Wild Flowers

I sold a painting called “Wild Flowers” yesterday to a woman in Italy. She was so inspired by the painting that she wrote a poem about it. I am flattered that someone would be so moved by one of my creations. I asked her if I could share her poetry and she obliged. So here it is. Enjoy.

Colours kissed a tired skin to reveal

a life full of not yet explored inner world

within its true flowers.

We need to discover our bad thoughts to give life to a white shadow.

I was swimming inside its violet to discover

the black elegance of thin small lines.

Those flowers smiled and said to me how I should 

continue to give force to my thoughts.

A gentle kiss for my future

A gentle help thinking to my past and 

A hand of courage for my fears.

My soft soul didn’t know how to change me

I tried to change her she tried to change me

We met one day inside a cold ocean and

I was walking when I looked at those wild flowers

Deep respect fot those friendly flowers.

News Canada – A model kidney

News Canada – A model kidney.

Charities I cherish

I love working with my favorite charities. A Better Life Dog Rescue, The Kidney Foundation, and BC Transplant (to name a few)

Last Saturday, I donated a custom made gown to A Better Life Dog Rescue. It was auctioned off for $400. Their website:  http://www.betterlifedogrescue.org/

It is an organization that is 100% non profit. The founder is Jan Olson, who is an airline pilot for Air Canada. She and her other volunteers work so hard helping animals who can’t help themselves. In the state of California, 10,000 dogs are euthanized per month because of the economy and mass foreclosures. People have to give up their family pets, and the shelters are absolutely overwhelmed.

I foster for them sometimes. My little Chihuahua Donny started out as a foster dog through them, and I ended up adopting him. He is so wonderful and all he wants to do is LOVE.

If I had a big property, I tell you it would be full of happy dogs. If you are considering adopting a dog, PLEASE DO NOT GO TO A PET STORE. There are so many amazing homeless dogs who deserve a chance. They have so much love to give.

The Kidney Foundation… In Canada:  http://www.kidney.ca/

In the US: http://www.kidney.org/

I have a kidney disease called IgA Nephropathy. I was diagnosed at age 21 with this immune system disorder… Just six months after I had received mass vaccinations prior to my move to Italy. I was able to live a fairly normal life with IgA Nephropathy for over 20 years until my kidneys failed and I needed dialysis. I support The Kidney Foundation, because there needs to be more awareness about kidney disease and research. Kidney disease is sort of a silent killer, and no one pays much attention to it.

On April 17th, I was proud to be a part of the Susan Jacks benefit concert at The Red Robinson Theatre. Susan was a member of the group The Poppy Family. She had a kidney transplant just a year ago. What a truly amazing and beautiful person she is. It was so nice to connect with Susan after what we both went through. The concert was a success and her singing was wonderful.

BC Transplant is a charity I work with to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.

http://www.transplant.bc.ca/

I had a kidney transplant on January 5th, 2009. My story was all over the news, because my donor was a complete stranger… A truly altruistic human being who really wanted nothing but to help save my life. His name is Stephen McClelland, and he is no longer a stranger, but a brother to me.

After my transplant, I was asked by Eva Markvoort if I would participate in her campaign for organ dona

tion awareness. She painted a kidney on me at her house in New Westminster, BC, and her friend Cyrus photographed me. It was an honor to be a part of Eva’s legacy. She died a few months after the project was complete. Eva had Cystic Fibrosis, and had a double lung transplant. However, her body rejected her new lungs after two years. To learn more about Eva, please visit  http://www.65redroses.com/

What an inspiration she was. Eva did more in her young 25 years than many do in a lifetime.

My role as a designer

As a clothing and jewelry designer, some people might assume I make a few sketches, and send them off to some foreign land to be made. Sadly, that is true of most designers these days. Personally, I prefer to be a part of the process from start to finish.

1.) It starts with an idea or inspiration. A lot of my ideas come from dreams, actually. I usually keep paper and a pencil by my bed, so I can make a sketch when I wake up while the idea is fresh. I love it when I have dreams of being in the audience at a fashion show, and the models are coming down the runway with new designs, never seen before. Ideas also come from just playing with fabrics and shapes. Or from taking an old style and giving it a new and different twist.

2.) Once I have the sketch, I can choose fabrics and decide which materials will best suit the style. Will the fabric need to have a stretch or will it need to hang and drape? Sometimes certain fabrics will inspire me, and I will get an idea for a design after seeing a new material.

3.) Now it’s time to make the pattern. Yes, I actually make the pattern from scratch. I don’t like using commercial patterns, as I find the fit is sometimes off. I use the old fashioned style of drafting patterns on brown paper. When making a pattern for a client, I will use their measurements and make the ideal pattern to fit their body shape and exact dimensions. Making a pattern can take between 2 and 4 hours.

4.) Cutting… I will lay the cut out brown paper pattern on the fabric. I try to be judicious about how I utilize fabric, so I don’t waste material. Cutting a pattern will take about an hour or two. My favorite scissors are Fiskars Soft Touch. They are great for cutting any weight of fabric, including layers of denim. They also have a lock, which is imperative because they’re quite sharp (I cut myself the first time I tried them). The best part, is that they can be used for lefties as well. I’m ambidextrous, so I need scissors which can be used with either hand. Now I sound like a sales rep for Fiskars! I promise you, I’m not.

