Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
I am not a gardener. I do think about landscape all the time as it is so integrated with architecture but I don’t “garden”. I haven’t had much success with indoor plants, and I don’t have the time for much of a garden outside. I have been trying since we moved in to our house (almost 8 years ago-wow) to make some sort of landscape that works with the mid-century style (and I use that term loosely -it was built in the mid twentieth century, and has some nice clean lines, but it isn’t a mid-century modern gem, as that term seems to conjure up).
I have all kinds of ideas about the design in terms of volume, scale, color, contrast and flow. My problem has really been (other than lack of funds to hire someone to execute it) the nature of the plants themselves. I am naturally drawn to plants, trees and shrubs that are quite architectural in shape and proportion but these types of plants are usually in warmer and/or drier climates. I visited some friends in Tucson right before we purchased our house and their front “lawn” consisted of gravel and one beautiful mesquite tree. The shape and silhouette of that tree will be forever imprinted on my mind. We also saw many palo verde trees in Tucson. In fact, these seem to be favorites of Rick Joy, a local modernist architect. I think this is the loveliest tree I have ever seen. Those green trunks!
Our yard when we moved in looked like the parking lot of a suburban strip mall. You know those “mall bushes” that are like little balls with tiny tiny leaves and can withstand enormous amounts of pollution? Spirea maybe? That was pretty much it. Slowly we’ve been removing everything one by one. But what to replace it with?
When I design a piece of clothing, I have an idea in mind about the cut, volume, shape and texture of the garment. I can work with the fabric and seams to mold it into shape. In my thinking about landscape design I have been looking for plants that already have a certain texture and shape to create overall volume and design, like the palo verde, but that will work in a mid-western climate. One by one I have been discovering plants that are sparse and airy, have interesting overall shapes, have unique leaves and textures and have colors that will contrast our almost black house, like silvery grey and chartreusey green. Things that won’t work in our climate I plant in pots. (more images of our garden here)
I never even considered shaping the plants themselves. Until this spring. There is one bush that we never removed because it was so large and old the task seemed daunting. On a whim I went at it with the pruning shears. I felt like Edward Scissorhands. I cut away all the dead wood and lots of the volume and all of a sudden it was like I was working with fabric. A shape started to emerge from under the huge ball of dead shrub. I could see the old, knarly branches and the individual shape of the leaves. And I started to like the way it looked. And it started to work with the architecture. I assumed it would die after all that cutting, but it didn’t. And now the leaves are a wonderful chartreusy green and it actually looks healthier than before. Here is a type of gardening I’m actually good at and I could get addicted to.
Subtraction gardening.
I talked to a guy at the local landscape/garden center about my shrub cutting. And he actually encouraged me to do more pruning. He said many plants benefit from aggressive cutting. He cuts his dogwoods back to the ground every spring so that they grow sparsely. Sparse? I like that. So I went home and began cutting some more. Right now I’m running out of material, so if you live in South Minneapolis you might want to keep an eye on your bushes….
Friday, July 11th, 2008
click on the image to see it larger
I love the variety of denim that is available these days. One of my favorites lately is the grey denim (pictured top left) which I’m using right now on some tie skirts. The selvedge edge is always very interesting. I like how it is slightly frayed on the grey, which gives it a different look from the original one I made in the dark indigo w/ the smoother edge (bottom right).
I especially love denims that have textural patterns like the herringbone one pictured above (top middle). I am working on some indigo coats with the herringbone right now and the texture works well with the simple, volumetric design. The original indigo coat was made with the denim on the bottom left which I love but I am unable to get any more (sigh).
This fall the first piece from my new eco-friendly collection U N will be an indigo coat in bamboo denim (top right). This denim is a lovely medium blue which is slightly mottled and has just a hint of a check. This denim is very soft and pliable but also has a bit of structure to it - like if you can imagine how netting behaves. It’s quite interesting and I’m pretty excited to work with it.
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Yesterday I sewed 12 set in sleeves. As I sewed I started contemplating how much labor goes into the making of one of my fold jackets:
- 6 jacket pieces
- 6 lining pieces
- 4 facing pieces
- 6 darts
- 4 set in sleeves
- 28 seams
- entirely sewn in lining
- sewn in label
- 11 handsewn folds
- 6 handsewn snaps
- handsewn finishing
- pressing pressing pressing
- hangtag w/ sewn on extra snap
The cost of most things really comes from the labor. Often I will have an architecture client come to me and say, “let’s use inexpensive materials to save on costs”. Most of the time not much money can be saved in material cost. Other than the rare and exotic, the costs of materials don’t vary all that much within categories.
I think the same is true for quality handmade clothing. While fabric costs do vary more than say species of plywood veneer, quite a bit of the cost comes from the design, pattern development and labor of making each garment. (this of course is completely different from mass produced, factory made, big label clothing brands).
My friend Matt Eastvold, who is a custom cabinet maker, is the one who first opened my eyes to how much labor goes in to crafting well made things. His company, Eastvold Custom Woodworks has built many cabinets for clients of mine as well as some cabinets in my own home. We’ve had many conversations about how to reduce the costs of making furniture and cabinetry and it always comes down to eliminating steps and streamlining the process. Very rarely does it involve using a less expensive material.
