It was really fun and interesting to have done this project, especially cool to be privy to such personal photos. It certainly was a pleasure putting this together, and by the end, Chloe & I started feeling like part of the family. Of course, in a non-weird non-stalker way.
The embroidery was particulalry nice to do, and despite Chloe’s claims that I’ve gone blind and I looked like a slave doing it, I really did enjoy myself. It brought me back to my Catholic school days where we’d have lessons on dining ettiquete, cross-stitching, and home economics. Ha!
Also, a special thanks to everyone who had stopped by this Sunday for our studio warming! :)
Chloe’s fashion shoot blooper while documenting our first job for David Wotherspoon. She was fixing her inside-out t-shirt’s tag when my finger slipped and took a photo. Look nice, though, no?
Super hot day. Jane tried her best to get us a table under a tree, yet it proved worthless as we both went home with tans the shape of our shirts. :(
The “Profound Thoughts” travel book was quite popular, which I am very glad to have found out. Lots of talented people were out there this weekend, and it was a pleasure to have met some new people and seen a lot of interesting things. As it’s only been our first craft event, there were certainly a lot of things to keep in mind (umbrella/sunscreen/water), but we were excited to have been a part of it. We’ll see you at the next one!
This is perhaps my favourite book to date. The travel companion for many of us who bump into epiphanies and moments that make us rethink the world once in a while. Especially for those of us with the opportunity to travel and extend our horizons, you might just be the philosopher or novelist that can define our generation.
I will have about 6 or 7 for sale this weekend. So come early if you want one!
Pleasure to announce that I (the “Party” half of Tea Party) will be at the Blim Monthly Community Market, 19 July (Sunday) from 12–5pm at Main Street:
This [month's] market will include over 50 vendors, live music, hot food, beverages, and entertainment. Vendors will include food, fashion, accessories, supplies, fine art, vintage items and records, and not be limited to crafts, and there will be a focus on nurturing and promoting creative production in our community. We want to appeal to young, old, hip, plain, babies, animals, men, women, everyone.
Ginger, Trung, Grace, Ross and myself met up at the Rio Theatre tonight and went to the screening of Handmade Nation tonight. The documentary by Fay Levine introduced me to many artists, designers, book makers, and many other interesting people in the art and craft world. I wanted to write down the names of some of the featured designers and artists but it was too dark in the theatre to keep up. JW and Melissa Buchanan and Nikki McClure are two of my favorites from the movie. The former being a couple team of printmakers/illustrators/designers who produce amazing hand printed posters while Nikki McChlure simply uses her pencil, exacto knife, and a piece of black paper to create beautifully crafted paper cuts.
Juggling between a part time job and some design projects while setting up Tea Party Design is starting to eat up my energy. But with Ginger’s help and doing some heavy lifting at this stage, I’m determine to work my hardest and make sure that the studio develops into a place for us to produce meaningful work for others with sincerity and heart.
A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!
Anyone interested in any story, fictional or not, will find the website worth poring over.
"Necking Team Button" by Susanna Breslin
I like how stories told can bring something back to life, especially the thought of something living on because of subjective investment. Not to get existential, but it really does make me think about how dependent everything (or… Everything?) is on perception in order to reach the point of legacy and permanence. Collective consciousness and remembrance, memorials and birthdays, anniversaries and grudges, all held within tiny objects that ask nothing more but to be made relevant through your own personal story—without judgments on its profundity or effect on world hunger. Or the exact meaning of what it is to have invented the Moonwalk.
When one puts something up for consideration, either an object or a service, there is the notion that it was worthy enough of the effort in exposure. I recall in the evening of an artist show I had the opportunity to guest-curate, a friend of mine who is an engineer pulled me aside for a moment. He was there with his wife as moral support for my little art-school venture, more for the reason of being my good friend than a connoisseur of fine art & exhibit. We stood in the small DTES studio with old wooden planks for floors and poorly painted white walls trying to resemble a gallery as my artist friend walked around with a sculpture made of nylon and rubber wrapped around his leg. We dodged a couple of drunken attendees and smiled at the scruffy old man with a plastic bag who was collecting the night’s beer cans for the Return-It Depot the next morning.
And as we both cocked our heads to the side and sipped on $3 beers, he asked in a voice that suggested him trying to find the right words without offending, “Um, what is this all for?”
I’ve been meaning to blog about this, but the move has been distracting to say the least.
I came across David Ronnie from a 2nd year class I was fortunate enough to teach-assist (I may have made this verb up) last spring at ECU. That experience can be a post all on its own. Either way, David mysteriously disappeared after a few classes, but I stumbled upon his website a little after. It’s been a pleasant surprise to see how active he is within the design community, and am inspired by his motivation and gusto.
"Hey, ladies..."
He has just launched his new project, 365 Days to Babylon, a year-long venture into well-being and self-improvement in the most well-rounded sense of the word. On his list include goals ranging from learning more about design culture to learning how to play the guitar.
Over the last few years its become apparent to me that one year is a much longer timeframe than most people think it is. My life has changed dramatically in a week before, let alone an entire year. So that’s the whole premise of this website: dedicate one year of focused, intense effort to trying to make as many of my various personal goals and life dreams a reality and document as much of it as I can.
I think he has the sort of drive that Chloe and I have for Tea Party, not only as ones interested in contributing positively within the local Vancouver design subculture, but in the way that we approach the peripheral aspects of growth, learning and maturity. I like the idea of reaching out to peers for connections and support, and DR seems to have the right idea about it. It becomes less about working in a vaccuum and the “Ta-da!” reveal, and very much about process and letting people see your growth and learn from this as well. And not just in the sense of design learning either.
Today was our major move in day. Our IKEA work station was in yesterday. The lovely cabinet and the filing cabinets arrived with the help of Trung and Mark. (Thanks so much, guys. Us puny girls couldn’t have done it without you!)
I forgot to bring my camera for the moving excitement this morning. I managed to remember bringing it for tonight when I made my 2nd trip to the studio today with Manstein.
