Unicorns & sticks...

....I have brought my last window display into the shop. So, the unicorn lives on a platform and the sticks are with a leather evening gown.
Tomorrow is a photo shoot of some new designs and I am about to unleash another secret weapon.

Working for my living...

... finishing 6 pieces for a photo shoot.
... finishing 2 custom pieces for clients.
... washing fabric to prep for designs.
... changing the boutique window.
... finding a apartment in Paris.
... writing the curriculum for the summer course that I am teaching in Paris.
... dealing with realtors and attorneys about relocating the preschool.
... planning a preschool fundraiser.
... scheduling a head CT for Creed and immunizations for both twins.
... organizing and raising funds for the Kickstarter project "La Petite Zelda goes to Paris."
... working on the story arc for the La Petite Z book project.
... shit...and I don't even get a paycheck.

sigh...



photos by: Amanda Elmore

I like her name...

...Lisa Black is an artist in Auckland, New Zealand. She takes an interesting approach to combining nature to technology...organic to mechanical...Her work seems sublime and quietly beautiful.

All photos are from her website: Lisablackcreations.com

My life in photos...from Tribeza April 2011

This is my brain...

...like a Jeffrey Stockbridge photo...clear, yet disheveled, battered, messy, beautiful, crumbling and evocative - with the sun shining through... what does your brain look like?



43rd and Haverford no. 1, 2008
Archival Pigment Print
30 x 38.5"
Edition of 5 and 10

Comme des boutiques...

..." And then, since it’s a business, we have to be able to get back the initial investment, whether it’s ours or whether it’s the partner’s, in as short a time as possible. So I don’t like to use expensive materials. I take care to make costs reasonable. It’s very similar to the way I make clothes. I give myself limits, not only financial limits but I also limit my method of expression, and from within those limits I try to come up with something new and interesting.”
- Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons

Re-thinking, re-designing, evolving and re-working...coming up on a year since we transformed the retail shop of Blackmail into Blackmail Boutique & Atelier. Since then, we have re-fashioned our workspace several times: making sure we have the room and temperament to calmly create and then, display my designs. Retail is difficult - no one goes into it to become rich, although many neophytes carry in that illusion which quickly evaporates. Buy low, sell high, turn over quickly and skim off a bit of the profit into savings while every other penny goes back into the business. And as much as I would like to paint the front of my shop in matte black, put up a doorbell and cloister myself inside, there is a NEW retail mindset beckoning that can be combined with a consciousness of collecting the non-disposable item...focusing on timeless as opposed to ephemeral.

The question is how to create the environment? I toy daily with that challenge and Evan helps me immensely to focus on what he sees as the obvious: display carefully and thoughtfully, less is more, a gallery/museum where clients can gaze and question.

So, we're starting now. Yesterday, the platforms were delivered. It's just the beginning of the "vitrines" - our displays that will speak. Yesterday, we put clothing on the dress forms and positioned them near the door. Yesterday, customers came in and touched them; literally, climbed onto the stages and pawed them. It seemed odd to me - not that my designs are so precious, but that people were that bold. I am trying to decide how to handle this, accept it. If they did it yesterday, it's sure to continue when the risers are painted and the displays are set. Should I appreciate this? Should I be offended? Is it raw? Is it real? Is it true?

It's just the beginning...

Orb...oh, my, lace...

...new work by the amazing Darla Teagarden featuring the Dentelle evening gown that I designed for the 13 years collection...





*all photos courtesy of Darla Teagarden.