This year goes to 11 !!!!

So, I may be right up there in the world's top laziest bloggers ever, but I have big plans for myself this year. That includes being better about posting updates on my projects. LOTS of time has gone by since last I wrote and I'm not really sure what I have been up to during it all. A little bit of all the usual, I suppose, getting caught up with life and other things.

One of the major things I did in 2010 was to audition for Project Runway again. I tried out for Season 8. I did much better this time than last! I actually made it to the semi-final auditions, which were held at the Liz Claiborne offices in NYC. I was SO excited! It wasn't any less intimidating than last time, but at least in this interview I got to talk! I waiting for about 2+ hours past my call time for my interview. Other people waiting whom I noticed and then later saw on tv were Jason Troisi (He was exactly the same in real life, there was no special editing to make him look wacko. He talked loudly about himself the ENTIRE time.) and Casanova. I particularly remember that before my interview but after Casanova's I went into the restroom. Two of his models were in there getting changed. One of them kept saying to the other "Wow, that went REALLY badly." I guess we all know talent isn't the only thing they are looking for in those interviews! My interview was ok. I took about 7 or 8 designs with me to show. Tim was one of the interviewers, obviously, as well as Irina Shabayeva. There were at least a dozen or so other people off in the sidelines, producers and whatnot, but I didn't have time to even look at them. Seth Aaron was there also, I saw him walking around, but he didn't sit in on my interview. They made me try on one of my pieces, asked lots of questions about the others, wanted to see and touch a few of them. Tim kept saying that my designs all looked very organic, when in fact I think they are actually very structured and planned. He also kept calling my very intricate seam detailing 'applique' and I kept saying 'no, it's not' and thinking he of all people should know the difference. In hindsight, it's possible he was just trying to get me riled up. He also told me that he didn't get this look:

Green & Black dupioni dress. Photo by Azzurra Piccardi

I told him I didn't know what there was to not get. He said it didn't go with the rest of the pieces and I said they weren't being presented as a collection, just a sampling of my designs. Again, looking back it's most likely he just wanted to get me to start arguing about it, to see if I could get crazy for tv. I should have been MORE crazy! Oh well. There's always next time. Here are a couple other pictures from the portfolio I submitted with my application.

Silk Organza Cloud blouse and one-of-a-kind 26 gore raw silk skirt.

Pleated dupioni blouse and black metallic wool Lightning skirt

I have NO idea when Lifetime will be casting for Season 9 of PR, though I am almost positive they are signed to do 7 more seasons. Any day now I should start getting my act together and creating some new portfolio pieces so I can apply again! 7 more seasons, how could I NOT get there eventually? The question is do I really want to? Ha!

On another note, I am excited to say that I ended last year with 25 boutiques carrying varied assortments of my ties, t-shirts and bags. I shipped out 928 ties total to all of those stores in 2010! I'm so excited to think that there are literally thousands of my ties being worn all around the world!

Some of the PILES of ties I shipped out last year.

Some of my goals for this year along those lines include sending out MORE ties than that, as well as acquiring at least 10 new consignment or wholesale accounts. A few months ago I set up my wholesale page for my ties on Trunkt, which you can see here. Just today I set up a separate linesheet for my silkscreened t-shirts, which is here. I only have a couple (literally) t-shirt designs right now. Getting these things to happen is harder than it seems, especially when it's just ME trying to make it happen. I plan to have at least two more designs and several more color options by the end of March. Just this week I got my first batch of Bicycle t-shirts. Super excited about those and already sent out about a dozen to some accounts, Sacred Art in Chicago, and The Fool on the Hill in Jerome, AZ.

My men's Bicycle t-shirt in Concrete gray.

Another big thing on my t0-do list for this year is to get my personal website up and running and not looking ridiculously out of date. Fall 2009 collection??? BWAHAHAHA! Well, that certainly didn't happen. That's ok, because we'll discuss Spring 2012 in a second. Geez! Where does the time go? I have simple goals for my website. I want a portfolio, a functioning store with shopping cart, a list of all the places I sell to, including addresses and live website links and a bio. This can't be TOO hard, can it? I'm more worried about it being too expensive. I have a referral for a web designer, but haven't contacted them yet. If anyone knows someone in NYC or Brooklyn who does good work at a reasonable cost, please let me know!

