Folsom fair

quickies
... so this girl in little leather thong and bondage bra comes running after me, "I must have that bag. My name is Dee ... " . The Sweet D bag definately rocks.
A healthy, hairy hunk indroduces me to his husband, an "hairless Armenian", as he calls him. He loves my metal cuff.
Getting our Blue Bottle coffee a less hunky, but no less healthy looking guy in adorable bandana briefs admires the bag. It would be such a cute compliment to his outfit.
Now why didn't I get some pics ...
back to bag cutting ...

building resources

off 3rd Street in San Francisco, this is not some thinly veiled attempt to sell your old rusty screws for 10 bucks a piece. Good stuff for cheap. The T bus line which runs along the waterfront drops you right across the tracks from it, literally.

I just came back from my weekly poke-about. Flooring, glass, shelves, ... . Found these beautiful rounds of glass in a deep amber, edges perfectly softened so they feel luxurious in your hand. Don't know what I'll use them for, but they were too lovely to leave. More common is the metal shelving I left with. Finally, I can arrange my bags.

The guys who work there are amazing as well. They know their stuff, and will help you find yours.

There's this awesome waterfall constructed from old metal. Surrounded by plants, it's the perfect compliment to this great affordable resource.

The long wood pole which I sawed into rounds, came from here. What started off as some forgotten pole, I'm now sanding into wonderful, etched button closures. Actually sanding them has now taken over my life. On the bus, on my lunch, reading a magazine, blogging; there I am file in one hand, wood in the other.

OK, back to fabric cutting ...

Green Festival

it's here again, the Green Festival. Brings to mind a funny thing that happened at last year.

I was checking out all the booths, super yummy vegan bars, pretty flowy shifts, ... . Got into some great conversations, and then started to notice all, well 99%, the goods were quite cheap and made overseas. After looking at about 50 booths I started to wonder why nothing was being made by artists here. After posing the question many times I finally encountered one guy who was quite direct. " ...i t's too expensive to have things made here ... " .

Well, this answer begged all kinds of questions. Surely having a global green economy is essential, but I have always loved , "think globaly, shop locally" . That's one reason NUBE GREEN in Seattle is so fierce. http://nubegreen.com .

OK my Genmai tea has kicked in so I'm off to chat up some folks about glass fusing for my beautiful new scrap metal jewlry line.
xoxox

new accessories

hello all, lol.
gosh, has it been a year. I now publicly vow to blog at least weekly. Well Privately public. More on the last year later.

before I start rambling, I have to give a quick wrap-up of of recent artistic pursuits. Reine, my WWM which stands for Wonderful Web Mistress, and I have been in serious product development.
Started a few months back with a small bag from the re purposed produce bags. Of course everyone loves the BIG carryall, but sometimes walking around with a bag that can carry all of a shopaholics daily purchases doesn't fit the bill. Stores have been asking me for purse and wallet size bags. With nose to the ground I've been looking for thrown away pieces to re purpose. So I totally scored at SCRAP. A big bin of tossed bamboo handles. Perfect for an over the arm purse. The button closure is what I'm really psyched about is the closure. I scrapped a long wood pole about 3" in diameter. Cut into 1/4" rounds I sanded them into these perfect buttons. Stamped or laser etched on them will be my awesome new logo Reine, (small business graphics), designed for me. You can now see it on the wallpaper of my site pages. http://greenstyled.com/ . The bag is cut just to the size of the label. It is so cute. Working on the stamp so it should be available for holiday time.
Next is this fierce scrap metal jewelry. A cuff will be the first piece. Left over pieces of screening are molded into cuffs and edged with hand made and metallic glazed beads. Working on one now which will be edged in tiny pieces of glass. OK, time to go cut fabric for the purse bags.... and organize my scrapped goodies, as being green can easily fall into the hording catagory.
reminder to blog about green/locally made next time

Outsourced

so I'm showing my wonderful multi-purpose bags to the manager of a gourmet food and wine store. She loves them immediately. " they're re purposed, carry a lot, have a very cool food connection, and best of all they are soooo cute". OK, she loves them. then we get to price. I actually see her natural, easy smile become plastered on her face. How does she reconcile her genuine love of all things green, designed and MADE locally, and cute; with the bottom dollar. She brings over some plain canvas totes. They are sturdy and carry the label of a well known national company; and that is all, nothing green or re-purposed or cute about them. Oh, except the fact that they are "made in China". She then points out the price differential to me. In case the word hasn't got out, the reason designers have their goods made overseas is because it's WAY cheaper. So in a very "gentle" way I point this out to her. Now one of the really amazing things here, is that I have been able to keep my price quite low. I have a wonderful fabricator right here in S.F. who is keeping the cost as low as he can. So not to get too preachy 'cause I'm a firm believer in the "catch more flies with honey" theory, but the reality is that if we want to support our local artisans, we might have to pay a couple pennies more. Just make sure what you're getting is way cute; you'll never regret it.

scheduling green

so I'm watching Flight of the Conchords the other night; if you haven't checked these dudes out, do. Thier hip-hop and rock parodies are hysterical. Anyway they have this one, a sexy soul song called "Business Time". All about scheduling "luv makin'", on a wed. night after brushing teeth and putting out the recycling. So this gets me thinking about scheduling EVERYTHING. I mean I guess to a degree if ya' don't ya' just won't.
Now I tend to be a very, what I would call spontaneous person, another might call scatered. Consequently I'm sometimes in a panic trying to get things done. But I'll also leap off the bus to rescue those red plastic discs someone threw in the gutter; and they did make awesome earrings. Of course then I have to take off my shoes so I can make a mad dash for the bus connection I needed.
So although without tuesday night scheduling for recycling pickup it just wouldn't get done; my silliness of at times skipping through life has me picking up the discarded for a new life.
Both work, just find what suits you, 'cause if it doesn't ya' just won't do it.

turning green

... and not becoming a green neurotic.
So I'm sitting here in my BFs kitchen with my mug of green tea trying not to leap up every time he throws a scrap of paper in the trash. " no wait, you know the cardboard toilet paper roll goes in recycling". This can be REALLY irritating. I KNOW this and yet ... . I grew up pretty green, though it was by way of economics, (don't throw stuff away if it still has use), and esthetics, (cloth napkins ARE so much nicer than paper). Not having a car was more a byproduct of having parents from big cities, NY and London, then anything else.
I have someone very close to me, I'm not a name namer, who's TOTALLY whacked about this. I will not become her, and yet .. My mom's who's probablly one of the most "naturally" green people on the planet, let's a teeny-weeny piece of paper fly up into the sky and I jump down her throat like she just personally poured oil over all the marine life on the continent. At work I try to surreptitiously take the paper out of the garbage and put it in the recycling bin. And yet ms green here luvs lux. Evenings all legs in killer heels does not see me on a bike; though, LOL, I did take a bus a couple of years ago on NYE dressed in a sheer white evening gown. WAIT, the BF's out of the room. Gotta' get that food covered foil out of the garbage before he sees.