Speaking of Matt - Eastvold Custom Woodworks is having a show and sale of their custom furniture this weekend. The opening is tonight in downtown St. Paul, MN from 4 - 7. You can get all the details here.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
10 things for summer:
home mini golf (I know a certain someone who would faint if he received this for his birthday at the end of the summer)
cold coffee press
lawn sculpture
white sangria wine cube (yes it IS good. with ice and sliced nectarines. and normally I insist on a cork. If you still can’t get over the box, try this recipe).
table top grill
garden torch
bird table and bird box
sublime outdoor furniture
stones
garden pinwheel
that’s my son on the cover of the Walker Art Center June/July magazine. The image was taken at the opening of the Walker on the Green -artist designed mini-golf exhibition.
Monday, June 30th, 2008
I save up piles of images and magazines and sketches and then once in awhile I sit down and go through them and paste them into my sketchbook. I really should update it regularly -it would be so much more helpful to my process and I wouldn’t have to keep sifting and searching through the piles. I always tell my students to sit down at the end of each day and reflect on their work and update their books. Time seems to get away from me though and I end up doing it in chunks.
After a week away I’m back quietly working here on my sketchbook and more wholesale orders and various other things that I will talk about soon. While it was nice to be away, it feels good to be back to work.
It felt especially good to be able to ride my bike to work downtown and back again in the beautiful (non-humid) summer weather we’re having. I hope you had a chance to get outside today too.
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
You might be surprised to find out that I like the color pink. For awhile when I was little I had an all pink bedroom (except for white walls, which we had in every room and which I still prefer to this day). It wasn’t girly or frilly, but everything was a varying shade of pink. My favorite pinks have a lot of grey or blue in them. Right now my younger son’s favorite color is pink. I’m sure that will change as he gets older and realizes that boys aren’t supposed to like pink. I wish pink wasn’t so tied to being a girl color in our culture.
I’ve talked before about how color is very emotional for me. There are just some colors that feel right. I think many people are like that. Sometimes I’m affected by trends (anyone else jump on the brown bandwagon a few years ago?) but those likes always fade and I come back to my favorite colors. I have found in architecture that you can’t push a color on someone. If I’m using color I tend to design with an idea in mind -cool or warm, intense or subtle, and then work with the client to come up with the actual color.
I am always drawn to neutrals, probably because they stem from natural materials, but certain colors will evoke that emotional response, especially when combined with the right neutral (usually grey, my favorite).When I designed this jacket the intent was that the interior be a vibrant contrast to the grey exterior because you really only see a bit of it. I really like the grey with the magenta, which is probably my favorite shade of pink.
Friday, June 13th, 2008
glass light book
I have been blown away this week with the amazing contributions to s t i l l. I could spend hours going through all the photographs. Originally I had set up the group with the intention of closing it after one week, but with close to 500 members and such beautiful work, I am reluctant to do so. So I will leave the group open, although I won’t be contributing each day as I did this week.
I ended up focusing primarily on different light qualities. The hardest part for me is always what to photograph. I think I would rather just photograph the light itself instead of an object. My favorite photographer is Uta Barth and many of her photographs have an empty foreground. Because she has focused on the foreground which is empty, what you see is the background that is full of light and out of focus. I think this lack of subject, which brings the viewer and point of focus to the same point, is what makes these so compelling to me.
I have so much to learn.
I’ll leave you with some of my favorites from the group. Hope you have a great weekend!
ヤサシイクウキ
still.1
film.232
curtains
waiting
still
s t i l l
wall of numbers
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
cat table bowl
A current goal of mine is to learn more about my camera(s) and to experiment with taking still life shots. I would like to try taking some different types of photos of my clothing as well -less documentation like and more natural. I love this type of photo that Maria takes. I think it’s nice to have both together to describe each piece.
What I have found so far is that taking still life images is hard! At least for me. Right now I’m trying to figure out why it seems so hard and I think the main reason is that in posing objects I have a hard time figuring out what to include in the image to make it feel natural.
In experimenting I realized that seeing the image on the screen of the camera as opposed to seeing it with my eye up to the viewfinder makes it easier for me to frame. I just move the camera around until I get it framed just right. It makes me think of drawing class long ago, when the instructor gave us empty slide carriers to hold up to frame the image we wanted to draw. That means using my canon powershot instead of the D40 but I think I will try this for awhile.
So in the interest of learning I’m going to dedicate next week to taking still life photographs. You can join me here if you would like. I would love to see your photos. I’m going to focus on light (and absence of light) as well as emulating particular photographers and photographs I admire. It would be great to have a critical discussion and dialog about the photos.
added: I was just thinking….technically this photo isn’t still. Fritz jumped up just as I was snapping it. But I like it.
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
My approach to design, whether it is architecture, clothing, or anything else, has always been to make things that work well, have a simple, timeless design and are made out of quality materials. My goal is to have things last so that we don’t have to produce as much. If things work well and are beautiful, then they can continue to be useful.
While I have always used locally sourced and sustainable products when I can in architecture, I haven’t explored this in my clothing design. For a small design company, organic fabrics are harder to find and much more expensive. In the past year though I have had this nagging feeling that I really should focus more on sourcing some eco-friendly fabrics.
Recently I’ve found a few companies that sell smaller quantities of organic cottons, linens, hemp, etc. and I am really excited to announce that soon some of my pieces will be available in these fabrics. At this time it won’t be a complete line, but the organic pieces will be under the label U N, for U N I F O R M natural.
These pieces will most likely cost a bit more, but I’m going to try to keep costs down as much as I can. I feel like most organic clothing lines are cost prohibitive for the average buyer, and if people can’t afford to buy them, what’s the point in making them?
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