Yes, one of the other plans I have for my website is to FINALLY feature an actual collection, mini though it may be. I really really want to get my act together this year and do a very small collection for Spring 2012. It would be for sale through my site, hopefully somewhere locally and wholesale as well. I'm thinking 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 2 blouses, a jacket and some bags. I CAN do this! I am actually going to use this dress as part of the collection, in this colorway.

Pale green wool sheath dress with silk charmeuse trim and lining

This is actually an older design, but it's never been for sale before. I'm quite fond of it and think it's a perfect color for spring! I love getting colorful with my designs, I don't feel there's often enough color in fashion. Walking down the street in Manhattan in the winter almost EVERY single person is wearing a black coat. I'm usually wearing my camel-colored coat, because it has a hood, and I feel like I stand out. When I wear my bright blue vintage Harris Tweed coat I REALLY look like I am not melancholy enough to live in this city. Fine by me! Anyway, the other colors I am leaning towards for my spring collection will be burgundy and possibly a little golden yellow or metallic gold. I also plan to offer some limited edition purses, most likely of existing style designs but in custom colors and fabrics.

I am also thrilled to say that I am going to attempt to do a couple of local craft fairs this year! I did one very small show over the holiday last year and it went rather well. I plan to apply for the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this summer! This involves much planning, like table display, packaging, advertising, labeling and of course MASS production of inventory. I have none of these things. Thank goodness one of the awesomest things that happened to me last year was the acquisition of my fabulous and talented new assistant, Dani! I definitely without a doubt could not have made it through the '10 holiday season without her. Looking forward to another great year too!

Dani & I having fun on NYE, after months of hard work.

So, these are my seemingly small, but time and money consuming goals for 2011. I will do my very best to keep an update of my adventures here, with lots of pictures of course! Check back soon for more highlights of the insanity!

Don't Stop The Press!

Recently I have been lucky enough to have my work featured in some very exciting places! The first was the Fall 2009 Weddings issue of New York Magazine! The article was online and I'm still not sure if it made it into the print issue. I have to order one eventually and find out. The write-up was about Etsy items in the local area perfect for weddings. Here is the link to the story. They featured my Wallpaper Heart Damask print silk neckties. I sent them three pieces several months prior, upon their request. They used two of the ties and shot this AMAZING photo! That's one hell of a props stylist.

The other day when I got home from HOURS of sewing in my freezing cold studio, I got a card in the mail. It was from Mara, owner of the absolutely amazing Boutique Fabulous in Cambridge, MA. They carry my neckties, and she had sent me this press clipping from a local paper, the Weekly Dig. They featured my Shark necktie in their holiday gift guide! You can read the article here. This is the photo they used online:

This is the actual clipping she sent me. It totally made my day! And the paper's little review is HILARIOUS! I loved it.

Lastly, my good friend and amazing jewelry designer Kenneth Fron did an interview with me recently which he featured on his blog. Of course, he used a photo of me where I'm making a RIDICULOUS face, though wearing one of his fantastic necklaces, but I forgive him. :-) Please take a sec to read the interview here!

That's about it for now! Have to get back to sewing. I just bought a TON of awesome fabric to make more bags in this style. (Named after my BFF I've known since I was 3). I'll be making the new bags in gorgeous upholstery weight large-patterned pixelated houndstooth check in brown & cream, red & black and celadon & slate blue with matching faux leather detailing. Vegan! Check my Etsy shop soon to see these, they will be to die for!

New Ties Galore!

Haven't posted in a while, and although I have about 4 or 5 different things in mind that I want to write about, I thought I would start by sharing some of my new creations! I have 3 new tie designs available for sale, two of which were listed in my Etsy shop for the first time this week. Let's start the roll call!

Bicycle tie! This one has been super popular so far! Cause who doesn't love a good bike? This was originally designed as a custom request to be used for a wedding, and my wonderful customer was so kind as to allow me to continue to use their design. Now anyone can have this awesome tie! Shown here in Cerulean Blue, Beige and Baby Blue. ALL of my tie designs can be printed in ANY color of silk you can imagine and custom colors don't cost extra!!!