5.) Time to sew. Typically I will make the pattern and cut it out the same day. Then I’ll start sewing the next day. I have about 6 sewing machines– including the old black Singer which belonged to me grandmother. That’s the first machine I ever used and I taught myself how to sew on it when I was 15. Grandma had a stroke when before I was born, so she sewed with one hand and her teeth. She made beautiful garments and curtains with her disability. The two machines I use most are my multi-stitch Singer, and my Juki serger. I really enjoy seeing the final product taking shape. Sewing a garment can take anywhere from an hour to several hours, or even days depending on how complicated it is.

6.) Fitting is next. If I’m making something new for myself, I try it on several times to see how it looks and feels. Some garments don’t look like much on the hanger, but look amazing on… and it works the other way around too. If I’m making something for a client, I like to have him/her come for a fitting before they take it home. I will often leave the hem unfinished just in case there are final touches to do. If I’m using silk or velvet, I usually make the garment a bit on the larger side. I can’t let the seams out, because the needle scars those particular fabrics. There will be permanent holes left in the material.

7.) Finishing touches. The last part of completing a design may require hand sewing, pressing, steaming, adding trim or embellishments. This can be very time consuming, especially if a design requires rhinestones, sequins or beads. My beaded purses take one hour per square inch. Therefore, the finishing can take even longer that the first 6 steps.

So there you have it. Hopefully this gives some insight into my creative process. It also gives you an idea of where cost comes into effect. That’s why my dresses are not available at Wal-mart!

St Patrick’s Day

I hope you survived St Patrick’s Day. I was tempted to write on my facebook page “Kiss me I’m Irish-German-French-Native American-African American!” Hahaha. What a mix I am… and what a ridiculous holiday. Let’s celebrate being Irish by binge drinking and acting stupid. Is that how the Irish are seen by the rest of the world? A country full of drunks? My mom’s mother was from Ireland, and several years ago I told my mom the joke “What’s the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral?” Well I won’t tell you the punch line but you can guess. Mom didn’t think it was funny.

I wore green without even realizing it was St. Patrick’s Day. I stayed home and avoided being anywhere near a bar. I’m just not interested in using the word “party” as a verb. I’m not judging people who do drink a lot– to each his own I guess. It’s just not for me. I did like to bar hop when I was in my 20s. But personally I don’t see the fun in it anymore. Actually, when I look back it was NEVER fun. I still remember what a hangover feels like and how it takes two days to recover from it. Two years ago I cheated death by receiving a kidney transplant. So now each and every day is precious to me. I can’t afford to waste even one day. I recently had a flu and I feel like I wasted a few days in bed. Now I can’t get those days back. Since the transplant I must take anti-rejection medicine to suppress my immune system. Because of that I am now more prone to colds and flu. It’s so frustrating being laid up and in bed sick. This is why I can’t imagine why people intentionally make themselves sick by drinking to excess.

Sometimes I will have one glass of wine. Maybe two if I really want to cut loose… hee hee. I always want to be in control of my own mind and body, and I don’t want to be seen as a joke. I went to a house party recently where there was a woman who was drunk out of her mind. She started dancing, and she thought it was the sexiest thing ever. The guys were all laughing at her. Then she was falling down and she knocked a couple of the paintings off the wall. At the time I wished I had a video camera. I wondered what she would do the next day if she saw a video of the way she was acting that night. She won’t remember it. But no one at the party will ever forget it.

Well the sun just came out, so I am not going to waste this day by sitting inside on my computer! Going to walk my dog on the beach. I hope you enjoy the day too. Bye for now.

Lingerie sale

I have way too much lingerie and I’m thinking of having a big sale. I know it sounds like a joke…”Attention customers, we have a sale in our lingerie department, our panties are half off.” It’s not my personal lingerie of course– it’s the stuff I designed. Eeew that would be creepy if I wanted to sell lingerie I actually wore!

Sometimes I loan my designs to photography groups so they can photograph models in lingerie or swimwear. Then I get the designer credit. I am going through my stash now to prepare to loan some for an upcoming shoot this weekend. I’m looking around at my collection strewn around the house and it looks like backstage at Burlesque.

Some of the lingerie is really beautiful and elegant, but others say “what was I thinking?” and they need to be thrown away. Then of course there is the naughty pile. When I worked for a major lingerie company as their head designer, they wanted to occasional crotchless number. As I’m typing, I notice that my spell check does not recognize the word “crotchless”. That’s the way it should be! I attached a photo of one of the raunchy designs for that company. By the way, that was photographed on a mannequin. I don’t think a real person would want to be photographed in that!

Tragedy in Japan

My heart goes out to the people of Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit this morning. I cant imagine what they are going through now and what they will endure as the death toll rises. It makes me appreciate my blessings.

Growing up in upstate New York, the word tsunami wasn’t even in my vocabulary. We had blizzards in the winter and mosquitoes in the summer. That was the extent of the excitement in the natural disaster department. However it’s Interesting that since childhood I’ve had a recurring dream that I’m standing on a shore, and I see a huge wave coming towards me. It must be 50 feet over my head. I don’t panic because I know there is no escape. I don’t try to run, I just allow the wave to consume me. Thankfully I always wake up. It’s only a dream.

Now I live on the west coast close to the beach. we have a tsunami advisory today as a result of Japan’s tsunami. It’s supposed to hit at 5pm. It’s 4:30 now. I’m not frantically packing or heading for the mountains. I’m sitting here calmly updating my blog.

So what does it all mean? Despite my life long tsunami dreams, I still decided to live close to the water on the Pacific coast. I never learned how to swim or sail. I’m not afraid. I have a feeling the hype is worse than reality. If I’m wrong, oh well!