction, a slew of anxiety disorders & a sad, twisted love affair. It was not an easy time.. but the harder things were, the more I sewed. That was how I worked things out, and made some sense out of the chaos.

& I just kept going, thankfully.  It’s oddly the perfect time to be working on this, as the last couple months have been a massive life-sorting overhaul for me. I’m getting rid of
mountains of possessions, processing and letting go of so much.. physically & psychically.
Honouring, releasing the past and laying strong foundations for what I want to
be and create in the world from now on. It’s intimidating, but it feels like
once you start, you can’t go back. Probably a good thing.. Scorpio full moon power.
(more on that here)

It’s so rewarding to see empty space! For a long time I’ve felt like materials were
the crucial element in creating.. to the point where I became a ridiculous
fashion packrat and couldn’t move freely in my house. I’ve started to realize
that most of the magik of making is in the mind, and that the mind needs space.
Space is potential. Anything can happen there.

These lovely poppies just sprung up in our garden.. no one planted them, and they were there almost overnight. So lovely & inspiring. Plants have been helping me alot, they are always whispering
quiet lessons, flourishing and beckoning. Serious role models.

I’m nearing the end of the custom orders.. this gathering is for the last custom
wedding dress. It’s for a fairytale wedding in Scotland at the end of the summer.
It’s going to be a really fun project.. pastels, abalone  & moss.

A huge addition to my life these last months has been volunteering over at Cat Town Cafe (as most of my facebook & instagram friends know, haha..) It’s been such an amazing experience & I highly recommend supporting this place any way you can.  I’m working with many under socialized, super shy or scared cats and slowly helping them to feel safe with humans. It’s intense and wonderful & I’m a little bit addicted to it.
I’ve honestly never felt so useful before.

Last but not least! There’s a sale in the shop til the 17th.. everything is 10-20% off.
Happy May~

<3s

the last commissions are almost done & I’ve been playing a bit again..
working on the fancies has been a fun way to get my spontaneity back.
it’s also so lovely to be able to finish something quickly after so many long-term projects.

the batch above have all flown to their new homes,
but there are a handful of others available in the shop.

i love this one, named for Goldberry.. my favourite Tolkien character.

this one has incredible weaving and fringe from the 1800’s.

it also looks really good on Toby, haha

the Pansy fancy is my favourite. it has bits of labradourite, amethyst & jet.
I love crystals.. been working with them & studying their properties for years.
they’ve been a powerful influence in my life. so glad to be stitching them now, too.

another new creation.. the Helena skirt. available in the shop

even though the stitches have been keeping me busy, I’ve been making a bit of time to get outside. we have a new garden space where I live, and it’s been fun to plant seeds and watch things grow. so grateful to live in such a beautiful little jungle.

this vest is flying to Finland in the next few days. I really love sending things to Finland.
someday I’m going to fly there myself, and meet all the faeries. Iceland too.

most of my evenings look like this. I’m a lucky lady. <3s

finally finished with this lovely dress..
for one reason or another it’s been a year or more in the making.

it’s a custom creation for Valerie Mallory, a really amazing local artist.
she works with a lot of foliage & flowers in her sculptures.

she asked me to sew in these fossilized roses, which was challenging..
but what a beautiful effect they have.

the dress took me by surprise once completed..
I see an elegant old-world ballerina wearing it in my mind.
it feels very magikal & folkloric.. & like there’s something it’s meant to do.

& now.. onward! <3s

a little bit sad, but mostly relieved to tell you..
I’ve decided to stop taking commissions for the time being. planning to reevaluate in a year or so and see how things feel, but for now I definitely need a long break. custom work has dominated my creativity for the last few years.. it’s been challenging in a good way; helped me hone my skills, adaptability and strengthened my work and vision. I love to make people’s dreams come true, to make them feel beautiful and happy..
it’s been a long run of this and I’ve learned a lot. but at this point I feel it’s slowing my growth creatively, and I very much need to make the things in my head.
they’re driving me crazy, trying to get out !

I’ll of course be finishing/completing the orders already placed.. but if we’ve only chatted about a project & you haven’t paid a deposit, I have to gracefully decline.

sorry if this is disappointing to anyone.. it’s just long overdue for me to work on my own dreams and reincarnate some of these beautiful ancient tatters stashed away..
they’re starting to get impatient! thanks for understanding..

<3s

the last months are such a blur.. just starting to catch up and get planted in the present.
many lovely things have been happening.. Hali & I made a Wickerlady;

I sewed some neat weird textiles for a window collaboration with Art Moura..

finally finished editing some photos with my friend Ana taken a month ago.. we dressed her up in regal victorian tatters and played on the roof while she was in town.

I managed to meet the photoshoot deadline for the circus..
the leotards still need a bit of fine tuning (sewing stretchy costumes
for aerialists is quite challenging!) but they are nearing completion, thankfully..

definitely the biggest recent project was a magikal show I organized
here in Oakland, for Imbolc.. a celebration of the return of the light~
it was a huge undertaking but so incredibly beautiful.
it kind of seems like a dream now. flowers, lanterns, altars, bones..
strange + wonderful music, ritual, dance.. honey, seedlings, rosey teas,
stick weaving, a starry eyed crowd, grass, soil, light & shadows.

our beloved Faery Queen, Angelique, perched on the altar

my music project (ANTHER) opened.
the visuals were by the amazing light artist Azael Ferrer Gordo

i think my favourite  moment that night was the magikal ritual performance by STORIWR

Bryan LeFey’s latest music venture STELLAR ANGLES was also fantastic.

the altar  room looking into main room. we brought rolls of sod in and made a grass floor :)

the Tea Womb, a woodshop closet turned magikal tea bar. it smelled heavenly in there~

there are a Lot more photos in the Imbolc album on my fb page

now working on a custom wedding dress, a sort of sister to the Kassidy dress.
also trying to catch up on sleep, yoga & plans for the future. feeling the need
to make some changes.. there really just isn’t enough time to do everything.
so it seems like  we should all just cut to the chase!  do the most important things,
as well as we can, without fear or second guessing… <3s

finally done with this Ringmaster coat.. the first piece for the Vespertine troupe..

it’s a reconstruction of an antique military coat.. kind of challenging to work with
(very thick!) but I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I used a lot of reclaimed vintage coat remnants, pockets, ties, net, lace, velvet, tweed, etc.

as for the regalia parts, there are little silkscreened antique stamps
(custom made  by Ogo Eion), old clothes tags,
the inside of a pocket watch, a bit of  belt, and other found treasures.
now it’s full speed on the leotards, for me..

*s

settling into the studio again after a spell of other work, a nasty cold, and holiday recovery.. there are a couple new things in the shop.. one is the Maude fancy ^

a progress shot of the Ringmaster coat, one of the many pieces I’m working on for the Vespertine Circus

also new in the shop, the Rowan collar.. a lovely concoction of fur & velvet.

this month is looking a bit crazy.. in addition to the circus costumes, I’m working on 2 weddings, a collaborative installation with one of my favorite artists Art Moura
and making music and environment for a magikal Imbolc show here in Oakland.
hoping I can find some time for yoga and sleep in there somewhere..

one of the leotards I’m stitching away on, also for the circus..
these will be on some amazing aerialists.. I can’t wait to see them in action!

studio landscape.. photo is by the amazing Ellen Rogers

more new work is on the way to the shop in the next weeks~ & I’m going to try and keep
updating here as a little break from all the sewing.. wish me luck :)

*s