Next up is the Fan Coral tie! I think I need to put together an Ocean tie set. I've got an octopus, a seahorse and now coral! And *spoiler alert* there is an awesome new squid design on the way in the next few months. Definitely before the holidays! And it's enough different from the octopus that if you like one, you'll need both! So, yes, fan coral. This design was also made as a custom request for a wedding. The wonderful Chris and Katherine, now happily married, gave me a photograph of what they wanted their tie to look like.

Beginning photo for fan coral tie design

I then drew the coral illustration by hand and had it turned into a screen. Here are Chris and Katherine on their wedding day! (and a close-up of the tie) The tie was printed with silver ink on sky blue. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but looked great in person!

And here are the ties available in my Etsy shop! Shown here in Royal Blue, Seafoam and Sky Blue.

Both of the above designs were finished before I left Phoenix. This next one is my first new creation since moving to NYC! I've been saving this moth design for a while, not knowing what to do with it. I just recently had a silkscreen made with some other custom images done for weddings. There was room left on the layout and I needed something to fill the space! So I created this flight of moths design. I like it. Hope you do! Shown here in Autumn Gold, Turquoise and Red Grape.

These following two ties are designs that were created as custom images for weddings which I will NOT be offering for sale in my shop. The reason for this is that the customers purchased the artwork specifically for use with their order. For both of these I worked with the amazingly talented Beth of wildemoon.etsy.com She and the customer conspired to create their ideal design and when she was done she sent it to me to have made into a screen. Beth was fantastic, lightening fast and very personable and professional. She and I are collaborating on a few designs right now and I would recommend her to ANY of my future customers who are looking for an original design. She can create screen-printable artwork from just about anything! Art for the first tie shown here was created from an illustration, while art for the second tie was created from a set of photographs! Amazing!

Custom Peacock Feather tie design created for Greg & Noel's wedding. Aren't the colors they chose just gorgeous?!

Custom ties for Wendy & Tim's wedding. She's a violist (I think that's what you would call it) and he plays percussion, so their design incorporated fiddlehead ferns and drumstick Allium. Fun! We are also printing a larger version of this on silk shawls I'm making for her bridesmaids.

That's all the tie fun for now! Hit me up with your custom requests and send your engaged friends my way!

Fabric is My Heroin

I could shop for fabric 24 hours a day, just about every day. It is definitely an addiction. In fact, I think I nearly OD'd on fabric this week. My mom was just in town visiting and she's into quilting, so we hit up a bunch of fabric shops as well as a few awesome estate sales and rounded up quite a pile of lovely material.

A big pile of gorgeous dupioni silk! The brown, yellow and lilac purple came from a discount upholstery shop and were only $3 a yard!!! I bought whatever they had left. The bluish-purple iridescent piece on the far right my mom bought for me when she was in NYC recently.


This whole entire group only cost $1! I got all five of these pieces at the same estate sale. From left to right: 1. A LARGE piece of white faux fur. Not sure what I'll do with it, but for 20¢ I couldn't just leave it there! 2. A piece of nice red cotton, I'll use it to line some tote bags I'm working on. 3. An absolutely GORGEOUS piece of very old silk satin. It's pale steel blue in color and feels amazing! Still has a tiny tag on it with writing in Japanese, I'm guessing from when it was purchased originally. 4. An awesome black and white poly knit. Something fun waiting to happen, I know it! 5. Several yards of bright pink corduroy. Good for bags and an obvious addition to my massive corduroy collection.


All the above pieces came from a local discount fabric shop. They sell a lot of factory ends and older pieces. From left: 1. Two yards of a nice fuschia corduroy. 2. A funky paisley print for tote bags. 3. A fantastic floral print which I'll also use for making bags. 4. Really fun blue and brown floral, I've already started making a tote out of this and it should be ready and listed in my Etsy shop tomorrow! 5. Super cute ladybug print cotton. I'm going to make my boyfriend some boxers out of this. I LOVE getting cute prints and making him shorts.


Some really nice fabrics I can't wait to make some clothes with! These all came from the same discount place as the pieces above. From left: 1 & 2 - I don't usually use polyester, but these prints were so gorgeous, the price was right and the fabric so soft! I'm going to make up a basic halter pattern and then bust out a bunch of cute dresses to be for sale just in time for summer! 3. Beautiful maroon herringbone wool blend. If you look really really close the threads are 4 or 5 different colors of purple and red. It's awesome! I'm going to make some pants with this, someday... 4. Nice black and white wool tweed with little rainbow specs. It'll make a great coat. 5. I thought this one was wool when I bought it, and it was in the wool section at the store, but when I got it home and did a burn test it melted and dripped all over my finger. It STILL hurts. I'm guessing it's acrylic. It's still really nice looking and I'm thinking of using it for a cute matching skirt and jacket combo.


