A few new things

I found some beautiful animal printed hair-on-hide leather a few months ago that begged to be made into cuffs. What's even better is I backed the bracelets with another color of leather, so they're completely reversible. I guess you would call them Twofers, you get two in one!

They will be available in the shop next week.

Color Spotting

In and around my studio are different mediums that are bursting with color: My prismacolor pencils (that have served me well through fashion school), a stack of colored magazines (sometimes I buy Vogue Japan), my watercolor palette (that has been horrendously abused by my brush) and melange pastel yarn threads.

Sometimes little spots on your desk or in the corners of your bookshelf are the greatest sources of color and inspiration.
All you have to do is look.

Design and Development: Fabric Sourcing

I love collecting scraps of fabric, as you probably already know from my sketchbook. I've already hoarded a crazy amount. Don't even get me started on stores that will let me cut to my hearts content. I have been known to take longer at a leather store than in a dressing room at Zara. 

Sourcing is where I start to form color stories and ideas based on how the fabrics speak to me. Sometimes it's the other way around and I have the idea first before I begin the find the right fabric. Usually you find most basic fabrics on the store level, but the really special stuff -the stuff that I dream about- needs to be ordered from suppliers. Those often have minimums that are incredibly high. (We're talking hundreds of square feet/yardage, sometimes a thousand).

Finding that balance between price and meeting minimums, you usually have to be a bit more creative. Maybe it's finding something in between or trying to develop the effect yourself. It definitely helps to think outside the box and sometimes DIYing just gives you better results.

Above the Clouds

While the rest of the world is gearing for spring, we're still in the middle of snow flurries. I was trying to take some artsy photos of the snowfall but my fingers were turning purple and I had to keep the camera from getting wet. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I leave you with a photo I took of the Rocky Mountains while enroute to Vancouver a few months ago. Soft bokeh effect created by the tiny icicles collecting on the window plane. Sometimes looking at things not fashion related can be heaps more inspirational.

the Rockies