As Seen On: My Favorite Musicians

I love designing merch for musicians.  It combines two of my biggest obsessions: music and clothing.

When I see some of my favorite musicians wearing my designs, my heart sings.

Here's Chris Rhoades wearing a baseball tee I designed for Dead Rock West:

Here's DJ Bonebrake wearing a tee from my first Featherweight T-shirt line:

And here's Exene Cervenka wearing the tee I designed for the Flesh Eaters.  Exene wore this shirt on stage more than once during X's most recent tour: 

The queen, Exene.

When a musician I love wears something I designed, and wears it on stage while they're performing, that's the best thing ever.  

I love you Exene!

If I have to explain it...

One of the most common questions I get about my designs is "What does it mean?"

I love that question.  

I take it as a compliment.  I personally love mystery.  And I love it when someone has to look twice at something I designed.  I rarely explain the meaning behind my designs.

I've gotten a lot of questions about my "TODAY'S LEWK" tee.  My friend Janel Dyan is a fashion stylist - she got it immediately, and her styling was on point, as always.

Janel posted this on her Instagram - link below.

I love it!  Here's a photo of Janel on the set of a photo shoot with her client Amanda who is rocking a STAY TREW baseball tee:

Photo from http://instagram.com/amanda_bonnell/

• Visit Janel Dyan's website and follow Janel on Instagram.
• Check out the TODAY'S LEWK tee in the Featherweight shop
• Check out the STAY TREW tee in the Featherweight shop

STAY TREW: Paragon School for Girls

I love an original.

Paragon School for Girls is a web series created by Jim Hansen.  I find the visuals mesmerizing, from the very special effects, to the set design, to the wonderfully bad wigs. I really want one of these patches.  The actors are fantastic.

Sometimes when I've wandered too far into the mainstream -- say I've looked around on Instagram too much, especially at things that are popular -- I start to think that all the world is perfect and uniform and that I'm a crazy person, with crazy ideas, who likes crazy things.  Then I see something like this web series and I stop doubting myself.  I LOVE crazy things!  Who gives a care? Do whatever the #&@^ you want and STAY TREW to yourself.  Thank you Jim Hansen for being a beautiful reminder of that.

Watch the first episode below, then see the rest on the website.

My Booth @ West Coast Craft

As a vendor, how you set up your booth at an event can be as much or more important than what you're actually selling.  At West Coast Craft earlier this month, there were some extraordinary booths that must have cost a lot of time and money to set up.

I'll admit, I didn't spend a lot of time or money on my booth setup.  I'm just one person, and I was busy with client design work leading up to the event.  I used what time I had to focus on making one-of-a-kind jackets and getting my other items ready to sell.  Here's a shot of my booth during setup on Friday afternoon.

Setting up @ West Coast Craft

The idea for the banner came to me a few days before the show.  I had taken myself out to a cafe to do some brainstorming for the show.  I was thinking about the one-of-a-kind jackets I was making, and wondering if or how they all tied together.  I thought about the main motifs I had been using, and started sketching them out.

Brainstorming & sketching symbols

Once I saw the symbols together, I realized they represented my values as an artist, as a human.  Then inspiration came in the form of a mental picture: I saw 10 symbols painted on vintage catalog paper and strung up in the booth like a banner.

My load-in for West Coast Craft was set for Friday afternoon, so that Friday morning I spent about 30 minutes creating what I saw in my head.  I tore pages out of a vintage hardbound catalog I had, being careful not to rip the brittle paper.  I grabbed some old sign paint and a thick brush, and painted each symbol and word quickly.  I set them to dry in the sun and gathered them up right before we left to load in.

I brought an old black T-shirt with me and clipped it up to form two clotheslines to hang the pages on.  I'd forgotten to bring anything to hang the pages with, but we fished out some old wire that was in the van, which worked perfectly.

I replaced the word "LOVE" with "HEART" before the show started

In the past I've fallen into the trap of overthinking things, so lately I've been trying to come from a more intuitive place.  The question I'm exploring is, Can something be effortless and fun, and still be of value?

I love the way the banner came together and I got several compliments on it over the weekend.  I'll be hanging it in my studio as soon as I find some room.