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piper ewan’s tenth anniversary in the suspended garden of disbelief
it is almost may, which brings my tenth year to a close. i have come a long way from making custom weddings out of my studio apartment. i have gone through 3 miles of ribbon, survived ten wedding seasons, put on 15 holiday sales, made over 1200 garters and i don’t want to know how many flowers! please help me celebrate my tenth anniversary by coming by to say hello this month. the official date is 18 may, but i will be offering 10% off my accessories line and 30% off regular price ready to wear clothing (excluding sale and custom items) for the month of may. bring me some…
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in the well worn path between where i sleep and where i work
there are a few efficient ways for me to walk to work in that diagonal nearly straight line of the mile between where i sleep and where i work. the walk is by no means monotonous. there are the neighborhood cats and chickens, the birds (i know where more than a few good nests are), the giant papier mache chicken timer on someone’s porch. lately i have made two discoveries that have me torn in which direction i take on the way there. the first is the vacant lot surrounded by a cyclone fence where grass and weeds has grown up where a building once stood. in there is this…
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biding my time
this is what a week’s worth of work has looked like lately, give or take. all the special orders have been made and shipped, and etsy’s replenished stock is hidden away in its plastic box lest it be confused with the rest of the menagerie. this has been my best month by far on etsy, and i have replenished my ribbon stock, and i even have added a few new colours to the mix. big porange flowers with feathers will be ready for next first friday. the ribbon that i make the garters has just offered new colours for the first time in nine years. i finally got that turquoise…
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estrangement
today i returned to one of my longest running neglected lovers, after a 8 year long hiatus sprinkled with intermittent encounters that has left me depressed and longing and completely unable to let go. i needed the time away; my heart was broken by the rest of my circumstances, and things just sort of slowly faded away into nothing. i needed to leave the obsession and dependence of my early twenties behind me in order to be able to build a more healthy relationship that was not dependent on what others thought, on money, on self-righteousness, on expectation. my poor soul, how lost i was without you, but you were…
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the big O
more publicity! i have been talking a lot lately about trying to market my stuff overseas while the dollar is weak. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1203731749171220.xml&coll=7
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barometers and crisis panties
because my brain cannot be counted on to be a very good judge of my own situation, i tend to rely on barometers to tell me what sort of state of crisis i may or may not be in. lately it has been my body. severe sugar cravings are a sure sign of depression, and puking my guts out is severe duress. i am not sure where my wit’s end is. i may be at it, or have passed it up a long time ago. true a part of me is dying, but i have been wanting to kill her off for a long time. she is a bad ally.…
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piper ewan is a featured seller on etsy!
i am really excited and a little nervous. you can see the interview here: www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php if you live in portland, come see me on first friday at the egg. 534 se oak street, pdx 6p – 12a all agesit is the love show. for more info on that see www.launchpadgallery.org xoxo,kirstenwww.piperewan.com
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fascinator!
i learned a new word a few weeks ago on etsy. the word is ‘fascinator.’ a fascinator is kind of like a hat; it is a larger piece made of flowers and/or feathers worn on one’s head attached to combs or a clip or a headband. hmmm, i make those! i never knew what that was called! i ran back to my listings and retagged the appropriate pieces. i love a new word! and this one was a good one. about two years ago, my friend cate handed me her grandmother’s pincushion to decorate. it has been sitting in front of me forever atop its spool of chosen ribbon; just…
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the end of the longest week of the year
24 dec – 5 dec 2007 can be legitimately combined into one week. it was december 24th when i stopped moving, and decided to hold still for a moment after another grueling holiday season. i did my best to prepare for it this year; i knew what was coming, but in the end it was still two months straight of work without many breaks. and of course, a goodly amount of introspection on the fly. like it or not the solstice and the end of the year, and the time leading up to it is a time of transition. i am not one to make new year’s resolutions, but december…
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size does matter
through years of custom work i have gotten to be reasonably good at fit. the transfer from my mind to a two dimensional sketch to a three dimensional garment with all of its curves and movenment is more than enough to confound even many designers. i actually enjoy the challenge of the female form with all of its idiosyncracies. the biggest challenge is to fit within a size chart. as you may have guessed from trying on mountains of clothes (how many friends have called me crying from the dressing room of the local department store): there is no such thing as an average woman. we are reduced to 3…