It’s a party! I was thrilled to be included in the blog party and G I V E A W A Y in celebration of Amy Butler’s newest book, Piece Keeping! Amy is a gorgeous, inspiring human on many levels, not least of which is her generous soul. (Plus I learned to sew six years ago making her Birdie bag.)
You know what most people’s problem is? Too much money. (You know that I’m only a little bit serious, I hope?) But I’ve been thinking about this lately. That whole necessity is the mother of invention thing, ya know? I believe that. We are ALL more creative when we have to be. But buying has become the new making. And not just this decade but since the early 1900’s and after the industrial revolution. The subsequent plummeting price of goods began to be felt by the masses through places like Sears, Robuck & Co. and continues today with the fast-fashion of H&M.
Oh, dear friends!
I am tremendously excited to share with you a most special project in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s upcoming visit to Birmingham, Alabama in October. Actually, I am rather stunned that we got the green light from the Birmingham Mayor’s office on Monday…but we did. To be honest, this project is so much bigger than me that I have no idea what it actually even is and I am curious to see how it will unfold.
Once, when I was 24 and I had absolutely had it, had it, had it with the Man and Capitalism and the Mall, I decided I needed to make my own clothes. Fueled by nothing other than an art school girl’s sheer cojones, I figured it couldn’t be too hard to make a dress. Who needed designer labels anyway? Who would want to be branded by the machine of hegemony, homogeneity, and normalcy? Huh? Who? So, with ego in hand, I set out to make a dress with no skills other than being an abstract painter and the fact that I had taken home-ec in 7th grade. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well.