This last piece is my favorite one I got all week! It's a to-die-for silk chiffon, mostly black an printed as a repeat panel with the NYC skyline, including the WTC, so this one is obviously at least a few years old. I got everything that was left, which was about 8 yards, and it was only $2.99 a yard. CRAZY deal! They definitely didn't know what they had, which is usually the advantage at this place. Most of the people working there couldn't tell poly from silk with their eyes open. Anyway, I'm going to use it to make a floor length gown with the design as a border along the bottom and the rest of the dress in black, so you can only really see the image if you look close or if the dress is spread out.

I got one more piece of silk this week, a slate blue dupioni, and I haven't actually seen it since I got it home. I'm wondering if my mom accidentally took it home with her. No time to wonder! I need to dive right in and start turning all this fabric into its intended forms. Partially to sell some of the things I create and make back all the money we spent, but mostly so I can make room for more fabric!!! I'm off to the sewing machine!

Persimmons Boutique

Starting this week my ties can now be purchased in another fantastic, locally owned and operated boutique. It's Persimmons, in Wisconsin!

Located at 314 N 8th Street Manitowoc Wisconsin 54220

I haven't been there personally, unfortunately, but it looks awesome from the photos! So I let the lovely owner, Kim Geiser, say a few words about her store for me:

"Persimmons is an eclectic oasis of inspiration and memories. Featuring over 100 local and national artists and designers you can find everything from fine art for your home to unique funky handmade clothing. Collage, crochet items, indie crafts, raku pottery, fused glass, and handcrafted jewelry are just a few of the one-of-a-kind offerings that make Persimmons the most unique shop in Northeastern Wisconsin.

For the artsy types we offer a fun little selection of supplies and would love to teach you to how to use them at the kitchen table! Join us Thursday nights for art night and create a project and hang out with friends. Often with a recycled art theme we are proud to teach people how to help the enviroment by re-using rather than filling the landfills.

Another great way to recycle is to buy vintage...we have that too. You can find a great selection of useable glassware, fantastic fabrics, old books, fun games, and beautiful hankies!

If you enjoy living an artful life you will enjoy your trip to Persimmons.

Oh and if you every find a store just like Persimmons...they copied us."

My printed silk ties on display in Persimmons

I'm totally excited to be working with this shop! If you're in Wisconsin or will be in the future, make sure you drop in and check it out!

stylemob

I just signed up for stylemob today. It looks pretty cool and I think that it will be a good promotional tool once I have more photos of my work ready for posting. I signed up initially to vote for tiinateaspoon, awesome fashion designer, photographer and Etsy friend. She entered the stylemob Made It Myself Contest. Click here to vote for her entry!

I checked out the site, found it to be neat, and decided to start a profile and put an entry into the contest myself. Below is a photo of the dress I entered, taken at Scottsdale Fashion Week 2007. The dress is worn here by my good friend and ever-devoted and dependable model Alyssa La Fortune Holt. Click here to vote on my entry in the contest. You can view my public profile on stylemob here.

This dress is made from lilac purple and black dupioni silk. The inside of the dress has 4 layers of interlining, two of which are hair canvas and two are black cotton broadcloth. The dress is boned with spiral steel and completely lined with black silk satin. The octopus detail on the outside was hand-embroidered by me with black laceweight silk yarn and took over 40 hours to complete. In the end it came out looking pretty fantastic and it's one of my favorite pieces that I have made. So that's all... now go vote!

New ties are ready!

After forever and ever of sitting on this design and trying to get it touched up just right and then just completely slacking about it, my new seahorse ties are finally ready!

The ties are completely handmade, by me, as always, from dupioni silk. They are available in all the colors shown here (sky blue, slate blue and turquoise), as well as dozens of other colors, upon request. To purchase or inquire about options, just visit my Etsy store.

Artwork for these ties was done by my good friend Matt Forcella, who also designed my Venus Fly Trap print. He and his lovely wife Pallas share a shop on Etsy also. Check it out! It's: mallas.etsy.com